Thursday, April 3, 2008
My daily work schedule is, well, quite flexible. Allows me the hours I need to browse the web, to collect various links and articles and blog posts, with which to spam the IRC channel when i get home.
Today I find, via bluesnews, that EA has decided not to make a new Madden 09 available on the PC. I personally don't play any sports games on the PC or the Console, so its not skin off my back. If I wanted to play sports, I'd go outside. But whenever some news like this comes out, internet erupts in great fury, with cries and chants proclaiming the Death of PC Gaming.
And at 1st glance, I too would agree with them. But then rationality kicks in. Not because I am a fan of PC gaming, I am a gamer who doesn't discriminate between platforms. No, the realization I come to is quite simple. WHO have I bought games from in the last year? In other words, who is making PC games that I am buying?
Turns out, in the last year, I've bought games mostly from Independent Developers and Small Publishers. As these are the people who seem to be making games I want to play on the PC.
Ironclad Games (Sins of the Solar Empire), Stardock (Galactic Civilizations), Valve (Half-Life, Portal, TF2), Introversion (Darwinia, Defcon). Those are some solid developers, who currently atleast, seems to be developing primarily for the PC. Not one of those games was published by Big Studios, and NONE of them were Ports to the PC. Granted not all Ports are bad, but by same token I've yet to play a port that was better on the PC. I frankly don't mind ports and I am willing to forgive various Game Design decisions which ever obviously made to accommodate the limited control scheme presented on Consoles, PROVIDED end result game play is still entertaining. As entertainment is after all the goal with which I play games.
So do I mourn the loss of some recent Big name developers, not quite. I am maybe a bit disappointed they won't be making games more specifically targeted to the PC, but I am not upset. All due to a very simple fact, there are Others who are more than willing to satisfy my need for entertainment.
Another reason I disagree about the demise of PC gaming, is simply this list of forth coming PC games. I am quite sure Many of those in this list will get delayed for one reason or other. But still it is an impressive list by all standards.
Reasons why it's worth to be a PC gamer in 2008
Do you really need another reason to think that PC gaming is quite alive and well?
