Well, as those who know are aware I am very stoked for the upcoming MMO Age of Conan. From the bit I’ve gotten to beta up to this point I am very happy with the way the game is turning out. So far it has the right mix of all the elements I want in an MMO, and I am even excited about the PVP! Here check this little vid out from the last PVP beta weekend. 
Stop the misery! Join the petition:
“When Uwe Boll was informed that a petition for him to stop making movies already had 18,000 signatures, he responded that “18,000 is not enough to convince me.” Of course, Boll was asked how many it WOULD take, and he answered, “One million.”So for all the people out there who think his Alone in the Dark, Bloodrayne, Dungeon Siege and House of the Dead are disgracing video games, here’s your chance. Vote en masse”
I was number 73326… go go go!
Vote here:
http://www.petitiononline.com/RRH53888/petition.html
Here are my specs for the new system I built:
CPU
: E8400 (OC~3.6GHZ)
MB: GIGABYTE GA-X48-DQ6 DDR2
Mem: G.SKILL 4GB(2 x 2GB) DDR2 1000 (Running 800 1:1 4-4-4-12 2.1v)
PS: CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX
DVDR: SAMSUNG DVD±R SH-S203B
HD1: Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB
HD2: Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD7500AAKS 750GB
OP: SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-S203B
Case: P182
HS: Thermalright Ultra-120
Fans: 5 x 120mm S-Flex Scythe
TC: Arctic Silver 5
Vid: EVGA 9800GX2
Sound: X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro Series
OS: Vista64/XP (Vista64 is main OS, XP just for training wheels)
I am very happy so far with the setup. Vista 64 is turning out to be a pleasant surprise. I was nervous about using it after so much bad press over the last year or so, but you know what? It works really good, I think waiting till SP1 came out and companies like Nvidia could catch up with drivers was the key.
Of course, it should have worked like this from the get go but I had no problem waiting till now to use it. I don’t even think I will use XP much if at all any more, that could change if I run in to any problems but so far that has not been the case.
I am totally digging PC gaming on a “modern” system, man oh man, after months of 360 gaming the PC games just shine. I like my 360 and have had, and will have fun with it but what you can do for games with a good PC is just so in a different league! I know some people love to “hate” PC games, but I often wonder why they hate these awesome games so much. I can only assume they hate the actual PC and not the games. Which is interesting because for me it is more about the games not so much the platform, heck put those games exactly like they are on the PC on a console, a Mac, some other device with any control scheme you want and I’m there!
Until then, I will go wherever the best games are, PC, console, whatever… it’s the games in the end not the platform and for a lot of games PC lets those games be the best they can be.
It is a good short article and makes some valid points but I think there is real hope here. Now I’m not saying it is the “cure all” but it is a damn good step in the direction I have been preaching for years now.
In order for PC gaming and all the advantages it brings over console gaming to thrive something like this has to happen. In a way I’m glad things have gotten rough on PC gaming so it would force the “big guys” to work together. What they are doing is really what I have wanted them to at least try for a long time. Just a month or so a friend of mine and I had this exact discussion and I was expressing my desire for something like this to happen and sure enough it appears to be at least beginning to happen! One other thing that came out of the discussion as well was the fact that perhaps there is no profitability or desire for such an alliance to happen. But I really don’t believe that to be true otherwise PC gaming would have died long, long ago. And besides remember Nvidia was awarded company of the year by Forbes magazine, they have some market savvy to be sure.
I believe there are a lot of people who love to play the types of games that are found on the PC platform and really have a great time with all the cool stuff it has to offer. If this was made more accessible I think it would become once again not in disarray and become a very viable gaming platform for years to come. Heck if companies can still sell $5000 prebuilts and be profitable, imagine the market for a “reasonably” priced stable machine. I have always touted the things about playing games on my computer that I and literally millions and millions of others enjoy so much but unless some of the headache is taken out of the process the support will continue to wane. When someone like me is starting to get sick of it all, then you know there is a problem!
When I play games on my PC I know for a fact other gamers who have turned away from the PC, especially from what I think I know, a couple people for sure, would just love and have so much fun with if they were just not so hard to get in to. I hope the PC gaming scene can pull it together so that one day you guys will find it attractive and easy enough to get back in to, so that you too can play and enjoy some of the just amazing games that the PC platform has to offer. For a good example, check out the game “The Witcher” The independent developer is just such an awesome thing if they have a platform to work with in. So many awesome games have come from this world, it would be a shame to have that scene die.
In the end the article says this. “In the end, the PC Gaming Alliance may only succeed in one thing: creating an Xbox disguised as a PC.” That is actually exactly what we need, in a more literally sense than what it is now. The article makes a good point that Apple is already there but has been rejected by the gaming community for its closed architecture. But, at this point I have a feeling the “scene” so desires some stability they will be willing to sacrifice some customizability for a real future.
Either way it’s ultimately just the games I and I think many, many others really want to get to, the hardware is just a path to get there. Give me the upgradable, multi-genre, multi-control scheme, independent developer nurturing, alliance regulated box and I’m first in line.
