So, what did we learn from RPS’s exciting visit to Valve yesterday? Some highlights:
Steamcloud was announced, which is an upcoming feature that will allow Steam to keep a copy of your game saves and personal configurations online. Nice. So, if you’re visiting your folks out of town, you’ll be able to download Steam on their computer, download your Steam games, download all your saved games and your keyboard/mouse configs and get right to playing where you left off, thus ignoring your family entirely during your visit.
More importantly, if you buy a new computer, you’ll be able to redownload your games as well as all your saves and prefs in one fell swoop. If you play offline for a while, it’ll grab your saved games the next time you connect. Sweet.
Also in the future, some new features for Steam including driver auto-updates, which will be useful for me since I’m incredibly lazy about that sort of thing. Instead of having to search confusing websites for new drivers that will render all my games unplayable, Steam will do it for me. Also, Steam will be able to look at your computer and let you know if you’ll be able to play the game you’re thinking about buying. Also useful to me as my computer is on that long slow slide from upper-mid-range to lower-mid-range in terms of power and speed. Also, in the future, I should stop beginning sentences with “also”. That was like five in a row.
If only Steam could also tell me whether or not the games I’m thinking about buying will suck ass. That way I wouldn’t be stuck owning Painkiller for the rest of my life.
In TF2 news, it appears that “Meet the Sniper” will be the next movie released to those of us who don’t get our own private showings, and it will arrive with the next achievement pack, which I have heard will be for the Pyro.
During the medic content release, about 30% of people playing were playing as medics. That sounds about right. Overall, there are more people playing as medics now than there were before the pack, which also sounds about right. I think the glut has died down but you pretty much never see a team without a medic or two, and if you do it’s really not the hassle it once was getting someone to switch to medic.
I think it’s pretty clear that, despite anyone’s personal feelings about the unlockable weapons concept, Valve earned their own achievement with the medic pack — they made the medic class more playable and more popular, and I think it benefits the game overall.
Finally, the supposed entire reason for these announcements is in response to all the talk of the death of PC Gaming. Sigh.
Frankly, I’m a little disappointed that Valve would stoop to addressing this bullshit topic. I’m sick to death of it. Sick. To. Fucking. Death. You can’t open a gaming magazine, read a gaming blog, visit a gaming site, read a gaming interview, listen to a gaming podcast, or watch a gaming show without this unbelievably stupid and tiresome topic coming up. It’s the go-to “issue” for game writers up against a deadline. I’m even angry that I’m talking about it right now.
PC gaming is fine. I have no numbers, no industry sources, no data, but it’s fine. I know because I love PC gaming and will always love PC gaming. I know this because there are a shitload of PC games coming out every five minutes. I know this because all of my friends play PC games. Sure, console games are huge, but that doesn’t mean there’s no room for the PC. Most people I know have a PC for gaming even if they have a console. Even if they have more than one console, which most of them do. Most games are cross-platform nowadays, and while they don’t always port well I think overall developers are getting better at it.
PC gaming isn’t dying. It’s a non-issue. If something is going to die, please let it be all the talk of PC gaming dying.
34 responses so far ↓
1 Sideath // May 30, 2008 at 8:01 am
Hear hear. I am getting fed up also of all this bullshit about PC gaming dying.
But I’ve learnt to live with it, I mean, they’re saying the same things they’ve been saying five, ten years ago.
Although, it is probably going to be more likely that people will stop. I mean, the average gamer is getting older and older (thus, they tend to go for a more ‘mature’ medium like the PC, not mature as in GTA4, but in the sense that it requires more sophistication and just plain old money to own a PC games machine) - I read on Wired the other day that the average UK gamer is 33 years old… which even surprised me.
2 SeanAY! // May 30, 2008 at 8:19 am
Haha, same with good old counter strike. It may have lost popularity slightly, but people still play it an thats going on 10 years old.
I like this blog, sum’s things up for me all nicely :D
@Sideath, that is a suprise actually, thought it was closer to the mid-late 20’s max.
3 CitrusFreak12 // May 30, 2008 at 8:20 am
The only reason I bought a console is for the games that are too high-end to run on my poor computer, and because a $370 used Xbox360 package is a helluva lot cheaper than a $3,000+ high end six graphic cards overclocked “cooled with the tears of virgins” PC gaming rig.
4 SenatorPalpatine // May 30, 2008 at 8:28 am
Guys, just because people have been talking about PC gaming dying for a long time doesn’t mean it isn’t a serious issue now. PC Gaming is on the way out. It’s practically dead. Name one big PC game lately. PC gaming sales have been going way down while console sales have been going up. Digital distribution… useless, no one uses it. Why do you think Valve didn’t release their sales figures?
(HEAVY sarcasm)
No seriously, I’m with you Chris, let us never speak of this non-issue again.
5 Pentadact // May 30, 2008 at 8:38 am
I recently upgraded from virgin-tears to unicorn blood for my mainboard. Netted me a cool 5 degree drop on my core temp, so now I’m rocking a 4.5 gig clock speed.
Fucking PC Gaming!
6 [@] Chronos[Ha-G] // May 30, 2008 at 8:39 am
Okay, if we’re to stay off that topic, lets talk about a related topic - the death of Console gaming.
…
No, seriously - now I’m starting to see PC gaming rags start to tout the end of Console gaming. The latest PC Gamer had it in an editorial.
COME ON PEOPLE! There’s still shitloads of people playing on BOTH sides, with no signs of stopping. STOP PULLING RANDOM CRAP OUT OF THIN AIR.
7 Lack_26 // May 30, 2008 at 9:25 am
I think that it is a good thing that Valve basically said ‘STFU NOOBS! PC GAMING ISN’T DEAD!’ to the consolers who would have us believe that it is dead.
I like the steam cloud idea though.
8 Trid3nt // May 30, 2008 at 9:32 am
First - Think about what the major threat to a sniper is.
Second - Think about what Chris’ idea was about a certain class’ video…
9 Sentry Gun // May 30, 2008 at 9:44 am
Meet the Spy would be awesome…
10 Maurice // May 30, 2008 at 11:46 am
Again, no funny Tags :(
11 Sitnalta // May 30, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Man, when the sniper and spy achievement packs come out, it is going suuuuuuck.
Although an ubered sniper killing 5 people with his machete will never stop being funny.
12 AlphaHawk // May 30, 2008 at 3:14 pm
The funny thing is I’ve yet to see anyone talk about the meet the sniper video :P Pyro achievements are gonna be awesome, but when are they coming out? you forgot to mention that, LAZY! :D
13 nmanguy // May 30, 2008 at 3:32 pm
You don’t need a $3000 “tears of virgins” PC to play games. $800 could build you a nice PC, and then in 2 years, $200 could add a second GPU to your PC. Since people pay $600 for computers anyways, that extra $200 to $400 isn’t a big amount.
14 Paulo // May 30, 2008 at 5:48 pm
They’re called “demos,” my friend. =) I loaded up the Painkiller demo for about 8 seconds before shutting it down and removing it from my lappy. Horrendous. However, the Bioshock demo has me itching for more, trying to figure out how I can fit it onto my Windows partition without losing all my HL2 stuff (gaming from a MacBook Pro, can’t complain).
15 Chaari-san // May 31, 2008 at 2:22 am
Hmmm, Painkiller definitely *did* feel old-school in certain ways that Yahtzee mentioned over in his latest ZP Review but I’ve never wanted to simply ‘kill tonnes of dudes’ whilst playing an FPS.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/57-Painkiller
16 jordan // May 31, 2008 at 3:22 am
i have a 360, a normal xbox, a nintendo 64, a nintendo ds and a pc, and i have all those other things cos my pc isnt one of the tears-of-virgins-blood of unicorns-jesus-has-licked-it computers. my pc has an equal value sum to a Ford car (burn!)
(also, if you dont know, fords suck!)
17 Punjabi Fury // May 31, 2008 at 5:42 am
I have decided I’m not going to care about anyone on the internet’s opinions unless they’re in line with mine.
It makes everything so much easier.
18 Mr.DEEZ // May 31, 2008 at 9:46 am
I too am more concentrated on pc-gaming than console. When the 360 came out and i was still cal-o for CZ i opted not to get it cuz i knew that would ruin what i had goin.
NOw i do regret it slightly because of GTA4, so now all i can do is PRAY TO THE GODS IT COMES OUT FOR PC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
19 Backe // May 31, 2008 at 12:34 pm
well… I think the main thing many people scream “dead pc gaming” is the pirate issue. Developers lose alot on it and some begin working with console instead since its harder for pirates there.
And pesoally I dont think Either side will die. Some games work better on PC and some on console. They are both great in my mind ^^
20 sQUEAKYfOAMpEANUT // May 31, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Finally, someone else who despises Painkiller. I don’t know what Mr. Croshaw’s been smoking, but it’s some serious shit if he likes painkiller.
Also, sweet. Meet da sniper. Neato.
Also also, I agree. If anything is dying, it’s gaming magazines, because they’re always droning on and on about their latest gripe with PC games.
21 Phil // May 31, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Painkiller, for 10 bucks, is a decent buy. If you read reviews you basically know that it’s a smashTV in FPS or a serious sam style simple shoot em up. If you bought it knowing otherwise, or at a different price, that can only be your own fault.
Besides, with YouTube now, you can find gameplay videos for almost any game out there.
It’s like 30 minutes of research that might have steered you away from something you didn’t want.
22 Phil // May 31, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Note: That Phil is not me. Good to hear Valve is coming up with more innovations.
23 chris12 // May 31, 2008 at 7:30 pm
i agree. pc’s are fine.
24 jordan10la // Jun 1, 2008 at 5:08 am
The new steam things sound pretty cool. I am definitely a cross platform gamer. I have a 360, Wii, and a Gaming PC. Also I just got TF2 like lat week. I think it’s pretty sweet. I still prefer Fortress Forever but I like them both. I thought Medic would have been my favorite class but now it seems to be the Pyro. So that’s cool that it may be next. I still hate the idea of the achievements unlocking things that alter gameplay but if VALVe insists it might as well be a class I like.
25 Gothic // Jun 1, 2008 at 9:31 am
I can’t stand the disgusting look speeds and look sensitivity on console games.
One does not take more than 1 second to turn around in real life.
26 Sinister Minister // Jun 1, 2008 at 12:50 pm
@Gothic: Sigh, this is WHY they have the ability to change said sensitivity. Several games have it.
While we’re mentioning real life, one cannot jump several feet forward, and, while in mid air, turn 180 degrees, shoot someone behind themselves, turn 180 degrees around again, and then finally land from the jump. PC games have more inconsistency to real life than console games do when it comes to things like this.
27 mr. Brit // Jun 1, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Lol, I was gonna mention sensetivity myself, I know it’s on the orange box because I have it cranked way up and a lot of other FPSes have it too.
Meet the sniper!!! Woot!! But come on pyro, I can’t wait for him :D
28 chris12 // Jun 1, 2008 at 7:29 pm
hey, chris, got any email?
29 Baggie // Jun 2, 2008 at 1:41 am
The only problem I have with gaming exclusively on a PC is games like dead rising etc aren’t coming out for PC or come out like 1.5 years after they come out on 360.
Also, apparently GTA4 is coming out for PC in November 29th, at least that was the release date on a german website.
30 Sam // Jun 2, 2008 at 6:25 am
Since I don’t know your email chris I’d just like to post this here.
It could mean a end to your sites if it’s true:
http://ipower.ning.com/netneutrality
31 Christopher // Jun 2, 2008 at 8:45 am
NOOOOO MY PRECIOUS WEBSITES
32 PC GAME enthusiast // Jun 3, 2008 at 12:50 am
I’d like to see a funding model as the games cortex command and mount&blade to be applied to console games. Oh wait. YOU CANT.
33 CHARMANDER // Jun 9, 2008 at 7:47 am
Great article. Pc gaming can not be Measured BY ANYONE!!!!!!! So dont even try… PC GAMERS ARE THE SMARTEST GAMERS OUT THERE…. WE DONT RUN INTO A DAMN PROBLEM AND SEND BACK OUR BOX TO MICROSOFT…. WE CRACK THAT SH*T OPEN AND FIGURE OUT WHAT TH PROBLEM IS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
thats why IF 360 players and XP players could play against each other 95% of all XBOX online accounts would be cancelled within 48 hours…
34 DRRR DRRR DRRR // Jun 14, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Charmander you are the kind of person who no one wants as a debate partner.
Go back and read what you put down there. Really take a good look at what you wrote. Just look at it.
LOOK AT IT.
Leave a Comment