I would agree but I've seen consoles doing that, too. Not drivers but updates. My nephew will come over to play and every time the first half hour is installing updates to games. It's just so much trouble anymore. Exactly. I usually wait a while, too, it's just even when I wait the launcher is still there. I lucked out and got Cyberpunk 2077 through GOG, so no launchers, no 3rd party junk, but glorious gameplay. I just got Need for Speed: Rivals for dirt cheap, too ($8!), but through Steam, and I had to install the EA app to play, registered through that, added an authenticator app, and then the EA app had to link to my Steam account. On the plus side, Rivals is just as fun as I remembered it, I just don't like going through all of that rigamarole for a game.
The thing I’ve missed about PC gaming is the modding community, they were damned creative group of talented people. Seems everything in life is a trade off.
They do. So if I have to deal with patches, I'll do it where I can use my mouse and keyboard *cough*and use mods*cough*. I just think the way gaming works is so much more fuss and headache than it once was. When I bought a game, the whole game was on that cartridge, disc, or set of discs. These days, because of the way the gaming industry handles its business, games are pushed out the door half baked and patched repeatedly in gigabytes of updates. It's just so much headache.
At least consoles have it all more streamlined. Being that my PC is old, I don't really get new games for it, and instead use my console for newer stuff. Maybe I'm misunderstanding you, but do you mean launchers as part of the GOG versions as well?
That is something that works in their favor, yeah. I meant that there are no launchers with GOG, and that's why I like getting games from there, just that their selection is smaller. That said, GOG doesn't do shovelware like Steam does, either. So much of the stuff I see on Steam nowadays are these $1 - $10 titles that are just the jankiest, emptiest games I've ever seen, and I lived through the "3,000 games on one CD-ROM!" craze.
^Right, that's true. I think they're far more particular of what does get released, maybe because they take their time getting the licenses for them. Although one thing I've noticed is that sometimes GOG releases won't be updated as often as they are on Steam and often aren't updated to the latest version. Though what I really like about GOG is that they do make an effort to support smaller indie efforts, as opposed to all of the crap that does get on Steam. I like catching up on older game series that I've missed the first time around. Like for instance, I've been making my way through the Risen series, and I've just bought the entirety of the Broken Sword games, as well as the two Pillars of Eternity games. And for the most part, I like the freebies they give out once in awhile.
I'm SOOOOOOOOOOO tempted to order the PSVR 2 for the Horizon game and Gran Turismo 7 (plus I wouldn't mind a replay of Resident Evil Village in VR). The only problem is I don't really want to barf my guts up as I've never played VR. That's kind of a lie. I did play Mario Tennis on the Virtual Boy YEARS ago, and it gave me a headache (but I assume that's from the red on black color scheme).
I'm used to the whole updates for my pc, but yeah, every so often, my mate asks me to "borrow" his console for a week to run all the patches (and occasional software update to whichever console)
VR is a very different beast these days, though I still limit the amount of time I spend on it. They're much more immersive now, and for those reasons they can be very disorienting precisely because they can be so convincing to the brain in giving you a sense of place. The key thing is going to be the framerate and resolution. The better they have, the less of a problem it's going to be in terms of giving you a headache. Just make sure you have plenty of space with no obstructions, because I can guarantee that once you feel immersed, you'd likely move and walk around unintentionally just because everything looks and feels so real. When I was playing Half-Life Alyx at my Brother's this Christmas, the sense of immersion was so great that I'd literally walk around tying to get closer rather than using the controller to move around, which then meant I was moving outside the intended area and had to pause and reset myself.
Then you are just unfortunate to pick games that need these extra steps. I do all my gaming out of Steam unless the game is not available there, which has become the minority. I can only remember very few games that needed to connect outside of Steam, the Assassin's Creed games i believe and a few others. I'm much more annoyed about the state of any new game, some of them are downright unplayable due to the frequent crashes even after a few patches in the first 2 weeks. I'm currently playing Phantom Brigade and they're up to Patch 4 and the game still crashes when i do missions. Especially frustrating if it's an easy mission and you are close to being done and the game crashes ( there is no turn by turn save so you have to start from the beginning of the mission).
To be honest most of the time that's a thing of the past. Most drivers have an auto update feature and properly programmed games auto detect the capabilities of your PC and adjust accordingly. You only need to tinker if you want to maximize performance, the days from the early 90s, when you actually had to edit files to make games even run are long gone. Apart from the bug/crash issue with new games and possibly having to use launchers from a multitude of companies PC gaming has gotten quite comfortable, especially if you use a service like Steam that does the install and update very comfortable. My last console was the PS4 and they are on par with ease of use, at least for me.
These are Steam games. Steam now allows third party apps like the EA and Ubisoft app to be used in conjunction with it, and it's a LOT of games. Being "unfortunate" isn't really the issue here, as it's becoming more and more common, even for older games, to be given the third party app launcher treatment when updating. I just got The Witcher III on sale on Steam, and now I have the CDPR launch app. I have Need for Speed: Rivals, and it requires the EA app. The same goes for my Sims 2 and Sims 3 games, also now require the EA app for me to play. What may be better serving you is that in Europe, GDPR laws make it harder for game publishers to get away with this kind of thing, whereas in the US, it's the wild west of who can make more money mining more data first.
I feel you, it's annoying as hell to register for every single company and there is no realistic way to fight back other than not buying games from them but we all know that most people won't. I do remember i had a problem with a single game that was crashing frequently and one solution was to modify the start routine within Steam to remove the need to use the external launcher app and it worked,, i.e. the launcher app didn't pop up and the game started. It was Marvel's Midnight Suns i believe but i don't know if you can do that with other games or if registration is mandatory. In either case it's an unnecessary hassle.
playing Mortal Kombat 11 this weekend. grinding through Towers of Time towers like crazy for the Kano PIrate oufit til Tuesday. Been gear level grinding like crazy for Movie skin Shang Tsung, MK1 outfit Sonya and maskless Kabal with the knife for a gaspack