Skyrim, or, How I Ruined My LifeFollow

Absolutely not! Go buy a new computer!

My PC is powerful enough to run quite a few modern games, at medium settings. But on something like Skyrim, I would want the best graphics possible. My PC just wouldn't provide it.

Speaking for myself there are a few reasons to get a game on console rather than PC.

First is control method. If it's a game that is designed to work well with a controller (a lot of games i have on PC i can tell are designed with a controller in mind and I play them with an xbox controller :P) I might get it on a console. Some games suck with controller I agree.

Second is system requirements/cost. In the time i've owned my 360/ps3 ive put probably a thousand dollars into my PC and it is questionable whether or not it would run Skyrim at a reasonable setting. It just meets the recommended specs. I could buy a 250-300 dollar video card and would be in business, that's the cost of an entire console. With a console I know it will run well.

Third is mood, and this is really specific to me I'm sure. Some games i want to relax and my computer is in my office which is kind of small and secluded in my house. I have a 21" monitor and a comfortable office chair. I have a 2 speaker stereo hooked up to the sound. its an OK experience.

On the other hand, my console is in my family room where i have a lot of room to let the kids be kids. It's also my home theater and the whole package is a lot bigger, louder and more comfortable.

Primary reason though is #2, especially with games with no demo to see how well your computer can handle it. Ive had too many occasions where i exceed the recommended settings on a PC game in the past and it ended up running at what I consider unplayable.

Well, yeah, if you don't own a PC, or your PC is a craptop from the late 90's, you may want to hold off on that purchase until you upgrade your PC.

But xypin, don't you live in the US? You guys, with your silly economy, can buy decent computers for like $500, right? That's, what, five console games and some silly accessory thingamajig? I paid $500 for my CPU alone. My PC cost me $1,800 total.

Upgrade your craptop. Experience gaming like you've not experienced it since Windows 95.



That sounds really odd. If you've dumped a thousand dollars into a PC since 2006 and it still can't run Skyrim then what the hell did you put in it?

As for comfort, yes, I can see the appeal of being able to play video games from the couch in the living room, but with an HDMI cable, you can hook your PC to the TV and play your PC games from the couch as well (my sister's boyfriend plays his PC games on a 50" TV). Stick a USB controller in the PC and play the game with a controller even. The only difference is that you get to mod the game, get to change the graphics and get to fix hardware/software issues without having to rely on the companies to do it.

Yes, a PC costs a bit more if you wish to keep it updated, but at least you can keep it updated.

On a slightly different note, how the hell do you guys stand playing FPS games with a controller? Or any game that requires you to aim at moving targets? I can see how the melee combat of Skyrim would work with a controller, but archery/spell casting?

Edited, Feb 10th 2012 9:41pm by Mazra

I have a PS3 and I have a desktop. They are not in the same room, nor is my desktop situated so that I can sit or lie on a couch while playing games on it. A game like Skyrim, where I'm likely to play for several hours at a go, is more enjoyable for me on PS3, particularly since I already spend enough hours at my PC as it is.

New video card a few years ago (my only real bottle neck currently) then a whole new rig aside from the video card a year ago. Its a great machine if you ignore the GTX 260. If i cant run the game at a setting that looks substantially better than console, it really deters me from getting it on PC. I could probably run it on medium settings, but MEH.



This is always the rebuttal I get, but the truth is almost nobody does that. I've never known 1 person to do it and pretty much all of my friends are PC gamers. /shrug I have certainly considered it tho :P Would need a snazzy 'lap desk' that i could use on the couch, and some decent wireless peripherals.... Maybe when I get a new video card :)



Combination of strafing and aiming. Dunno, its not so bad once you get used to it. I like FPSs on console because the 'skill cap' is lower due to the controls, and I am better relatively. At least thats my theory.

what are you talking about my xbox and ps3 play every game available at max settings! :P

Edited, Feb 10th 2012 1:23pm by KTurner

What's clunky about a pair of analog sticks? Sure they don't work as well as a mouse for pinpoint accuracy for shooters, but that's the only genre that a keyboard and mouse are better for. I have Skyrim on both 360 and PC and I use a control pad for both. The game was designed to be played with a control pad, using a keyboard and mouse would annoy the hell out of me in Skyrim.

The most useful mod to me is Val's Crafting Meltdown ...it lets you use a smelter to break down all armor into leather or ingots.

Edited, Feb 10th 2012 7:08pm by Dyadem

Yeah I linked that video on post 1129 and Mazra linked a different video of her singing on post 1128.

None the less she has an amazing voice. Comments on her video are... disturbing... to say the least. Yes, she is attractive. No, making a "Your one handed skill has increased" joke doesn't make you cool.

I'm getting seriously irritated with Bethesda.

I think I've been patient. I think I've been extremely accommodating. I bought this game 3 months ago. For the past 2 months, I haven't been able to play. Not because I couldn't sit down and play the game, but because PS3 players had the enjoyable experience of lagging like crazy once their save file started building up. If you were lucky, you might just encounter the glitch where saving (auto or manual) had a high probability of freezing the game. You could play... you just might have to play the same thing multiple times.

2 months. TWO MONTHS I waited. I made excuses for them. I understand that big games come with complex code. I understand that glitches can be difficult to fix. I didn't complain when invisible mobs killed me. I accepted it when dragon bones piled up in Whiterun. I laughed it off when quests wouldn't advance. Hell, I didn't even criticize them for the fact that most glitches in Oblivion were fixed in fan patches, and not available for console players. But those weren't performance glithces.

Patch 1.4 was supposed to fix the stability issues for PS3 players. I had the pleasure of freezing twice before I could get a new character to Whiterun (going straight there without detours). When I went to save while in Whiterun, the game locked up for about 3 minutes (I waited out of angry curiosity). The whole time, I had plenty of framerate drops. I even followed their advice--I made a manual save at the start, restarted, waited 72 hours in game, restarted, THEN played. Nope, I still have a game that's ridiculously unstable.

No. That's just not okay. At all. I've been patient. I shelved the game for two months simply because I believed Bethesda would fix the PS3 problems. Now I'm just angry. If these issues can't be fixed in two months, then the game should NEVER have launched in the first place.

I'll give it a few more days, to see if the patch will sort itself out as it gets rid of script errors. But I'm so annoyed with Bethesda right now that I barely want to play the game now. I refuse to make excuses for them anymore. I accept game breaking glitches at launch. Three months afterwards, I'll even accept the annoying glitches. But they sure as hell shouldn't make the game unplayable.

Yeah, it's MUCH worse to play on PC medium graphic settings than to have a locked-up, nonworking console game

BAM!

That's YouTube for ya.

There's a reason why any video with a thumbnail featuring boobs has one million views or more.