That's it, I'm buying a console

[Shad]

PC gaming is dead to me.

I've had a mild interest in Dirt 2 for a while so I fired up Steam (which had to download updates first) and had a look. I didn't fancy paying £29.99 up front so opted to install the demo first. Steam set about taking care of that for me (I have to say I do like Steam, it's a fantastic system, I've used it since HL2).

I was also looking at the Hexus news and noted a 10% improvement with Dirt 2 for Radeon 4800 series cards, so decided to upgrade my 10.2 drivers to 10.3. Nice easy to find package on the ATI/AMD site for Server 2008 R2 (aka Windows 7 x64). Install started ok (which is an improvement over the ridiculous VC++ errors I have previously had to deal with which completely nobble the installer) but spent 5 minutes doing god knows what with my multi-monitor setup, eventually landing back to my normal settings minus my primary monitor's background (and some strange corruption when dragging items on the desktop).

The Catalyst install completed ok but because of the desktop thing I decided to reboot as a precaution (although there was no prompt to do so). When the system came back up I was welcomed by an error from CCC telling me it couldn't find a supported GPU in my system. Fantastic.

Everything else looked ok so I continued to load Steam (no updates this time) and fire up the Dirt 2 demo which had finished downloading before I rebooted. It then spent a minute or two doing something with DirectX (installing, allegedly - although this was already up to date), and then a new installer popped up. Something to do with sound, Blue Ripple Rapture somethingorother, I'd never heard of it anyway. So I followed that through and up popped a dialog for configuring my speakers.

At this point, I was thinking - seriously, what the hell? I already have the Asus drivers taking care of sound and speakers, not to mention DirectX and a myriad of other APIs available. Although I appeared to be able to position the speakers in this new tool, that didn't work. So I cancelled out and left it alone.

Back to Steam. I clicked play on Dirt 2. Nothing happened. I clicked play again. Still nothing. So I tried creating a desktop shortcut. That didn't work either.

So I've just wasted half an hour of my life dicking about just trying to run a demo which should have just worked. Ok so perhaps half of this could have been avoided by not updating the display drivers, but frankly that should have just worked too. For one thing this has put me off bothering with Dirt 2. But it's also reminded me why I very rarely bother with games at all. I just want it to bloody work! Is that too much to ask?!?!

So for that reason, I'm out. Time to buy a console.

[format]

[cleaverlch]

PC gaming is dead to me.

I've had a mild interest in Dirt 2 for a while so I fired up Steam (which had to download updates first) and had a look. I didn't fancy paying £29.99 up front so opted to install the demo first. Steam set about taking care of that for me (I have to say I do like Steam, it's a fantastic system, I've used it since HL2).

I was also looking at the Hexus news and noted a 10% improvement with Dirt 2 for Radeon 4800 series cards, so decided to upgrade my 10.2 drivers to 10.3. Nice easy to find package on the ATI/AMD site for Server 2008 R2 (aka Windows 7 x64). Install started ok (which is an improvement over the ridiculous VC++ errors I have previously had to deal with which completely nobble the installer) but spent 5 minutes doing god knows what with my multi-monitor setup, eventually landing back to my normal settings minus my primary monitor's background (and some strange corruption when dragging items on the desktop).

The Catalyst install completed ok but because of the desktop thing I decided to reboot as a precaution (although there was no prompt to do so). When the system came back up I was welcomed by an error from CCC telling me it couldn't find a supported GPU in my system. Fantastic.

Everything else looked ok so I continued to load Steam (no updates this time) and fire up the Dirt 2 demo which had finished downloading before I rebooted. It then spent a minute or two doing something with DirectX (installing, allegedly - although this was already up to date), and then a new installer popped up. Something to do with sound, Blue Ripple Rapture somethingorother, I'd never heard of it anyway. So I followed that through and up popped a dialog for configuring my speakers.

At this point, I was thinking - seriously, what the hell? I already have the Asus drivers taking care of sound and speakers, not to mention DirectX and a myriad of other APIs available. Although I appeared to be able to position the speakers in this new tool, that didn't work. So I cancelled out and left it alone.

Back to Steam. I clicked play on Dirt 2. Nothing happened. I clicked play again. Still nothing. So I tried creating a desktop shortcut. That didn't work either.

So I've just wasted half an hour of my life dicking about just trying to run a demo which should have just worked. Ok so perhaps half of this could have been avoided by not updating the display drivers, but frankly that should have just worked too. For one thing this has put me off bothering with Dirt 2. But it's also reminded me why I very rarely bother with games at all. I just want it to bloody work! Is that too much to ask?!?!

So for that reason, I'm out. Time to buy a console.

Ever bothered checking the error logs that you can find in the administrative tools?

[finlay666]

<long story about not being able to run a game on a server OS>
So for that reason, I'm out. Time to buy a console.

tl;dr

[Shad]

Ever bothered checking the error logs that you can find in the administrative tools?

You're missing the point. Why doesn't it just work? It should *just* work. I'm sure the answer is buried away somewhere in a log or a forum post on some board out there. I'm sure it's all fixable (maybe even avoidable) given the time or inclination.

But I have neither right now; I just wanted to play the game. I used to loathe consoles for their inferior graphics and high game prices - but now it's clear that that is the price for convenience, and it's a price worth paying.


As for using a server OS, perhaps this does have a bearing on things. But I've reaped the benefits since XP x64 (which was really Server 2003 x64) and have had systems with all the usual nice bits from the home OSs along side the benefits of a server OS for my work.

In any case, as far as I'm concerned it should still just work. Games shouldn't have dependencies on the name on the box as long as things like DirectX are present and correct.

[Jay]

why are you running R2? Just get 7 x64 and stop running games on a server OS.

[finlay666]

As for using a server OS, perhaps this does have a bearing on things. But I've reaped the benefits since XP x64 (which was really Server 2003 x64) and have had systems with all the usual nice bits from the home OSs along side the benefits of a server OS for my work.

In any case, as far as I'm concerned it should still just work. Games shouldn't have dependencies on the name on the box as long as things like DirectX are present and correct.

XP x64 is not really Server 2003 x64, Server 2008 x64 is not really Windows Vista/ Windows 7

So you bought an unsupported OS and expect your games to just work? I'll start running Crysis on an Itanium server then shall I? After all it's a CPU just different architecture so should run right?

[jim]

Should've bought a Mac.

No, wait...

[finlay666]

Should've bought a Mac.

No, wait...

At least he could run the games via bootcamp, unless he chose to install Server 2ksomething instead of xp/vista/W7

[Noxvayl]

Got to agree with finlay666, server OS's are for servers... it's in the name. Gaming orientated features are not present and shouldn't be, it's a SERVER OS

[Haiku32]

Since when has pc gaming ever "just worked"? That's just not going to happen when you are almost never going to find a pc which has the exact same hardware and software as another pc. With a console, they build the game to work on specific hardware. They know exactly what their limits and constraints are and they work with those. The fact that pc gaming is as simple as it is right now is pretty amazing when you think about it. Don't bitch about pc gaming because of some bad experiences with getting games to work.

[finlay666]

Since when has pc gaming ever "just worked"? That's just not going to happen when you are almost never going to find a pc which has the exact same hardware and software as another pc. With a console, they build the game to work on specific hardware. They know exactly what their limits and constraints are and they work with those. The fact that pc gaming is as simple as it is right now is pretty amazing when you think about it. Don't bitch about pc gaming because of some bad experiences with getting games to work.

He isn't trying to play games on a PC though, he is trying to do it on a server, with a different set of libraries, kernel and security patterns, not to mention different drivers etc

[Shad]

Since when has pc gaming ever "just worked"? That's just not going to happen when you are almost never going to find a pc which has the exact same hardware and software as another pc. With a console, they build the game to work on specific hardware. They know exactly what their limits and constraints are and they work with those. The fact that pc gaming is as simple as it is right now is pretty amazing when you think about it. Don't bitch about pc gaming because of some bad experiences with getting games to work.

I agree it's never been easy. A lot of things in computing have been difficult and problems are solved over time. And yet attempting to play a game is still a minefield. Where's the progress? The point I'm making is that for the casual gamer that just wants to jump into a game for half an hour, a PC is utterly useless.

And for the love of god, stop focusing on the server OS point. If that is the cause of the Dirt 2 demo not running, then it's the first game I've tried to play in the last 5 years that hasn't worked. I have to assume you don't have any experience whatsoever with using a server OS on the desktop otherwise you'd know you have no argument. In fact, why not have a look here and here at the list of known working games, an then tell me games don't work.

Still of the belief that Windows XP x64 isn't just Server 2003 x64 with bells and whistles? This is just one Microsoft document that a quick Google search showed up that places them side by side.

Now, this discussion is gravely off-topic. My point, as I've said, is that PC gaming is still after all the years, much too difficult and complicated for the casual gamer. Which is exactly where consoles fit in and have the advantage.

[Ciber]

The thing is if you were running windows 7 properly it would have updated the drviers for you with windows update. Normally pretty easy on 7, most things update themselves automatically and, yes, they do just work.

[danroyle]

game runs fine on windows 7 although to be honest mate other than the nice looking graphics. the cars feel like they are sliding on ice the whole time, You haven't missed much.

If your gonna buy a console though ATARI 2600 FTW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jim]

Still of the belief that Windows XP x64 isn't just Server 2003 x64 with bells

No, it is. But it's also a massively gimped OS in my eyes.