the new AVP game wound me right up as Steams servers were down and I had to wait a day to even install the bloody thing, and unless I'm being dim (which cant always be discounted ;) ) I dont see any way to play it offline.
I'd quite happily use a cracked version if it meant less fannying around for me.

Originally Posted by TopBadger

Now however the tide seems to have turned. They take a 'PC' game like BF2 / CODMW, delevop it for console and then port it to PC afterwards... so you get the same limited online play of a console, but suffer DRM also.

I'd agree with that for a large number of games that get released these days. It's not true everywhere- some developers, eg valve, seem to realise where their key market is (oh god I can't want for episode 3). But for both those games you mention, massive disappointment. They were very clearly lazy console ports to the PC- technically good, but the level design was lousy. BC2 suffered from some of the poorest AI I've ever seen- it felt like playing Medal of Honour years back. And not being able to go prone? Bit of a joke really.

Where PCs will always excel is in more hardcore, simulation type games; rFactor, MS Flight Sim, Armed Assault. No interest for these on consoles, yet plenty on PC.

Also the more intelligent games will continue to prosper on PC; EVE Online, Civilization, Total War... If it requires more than 2 brain cells to play, nobody wants it on a console. So we get the markets for these things.

It is a shame the extent to which PC developers are selling out to consoles though- for example, BC2 has a great graphics & physics engine, and looks and feels just fine for a battlefield game- so why not go that extra tiny bit and make Battlefield 3 with what they already have... Same goes for COD, it was 95% perfect, and totally trashed by IWNet and map design...


tl;dr - TheMinister rants on and on about console sellouts, without actually answering the original question.


Buy a console if you liked MW2, BC2. Buy a PC if you liked HL2 and Portal. Buy a therapist if you liked Wii Fit.

Originally Posted by ark-angel

I just get most of my stuff on steam piece of pi55 really. No DRM to worry about and when you activate you just go to offline mode and carry on unless i need to be online for multi player or i already am.

I got involved with Steam, something which baffles me, when registering my Napoleon TW. Also joined the ARRSE group in the community area.

How does a player go offline and when that happens does he need to install a disc to play?

In fact, do my game discs just become bird scarers if steam seems to take over everything

Originally Posted by Volunteer

Originally Posted by ark-angel

I just get most of my stuff on steam piece of pi55 really. No DRM to worry about and when you activate you just go to offline mode and carry on unless i need to be online for multi player or i already am.

I got involved with Steam, something which baffles me, when registering my Napoleon TW. Also joined the ARRSE group in the community area.

How does a player go offline and when that happens does he need to install a disc to play?

In fact, do my game discs just become bird scarers if steam seems to take over everything

If you have no internet you can still play a game you got off Steam, it just comes up with a little error box stating 'Could not connect to Steam network' then gives you the choice to continue in offline mode or retry :D

Learn something everyday, thanks, BBT.

No problem