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gaming PC gaming: Much harder for 3rd parties to ignore?


SaburoDaimando

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Lately, I've been noticing a trend of current and upcoming Console games being ported to the PC.  Some games that have been available for Consoles and have already hit the PC, or will hit the PC, like Brutal Legends, Mortal Kombat 9, Injustice: Gods Among Us, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Tomb Raider 2013, Wolfenstein: the New Order, Watch Dogs, Titanfall, Castlevania: Lord of Shadows, Ikaruga, Ultra Street Fighter IV, Dead Rising 3, Ryse: Son of Rome, Final Fantasy XIII and Middle-Earth: Shadows of Mordor.

 

And it's not just currently released games, upcoming games like Destiny, Grand Theft Auto V, Metal Gear Solid V, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris, Batman: Arkham Knight, Battleborn, Battlefield: Hardline, Dead or Alive 5, Dragonball Xenoverse, Mortal Kombat X, Evolve, Hellraid, Runemaster, Resident Evil Revelations 2, and Space Hulk: Deathwing will not just be hitting Consoles, but also the PC. 

 

I'm beginning to wonder if 3rd Parties prefer to develop on a PC rather than a Console?  Since the success of Steam, more and more digital storefronts are popping up.  EA has Origin, Ubisoft has Ubiplay(Bleh), we also have Green Man Gaming, GoG, Desura and the likes.  And even more so, the PC is capable of Backwards compatibility compared to the XBone and PS4(Which nether system has).  So if I were to buy a new Computer, I can still play many of my games(Especially on Steam and GoG).

 

What do you all think?  Has the console scene become less interesting compared to the PC scene?

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I have been a PC gamer for almost 20 years to and tend to only purchase consoles long after the price has gone down.  What can a say, superior hardware, superior internet, almost complete backward compatibility with other PCs and even old consoles (go emulators), cheaper software, modable software, better control of your system and down right better exclusive games (Civilization V, Master of Magic, etc.)  It is time to join the PC Master Race.  You know you want to.

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Far from it actually, the reason third parties "port" a game to PC is because the game was already made ON the PC. Grant there are other factors but that is the primary thing that it all revolves around. 

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Unfortunately, everything is not good with PC gaming. First, developers do not develop for the PC, they develop the games for the console and then port it to PC. If it is done right, the game works fine. However, if the developers do not care (Rockstar, for example), the game just does not work on PC.

 

I remember GTA IV and the dozens of patches which I had to download to make it work.

 

Next, a PC is indeed more powerful but it comes at a much higher cost. The graphics card for example is as expensive as a whole console. Furthermore, due to a lot of different specifications, it is in fact much easier to develop a game on console, since all consoles have exactly the same specs. When you buy a game on console, it is guaranteed to work. If it does not work for you, it does not work for anyone and so the developers have to do something. The same does not hold true for PC.

 

Next, a game console is much easier to use. You do not get those annoying errors and crashes when you install the game.

 

I also heard someone talking about emulators earlier. They are indeed an advantage. Unfortunately, the way people use it means that it is illegal.

 

Take the PS2 emulator as an example. In order to make it work, you have to have two things. First, the BIOS and next, the ROM of the game. Downloading either of the two (even if you own it) is illegal but it is what most people do. This is because extracting your own BIOS from the console is hard and takes time. As for old emulators and abandonwares, the notion of abandonwares is still subject to debate. Even if the company no longer exists, the different parts of the game (music, graphics, etc) will belong to their respective owners and this will be for 70 years after their deaths. The reason why abandonwares are tolerated is because companies do not bother in engaging legal actions for a game from which they do not get any benefits anymore.

 

Finally, the big problem with PC gaming is downloading pirate games. Developers lose money because of that, so most of them first earn profit from their console sales and then port it to PC at a later date.

 

EDIT : I am not used to typing long posts like this, so if I missed anything, please let me know....

Edited by boiteporte
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Next, a PC is indeed more powerful but it comes at a much higher cost. The graphics card for example is as expensive as a whole console.

 

No kidding! I could buy like three and a half Wii U's for the price of a custom-built PC (that means significantly cheaper than name brand) just to properly run a "low-end" outdated game like The Sims 3 at maximum settings.

 

That's absurd. PC gaming master race my behind. Maybe if you're rich or your entire life revolves around PC gaming. Which mine most certainly doesn't. The Sims series (aside from The Sims 4, which is not worth investing in) is quite a compelling series for me alone that simply doesn't translate well to consoles, but ultimately the consoles have the great vast wealth of franchises for me. I buy a Nintendo console I get Zelda, Pokemon, Super Smash Bros., Animal Crossing, Mario (in all of its various spin-offs), etc., etc. I buy a PC I get...The Sims, and there is no chance in hell that I'm looking into other PC gaming series when I already have to spend $1000 to get a non-branded one that runs The Sims 3 - I repeat, a last-generation, outdated, and "low-end" PC game, perfectly. A branded one would cost more than my oboe did. Nuh uh, no way am I ever spending that on a piece of technology that is perpetually outdated the day it is released.

 

PC gaming is a curse, and I'm so happy that EA blew it with The Sims 4, so I can finally just get a PC to run TS3 and TS2 perfectly and just forget about PC gaming beyond them.

Edited by Envy
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I buy a Nintendo console I get Zelda, Pokemon, Super Smash Bros., Animal Crossing, Mario (in all of its various spin-offs), etc., etc. I buy a PC I get...The Sims, and there is no chance in hell that I'm looking into other PC gaming series when I already have to spend $1000 to get a non-branded one that runs The Sims 3 - I repeat, a last-generation, outdated, and "low-end" PC game, perfectly.

 

There is far more to PC gaming than the Sims.   Civilization Series, Master of Orion 2, Ultima Series, Fallout Series, Deus Ex Series, Baldur's Gate Series, Master of Magic, etc.  Lots and lots of rich detailed games out there, you got far more than the Sims to look forward to.  Especially if your playing Nintendo's heavily recycled series.  Mario peaked at Mario 3 for the NES, Zelda at Link to the Past for the SNES, the original Super Smash Bros for the N64, and Pokemon as never been anything but a crippled version of Final Fantasy.  Don't worry about maxing out the settings, the gameplay is the true advantage of PC games, and you can run almost anything on a sub $1000 budget if you spend your money wisely.  Come, join the PC gamer master race.

 

_wallpaper__glorious_pc_gaming_master_ra

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Another reason for developers and players to hate PC: If you add online multiplayer you will always get a ton of hackers and modders. And the second one person figures out how to do it you'll have every ten year old on the planet learning how to do it from a YouTube video.

 

Granted it's doable on console, but it's nowhere near as easy as it is on PC.

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I'm totally ignoring PC right now because 80% of the games are on consoles. All the best JRPG are console based.

Square-Enix wants to bring their RPGs to the PC and will be releasing Final Fantasy XIII on Steam next month with a strong possibility of XV if XIII does well, and III, IV, VII and VIII have already been released on Steam. In addition, where did this 80% statistic come from? Because, frankly, the PC has more games than any console - it's estimated to be around 19000-something games. In comparison, the average console has around 600 - 1200 games during its lifespan, with the PS2 having over 3000.

 

Unfortunately, everything is not good with PC gaming. First, developers do not develop for the PC, they develop the games for the console and then port it to PC. If it is done right, the game works fine. However, if the developers do not care (Rockstar, for example), the game just does not work on PC.

 

I remember GTA IV and the dozens of patches which I had to download to make it work.

 

Next, a PC is indeed more powerful but it comes at a much higher cost. The graphics card for example is as expensive as a whole console. Furthermore, due to a lot of different specifications, it is in fact much easier to develop a game on console, since all consoles have exactly the same specs. When you buy a game on console, it is guaranteed to work. If it does not work for you, it does not work for anyone and so the developers have to do something. The same does not hold true for PC.

 

Next, a game console is much easier to use. You do not get those annoying errors and crashes when you install the game.

 

I also heard someone talking about emulators earlier. They are indeed an advantage. Unfortunately, the way people use it means that it is illegal.

 

Take the PS2 emulator as an example. In order to make it work, you have to have two things. First, the BIOS and next, the ROM of the game. Downloading either of the two (even if you own it) is illegal but it is what most people do. This is because extracting your own BIOS from the console is hard and takes time. As for old emulators and abandonwares, the notion of abandonwares is still subject to debate. Even if the company no longer exists, the different parts of the game (music, graphics, etc) will belong to their respective owners and this will be for 70 years after their deaths. The reason why abandonwares are tolerated is because companies do not bother in engaging legal actions for a game from which they do not get any benefits anymore.

 

Finally, the big problem with PC gaming is downloading pirate games. Developers lose money because of that, so most of them first earn profit from their console sales and then port it to PC at a later date.

 

EDIT : I am not used to typing long posts like this, so if I missed anything, please let me know....

So much misinformation.

 

ALL game development is done on the PC. The Xbox 360, PS3, PS4 and Xbox One would all die if you tried compiling a game on them. So, what do developers use? High-end workstation PCs. In addition, GTA V reportedly began development for the PC in 2012 - the PS4 and Xbox One versions didn't begin development until much later, and even though the PC version is coming out later it's still technically the lead version of the remastered game.

 

One bad port =/= all ports are bad. In fact, a lot of the ports I've played recently are actually pretty good.

 

The cost of entry for PC gaming seems high, but this is increasingly becoming not true. Here's an entry-level build I put together earlier today. "Well, why not a higher-end PC, won't you get better everything out of that?" Well, yes, but it still provides a great starting point and, as of right now, offers upgrade paths to the Intel Core i7-4790K, 16GB RAM GTX 980. Also, PC gaming is increasingly becoming not about having the best graphics, but rather having the best experience, even at the cost of graphics or resolution. Also, the GTX 750 Ti, an entry-level 1080p-optimized card, is $150 - not quite the cost of a whole console. Further, there's this thing called the Hardware Abstraction Layer - look it up. What it means is that you do not need to test to make sure that your game works on as many hardware configs as possible because it thinks it's all the same. All you have to do, really, is optimize your code to allow the game to run better.

 

Consoles have no problems? So things like these never happen on consoles? And what happens if, say, the disc drive on your Xbox or PS4 breaks down? You have to send the damn thing to Sony or Microsoft. If the disc drive on your PC breaks? ...wait, PCs have disc drives? But anyway, if you use that antiquated media with your PC and the ODD breaks, you can just run to the store and buy a new one.

 

Not every console requires you need a BIOS to run it, usually just disc-based ones. But you are right about the BIOS files being illegal to obtain and abandonware being a legal gray area.

 

Things like Steam, Origin and cheaper games have made piracy even less of a problem on the PC. Further, many PC gamers only pirate to test out a game if there's no demo; if they like it, they usually buy it later on. And are you implying that piracy's not a problem on the consoles? Really? Because a researcher at Intel did an independent study and found that piracy is 3x worse on consoles.

 

Another reason for developers and players to hate PC: If you add online multiplayer you will always get a ton of hackers and modders. And the second one person figures out how to do it you'll have every ten year old on the planet learning how to do it from a YouTube video.

 

Granted it's doable on console, but it's nowhere near as easy as it is on PC.

The last hacker I encountered on the PC was in... 2010. On consoles, towards the end of my time on Xbox Live I swear there was some guy hacking every other game.

 

I used to believe what was said in the second and third posts I quoted too, but I looked beyond the bullshit. I found the truth. PC is nowhere near as bad as console gamers make it out to be. Instead, it's better, and I can't see myself going back to one of those damned closed ecosystem-based, watered-down wannabe PCs sold on lies, sugar-coating and hype. With Sony likely to go bankrupt in two years and Microsoft reportedly preparing for an Xbox-free future, if you ask me the PC has a much better future than the consoles do. So, really, why would you limit yourself to closed, underpowered, anti-consumer toys that will likely be dead in a few years when you could have the freedom, expansion and versatility - as well as the brighter future - that a PC provides?

 

 

PS: Consoles may have exclusive games, but the PC has exclusive genres.

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more people use the PC then anything so probably but I'd rather game on my Xbox it has a much better feel sitting back holding a controller then using keys and a mouse but there are some games that are exclusive to that console, so PC doesn't get all the fun

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There are so many things wrong with this comment

 

What can I say, I played one of the pokemon games a while back and was far from impressed.  Much like Final Fantasy, you would wander around and get randomly thrown into battles.  The underlying mechanics were remarkably similar to FF, that being menu driven turn based combat with a absence of any kind of spatial tactical grid or arrangement and an emphasis on elemental powers and weaknesses.  The only difference was this was one on one as opposed to group on group, further simplifying an already simplistic combat system.  It is not like the FF combat system was the deepest to begin with, especially if you compare it against something like Baldur's Gate or Ultima 5.  Hence the crippled version of FF comment.  Although I suppose you could compare other aspects of the game, such as the story, but I highly doubt Pokemon's story is going to hold up to the the likes of FF6 or FF7. 

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PC gaming is a curse, and I'm so happy that EA blew it with The Sims 4, so I can finally just get a PC to run TS3 and TS2 perfectly and just forget about PC gaming beyond them.
 Also, one developer not making one PC game right =/= PC gaming is dying. If anything, PC gaming is the danger.
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First I just want to say all games are (likely) developed on what you would call a "pc". Secondly, there are AWFUL misconceptions about prices, while a PC is likely to be a bit more than your console short term, it's actually worth it. And there are far more games out on PC than "The Sims". I actually don't know anyone who plays that.

 

Something that's on console too; Minecraft, has a near infinite map on PC and can be loaded with as many mods as you could ever dream of assuming they're compatible. Same with Skyrim and GTA. Then there's Battlefield which you do not need to run on the "super swag ultra h1gh (lol 420) settings". I am a former comp player of Battlefield, and I played on 800x600. Why? I always get 200 FPS, the recoil seems lower, the movement is smoother, and it's far easier to initially aim at people. This is something you could do on a 2009 Toshiba Satellite. So no, you do not need a super awesome 1337 PC that costs you your life savings to play a game well. You only do that for eye candy, and if you want eye candy then you should be prepared to spend a lot anyways. A $1200 build now will get you by for about 3 years and even then all you'll need to replace most likely is 1 or 2 things (I doubt you'll spend more than another $600) unless we are introduced to more virtual reality (what the market is seeming to aim for)  

 

They say that in the PC world, parts do go by really quickly. But you do not NEED to keep upgrading. You don't need to go from a 660 to a 670. You can hold off entirely on those and wait until the 770 is the same price that your 660 was and then buy it. Because yes, it does go fast, but you do not NEED to be a part of that. You choose to. 

 

More on topic! Of course companies are looking more towards PC. PC gaming is definitely more promising, at least at the moment, and I believe that it will be introduced to the full line of virtual reality products first simply because the technology and competition would really just force it out faster than Microsoft or Sony can construct a new console. 

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They say that in the PC world, parts do go by really quickly. But you do not NEED to keep upgrading. You don't need to go from a 660 to a 670. You can hold off entirely on those and wait until the 770 is the same price that your 660 was and then buy it. Because yes, it does go fast, but you do not NEED to be a part of that. You choose to.
 More on this, Intel's maxed out their CPU performance and AMD is close to doing the same, so any future CPU upgrades are evolutionary rather than revolutionary. There's no real need to upgrade your CPU anymore unless you want more motherboard features.
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PC gaming is a curse, and I'm so happy that EA blew it with The Sims 4, so I can finally just get a PC to run TS3 and TS2 perfectly and just forget about PC gaming beyond them.

I doubt that TS4 is going to be the next ET. With the huge success of Steam and the ability to pick up all these great games for cheap and not having to dig around shops or Ebay, I really doubt it's going anywhere tongue.png You gotta look at the whole Steam catalog of games and remind yourself that all of these have sold at least once - and that's a pretty huge catalog.

 

Oh, and about the expensive thing.I was able to run these graphics on P4 with 1GB RAM. My computer at the time of that screenshot was from 2003, and that game is from 2010. It doesn't cost nearly as much as you're making it out to cost :please:

 

 

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yeah, I'm waiting for patches, an expansion pack or two, and a price drop for TS4 before I buy it and see if it will be worth the purchase. Really, I need to get into PC gaming again, but given the PC I have is nearly four years old, and I'm not good with building PCs in general, I'll wait and see if there're PC games that catch my eye.

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yeah, I'm waiting for patches, an expansion pack or two, and a price drop for TS4 before I buy it and see if it will be worth the purchase. Really, I need to get into PC gaming again, but given the PC I have is nearly four years old, and I'm not good with building PCs in general, I'll wait and see if there're PC games that catch my eye.

Don't worry about how hard it is to build a PC! Building these days has become very straight-forward, almost like building with Lego, and if that analogy doesn't work for you there are plenty of build guides on YouTube.

 

Come home, brother, rise and join the battle again.

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To anybody who thinks PC gaming is super expensive: http://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/wiki/builds

 

Scroll down to "next gen crusher" to see a PC build that easily trumps both PS4 and XB1 for less than $450.
Keep scrolling and find a build so far ahead of current gen consoles that it's hilarious for ~$800.

 

Anybody who thinks game sales don't make PC considerably cheaper over time as well, check out this glorious subreddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/GameDeals/.

Oh hey, just going to go buy all the Counterstrikes, Half-Lifes, Left 4 Deads, Portals, TF2, and a few others for $25. Maybe I'll grab Bioshock Infinite for $7.50... oh wait, I already have it because it was in a Humble Bundle, along with Bioshock 1+2, Civ 5, Borderlands and all of the XCOM series for $20.

 

 

Also, mods. Oh sweet merciful Jesus, mods. Something wrong with the game? Change it to your liking. I don't like how allies get in the way when trying to run down narrow halls... bam, got a mod that makes them automatically start backing up when you run into them. Didn't like how so many items are useless... oh hey, mod that powers them up. Wait, now they're overpowered... no problem, just open up the file myself and tweak some numbers. Now things are balanced. You know, my PC can run way higher than the requirements of this game, gonna download a high quality models/textures mod. There we go, now all the pixels in my 1080p monitor are doing something at 60 frames per second, with more shading, anti-aliasing and V-sync than a console could dream of.

 

I'm running ~80 mods on Morrowind right now, ~40 on Fallout New Vegas, and ~50 on Skyrim. If something bugs me, I find or make a mod to change it. That's as near to a perfect gaming experience as one can get. On consoles, you have to wait for the next DLC and hope it has something kinda close to what you want.

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ALL game development is done on the PC.

 

Of course it is. I said that the games were developed FOR the consoles (not on them) and then ported on PC. 

 

EDIT  : About the price thing, I paid over 1000 British Pounds for my PC. For me, the gaming experience means the best graphics possible even on the most demanding games plus 3D experience. All this comes at a cost.

 

Agreed, it might not be true for everyone.

 

EDIT 2 : I sincerely hope this thread is not going to become a PC vs consoles debate. Both have their pros and cons, etc.

Edited by boiteporte
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Really, the only problem with pc games is they get like no press. That and the nasty habit of getting a big name console game, like, a decade later... Even now, I still get the feel that they get a lot of second-hand treatment from developers and press alike.

 

EDIT 2 : I sincerely hope this thread is not going to become a PC vs consoles debate. Both have their pros and cons, etc.

 

That always happens; it's practically inevitable as soon as someone mentions console and pc in the same sentence

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There is far more to PC gaming than the Sims.   Civilization Series, Master of Orion 2, Ultima Series, Fallout Series, Deus Ex Series, Baldur's Gate Series, Master of Magic, etc.  Lots and lots of rich detailed games out there, you got far more than the Sims to look forward to.  Especially if your playing Nintendo's heavily recycled series.  Mario peaked at Mario 3 for the NES, Zelda at Link to the Past for the SNES, the original Super Smash Bros for the N64, and Pokemon as never been anything but a crippled version of Final Fantasy.  Don't worry about maxing out the settings, the gameplay is the true advantage of PC games, and you can run almost anything on a sub $1000 budget if you spend your money wisely.  Come, join the PC gamer master race.

 

img-3113876-1-_wallpaper__glorious_pc_ga

That "PC Master Race" joke is so stupid, and FYI it's exactly why I made the post I did. It's because of the snobbery of the PC gaming community that I decided to make my post, otherwise I would have just let it be.

 

The recycled content argument is just a flat out bad argument. I don't even want to hear it. Each and every company for each and every platform is guilty of it. This argument just makes me think of the console "fanboys" that you all complain about. They use that very same argument to put down each other's companies. Just stop.

 

I made one and only one claim of fact in my post, and that was that PC gaming is too expensive. Me talking about The Sims and my preference for Nintendo consoles and games was not a stating of fact, it was my opinion. Yet you ignored my claim and went on to attack my opinions.

 

What little you did address it with... Um... I kind of actually *did* need an expensive PC to run The Sims 3. The game will lag horribly if you don't, and it is practically unplayable at that point. I would know, I've dealt with that for five years, and I wasn't going to deal with it anymore. So, no, I really don't care what else the PC has to offer gamingwise. It is not worth the trouble. I'm finally free to enjoy what PC games I do have and not worry about "I probably should have a higher-end graphics card for this..." or actually in my case just hoping that it won't fry my computer.

 

I doubt that TS4 is going to be the next ET. With the huge success of Steam and the ability to pick up all these great games for cheap and not having to dig around shops or Ebay, I really doubt it's going anywhere img-3113979-1-tongue.png You gotta look at the whole Steam catalog of games and remind yourself that all of these have sold at least once - and that's a pretty huge catalog.

I never said anything about The Sims 4 causing PC gaming to fail. I never even said that The Sims 4 itself was going to fail. I said that I had no interest in The Sims 4, because it's not a worthy sequel. When I said EA blew it with The Sims 4, I said they somehow made a sequel that is so bad that it knocked me off.

 

Oh, and about the expensive thing.I was able to run these graphics on P4 with 1GB RAM. My computer at the time of that screenshot was from 2003, and that game is from 2010. It doesn't cost nearly as much as you're making it out to cost :please:

Oh, but it does. I researched what I needed to run The Sims 3 and all Expansion Packs properly, and in order to get that in name-brands, it would cost almost $2000. No joke. When putting together custom parts to do so... It still came out to a little over $1000.

 

Also, one developer not making one PC game right =/= PC gaming is dying. If anything, PC gaming is the danger.

You're putting words in my mouth. I never even implied that PC gaming was in danger.

 

I sincerely hope this thread is not going to become a PC vs consoles debate. Both have their pros and cons, etc.

Yeah... My apologies if that occurs. I, for one, fully understand that both have their pros and cons. However, I'm concerned that the "PC Gaming Master Race" doesn't understand that consoles have their pros.

Edited by Envy
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@Envy, I've founded a system that's a couple hundred even cheaper then the one I suggested, will this do: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/pxTMXL

 

That's nice. I don't mean to brush off your effort here. It's just that I got walked through exactly what I needed by a member of another forum who knows both computers and The Sims and very well. Plus I found a service that will put the pieces together and ship it to me. Thank goodness.

 

The Sims 3 is very poorly coded, therefore it requires a lot to get it running good.

Edited by Envy
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