RockyRan

McQueen was easily the weakest part of "Cars" for me. Pixar's known for their unique, interesting characters that you like right from the get-go. McQueen is the cliche "I'm an unbelievably selfish asshole who learns the value of friendship!", and he wasn't even a particularly strong example of that archetype. But really, Car's biggest problems can be summed up with one name: Larry the Cable Guy. Mater's not a lovable hick; he's just a hick. It's even more baffling that Pixar made the entire move of Cars 2 and didn't once realize their PROTAGONIST WAS FUCKING LARRY THE CABLE GUY. DID ANYONE AT PIXAR LOOK AT THE MAN'S ACTING CAREER AND MOVIE HISTORY? DID THEY SERIOUSLY THINK IT WAS GOING TO TURN OUT WELL?

I say spend a bit more on a DVD drive. I rarely use it but when I do, I prefer to have it. Yes, that was a really terrible reference to those Dos Equis commercials. But srsly, do get one. Especially if you have older games, and they're cheap enough that it really shouldn't make a dent on your budget.

One other thing that I'd like to throw into the discussion is something funny I noticed about a year ago: http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360/risen Risen had a noticeably lukewarm reception on the 360. The main reason? It was a poor port to the 360 and mainstream gaming reviewers who do console gaming almost exclusively really didn't like the fact that the game was apparently shoehorned as a PC game into consoles. This example a nice inversion of the "PC gamer elitism" trope if you ask me. Goes to show that anyone, whether console or PC gamer, really doesn't like it when they play a game that does little to take advantage of the strengths of their platform of choice.

OK, call me crazy but I'm actually considering buying DMC4. From the sounds of it the PC version is actually pretty good, and the game itself is supposed to be pretty solid. I've never played any DMC game and the only game I've played of the same genre is Ninja Gaiden Sigma, so it's not like I have any standards either Hm...what to do, what to do...

If you want to know what I did for my gaming PC, check this website out: http://www.hardware-revolution.com/ Look in top tabs, the one that says "Gaming and Web PC". It shows lower-end PC's, "mainstream" PC's, and high-end PC's. I literally just went to that site, picked out the parts for an $850 budget, ordered them off Amazon/Newegg, and put them together when they got here. "Shopping" process took like an hour tops. Certainly better than the last time I built a PC, in which I picked out the parts myself and ensuring I got the best parts for my money and making sure they were all compatible took probably over a month of shopping around. So yeah, I swear by this site. Building the PC itself isn't anything difficult either. I can look up the video I followed for you if you're interested.

Wow. Not...really impressed with today's sales either. OK, I admit I'm only looking for very specific deals, but it's not like they're making anything particularly irresistible. It's also partly due to me already having the best deals (JC2, Braid, etc.)

This one is really not the consumers fault. If you want to blame anyone then, it's PC devs for making games for the highest spec machines and expecting the consumer to catch up, and the hardware manufacturers for claiming that their PC is the highest spec available even though this claim is usually no longer valid by the end of the day it is made. EA went through a phase of making "Laptop Friendly" games (mostly The Sims 2 titles) but I don't think they do them any more. Public perception is that Laptops are slimline PC's, so this is more like buying a PS3 slim and expecting it to play PS3 games. Not really, because as we all know PS3 slims pack the exact same hardware. A laptop PC is an entirely different beast from a desktop. They're not equivalent and should never be treated as such. I had a pseudo-gaming laptop before I bought my (first) gaming PC and while the laptop served its purpose well, there were far too many experiences like what Gabe described. Especially since I bought a Toshiba, which is apparently run by monkeys given the fact that they WILLINGLY opted out of ATi's new laptop support. That's right, the graphics card company literally offered to the work for them and they said no. It takes a special kind of idiot to make that decision. The result was a card with perpetually outdated drivers, and anyone into PC gaming knows how that's going to lead into massive disaster one way or the other. Once I got my gaming PC I haven't had absolutely any problems. It's not really anyone's fault if they buy a laptop thinking it'll do them well for gaming, but generally it's an unwritten rule that you're getting inferior hardware if you go with a lappy instead of a...desky (?) Especially an Alienware lappy of all things. That's just asking for trouble.

Nothing that piques my interest today. Really disappointed that the Witcher 2 "super sale" is a measly 33% off. Kind of annoyed me during the Christmas sale how often they had "super sales" that took off a laughably small portion of the price. I really wish they'd stop doing that. I did buy Toki Tori because jesus, that game is criminally cheap at this point. I do hope they can put Fallout 3 and/or New Vegas for a tenner or less. Other than that I really wish they'd put RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Platinum on a super sale but I HIGHLY doubt that'd happen. Atari doesn't give a flying fuck about the game/series to put it at the forefront of the summer sale for a day.

I do think some PC gamers get a little too carried away blaming consoles for basically everything (though I don't see anyone here doing it. I'm more talking about PC fanboys rather than the average PC gamer). At the same time, it's completely undeniable that the focus is on consoles and there ARE a ton of half-assed console ports. I think what's healthier is to look at the lazy developers themselves and complain to them, rather than bickering between one group of gamers and the other over who's to blame for a developer's laziness.

That's what opens the door to elitism. Blaming console games when a game doesn't live up to "potential" is where the elitism begins. I've seen a few knee-jerk reactions of "CONSOLES DID THIS" when anything on a PC game generally goes awry, but for the most part it's incredibly easy to see exactly what was the result of a poor port job, particularly things like aim assist, forced matchmaking, and no AA or 16:10 resolution support. A basic expectation of standard PC features isn't elitism. Using consoles as a constant scapegoat, even when it doesn't make any sense, is.

You're implying that PC = consoles in terms of expected features, which is grossly inaccurate. Again, I'll point you to my "let's say the industry revolves around the DS" hypothetical scenario. Consoles have features that are generally standard that aren't found on current-generation handheld systems. If developers only catered to the needs of a handheld game, you would most definitely feel shortchanged when you see consoles not performing to their fullest potential. PC's =/= consoles. What works for one doesn't work for the other. There's no one-size-fits-all approach to making PC games and console games. They're very different platforms, with different expectations of features. It's not elitism, it's simply recognizing that the PC platform has never been and will never be merely a "souped up" console.

And that's kind of the heart of what people are talking about. You just said "standards that are too high" is completely subjective, then why call someone "elitist" because they expect things you normally wouldn't?

I will never understand the "PC elitist" argument from console-only gamers. Is there really such a thing? The fact of the matter is that console gamers aren't used to certain things that PC gamers are, such that when said things are missing and PC gamers get vocally annoyed, they say "why is this such a big deal? I can't see it being a big deal because I've never really used those features. Because they don't exist on consoles". Then as time wears on PC gamers continue to demand features that have been standard for the PC, console gamers continue to sit in bewilderment why these features are that important, and eventually agree that PC gamers are simply whiny and bitchy. Why, console gamers aren't whiny and bitchy this much at all. PC gamers whine, console gamers don't whine, hence PC gamers are whiny by definition! The problem with this is that console gamers have the entire gaming industry revolve around them. Most every major game developer panders almost exclusively to them, and thus they make damn well sure that everything that console gamers expect is right there on day 1. Let's, for a second, make a hypothetical situation. There's a reasonable expectation of dual analog stick gameplay, peer-to-peer matchmaking, friend messaging, persistent achievement features, high-capacity storage for game installations among other things, and high-definition graphics in console games. And that's totally OK, everyone expects this. But let's pretend the focus of industry isn't on consoles, but on handhelds. The DS specifically (DS, DSLite, DSi, DSiXL), since it's the most popular by far. On the DS there are no HD graphics, no dual analog sticks, barely ANY online features, and no achievements. Pretend for a second that the DS is the center of the gaming universe. That is where the magic happens. Consoles aren't really all that profitable and hey, anybody who's anybody's making games on the DS and catering almost exclusively to that platform. What you're getting on consoles are half-assed DS ports. Stretched SD graphics, very poor (and sometimes nonexistent) dual analog controls, bad performance, no patches, no installs for better loading times, very poor netcode, peer-to-peer matchmaking is not a standard but considered a "bonus" and a "favor", and most developers just half-ass ports to the consoles. I find it hard to believe that ANY console gamer will not protest such things. Over the years, I guarantee that you too will be very angry at relatively minor fuckups like "Touch the Screen to Start" instead of "Press Start". And I guarantee that handheld-only gamers would say "why are these console gamers so whiny? All their demands are so silly and it makes them look elitist that they think their platform is "better" just because they paid more for them. I'm used to all the DS' features, why can't they? They work perfectly fine for me." That will make your blood boil, I guarantee it. No, consoles are NOT handhelds. Consoles have an inherently larger capacity, not because you're "elitist", but because those are just inherent features that this platform has. It's completely stupid to assume that just because it works with handhelds, it automatically works with consoles, and consoles aren't being utilized to their full potential because they keep getting half-assed DS ports all the time. Then some random guy who's never taken console gaming seriously goes up to you and says "you're an elitist prick and a self-entitled whiner because you're not perfectly satisfied with the features that make ME satisfied". Now you know how PC gamers feel.

Barney?

I go to Joystiq for random gaming news (thought the "community" there is horrid), RPS for PC news and somewhat for the community, and VG247 for whatever Joystiq didn't catch (community there is very thin and prone to bickering between the same 3-4 people). All in all those three sites do more than fill up the hole made when I stopped going to Kotaku as literally my only game news site.

The problem with this sort of thinking is that even with proper grammar and spelling someone could be terrible at making their point or expressing themselves. Their opinion might not be one you should be taking seriously in the first place. Spelling and grammar really shouldn't be that big of an issue as long as it's still easy to understand what a person is saying. There's not much of a difference between the following two things: "Hey, would you guys like to see my new dog?" "hai would u like 2 see my new dog" It comes down to how much you want to be pleased by a post when the person posting it obviously doesn't care to do things to your exact specifications. When you hear certain accents or dialects do you respect those people less because they don't fit in with your idea of the "proper" way to do things? I compare posts on the internet to verbal speech rather than something like business communication. People type like they talk for the most part. It comes from their personality. Not giving a shit about typing out with proper capitalization and periods doesn't make the person any less intelligent. Don't forget that different writing styles fit different sites. People can have multiple voices. Capitalization is not "my" idea of the "proper" way to do things. That's just the way the English language works. You seem to think "proper" is subjective, but I'm referring to the very objective fact that there's a right way of writing in English and a wrong way. Again, I'm not a grammar Nazi, I'm not 100% perfect in grammar, and I'm not going to say "YOU'RE ALL HEATHENS" if I see a conversation on a forum where nobody's capitalizing their sentences, but subconsciously I don't hold those posts with as high regard as those that are written properly (again, "properly" in a grammatical sense). It's different if 1) people are talking on IM, 2) it's not the poster's first language, 3) it's an honest mistake (typos, etc.) or 4) they're typing from phones or have some difficulty with something. I'm specifically talking about people who aren't in a rush, English is their first language, yet they're too lazy to properly type out their posts. Are the posts with correct grammar inherently "better"? Not really. People can and do say stupid and disagreeable things with perfectly acceptable writing, but on the whole poor grammar from a deliberately lazy poster doesn't at all look well on the person who's trying to convey his/her point. Goes back to the "why care about an opinion if the poster doesn't 'feel' like writing it out properly" thing. One meaningful pattern that I've also noticed over the years is that people who regularly "typ liek dis" actually don't really have anything meaningful to say regardless.

Complaining about grammar just makes you look petty. Anyways, why do you think that Kotaku/Gawker in general considers that a top comment? You're not thinking with page views/ad-revenue in mind. They pick something controversial that will be sure to stir up shit and have people coming back to respond. I don't complain about grammar to people specifically, but seeing someone post messages without any capitalization or using shorthand text letters like "u" makes me subconsciously drop my respect for that person. In the back of my mind I always imagine that poster as a hyperactive 12 year old. Yes, I can read their message just fine, but if someone is too lazy to present their opinions in a proper manner, why should I be expected to put effort on my part to understand said opinion and take it seriously? But I do agree with your second statement. Those comments are cherry-picked by the Kotaku staff to stir controversy and heated debate. Nothing more.

Wat. Incredibles was amazing. How dare you > That's actually very nice to know. Monsters Inc is my favorite Pixar movie and I REALLY don't want them to pull another Cars 2 with it. Making it a prequel set in a university actually makes for a nice premise. Once the premise is there I'm more confident in Pixar's ability to turn it into a good film.

I agree with Faiblesse. For those of us who have well over 100 hours in the game it's really not that big a deal. I paid $10 for the Orange Box and after 370 hours of TF2 I really don't care if it becomes free to play in that way. The reason I mind the game being free to play very much is Strangelove's reason 3. We already have problems with shit teams (4 Spies and 4 Snipers doing nothing to contribute, nobody caring that your team is getting steamrolled, etc.), hackers, trolls, and griefers. It was bad enough that VAC had trouble actually detecting hackers, now it's going to be even worse. What annoys me most is Valve not giving a shit what happens to TF2 in general. For years now they've been using it and its playerbase as guinea pigs for whatever experiment they feel like making, and while crap like microtransactions was largely avoidable (and I did avoid what I disliked instead of whining about it), this certainly isn't. This just crosses the line and it's going to kill the game for me.

Wow. Just wow. RIP, TF2. You had a good run. Too bad Valve ran a knife through your heart in an "experiment" to see if "heart knifing would work" for their future games.

Strangelove, should I make a "secret confessions" thread?

I thought the Hydra devs were the ones who tailored the peripheral for Portal 2 At least that's what a guy from Valve said when they asked about Move support on the PS3.

YES. WE SO EXCITED.