seekerrsa

PC gaming is still a different medium to consoles. I prefer rts, sim, mmo's and fps games with a mouse and keyboard sat firmly on a desk. Action, sports, jrpg's and platform games, i like on console while chilling on the couch. Some types of games are fine on either system eg. racing games, as long as you have a controller. Games like Tiger Woods Golf is actually a completely different experience with a mouse, it's really up to personal preference. One thing I have to say is in response to ownership, I have had a steam account since Half Life 2 forced me to get one (2004 i think?). For years I didn't like the idea of this, but as the last console generation started to fizzle out with the end of the Wii, I realized that Steam actually lets me keep my games forever, consoles do not. Since online activation became the norm for pc's, there is really no DRM other than activating a unique key to your account. At a time though, DRM was a serious issue for me as well, especially from 2005-2009ish with starforce mallware and securom that only allowed me 5 installations of a purchased game. This however I resolved for 90% of the discs I got, as when Origin launched and EA were the main cullprits using securom, I (painstakingly) demanded my games back and luckily got all of them. A few games like Alone in the Dark and Riddick remakes I unfortunately lost. So I understand completety that probably many PC users were lost to this idiotic business practice. And this brings me to the scourge that's annoying me with consoles now and making me wonder to drop modern console gaming all together. If I want to play 8-bit games on the Wii-U, that I allready bought for the 2nd time on the Wii, I have to buy them for a 3rd time unless Im happy with AV signal on a HDTV. So I'm gonna have to buy them again on the NX? Consoles have a nasty habit of making me buy old stuff I love again, even though I have the original cart. Im not saying I want the game because I bought it 30 years ago, but buying it once now on a single account that transfer between console generations should be enough. With the quality of emulators on the PC, (at least up to and including the PS1) I am finding it harder and harder to validate a purchase of old games on new consoles.

I absolutely agree that the internet played a huge part, but a few other things were relevant at least for me in stopping to buy videogame magazines. Many people (if not most) who bought videogame magazines grew up with them, experiencing the 8, 16 and 32 bit revolutions first hand. Now back then, in many cases it was hit or miss when buying a videogame and magazines were considered to be a reliable source for finding out what to buy, I had my favorite reviewers (like egm's sushi-x) whom I shared a interest with regarding videogame tastes, and some of these reviewers had a way to to tell you if a game sucked by reading between lines. I pruchased these mags on a monthly basis throughout the 90's and on one day during the 2000's I just stopped, but my need for the latest info is still there as I still play games and always will. Seeing this topic made me think a bit of why I made this choice. I got older I feel that as I got older, videogames "grew up" with me, but the magazines did not come along after a certain point. Now what I mean with this is that from the NES days up to and including the Playstation 1 era, it felt like most reviews written in comparison to my own experiences compared quite well, as it seemed like they were written by like minded people. When life happens and reviewers, editors etc. move on ultimately new people came in, after a few times this happened the connection was lost with me personaly, that it reached a point where I went from reading each mag from front to back every month, to skipping massive sections, just looking at screenshots, and not even reading reviews from specific reviewers as I mostly did not share their opinions. I got better informed (lol for a lack of better words to describe this) As I experienced life more which happens to everyone, I started realizing that opinions are sometimes influenced by external factors like money, pressure etc. which in turn started to make me a bit more synical and taking things with a pinch of salt. Im not paranoid but as games became bigger financial investments, naturaly more is at stake and a negative review has the potential to ruin sales. This to me is clear as it seems like reviewers are much more generous in rewarding scores, for games that I felt would have scored less back in the day. 5 out of 10 is supposed to be average and I have played many, many games that to me were 5's but got 7's, so I sometimes wondered if I was reading a paid for review. Something interesting ocured to me while thinking about this topic. As many people who get enjoyment out of sites like these (as I do) have played games for decades now, the natural thing to happen is to become an expert at what you know and enjoy. I believe that because of this, I trust my own opinion about new games and rarely do I make a poor purchase, as I really do know what I will like and what kind of new and different experiences may be worth it.