Computer games: I think I won't buy them anymore...
 

Hi there!

First, I'd like to say that I'm a gamer. Love games at best and my dream is to one day to be a game developer (and this dream, most likely will never come true). I grew up with consoles (Atari 2600 and Enduro were my very first console and game) and eventually started gaming on PC's. I've invested a relatively good amount of money in games along those years.

However, I've to say that I'm a bit disappointed with PC (Windows) games. Sure, newer games as D3 or HL2 pushes the hardware to the max and out performs consoles by a long shot in graphics. But what about my older games? I've plenty of PC games that won't work anymore. Soul Reaver, Blair Witch, Heavy Metall FAKK2... There is, however, some unofficial patches that makes these games work under WindowsXP, but they are very tedious to find. The WindowsXP compatibility mode is a very big joke too. The only oldie that I got to work in compatibility mode was Rogue Squadron 3D (but is still unstable as hell, crashing at the end of every mission...)

Nearly all DOS games I have won't run unless using an emulator as DosBox. But it's Windows games that I'm concerned about. Take for example Eidos/Core games as Tomb Raider or Soul Reaver series. Most of these games are today available in a "Sold Out" package. The less you could expect is that those games are patched to run in newer Windows systems right? Well, they are not... simply the very same game in an uglier, cheaper box without the manual book.

On the other hand, I can play nearly all my PSOne games through epsxe in Windows, Linux and even on my modified Xbox.

Now, since MS owns the marketing of PC Games, soon with Longhorn we can expect even less games to be playable.

Still, I don't blame MS for that. I also don't blame the developers to not releasing patches for older games. But when a game comes out in a "Sold Out" form, the less you can expect is that would actually work in your system. And for what I've noticed, the "unofficial patches" flying around the net are very easy to do: Looks like all they do is to actually change the way the games are started (as if when creating a window and fullscreen mode). So it's easy to do, but they lack support.

I believe that on the long run, Consoles are way better: No tweaking, no patching, no reinstalling. They simply work. And you can be sure that when the years pass by, you will still be able to play your favorite games under some sort of emulator. The same could not be said about PC Windows games.

So, what do you guys think? Console or PC's and why?. I'd like to hear why I should keep investing cash upgrading my PC to play a game that is exactly as it was 10 years ago, but that shines much more, as Doom 3. At least back in the days, when you killed somebody in a game, their bodies did not "mysteriously" disappear to free memory or something :D.

P.S: sorry to writing an epic and thanks for reading if you actually read it ;)

well ... i think i share both your dreams ... i love games too and also i have utopic dreams of be a game develloper ....
I never had a console but as you argumented you always are sure that the game you buy runs properly on it .. without need to touch anything ranging from drivers and patches to a new video card .....
However I think that more mature and/or complex games are only available for pc whereas console games are more aimed towards action/plataform ....
With the coming of the new "great bug" longhorn the chance of running older games are even smaller because as far as i am aware the new api winFX will not be compatible with the current one ...

So resuming we will continue tied to microsoft sucky software for playing games unless we buy a new brand console (except xbox ... yes yes now its the best console on the market ... but i am not willing to give any buck to mr Gates) and keep wasting money on graphic cards and other hardware that just get outdated four months later ...

</rant> :)

Thanks for replaying Adony! I was not expecting anybody to read all this, but really thanks :)

I totally agree with you on this one. It's sad that we've to change our hardware because MS is at the control of everything.

I know some would say that I could still dual boot with Win98, but Win98 worked really bad back then and running it now with a pretty new hardware would make things even worse (if at all possible).

I hope someday, somebody will see that this is an issue for gamers and work on something to address those problems. WineX could be the software who will emulate games on Windows someday, who knows :)

And I'd recommend you getting an Xbox. It's not only the best console out there, but for every Xbox sold, MS has a lost of nearly 100$ US, which Mr Gates puts right off his Mr Pockets. To sum up, you not only get a brand new console, but you also know that MS is losing money when you do it, lol :)

I understand the points that console systems are easy to maintain, play many games for years and such but I just cant get into console games, I play them and Its just not the same kind of game play as on a pc. I am not really worried about playing older games though so that really doesnt apply to me. I could never go without PC games and just play console systems.

I understand you BajaNick!. Especially for RTS fans, a console is not the way to go :(. Shooters are arguable tough, Xbox has great shooters and I've even got Quake 1 and 2 to run in my Xbox (thanks Xports ;))

@ Adony:
Do you have any skills in particular? Programming, drawing, modeling, composing music? Maybe we could work on something... a 2D game or a mod to start with, I don't know :)

Yes. That's why I still use Windows 98, so that I can get into real mode DOS and play an old game or two whenever I like it.

I think I will have to do it too Harishankar. I hated Win98. I like XP and 2k a lot, but those old games, argh.

If it'd the old DOS games , you want to play , I'd suggest getting your hands on DR-DOS.
It's free and far superior to MS-DOS.

why not just get a emulator for DOS? .... also, some of the DOS games have been open sourced, and ported to Linux.

but if its that old style you like, there are plenty of games in Linux to try ... heres a link that i would think, has a great number of games http://www.icculus.org/lgfaq/gamelist.php .. almost every game i seen for Linux is on their (with exception to Atanks, and probably a few others) .... but you do have to know how to compile, as most of the games only have source code (and i know even Gentoo is lacking when it comes to the number of games it has .. tho it does have some of the better games in its installer list)

and yes, its sad to see, that in windows almost every new game needs more and more hardware .. Linux has a good number of games that don't need as much hardware (i get by just fine on a ATI Radeon 9200 ... less then $100 and it plays every Linux game i can get to compile fairly smoothly) ... granted tho, the games don't have the "highest" of graphics ... but they are usually decent, and can be quite well done.

Thanks guys!

@Megamieuwsel:
yup, I've been willing to install DrDos for a long while in my old, really old laptop :). I can't remember why I did not though.

@SciYro
True!. I'm a big fan of DosBox. Could never get the DosXBox port to run on the Xbox though (yup, you can even play Dos games on the Xbox... how cool is that? :)). And games on Linux kicks the big one. Even Doom 3 port has less hardware requirements than the Windows version, for example ;). Thanks for the link btw!!!

I too have become very disappointed with the incompatiblity of older games with each release of Winblows, so much so that I've resigned to playing the one game I know works and It's the best game ever to boot. Unreal Tournament G.O.T.Y. I know the newer versions have better graphics and all that but for me it's all about the gameplay. Now back to getting my UT server running under Linux :-)

That was an awesome game. Runs in Linux flawlessly. There's even a very interesting patch which allows you to run Unreal Classic under Unreal Tournament, somewhat like a mod, so you get all gui's and configurations of Unreal T within Unreal Classic.

And you are right, it's all about the gameplay and later Unreal T games lost it. (UT GOTY is awesome, as I said before). UT2k4 plays just like UT Classic, but with more cheesy things, as a double-jump... There's an Xbox version called Unreal Championship, which is basically an Unreal 2k4. They've even got more cheesy then the double-jump thing: Every character has an special ability (start with more energy, jump higher, absolve enery of others when hitting) and is also better with one gun than the other. While this sounds good and gives the characters more "personality", in practice, it sucks... The player/character will always re-spawn with his favorite gun. Needless to say, while playing online, you will hardly see anyone playing with anything besides Rocket Launcher and Link Guns... So fun to jump into a middle game, re-spawn and get killed by a rocket that you not even know where it came from. Talking about gameplay :). Oh well, but the game is shiny, I guess that's what players want today, lol ;).

I plan to keep XP around on one drive for the games that I already have - but I've pretty much given up on PC gaming in the future. I don't want to have to keep upgrading my PC just to play games. For what a high end PC video card costs I can get a bunch of console games.

I'd like to see more quality games on Linux but so far the selection is fairly limited. Linux needs its own original 'killer app' games. You know, the sort of game that everyone wants to play, but one that isn't available on Windows. The console systems do this all the time. They get a franchise that people want and that pulls many more people to use the system. If a game like that came around for Linux it would help increase the user base. And then some of them might start to question how much they're paying to use Microsoft products.

Yup, you got a point Domhnull. And think about this, since Linux is free, there's nothing wrong in shipping the game either with a Linux distribution. Heck, could be even with a Live CD... the possibilities are huge.

However, I believe that the day Linux gets an exclusive game, it will come from a private company. I doubt that the community can make a great game. Not because we don't have great programmers around, but a game involves a lot of artists: Sketches, textures, musics, sound effects... Even though a programmer works for free for the community, I doubt an artist will... ghehe.

But oh man, I'd love to see a kickin' game for Linux, that's for sure. I'd be glad to see at least more games where it stands "Linux compatible" on the box, but looks like most companies wouldn't dare to put it (MS afraid perhaps?). Does it stands "Linux compatible" on Doom 3 or Unreal 2k4 boxes?(I don't own those games) I don't think so. UT2k3 had a Linux installer on the third disk and even though, no Linux on the box as far as I remember...

I think that i will buy a couple of Xboxes:)


I think that, as already said here, UT is perfect when it comes to gameplay ...
With the release of ut2k3 the UT fans get a little disapointed and run away from it ... reviving a little the sleeping UT GOTY community...
Epic managed to correct that with ut2k4 but ut gamers have moved to other shooters and don't want to turn back to ut games ....
Maybe in ut2k10 we will get that legendary playability back :)


Well i am confident with C and also with the more low levels system calls of linux like forks, pipes and stuff like that ... Last year i have learn a bit of Java at university and prolog too altough not entering very deep on the inners of both ....
I would like to work on something just by fun and learn new things too ...
What about your skills ??

Adony