Recently I've been on the fence about moving to a PC solely for gaming. The only games I've ever played on the PC are Freecell and Solitaire everything else has been on a plat form. When I buy a game many times I'm looking to play the campaign modes and I'm not looking to play games online.
The question is if I buy a game like Naruto ninja storm 4 for the PC will I be downloading the game and have the choice between playing online or by myself? Or do I have to go online and sign in every time I want to play?

I realize that there are downloads that are needed, but what is the main difference between a PC and a platform? Is the difference just a better faster machine but the same basic game play experience?

 

Thanks for the advice. I think you've definitely cleared up most of my concerns. Are most of the PC games only for download or can you get the hard disc?

 

The big titles are still on discs, but most, if not all, of the indy games are download only.

And don't think that by getting a multiplayer game for the PC you won't be able to play it with friends in the same room. A lot of folks have their main rig and a HTPC that plugs into the big tv in the living room. Even for graphics heavy games that set-up works great if you use steam in-home streaming.

 

Depends on the game, but I've never personally had any issue finding a physical copy. Gamestop is shit, but Walmart or Target usually have some. Microcenter, if there's one near you.

Do you know about Steam/Origin/UPlay? Kind of an important factor in PC gaming, since you need one of them for damn near everything.

 

I know nothing about steam and what I was reading on them didn't really answer my questions.

Basically I'm a dummy looking for a dummed down explanation of the process and it seems like their explanations assume you know understand the process.

 

Steam is basically a client where you can buy games and play those games by launching them from steam. It also has friend lists and chatting.
You should try downloading it, it's pretty straight forward.

There are a few more features like trading cards and profile levels but you can discover that as you go along.

 

Alright. Steam is, at it's core, DRM disguised as an online marketplace and forum. Owned by Valve, it pretty much has a monopoly on the PC gaming market. You have to download and install Steam (or Uplay/Origin, depending on the game) in order to validate the game and make it playable, which it only is while you're signed into steam, usually.

There is an offline mode, but you have to switch to it while online, and you have to log back in to validate any games. You can only play any steam (or the others) games while logged into the respective system, and some games, while available through steam, require verification through Origin or Uplay.

Steam is mostly unintrusive, I think the bit that scans your system hardware for statistics is off by default, or they stopped using it or something. Uplay and Origin are both very intrusive, the last time I checked, which was back when they came out.

You can buy games through Steam, which is useful during sales, with some admittedly great deals, all at the low, low cost of your soul.

Or maybe I'm just bitter.

 

broadly speaking everything is done through steam. The offline mode is pretty broken and crappy, though it is possible

Styx: I dont use steam very much for the same bitter reasons. I recall it rendering HL2 unplayable as a child due to bullshit reasons. Its pure DRM, but PC has many options.

 

There are only two consistent downsides to PC gaming. If you can overlook these two things, your gaming experience can be bigger/better/faster/prettier than console if you're willing part with the cash.

1) You have to frequently update your shit as time goes on. Software and drivers, (sometimes hardware too) just don't stay viable for the entirety of a single gaming generation. Not really much different from the major console system updates, but system updates are hassle/cost-free.

2) You'll always generally be the last to get ports of the bigger games, if a port is even in the cards; the process can sometime take years. A lot of foreign devs (companies in Japan especially) have all but given up on PC gaming due to niche markets in their own countries. On the upside, you'll be able to laugh in the face of the console wars as you play ports of "exclusives" from all sides.

 

Well I've had a decent computer for a while now. I'm currently downloading a game so by sometime tomorrow I should have a pretty good idea of what to expect.
Thanks for the advice everyone it really illuminated things for me.

 

I'm surprised that nobody mentioned mods yet. That's a huge selling point for PC compared to console. You'll be able to change the game and add more to each game, depending on your own personal preferences on what to add/change. Skyrim is a fantastic example of this, adding hundreds of hours due to mods compared to the vanilla game+dlc.

Steam sales are also always better than sales for console games, take the recent release of Mad Max. For consoles, $59.99. Prior to release, Mad Max for PC was $24 from multiple retailers. You just saved $36 plus any applicable tax on a newly released game. That's an insane discount and the PC version has gotten great reviews and is well optimized.

The only downside I can think of is the resale market. There are no used games in the PC market. Almost all the major titles require steam and once the steam code is used, the disc is worthless.

Edit: Also, forgot to mention, PC has a ton of exclusives that unfortunately don't get a lot of press compared to some of the console "exclusives" that will eventually get ported to PC later on, more often than not.

Examples:

Divinity: Original Sin
Pillars of Eternity
Darkest Dungeon
Rocket League
Shadowrun Series
Crusader Kings II
Europa Universalis IV
XCOM 2

 

I finally got the game through steam. However I'm running into a problem and Steam seems to be giving me the runaround.

I thought that the Download after purchasing the game would give me game on my computer. However this doesn't seem to be the case. Apparently I only payed to have access to this game through the steam cloud. Not so that I could play it from my computer. I realize you need the internet connection to download the latest trophies however I did not expect to need the internet simply to access the game whenever I wanted to play.

 

Normally it's installed on your pc. Check the folder: Program Files/Steam/steamapps/common

 

Which game is it?

 

The game in question is DBXenoverse. As for the game being installed on the computer. I think what they are actually doing is forcing you to go online every time you start the game so that it can verify the license that you purchased. Either way is BS though because they are forcing extra requirements on to you after you've already spent the money for the game.

Try disconnecting your PS$ or Xbox from the internet and you will still have access to the game you purchased as long as you have the hard disc.

 

Have you put steam in offline mode? If that doesn't work, go to your library and see if you've actually downloaded the game.

Xenoverse's issue is it doesn't have a dedicated offline option to select, it just goes online is it's available by default so it can check leader-boards and shit.

DRM is Satan, but probably not related.

Edit: If you can't get it working, Steam gives refunds as of fairly recently, so long as you have less then two hours of gameplay. There's a couple other requirements, but I don't remember them.

 

That only applies to games bought directly from Steam btw. If you bought a steam key from another retailer, you are not eligible for a refund.

I looked through Xenoverse and I haven't seen any always online requirements. Go into offline mode on Steam and see if it works. It should still be able to launch while offline.