One thing that I tend to hear or read about constantly is that PC Games are dead, or are being killed off slowly by platform games.

Hogwash.

I’m not disputing the fact that there are some very good games only on platforms, or that the PC Games market is hampered by piracy issues – both of these are true. However, there are also some games that function better on the PC, due to the fact that most gaming class PC’s have more horsepower than your standard platforms, and more input options too.

I’ve started playing Mass Effect by Bioware, and am amazed at how great the game is.. but also that they’ve managed to squeeze every ounce of performance out of my system. It’s a beautiful game that runs very smoothly at the highest graphics settings (1920×1200, full antialiasing, anisotropic filtering, etc), and takes full advantage of the WASD/mouse combination of the PC. I have an XBox 360 controller, and use it for some games, but I definitely prefer keyboard and mouse implementations in FPS’s. Rather than simply port the game as-is, the developers took what was already a great game and made it better on the PC. I think this is a recipe for success that is hopefully emulated by other developers.

Assassin’s Creed and BioShock are other examples of platform–>PC ports that have been done well. Half-Life 2 is an example of a game that started out on the PC and was ported onto platforms. Lastly, there are, and will continue to be, excellent PC-only games like Galactic Civilizations II, and World in Conflict.

Also (and this is admittedly wildly subjective), I think it’s better for kids, if they’re going to play games, to play them on PC’s instead of platforms. There’s normally more ‘stuff’ going on in a PC game than can be successfully handled via a straight controller implementation.

Anyway, while PC Games will probably continue to lose market share to platforms, I think that’s an indication of the increasing popularity of the platforms themselves (which can only be good for the games market as a whole). ‘Gamers’ will, I think, continue to look for (and pay for) games that push their systems to their limits and play well.

P.S. While I’m on the subject, Mass Effect is, to me, the long-awaited spiritual successor to Starflight. Man, that game was good.