Anybody getting sick of games on PC?

submitted by Lambdadelta from self.PCGaming

To begin with, PC is getting loads of PSN and XBLN knockoffs, as if steam, which I already hate as it is, wasn't enough. There is no guarantee an indie game will actually show up without being tied to a single store (or DRM-free in other words), and most of the AAA ilk still continue putting Denuvo despite its many screw ups and failures.

To do any modding these days, half the editors, half the mod tools, even the mods themselves often times, are available exclusively on steam. GOG owners of A Hat in Time simply don't have access to the modding tools or the mods that are only on workshop, thus requiring them to ask their steam friends to down-and-up-load these mods. To add to the modding woes, the party mode thing for A Hat in Time simply does not work with GOG, because the developers used a new valve multiplayer API that is obviously steam only to solve the problem of everyone "not being able to play," and conveniently ignored that GOG's Galaxy has support for online, including CrossPlay which would allow GOG users to play with steam users just fine. This game is only one example of severe version parity, there's several more like it. Is this the price for the mistake of making a choice on a platform so championed for its choices?

Ah yes, choices. What choices does a PC player have nowadays, outside of building your own hardware? The way I'm seeing it, the choices the PC is known for are becoming meaningless. You can't get most newer games on physical, indie or AAA. Most games are either valve steam exclusive, epic steam exclusive, ubisoft steam exclusive, you simply don't have a choice in the matter. There's the mods as I explained, and even VR seems to be geared towards steam itself, if the latest tetris is any evidence. Ah, did I forget to mention that even controllers can now be coded to work solely through steam, but not without it?

The PC as a platform for games is becoming bizzare. The choices are there for you to make, but if you dare step outside the steam ecosystem, you might find yourself missing a feature or two for no good reason. Or simply the developers twist our arms when selling the latest, I don't know, Battlefield game, and we all happily let them.

There are thankfully still gems in the roughs. Cuphead has been a great experience on GOG, with the updates arriving in a timely manner. As far as I remember, Overgrowth's DRM-free was getting a lot of updates on Humble Bundle, the worst off store in terms of version parity. I still appreciate being able to download Doki Doki Literature Club off itch.io along with its paid goodies pack; other games would just offer the game somewhere else but sell the goodies or soundtrack as a DLC only on Steam.

And yet, I don't think these gems are enough to make the PC significantly more tolerable when it comes to games.

If you have come this far through my rant, thanks for reading, and I hope to hear what you think about it all.

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[–]NoOil 8 insightful - 2 fun8 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

Haven't bought a "triple AY game" in years, all I buy is Indie titles nowadays. Seems like those devs are the only ones who care about making a great game, with money coming second. Also I think that if you get the right game, you get your moneys worth and then some. I got a couple of games I bought for $20,- or less, and got several 100's of hours out of them. No ragret's ;) I think this is where PC clearly has the advantage over console gaming. DRM can be an issue, and I don't think it's something we'll get rid of. But IMO the biggest cancer in gaming today are the "micro-transactions". I think there is just one situation where those are allowed, and that is in F2P games. Any game you BUY shouldn't have any form of transactions in them. It's a disgusting system, and only there to get people hooked into spending way more money than the game is worth. Do your research before buying a game, instead of buying into the hype. But I guess the people who come here already know that ;)

[–]Lambdadelta[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I come from a background where piracy is rampant. (It still is where I live). I can't see any reason why pirated games Just Work but then DRM'd games require what they require. And yes, IAPs turn me off as well. How nice to see PC games have both of those.

Now, the most cautious way to actually be satisfied with a legit game is to buy it years after the fact, and hope any updates don't screw it over. A faint hope though.

Though I don't think PC has an advantage when it comes to the games itself as you point out. Those gem indie games are also present on Android and Switch, and having an Android phone can be a boon if you fight past the shovelware on Google Play's displays.

[–]NoOil 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Yes, piracy can be the answer to the shitty DRM, and I've heard of cases where the pirated version actually runs better than the store version of the game. I mean come on, that is some real bullshit right there. How can a paying customer have a worse experience with the game than someone who "steals" the game. So while I haven't pirated a game myself in years, I can totally understand why it is still very much alive (apart from older games getting gimped because of music licensing - GTA SA, IV). Maybe the best thing is to buy a game and then just run a pirated copy: you still support the devs and not have to deal with all the crap around it. Same goes for movies btw. The games I play are not really suitable to play on anything other than PC so changing systems won't really work for me personally. I just name Kerbal Space Program, Rimworld, Motorsport Manager (these are the games I play the most). And I haven't even mentioned modding, which makes these games 100x better. So for me, PC is still the way to go, and if DRM really becomes a problem I'll just dust off my eye-patch and raise the sails again ;) Sry for the walls of text, still having some issues with formatting.

[–]Lambdadelta[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

But it is indeed a constant, that the pirated copy can be relied on while the legal should never be depended upon wholly. At least piracy will preserve these games for the future, while DRM prevents or slows doing that.

[–]Zizzle 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Most games that have come out in the past 5 years have been overpriced over hyped steaming piles of dog shite

I bet in a few years we will have to join a monthly subscription service like Spotify just to play most games, which will be online only and full of microtransactions.

[–]Vigte 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

PC is getting loads of PSN and XBLN knockoffs

I think this has to do with the "quantity over quality", the flooding of the market who see it as a huge opportunity.

To do any modding these days, half the editors, half the mod tools, even the mods themselves often times, are available exclusively on steam.

Or cost an arm and a leg... I mod for personal preference - and there's only so much you can do without a 3d modelling studio or specialized file extension stuff... very frustrating.

Most games are either valve steam exclusive, epic steam exclusive, ubisoft steam exclusive, you simply don't have a choice in the matter.

Similar to how things like oil industry developed. Just the consolidation of properties and cash.

And yet, I don't think these gems are enough to make the PC significantly more tolerable when it comes to games.

They USED to be... but I agree, the quality is declining and the choices are being either ported quickly to other platforms or just ripped-off, copies of copies of copies, etc.

Personally, I see it as the developers no longer being accountable for the things they produce. The major "triple A" studios now have so much money that they can produce crap and it won't matter. 20 years ago, if Westwood put out a single crappy game, they would have gone bankrupt, but now... "eh, we can absorb the loss of a few million fans".

The gaming industry is something I've focused on, while searching for real world examples of "how much money, is too much".

[–]m68k 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

DRM and microtransactions are the main factors of what turns me off to PC gaming. I'm happy with classic Quake and Doom. Also don't forget some of these titles came integrated with spyware (look up Red Shell).

[–]NoOil 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Well, DRM and also microtransactions are not solely bounded to PC gaming, consoles and mobile seem to have the same issues with this. Redshell ruined the Total War series for me, those cheeky bastards even put it in their older games (Empire, Napoleon). I wrote a bad review on the Steam for this reason, and the devs happily reported back that they removed it from their games. It shouldn't have been there in the first place!

[–]m68k 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Indeed, game consoles and the mobile market are even worse. As for Steam games removing Red Shell, what else do they have tucked in that they're not telling us.

[–]sodasplash 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

I need to get a PC so I can play Caesar 3 again. It’s not available on Mac. Now that was the pinnacle of gaming along with Warcraft and Starcraft of course.

[–]VantaFount 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

If you feel like building a PC instead of buying one, we now have /s/BuildaPC. I'd be glad to help.

[–]sodasplash 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

Appreciate it. I built one before but that was years ago. So it's definitely a possibility. I had been thinking of just picking up a $300 laptop. I'll see about pricing out my options this month.

[–]NoOil 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Be careful with cheap laptops, you get exactly what you pay for..

[–]Lambdadelta[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Be very careful with the laptop's heating. It may make or break, so do research. Find other people who own that laptop and ask them about it.

[–]Snow 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

PC is the best hardware for video gaming, you can avoid all of these platforms , just open the "fit girl repacks" website.

http://fitgirl-repacks.site/

[–]Lambdadelta[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I have no issues with piracy and prefer it exists any day over being abolished, but it's indeed ridiculous when buying the game doesn't get you to dodge all of this stuff while piracy lets you.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

oh it disgusts me whenever i think about all the shit they do to honest customers.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

i hear what your saying, im planning on switching back to console unless they pull some severe bullshit. pretty much everything i liked about pc is gone, between invasive drms, internet requirements, and hardware lockouts. theyve taken away just about every reason i switched to it, after the xbox 360 days. those were the things that brought me to pc and granted i really have gotten up to the last second, out of my rig. but if i were to upgrade again, i would start running into all the problems that i switched to pc to get away from (ive read about them, from other's experience). so im going to probably switch back to console, the ease of use was nice. 'and unless' they severely fuck it up, witch i dont put above them. ill probably get a ps5, maybe a xbox but i doubt it. i want the backwards compatibility of the ps5 cause they had quite a few good single player games last gen. but pc gaming isnt what it was when i fist got into it. and honestly i got into the final good days of pc gaming far as i can tell.