PC gaming has had it's up and downs since it's beginnings. No one would deny that, with the rise of the MMORPGs and FPS games, the landscape has changed compared to the old set of platformers available on floppy disks. Anyone remember Jazz Jackrabbit?

Some of you might have heard me say that in the last several weeks, but I'm currently thinking about purchasing a new computer. The catch is, one of the models that I'm strongly considering won't be able to run the high-end games being released right now, and even less what's to come in two or three years. The limited graphics card won't be able to handle it.

While I'm interested in some recent titles like Fallout 3, not a whole lot of the brown-and-dark-means-realistic-yay games that have been everywhere in recent years manage to catch my attention. An occasional FPS can be fun, but you can only play so many of them before they all look the same.

As such, would I be missing on something? There's some potential about purchasing somewhat older games (simulators, strategy games and so on) that I never got to try. On the other hand, I risk being shut off from the occasional gem like Portal. I'd also worry about missing out on future games in the Age of Empires series, but with Ensemble Studios set to be disbanded at the end of this month, I don't think I have to worry too much about that.

Any opinions on this?

You have a funny definition of "limited": that game still requires 128 MB of video RAM. This is the component that usually blocks my current computer with it's 64 MB. The rest of the parameters are fine.


That much is true. I had a blast creating levels for the racing game Monster Truck Madness 2 several years ago. I never went back to that level of involvement, but I like to know that, if I'm interested, the possibilities are there. Besides being able to sometimes change your music (as in Excite Truck), console games have alsmost nothing available to customize.

To me, an "old" game is Super Mario World or Pokemon Staddium. In the last few years, the only "massive improvement-mentionable" thing about "new games togther as a group" as far as "modern features" goes is storylines. Most of what I have seen, either in reviews or in actual playing, is some sort of "new creative way of doing things," such as the DS stylus and/or the use of it. Well okay that's great and all... but when comparing two extremely similar games, the additional of whatever functionality the stylus may have in that game isn't usually going to be all that INCREDIBLY wonderful. Storylines can be cool, and in a few cases even enhance the immersion or experience - but it's still going to be the same game without a storyline, unless it's a game of logic and deduction which is BASED SOLEY ON the storyline. Aside from that you've just got improved graphics capabilities - which, once you get to a certian point, is rather useless (such as "hi-def" TV if you're using the TV to watch a movie or show). Obviously I can't tell you about any specific games you may miss, but in general I agree with you; games AS A WHOLE don't make "newer" any better (an extremely creative storyline or new idea could have as easily been implemented on the PSOne with a few more limited functions). In any case most games that come out for PC now are available in at least one other place, except for MMOs or other "purposeless" (multiplyer only/multiplayer-main a la CS) games, of course. Some of the new ideas they've been having in video games are really cool ideas, like that one where you draw magic runes on the DS, but that game most likely plays just like any other RPG overall, and although the idea is "cool," the game would be pretty much the same without it most likely.

In any case you can simply keeo your old PC hooked up, or easily accessible, if you do find a game that requires it's specs to play.

Hollow says, "Dells get old FAST"... I highly doubt that that's actually the problem, because my home college has not COMPLETELY upgraded(as in bought new) cheir Dell computers (well they haven't replaced the entire computers anyway) in the MegaLabs since the first time I went there when I was 16 (I am now almost 24), and have still only found faster computers in one place - that faster place loads my 198 saved FireFox windows, about 30 of which are pdf's and maybe 15 of which are video/audio pages, in 20 seconds. The home college's computers take maybe a minute for the mouse to be moveable and tabs to be clickable at 138 tabs (this is done through saving the %AppData% folder, so they all load at once). The RAM on these computers is 1.5, with no paging file, and they are Dells. So I'm guessing there's some settings you need to twek on your computer, Hollow - or you got the cheapest Dell at the time.