5 ms·

A good while back I abandoned PC gaming because I was sick of driver issues, compatibility, and always having to update hardware to play the next game. Instead,

A good while back I abandoned PC gaming because I was sick of driver issues, compatibility, and always having to update hardware to play the next game. Instead, I embraced consoles and haven't considered PC gaming since then. This, however, has me reconsidering that. I want it to "just work". When I want to play games, I don't want to deal with all of that other crap. I'm old, ain't nobody got time for that.

theshackleford 11mo ago
It's wild how experiences can vary so wildly. That's the nature of PC's though I suppose that you are trying to avoid. I've had no driver or compatibility issues in longer than I can remember. Maybe Vista? I also rarely upgrade because playing at console level settings means I can easily get effectively the same lifetime out of my hardware. Though I do tend to upgrade a little earlier than console users still leaning a bit more towards the enthusiast side.
andoando 11mo ago
I mean I just don't see the difference between this and getting any PC and slapping SteamOS on it.
- kevinqi 11mo ago
  probably the "slapping steamOS" part of that
- rtkwe 11mo ago
  There's not currently a way to officially put SteamOS on Steam* hardware. Plenty of people have done it but there's the usual compatibility issues where the image is built for the very specific hardware Valve installs it on so there's often wake from sleep and fan control issues. All solvable but it's not the level of turn key of even a mainline linux distro.
  - rtkwe 11mo ago
    Too late to edit and I think it's clear from context but I meant non-Steam* hardware.
barrkel 11mo ago
I guess you abandoned PC gaming some time in the early 2000s?
- rtkwe 11mo ago
  I'm quite confused too, that doesn't align with my experience in the last couple years as well. There's notably been a few very good and long lived video cards and also as time goes on there's an ever deepening library of older games that can be played with very affordable cards. I'm wondering when and with what hardware they had that bad experience.
- kakacik 11mo ago
  Drivers are not an issue for quite some time (but its always good to have latest nvidia ones for example for optimizations focused on given game). But its trivial to run into some .NET or Visual C++ redistributable hell when you just get a cryptic error during starting and thats it. Just check internet. I have roughly 20 of them installed currently (why the heck?) and earlier versions would happily get installed over already-installed version of same for example as part of game installation process, not a stellar workmanship on MS side. Whats wrong with having latest being backward compatible with all of previous ones, like ie Java achieved 25 years ago? Talking about fully updated windows 10 and say official steam distros of the games.
  - baggachipz 11mo ago
    > Drivers are not an issue for quite some time > its trivial to run into some .NET or Visual C++ redistributable hell when you just get a cryptic error during starting and thats it. Just check internet. Thanks for making my point for me.
- niek_pas 11mo ago
  I'm guessing you have a very positive experience with gaming PCs; I wish I could say the same. My Windows PC: - Randomly BSODs because of (I think) a buggy Focusrite audio interface driver (that I can't fix and Focusrite refuses to) - Regularly 'forgets' I have an RX 5600 XT GPU and defaults to the integrated graphics, forcing me to go into the 1995 'Device Manager' to reset it - Occasionally just... stops playing audio? - Occasionally has its icons disappear from the taskbar - Regularly refuses to close applications, making me go into the Task Manager to force-quit them. These are just the issues I can think of off the top of my head. I've been playing PC games for like 15 years and this is just par for the course for my experience.

theshackleford 11mo ago

It's wild how experiences can vary so wildly. That's the nature of PC's though I suppose that you are trying to avoid. I've had no driver or compatibility issues in longer than I can remember. Maybe Vista? I also rarely upgrade because playing at console level settings means I can easily get effectively the same lifetime out of my hardware. Though I do tend to upgrade a little earlier than console users still leaning a bit more towards the enthusiast side.

andoando 11mo ago

I mean I just don't see the difference between this and getting any PC and slapping SteamOS on it.

kevinqi 11mo ago
probably the "slapping steamOS" part of that
rtkwe 11mo ago
There's not currently a way to officially put SteamOS on Steam* hardware. Plenty of people have done it but there's the usual compatibility issues where the image is built for the very specific hardware Valve installs it on so there's often wake from sleep and fan control issues. All solvable but it's not the level of turn key of even a mainline linux distro.
- rtkwe 11mo ago
  Too late to edit and I think it's clear from context but I meant non-Steam* hardware.

barrkel 11mo ago

I guess you abandoned PC gaming some time in the early 2000s?

rtkwe 11mo ago
I'm quite confused too, that doesn't align with my experience in the last couple years as well. There's notably been a few very good and long lived video cards and also as time goes on there's an ever deepening library of older games that can be played with very affordable cards. I'm wondering when and with what hardware they had that bad experience.
kakacik 11mo ago
Drivers are not an issue for quite some time (but its always good to have latest nvidia ones for example for optimizations focused on given game). But its trivial to run into some .NET or Visual C++ redistributable hell when you just get a cryptic error during starting and thats it. Just check internet. I have roughly 20 of them installed currently (why the heck?) and earlier versions would happily get installed over already-installed version of same for example as part of game installation process, not a stellar workmanship on MS side. Whats wrong with having latest being backward compatible with all of previous ones, like ie Java achieved 25 years ago? Talking about fully updated windows 10 and say official steam distros of the games.
- baggachipz 11mo ago
  > Drivers are not an issue for quite some time > its trivial to run into some .NET or Visual C++ redistributable hell when you just get a cryptic error during starting and thats it. Just check internet. Thanks for making my point for me.
niek_pas 11mo ago
I'm guessing you have a very positive experience with gaming PCs; I wish I could say the same. My Windows PC: - Randomly BSODs because of (I think) a buggy Focusrite audio interface driver (that I can't fix and Focusrite refuses to) - Regularly 'forgets' I have an RX 5600 XT GPU and defaults to the integrated graphics, forcing me to go into the 1995 'Device Manager' to reset it - Occasionally just... stops playing audio? - Occasionally has its icons disappear from the taskbar - Regularly refuses to close applications, making me go into the Task Manager to force-quit them. These are just the issues I can think of off the top of my head. I've been playing PC games for like 15 years and this is just par for the course for my experience.