July 2024 PC Gamer Article Discussion

[Zed Clampet]

PC gaming is mainstream. Now what?

Openly but quietly, PC gaming has become more popular than it's ever been. Wait, when did that happen?

www.pcgamer.com

The true golden age of PC gaming is here, and it isn't going anywhere.

 

[Zloth]

The golden age of PC gaming is always the time period from the current day back N years. Back in the 90's, N was about 3. As the technology advancements have slowed down, N has grown to around 8.

 

[Zed Clampet]

The golden age of PC gaming is always the time period from the current day back N years. Back in the 90's, N was about 3. As the technology advancements have slowed down, N has grown to around 8.

Pretty sure no one was calling from 2005 to 2015 a golden age.

And, in any event, can you dispute that this is a golden age? We're getting games from all the consoles except for Nintendo. The PC versions of day 1 releases are often out-selling the console versions, with the exceptions being annual release games like Call of Duty. Annual game sales for PC is greater than for any individual console. There are more than 12,000 new games released each year on PC, games of every imaginable type.

If ever there were a "golden age" of PC gaming, this is it.

 

[Hveðrungr]

After years of coasting on Dr Disrespect's fame, it's hard to imagine a happy ending for Midnight Society

What even is Deadrop without Dr Disrespect?

www.pcgamer.com

This is crazy. Apparently the girl was 17! Creepy for an older guy, sure, and I never liked him as I find his persona grating. But trying to destroy the lives of everyone associated with him by acting like he exposed himself to a 5-year-old, instead of just mildly flirting with a young woman, is gutter journalism. In PC Gamer's founding office in the UK, she's legal. Tim Clark lives in Illinois—legal. Evan Lahti lives in Michigan—legal. This is only even potentially a legal issue at all because TwitchCon happened to be in California rather than Texas that year.

It seems like there must be a meta reason why the games media is out to get this guy. I don't really know anything about him because a) I'm too old to follow influencers and b) as I said, I always found him unbelievably annoying. A cursory scan of some old articles about him suggests he is persona non grata for opposing lockdown in 2021 and doing a fake Chinese accent in 2018. Is that it? Is that all it takes to justify the media trying to destroy you in 2024? God help us all. Someone needs to drag the media back to the real world.

 

[Pifanjr]

PC gaming is mainstream. Now what?

Openly but quietly, PC gaming has become more popular than it's ever been. Wait, when did that happen?

www.pcgamer.com

The true golden age of PC gaming is here, and it isn't going anywhere.

I'm not entirely convinced. Games are still frequently released in a broken and/or half-finished state and with 20,000+ layoffs over the last two years while AAA companies try to squeeze more and more money out of their consumers I'm not sure the next few years won't be worse.

 

[Hveðrungr]

I'm not entirely convinced. Games are still frequently released in a broken and/or half-finished state and with 20,000+ layoffs over the last two years while AAA companies try to squeeze more and more money out of their consumers I'm not sure the next few years won't be worse.

Games have always been released broken and half-finished, though, and probably always will be. It's the nature of the medium.

And for the lay-offs, firstly that has affected console-focussed studios at least as much as PC-focussed studios, and also they're a sign of gaming's recent success. Too many projects were greenlit and too many staff were hired over the last few years because of the ZIRP (Zero Interest Rate Policy) monetary environment. Now monetary policy has tightened they're dialling it back, but the investment came games' way because it is a booming sector.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

After years of coasting on Dr Disrespect's fame, it's hard to imagine a happy ending for Midnight Society

What even is Deadrop without Dr Disrespect?

www.pcgamer.com

This is crazy. Apparently the girl was 17! Creepy for an older guy, sure, and I never liked him as I find his persona grating. But trying to destroy the lives of everyone associated with him by acting like he exposed himself to a 5-year-old, instead of just mildly flirting with a young woman, is gutter journalism. In PC Gamer's founding office in the UK, she's legal. Tim Clark lives in Illinois—legal. Evan Lahti lives in Michigan—legal. This is only even potentially a legal issue at all because TwitchCon happened to be in California rather than Texas that year.

It seems like there must be a meta reason why the games media is out to get this guy. I don't really know anything about him because a) I'm too old to follow influencers and b) as I said, I always found him unbelievably annoying. A cursory scan of some old articles about him suggests he is persona non grata for opposing lockdown in 2021 and doing a fake Chinese accent in 2018. Is that it? Is that all it takes to justify the media trying to destroy you in 2024? God help us all. Someone needs to drag the media back to the real world.

I dont really understand how this is 'trying to destroy the lives of everyone close to him'?

The company in question itself cut ties immediately without even trying to defend him or hear his side publicly. I find that more telling that anything else tbh.

 

[Hveðrungr]

I dont really understand how this is 'trying to destroy the lives of everyone close to him'?

The article is trying to kill off the studio itself. If it's going to fail, let it fail by itself. They don't need PCG sticking the boot in right now. If this were any other group of devs facing unemployment, PCG's staff would be agitating for them, encouraging them to set up unions, denouncing capitalism, etc. But suddenly for this one guy's ex-studio, PCG are saying that the studio should close and make everyone redundant? It's not consistent.

 

[Frindis]

I bet this game is going to flourish because of this spectacle.

Save 90% on Dead Drop on Steam

Dead Drop is a tense two-player game of espionage and deception, where one player has to blend into a crowd and mimic AI movement to avoid detection from the other player.

store.steampowered.com

 

[Zed Clampet]

I'm not entirely convinced. Games are still frequently released in a broken and/or half-finished state and with 20,000+ layoffs over the last two years while AAA companies try to squeeze more and more money out of their consumers I'm not sure the next few years won't be worse.

I'm not sure those are ever going to change, so I'm not sure they really count in this regard. It's just sort of the way things are.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

The article is trying to kill off the studio itself. If it's going to fail, let it fail by itself. They don't need PCG sticking the boot in right now. If this were any other group of devs facing unemployment, PCG's staff would be agitating for them, encouraging them to set up unions, denouncing capitalism, etc. But suddenly for this one guy's ex-studio, PCG are saying that the studio should close and make everyone redundant? It's not consistent.

I guess thats one reading of it, not what sprang to my mind when I read it this morning. Hadnt actually heard of the game before now though, not really my wheelhouse.

Linked In says they have 58 employees, 500,000 customer accounts 8 months after announcement, and backing from several venture capital firms and angel investors.

If its a good game in the end itll probably do alright, and it seems to already have people literally invested. Hope its a good game, always nice to see more of those.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

The most popular RTX 40-series GPU on Steam is in a gaming laptop, not a graphics card

June's Steam hardware survey shows ever more RTX 4060 laptop gamers.

www.pcgamer.com

Are ye winning @ZedClampet

I wonder if people getting into PC gaming for the first time are more likely to grab a laptop? Its an all in one solution which you dont even need a desk or specific space for, and less intimidating than trying to get a desktop.

Theyre wrong though 😛

 

[Zed Clampet]

The most popular RTX 40-series GPU on Steam is in a gaming laptop, not a graphics card

June's Steam hardware survey shows ever more RTX 4060 laptop gamers.

www.pcgamer.com

Are ye winning @ZedClampet

I wonder if people getting into PC gaming for the first time are more likely to grab a laptop? Its an all in one solution which you dont even need a desk or specific space for, and less intimidating than trying to get a desktop.

Theyre wrong though 😛

If you aren't a PC junkie who is up on the latest component news and just want to play some PC games--and if you don't have a desk or aren't interested in sitting at one--laptops are a good alternative. My main thing is being able to play anywhere. It's the same reason people want a Steam Deck, but potentially much more powerful and easier to use (Windows vs Linux)

 

[Zed Clampet]

Temtem veterans are working on a Breath of the Wild-inspired narrative survival game for 1-4 players, set to arrive later this year

Oppidum is being made by EP Games, a studio founded in 2004 by two former members of the Temtem development team.

www.pcgamer.com

Whatever they say it was inspired by, but it looks exactly like Craftopia, which is not really anything like Breath of the Wild. Admittedly, I only played a few hours of BotW because holding the greased pig, I mean Switch, is no fun to me. I did enjoy what I played of it, just not the device I was playing it on. I don't have anything against handhelds. The Switch just isn't comfortable to me.

 

[Zed Clampet]

@Pifanjr
Sorry, I'm too sleepy to reread the thread. What version of Minecraft are you playing? Java, Windows or mobile? I'm assuming mobile, and I don't know anything about that, but if you are playing the java version you could consider changing the version to pre-combat update if it's giving your daughter struggles. Before that update you could just spam left-click and kill everything but creepers. For creepers you needed to add knockback to your weapon so they were far away when they exploded.

Mobile is probably quite different. I can't imagine the combat update was the same on mobile.

It wouldn't be worth getting the Java version just for that. It runs poorly compared to every other version, and your PC might struggle with it.

 

[Pifanjr]

@Pifanjr
Sorry, I'm too sleepy to reread the thread. What version of Minecraft are you playing? Java, Windows or mobile? I'm assuming mobile, and I don't know anything about that, but if you are playing the java version you could consider changing the version to pre-combat update if it's giving your daughter struggles. Before that update you could just spam left-click and kill everything but creepers. For creepers you needed to add knockback to your weapon so they were far away when they exploded.

Mobile is probably quite different. I can't imagine the combat update was the same on mobile.

It wouldn't be worth getting the Java version just for that. It runs poorly compared to every other version, and your PC might struggle with it.

My daughter is playing on my phone and I'm playing on the PC. Android only has the bedrock edition, so that's what we're using.

We've only played in creative so far. My daughter generally prefers sandbox games in which she can play pretend whatever she wants without having to worry about stuff like health, hunger, making money or any other forced activities.

 

[Brian Boru]

My daughter generally prefers … whatever she wants without having to worry about stuff like health, hunger, making money or any other forced activities

Good on ya girl, that's what parents are for!

 

[Colif]

UK is beyond hope

UK man imprisoned for 4 months after walking up to cops wielding 6-inch Master Sword

Anthony Bray will also have to pay a victims' surcharge of £154.

www.pcgamer.com

its a fidget toy... its made of plastic.

Stupid doesn't adequately describe it.

 

[Pifanjr]

UK is beyond hope

UK man imprisoned for 4 months after walking up to cops wielding 6-inch Master Sword

Anthony Bray will also have to pay a victims' surcharge of £154.

www.pcgamer.com

its a fidget toy... its made of plastic.

Stupid doesn't adequately describe it.

From what I found, it was an actual, sharp metal knife and the guy who had it was a known criminal:

‘Zelda’ Master Sword Gets Man 4 Months Prison Time, But There’s More To The Story

Anthony Bray was arrested and sentenced to a four-month prison sentence and a fine for carrying a 6-inch Zelda Master Sword in public. But there's more to the story.

www.forbes.com

 

[Frindis]

If it was indeed sharp, then he would have been arrested promptly also here in Norway. You can carry a knife it is a part of your attire, like with a traditional folk costume, if you work as a carpenter or similar where it is part of your work equipment or if you are on your way to a fishing trip or something in that fashion. The arrested guy is also 48 years old.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Play stupid games win stupid prizes.

 

[dxchase]

Just patiently waiting for PCG to stop writing every other article about Elden Ring and its DLC and having it flood my article feed....

 

[Zed Clampet]

Summer Games Done Quick is restricting access to one of tonight's events 'to provide the most comfortable environment' for the speedrunner, because the speedrunner is a dog

Peanut Butter the speedrunning shiba is back in action tonight.

www.pcgamer.com

The dog run is getting ready to start right now...

View: https://www.twitch.tv/gamesdonequick

 

[Pifanjr]

D&D's lead rules designer admits he changed some spells because of how 'painful' and 'excruciating to cast' they were in Baldur's Gate 3

"I thought: 'we are going to redesign Produce Flame.'"

www.pcgamer.com

You would think they would've noticed how painful some of these spells are in the decade the game has existed, but I suppose the fresh perspective of a video game adaptation doesn't hurt. Though Produce Flame is actually not that bad in the tabletop version, Baldur's Gate 3 just made it unnecessarily complicated.

The change I'm most excited for is the addition of Weapon Masteries in the new 5e version. Baldur's Gate added Weapon Actions, where each weapon gives you a special attack you can do once per short rest, to add a bit of variation between weapons. The update to 5e instead adds a special at-will ability to each weapon that you can unlock if you have the Weapon Mastery feat, which most martial characters get for free. Meaning weapon choice will actually matter beyond the raw damage and martial characters will be a bit more interesting to play.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Summer Games Done Quick is restricting access to one of tonight's events 'to provide the most comfortable environment' for the speedrunner, because the speedrunner is a dog

Peanut Butter the speedrunning shiba is back in action tonight.

www.pcgamer.com

The dog run is getting ready to start right now...

View: https://www.twitch.tv/gamesdonequick

I didn't watch the whole thing, but I don't think Peanut Butter got the record. As well behaved as he was, something behind him was distracting to him, and he kept turning his head around to look at whatever/whoever it was. But he was doing okay when I stopped watching.

Another remarkable thing was the owner/trainer, who had to signal everything to the dog before the dog would then hit whatever button he needed to hit. So he had to anticipate and tell the dog to do things before they were actually needed, like swinging the bat. Basically, the dog owner was so good at the game that he could compete for the speed run record using a dog as a controller.