PC Gaming: Then, now, forever.

[General Nerditry]

I only wish there was a reliable and affordable way to stream from my PC in the office onto my TV. Some games I'd rather play on the couch without having to physically pick up and move the PC over whereas I prefer shooters at the desk with keyboard and mouse.

Well, I'd like to respond to my earlier post here because a solution does exist. Steam has in-home streaming built into the newer clients where you can hook up an older PC to your TV, and as long as Steam is installed on both and they are both on the same network, you can stream in HD. This has been great for platformers. There is no appreciable lag for most games short of the occasional network issue which I resolved by moving the wireless adapter around. Not sure it would work for twitch-fests like Fps games, but I prefer to play those at my desk with a keyboard an mouse, anyway.

[Beezzi]

I've been a PC gamer for 27 years. My dad brought us an old IMB XT that they were getting rid of where he worked when I was just three. He got bored with it two weeks in and basically left it to me and my brother. (Best way to teach your kids to use a computer folks, slap them down in front of it, turn it on and then leave ) We played whatever we could get our hands on in South Africa - there was nothing like a genre preference - you simply played what you had endlessly for days.

I still remember all those great old games -Ally Kat, Bouncing Babies, War, and KinderComp(when all else failed). I remember being in awe when we switch from a green mono screen to a simple CGA screen. The first Prince of Persia was mind blowing - we'd watch the opening cut scene over and over just to see the Princesses hair swish - but horrible difficult for a pair of pre-teens. (After all these years, I still can't finish it - that game is evil.)

So many great gaming memories over the years - The burger bit from Space Quest 4, playing for the first time a female character in King's Quest 4 - as a girl this blew my mind, trying to get past Leisure Suit Larry's parental controls(damn you Al Lowe), training the dolphin in Eco's Quest 1, trying to figure out Civ 1, building my own PC, beating the hell out of the Ape in Black and White for not pooing in the right field, inserting Joey's circuit board in BASS, getting terrible frustrated with BioForge's horrible controls, the freedom of Morrowind, finally learning the mystery behind BioShock and Rapture, getting my rear handed to me in Baldur's Gate last week and a ton more.

I have consoles and phones now, but the PC will always be my first love, even if I have to spend hours tweaking a .ini file to get a game to run right.

Right now I'm desperately trying to breed Crusader Kings 2 genius trait into my future idiot offspring, hopefully before my dynasty dies out or the French invade (you plot to assassinate a few heirs and they never let you hear the end of it).

[Zainu]

I've been a PC gamer for 27 years. My dad brought us an old IMB XT that they were getting rid of where he worked when I was just three. He got bored with it two weeks in and basically left it to me and my brother. (Best way to teach your kids to use a computer folks, slap them down in front of it, turn it on and then leave ) We played whatever we could get our hands on in South Africa - there was nothing like a genre preference - you simply played what you had endlessly for days.

I still remember all those great old games -Ally Kat, Bouncing Babies, War, and KinderComp(when all else failed). I remember being in awe when we switch from a green mono screen to a simple CGA screen. The first Prince of Persia was mind blowing - we'd watch the opening cut scene over and over just to see the Princesses hair swish - but horrible difficult for a pair of pre-teens. (After all these years, I still can't finish it - that game is evil.)

So many great gaming memories over the years - The burger bit from Space Quest 4, playing for the first time a female character in King's Quest 4 - as a girl this blew my mind, trying to get past Leisure Suit Larry's parental controls(damn you Al Lowe), training the dolphin in Eco's Quest 1, trying to figure out Civ 1, building my own PC, beating the hell out of the Ape in Black and White for not pooing in the right field, inserting Joey's circuit board in BASS, getting terrible frustrated with BioForge's horrible controls, the freedom of Morrowind, finally learning the mystery behind BioShock and Rapture, getting my rear handed to me in Baldur's Gate last week and a ton more.

I have consoles and phones now, but the PC will always be my first love, even if I have to spend hours tweaking a .ini file to get a game to run right.

Right now I'm desperately trying to breed Crusader Kings 2 genius trait into my future idiot offspring, hopefully before my dynasty dies out or the French invade (you plot to assassinate a few heirs and they never let you hear the end of it).

WHOA! You built your own PC?!! That's freaking amazing!

I'm hopeless with electronics, so I just stick to buying them...xD

[Beezzi]

WHOA! You built your own PC?!! That's freaking amazing!

I'm hopeless with electronics, so I just stick to buying them...xD

My parents are too blame...they had some odd motivational methods...

Dad: "OK Beezzi, your mother and I have decided you can get a new PC."
Me:"WHOOOPPPIIIII!"
Dad:"However, we looked at the prices and all this new fangled stuff is way too expensive..."
Me:".....that doesn't sound good......"
Dad:"So instead we've decided that if you want a new PC....you can put it together yourself using parts from your brother's last two PCs."
Me:"That's not technically a "new" PC...
Dad:"You want it or not?"
Me:"OK...Who's going to show me how to do it?"
Dad:"You figured out how to program the VCR on your own, this is no different...just stick the stuff in the slots and see what happens...."
Me: *gulp*

I've gotten lazy over the years - now I just buy a gaming laptop and leave it at that. If I had to rebuild one now, I'd sucked at it - PCs are way more complicated. Thirteen year old me would've been screwed today!

[Xero Kaiser]

PC games with capped resolutions are extremely annoying. What the hell is the point of doing this?

[Beezzi]

PC games with capped resolutions are extremely annoying. What the hell is the point of doing this?

Sorry you're talking about resolutions - now that is really a mystery! Any particular game?

Still all caps are pretty bad.

Some games cap the FPS at insane levels. If I remember correctly Two Worlds 2 on PC at release was capped at 30fps! It had something to do with a bug.

Obviously console ports are bad examples, but it's still annoying. I don't even mind a slightly lower FPS in certain games - Age of Wonders 3 is a bit slow in parts, but I don't mind slow down in a game that essentially turn based.

[Xero Kaiser]

Sorry you're talking about resolutions - now that is really a mystery! Any particular game?

Metal Gear Rising (although I think there's a mod to fix it) and Dynasty Warriors 8 (no mods or custom resolutions to fix it) are two recent offenders.

[Surtur]

And God, what a disappointment the sequel was.

Well, you can actually make the sequel more or less a great game if you have the PC version, since you can get patches, etc. that fix a lot of the problems people had with it. Plus on top of that: Kotor 2 was a very rushed game...it was released not only with a lot of bugs, but with a lot of cut content. Since this was found out fans have been trying to restore this content, and some did..to an extent, but not fully. However, a few years ago there was a team of people who worked on the restoration project and succeeding in restoring a lot of the cut content, and not only restoring it..but doing so in a way that it fits in with the game. By that I mean..they didn't install some half finished cut content. Among other things..the cut content adds an entire new planet, and also includes quests like going to a factory that is responsible for making the droids that look like HK-47, since you encounter these in the game and HK is all pissed that there are copies of him out there..but that was supposed to lead into a quest. It also restores certain cut scenes, like Nihilus using force powers on Darth Sion, etc. This isn't merely fan made content, but official content that was cut that fans simply restored:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012...d-content-mod/

Of course there are also a bunch of fan made mods that add new force powers, new quests, new items, new party members, etc. to the game, so even without the restored content you can make the game a lot better, but I'd recommend at least getting the restoration mod.

[Arundel Armor Hunter]

Will Jade Empire ever be playable on the PC?

[Xero Kaiser]

Will Jade Empire ever be playable on the PC?

The PC version's been out for 7 years.

[Arundel Armor Hunter]

Are bugs fixed? Sorry, i remeber playing it but the controls were utterly messed up an i could not find a fix.

[Xero Kaiser]

I always wanted Square-Enix to release a Steam version of FF12 but after seeing their lazy ass port of FF13, I changed my mind.

[General Nerditry]

I've been playing Saints Row IV lately. I haven't played through the others so I don't have those to compare it to. What a fun game. Think Grand Theft Auto in the Matrix with super powers written by the guys behind South Park.

[Sarah]

I am a PC gamer and I first played some childish games like road rash . I love GTA a ton

[Jonathan]

Been a PC gamer since, oh, probably the late 80s. Anyone else here remember Gauna Bwana(or however you spelled it) for the Radio Shack Tandy computer?

Mostly though I love RTS games and the PC simply has a lot more of them and does them with better quality.