Financially Friendly PC Gaming

Financially Friendly PC Gaming

PC Gaming is generally regarded as one of the most expensive video-game based hobbies you can have, at least compared to a console because of the fact that the current consoles are generally far cheaper at this point in time and guaranteed to work. However, PC gaming doesn't have to be the expensive venture it's made out to be. Here's a guide to cost effective PC gaming.

Spec Ops: The PC Port

Spec Ops: The PC Port

Spec Ops: The Line is an upcoming third-person shooter published by 2K Games, and just a while ago they released the demo for the PC - a fair while after the console version.

It is unfair to assume that the demo will represent the quality of the final game on release, but here's what I saw running through the demo - in terms of the port to PC only.

A Selection of Creepypasta (by me!)

The horror.

A Selection of Creepypasta (by me)

Creepypasta is an idea widely circulated on the internet, usually where creepy short stories are spread around the internet by word of mouth. This has gained them the name 'Creepypasta', where the 'pasta' has signified the idea of pasting the story elsewhere.

Paid DLC - and how it's damaging public relations

 It's amazing how quickly the gaming industry changes over the years, it has now been thirteen years since Quake 3 released, one of the first games to require a '3D Graphics Accelerator', and about as long since video games have been played competitively online. The advancement in these trends, however, is nothing that I'm against – in fact I'm glad.

What I am against in the recent gaming trends is the advancement of so-called 'DLC' which is, essentially, just another way of scrubbing the money from the people who have already paid copious amounts of money for your game, and it's damaging the public relations of the company. DLC may be good for business temporarily, but when people realise that the developers/publishers are essentially selling a game that is intrinsically unfinished, and you need to buy the remainder of the content, the players are going to want to play the game that they have already paid for in full – but they're going to be more careful when buying games from the company in the future.

DLC is slowly creeping up in price too – I could forgive the DLC if it were like Croteam's 'Legend of the Beast' DLC for 'Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter', which comes with three new versus maps, a new survival map and three additional missions for the cooperative campaign – all for £3.99 ($6), but they're not. They're all from publishers who leave out the additional content, then release it steadily, in packs of five for £15 ($25), which is more than half of what I paid for the game (that's right Call of Duty, I'm looking at you).

It says a lot when the additional content costs more than the game itself.

Developers, if you're going to port a game - port it right.

'Binary Domain' quietly appeared on Steam recently.

Earlier today I was heartily surprised. The game 'Binary Domain' had appeared in demo form on Steam - a game published by "SEGA" and developed by "Devil's Details", and it's been a good while since I last knew of a triple-A game releasing a demo. After reading a brief description and watching approximately 50% of the trailer on the Steam page, I decided that it could be worth my bandwidth - at least to give it a try.

I was wrong.

How PC Gaming is cheaper than Console Gaming

 How PC Gaming is cheaper than Console Gaming

(no, really - keep reading)

The amount of times I've been on a variety of social networking sites where people claim that "PC gaming is for rich kids" and that "console gaming is for normal people" is racking up. Not only is it absurd to base the amount of money one has by the gaming device they use, it is also a statement that makes no sense - one that has no backing whatsoever, other than of course the misconception that purchasing a PC means you'll be dropping several hundred pounds every other month on hardware.

In fact, when you look at it, playing your video games on a computer is actually a fair bit cheaper than playing your video games on a console - especially if you need a 'home' computer alongside the gaming console.

Allow me to explain: the 'gaming' computers that you see advertised around on the internet are notoriously overpriced - brands like Alienware and Cyberpower are generally pretty extortionate with their higher end computers, which may or may not come as a surprise. However, if you build your computer, you're going to get a much better deal - and it's not all that frightening building a computer, just like playing with (admittedly expensive) Lego - and if you follow the instruction manuals included and don't just jam the things where and how you think they fit you're almost certainly going to be fine - but even if you aren't, there are many people on the internet ready to help you.

The computer components below cost £316.83 (click to enlarge):

A list of components for a computer, parts purchased from eBuyer - prices correct at time of writing

Troubleshooting your newly built PC

Building your first computer and having it work is one of the most fulfilling feelings that you can get. Unfortunately, the computer may not always work first time. This is not an uncommon occurrence, and you shouldn't feel disheartened if your new computer doesn't work first time. Instead, you should try to work out the problem with the tips below.

A typical computer internal, image thanks to expertreviews.co.uk