Thursday, January 31, 2013

The things that have killed my PC gaming

I have been blogging since 2006 or so. However as my time went on I found less and less to talk about in the avenue of MMO's. Recently I have blogged about miniature gaming and board gaming as well but that has died off quite a bit. My current kick is the XBOX360 as, after 5 years or so, I have finally sat down and forced myself to use those controllers and get used to the analog sticks.

There are many cons to console gaming and rarely did I find the positives. I hated the controllers and found PC gaming vastly superior especially for in depth wargames. Lately however I have been in the process of replacing my most popular PC games with XBOX 360 titles and forcing myself to play it exclusively and I can now conclude that there ARE some positives for the console generation. So much so in fact that with the addition of the XBOX 720 or whatever it may be called I could see myself no longer upgrading my PC to play the latest and greatest. 

I want to just plug in and play and not worry about drivers and things like that. Also it has seemed to be the past couple of years that every stinking computer game (minus MMO's and RTS games which are mainly PC based) has been some version of a poor console port that really just sucks to control. Like Dead Island, Space Marine, Borderlands etc etc. So the revival of my XBOX 360 near the end of its lifespan has brought about the following discoveries:

  • More game time. It is quicker to get in and get out and switch games on a console. I have a lot of digitally downloaded games from XBOX Live's On Demand and they are fast fast fast
  • Better controls mean I dont suck as much. I hated the way Dragon Age played on the PC. Now I am 20 some hours in WITH all the DLC downloaded and having a blast. I still have issues with shooters however and I know I will never truly master that. But the shortcuts on a controller and not having to worry about keyboard reference cards is a godsend.
  • Larger TV and viewing area
  • Easier to find online games and opponents
  • Minecraft is ever better....which I would have never thought. I love that the crafting recipes are right there in game. All you need to do is find the things and spend less time guessing how to make them.
  • The social aspects and use of XBOX Live has replaced my ROKU and Apple TV especially for watching shows and things. Digital downloads of movies and TV's have been nice and this gets me off iTunes which can be annoying.
  • Achievements.....they have me hooked. I like that I see my Gamer Score go up. It sounds lame but I just felt Steam achievements were something no one really looked at.
  • Im downstairs more. My girlfriend has her own XBOX also upstairs so we can switch and do whatever or even co op in games etc etc. The price for two of those were cheaper than her entire computer. 
  • All of this has led to less downtime and less blogging and more instant sharing and instant posting of quick game events than writing entire blogs. As such I have moved mainly to my Google + account to post about gaming and less posts here.
There are some things that cannot be replaced in PC gaming. I know that. I am a staunch PC gaming defender. But each day I am missing them less and less to be honest. Since I dont miss MMO's at all (seriously burned out on them. They do nothing for me anymore) the only title keeping me PC bound is Diablo 3 and Dawn of War 2 at this point.

I will admit Farcry 3 probably pushes the XBOX 360 a little too far but I still play it on there more than PC. I guess the older I get I find less and less enjoyment out of sitting in front of a computer. 

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