PC GAMING IS BEST GAMING

[Madame Adequate]

Yeah I don't think a single one of that big list I provided on the previous page was related to grafix but okay

[Bolivar]

I'll let you in on a little secret: Steam really isn't the Gaming Promised Land PC gamers say it is. Did you know there's no way to increase font size in Steam? Or in Valve games like Dota 2? And we're running these things on high resolution monitors, considering we're PC gamers to begin with. Valve exhibits just as much face-palming stupidity as the rest of them, we're just more tight-lipped about it because of how comparatively tiny the Steam community is.

Is...is that it? Steam is bad cause you can't change the font size?

Of course not - it's an example! But it is utterly mindblowing that any application, much less one built to service a demographic using the highest resolution monitors, wouldn't let you change the font size. It makes you wonder if Valve employees actually use their own software at home. It's out of touch, just like how they don't support multiple hard drives, when the current trend for the past few years is to put in a larger general hard drive and a smaller solid state one. Many gaming rigs actually utilize multiple solid state drives and run into the same problem.

Then there's the lag on the voice chat. The in-game interface not compatible with every game automatically. Cloud save issues. Download slowdowns. I could make a longer list, I just thought it would be redundant.

I never said Steam was bad. I've been on it since the beginning. Long enough to know a lot of the love it gets is a bit overenthusiastic.

[NorthernChaosGod]

I don't care what any of you say, there's no way playing Smash Bros. would be better on PC.

[Slothy]

Of course not - it's an example! But it is utterly mindblowing that any application, much less one built to service a demographic using the highest resolution monitors, wouldn't let you change the font size. It makes you wonder if Valve employees actually use their own software at home.

I don't know what magical super resolution you play at, but I can read the font size in Steam just fine. I've never heard of anyone else having a problem with it either, but if they do, their eyesight is probably so bad they need to use a 400% zoom on Firefox, or more likely, they just lower the resolution because their eyes don't work. Regardless, I fail to see how the company that does accommodate things like colour blindness and deafness is so out of touch for not including the ability to change font size. They're certainly not as "face palmingly stupid" as everyone else in the industry when I can name maybe half a dozen games that accommodate colour blindness and none that include variable font size.

It's out of touch, just like how they don't support multiple hard drives, when the current trend for the past few years is to put in a larger general hard drive and a smaller solid state one. Many gaming rigs actually utilize multiple solid state drives and run into the same problem.

The majority of users don't have multiple hard drives. The ones that do are probably smart enough to figure out how to run Steam on their program drive and the games from another drive. It's actually pretty simple.

Then there's the lag on the voice chat. The in-game interface not compatible with every game automatically. Cloud save issues. Download slowdowns. I could make a longer list, I just thought it would be redundant.

The lag in voice chat, anytime I've used it, isn't exactly a huge problem. It's small and really the voice chat in Steam is just a tool of convenience, it's not meant to be some hyper efficient Skype competitor.

As for the in game interface, I assume you mean the Steam overlay when you shift+tab in game? I've never seen a game it didn't work with aside from Morrowind which it can crash. I'm inclined to give it a pass for that since Morrowind is a year older than Steam, and, you know, it's Morrowind. It'll crash if you look at it funny or failed to properly drain the goat of all of its blood when you sacrificed it to Bethesda.

Cloud save issues and download slowdowns I'd be somewhat curious to hear more about. I've rarely used cloud saves, but have never had any troubles with syncing or getting the most recent save on the rare occasion I did have to use it. Download slowdowns happen, but usually I'm getting a solid 2Mbps when I download and I frankly have problems with my ISP more often than Steams servers these days. I honestly can't remember how many years it's been since I had relatively frequent problems with the Steam servers. I know some people still have issues sometimes, but it's the nature of the beast when you're dealing with dozens of different hardware configurations, untold thousands of potential software conflicts, and your average user being dumber than a sack of hammers.

No honestly, I'm not saying Valve is perfect. Far from it. But I could rattle off a better list of actual things they kind of cocked up in the last few years than these. You honestly seem to be either reaching, or you've got some odd priorities when it comes to game distribution software. But for all of the faults that Valve does actually have sometimes, like some pretty bad cases of troutty programming for starters, they are at least constantly trying to improve everything, and implementing a lot of features that the other big name platform owners are years behind in even attempting. In fact, I'm usually willing to cut Valve a bit more slack than I would your Microsoft's, Sony's, and Nintendo's if only because when they screw up, it's often because they're doing something totally new and trying to stay ahead of the curve (Steam workshop, Greenlight). When the other guys screw up, it's usually because they're adding features no one wants, new UI's that are objectively worse than the old one, actively removing features people paid money for, or just making a bad firmware update that has as much chance of bricking your console as working.

[Bolivar]

Vivi, I don't think you needed such a long post if you essentially agree that they aren't perfect I'm on Steam everyday and have already listed a few things in this thread that give it such a one up over consoles.

This isn't one of them:

But for all of the faults that Valve does actually have sometimes, like some pretty bad cases of troutty programming for starters, they are at least constantly trying to improve everything, and implementing a lot of features that the other big name platform owners are years behind in even attempting.

What features are those? I can only think of the social features (forums, groups, content sharing) that PS3 and 360 still don't have in-game, but Sony showed a ton of stuff that surpassed it and everyone knows Microsoft will do the same. So what are they years behind even attempting?

edit: my resolution is 1920x1080 and I can't read a lot of the text, especially chats, without leaning close to the screen, even with my contacts in or glasses on. It's really not a rare problem, you can Google if you must. I'm not particularly conscious of my "priorites when it comes to distribution software," but reading is certainly one of them.

[Værn]

I find it funny that PC MASTER RAAACCCE gamers find it necessary to go out of their way and desperately attempt to prove to everyone else that their platform of choice is really superior, and 99% of the time they go on about one thing and one thing only: "HEY GUYS LOOK HOW HIGH THE RESOLUTIONS OF THESE SCREENSHOTS ARE!"

Not once have I ever seen anyone mention resolution in a PC vs. console argument. The only explanation I can possibly think of for this statement is that you purposely picked out the worst possible example of an argument against consoles you could think of, and that you simply refuse to acknowledge a word of any argument that would prove your console(s) to be inferior. You know, like this:

All dose 4Xes.
All dose sim/management games.
All dose grognard games.
All dose wargames.
All dose tactical games.
All dose mods (Hello Kaiserreich and Crusader Kings 2: A Game of Thrones and Elder Kings )
All dat Morrowind w/Grafix Extender.
All dose Good Old Games.
All dat emulation.
All dat Dorf Fort.
All dat Aurora.
All dose WRPGs.
All dat Planetside.

PC is mustard race; consoles need to ketchup.

Nobody needs to "desperately attempt" to prove that PC is superior to consoles. Anyone who isn't completely absorbed by their console elitism can see it.

[escobert]

I've always been a computer gamer. Grew up with macs but switched to PC after 8.6 was done and they released Mac OS 9. I own a PS3 but I do the majority of my gaming on my PC.

Also a good gaming rig doesn;t cost that much when you know how or where to get the parts . I have right around $500 into my PC right now and it rates at at 6.8 on the windows rating.

[kotora]

edit: my resolution is 1920x1080 and I can't read a lot of the text, especially chats, without leaning close to the screen, even with my contacts in or glasses on. It's really not a rare problem, you can Google if you must. I'm not particularly conscious of my "priorites when it comes to distribution software," but reading is certainly one of them.

You might wanna consider new glasses. The text in my steam client is as large as that on EoFF and I'm on a higher resolution than you are. If you can read EoFF, you can read Steam.

[Mirage]

Besides, having a bomb ass PC setup sets you back way more than just buying a PS3.

Yeah, not touching that.

I'll touch it for you.

The price difference between a "work" PC and a PC that can play games at the same (or better) performance as a PS3 is pretty close to the price of a PS3. Then there's also the thing where you get cheaper games on PC. New retail games often cost 20% less than the console versions of the same games.

[XxSephirothxX]

I like that most of the games I buy for PC cost $5-$20, even though they're less than a year old.
I like that games released with serious issues are often fixable with some settings tweaks, and it's easier for developers to release patches.
I like that community mods often add tremendous value to games, making them better, or at least different, experiences.
I like that I can play virtually any multi-platform with an Xbox controller on my PC, and it requires zero setup.
I like that my SSD means extremely short load times.
I like that online games often perform better thanks to dedicated servers and no overhead or limitations from a Microsoft/Sony online service.
I like that I can play GameCube, Wii, and PS2 games--with an Xbox or PS3 controller--rendered at four times their native resolutions, and that some of them are stunningly gorgeous in HD.

PC gaming is pretty cool!

[Del Murder]

I'll touch it for you.

The price difference between a "work" PC and a PC that can play games at the same (or better) performance as a PS3 is pretty close to the price of a PS3. Then there's also the thing where you get cheaper games on PC. New retail games often cost 20% less than the console versions of the same games.

I don't have need of a work PC and in fact I don't even own a PC, only a cheap laptop which I pretty much use for internet purposes (and playing oldschool PC games like Space Quest). However, it is interesting that PC games are in general cheaper. I did not know that.

Azar, how do you play Wii games on a PC?

[Pheesh]

@del Dolphin - Gamecube and Wii Emulator

[Bolivar]

Kotoroa, can you post chatbox please?

[kotora]

It's a bit smaller, but still pretty well readable

[Bolivar]

Hmmm....

2013-04-07_00004.jpg

^ This is our conversation in Steam's browser with a chat box open

20130406182847.jpg

^ Here's how much of your text fits on a staple.

20130406183806.jpg

^ Here's me holding that staple, from a little closer than how far i'm usually sitting from the screen.

I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you meant "legible" instead of readable. Because if you consider text the size of staples from 3-4ft. away a readable experience, then I suppose we're just gonna have to agree to disagree and move on. I'm still not sure how it mitigates the irony of an app for high-end gaming not having an option to increase text size, though.