Thursday, July 14, 2011

PC: Personal Conquest

Finally, a game like Crysis is actually available to me.

As some of you may know, I recently purchased a computer that is capable of playing games. This might not mean anything to the rest of you but, for me, it is a significant hurdle that I have finally overcome after years of being behind and years of being unable to experience what is a significant part of the medium I love.

Every time I buy a new console or handheld, it is always after it has become well established in the marketplace, and certainly after it has acquired a strong library of games. This means that, aside from being behind everyone else, I have a list of titles that are waiting to be played, and that I have a silly sense of excitement in anticipation of what those titles might offer. I say silly because, as someone well invested in the medium of videogames and who knows what a platform brings to the table, the games awaiting me aren’t exactly new and, in a lot of cases, I know precisely what they have to offer. But even so I can’t help but be eager to explore them, perhaps in some vain attempt to find something new in my gaming life, or perhaps just because it’s finally an area of my hobby that was previously unavailable to me. Whatever it is, it’s a strange little situation that I go through with every platform that I buy (see: my PS3 and Wii purchases for examples), and one that I absolutely enjoy with more enthusiasm than I perhaps should.

But why get into PC gaming now when, arguably, its facing its demise? Why acquire the funds necessary to buy a decent gaming rig -- with room for improvement -- and enable games like Crysis and The Witcher to finally become relevant to me when, for example, the industry’s attention is on consoles, and platforms like Facebook and the iPad are becoming seriously strong slices of the videogame pie? Why now? Well, because I love the medium and want access to all that it has to offer, for the selfish reason of me not wanting to miss any title that may pique my interest. And because, as suggested above, it’s an area of games that I’ve been unable to experience for so long -- for financial reasons, because it appeared too complex to bother with, etc. -- that to play PC games is to conquer a burden that has troubled me for too long. It’s also because there are some games, such as the Half Life series, that are considered to be some of the best games ever made and, consequently, they are titles that I believed to be blights on my gaming record.

The acquisition of my PC enables me to do things that I couldn’t previously, and allows me to finally experience games that I was unable to in the past. This is exciting for what should be obvious reasons, but it’s important, to me at least, to have this ability because it means that I can now understand an area of my passion -- of videogames -- that I could only observe from the sidelines before. I have already started playing Portal 2, I’ve already fallen for the allure of things like Steam sales and Indie games (*cough Minecraft *cough), and I’ve also, finally, begun playing the Half Life series after years of wanting to. I’d say that’s a good start for a platform new to me; here’s hoping the future continues to be as enjoyable as the present currently is.

3 comments:

Alex V said...

Delighted for you.

Don't believe a word of the 'pc's demise'. For a start its home to most of the MMOs which are already a bigger gaming market than the consoles on its own.

As you say the back catalogue is incredible. And affordable.

I play on all the consoles and enjoy them, but I love my PC.

Unknown said...

Alex -- Thanks mate. I view PC's 'demise' in the same way that I view the idea of print either being dead, or dying: absolute rubbish.

I am, however, a little concerned with what I will play once I've caught up (so to speak), since as I said in the post most of the industry's attention is on consoles. There is the Indie scene, obviously, but beyond that?

Guess I'll find out soon enough!

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