a single click. All you need is Adobe Reader.
For use with either a modern browser, or an RSS program.
Six Reasons Why PC Gaming Rocks
As if we needed any reminding.
Written by Andy Griffiths, 05 July 2010
In honour of the lovely tech people finally upgrading our office gaming rigs, we thought we'd compile a list to celebrate the magnificence which only the PC provides.
- Free Content:
There's no other platform where developers are so inclined to offer new content for games. Take Valve, who has been supporting Team Fortress 2 for over almost three years now with constant upgrades, new weapons and items which fundamentally change gameplay. A multitude of modern games have recently been given freeware status by their respective IP holders including MechWarrior 4 and the original Command & Conquer. This kind of fan service isn't found on any other platform and because of the sheer number of PC owners out there, publishers know they can make a big marketing impact by just re-releasing old games for no additional cost.
- Mods and Maps
The amount of content available to PC players is simply staggering and over the past decade the internet has allowed the amateur modding scene to flourish like never before. Who needs major studios when groups of talented artists can bend entire engines to their will creating such awesome mods as Mechwarrior: Living Legends, Natural Selection, Black Mesa, First Strike and literally thousands of others.
It isn't only mods though, map design has also gotten much more ambitious. How about being able to fight off hordes of infected in an accurately recreated Disney's Pirates of the Carribean ride, or experiencing the Tower of Terror via the Half Life engine? There are some amazing experiences to be had and all us lucky players have to do is find them. Hard working communities can extend a game's life exponentially, and is easily one of the biggest reasons why our platform has flourished as long as it has.
- The ability to upgrade
PCGZine Issue 45
For our latest Football Manager coverage, click here to download PCGZine Issue 45 for free.There's no feeling quite like buying a load of new components for your ageing PC to transform it from an antique to a cutting edge gaming monolith, capable of taming the almighty Crysis. Even if you know what you're doing, there's still that critical moment where everything has been connected to the new motherboard, the graphics card is set, but you're still unsure whether pressing the power button will roar the rig into life or maintain the uneasy silence.
Yes it can be a massive hassle to try and figure out what the problem is, but once everything is working, playing beautiful games at over sixty frames per second, with 16x anti-aliasing switched on makes that mortgage endangering investment all the more worthwhile.
- Crazy Peripherals
Now we are quite happy with our Microsoft Sidewinder wheel but that doesn't mean we don't yurn for a Logitech G25 with its six-speed gear shift, clutch pedal and 900 degree lock to lock capability. Perhaps it's the sky high price point of £150 that puts us off, but we love the fact that crazy, ultra realistic peripherals like the former are available for our platform. Microsoft and Sony would never be willing to invest in something that only a small percentage of their audience would use, but again thanks to the massive number of PCs in homes, there's always a sufficient number of gamers in the market to make even the most niche endeavour profitable.
- Simulations
Whether you're interested in space, flight, cars, trucks, trains and even ships, there's a simulation out there to accommodate you. Games such as iRacing and Football Manager are said to be so accurate at emulating their chosen fields, that even professional racing drivers and managers respectively, use them to prepare for their chosen field in real life. Only with a platform so open are noble projects like these possible.
- Dedicated Servers
Last but not least we have dedicated servers and even though this became a contentious issue last year when Infinity Ward deemed it an unnecessary feature for Modern Warfare 2, it's still one of the best assets of PC gaming today. Name any online game you've played over the past decade and the likelihood is there are still dedicated servers hosting matches, thanks to committed fans.
Only last week we were hankering for a match on DM-Morpheus with the original Unreal Tournament and within seconds we found a server packed with other players. An impressive feat seeing as this game is over a decade old. There are plenty of other examples as well, but it just goes to show that backwards compatibility isn't an issue for everyone.
Football Manager coverage available in PCGZine Issue 45 - click here to download it for free!
»View more Football Manager features...
