Tech Blog

[#1]

PC gaming has hit hard times. Let's face it, it costs a lot of money to game on your PC. You need a decent processor, and you have to constantly upgrade your graphics cards which can cost a lot of money. You also can't play many of the titles that are available on the home game consoles on your home computer. Although this can (and I'm sure will be argued by hardcore PC gamers) it's just easier to purchase a console and game in the comfort of your living room. But two companies are trying to change that, and lure you back to your PC.

This weekend InstantAction launched its online service which allows you to play console quality games, without a game console, but rather on your PC. The titles can be played on your home computer from within your web browser, Facebook or even embedded into sites which use WordPress (along with many others). Gamers will have the option of paying by the hour, renting the game for a set period of time or purchase the game outright. The service which opens up a new distribution channel for publishers and developers has launched with one single title The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition with more titles to come.

Next month InstantAction's rival OnLive will launch. This cloud gaming service will allow gamers to play system taxing games such as Crysis on home computers or your television set with no expensive graphics cards or home consoles. The idea is OnLive will have equipment to handle all the game processing, and will then stream the action into your home. Having problems imagining this? Okay imagine you hooked a long cable from your neighbours XBOX 360 to your TV. You get to play the game but don't have the XBOX in your home. Of course you pay a monthly fee to play the games. Yes, there has been plenty os skepticism around this service. Can it handle multilayer, will there be lag? Those questions can only be answered when the service launches next month.

InstantAction seems to work in Canada at the moment. I was able to log onto their site and play The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition and it seemed to work well. Although the site hit a minor blip on Sunday, it was expected to be up later in the day. As for OnLive, the company still hasn't confirmed if it will be available in Canada at launch.

While the two distribution services differ, they do raise the question, will consoles eventually become obsolete? Will we need to shell out big bucks in order to play the latest games we want, or can we buy cheap dongles which connect to our TV or PC and stream the games we want to play for a fraction of the price we currently pay. But the biggest question may be are be willing to say goodbye to your console and play via the cloud? GameTap (available in Canada and the US) allows you to play both retro titles and new games on your PC for a monthly fee. Good Old Games follows a similar format, but both struggle to retain their subscribers. Are we tired of being stuck at our computers or just addicted to our home consoles?

[#2]

Rebirth? Are you trying to say it's dead right now? the PC gaming?

Even now, PC still stands as my gaming platform of choice with robust game delivery system. (Namely, Steam)

The PC, in my opinion, will always have it's position of being the most customizable and accessible gaming platform and that is no small matter.

Although the fact that such accessibility leads directly to piracy does threaten the prospects of the PC game, I still believe it is that level of interactivity between the game and the player that truly sets the games apart from others.

Sure, DLC may seem like the new way people are able to access additional contents without having to wait for a whole new game but it will never be able to compete with the sheer amount and diversity of User made contents.

Taking Valve again as an example, while they still maintain visually pleasuring game environments and graphics, they focus more on the accessibility and ease of making modifications for their games with the Steam platform allowing other users to easily install and enjoy those modifications for themselves.

Taking away the local accessibility of contents sound scary to me.

That will mean the total control will be in the hands of online game publishers with the integrity of the game intact, cutting out all the possibilities and charging you nickels and dimes for all sorts of "DLC" (Which won't be DLC anymore since you're not downloading the files to your drive, you are merely given access to that part of the gaming cloud)

I can go on, talking on the homebrew gaming scene but I feel I've ranted enough to be incoherent now.