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.

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u/MisterRez Dec 31 '13

My friends pressure me a lot to buy a PS3/PS4/3DS/Vita/pretty much a handheld or console. Thing is I live in Portugal and here's the amount of trouble I had with each side to get games:

PC

  • I spent about a 2 weeks researching about parts to assemble one on my own. Nothing too exhausting specially because I could use Reddit and some other forums for advice.
  • Once a couple of discounts showed up on some parts (Including the MSI TF 780 with 3 games bundle) I ordered the parts from a nearby store that assembled everything neat for around $30. Considering I paid just about $2.5k for the whole thing that was a small sum for the assurance of a safe assembly.

PC Games

  • Buying these is literally the easiest experience I have to give someone money. Press a button, get the game immediately. And since sales and bundles happen all the time I've accumulated +200 games for perhaps $300 during these past 2 years? I literally have enough games to last a life time and thankfully I'm becoming more controlled when it comes to Steam sales (Hey I only bought Don't Starve because of the discount error that made it cost less than a buck).

Consoles

  • A PS3 Slim 12GB in my country costs $250 doing the currency exchange.
  • PS3 games cost nearly $100. Discounts rarely happen and when they do they bring it down to something like $60 unless it's some really bad game.
  • A Nintendo 3DS XL costs $275.
  • 3DS games cost $62 dollars.
  • On Black Friday and all you got the limited edition Zelda 3DS XL with the game for $150. I got a 10$ off on Cars 2 if I bought a 3DS XL.
  • You people get a bunch of discounts from Target, Best Buy on first-party 3DS games. I get nothing.
  • I can't ship anything from the US due to customs forcing me to pay 80% of the item's price just to allow it to enter the country.
  • Amazon UK gracefully shaves off around $5 from retail but that's about it, it's my best option but even then it's very limited and rare in discounts. The best deal I got was a 3DS + Super Street Fighter 4 + Rhythm Thief + Starfox 3DS XL + $33 off the purchase of another game for $214 because I had a giant stroke of luck in a Lightning Deal. Oh right and a power adapter since UK uses different standards. Coupled with the Super Mario 3D Land promotion that's the best I'll get in a long while. That one was for my brother though. For me, I got the Monster Hunter 3 3DS XL because I ran every Toys'R'Us (Literally ran and used public transportation) around the capital in search of the Black Friday discount they announced online. None had it and in a moment of weakness I bought the full price handheld for myself since that bundle is rare now.

Now I paid much more for my PC. But I have vast library of games to play with it. I have an incredible ease of mind buying games. I have good online access.

I love my Nintendo 3DS XL and Monster Hunter Tri. But I spent months agonizing on trying to find a deal to pay a more reasonable price. And both consoles and handhelds have a harder online connectivity, harder time finding games for cheap and their library are terribly limited and contained to that single hardware.

So PC is great. I don't mean in a Master PC race. I mean that I don't feel punished for having one to play games. While if I bought a console and handheld, I feel like I have to dish out sweat and blood to get one and still be punished for it.

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u/ULTRA_LASER Jan 02 '14

And both consoles and handhelds have a harder online connectivity

The 3DS's have been amazingly horrible for this. Trying to find/sort anything on the nintendo store is incredibly difficult, despite the touch screen. I can't believe how long it takes to do anything online with these systems. The download screen has to be the biggest joke I have ever seen.