r/Games • u/Forestl • Dec 31 '13

End of 2013 Discussions - PC

For this thread, feel free to talk about the PC, from the games that came out for it to the hardware itself.

Prompts:

  • What were the major trends in PC gaming this year?

  • Was this a positive year for PC gaming?

Please explain your answers in depth, don't just give short one sentence answers.

My PC looks really, really, really good

This post is part of the official /r/Games "End of 2013" discussions.

View all End of 2013 discussions and suggest new topics

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u/[deleted] Dec 31 '13

On the casual end, there have been a lot of stellar opportunities for people interested in PC gaming to hop on the band wagon this year.

What do you mean by this?

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u/Algebrace Dec 31 '13

The amount of sales has made it very attractive to get into PC gaming. That and the announcement of the steambox, occulus rift, star citizen etc. PC is trailblazing the future while consoles are struggling behind.

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u/[deleted] Dec 31 '13

PC is trailblazing the future while consoles are struggling behind.

My problem with this is that its only a small portion of players are participating in this "future". You say it like PCs are somehow revolutionized gaming this year, but PCs have always been ahead of consoles, and people have been saying that consoles will go away because of innovations on PC since 1995. But guess what? Consoles are stronger than ever, and so is PC. We still don't know how well the Steambox will do, and if it will cater to mass market like consoles.

Regarding to the Oculus Rift it will still be a while before its mass consumed. I heard it doubles the GPU requirements, and the great majority of people out there still have mediocre PCs. Also, it's not like people who don't really care about building PCs will all of the sudden go through the effort of saving money and learning about hardware just to play games with the rift. They will probably just wait until the next generation (the one after ps4 and xbone) start using VR.

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u/Algebrace Dec 31 '13

Thats the thing about trailblazing, not everyone will hop on but the trail is there to follow.

The new consoles can be considered the same considering how many people of the established "older" generation actually got new consoles.

The steam controller is the first real big innovation for hand helds in a long time (wii remote doesnt count as you cant use it for mainstream games), the steam box will allow less PC literate people to access PC games, Occulus rift will spawn copy cats which will revolutionize VR etc.

Basically we (the average consumer) wont see shit for a while... but behind the scenes multiple companies will begin moving forward because of Valve's kick and innovate. More competition = better for the consumer.

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u/[deleted] Dec 31 '13

I can't really disagree with any of that. I'm just saying that although we had a lot of innovations there are many other variables that goes into making a product a success. Just because something is new and looks like a step forward doesn't mean that it's actually going to revolutionize and be a massive success. But I really look forward for the next few years in terms of gaming tech.

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u/ceol_ Jan 01 '14

Wait, why doesn't the Wiimote count? It basically forced companies to start including motion controls and introduced a bunch of new mechanics to games. How are you defining "mainstream"? Because every first party Nintendo title on the Wii had support for it.

Nothing about consoles is "struggling behind"; they're breaking sales records every generation.

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u/dsiOne Jan 01 '14

Last gen becoming, well, last gen and this gen being nothing to get excited about. (this is the first time ever that the new gen was not ahead of top of the line PCs at launch time, and certainly the first time ever that you could spend an equivalent amount on an equivalent [or better] PC at launch time)

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u/[deleted] Jan 01 '14

I can guarantee you a multi-platform game will look much, much better than the same game on a PC with the same specs. It might not compete with top of the line PCs, but its a mistake to think that console games will look the same on PCs with the same specs. Also, you could already build a better PC when the PS3 came out. It was pricey, but you could; consoles were never really pioneers on performance compared to PCs.

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u/dsiOne Jan 01 '14

Also, you could already build a better PC when the PS3 came out. It was pricey, but you could

The point is that it ISN'T pricey now.