Why Albert is wrong! (Stephen Gillespie)

I have learnt many things in this life, some of them more important than others, but when it comes down to the facts of life that everybody needs to know there is really only one rule that we all should live by. Never trust a self professed crazy Russian, this is a fact which mostly goes without saying but occasionally you need more proof, today’s proof is Albert’s previous Blog about PC gaming. Now the statement that PC gaming is great is not wrong, PC gaming is great! Well actually the correct statement is PC gaming can be great. When done right PC gaming is fantastic but sadly it so rarely is. The main problem with the PC is that the darn machine is so relative. When you’re developing a game for a console then you know that there is a possibility that the entire install base could buy your game if you make a really good game because it is playable on every console sold. With a PC however everybody’s PC is different, there is no standard for computers as far as gaming goes, a bad computer will not play the latest good games because it usually won’t have the power. This makes PC developing a minefield! You either cater for all (and get complaints from people like Albert about why the graphics aren’t super good when a PC could handle so much better) or just cater for the top PCs and make Crysis, a great game which few can play due to silly graphical needs. Now I’m all for great graphics and if you’re lucky enough to have a PC that can handle them then PC gaming is superb. The problem is not the games themselves but the fact that making these games is usually such a bad business choice that they’re never made. Due to this PC users don’t get the great games they deserve but rubbish ports of console games. This is rather tragic and is something you cannot solve. PC games can be great, they can be superb but they can be terrible.

Now the PC has other faults, another big one being its dirty content. Crazy rating laws means that consoles are more respectable than PCs, on a console game I can decapitate numerous foes with blood gushing everywhere and you can do the same on the PC. However you can get worse on the PC, enter the infamous dating sims and the sex games. These games can be released on the PC because if you make a game with graphic nudity in it is rated AO (adults only) in America and Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft do not let AO games on there consoles. So where do you go? You don’t want to sacrifice the American market by just not releasing the game; you put it on the PC because nobody cares about that. This is a shame because it reflects terribly on the PC as a games machine. Yes you liken it to graphical marvels but you also liken it to graphic nudity, umm, marvels? Perhaps not marvels but you get the point. Perhaps Albert’s Blog should have been entitled, ‘the PC can be great for games but it’s always great for Porn!’

This sends me in to my next point rather nicely, the Internet. My PS3 has an Internet browser, it’s rubbish but I can check WASD on it so what else do you need. Now the PC has great Internet capabilities but does this really help with gaming? Online console gaming is just as good as online PC gaming (mods aside) the only improvement you get with the PC is web browsing while playing games. So here is where I admit that I do play a lot of PC games, I am a recovering Guild Wars addict and the PC is where I can play very badly at strategy games (the PC will always be the best for strategy games, that’s just a fact). However whilst playing these games I can never resist the allure of facebook or MSN or even WASD being at my fingertips. I can check them and play at the same time, how great is that? Not so much, I am very easily distracted, when I sit down to play a game I sit down to do that. When I am at my PS3, or even my Wii, everything else takes a back seat because there are none of these in-game distractions. I can just play a game. Now this is more of a fault with me than the PC but it’s harder to just play a game because a PC does so any other things.

So to summarise, the PC can be great and Albert is wrong. There are more points I could make but I am trying to avoid rambling so I will finish with a counterpoint to Albert’s claim of Crysis being an advantage of the PC. Metal Gear Solid 4, enough said!

Thanks for reading,
Stephen!

If you want to join in the debate drop us an email at wasd_blog@hotmail.co.uk and we will publish your argument here, on WASD!