As I mentioned
recently, my new job has open opportunities to be involved in new things and
have a suitable level of disposable income.
The conventional side of my thoughts have expressed interest in things
such as suitable accommodation, learning to drive or a potential holiday; but
naturally the ever-present idea of a new PC build has made itself known. It’s been 8 or so years since the last PC
build (with a GFX card change and RAM stick addition) but the box’s age is definitely
showing with many modern titles either not working or having very poor
performance. A title like The Witcher 3
is something I would love to be playing but with my old AMD dual-core CPU and
ATI 4850HD the more likely result is a machine that gives up and explodes. With all that being said, I would say that my
time gaming on a low-performance PC has been an enjoyable experience has taught
me a lot about the customisability that a platform like PC has to offer.
To roughly break this
down into three factors, I would say that they are “New games are still available”, “Cost
factors” and
New games are still playable
 |
| The City of Novigrad in Witcher 3 looks great and I hope to play it in the future. Image from Witcher.wikia.com accessed 13/07/2015 |
When you have new games
like The Witcher 3, Dragon Age: Inquisition or Batman: Arkham Knight; it can
difficult to stay positive when they all pass you buy with a Canyourunit Fail result very clearly
showing your machine’s inferiority.
However, in this same time-frame we’ve also had such titles like Hotline
Miami 2, This War of Mine, Shovel Knight and the wide selection of Tell-tale
narrative games that continue to improve as time goes on. These games are not without their interesting
game mechanics, diverse aesthetics and narratives that look to discuss themes
that aren’t always talked about in general media. For example, This War of Mine is a game set
during war time that puts you in the shoes of a civilian trying to survive the
conflict; tasked with collecting supplies to sustain a small bombed settlement
while dealing with the moral implications of survival in such an environment
with a dark aesthetic to match.
 |
| This War of Mine showcasing the other side of war. Image from thiswarofmine.com accessed 13/07/2015 |
As well as games, game
engines such as Unity have done a great of work to give developers a means to
create games on a relativity slow budget and have available players from a
similar column. One of the most popular
games (if one would use Twitch numbers) over the past year or so is Hearthstone
which is a well-produced Unity-engine card game that even runs well on a phone;
giving players an enjoyable, free to play experience that continues to create
new content for people to enjoy.
Cost factors
 |
| Hearthstone gives a great deal of enjoyable for no upfront cost and minimal performance requirements. Image from us.battle.net accessed 13/07/2015 |
Continuing on from my
Hearthstone example, the prevalence of free to play titles has greatly helped
those on a small budget experience more games than ever before. It is understandable that there are those who
dislike the model citing games like Hearthstone, Dota2 or LoL where A player
may spend over the amount of a AAA title and then some for a questionable
amount of content (quantity and quality of course), but the model has seen
great improvements over its short lifespan.
All the above examples, as well as Path of Exile and Warframe are free
to play games I enjoy even on an old PC and with significant updates such as
PoEs recent Awakening expansion (which introduced a new act, skill updates,
item additions and more all for free) shows there are still great times to be
had on a low spec machine. To this day,
my PC and its part replacements have cost a total of ~£300 and its current lifespan
of ~8 years puts a rough annual cost of £37.50 which is on par with a
console.
Configure for performance
 |
| config files and registry tinkering allows for games old and new to run tailored to your needs. Screenshot taken 13/07/2015 |
This I believe is the
most prevalent factor in my time on a low-performance PC as it has allowed me
to learn more about the finer details when it comes to playing games. To many, configuring .ini files is extremely
easy but if like me you never had to use them and stick with an in-game options
menu it may seem like a daunting task to accomplish. Over these past few years, I do take time to
configure and tailor a game to my liking so that I get the right balance of
performance (frame rate of at least 30 stable) and graphical quality which has
meant that a game like Guild Wars 2 where I didn’t feel confident pvp’ing due
to performance drops is now suitable for me as competitive game modes naturally
need smoothness in performance. This factor
in my gaming life revolves around one particular example that I would like to
discuss now:
 |
| The natural mod-ability of a game like Skyrim helped me play it when it seemed unlikely. Screenshot accessed 13/07/2015 |
In November 2011, I was
sitting in my bedroom at university late one night when Steam popped up saying
that “The Elder Scroll 5: Skyrim was now available”. At this time, I was using my laptop (the one I’m
typing with now which overheats and its PSU is held with tape) and was well
aware that it wouldn't do well with such a title, but reflectively clicked
purchased anyway and awaited its download.
Upon entering the initial scene in the cart, I noticed a terrible frame
rate of around 10 as well as input lag which quickly got me demoralised with
the prospect I wouldn’t be able to play it for over a month until I had access
to my PC (the one that was still kind of old at the time but not as bad as
today). At this point, it was 1 am and I
decided that “no, I’m going to see what I can do with this” and trawled the
internet for some solutions. With the
help of some forums and the PCgamingwiki page on Skyrim, I spent the next couple
hour’s fine tuning my settings and testing that initial scene to see what
performance I could grasp at with the modification of effects such as shadows and
LOD; eventually finding a mod that looked to reduced graphical quality below
the in-game minimal parameter. By 3am, I
had done my testing and now I was sitting at around 28fps which was as far as I
could feasibly go without breaking things and found myself engrossed in a world
right through to 10am when I decided it was time to go get breakfast. Yes, I could have just waited until the Christmas
holiday period and enjoy this game without all the hassle, but due to my perseverance
/stubbornness to play this game, I was able to enjoy Skyrim in that initial
period of exploration when something new is available and we’re all trying to
figure out what’s over the next hilltop.
So that’s what gaming
on a rather old PC means to me. Of
course there are games that I would love to play now that aren’t available to
me, but with the great selection on offer I don’t feel like I’m missing out or
that I’m a second-class citizen. When I
do end up getting a new PC, I will of course love having the great looking
graphics, quick load times and the likes but I know that if I’m not able to
upgrade again for a while I can keep enjoying this medium of gaming and the experiences
it provides.
P.S. pcgamingwiki.com
has been very useful over the last couple years.
No comments:
Post a Comment