Remember the days of installing a game on your PC only to discover that your system requirements didn’t allow for use of the game? I’m not talking about non-Windows compatible games, I’m talking not enough RAM, a processor that’s too slow, or a graphics card that isn’t powerful enough. I do. I remember buying Triple Play 98 and it being too advanced for the Windows 95 machine I had. I was pissed.

That said, it seems as those days are gone. Yes, there are still folks that don’t have powerful gaming machines but most store bought PCs these day come with enough power to play games at least at their lowest requirements. But, the real issue is the increasing similarities that home consoles are beginning to share with PCs. Let’s be honest, the PS3 is essentially a PC gaming monster. You have to INSTALL games for Christ’s sake. That’s absurd. The mere fact that there is a chance you won’t have enough space on your PS3 hard drive to play a 60 dollar game you just bought is unacceptable.

With PC’s, it was different. You had to know your system inside and out and be sure that whatever you were purchasing would be playable. With a console, it’s expected to be able to just put the damn disk in and play to your hearts content - no lengthy install and no hassle. Yes, we are moving in a powerful new direction with home gaming, but we have to be careful that we are not soon looking for new hardware upgrades to our physical consoles.

-Joey Esposito

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 5th, 2008 at 6:50 pm and is filed under All, PC. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.