flashburn

It's the first console generation where neither console manufacturers are losing money per each console sold. I'm sure that plays into the fact that the tech specs (and the less than impressive graphics) aren't as impressive as high end PC's. That said, I've been pretty impressed by the graphics in Killzone and Ryse.

taffer

I wonder if this will be another short console generation. If these consoles are already outdated compared to PCs, in four years they are going to seem ancient.

RichC2

I wouldn't consider them outdated compared to PCs, and the Xbox 360 and PS3 struggled to be on par with PCs for a majority of their life time. There just is no realistic way to making a 5 year future-proof console that pushes 1080p@60fps with very high to ultra detail without it costing over a grand.

That said, I am playing a nearly maxed out copy of Assassin's Creed IV in 1080p on my big screen on a $200 card. I don't think I was ever able to max out current games on previous graphic cards without paying at least $500.

That said, Nvidia put out some guides on a few newer games (ie: AC IV) with proper settings for each setup. They try to achieve 40fps minimum FPS at 1080p. Mine recommends using FXAA but I've been running with TXAA 4X with no noticeable slow down ( I will admit, I am not capturing the framerate ). My goal for the most part is to stay on par with the console counterparts, this is easy to blow past as both the Xbox One and PS4 versions of this game run at 30 FPS locked. The Wii U version rarely hits above 25 fps.

flashburn

Sure, outdated is not the right word, the actual hardware in both systems is actually pretty cutting edge. Underpowered is the correct word. The last generation systems at launch Microsoft was losing something like $200-$500 per system sold, and Sony was losing over $500.

boredsilly

And you don't even need to go that far. Just throwing a decent graphics card into a stock desktop (think a Dell or HP), can give new life to an older PC. You won't be at the bleeding edge, but depending on what you have you may be able to run a lot of current games adequately, and older games perfectly.

That's one thing I really like about PC gaming is the versatility. You only need to pay for what you actually need. It's just doing the research to determine what that is that can be a bit of a pain in the ass.

taffer

Yeah, underpowered is the word I was looking for. These consoles aren't even running all games at 1080p yet. That's just sad in 2013. 1440p is becoming the new norm with PCs. Heck, some of the more "hardcore" PC gamers have three monitors linked for even higher resolutions.

I think another problem is that the last generation of consoles just lasted too long. If these new consoles had come out a year or two ago, they would have been much more impressive.

flashburn

Well...

fumanstan

Yeah, underpowered I guess is the right word. In the past i'd be impressed with stuff like Gears of War or various Metal Gear Solid releases over the games coming out in the PC world at the same time, but with so much cross-platform stuff and the fairly conservative specs on these consoles, it just seems like a weird time to me. Although a big plus for PC gamers, I suppose.

As far as PC game performance, I think it helps that it seems like both CPU and GPU tech has slowed down a bit the last few years. The leap from Sandy Bridge to Ivy Bridge and now Haswell hasn't been that significant, so my i5 2500K is still a champ after 3 years. And although the 290 and 780 from AMD and Nvidia are new designs, everything else are basically rebadged cards from the last year or two which pushes the price points down for gaming at 1080p.

DthRdrX

Intel has been holding back waiting for AMD to compete. We could have had the 8 core mainstream chips 2 years ago. I can't wait to see skyrocket prices on new Haswell-E MBs, CPUs, and new DDR4 ram.

RichC2

This is sort of an overlap but:

SteamOS Installation on VirtualBox

Build Your Own Steam Machine

Supported games: Basically any Steam Linux game, including Metro Last Light, Football Manager 2014, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, Team Fortress 2, Monaco, Counter-Strike (& Source), Left 4 Dead 2, Planetary Annihilation, Europa Universalis IV, Serious Sam 3: BFE, Half-Life Complete, Broken Sword 5, Frozen Synapse, etc;

If Steam can get this to catch on, many more developers will be porting over to Linux/SteamOS as well, the biggest company to commit so far is DICE.

The Just Cause 2 Multiplayer Mod is set to launch today as well, turning the game into a thousand player+ multiplayer game .

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/YR2zRqAvw1M" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is due on PC/Steam "any day now" as well.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/yVHG028zSQo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I think this was in direct response to DmC and Lord of Shadows turning out so well on PC (both have similar gameplay to MGR:R)

wlj

interestingly enough, on my mediocre laptop, I can pull off ultra settings in DMC somehow.

RichC2

For anyone that plays Planetside 2, a big patch that in part balances the game out is being released today.

https://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/...pm-cet.162621/

Assassin's Creed IV DLC is now available as well.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/hROqF8ZOjak" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Raul3

For some reason I decided to get Fallout 3 GOTY, it was $6 or something. The mod community is just crazy. Crazy I say!

And yeah, I already have played more than 200 hours in the Xbox 360.

But they have this new mod, where you have a sister, looks awesome!

wlj

a game that will blow your mind with mods on PC is Left 4 Dead 2. There are TONS of completely new campaigns to play. it is ridiculous

DthRdrX

Speaking of triple monitor setups. I'm considering hooking my new PC to three monitors. I currently have it attached to a 42 inch TV. Any ideas on a good set of monitors? I really don't have much experience with PC gaming monitors lol.

Raul3

What do you want to do?

And what kind of hardware do you have?

Other than that, your typical 3 24'' (1080p) from a good brand: Dell, Asus, etc.

DthRdrX

I'm primarily using my new PC for gaming and media storage. I've been reading up on monitors today and a lot of people mentioned the BenQ XL2420TE. Not sure if it is really a noticeable difference in quality over the cheaper screens that Asus puts out that many seem happy with.

My Equipment List:




Some pics:

fumanstan

The latest GeForce Experience lets you stream to Twitch, for those with Nvidia cards.

http://www.engadget.com/2013/12/17/g...ame-streaming/

RichC2

Assassin's Creed IV just got a PhysX update:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/m6a4MbYAPFU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Lot of complaints about how the game runs on PC. Maybe it's because of my video card being recent but it runs beautifully here.

Metal Gear Rising is $19.99 (Pre-Order, due Jan 9th, 2014) on Steam.

mhg83

Since it's called PC gaming thread...



What a unique and original gaming experience. I got it on sale over at Steam but I would've paid full price had i known how great the game was. I guess I would describe it as

I can see this being used in video game classes in the future. It really deserves to be on best of 2013 games lists...

fumanstan

This article seems appropriate for a lot of people after Steam sales.

http://kotaku.com/were-buying-more-p...lay-1493402988

fumanstan

Also, this site is fun if you plug in your steam ID. I'm not that crazy, but here's mine...

http://steamdb.info/calculator/?play...an&currency=us

My Steam Profile (from SteamDB)

• Worth: $992.56
• Games owned: 63
• Games not played: 21
• Percentage: 33%
• Hours spent: 642.2h

Music

I be cray cray

My Steam Profile (from SteamDB)

• Worth: $5950.40
• Games owned: 516
• Games not played: 444
• Percentage: 86%
• Hours spent: 69.1h

fumanstan

All those games and only 69 hours played?

shizawn

My Steam Profile (from SteamDB)

• Worth: $2262.42
  
• Games owned: 185
  
• Games not played: 107
  
• Percentage: 58%
  
• Hours spent: 274.0h
  

The dollar amount spent is obviously incorrect as I've purchased most of those games well below the current price.