Man.... those were my peak PC gaming days. I was into RPG, RTS, TBS and simulations (racing & flight) mostly for the long hours, SFII and FPS for the short plays.

Loved Dune II. It's one of a handful few RTS that I would replay more than once throughout the years. I like it over C&C/Warcraft, the storylines more mature. But Starcraft was the best for an RTS. But THE strategy game that I go back to most often is X-COM.

So dragons don't breathe fire but rather ... hot coals (or black dragon phlegm)? OK...

I didn't grow up on tabletop DnD, but rather on Wizardry, Eye of the Beholder, Ultima and later the BG/IWD/NWN series etc. on the PC ... this doesn't feel like any of those DnD PC games. Now now, I know a tabletop DnD game can feel vastly different depending on the DM and the players, it CAN be as silly as anything, please don't boooo me.

I mean, if I'm more charitable-minded I'd call this is more Discworld and The Bard's Tale than typical DnD.

But really, this, this feels like a lazy MCU formula movie put in a fantasy setting and call it DnD.

Ah... yeah I can certainly see how that would complicate things. I still prefer kb+m for gaming in general as it's what I've trained myself to be good at over the years, unfortunate that it isn't a viable scheme for all PC games

For me, it was the PC games (Dune 1 [boring adventure to me] and 2 [awesome RTS]).

Yeah, not to mention the fucking clownshow that was the RTX 3080 launch. That single day in November did more to damage the PC gaming scene than anything else that's happened in the last 20 years.

I was late to Star Wars, but I fell love with its PC games like X-Wings, TIE Fighters, Dark Forces, etc. I never saw the original movies in theaters until their SEs in college. Better late than never.

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Man, the glory of 90s pc gaming . . . Quake and Descent were what I grew up on.
Also, it's cool to see Warsow get a nod in the end there. Still my favorite modern arena shooter!

Flashbacks for my early PC gaming!

The years after the crash but before the appearance of Nintendo were Golden Years for my brother and me. We were picking up cartridges for our Intellivision for a dollar a piece (or less) at retail stores and sometimes for free at local garage sales. I know our game library was over 50 games at one point, which as kids we never would have been able to afford if not for the crash.

We also switched to PC gaming. My dad received one of the very first laptops (with an LCD screen) from his job and I managed to get Bard's Tale up and running on it. Some of my friends went the Commodore 64 route.

So after the crash, we never stopped gaming, really, and just transitioned to the NES when it came out. But of course games became more expensive then. We gave up on owning anything but the most popular games (Mario, Zelda, etc.) and instead would swap games with classmates to try out other stuff. Mom and pop used games stores also popped up around that time and usually we could trade in an old game for a new one with an out-of-pocket expense at around $5, which was around my weekly allowance at the time and let me get a new game once a week.

I was 13/14, games back then were magical. Anytime I was on a plane or in the car I was reading PC Gamer or CGM drooling over the demos (or shareware!), ads, previews and reviews. Remember those days? When information on gaming was largely through print?! I still remember those Dark Forces previews, I could have shot a load. PC gaming at that point really was fucking cutting edge.

1997 & 1998 also hold a special flame in gaming for me - 1997: Ultima Online (actually learned HTML and had a website for UO cuz I was a NERD), Fallout, GTA, Age of Empires, Dungeon Keeper, Quake II, Myth (incredible multiplayer component probably even still).

1998: Starcraft, Half-Life, Baldur's Gate, Thief, Grim Fandango, Fallout 2, Tribes, THIEF, Unreal, Commandos.... so many innovative games back then. Now we just build on them over and over and over again

This game is so painful. I really hope the SC team stops listening to the hate, I hope they can maintain their teams, maintain focus, creativity, I hope they have enough money to last another 5 years of development, I hope this game turns out great. I really hope this turns out to be better than Elite a game that I found unfortunately boring. Will revisit once Occulus comes out, smoke a fat one and go on a cosmic voyage.

SC was/is one centered around PC gaming and dreams - I spent $40.00 on this game, which isn't much in my opinion in order to help a dream, a dream that I also want to delve into. My hope is not diminished yet and I do not care about delving into the rumors, anger and frustration. It is just a motherfucking video game. One that we all hope will be unbelievably good...

Realistically, these guys have probably promised too much, hopefully all the different modules add up to something cohesive - even if they have to detract from open world shit. I don't mind if they scale back to focus on story & content as long as the crafts feel solid. The alpha the control of the ships suck ass. Hopefully, both the controls and FPS mode are tight. If they can't pull off a huge scale, open-world game... no worries, I think working it to something more linear if the game mechanics are fun. Open-world games have been shit mostly anyways, Witcher 3 is a masterpiece though.

Derek Smart is an OCD creep he can go fuck himself and his games are shit! I mean kudos to him for having a lot of talent to do it himself and get shit released even if the content sucks.

@ChaosEngine

Everything @newtboy said. I think you're exaggerating just a tad. You're not going to build a PC that runs newly released games at 1080p at 60fps and also includes a blu-ray drive , 500 GB HD, and wireless motion sensitive controller for under $400 US (current price of PS4 on US Amazon). Plus, you're almost certainly going to have to buy a 1080p monitor (since most people don't do their computing on their TV or keep their tower case in the living room), which will set you back $200 minimum even for a cheap one that's likely to ghost.

As far as games go, nearly EVERY major release will be on all platforms and in fact will likely come out on console first (GTA V). Sure, some kickstarter stuff like Pillars of Eternity won't be available but it works both ways--you won't get some awesome console exclusives on the PC (Mario Kart, Little Big Planet, etc.) either.

Plus as newtboy mentioned, you can rent and sell console games. Yeah, PC games drop to much lower price points as they get older (I usually pick up all the good stuff I missed at $3-5 during Steam sales) but reselling isn't an option for most stuff (yet). You can mod most PC games, though, so that's a plus for them.

Look, I play 90% of my games on my gaming PC. That's because I have the time and money to do so. I don't understand the attitude of looking down on people who don't have those luxuries or who don't want to spend the prerequisite time required pouring over tech forums, price comparing at hardware vendors websites like Newegg, and downloading proper drivers just to build a gaming PC on the cheap when they can just go to a store down the road and pick up something comparable with virtually no effort.

What? Where? I don't see even bare bones computers for <$350, how do you build a serious gaming rig for that?...or for less because you get a game and a controller for that with a console, that's another $80+ for a PC to be even equal at startup. Um, games cost the same for consoles as PC, and again, you can't rent PC games, so the cost to play NEW games is incredibly higher on PC....and steam is available on some consoles....so....I'm still in the 'console is cheaper to play' camp....for now.