I'm pretty sure a good deal of today's gamers over the age of 20 had their first gaming spark on PC. Back in the day there wasn't really a large range of systems and games were fairly likely to run on your PC, and they came on shareware floppies that could easily be copied. I grew up spending hours on my friends computers and eventually my own after awhile (which could have made me a hermit if not for good (in retrospect) parenting). Warcraft, Wolfenstein, Settlers, SimCity, Daggerfall, Ultima, Duke Nukem, Shadow Warrior, and on and on... it was the only place I went to play games even though my brother owned an NES.

NES games were fun, but also hard and didn't have the personal feeling that the PC games did. Then, a momentous event of my life happened: I walked by the SNES display with Super Mario World playing on it. The SNES had been out for quite awhile but I hadn't paid it any attention. Super Mario World changed that within seconds. While SNES games were still very similar to NES games, they felt more solid and entertaining for some reason, even though PC games still surpassed them graphically. Also, my computer began to age quite a bit. I was sucked into the world of SNES and PC games were almost forgotten.

I kept a fairly up to date PC throughout the years, usually upgrading with very little future-proofing in mind to only play the good games that were already out. It ate a lot of money, and often felt like superfluous spending. PS1, Dreamcast, XBox, and PS2 followed with barely any attention being paid to PC games past Diablo, Asheron's Call, and Half-Life. There were still great games, but it never really felt worth the money. I've always felt like a PC gamer though so I felt obliged to own a PC that could play the games. Consoles were like my infidelity; my secret mistress that wasn't so secret. I'm not sure why I always had such a mental binding to PC gaming when I spent most of my time with a good ol' console controller in my grip.

Recently I decided to dump a huge amount of money that I really don't have on a rather future-proof PC so I could be back in the fray after somuch time neglecting my roots. It was a spur of the moment decision fueled by the likes of Team Fortress 2 and Crysis mostly. Spending $1000 on something to play these games is a pretty serious decision when even the ridiculously over-priced PS3 is $600.

But my time spent with lots of new graphically wondrous games with smooth satisfying gameplay on my new PC has given me insight into my gaming past and my lingering guilt about my dusty PC's. I passingly mentioned above that PC games felt more personal, and I've found real truth in that now. Anyone can pick up a console and throw a game in and start playing. When I'm at my computer however, I'm at MY gaming space. I have my desktop and toolbars customized. I change the settings in the games to fit my computers setup. I have a whole keyboard to place my control preferences on. I can also mod the games myself, making them that much more personal.

It made me think back to typing in DOS to get to a game. The first time I learned how, it felt wonderful knowing the string where my game was installed. From that early age ownership was infatuating to me. It's interesting to learn something about my own psyche through videogames...

Alas, PC gaming is, at least in my mind, more personal and some may say even elitist. Quite frankly, I like that. I love being intertwined in something that inherently feels like something that I really own more than I ever realized. Some say PC gaming is dieing, but I don't think it's true. I truly believe that PC gaming is the best place to be for those who really enjoy gaming. It's not a passing interest but a true hobby.

Long live the mouse and keyboard!

What is this fanboy thing that grows stronger and more rampant every day? What has fueled it? I don't remember cutthroat arguments and blind biases over the NES or the SMS, or with the SNES and the Genesis. It got a little worse with N64 and PS1, and slightly more with PS2 and XBox. But now it almost seems like the silly nerdy videogame equivilant of racism!

PS3 fanboys keep saying rediculous things like "Too bad all you 360 losers don't have any games to play!" or "Have fun paying for your online play!" Do they not realize that the 360 has a surprisingly strong lineup even now and that the PS3 has 1, maybe 2 games even worth considering more than renting? I own more games for my 360 than I ever have for any other system, bar maybe the PS2 after like 8 years. And do they not realize that you pay about $4 a month for XBox Live and that it is the single most enjoyable online experience in gaming?

And then the 360 fanboys jump all over any story about Sony losing money on its consoles or about a lost exclusive title. They did a LOT with the PS3, and it really is the state of the art. They KNEW it would cost a lot and they know what they are doing financially (although their PR machine is nothing short of a trainwreck lately.)

Though I do think that the PS3 is a terrible choice over the 360 if you have to choose right now, and do feel that the 360 is the best console I have ever owned, this is just my insignificant opinion. Why does everyone now feel such a great importance for their own personal opinion and tastes?

I blame fanboyism on the human race's own propensity for splitting into groups and cliques, and also on the rising cost of gaming and the increase in the amount of people who can only afford one system or another. People often feel the need for confirmation that their $400+ went to the right place.

Whatever the cause, I just wish there was anything that could be done to make this rediculous trend go away...

So I played the Forza 2 demo yesterday and came away rather impressed. The way the cars feel and handle has been improved and the realism is bumped up even further. The graphics didn't really impress me, but I knew they wouldn't after seeing the screenshots. I have long hoped that Forza 2 would blow even PGR3 (which had poor car models and reflection shaders but amazing mind-blowing environments) away and finally provide me with the best racing game ever in every aspect. But alas, I can deal with mediocre graphics as long as the game feels as good as any Forza game should.

The thing is, they're not really that mediocre. The car models are absolutely top-notch. There could hardly be more polygons crammed in there. Where circular breaklights and grills used to have noticeable polygons they are now smooth and appear rounded. I've honestly seen a post where someone said their only complaint with the demo's graphics were the car models. I don't get people like this. You know, people with an inverted perception of reality :P...

It's actually the track(s) that leaves me a bit dry. The screenshots make it kind of hard to tell on the other tracks, but the track in the demo has some rather poor texturing and simple geometry. The trees and foliage don't look any different than they did on Forza 1. I don't really understand how this happened because Forza 1 was an amazing advancement in graphics for the racing genre. I would expect, especially being a first party game, that Forza 2 would include all kinds of snazzy graphical features and really push the system, but it simply doesn't.

Regardless, in motion the game looks great. The cars themselves often look photo-realistic. If they were in PGR3's environs I wouldn't be able to tell it wasn't a photograph. Those people who say that Gran Turismo HD looks better than either of these games are clearly Sony fanboys who don't want to let go of their beloved outdated inferior racing game. I used to be all about GT, but after 2 there was no point. They really are crap games and I wasn't able to admit that until a true successor came along in the form of Forza. GTHD's 1080p capability only shows off the horribly simple geometry and muddy textures. A limited resolution really helped the game out by hiding it's ugly face like a bag over its head.

Speaking of HD resolutions, I don't see why people complain about jaggies in console games. Forza 2 can run in 1080i (maybe p but I don't know because I can't use 1080p with my hdtv) and this is the best resolution your TV can even display. It also has 2xAA which is the same as almost every other game for 360 or PS3. There is no other way to avoid the dreaded jaggies so what do they want done? If you want things to look less crisp and more smooth plug it in to your old ass SDTV and take advantage of its "poor-man's anti-aliasing." I swear, people have become nothing more than rediculous critics these days.