PC Report Card 2016

Major games stumbled, but the acclaimed franchises returned and new hardware-enabled users

PC gamers had a lot to be happy about in 2016. New high-performance hardware gave players even more power for their dollar. Those who could afford it finally had the opportunity to immerse themselves in virtual reality in a game play.

Some of the most beloved franchises that took us to the depths of hell, through alternative histories with cultural icons and around the world to defend themselves against the aliens, made exceptional returns in 2016. The games of strategy nuanced and frenzied shooters in first Person of the year They are home to the PC, where the keyboard and mouse give players full control of their games.

2016 did not come without fail, however. Performance issues hampered the enjoyment of important releases. Developers have been mainly at the top of the solution to these problems, but players who buy at launch were often put in the precarious position of expecting an optimized product.

Regardless, PC games had an incredible year that moved the platform forward.

PC games at their best

While Overwatch succeeded on consoles, it is safe to say that their real home is on the PC, becoming the competitive competitor based on the shooting team alongside the still-strong Counter-Strike Global Offensive. Overwatch brought to light an intricate, class-based system that interwoven with each character's design. Blizzard continues to keep the game fresh after the release with constant updates and new features like two new characters, a new map and seasonal content.

World of Warcraft (WoW), perhaps the most influential MMORPG of all time, received an expansion pack that many longtime fans considered a welcome addition to the legacy of the game. It sold more than three million copies on its first day resulting in the largest number of simultaneous WoW players since 2010. Star Wars: The Old Republic had an expansion - Knight of the Eternal Throne. The Elder Scrolls Online made significant changes to the game with the One Tamriel update. And Square Enix announced another expansion for Final Fantasy XIV, subtitled Stormblood.

Civilization 6 iterated in the tried and true formula Sid Meier and Firaxis established years ago. He refined game elements such as diplomacy and research trees, and tight mechanics gave players new strategic opportunities.

Speaking of Firaxis, XCOM's leading designer, Jake Solomon, and the company relied on the recent resurgence of the franchise, with XCOM 2 challenging players, making them face adversity to facilitate growth in the strategic game. Although finally released on consoles, managing units in battle and navigating the dense interface makes XCOM 2 a PC game at its core.

After a development roller coaster and suspect multiplayer beta, it was difficult to predict Doom as a Game of the Year contender. But id Software brought PC gamers back to what made Iconic Doom; Wild, fast first-person shooting and fantastically gloomy set pieces.

Beautifully designed stand-alone games made strong statements. Owlboy showed how retro images can go beyond novelty. Cowboy quadrilateral made players feel like a true hacker teaching them how to code to manipulate their environment. Stardew Valley brought back the farm simulation game experience from Harvest Moon. The Witness tested our puzzle solving skills like no other game.

The real-time strategy genre had outstanding games this year, too. Offworld Trading Company made players rethink the strategy by taking accelerated economic decisions as the crux of the game, while Total War: Warhammer merged two established franchises to create a cohesive and deep strategy game.

Let’s Play ‘Good Port, Bad Port’

Due to the latest poorly optimized releases, PC gamers are becoming increasingly cautious about the performance and stability of multiplatform games. Fortunately, we did not have a colossal clutter in the scale of the PC version of Batman: Arkham Knight of 2015, but there were cases of mediocre performance in high-profile games at launch.

Deus Ex Mankind Divided and Dishonored 2 were two welcome entries into the lineage of classic first-person action games, but both suffered performance problems outside the door. Dishonored 2 had several inexplicable drops of the frame, which is being directed by a series of patches. Mafia 3 was launched with a locked framerate of 30 frames per second, which was quickly resolved. Regardless of what they think of No Man's Sky, its stability at launch was well below expectations.

However, there has been a recent trend of developers running post-release support, which is evident with games like Rainbow Six Siege and The Division. It's a reason to be optimistic about long-term support in modern games.

Significant steps in PC hardware

The level of performance of PC players leaving hardware is better than ever. It is the most profitable time to be a PC player. Nvidia launched its GTX 10 series of video cards that gave users the best performance to date. The GTX 1070 is hailed as the best mid-high-end card, capable of putting decent 4K resolution framerates in several modern games. It floated around the $ 400 price range, but surpassed the strongest card of the previous generation, the Titan X which sold around $ 1000 when it launched in 2015.

The GTX 1060 and 1050 Ti are impressive mid-range cards that will deliver high visual quality and solid 1080p frames in the latest versions. AMD remained relevant in the mid-range market with the Radeon RX 480 and RX 470, giving Nvidia a run for its money and better performance in certain games.

Load times still hinder gameplay experiences unless you are reading and writing data from a solid-state drive. SSD prices continued to trend downward in 2016, which made these fast storage units more accessible. M.2 NVMe SSDs made a splash this year with Samsung's 960 Evo and Pro. These drives are capable of reading and writing speeds of three to five times faster traditional SSDs.

Sony released the PS4 Pro and Microsoft announced the Xbox Scorpio, both touted as 4K gaming machines. Although early in its lifecycle, the PS4 Pro is struggling to deliver meaningful visual enhancements. The PC hardware released this year proved to be capable of stable performance of 4K in modern games. Of course, the price difference between a high performance PC and a PS4 Pro is drastic, but if players want a 4K experience, they can have it with the correct specification. PC hardware will be able to keep as 4K inches shows closer to becoming the standard, consumers just have to be willing to pay the higher price, however.

Virtual reality lives on the PC

The platforms HTC Vive and Oculus Rift were released to the public this year. It is the first time consumers have access to VR as a gaming platform in an era in which we have the power of computing. While the PlayStation VR reduces the entry barrier for VR, Vive and Rift offers a more refined experience.

The HTC Live gave him hands in the virtual space with his two controllers. Its headlamp tracking system is able to recognize movement at a precise level and have the potential for room-scale experiences. The Oculus Rift lagged behind only offering gamepad controls until December with Oculus Touch. Touch controls helped push the Rift to become a more complete VR platform.

The game library is still in its early stages, but there are examples of the potential of RV. There is an intuitive nature to collect objects, looking around your environment and firing weapons at the shooters. There are lively social interactions as seen in games like Rec Room, Dead & Buried, and Toy Box. Tools like Kingspray, Oculus Medium and Tiltbrush show precision and creativity in a way that is only possible with VR. Thumper exemplifies the immersion and transcends his traditional experience.

However, strong pricing is the most important factor to consider with VR. Live released at $ 800, the Rift at $ 600 (add another $ 200 for touch controllers). That does not take into account the powerful PC required to run VR games. A 3-series Intel i5 CPU and a GTX 970 or RX 480 video card will suffice, but when made up of the VR price, it becomes expensive.

Whether or not you are a believer in the future of VR, you can not deny that 2016 was a significant step for the concept to fully realize its potential.

PC progress to the living room is at a stalemate

The PC players themselves did not lose anything with the steam engines falling flat. Instead, what we learned was that SteamOS is still a work in progress and the PC-living room market is still limited.

Microsoft will continue to dominate PC operating systems in the foreseeable future and a unification between its console and the PC platform is a simplified view for games. With cross-buy implementation between the Xbox and Windows 10 games and Project Scorpio's announcement, it looks like Microsoft is aiming to take over the role that the steam engines were trying to fill.

The Windows 10 store is not the most intuitive system, and at the moment lacks a formidable library. It has no chance of competing with Steam, but it's good to know that Microsoft's main release will hit the PC. Nor is it unlikely to think that Microsoft is relegating to Xbox to be a closed-system version of a gaming PC.

Sony's PlayStation service made a startling appearance on the PC this year. It is a subscription-based service that allows users to stream PS3 games to their device. While it is exciting to see this progress made, PS Now only offers a limited library of games from a generation ago, some of which already have superior PC versions. However, it sets a precedent and PC gamers have the option of playing games like the Uncharted series and The Last of Us.

Other Highlights:

Mods have been and always will be a significant part of PC games. XCOM 2 received some extravagant mods, and Fallout 4 of 2015 continued to increase its library of mods. Fallout: The Frontier, a complete conversion mod from New Vegas, released a new trailer this year and showed promise of a unique Fallout experience. And with the release of Skyrim: Special Edition, the modding mania behind Skyrim has been revitalized.

Established EVGA hardware manufacturer had a bit of a merge. Their GTX 1080, 1070 and 1060 video cards were susceptible to overheating, causing a fire in users' systems. It has been remedied by an update of the VBIOS, preventing the hardware from operating at extremely high temperatures.

Vulkan launched in 2016, a low-profile graphics API in the spirit of OpenGL. Announced under CPU usage to boost performance. Some games already have the support of Vulkan, like Doom, DOTA 2 and The Talos Principle.

The GNU / Linux operating system is gaining more support than ever from high profile games: Street Fighter V, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Total War: Warhammer and XCOM 2 to name a few.

Verdict

The highs topped the lows in 2016. The franchises with a strong PC heritage made exceptional appearances, independent developers continued to make significant games, the strategy genre was rejuvenated and VR is showing promise. If we are evaluating the PC as a gaming platform, it is easy to praise it this year.

We should also expect more in terms of stability and performance in our games. These problems are transferred from year to year, and unless developers push for better optimization, problems will persist.

Despite everything, it was a great year for PC games and the future is bright for the platform.