The Alchemist on 12/12/2009 at 11:49

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Ok, I was born a PC gamer. My entire life has been PC games up until the tech boom where 4 different Unreal Tournaments came out and ever week there were 1ghz faster machines and gcards with larger numbers in the names.

It wasn't just that though, the Xbox came out and it changed things for me. The PS2 was never able to really pull me away from PC gaming because, well it just couldn't. But the Xbox provided me with games and graphics that at the time couldn't match on my pc due to either price and what have you. But still, I stuck to the PC mostly.

It wasn't until the "HD" era of consoles that I completely abandoned PC gaming. Why? I don't know, I think a lot of people made this broad assumption that only consoles can output to HD tvs and achieve that level of fidelity. But sooner than not, this became untrue. Still, I was sick of dealing with OS's and drivers and all those lame excuses you can come up with against PC gaming and I stuck to the consoles.

Finally, this caught up to me. A hardcore console gamer friend of mine switched back to PC gaming and swore to me up and down that I should do the same. He came over and watched me play Modern Warfare 2 and said "man, that looks a hell of a lot better on my PC". I shrugged it off.

But recently I tried a release candidate of Windows 7 and -really- liked it. More so than OSX. Yeah, you heard me. No, that's not a typo.

So after lamenting at the 1.6k USD 27" iMacs, I went to NewEgg and built myself a computer 4x as fast as those for about $500 bucks (I used my existing SATA drive and DVD burner), and plugged it into my 1080p tv using the HDMI out on the new gcards (I got a Radeon 5770).

I booted up MW2 and was blown away. It looked nicer, ran faster, and I had forgotten over the ages how much more fun it was to play an FPS with mouse/keyboard than it was on a gamepad.

So I bought L4D2. Again, blown away. Graphics far superior to the console brethren and the controls that I've been comfortable with since Doom, and before.

TLDR:

I got a new PC and I am blown away at how well it runs the latest games and am ashamed that I didn't do this sooner. I'm selling my copy of MW2 for my PS3 (and maybe.... maybe the PS3 too) and sticking to PC gaming. For what I'd pay for a console I built myself a PC that runs MW2 faster, better, and nicer than the consoles, and it outputs to my nice 1080p 32" megamonitor/tv.

I am fuckin ready for Diablo 3. I am fuckin ready for Starcraft 2. Hell, I'm ready for that new Witcher game. I should probably pick up the previous ones as well.

And I heard Dragon Age is a billion times better on the PC, as well.

I also picked up Zeno Clash, what a brilliant game. And everything runs at 1080p with 4x AA at 60fps. Wonderful.

Man, I've been dumb. My apologize to the PC gaming community.

Tell me guys, what else am I missing out on? (I got Torchlight, too). How do I join the TTLG Steam community?

Will my PC gaming roots forgive me?

Lets discuss the big PC games that are gonna come out soon, or console ports that are better on the PC (MW2, Dragon Age, etc).

I hope Mass Effect 2 gets a PC style inventory....

EvaUnit02 on 12/12/2009 at 12:46

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Vampire TM: Bloodlines with the fan patch is a good start.

Grab the Orange Box of course, although that will probably be on sale in the usual big Steam sale that they have around Boxing Day/New Years.

A playthrough of Fallout 3 GotY Edition (http://ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=129665) loaded up with mods is another good idea.

EDIT:
Oh yeah, specs and your monitor's native res please.

henke on 12/12/2009 at 13:35

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I just ordered a new PC as well, should arrive next week. I've pretty much missed out on PC-gaming from the last half of this decade so I want some recommendations.

This is what I have on my to-play list so far:
Stalker
Crysis
The Dark Mod (Doom 3)
Oblivion - what mods are must-haves for this one? And is there one that stops enemies from leveling up along with you?
Vampire Bloodlines
The Witcher
Mount & Blade

So that's pretty much FPS's & RPG's covered, looking mostly for recommendations in other categories. Third person shooters, driving games, strategy. Indie releases. Mods. Lay it on me. Preferably with a representative youtube link. :cheeky:

And if it's already been released from XBox/360 chances are I've played it, or it hasn't garnered my interest. But feel free to mention it anyway, especially if it has some excellent mod.

Sulphur on 12/12/2009 at 13:47

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You've bought a brand new PC just at the point where there's little to showcase on a super tricked out system.

Starcraft 2 and Diablo III... are going to take a while to come out. PC exclusivity is great, but there's precious little exclusives coming out these days. Indie gaming is where most of the exciting stuff is at these days. Stuff like The Void and Salome.

PC console ports aren't guaranteed to be hot sauce either: look at GTA IV's DRM GfW social club cocktail. Bleh. You can bet that anything based on UE3 will get a more or less decent port, though.

Apart from that, you can look forward to Stalker: Call of Pripyat and, um, Supreme Commander 2 next year.

I wouldn't sell my PS3 if I were you just yet. It's about to really hit its stride.

EvaUnit02 on 12/12/2009 at 13:52

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hurrr, durrr, let's not use offline profiles