PC Games 2009: Where are we?

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#1 Edited By Mobius1

After seeing all of the awards being tossed around around I started wondering which games I played on PC that came out in 2009 that weren't ports, and came up with 0! What happened? I need some outside opinions.
Which games have you played that came out in 2009 for the PC that aren't ports from consoles (lead platform is PC) or that you were stoked for because they were coming to PC (port is better than lead platform).

14 years ago

SeriouslyNow

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#2 Edited By SeriouslyNow

Dragon Age Origins may be multiplatform but it's not a port. It's a PC game that was ported to consoles, hence the consoles having lower definition and one less type of tactical view. I was so happy to see a real Baldur's Gate successor and that it was made for PC. Bioware really did us proud.

Red Faction : Guerrilla was a great port (despite some issues for ATI owners which kinda blows my mind as the lead platform is 360 which has an ATI GPU) and looks SO MUCH BETTER on PC, in every way. It also plays nicely on mouse and keyboard too. The multiplayer was rock solid for me.

Champions Online makes for a great homage sequel to City of Heroes and despite its instance based play is actually a really good MMO. I loved it for its extensive character building and really well thought spec trees. Makes City of Heroes look rather dated in every way.

Batman Arkham Asylum was better on PC graphically, but it's only by a matter of degrees. The PhysX additions were nice if taken in context, otherwise they didn't too much to what was already a fantastic game. I was impressed that this game made it to PC at the same time as consoles.

The Force Unleashed : Ultimate Sith Edition. As a hardcore Star Wars original series fan I actually was over the moon at the news of this being released with specific PC only content. Once I played it I was less impressed. it's a very basic game at heart with too many unnecessary and insipid QTEs. That's not a fault of the PC port, but of the original game instead. Still, it does look a whole lot nicer @ 1080P proper and the framerate seemed to be a lot smoother compared to the 360 release.

Ghostbusters. Man, the PC port just proves how limited in scope and how poorly playtested this game actually was. The port has mouse lag issues because it actually uses the mouse in a faux controller stick emulation way which adds needless acceleration to the movement, making it very fiddly to tune the X and Y speed to suit. While I wasn't too fussed that the PC version didn't have multiplayer i was unhappy to see very little done to the textures themselves. Everything looks rather ordinary @ 1080p and it's patently obvious that Terminal Reality's Infernal Engine could've easily handled a lot more detail but was being held back by the console RAM limits. Still, it was nice to be able to take the trip down memory with most of the cast of the first movie intact.

Saints Row 2. i know, I know this came out last year, but I only got it this year with Red Faction : Guerrilla as part of the THQ bundle pack. It's a really solid PC port. It looks better than the 360 release due to higher resolution textures and none of that awful alpha dithering that was present in the console version. I rarely saw evidence of the SSAO which the menu lets you select aside from a sharp frame rate drop but I can safely say that it plays just as well as it on mouse and keyboard as the 360 controller. The multiplayer is also really solid and I completed the whole storymode in co-op as well. What made me especially happy about the PC version was the inclusion of mods. These work in single and multiplayer co-op which is a sure sign that this wasn't just a tossed aside port. SR2PC obviously went through a rigirous round of QA and playtesting because it only crashed for me once in over 50 hours of co-op and single player modes. A really good example of a how a sandbox game on PC should be done.

Mirror's Edge. WOW. PC owners rejoice, especially if you have a PhysX card. While some people complained about the PhysX effects slowing the game to a crawl, I must admit I never noticed that happening. I turned everything up, except for AA (9600GT 512MB GDDR3 card OC'd but still, I have realistic expectations) and found that this game looks undeniably better on PC. I had played it the year before on my 360 and was really impressed then but once I started the game up on the PC version I could immediately see where the console versions had had corners cut in terms of texture resolution, shader precision and of course physics based particle systems. All in all a worthwhile PC release, if only to be able to see the as the art and design teams had wanted it to be seen.

Operation Flashpoint : Dragon Rising. In short, this game doesn't work on consoles and looks like utter ASS on 360. On PC the game makes total sense and the resolution upgrade alone gives the game a lot more atmosphere, right from the startup faux-documentary style intro and menu system. I really think the Codies could have done a much better job with the EGO engine than they did with this game on the whole and I feel sorry for the console only owners who had to deal with 360's crap looking rendition.

ArmA II : SCALE NOT POSSIBLE ON ANY CONSOLE AT PRESENT. Not that great a game either but really puts OFP : DR to shame in terms of scale alone. Nuff Said.

Serious Sam HD - The First Encounter : Look, it's a simple oldschool 'bullet hell' styled FPS. It came from the PC. It got its best and biggest fanbase on the PC and despite a couple of console outings it's still best experienced on the PC with this new engine upgrade. It's far from perfection and it IS a very silly game. All that said I LOVED EVERY SECOND I PLAYED and I'll play it a hell of a lot more. Big Ups to CroTeam for not forgetting their roots.

Street Fighter IV : The console release looks like blocky, low res ass. That is all.

Torchlight : A sweet little gem of a Diablo clone. I'm glad for its release and hope that the sale will lead to the long awaited free to play MMO from the same guys.

14 years ago

subject2change

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#3 Edited By subject2change

Cryostasis - Only on Win
Dragon Age: Origins - Only viable on Win
Modern Warfare 2 - Again only viable on Win
Borderlands - was a port I believe, and kinda janky online but good nonetheless

Honestly the last quarter, all I did was play PC games for the most part. Just popped in AC2 2 days ago...

14 years ago

ryanwho

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#4 Edited By ryanwho

Plants v Zombies and Machinarium are all I can think of. Anything else has since been ported, like Peggle and World of Goo.
Yeah, my computer's notsogreat.

14 years ago

William

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#5 Edited By William

@Subject2Change said:

" Modern Warfare 2 - Again only viable on Win "

hahaha

14 years ago

Black_Raven

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#6 Edited By Black_Raven

ArmA 2 not that great a game? That's bull shit!

14 years ago

Driadon

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#7 Edited By Driadon

Dawn of FUCKING War 2. Plants vs. Zombies is a close second.

14 years ago

Al3xand3r

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#8 Edited By Al3xand3r

http://adrianwerner.wordpress.com/games-of-2009/ - Games aren't gonna come knocking on your door, go find them, serious gamer. There's something for every taste, budget, time constraint, and mood. That list doesn't necessarily make quality distinctions and may falsely show some games as released but you can figure that out for yourself. If something looks interesting, it's easy to look up more information on the internet.

Check the blog for past years or the future. I also recommend following Rock Paper Shotgun and for indie games TIGS and, uh, IndieGames.

My highlight of 2009 is King's Bounty: Armored Princess just as King's Bounty: The Legend was for 2008. Risen was solid but no Witcher. I'm now looking to get Divinity II: Ego Draconis which will hopefully be a fuller experience without an underwhelming ending, and is also a 2009 release.

14 years ago

scarace360

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#9 Edited By scarace360

Dawn of war 2
Champions
Dragon age
monkey island
That's all i can think of without going into some shit that is weird.

14 years ago

VanderSEXXX

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#10 Edited By VanderSEXXX

yeah Dawn of War 2 was really something, and most of the other games like Left 4 Dead 2 and Modern Warfare 2 I played it on PC. Infact the only console games i bought this year was Demon's Souls and Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 for my PS3.lol I dunno why I didnt bother with Uncharted 2 despite all the raves and praises it got.

14 years ago

thecleric

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#11 Edited By thecleric

I had more fun with Dragon Age: Origins on PC, Torchlight, Machinarium, TF2 War Update and Dawn of War 2 than any of my games on ps3 sans Demon's Souls and DJ Hero.

14 years ago

crystalskull2

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#12 Edited By crystalskull2

SeriouslyNow mentioned most of them.Other than those Mechinarium,Plants vs Jombies come to mind.Also,Resident Evil 5 looks way better and controls better on PC.

14 years ago

AndrewB

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#13 Edited By AndrewB

There aren't many absolute exclusives, these days; merely a whole lot of games designed with the PC in mind first (Dragon Age being the shining example), and a whole lot of games that just play better with a mouse and keyboard. Although honestly, if consoles would just let you use keyboards and mice for actual gameplay (as all current gen consoles have usb ports that do detect and use them for text input), there'd be much less of a reason to cling to PC gaming other than better graphics.

There's always mod support, I guess. Speaking of which, I'd definitely include Left 4 Dead 2 on that list because it is really the lead SKU over the 360 version, in my book, due to the control scheme and promise of user-created content.

14 years ago

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