State of Affairs — PC Gaming

Coming up on two years since I purchased my PS3 — the first console I’ve owned since the original Gameboy — I find I’m enjoying gaming more than I had in quite some time. This has me thinking about the current state of gaming on my old platform: PC.

Losing People

Rush into a firefight, dive behind cover and start firing. Nearby one of your squad members is taken down by enemy fire. You keep fighting, and eventually prevail. The area cleared of enemies, your fallen squad mate gets back up, running through an animation, dusting themselves off. In the last few years this has become the standard routine for just about any game with AI helpers tagging along.

But then there are those times in games where, aiming for drama, a character can die, permanently. One of the first encounters with this idea that I can remember was back with the original Rainbow Six. In the second mission of the game, I crafted an elaborate plan of attack, with two squads infiltrating a house where terrorists were holding hostages. My team would take out the guards at the front of the house, while the second AI controlled team would sneak in through the basement. On my command my squad would burst in through the front door at the same time the other squad comes through from behind. The terrorists would be caught in the middle with nowhere to go. Everything was going perfectly until the second squad breached the basement door, charging out into the main room — and without thinking, I shot. The leader of the second squad went down, dead. The plan continued well, with all of the terrorists eliminated in a couple of seconds, the hostages rescued. Except that I only realized afterwards that the leader of my second squad was actually dead. Not getting back up. Gone for the rest of the game. This lent a certain gravity to the rest of the proceedings.