PC Love?

[MattyC64c]

Plugging in a console to the TV to play a single player game is as easy as it's always been, problems arise with the less tech savvy people when it comes to online gaming and a console. Ip address's, Default Gateways, DNS servers, UPnP, DHCP, NAT, it's all Dutch to many users. When their console won't connect wirelessly to the router or refuses to log in to Xbox Live/PSN it can be very frustrating. Unless you're good with networking like me.

I'm a Xbox Live Community Xpert, in my spare time I have many people ask me questions via a real time chat regarding various problems with their 360's, the vast majority being network related. Just last weekend I helped someone turn their router's NAT from Strict to Open.

PC gamers have had these problems for a while, but the massive growth of online console gaming has brought these networking issues to console gamers too.

Getting back to PC's though, I think it's never been easier to run PC game software. When MS finally killed the dreaded MS DOS with it's horrid 640k limit with Windows 2000 and Windows XP, installing and running PC software is now a breeze. Of course 'running' can be subjective, it's always been the case that you've needed to check your system specs to see if a title will run as intended.

Back in the early days of MS-Dos all you needed to know was your processor speed and how much RAM you had, now you need to check processor speed, how many cores, RAM, graphics processor model and Operating system. To the un-initiated it can still be a mine field. With the Windows GUI, getting a game to install is the easy part, getting it to run is an entirely different thing.

[theantmeister]

Oh yeah, the joy of unwrapping a game and then realising your PC isn't up to spec. Luckily, that doesn't happen much to be anymore.

So what was the last game you remember updating your PC for? For me it was Doom 3. I waited months for that game and then lost my nerve and bought a PC prematurely (ahem). When the game was finally released and I played it, it turned out it wouldn't run the game in High detail, I was gutted.

Also, have you ever come across a game that is known as a PC benchmark? Grand Prix 2 comes to mind. I remember someone telling me it wouldn't even run smoothly on a dual Pentium Pro. And of course lately there's Crysis.

[William S]

I only ever really used my PC for point and click games

God I miss them.

No need to miss them , most are still perfectly playable thanks to SCUMM and other utilities.

Also, there's been quite a few new point & click games released over the last few years. The genre is still alive and well!

[MattyC64c]

So what was the last game you remember updating your PC for? For me it was Doom 3. I waited months for that game and then lost my nerve and bought a PC prematurely (ahem). When the game was finally released and I played it, it turned out it wouldn't run the game in High detail, I was gutted.

I was ready for Doom 3, by late 2003 I was already building my own PC's, I'd put together a pretty powerfull rig back then, that machine didn't have much problems running the first Crysis game either. I had a Pentium 4 3GHz and I'd bought a huge £300 ATI card, I forget the model number now, but I remember about twelve months later I had to replace it as it burnt out!

My current PC a 2.2GHz AMD dual core doesn't play many modern games, I had serious frame rate issues on Fallout 3 and Crysis 2 so I gave up and I haven't had chance to build a new machine yet. I mainly use it to play Civ V the Sims and some of the Total War stratagy games, all my fps games are on the 360 and PS3.

My current rig is cracking for emulation though, even Dreamcast games run full speed!

[pforson]

Also, there's been quite a few new point & click games released over the last few years. The genre is still alive and well!

Indeed. I would recommend Gemini Rue, it looks old-skool but plays in a fairly modern way.

[filecore]

Also, there's been quite a few new point & click games released over the last few years. The genre is still alive and well!

Indeed. I would recommend Gemini Rue, it looks old-skool but plays in a fairly modern way.

Thanks for this tip. Read some reviews and it looks great. Im going to buy it this evening.

[Freestyler]

Aside from Darran, are all the people who struggle with emulators those who grew up with consoles? It may lend some credence to the recent news reports that IT skills are diminishing in the young. Having grown up primarily as a computer gamer, fiddling with the odd menu to set things up how I want doesn't seem particularly troubling.

The only Em I've ever had trouble with (and have to give up in disgust) was the Amiga emulator WinUAE. I just couldn't figure it out. And this from a guy who owned a load of Amigas! Admittedly it was from a least 10 years ago, when it was probably aimed at nerds only. Due, frankly to it's impenetrable documentation and wholesale disregard for making any sense whatsoever.

Still, PCs have been easily configurable since the superb Windows 98 and DirectX 5.

[che_don_john]

So what was the last game you remember updating your PC for?

I think it may have been Mysteries of the Sith that pushed me for an update. My PC could handle Jedi Knight, but MotS was a slight step too far for the old boy.

Also, there's been quite a few new point & click games released over the last few years. The genre is still alive and well!

Having been away from PC gaming for so long I hadn't noticed. What are the best ones of the last couple of years?

[MattyC64c]

The only Em I've ever had trouble with (and have to give up in disgust) was the Amiga emulator WinUAE. I just couldn't figure it out. And this from a guy who owned a load of Amigas! Admittedly it was from a least 10 years ago, when it was probably aimed at nerds only. Due, frankly to it's impenetrable documentation and wholesale disregard for making any sense whatsoever.

I agree with WinUAE I couldn't understand that either when I first tried it out over 7 or 8 years ago, it was really confusing. Have you tried it out since though? It's quite easy to use now. I got into emulating the Amiga after Retro Gamer put 'Amiga Forever' on a cover disc back in the old Live publishing days.

[GamingWeston]

I played first on a PC dunno when but the game was the world famous... Bumpy! And about how I felt playing for the first time, well, it was m-a-g-i-c for me!

[theantmeister]

Having been away from PC gaming for so long I hadn't noticed. What are the best ones of the last couple of years?

I'm playing through Telltale's Sam & Max Season 1. The writing is very very funny, I genuinely laughed out loud, but the puzzles are nowhere near as taxing as the original Lucasarts game. Well worth checking out though. The games are released in episodes, but you can find entire seasons for very little money these days (I think I got season 1 from Game for £5).

If you prefer Sierra type games there's Space Quest 0 and someone's done an original King's Quest. I've not played either of these though.

[TwoHeadedBoy]

Just noticed this topic, six pages in...

Our uncle had always had a computer, and he showed us all DOOM back in 1994 - wouldn't let us play it mind, being the nippers that we were. By 1997 a PC turned up in our own living room, which was a massive surprise. The only specs I can remember are that it had a 3.5gb hard drive, which was ENORMOUS back then. Initially we played around with Microsoft Golf '97 ("It's in the rough!"), Magic School Bus, Fury3 (amazing sequel to Terminal Velocity, more of an Egyptian theme going) and SkiFree (still amongst the best sports games ever made).

About a month later, the computer uncle came around to have a look at it, and installed DOOM, Duke Nukem 3D, Indycar Racing and NASCAR on the desktop. Fun times there! Swearing and violence and endless car crashes driving the wrong way around the tracks. More games would follow...

-Ironblood, a giant mecha 2D platformer thing which took forever to install and turned out to be one of the most difficult games ever.
-Pyst, a parody of Myst starring John Goodman.
-Little Big Adventure 2: Twinsen's Odyssey, which is still amongst my Top Three Most Favourite Best Games Ever Of All Time In The World.
-Krush Kill N Destroy Extreme, a superior Command & Conquer clone.
-Worms Armageddon!
-The Secret of Monkey Island/Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge double pack.
-Day of the Tentacle/Sam & Max Hit the Road double pack.
-Theme Park and Theme Hospital.
-Hell: A Cyberpunk Thriller, starring Dennis Hopper.
-Wacky Wheels, the Mario Kart clone that lets you play as a shark.
-Blood, Quake, Quake II, Exhumed... so many FPS games!

A couple of years later, on the same computer, we got a dial-up modem thing. Watching music videos was more rewarding when it took all afternoon to download it, and then we used Napster for the first time - took about a week to download one Fun Lovin' Criminals song!

More games still, with Half-Life, Grim Fandango, Total Annihilation, Unreal Tournament, Serious Sam, Soldier of Fortune, The Settlers III, RollerCoaster Tycoon... And then we "discovered" emulators!

These days my mum's obsessed with those God-sim games - Zeus: Master of Olympus, Pharoah, Ca$ino, Tropico. My brother's getting tons of adventure games from GoG, and I'm on that Steam thing playing Portal and AudioSurf, not to mention the tons and tons of free indie games available - Cave Story, DeathWorm, DigBaku, Noitu Love, Perfect Cherry Blossom, Liero, From Primordial Egg, Eggman Hates Furries...

Slowly getting into Dosbox now, going to see if I can get Ironblood running again

Sorry for the long post there, it's such a massively amazing machine, there's a lot to say!

[pforson]

Great post THB. Never had you pegged as PC boy.

[GunstarHero]

Just been playing The Elder Scrolls 2 Daggerfall using DOS box for the first time. I can't think of the last time I played such an atmospheric game and I haven't even got out of the first Dungeon yet!

Its been freeware for years now so everyone should go on Bethesda's site and download it now if you haven't already.

[William S]

Also, there's been quite a few new point & click games released over the last few years. The genre is still alive and well!

Indeed. I would recommend Gemini Rue, it looks old-skool but plays in a fairly modern way.

Thanks! I'll check it out!