I was intrigued when I read about "
The Golden age of PC Gaming" (which you should read, it's a good argument, and this post will make a lot more sense having read it. In fact, go read it now. It's OK, I'll wait). I hear a lot of people talk about this "era." They refer to their games from 1997 to 2002 as coming from a time of some sort of enlightened perfection, when graphics didn't need to be that shiny, developers were free to innovate, the average PC could actually run the games, new frontiers were being explored and new, innovative ideas flowed from every EB Games in town.
And I agree, to some extent. There were a ton of classics and franchises that got thier start during this time, and some that are still being played to this day (Starcraft, The Sims, Quake 3). However, I'm gonna hafta go ahead and say, that's pretty much all just nostalgia banter.
First of all, PC gaming is what,
27 years old? And you're telling me we're already past our golden age? There's really no more innovation to look forward to? Jeez. Books have been around for thousands of years, and they don't even
have a golden age. There was (again, arguably) a golden age of hollywood (1930-1948ish, longer for some), but that had to do with the industry figuring out how to make a ton of moola, and churning out some classics at the same time. Plus the whole depression and war thing, which drew a ton of more people to the movies. And people certainly didn't know it was a golden age only 6 years after it was over. It took a tad longer than that.
There's also the issue of playability and ease of use. In this supposed, "golden age" the average joe could install and run most all PC games without a hitch, it was easy. This is true to some extent. Mostly because the Quake 3 engine was so awesome, and full 3D RTS games hadn't really come into play yet. But let's not pretend Windows was any less of an unstable mess than it is now. 98 was an improvement over 95, but still had its issues, and the early days of windows XP weren't so hot either. Oh right, and there was ME, good luck getting a game to run on that. Hell, even today I have issues running some of the old classics.
Sure, games may have been less buggy back then, as it was more difficult to roll out patches without today's super-fast internets, so developers had to be more careful before releasing thier games. But a game is a program, and no program is bug-free. Every new game has its fair share of crashes. Besides, it really all depends on the developer/publisher. Buy a game from 2k, Valve, Stardock, Activision, or Codemasters and you're likely to have a less buggy experience than a game from EA, Ubisoft, THQ, or GSC game world.
System requirements? Yea, they're tough nowadays, and some of them can get a little confusing for the average guy, but this is offset by digital distribution and automatic patching. You know how easy it is to install a game through Steam? Here's the steps: 1) Buy the game. 2) Wait for it to automatically download and install. 3) Play it. Want to keep all your non-steam games automatically patched and updated? Install Xfire and it does all the work for you. Don't know if a game will run on your computer? There's whole communities out there willing to help, along with simple services like
this one.
Besides, even the Quake 3 engine was pretty tough on systems when it first came out, but a couple years later, most everyone could run it well, and now we're starting to see many consumer PC's being able to run the Unreal 3 engine (and of course, there's Source).
These "golden age" lovers seem to think there's nothing good about PC gaming today. But C'mon. We're seeing some exiting stuff here.
Rise of the indie game developer anyone? Games like Everyday Shooter, Braid, Audiosurf, World of Goo, Aquaria and Garry's Mod to name just a few, are all trying new things and innovating in exiting new ways. There's also small developers begginging to pick up speed. There's The Path, Penumbra, Mount & Blade, Painkiller, all amazing games, all made without millions of dollars, from independant developers. The PC gaming industry is evolving into something else, not something worse.
Also, MMORPGs anyone? World of Warcraft will run on just about any computer or laptop around, and there's more than 11.5 million active monthly subscribers. There's also Age of Conan, Eve Online, and City of Heroes to name the big ones. MMORPGs completely reshaped the way we think of games, not to mention opening up new realms of developer/player relationships. They're awesome, they're innovative, and they're not from "the golden age."
Even the days before "the golden age" were filled with inventive fun. Adventure games were done right back then. LucasArts' SCUMM engine ruled, with awesomely creative games like Monkey Island, Loom, and Day of the Tentacle. Along with Duke Nukem, Myst, Doom, Quake, Descent, and Civilization. All awesome breakthroughs in gameplay.
Which brings me to another important point, the actual games. Let's take a look at some awesome PC titles that were released outside of "the golden age." This is a pretty long (though still very incomplete) list. I just kinda picked my loves, and the ones I know had industry and cultural impact, but there are likely other games out there that I'm missing.
So first off, games released from
1990-1993:
Sim City 2000
Loom
The Secret of Monkey Island
Monkey Island 2, Lechucks' Revenge
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
Day of the Tentacle
Sam and Max Hit the Road
Civilization 1
Neverwinter Nights
Alone in the Dark
Dune 2
Star Control
Star Control 2
Doom
Myst
Duke Nukem
Duke Nukem 2
We got a lot of good shit here, SCUMM engine versions 4 to 6 are used for the previously mentioned Monkey Island and other great adventure games. Alone in the Dark started the entire survival horror genre. Myst became one of the best-selling games of all time. And if that's true, certainly it must have been easy enough to install. We have the first MMORPG too, Neverwinter Nights. Dune 2 pretty much solidified the RTS format. And The Civilization series started here, revolutionizing strategy games and becoming one of the biggest franchises out there today.
Next, let's look at
1994-1996:
Command and Conquer
Civilization 2
Diablo
Command and Conquer: Red Alert
Descent
Descent 2
Doom 2
Quake 1
System Shock 1
Warcraft 1
TIE Fighter
The Dig
X-COM: UFO Defense
Jagged Alliance
Warcraft 2
Duke Nukem 3D
The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall
Tomb Raider
MechWarrior 2
So we got the Duke, kickin' ass and chewing bubble gum in feaux 3D. X-COM refining the RTS to almost perfection. LucasArts still had it back then with The Dig and TIE Fighter. Warcraft saw its begginings here, as did Descent, Quake, Tomb Raider, Diablo, Command and Conquer, C&C: Red Alert, and System Shock. All awesome, all revolutionary,
all before the "golden age."
Now we're moving on to after the "golden age" where console-tards started tainting the ingenuity of developers, DRM became rampant and started ruining ease of installation, gameplay and creativity was sacrificed for shinies, which required more and more expensive hardware to run, oh, and all of these great games came out for PC.
We'll start from
2003-2005:
Half-Life 2
Civilization 4
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Far Cry
Call of Duty 1
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Wolfenstien: Enemy Territory
Galactic Civilizations
Painkiller
Counter-Strike: Source
Day of Defeat: Source
Beyond Good and Evil
Psychonauts
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Darwinia
Unreal Tournament 2004
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell
Rise of Nations
Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne
World of Warcraft
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Homeworld 2
Geez what a list. First off, yes, I know some of these came out for consoles as well, but I was never talking about PC exclusive games. And hey, most titles from the "golden age" were on the consoles too, including Quake 3, Deus Ex, even The Sims. Plus you can't expect the industry not to shift over time, and here we began to see a lot of games released on multiple platforms. Anyway, the biggest one here is probably
Half-Life 2, which is still regarded as the single
greatest PC game ever. Far Cry is debatable, as it represents the rise of shinies replacing gameplay, but it did start the open-world FPS. Psychonauts was awesome, as was Beyond Good and Evil, some super-creative 3D platforming there. World of Warcraft is here, and we see a huge rise in the popularity of online games. Unreal Tournament 2004, Call of Duty, and Wolfenstien ET all had very large online communities that are still fairly strong today. Oh, and Counter Strike: Source is one of the most popular online action games of all time, played by both average joe and hardcore gamer alike.
And finnally,
2006-Present:
The Orange Box
Bioshock
Portal
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Team Fortress 2
Fallout 3
Grand Theft Auto 4
Left 4 Dead
World in Conflict
Galactic Civilizations 2
Race Driver: GRID
Civilization 4: Beyond the Sword
Half-Life 2: Episode 1
Half-life 2: Episode 2
The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion
Flatout 2
Battlefield 2142
Sam and Max Season 1
Sins of a Solar Empire
Ok, yea, I named The Orange Box, as well as all of the games that are in The Orange Box, but Portal is amazing and deserves it's own love. As does TF2, and pretty much every game in The Orange Box. Also, the system requirements for The Orange Box? A Pentium 4 Processor, 1GB of RAM, and a DirectX 9 level graphics card. And those are the reccomended specs. How hard is it to install? Oh right, you get it through Steam. And game quality? Oh right, it's the
freaking Orange Box. So, games today are crap are they?
There's a ton of other games here that I will be playing years from now. Left 4 Dead is classic already, Co-Op is here to stay. Grand Theft Auto 4 was a cinematic achievement (despite it's admittedly shitty PC release). Call of Duty 4's multiplayer will stand out as unique, balanced, original, and fun as hell. World in Conflict gives us a new angle on the RTS genre. There's so many great, inspired games out today.
Also, I didn't even mention all of the
great amazing indie titles that have come out in the past couple of years. But to name a few: Light of Altair, And Yet It Moves, Crayon Physics Delux, The Path, Defcon, The Maw, Toribash, as well as the ones mentioned earlier. All of these games have great graphics, great gameplay, will run stable on pretty much anything, and they're fun as hell (admittedly I'm not through all of them yet, but I have yet to be dissapointed and you wont find a negative review out there). Also, they're exclusive to the PC, and most are available on Steam.
So, I guess there you have it. Culture changes, industries change, technology changes, but there's always creative people out there making great video games. There are even those who think that now is the
greatest time to be a gamer. And that, "If you can't find something to play -- something
amazing -- you're just not looking."
As video games in general rise in popularity, I see only a brighter, bigger future for PC games, where the hardcore gamer and average joe live in harmony, and new, exiting ideas are seen everywhere. The gaming generation is growing up, computers are more powerful and more portable than ever, and video games are more and more often seen as a valid artistic medium. All of this can only lead to good things.
Boy, if I didn't know better, I'd say we're entering a golden age right now.
