This was a great article as I can completely relate. I built my first PC back in December, mainly to be able to play the PC version of Left 4 Dead. Left 4 Dead remains to be the only new release I have bought for my PC, though hopefully Borderlands changes that.

I, like Jeff, have found myself more enjoying the ability to run things on my desktop much more smoothly.

I agree Jeff,

Haven't updated my PC in a long while besides the occasional harddrive here and there....I truly believe the PC has gone bye bye for games and is merely a tool for the internet now...I haven't got the urger to even upgrade or build a new rig in the past 6 years since my gaming fix has been satisfied by HDTV and the 360 etc...

I built a new computer in January .  It has the entry-level Core i7 CPU and a Radeon 4850 card.  Pretty modest stuff in my opinion for a new rig, but it has blown me away with what I can run on it.  Frankly, I have yet to play a game on my new PC that doesn't run beautifully (i've been spending waaay too much on Steam these days).  Spending ~$200 on a video card is clearly a sweet spot.  Maybe I'll feel the need to upgrade in 2011, but I'd much rather spend $200 every two years than trying to get four years of value out of a $400 card.

I'm still using an 8800GT, playing at  a respectable resolution (1680x1050) and getting respectable-to-awesome framerates in modern games. Most PC games these days are straight up ports of console games, anyway, so the visual quality is limited by the fact that modern consoles are now "outdated" tech when it comes to graphical fidelity. That said, most of them are poor ports, which make them run pretty crummily unless you have top of the line hardware, so it's always good to have a better graphics card.

Hmmm, the conspiracy theorist within me wants to point out the obvious connection one could make that game companies and video card companies could have something going there to make you buy the more expensive stuff... but lets not go there.

I literally haven't played any new PC titles since the Orange Box. It runs on my MacBook Pro(bootcamp) fine and I play some other titles along the side like the old Total War series and used to play Final Fantasy XI.

Just realized the other day that my old dusty copy of Diablo 2 will run natively on macs(thank you Blizzard). Having it run in a window with a dual monitor setup is great as a time-killer.

I hope StarCraft 2 and Diablo 3 will run on the MBP.....

I bought a budget Dell 5 years ago and I'm still using it. I haven't been able to play a new game on it for a few years now. There are times I go crazy and badly want a new computer but that passes away after a little while. I still do play games on my computer. It just revolves around Indie games like Dwarf fortress, Dungeon Crawl and sometimes the odd Blizzard game. As of right now I don't have any commercial games installed on my computer and I frankly don't care. I am 100% satisfied with what I play on my PC.

I went berserk after I spent 10+ hours trying to fix my current PC a few years back. I didn't touch it for a week. lol

My computer has not been up to gaming shape for about a year now, and it is a shame because I used to really love playing PC games. Still, with the consoles as advanced as they are and capable of so much, I see not much of reason to drop a grand on new improvements or a whole new PC. I appreciate this article, Jeff, because it is very true.

I recently got my own PC (one of dad's old ones) for my birthday, and upraded the graphics card to a GTX285 (oc) by inno3D (came with Farcry 2).
It cost about $680 Australian to my memory but ended up costing more because the motherboard was old and to get it to run on it I needed a higher power supply.
It works now and is great except the cpu ain't that flash so now I feel compelled to buy a new cpu, motherboard and hence new memory.
*sigh*

Hope you do well with that PNY. I've had nothing but problems with them over the years.

great story i thought that was an excellent read

not having a 360 makes the pc much more valuble, despite its inconviniences.

Maybe those condemning PC gaming based on Jeff's experience and other things they've heard (or done) should look at this, a decent guide in getting a powerful PC (yes, it can run Crysis olololol!!!!!111) on the cheap. You can probably go even cheaper considering most people here are posting from a PC and can transfer certain hardware to a new setup (hard drives, monitors, accessories). As for the games, there are many exclusives, whole franchises and genres, better controls for other genres, gamepad support for games that do work better on consoles (things like Street Fighter IV I guess), most of the high profile third party titles on top, that console fanboys love arguing over which system gets the best version. Usually, the PC does... Not to mention the vast independent developer industry, modifications for games you have,  the freeware archives, the applications you can do outside gaming, and many other things... PC+Wii is the best of both worlds to be honest :-)

I play PC games every now and then. For being a little less expensive on PC, mostly. The last couple of games I got for PC, outside of 'Wrath of the Lich King', were 'Deadspace' and 'Fallout 3', which both have perfect support for the 360 pad. Sometime later I picked up 'Mass Effect'. I guessed, it would have perfect support too, since it's an 360 original. Unexplicably, it didn't support pads at all anymore. It took me several attempts at playing the game, before I was okay with going at it with the mouse and keyboard.

I prefer movement, turning around, camera control, aim, button layout, actually everything, on a gamepad. Rumble too, I miss it, when it's not around. It's just so much more ergonomical. So that's downfall of PC gaming for me. The keyboard and mouse set-up doesn't cut it for me anymore. Just now again with Battlefield Heroes, keyboard and mouse just aren't my input device of choice anymore. It feels archaic to me. It gives me carpel syndrom. It sucks. I want to play my games with the 360 pad. For most applications, it's the perfect controller. Jup, perfect 360 gamepad support is a must-have for every game, which isn't an RTS, Manager or MMORPG.

Nope, for anything that isn't a Street Fighter style beat 'em up or a retro 2D platform game (though those also can work better with a mouse if the abilities of the character include any form of 360 degree aiming, like in Trine or Aquaria) the mouse & keyboard pretty much own any other input.

Excluding sims like racing games which need a wheel and flight sims which need a joystick (+keyboard) of course... Speaking in general :)

Great read. Buying the absolute top end video card is never smart, in some months it will be surpassed by a better one and be sold for a lot less.

"This time, I was more happy that I could once again get at my iTunes library. Now I'm just left wondering if this says more about the state of PC gaming (and the relative strength of today's consoles) or about me."

I think it says more about you because I still get that feeling of awe when I upgrade to hardware and I can see all of my games run at higher settings and with faster frame-rates.  With the ease of consoles and the amount of console games you go through vs the amount of PC games you likely play, I am sure that you have conditioned yourself somewhat to having a comfort zone around that sort of experience over the PC experience.  Who knows though.  All I know is that I still enjoy computers and get blown away when I get to see my games run so much better - like a new experience :)

My PC dies all the time; I have reinstalled windows vista too many times.  I have gone through about four hard drives in the past six months, and I even had one die three days after installation.  Over the past couple of years I've had to pretty much replace every part of my PC.  One of the main problems is how unreliable power is here, because I live in heavy forest area, so whenever the wind picks up a branch knocks out the power and ZAP goes my PC.

When I recently got my new gaming laptop it was kind of sad to see that all I went to test out my new system was WoW to see how much better it ran.

UPS then? If you know you have such issues, you should have invested in one... They're not terribly expensive.

You'll buy Arma 2 and marvel at your shit frame rate, the game runs terrible even on high end machines.

We all know it's about you Jeff. You haven't been big on PC games for years (just look at your Steam account!). I remember one of the first podcasts you guys did at Giantbomb - completely ignoring the PC market.

And there's nothing wrong with that - but blaming the "state of PC gaming" is just madness, and you know that.

onlive.com ftw. if it works out, i will play on a netbook(hooked up to my monitor at home) without having to upgrade ever!

last time this happened i brought the ENGTX260 TOP, witch is suposedly the best 260 on the marked (almost as good as the 280)

These kind of problems really put me off PC gaming, I got KOTOR really wanted to play it again there is so many problems with that game running it on a pc especially a newer one. This is why i prefer playing games on consoles they just work. The only PC stuff i really enjoy playing on PC only is the Value stuff i love my TF2 and L4d being on PC and that mainly because they run so damn well.

PC gaming has pretty much been dead for years far as Im concerned.  PC gaming peaked in the 90s, and its never going to come back to what it was.  After Diablo and Starcraft I think PC gaming will give is last dieing breath.  Sorry Im done with MMOs and I hate the fucking Sims....

Why don't you get back into Oblivion and play it like it was meant to be played (i.e. hella modded)?

I purchased a new PC about 3 months ago with the intention of "getting back into PC gaming" and then realised once I had it, that all the games that were any good. . . I already owned on my 360.

I do enjoy mmorpg' though, unlike these kids who played WoW for a year or so and give up. I've been an MMO fan since Ultima Online.

You know, I had the same problem and the thing the was causing it was that the monitor cable wasn't screwed in all the way. I think our new card is great and all, but I hope you tried checking the connection before replacing the old card.

Jeff. Bust out Burnout Paradise on PC and turn on SSAO. I still only get about 25 fps with two 9800gxt+ cards. You might get better performance. Either way, the game looks incredible with these graphical upgrades.

I have to agree that PC gaming isn't what it used to be.  Seem to be lots of buggy, unfinished products (Demigod, Dawn of War 2, and Fallout 3 on the PC) being shoveled out the door for PC games lately.  If you have a 360 most often the superior version of the game will be on console.  A scant few developer still make excellent PC games (Valve is one of them.)  Seems MMOs are PCs major niche right now and most of them are terrible.  I would say hurting PC gaming more than anything else is the quality of product many PC game studios have been putting out lately.  It is noticably lacking.

I've been yearning for a new PC even though I'm an avid 360 gamer.

When I think about it, all I'm dying to play is TF2 and Left 4 Dead without the graphics turned down low, and Starcraft II when it's out.  That's enough to get me excited, but it may not be enough for someone like Jeff who is used to a constant influx of games.

" PC gaming has pretty much been dead for years far as Im concerned.  PC gaming peaked in the 90s, and its never going to come back to what it was.  After Diablo and Starcraft I think PC gaming will give is last dieing breath.  Sorry Im done with MMOs and I hate the fucking Sims.... "

I've always hated this dilemma too. I had proposed this question of  "what do you do when you upgrade your system?" I remember every year I used to scrounge for money to get my system upgraded just to play newer and better looking games but now that I don't have the time to play them it has not become worth it. I recently got a new laptop and all I installed on there was a couple of games that I bought from http://www.gog.com. Talk about irony: A new laptop which is actually better than my desktop and I put a bunch of old games on there. I only use my desktop now for one game, World of Warcraft, and the storing of my music.

I often wonder if this is something akin to our generation or if it's something that every generation goes through in a different way. I still play games, I love to play games, but they just don't appeal to me that much anymore. I look at the stuff of http://www.gog.com and get excited. it's often rare that something new comes out that I'm chomping at the bit to play though.

I love my PC and think some multi-plats look awesome enough to warrant getting a good card.

Cannot wait for MW2 on PC.

I am looking forward to a few pc games, but as it stands right now, i've beaten everything I want to play. So I think it may be the state of pc gaming at the moment Jeff. You know better than most that there are going to be some pretty solid games coming to it soon though. Namely Star Wars: TOR for me, but it seems that's a ways off.

I had a problem with my RJ45 port(In lamens term's: Internet port.) on a particular motherboard model from Gigabyte.

Everything work's fine on it. I can play tonnes of bandwidth heavy games and yet I stick Left 4 Dead in and EVERY time I had a few session's on L4D on this particular GigaByte motherboard The RJ45 port would suddenly stop working.

Anyway, since we have 2 PC's in my house, I used the other PC for internet and my own for single-player.

After a while I ended up buying the Xbox 360 version of L4D (What can I say, I like L4D) and testing Xbox Live out with the free 1-month membership every gamer get's when they buy an Xbox 360, I've barely played on my PC since and that say's ALOT as I have a 4870 Radeon HD 1GB graphic's card to prove my previous loyalty to PC gaming no longer exist's.

What has happened that PC gamer's get less respect, in the grand scheme of video game's, when it come's to high quality PC releases????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh man, this is so much like my situation except my new PC has yet to be shipped to me.

Old PC has major problems, ordering a new one.  As far as PC games I missed out on I'm looking at a extremely short list of titles I'm interested in.  I ordered 2 of them for $40 2 nights ago, and there's about 3-4 other games that I'm planning on picking up (1 I think I'll get free from evga, Cryostasis).  It really is a bit depressing and I didn't completely notice what a sorry state PC gaming is in until I saw how few major titles have been released in the last 4 years...

It says more about you.  PC gaming is still fucking sweet, sir.

After listening to the Endurance Run today, it sounds like you had some decent experience building computers back in the day, Jeff.  Too bad you gave it up because it's a great hobby, IMO.  However, If building computers isn't fun any more and money isn't tight, might as well do what you did and buy a pre-built computer.  Use the time for something else.

Myself though, I love building computers because it's so much fun to me.  I find myself anxious for the parts to be delivered and excited to finally put the thing together and fire it up to hear it purr like a kitten.  I immediately put it through the torture tests and benchmarks to judge my work.  Then, when I know the machine is running as well as it can, I overclock and test it again, then .... sadly, I find myself in the same situation as you just did.  NO Freaking games I want to play! Maybe I am just bored with the same game-play being cloned over and over again.  I don't know.  Alas, I built a mighty machine and nothing catches my interest, so all I do is surf the web and watch videos with my newly created beast!  Extreme Overkill!  LOL

On the same note, I just built my mom a screamer the other day (way more machine than she'll ever need) and now her friend wants one too!  So that's two gaming computers built back to back.  I love it!  I wish I could afford to build a new computer once a month, at least.

All I know is Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect 2 (two PC games that do catch my interest) release dates are way too far down the road for this newly built computer, since I'll probably build another one by then.

This link might renew your interest in building computers:  YouTube - AMD Phenom II Runs Crysis Time Demo at 6GHz

I just bought a new PC, and I don't see that awe. The only thing that made me feel comforting to have it was playing Crysis for the first time, but after that I installed Call of Duty 4 and just went like "Yeah, that's Call of Duty and it doesnt look an inch better on max to me." And don't argue that it does because you can't argue with my personal experience, I think Call of Duty on the 360 and the PC looks almost exactly the same.

Well I'm downloading the Valve Complete pack and maybe that will give me some more justification as to why I have this thing.

" I have to agree that PC gaming isn't what it used to be.  Seem to be lots of buggy, unfinished products (Demigod, Dawn of War 2, and Fallout 3 on the PC) being shoveled out the door for PC games lately.  If you have a 360 most often the superior version of the game will be on console.  A scant few developer still make excellent PC games (Valve is one of them.)  Seems MMOs are PCs major niche right now and most of them are terrible.  I would say hurting PC gaming more than anything else is the quality of product many PC game studios have been putting out lately.  It is noticably lacking. "

I guess I just wish that it was fucking sweeter? I don't know. There are obviously still plenty of games coming out, but there aren't nearly as many that have the urgency that PC gaming did back when stuff like Quake II was coming out. I guess higher-res versions of console games just aren't a big mover for me, and I'll probably never become totally obsessed with an MMO ever again.

At this point, I feel like I'm just biding my time until Diablo III comes out.

" @jakob187 said:

" It says more about you.  PC gaming is still fucking sweet, sir. "

I guess I just wish that it was fucking sweeter? I don't know. There are obviously still plenty of games coming out, but there aren't nearly as many that have the urgency that PC gaming did back when stuff like Quake II was coming out. I guess higher-res versions of console games just aren't a big mover for me, and I'll probably never become totally obsessed with an MMO ever again.

At this point, I feel like I'm just biding my time until Diablo III comes out.

"

I like my PC, because its a gateway to everything, but the only games I really play on it other than the sims recently are RTS games, because as we all know, those dont work on consoles. The thing that makes a console so nice though is the consistency; Being able to play a game at a constant FPS, and not have to worry if it will run properly on your console, Its also nice because you know your playing at the maximum settings always. It takes a lot of the guess work out of it for most people.

 Not everyone knows how to check their computer specs and tell whether thats better or worse than what the game wants, and even then most pc gamers know you need to be quite a bit higher than the recommended specs to enjoy the game properly.

Its nice being able to just plop a disc into your xbox or wii or ps3, press start, and your playing the game. It feels more finished in a way I guess. And thats why some people feel that the PC market is dieing, even though its far from that. That being said, if they added keyboard and mouse support to a console... damn huh :P That might kill the PC market haha.

Great Read Jeff.

If I didn't play PC games, I would only own a mac notebook. I would probably have a life since I wouldn't be bound to my room at my large monitor and 5.1 surround with tactile transducer and lightup mouse/keyboard. I would probably own a car since I would have spent less on hardware... then again Apple hardware is obscenely expensive.

God damnit. Fucking bring me OnLive and decent broadband already! TECHNOLOGY!
And a decent job! ECONOMY!