I've recently taken a trip to China for the summer and left my PS3 back in Canada. I'll be here for four months, so I decided to try out some PC games to play during this time.  Hence, I downloaded steam and bought some games, borderlands, trine, torchlight and portal (free). It's been awhile since I've played PC games (not since the heyday of Starcraft and Age of Empires). So far, Torchlight is great, portal is fun, and the general steam experience and acheievements have been positive.
 
But ultimately a series of other issues have arisen which remind me why I abbandoned PC gaming years ago...
 
Borderlands was great for a little while. I got up to a 10th lvl character and was enjoying the game. But there have been a number of technical problems. First my gamepad doesn't work properly with the game (which is ok, since I can just use mouse and keyboard). Second, and more servere, is that a strange crashing bug has appeared out of nowhere. Didn't bother me untill after about 6 hours of gameplay or so, and now I can't load a character without crashing the game with a "general protection fault error". My laptop meets the specs for this game just fine, and it ran well at first, so that is not the issue. I have discovered that this is a very common problem with a 71 page thread on the gearbox forums full of people complaining of it. Of course since Borderlands is a console-first game the PC market and the technical issues of a minority are not enough to warrant development resources and so the problem remains unaddressed. I have spent hours troubleshooting this problem and have given up. Which sucks, because I paid for this game and now I cannot play it!!! The lesson here: don't buy console games on the PC! Unreliable.
 
Trine seems like it might be a fun game. Ever tried playing a platformer with a mouse and keyboard? I would rather use my gamepad, thank you very much. Problem is, the right thunmbstick doesn't work properly in this game. I downloaded new logitech drivers and software to try and fix the problem, but the software won't run because my computer claims I don't have permission to do so. After several more hours of fiddling with ownerships, permissions, and administrator settings, I've once again given up. Not sure if I'll try playing Trine with the mouse and keyboard or not... not terribly attractive. The lesson here:  even when the game works, windows or peripheral devices can start to give you trouble. Unpredictable.
 
So, the end result, out of the three games I purchased, only one (Torchlight) actually works. I've have spent more time this week troubleshooting all these problems than actual gaming!!! This is the great burden of PC gaming. You can buy stuff and even start to play stuff,  but you never know when a problem will come up that ruins your gaming time. And so often, the response of PC  gamers is that I should just buy a whole new rig. No. That is not an option and my laptop is first and formost for school and I am not willing to upgrade it specifically for playing games. When I get back from my trip, the PS3 comes out, and I really don't know if I'll bother much with PC games in the future. It seems the only ones worth considering are games built specifically for the PC (ex. Starcraft 2, Torchlight), where the developers resources are actually devoted to making sure the game runs properly! 
 
Given all this, I guess it's not particularly suprisingly that so few developers can manage success with PC games, and also not surprising the the relatively care free console environment is so much more attractive to modern gamers...

I've recently taken a trip to China for the summer and left my PS3 back in Canada. I'll be here for four months, so I decided to try out some PC games to play during this time.  Hence, I downloaded steam and bought some games, borderlands, trine, torchlight and portal (free). It's been awhile since I've played PC games (not since the heyday of Starcraft and Age of Empires). So far, Torchlight is great, portal is fun, and the general steam experience and acheievements have been positive.
 
But ultimately a series of other issues have arisen which remind me why I abbandoned PC gaming years ago...
 
Borderlands was great for a little while. I got up to a 10th lvl character and was enjoying the game. But there have been a number of technical problems. First my gamepad doesn't work properly with the game (which is ok, since I can just use mouse and keyboard). Second, and more servere, is that a strange crashing bug has appeared out of nowhere. Didn't bother me untill after about 6 hours of gameplay or so, and now I can't load a character without crashing the game with a "general protection fault error". My laptop meets the specs for this game just fine, and it ran well at first, so that is not the issue. I have discovered that this is a very common problem with a 71 page thread on the gearbox forums full of people complaining of it. Of course since Borderlands is a console-first game the PC market and the technical issues of a minority are not enough to warrant development resources and so the problem remains unaddressed. I have spent hours troubleshooting this problem and have given up. Which sucks, because I paid for this game and now I cannot play it!!! The lesson here: don't buy console games on the PC! Unreliable.
 
Trine seems like it might be a fun game. Ever tried playing a platformer with a mouse and keyboard? I would rather use my gamepad, thank you very much. Problem is, the right thunmbstick doesn't work properly in this game. I downloaded new logitech drivers and software to try and fix the problem, but the software won't run because my computer claims I don't have permission to do so. After several more hours of fiddling with ownerships, permissions, and administrator settings, I've once again given up. Not sure if I'll try playing Trine with the mouse and keyboard or not... not terribly attractive. The lesson here:  even when the game works, windows or peripheral devices can start to give you trouble. Unpredictable.
 
So, the end result, out of the three games I purchased, only one (Torchlight) actually works. I've have spent more time this week troubleshooting all these problems than actual gaming!!! This is the great burden of PC gaming. You can buy stuff and even start to play stuff,  but you never know when a problem will come up that ruins your gaming time. And so often, the response of PC  gamers is that I should just buy a whole new rig. No. That is not an option and my laptop is first and formost for school and I am not willing to upgrade it specifically for playing games. When I get back from my trip, the PS3 comes out, and I really don't know if I'll bother much with PC games in the future. It seems the only ones worth considering are games built specifically for the PC (ex. Starcraft 2, Torchlight), where the developers resources are actually devoted to making sure the game runs properly! 
 
Given all this, I guess it's not particularly suprisingly that so few developers can manage success with PC games, and also not surprising the the relatively care free console environment is so much more attractive to modern gamers...

Sounds like you purchased an off brand game pad that doesn't work with anything and you're blaming all PC games.

" Sounds like you purchased an off brand game pad that doesn't work with anything and you're blaming all PC games. "

ppl seem to love these topics...i say who cares pl play games u like, dont play games u dont like on systems that make sense. RTS works best on PCs, MODs and community gaming works best on PCs (right now im playing a company of heroes community mod called operation market garden), some shooters work better on PCs (I'VE always PREFERED cod games on pc, whatever), dont bitch about pc gaming. These threads r very similar to ppl who complain about halo. Ppl who want to make a noise, make it, everyone who doesnt plays what they wanna play whatever, no one cares...ppl buy pc games and buy pcs who cares?! guess what halo works best on a gamepad (i love halo), it sucks on a pc (HALO CE), so does GTAIV, who cares, not me

It's a legitimate complaint. PC is an open platform with a lot of variables, the price you pay for the freedom the platform offers. It's a negative side effect and not an outright flaw which developers refuse to address. I game on pretty much everything, but when it comes to PCs I see putting up with (seemingly less frequent than your experience) problems with crashing and such, as sacrifice I put up with for having whatever hardware I can afford, configuring my PC how I like. Even the fact that I can use a variety of different controllers on the PC is liberating. These issues dont arise on a console because they dont allow it. A closed system is much easier to maintain. That's why the casual market is much happier with the plug and play nature of consoles.
 
Games will always be superior on PC because of the hardware but the experience of the end user relies on more than that and some people like yourself might not be prepared to deal with the extra baggage. I know I am though.

" Sounds like you purchased an off brand game pad that doesn't work with anything and you're blaming all PC games. "

Why not just wait another week or two and try to use the keyboard and mouse until your aim gets a bit better. You don't get skills like that overnight. I mean I had to use the dual shock 3 for a year before I could finally aim on the ps3 for fps games.  
 

" @ryanwho said:

" Sounds like you purchased an off brand game pad that doesn't work with anything and you're blaming all PC games. "

Like I said in my post, it is a logitech. I don't believe they are considered off-brand. That also does not fix the largest issue of borderlands not working for me, and 71 pages of other gamers on the gearbox forums. "

" Sounds like you purchased an off brand game pad that doesn't work with anything and you're blaming all PC games. "

I had issues with Borderlands as well. Not that same one though, it was running great and then it started to slow down after about 10 minutes or so. I was lucky enough that a re-install of the game and patches worked.  Now maybe I am just lucky that that is probably the only problem I have seen in PC gaming lately, but it doesn't mean it can't happen.
As far as upgrading, you are in China. You may be broke, but it doesn't cost much to live, and PC parts are at least half off there. Sure, you won't be able to read the instruction manual for your mainboard, but you can always find that information out online.

" @ryanwho said:

" Sounds like you purchased an off brand game pad that doesn't work with anything and you're blaming all PC games. "

Like I said in my post, it is a logitech. I don't believe they are considered off-brand. That also does not fix the largest issue of borderlands not working for me, and 71 pages of other gamers on the gearbox forums. "

I don't know what response you were looking for.  If you can only get PC games to work 33% of the time, then stick to a console.

it's unfortunate that you've come across bugs, but why are you trying to play a pc fps with a controller? it's like if i were to try drinking water using chopsticks.

also: google is your friend. i'm sure there is a fix out there somewhere. it is the internet, after all.

" @MonetaryDread: Haha, good point. Although, there's always a risk you'll get faulty or fake products here and the real deal is often just as expensive as back home. I might look into it. "

Most people that have a problem with PC gaming seem to also have problems with computers in general. Probably not a coincidence. While PC gaming does have its troublesome issues, and also a few shoddy console ports here and there, 99% of the time it's nothing that a driver update or patch can't fix. To sum up, 
 
- as people above have said, Xbox 360 controller is compatible with almost everything since 5 years ago (you can use wireless as well), and basically the same price as an off-brand controller 
- meeting minimum or even recommended hardware specs does not mean you can play a game adequately, especially on a laptop which is known for compatibility issues. Developers lowball these on purpose so more people will buy their games. Typically double or triple recommended specs is actually "recommended". 

Sorry to hear about your woe's Meptron.  There's a big learning curve associated with PC gaming that's found in console gaming.  Its the nature of the beast.  The fact that the PC is such an open platform makes it more challenging for developers to account for all of the different hardware and software combination their game could be running on.  I've spent many hours myself trying to work out frustrating problems, so I feel you on that.  My PC is still my most favorite gaming platform though.  If I had to choose to only keep my PC, 360 or PS3 I'd definitely stick with the PC.
 
If you ever feel like messing with stuff again to try and get stuff up and running here are a few tips:
 
Graphics Drivers: Always always always keep your graphics card drivers up to date.  If you have an nVidia card they release new drivers quite often.  A lot of times when I have wierd crashes, I head over to nvidia's website and new drivers that I hadn't installed seem to help
 
Controller: I use a third party wired XBOX 360 controller.  They are fairly cheap and work instantly soon as you plug it in (its USB).  Its pretty much worked with every game I've tried it on, so give one of those a try if you want.
 
Good luck!

First you make a a post complaining about something when you just started a week ago, and then you proceed to bitch that CONSOLE DEVS are lazy, and that your controller isn't supported by 3 different console ports.  Why don't you get a console controller that will work via usb, or play a PC game and not a port.

noooooooooob