"The Death of PC Gaming"

[landdaddy]

Don't be alarmed! this is from a somewhat humorous opinion piece from http://www.overclockers.com/articles1375/.

DirectX 10 is coming, and to enjoy the fruits of Microsoft's pixel-bullying labors, you'll need a few minor hardware upgrades. You need to throw out that entry-level, mid-grade, or pinnacle video card you're currently using and buy one that requires probably four times as much power and outputs who knows how much more heat. That's going to necessitate some augmented cooling in your case and possibly your computer room, so be prepared to either play with your fan setup if you have a good case, or buy a new case if you don't.

I especially got a kick from this line:

I'm also not going to be buying Half Life 3 or Unreal Tournament 2009 or SimCity 5, etc... because I'm not going to buy a video card that requires fuel rods or an operating system that requires more hardware just to sit there and drool prettiness compared to the games I play today.

I have also heard that Microshitz will offer an upgraded DX9, incorporating some DX10 into it, for Windoze XP systems. :shrug:

[Occulus]

1. Please tell me they're just joking about

the hardware change requirement and the 2 machine hardware profile limit...

I just got more reasons to avoid Vista like the plague...

[TheBaldyMan]

2. I hope there isn't an avalanche of pretty games with no game-play

Speaking as an ancient old coffin dodger who as a teenager spent a small fortune in slot arcade games, the graphics were crap, the scenery blocky but the games had you shaking with adrenalin when it came to GAME OVER.

Thankfully there are still games being produced like that nowadays but there are more howlers that are nothing but eye-candy. Dismal playability and downright boring.

I'd rather have a game that I enjoyed and looked awful than one that looked nice and was a dog to play.

I hope that the latest designers take advantage of the new Sony chip and use its multi-processing abilities to give more depth to games rather than more chrome. The AI on that chip could be gob-smackingly brilliant, rather than have bucketloads of fancy animation objects. How many flying sparks do you need ?

[PVnRT]

3. I blame the critics

They will praise how great the gameplay is, but then totally pan the game because of graphics. Who the fuck cares if the people in the crowd of a sports game look like cardboard cutouts? Who is actually looking at them while playing?

[YOY]

4. Tell that to the 10 year old consumers

Kids like simple-to-play-with platfomers laden with eye candy. Show them a good strategy game and they run like vampires from the sunlight.

Kids, casual gamers, and complete freaking idiots as my experience goes think this way.

[Greyhound]

5. I've seen this headline too many times to get very worked up.

But I am considering a PS3 when they come out...