You can’t just expect to press the power button on your PC and be ready to play a game. Well, unless that game is Minesweeper; if you can’t run that then I don’t know how you’re reading this or why you’re visiting TheSixthAxis in the first place. Today we’re going to take a look at some tools and give you some tips that will help make the experience of playing games on your PC or Mac better and a lot easier.
So, where do we start? Well, you’ll obviously need to know if your PC can actually run a game before you load it up, so here’s the easiest way to work that out:
Can you run it?
Well, can you, punk? SystemRequirementsLab have created a nifty little service that can be accessed from your browser; it taps in to your computer’s brain and checks if it’s able to run a game by analysing the hardware and software you have. This could potentially save you hours of trying to work out if your graphics card is good enough or not. These hours can then be spent playing games. It’s the perfect solution!
What happens if your computer just isn’t running the game properly, even though the CYRI test passed? Well, then you can either close all of the non-essential background tasks manually, or you can try this out:
Game Booster
Every time you want to play a game on your computer (unless it’s Minesweeper), you should open up Game Booster and Click (X) to Boost; you’ll notice that your computer becomes faster than a leopard hunting down a gazelle with a motorbike. Okay, this probably won’t happen unless you’ve got thousands of background programs, but it definitely frees up a bit more RAM. It has other uses, too, such as keeping you up to date with the latest game drivers and essentials, as well as tweaking your system for top performance.
Now, what if you can’t find those games on your computer and you have no idea where to buy them? Then there’s only one solution:
Steam
There’s a lot to be said about Steam (and most of it can be found here) so instead of rewriting that article, here’s one word to describe Steam: essential.
What happens when you’ve played every game on Steam, then? Yes, all of them. What do you do? Well, you expand the games you have, of course:
Mods
Mods can range from anything from something simple like a new gun to a decent map, or even a full new campaign. Some people go all out and combine these all into one to create a new expansion for a game. There are some great examples out there and many PC games support these. We’re not going to go off on a tangent about mods but stick around and we’ll make sure to discuss the best ones at some point in the near future.
Maybe you’ll want to show everyone what you’re playing, rather than just your friends on Steam. Well, there are a couple of services that encourage sharing and help to make PC gaming easier:
Sharing
Firstly, Raptr is a tool that tracks your progress in games and allows you to share this with the world. It updates your twitter, Facebook, Raptr whenever you go to play a game and can be very useful for when you want to spam twitter, explaining what you’ve accomplished in a game. Meanwhile, Xfire is a tool that shows your Xfire friends which game you’re playing and which server you are on, allowing the friend to join you. It’s also an instant messaging system that works in-game. Other features include clans, the ability to take screenshots and videos in supported games and stream your games to the masses.
We’ve barely scratched the surface here; but these are the most useful things for making gaming on your PC or Mac better and easier. Of course, we’re not just going to stop it here without discussing a few of them:
The Others
Steam may have built-in voice chat, but we’ve found that TeamSpeak has a lot more options and is simply better, if you’re really into good quality voice chat whilst gaming. There’s a useful tool called Fraps, which not only allows you to record HD videos (only for 30 seconds and you’ll be stuck with a watermark in the free version, however) and take screenshots in any game (although, you’ll be stuck with the BMP format in the free version) but also allows you to check how well your PC is coping, with an FPS count displayed in the top corner.
So, there you have it. You should now have the best tools for a good gaming experience. Sure, your PC might not have the best hardware but we’ll make sure to set aside some time to talk about that, too.
Do you have any other tips, tricks or tools for playing games on your computer? Let us know in the comments below.
beeje13
I have a tip: don’t run folding@home while playing PC games lol.
Aprt from that, very good guide to begginner PC gamers, it really is that simple, although for uber simplicity you still can’t beat consoles.
gazzagb
The SystemRequirementsLab CYRI link doesn’t seem to work btw.
Steam really is amazing, it pretty much covers all my PC gaming needs although I don’t PC game that often.
colmshan1990
Well, it should be http://www.canirunit.com
Pretty handy little gadget.
G_The_Enemy14
That is pretty handy actually, will save a lot of time!
cam the man
That links working. just tried it, will be very useful.
gazzagb
Cheers!
MrSpeedyGonzales
haha I went on systemrequirementslab (after googling it as the link doesn’t work) and basically no games run on my comp lol
PoorPaddy89
A very nice article! Having bought a phat-assed pc in the summer I can finally play new pc games without too much hassle. Ironically though I can’t get some older games to work. I want to play KotOR!
tom316
I’ve recently started playing this again :) and yes it’s a pain to run, but worth it when it works.
Ben
Anybody have any thoughts about OnLive? With that you can just press a button and be playing any game straight away.
MrSpeedyGonzales
My flat mate’s been using it and if they can get some more games on it, it looks like a console killer. Graphics don’t depend on your system and there doesn’t seem to be any lag even though the UK don’t technically have onlive yet. If the mini console comes out here I think I’ll probably be getting.
topgear
Onlive isn’t there yet, the 1080p quality is atrocious on a 10mb virgin broadband, graphics aren’t as clean as a dedicated pc like mine, I got 2 gaming pc’s, one costed me £1300 and the other was a budget pc that I decided to make for the hell of it and it costed me £500. The performance difference wasn’t that big as found that the GPU makes a way bigger difference than cpu or ram.
Onlive is also a ripoff.
– $30(roughly £20) for a full game to play for how long you want, the only problem is you do not own the game so if onlive decide to pull the plug 2-3 years later then you are out of pocket.
Yes you may think who plays games 2-3 after they have came out then you are very wrong, crysis warhead came out in 06 and I still play it to this day, I bought Battlefield 2 in 06 and I also play it to this very day :)
topgear
*2-3 years
Ben
I too play many games for years after they’ve been released if they are brilliant and of course OnLive isn’t perfect and will never be the same as having a dedicated gaming pc set-up. I do however feel that it offers something that may be really useful to even those with the most powerful gaming pc. That is demos for games, with OnLive you can quite literally jump straight into the demo without having to go through the usual download, install, loading… with it’s associated time and effort. It’s great how you can quite literally jump in and out of the games and try them out.
cam the man
The main problem with onlive is if you loose your broadband connection you cannot play games.
mynameisblair
Thought of including this, but I’ve not had enough time to check it out.
bunimomike
Great article. Echoing the guys, the link doesn’t work. Still, will try the proper link right now. Also, TeamSpeak 3 is utterly fantastic for anyone considering it. If I’m not mistaken you can even run a “server” yourself if you have the bandwidth and there’s only a handful of you.
Steam’s in-game chat needs detaching from game volume and also bumping up in (codec) quality. Other than that, I love Steam and all that it does.
DrNate86
I’m quite tempted to get one of those slim PCs you plug into your telly so I can game on that, not had a decent PC for ages!
E8_BALL_
“why you’re visiting TheSixthAxis in the first place”
im a ps3 only member & i visit at least twice a day
mynameisblair
That was a simple jest about Minesweeper.
I hope you can run that, otherwise it would be very hard to get onto this site! :)
DJ Judas
Don’t forget to check your Vid card drivers too, the newest version often has many tweaks to games both new and old.
Also if you’re comfortable checking around in your bios, have a check of the settings, depending on your CPU you may benefit from activating/deactivating things like Speedstep.
If you’re wanting to do some nice easy overclocking of your gfx card then give RivaTuner a try……but take a look at a guide first, and whatever you do don’t whack your core speed straight up to 1337mhz.
Take a look in your individual game settings too, tweaking the options that tend to kill your FPS first and find a happy medium between visual quality and performance. Lower shadows, HDR/Bloom lighting, ambient occlusion and other light-based settings first, then try tweaking the games shader settings. Also, know how much VRAM your gfx card has, and adjust the texture resolution in-game accordingly, if you’re struggling for VRAM then lower the res settings. Take a look at GPUz to see your GFX load and VRAM usage.
DJ Judas
And another thing is don’t be afraid to ask! :)
There’s a ton of things that can be done to tweak your individual computer, and if you’re having trouble with anything then there are many places and people that will be happy to help.
JaffaMan24
and all that is the reason I gave up with the relentless world of PC gaming/upgrading and got a PS3. Insert disc, play.
DJ Judas
You don’t have to do all that, but the options are there.
For those that enjoy playing with settings it’s perfect to have the freedom to do so.
JaffaMan24
I couldn’t agree more DJ Judas – the freedom and potential is brilliant. However, for me personally, I couldn’t afford to keep up and got fed up of spending hours tweaking settings. Which is why I went to consoles (PS3) in the end.
DJ Judas
I understand completely, I have my times when I just can’t be bothered to keep up any more, and I’ll stop keeping up to date for a few months or even a year, but I always end up coming back :)
I can’t really relax while gaming on PC, that’s what lounging on the sofa with a console’s for!
topgear
Not if you have an ATI GPU, catalyst 10.4 delivered the best fps, the new drivers are S**T!
Jim H [Teabags]
Great article. I’m someone who has always been an on/off PC gamer who literally knows nothing about how to upgrade their system. However, I recently got a med-spec laptop for £420 (refurb) which runs LOTRO and BLC nicely.