Topic: PC Gaming

@JaxonH
There's something to be said for an additional RT push, and I think the people who dismiss it are going to drop those thoughts in the long term. But even there we're going to eventually hit a bit of a wall

But the next push seems to be frame generation and super high framerates. Which is certainly interesting. But I also wonder what the value of 500Hz+ is when you don't get the latency gains because you're actually achieving that via AI interpolation. Although there was apparently a CES demo with dynamic frame-gen working with VRR on a super high refresh rate monitor, which does sound interesting

But I think you're somewhat right here. I do wonder at what point the median gamer is happy enough with what we have. And I think you might be right that we may have already got to that point. Certainly for me, even the Switch 2 is plenty good enough for most kinds of games at couch distances. Assuming pre-baked lighting and decent art direction

@skywake
I'm content with Switch 2 graphics. But it has one more generation until we get those graphics (improved even) with mostly 60fps as standard. At that point I'll find it hard to justify a Switch 4. Unless it has exclusive games (which it likely will). Can't say I'm confident PS/Xbox will be able to say the same, though.

Steam Machine and Steamdeck are the future of PC gaming imo. With each new generation of gamers who grow up with smartphones vs PC, and low barrier consoles, PC devices minimizing barrier of entry and providing a console like experience will be the new thing people gravitate towards, imo.

And that's a good thing I think. We'll probably need another 5-6 years to get to where we have a Steam Machine 2 and Steamdeck 2, but at that point, I'd never buy a PS/Xbox again. Heck, already I can say Series X is my last Xbox. And I'm 95% sure I'll never buy another PS.

Switch 2 (and eventually Switch 3, with a Steam Machine 2 and Steamdeck 2 for the minority of games that don't come to Switch systems or have gyro aiming (but can map mouse to gyro in Steam), is the endgame for me.

I’m interested in where the industry goes. With ram and SSD prices going through the roof for the foreseeable future, and nvidia not releasing a new consumer GPU until 2027, maybe it’s time for developers to properly optimize their games and not rely on latest hardware.

I’m content with my SteamDeck. But due to ram and storage costs, might put my money towards a Switch 2 because of the unannounced Zelda games coming out and most of what I like to play, are either on Switch/Switch2 or will be released on the consoles.

GTAVI interests me. But it seems anytime I power on my PS4 to play some Cold War, there is a need for a patch and can’t go online until my console is patched. Really sours me on buying a ps5. And I haven’t had an Xbox since the 360 days.

Oh yeah, cool signature btw.

So, I've been playing Edmund McMillen's (of The Binding of Isaac fame) new rougelite SRPG Mewgenics since it launched last week on Steam, and it has really been popping off (almost doubling Isaac's 24-hour Steam peak today). And rightfully so: it's a deceptively deep and addicting RPG with a good mixture of randomness and progression throughout so far. He's been mentioning on Twitter that, if nothing else, a Switch 2 release should be in the cards down the road, and it's a pity it's not, because I think this game would have blown up even more on that console.

I could see it doing the same thing for Switch 2 that Fire Emblem Awakening did for 3DS. Mewgenics is an almost perfect 'one more run' sort of game, and I'm really missing the hybrid form factor of the Switch 2 right now as I bounce my cloud saves between my rig and my Steam Deck.

But yeah, really loving this, and if it gets a fully physical release on Switch 2, I might have to double dip and grab it there as well.

I absolutely love PC gaming, the value of games are incredible, so many and you can do much more with PC like emulation however on the negative side there is no fixed platform optimisation and I remember so well many PS4 games performed 3x better than a PC with a similar spec would perform. Same is true of Nintendo and Xbox consoles however not the next Xbox probably as that is going to be more PC based. However optimising for a fixed platform costs time and money and therefore retail pricing is higher.

I've only just got my Switch 2 and of course I have Mario Kart World but I played the demo of Donkey Kong Bonanza and it was good but never worth £60-70 retail, the value wasn't there. So fixed platform developing may end up with a price point that is uncompetitive. It's a lovely device but not without issues and the 2026 forecaset for all gaming hardware and software is a bit grim with prices increases expected and a drop in hardware sales plus we are already seeing a huge slowing of software sales. If you have existing competent PC hardware and with the incredible value of PC software, often given away like Epic weekly games then PC is far better. I have a mini pc it is Ryzen 5700 based and delivers a passmark CPU score of about 18,000 which is higher than PS5 at 16,000 and Switch 2 at 2000. It's GPU is around 1.95 Teraflops and has 16GB of memory. It runs Steam OS very well with fantastic emulation quality due to the high CPU resources and very decent PC gaming performance at 1080p, sometimes 720p for more complex games and 4K for older games. The mini pc cost £125 from Aliexpress but prices now have doubled it seems or more.