Got a decent gaming laptop a few days ago. Reminded me why I prefer consoles. Terrible experience.

[Johnglen]

So my desktop pc was getting old, real old , like seven years old. I decided to get a new one and since I have never had a laptop in my life (did my work with a tablet just fine) I thought I should try one. So I got a very decently-specced asus fx502vm.(i7 6700, GeForce 1060, 16gb ram) . Now with the actual machine I am fine, it serves its purpose as good as a desktop pc and having it hooked on a tv is a breeze. It was never going to be my primary gaming device since I have my PS4 pro hooked on my 4k tv in the living room and waiting for Scorpio , but I have to admit that my tech/consumer self got the best of me and started to wonder if I should save for a monster desktop pc instead of buying a Scorpio , by the end of the year. After having experienced what gaming is on pc these days, in the last few days....no freakin way.

First of all direct x was not properly installed or didn't have all the components or whatever else and almost nothing worked. Downloaded direct x, some games started working. Now I had some older games , from my desktop pc, so started with these. Batman origins, mafia 2 work fine. Then the problems begun. Hard reset redux, doesn't work , doesn't let me create a profile. I google it, many people with the same problem, no solution. Dead island definitive edition , not allowed to write on the file or something. Again googled it many people with the same problem, no solution, most solutions that are suggested don't work. Bayonetta won't even start. Serious Sam 3 starts, I start playing and when I pause the game freezes.

Now some games work fine (batman origins, mafia2, voodoo Vince remastered, the technomancer, yooka laylee) but the problems that I have encountered with many of the games have completely discouraged me from even thinking of making a future desktop my primary gaming device. I remember pc gaming being actually better 5-6 years ago, when my , now old, desktop was my primary gaming device (it was a good gaming rig at that time that destroyed PS3/xbox360) . Am I doing something wrong here ? Was I just unlucky with games like dead island and hard reset ? Has pc gaming actually got more complicated in the recent years ?

Sorry for the rant but I would li,e some opinions from veteran pc gamers.

 

[swaaye]

Windows does indeed need some DirectX components installed. Games usually take care of installing such dependencies when you install them from scratch. Other common dependencies are Phsyx, Games for Windows Live, OpenAL, and MS Visual C libraries.

Windows 8/10 display scaling can break old games. Set it to 100% if you can. If you have a 4k screen that will be unbearable unfortunately.

Windows 8/10 have problems with games that use older versions of DirectX. DirectX 8 and older specifically. It has improved somewhat over time. Sometimes you need to look into a Directdraw or Direct3D wrapper though. DgVoodoo2 for example.

A console is definitely a brain dead trouble free way to go. Cheaper too. Unfortunately it's less portable and it lacks many games. Own both!

 

[RancidLunchmeat]

You hooked your laptop to your 4k TV via HDMI? And what version windows were you running?

I hadn't gamed on a PC in over 15 years before I decided to build a new gaming PC last year and from a completely new build, new W10 install, new Steam clients and all new game purchases and installs, I've had zero problems except for the occasional demand to update my 1070 drivers in order to play BF1.

Was everything you tried to play new downloads and installs on a new W10 laptop?

 

[Johnglen]

Yeah not going to sell my laptop or anything I was just contemplating getting a monster desktop in adittion to that. Now I think I will settle for a Scorpio. Still don't understand the problems that games like hard reset redux (not being able to create a profile ..wtf) and dead island definitive edition have.

 

[Johnglen]

You hooked your laptop to your 4k TV via HDMI? And what version windows were you running?

I hadn't gamed on a PC in over 15 years before I decided to build a new gaming PC last year and from a completely new build, new W10 install, new Steam clients and all new game purchases and installs, I've had zero problems except for the occasional demand to update my 1070 drivers in order to play BF1.

Was everything you tried to play new downloads and installs on a new W10 laptop?

No I hooked it on a 1080p tv in my bedroom, it's the ps4 pro that is hooked on my 4ktv, sorry i didn't clarify that. No the games that actually worked are old that I had on my desktop , batman origins, mafia 2 . It's new games (well newer anyway) that seem to have problems and problem that are widespread , based on what I found on the internet.

 

[swaaye]

Well the problems I've seen with Windows 10 and the games I play are, for example, Supreme Commander and Supreme Commander Forged Alliance will black screen with graphics changes (necessitating a blind Alt-F4) and crash if for example you get a UAC popup while playing in windowed mode. I believe these problems are caused by the Win 8/10 DWM. Windows 10 doesn't have very good compatibility with games using Direct3D 9 and older (it gets progressively worse the older you go).

If your Windows display scaling is above 100%, it can break older games. Missing mouse pointer is one problem I've seen. I'm sure you're running scaling if you are on a 4K TV.

I haven't played any of the games you mention though. I have Dead Island and Hard Reset, but not the versions you have. I do have Serious Sam BFE but haven't tried it lately.

But, game freezes might indicate a hardware problem...

 

[Davros]

Johnglen, your not installing games to program files are you ?
create a folder called games and install them all in there
ps: look for take ownership reg file and use that
also run steam and the game as admin if you can

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/3841-add-take-ownership-context-menu-windows-10-a.html

 

[Cyan]

Hello Johnglen. And welcome to the forums.

That's one hell of a good PC. I was thinking about purchasing a capable laptop, similar to yours, but friends and knowledgeable people told me that a desktop PC would be much better for my needs and that laptops usually get hotter and so on, and they were right... I have a thread in the PC hardware forum about my experiences with my new PC.

Wonder which brand your PC is. MSI for instance have excellent utilities to get you going and having everything updated without much of a hassle. PC gaming was never as easy as nowadays because of that.

That being said, I can understand your frustration. These issues sound weird though. Games wont ever start in some cases if the PC doesn't meet the minimum requirements, that happened to me with my laptop, which has a Celeron APU with a very low power consumption, 6W.

If you have it plugged to a TV, a desktop PC in the future might work wonders for you, trust me on this one!

 

[Cyan]

Yeah not going to sell my laptop or anything I was just contemplating getting a monster desktop in adittion to that. Now I think I will settle for a Scorpio. Still don't understand the problems that games like hard reset redux (not being able to create a profile ..wtf) and dead island definitive edition have.

you don't need a monster desktop. If you find the right components (Ryzen 1600 and above as CPU, a GPU with 5 or more teraflops, with a good balance between performance/consumption etc) which means a CPU and GPU that complement each other well, you are going to enjoy a greater performance than on consoles, and you wont feel hampered by consoles.

Consoles are ok with me. Started out on PC but I've been an avid console gamer for almost 13 years since 2004, and played consoles with the friends that had one well before that.

But once you get a desktop PC to your liking, nothing beats that. MSI hardware for instance has excellent utilities to set up things fast and well.

As I said in a different thread, consoles are just a dead end for me. I might enjoy the occasional game here and there on my Xbox One, but the magic of the PC...

Just find the right build for you when you decide to get a desktop and you will see the difference, you are going to be several steps ahead of consoles. Plus Scorpio games are going to be Play Anywhere and you can enjoy them on both a console and your PC, so you can compare both experiences.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Johnglen, your not installing games to program files are you ?
create a folder called games and install them all in there
ps: look for take ownership reg file and use that
also run steam and the game as admin if you can

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/3841-add-take-ownership-context-menu-windows-10-a.html

Yup, the default \Program Files and \Program Files (x86) are protected system folders. There are write restrictions placed upon those. Games, when properly installed (like through Steam or Origin, for example) should be properly coded to handle things, but sometimes things happen.

Myself, I store my games on a different HDD, not only to avoid this issue entirely, but to organize and manage my storage pools better.

As Davros says, just installing into a custom folder that isn't a default Windows folder will sidestep this issue.

As well, when installing a game from Steam or Origin (I'm assuming it handles things like Steam does), all those system dependencies (DirectX version, Visual C libraries, etc.) should automatically be taken care of when you install a game, but I have run into very rare circumstances where the correct Visual C library wasn't installed, however. A quick Bing/Google search was able to resolve this by pointing me to the Microsoft site to download the official package to install. I'm not sure how GOG handles this. And, of course, it should go without mentioning that if obtained through "other" sources all bets are off.

Regards,
SB

 

[mrcorbo]

So my desktop pc was getting old, real old , like seven years old. I decided to get a new one and since I have never had a laptop in my life (did my work with a tablet just fine) I thought I should try one. So I got a very decently-specced asus fx502vm.(i7 6700, GeForce 1060, 16gb ram) . Now with the actual machine I am fine, it serves its purpose as good as a desktop pc and having it hooked on a tv is a breeze. It was never going to be my primary gaming device since I have my PS4 pro hooked on my 4k tv in the living room and waiting for Scorpio , but I have to admit that my tech/consumer self got the best of me and started to wonder if I should save for a monster desktop pc instead of buying a Scorpio , by the end of the year. After having experienced what gaming is on pc these days, in the last few days....no freakin way.

First of all direct x was not properly installed or didn't have all the components or whatever else and almost nothing worked. Downloaded direct x, some games started working. Now I had some older games , from my desktop pc, so started with these. Batman origins, mafia 2 work fine. Then the problems begun. Hard reset redux, doesn't work , doesn't let me create a profile. I google it, many people with the same problem, no solution. Dead island definitive edition , not allowed to write on the file or something. Again googled it many people with the same problem, no solution, most solutions that are suggested don't work. Bayonetta won't even start. Serious Sam 3 starts, I start playing and when I pause the game freezes.

Now some games work fine (batman origins, mafia2, voodoo Vince remastered, the technomancer, yooka laylee) but the problems that I have encountered with many of the games have completely discouraged me from even thinking of making a future desktop my primary gaming device. I remember pc gaming being actually better 5-6 years ago, when my , now old, desktop was my primary gaming device (it was a good gaming rig at that time that destroyed PS3/xbox360) . Am I doing something wrong here ? Was I just unlucky with games like dead island and hard reset ? Has pc gaming actually got more complicated in the recent years ?

Sorry for the rant but I would li,e some opinions from veteran pc gamers.

My opinion is that your experience is not representative. PC is by far my preferred platform, and I have the PC, PS4, and Xbox One all hooked up to the same home theater system. Aside from the improved performance, the fact that the PC can actually properly leverage the benefits of an SSD make the console experience sub-par by comparison.

The consoles are for exclusives only. And with Play Anywhere there should be fewer of those, which suits me perfectly.

 

[Johnglen]

Thanks for the replies guys, it wasn't my intention to bad mouth the pc gaming scene or anything just curious about some weird problems with some games. Anyway bought a few newer games and they work just fine (like nier automata, just cause3 though this has awful optimitiantion but it works). Seems like games like dead island DE, and hard reset redux just have weird, one of a kind problems, after browsing about them on the internet.

 

[orangpelupa]

ithink if the games comefrom origin or steam, it will be relatively without problem. it even will auto-install all extra stuff

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Thanks for the replies guys, it wasn't my intention to bad mouth the pc gaming scene or anything just curious about some weird problems with some games. Anyway bought a few newer games and they work just fine (like nier automata, just cause3 though this has awful optimitiantion but it works). Seems like games like dead island DE, and hard reset redux just have weird, one of a kind problems, after browsing about them on the internet.

It's fine. PC gaming while much better than it was a decade ago with regards to "just working" will never be quite as trouble free as console gaming. Like right now, I can't play Dynasty Warriors 8 since it won't recognize the Xbox Elite controller. Go figure. Worked fine in Windows 8.1 with a standard XBO controller.

Of course, the flip side of that is you generally have much greater control over your games. For example, I always configure my games for 60 FPS gaming, something not possible on console. I also always immediately turn off DoF and Motion Blur as I find both of those extremely unrealistic. I can also still play games made in the 90's without repurchasing them if I feel like it. Something generally not possible on console.

Modding, both officially supported and not supported are also boons for people willing to go through the trouble.

So, there's benefits to PC gaming to go along with some of the drawbacks (which can be very frustrating at times).

Regards,
SB

 

[Cyan]

It's fine. PC gaming while much better than it was a decade ago with regards to "just working" will never be quite as trouble free as console gaming. Like right now, I can't play Dynasty Warriors 8 since it won't recognize the Xbox Elite controller. Go figure. Worked fine in Windows 8.1 with a standard XBO controller.

Of course, the flip side of that is you generally have much greater control over your games. For example, I always configure my games for 60 FPS gaming, something not possible on console. I also always immediately turn off DoF and Motion Blur as I find both of those extremely unrealistic. I can also still play games made in the 90's without repurchasing them if I feel like it. Something generally not possible on console.

Modding, both officially supported and not supported are also boons for people willing to go through the trouble.

So, there's benefits to PC gaming to go along with some of the drawbacks (which can be very frustrating at times).

Regards,
SB

you are like me in that sense. I used to drop anything that could prevent the PC from reaching 60 fps. I had a great PC when I started but I've been playing on laptops for almost a decade and did almost everything to achieve 60 fps -sometimes to no aval, my laptop PCs were never powerful enough despite having a i5-2450m processor in my previous one-, and dropping shadows quality helped immensely in that sense, that was a first step.

Now with a desktop PC I don't need that, and as you say you can completely tailor the experience to your liking. I am not a big fan of motion blur either. The word blur maybe because I am myopic kinda annoys me.

 

[cheapchips]

I think the only game I've had problems with on PC in ages was XCOM. If I have a joystick plugged in it made the curser wander off the screen.

I do use steam, and don't generally buy stuff at release, so games are well patched by the time I get round to them.

I'd quibble a point made on cost of PC gaming. Yes, you can spend loads, but a mid range PC will be much better value over 3-4 year given the lower price of games.

That would depend on how many games you play a year I guess.

 

[Cyan]

I think the only game I've had problems with on PC in ages was XCOM. If I have a joystick plugged in it made the curser wander off the screen.

I do use steam, and don't generally buy stuff at release, so games are well patched by the time I get round to them.

I'd quibble a point made on cost of PC gaming. Yes, you can spend loads, but a mid range PC will be much better value over 3-4 year given the lower price of games.

That would depend on how many games you play a year I guess.

while consoles are usually much cheaper, the software is more expensive. In a few months the extra investment on a PC pays off, not only performance wise but also you end up saving money.

 

[Johnglen]

Yeah but console games are more readily available on physical format and their prices drop extremely fast. In fact I have pledged to never pay over 30€ for a video game unless it is something extra special. My last two PS4 games that I bought were dishonored 2(25€) and mafia 3 (27€) in march. After doing some research I am drooling over a compact gaming rig with a gtx1080 whether that is an acer predator or a Lenovo cube. Now if I can get the money before Christmas and prices drop a bit( unfortunately these things are too expensive in my country, Greece).