Hardware failure and the console gamer.
Several years ago, I got Neverwinter Nights, and I haven’t really done any PC gaming since. The game, early on, felt as if it had been rushed to market. There were a lot of bugs and issues to the game. One of the biggest examples I can recall is that the toolset for the game did not run. At all. You would start it, and it would immediately crash the computer. It was that bad.
A wave of massive patches from Bioware, which seemed to come out hourly, eventually stabilized the program, but I had no idea. At some point along the line there, my motherboard developed some kind of problem. Something slight that didn’t show up until the system was called upon to get involved, at which point everything would come crashing down spectacularly.
Paul will remember my rage against Bioware for the quality of the bug testing, which eventually was completely misdirected as my own computer was falling apart at the seams. I didn’t discover this until I tried to play another, far less intensive 3D game, and the computer couldn’t do it.
The damage was done. I had had enough of PC gaming, and today, I don’t do it at all anymore.
Fast-forward now to just a couple of days ago. I walked up to my computer, which is two generations on from that broken one, to wake it from a power-save mode, and it never woke up. I killed the power, and on reboot, all the visuals were completely scrambled, and I got a BSOD before I could get a desktop. After a couple of attempts, I realized that my video card was likely shot, and I hopped onto the MacBook to order a new one.
I ordered the cheapest video card I could find, which turned out to be running an nVidia 6200LE 128MB chipset, to replace my twitching nVidia GeForce Ti4200 64MB. I wasn’t aware of whether this was an upgrade or some kind of a lateral move, because gaming was not a consideration. PC gaming now would require me to throw everything in my system out the window and start over. I probably couldn’t even use the mouse.
After some perplexing issues that led me to believe it wasn’t the video card that caused the problem just long enough for me to order a new iMac, the computer is back up and running, and I have to say I’m keen on migrating to the iMac once it arrives. Have you seen that thing? Slick. And there’s the key. Now that I’ve long given up on PC gaming, I’m ready to change platforms. Linux is too much work, and of course I hate Windows very much and always have (despite a brief honeymoon when Windows XP came out and my computer stopped crashing). Boot Camp aside, doing modern gaming on the iMac is just about the furthest thing from my mind. It’ll be great for blogging and podcasting, and it will look nice on my desk. Maybe it won’t sound like an F-15 taking off like my PC does because of all the cooling fans.
It will make it that much easier to hear my Wii.
Tags: bioware, hardware, Mac, neverwinter nights, podcast, video card, windows
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Good luck, all the Macs I have ever dealt with are just as buggy, just in a different way! I guess we all have to make compromises.
You are stepping on hallowed ground with me. JOE SMASH!!!! But seriously, it is a torturous path to be a PC Gamer. First is the high price of admission. Then the constant tweaking and patching. But even with all of that, I continue to do it.
Why? I don’t know, maybe I love the insanity that it brings me to when I am trying to figure out a looping sound bug in Silent Hill 2. Or why Cold War reboots every time I make one move in the mission.
All I know is that I have also had my share of beautiful moments with PC Gaming that remind me of why I do it. I remember after six months of playing Starflight, that I finished the game and destroyed the Grey Planet. Or perfecting my first tank rush in Command And Conquer. Or explaining to my dad that the $46 phone call to Massachussettes twas for a great cause and its name was the shareware title DOOM.
Maybe you will realize in time that it is okay to install Boot Camp and relive the Windows days and all the glory of PC gaming. We are after all, in the 20th year of “PC Gaming is dying”.
Well, there’s no denying those new imacs are a beautiful piece of kit. I’m primarily a PC guy but I use Macs regularly and have owned several from an original bondi blue imace to an aluminum G5 tower, running MacOS7 up to all the itterations of X. I’ve always loved my macs but I’ve never been able to wipe PCs from my life completely. I, like you however, have recently moved away from PC gaming, one of the big reasons in the past that I could never make the jump complete. With the release of the new imacs, their specs are actually quite nice, which was a problem in the past when comparing their performance to their premium purchase price. For the price of an imac you could typically outfit a PC of nearly double the power. That ratio has drastically lowered in the last year or two since the core duos are out and included in the imacs. Another thing to consider is if you have kids. I have one on the way, and I’m convinced that macs are vastly superior for a child to use, having little to no risk of spyware/adware/viruses being installed because a child unknowingly tinkers with your email or browser. Anyway, long story short, I’m in much the same position as you. You’ll have to let us know your final decision and how it goes.
wow LMAOOO”Maybe it won’t sound like an F-15 taking off like my PC does because of all the cooling fans.” that comment made me lol so hard lol i concur with the fans that is i was never much a a pc gamer tried it but its always upgrade this and up date that and i need a better this to be able to play this plus teh fact that i alwys have problems with my PC there like annoying lil problems ive had to replace my HD 2wice pain in the ass the first time it was in its warranty the second i had to shell out 130 bucks for like a 350 gig i think not sure anyways thats about it lawl the PC has Become a hassle gaming wise
“…all the Macs I have ever dealt with are just as buggy…”
I would never say Macs are bug-free. I fight constantly with the latest version of Tiger trying it to interact properly with Samba across my wireless network. I just find Macs more comfortable and the problems they have less frustrating.
“You are stepping on hallowed ground with me. JOE SMASH!!!!”
LOL! Please don’t hurt me, Joe! Look, look! I’m still using my PC! I’ll probably end up trying Boot Camp at some point in the future, even if just to see how well it works. Right now, it seems like defeating the purpose.
“You’ll have to let us know your final decision and how it goes.”
Well, it’s already on order… when it arrives, we’ll see. Maybe I’ll shoot a video of the setup.