Why I will always be a PC gamer

People have been decrying the end of the PC as a gaming platform since the original Playstation was released (and probably even before that). Looking at the current generation of titles, it isn't hard to see why; there are precious few AAA PC-exclusive titles, and the power of the current generation of consoles has hit the point where you really can't tell that PC physics/graphics/etc. are "better" without a lot of scrutiny. And the increasing multimedia capability in machines that, even at the high end, are cheaper than a new gaming PC, makes the price gap harder to justify. Hell, you can buy an Xbox 360 for the same price as a new mid-range videocard.

But despite all of this, there is one critical thing PCs have that no console will ever possess: an open platform. The PC is not controlled by any one company, and is sold with the intention that the user will have a very great deal of control over how the hardware and software is used. With the advent of the internet, this capability is, to me, the defining feature of the PC as an entertainment platform. User-made content such as mods, additional levels, new skins, widescreen patches, and more help add longevity to today's titles, and can breathe new life into the classics of yesterday.

As an illustration, let me talk about my current replay of Final Fantasy VII. This is one of the classics of gaming, and yet the PC version is practically the definition of "shitty console port"; the graphical options are severely limited, the music is done in horrible-sounding MIDI, and several areas of the game still bear the Playstation's circle-X-square-triangle button designations. The videos are forced to run off of the CD, leading to some nasty lag in the game when one of the hundreds of FMVs is queued up. Worst of all, the minigames lack a CPU limiter, so on a modern computer, they run so fast as to be unplayable (the motorcycle game can be over in a matter of seconds)! The game was widely panned solely on the basis of this sloppy porting job. And yet, for the PC gamer with an internet connection, some time spent googling, and a bit of patience, the game today is better than the PS1 version!

Fans of this classic, especially the community over at Qhimm, have done marvelous work restoring and enhancing the game. Some quick poking through the registry revealed that the path to the videos can be altered, allowing you to copy and paste the files from the CD to your hard drive, giving instant load times. The old 640x480 max resolution has been obliterated by an ingenious hack that allows for any resolution you could possibly want, even widescreen (albeit of the "black bars on the side" variety). Another program allows you to replace the low quality MIDI music with either the original Playstation music files, or your own set of MP3s (say, a CD rip of the original soundtrack, which sounds gorgeous). Think the game is too easy? There are hard mode mods. Think the 9999 limit is bogus? That can be hacked away. Hate the blocky, no-hand models on the field map? There's a hack to replace the main characters with their battle models, and some players have even started an ambitious project to completely re-make every NPC model with a higher polygon count. There's also a mod that just adds hands. There's even a project to add a full voice script. All this on top of the dozen or so fixes for the shitty porting job. None of these patches requires anything more intimidating than editing a text file or modifying a few registry keys.

There are countless other such hacks, fixes, and projects out there, for a myriad of PC games. Any title with enough fans likely has a similar community out there, keeping their favorite games alive and poking around to find ways to enhance them. This kind of thing simply isn't possible on a closed platform like a console, and it never will be unless Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo want to give up their hardware monopoly (not likely).

And that is why the PC will remain not just a viable platform, but a great one. And also why it will continue to be my platform of choice.