New PC gaming event "Game On" to debut in September
Great news for PC gamers. A new PC gaming-focused event, aptly named "Game On" has been founded by the Game Developers Conference parent company CMP Technology, and is set to take place at the Austin Convention Centre on September 8-9 following the Austin Game Conference and Game Career Seminar.
"PC Game On celebrates PC gaming as the crucible of innovation in the industry, the place where most game developers get their start, and the driver of digital distribution, MMOs, and virtual worlds," said Katherine Schoback, group director of CMP Game Group. "Considering media attention of late has focused solely on console wars, PC deserves its place in the sun."
According to Next Generation, Dell -- ever vigilant as always -- will be sponsoring the event. I know a fair number of FWA readers will be very pleased by this news. What with PC gaming all set to make its big comeback (Microsoft's efforts to hinder it every step of the way not withstanding), one might wonder why exactly it took so long for a PC-focused event to be set up in the first place.
5 comments:
i know! i am so excited for it. finally!
What really irks me is the notion that PC gaming has been in a slump, which is far from the truth.
It just hasn't had any massive game all the fanboys can hop on board with. To be honest, I really enjoy the OK~Good-Graphics/Great Gameplay combo. Game companies have been making good games, that last a long time. The community for those games are also making new content to make it even more worth it's while.
These games with gorgeous graphics, short, mediocre single-player, and laughable multi-player, can all go to 360/PS3 where all ADD kids and fanboys can drool over it.
Yeah, I am being stereo-typical and unfair but who cares. The only hits I forsee are sequels to pre-existing succesful games...e.g. COD4, MOH:AB, Half Life 2 Ep 2...blah blah blah...
The good games that ARE actually going to turn out great are getting absolutely NO COVERAGE.
Not only that, few people actually ever hear of them through-out their whole life.
I'm going to stop before I break something (My brain? This website?)
No, I agree completely with all of what you said. I think the biggest problem is perception.
Take, for example, all the ports we're saying nowadays. Devil May Cry getting ported to the PC, Assassin's Creed getting a PC version (port), that horrendous Resident Evil 4 PC port from a while ago (damned thing didn't even include mouse support...can you believe that?). Amidst all these ports, PC gamers tend to try and catch up with all the great console games they're missing and tend to forget that the PC has some great titles of its own.
I mean, really. Oblivion? Best played on the PC, in my opinion. The same goes for Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, which was a total sleeper hit. No one I know had even heard of it, and it was a sequel to one of the best PC games I've ever played!
Microsoft isn't helping matters either. The 360 has been biting into a large chunk of the shooter market share, and now MS is trying to port all those games over to Windows Vista and set it up like it's a fourth platform. That, in my opinion, is only going to severely restrict the freedom developers have had while making PC games for so long.
There's also the fact that every Tom, Dick and Harry wants to make what he thinks is the best-looking game ever. You don't have any limitations while doing that on a console. But, on a PC, you have to take system requirements into consideration every step of the way.
However, once PC gaming does make its big comeback (officially), we're going to hit a plateau beyond which game developers will not be able to progress as far as graphics are concerned. Not without making their games inaccessible to your average PC owner. I look forward to that day.
It kind of makes you wonder...despite all of Nintendo's efforts, could the PC actually be the platform to end the graphics-vs-gameplay argument?
"It kind of makes you wonder...despite all of Nintendo's efforts, could the PC actually be the platform to end the graphics-vs-gameplay argument?"
I believe it already has.
http://archive.gamespy.com/stats/
How many old games are still being played today? Not to mention all of the Blizzard games!
And on a note about porting console shooters to PC. It's going to take more than a port. Many PC gamers don't like the idea of water-down shooters at all! A great example is Call of Duty 2. Great graphics, passable single-player. Multi-player was extremely watered down compared to the last two games which were graphically inferior.
It took six months of constant whining and bickering from the community to get Infinity Ward to patch the game, to put it's specficiations back up to where the first game and expansion pack were. By that time, many completely disowned the franchise and the developer, swearing never to buy again.
Developers, you really think you can make a lot of money off of watered down games meant for the PC? I hardly think you'll be getting any of the pie that belongs to Halo and Gears of War, so why not appeal to the players that has been faithful and playing your games this whole time?
To me, this is the biggest pitfall of PC gaming. It being console-ized via Windows Live, doesn't help either. Any smart PC gamers knows well enough, to avoid Vista like the black plague. Not because of Live, but because XP is still so much more versitile and less demanding of resources, which in turn can be used to make your PC gaming experience even better.
Can't find a single flaw in that argument. Who would've thought...for all the times Sony has claimed the PS3 is a PC and Microsoft has claimed that Xbox = Windows, it looks like the PC and the Wii seem to be the most alike in terms of where they are headed.
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