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.
gideon1451
I used to be a PC gamer & am thinking about returning to it, for Skyrim’s mods sake.
It’s expensive to get into though :/
icuyesido
Benn looking for a new PC for the last few weeks… great guide MNIB.
Radiitz
The “Can you run it?” Site is great! Many Thanks!
cam the man
And Game Buster. Cheers.
Cappadocius
Go with mumble in stead of Teamspeak. Not only is it totally free – it is also better. With 3D positional audio in most popular games. That means you’ll hear your buddies from the position they have in-game. If teamkiller11 is your squadmate and he just spawned to your right you’ll hear him on your right side.
Cappadocius
Oh. And better sound too. And less delay.. :)
haza103
Must really thank you for this info. I’ve been a PC gamer for almost a year now, but have never heard of GameBooster. Installed it earlier, and my god has it made a difference. Played Splinter Cell Conviction to try it out, and discovered i could bump up the resolution to the max without the game lagging (Where a 1100×800 resolution previously lagged anyway), And it’s a much more enjoyable experience, had a blast playing it as i found it difficult to get into before. Gonna give some other stuff a go later, plus a bit of overclocking, shall be worth it. Seriously though, thankyou, this made my day :)
mynameisblair
Glad I’ve helped you out, that’s what I wanted :)
solidsteven
Great article Blair. if i am going to play PC games, i buy alienware PC would should save me a fey years before having to upgrade it. I think everyone would agree that the Gamer’s PC is an alienware one.
DJ Judas
I got an AW lappy and they are indeed lurrrvly :)
mynameisblair
Alienware is expensive rubbish, IMO.
Better building or getting a custom built PC.
DJ Judas
I agree, while I love my laptop, there’s no point in AW desktops, you can build the same machine for half the price.
Even as far as laptops are concerned you can get the same spec from different manufacturers such as Clevo and MSI etc for less dosh, but the flair, cooling and ease of the M series makes them stand out.
Spence1115
Never bought Alienware, can’t see the point. So much extra money to let Dell paint your computer and get drunk for a year on the profits…
Spence1115
I don’t think everyone would agree with that at all, actually.
jimatems
If baking a circuit board revives the board, the cause of the failure is almost certainly use of excessively acid flux by the circuit board/assembly manufacturer. Strong acids make life easy for the manufacturer (you can read about the reasons on my blog at http://blog.emsciences.com) but leave behind electrically conductive residues (“ionic contamination”). When humidity goes up, the combination of humidity and ionic contamination lets electricity leak across the circuit board rather than following the circuit. With high performance items like a GPU, the signals are corrupted. Baking the board eliminates humidity and lets things work again (until the humidity gets into the board again).
It’s inexcusable for something like this to happen on a big ticket item like a GPU. You can leave manufacturer names and other details on my blog. Electronics Manufacturing Sciences is an electronics manufacturing process (heavy on electronics soldering) consulting company, so your post should get noticed by process engineers responsible for flux selection.
All the best,
Jim
————————————————————————–
James A. (Jim) Smith, PhD ABD
Managing Director
Electronics Manufacturing Sciences, Inc.
E-mail: [email protected]
http://www.emsciences.com
Crazyfrog23
Some very nice info there jim.I used the same technique to fix my ps3’s YLOD and it worked a treat :D
Spence1115
I approve of the Red Dwarf reference philbert8 xD
mynameisblair
Sorry about the link anyone – been busy travelling and getting back to Uni today and haven’t got Peter to fix it.
Here’s the working link, btw: http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri/
(I hope)
Lord Supercomputer
I would add that if anyone was running a bog standard laptop (something like a £250-£330 type of thing) with “shared graphics”* then don’t expect too much, especially if you run CYRI and it proclaimed you can run older games with no problems. I found this out as I won a basic lappy through work a few years ago but was gutted to find that I couldn’t even run my old copy of Deus Ex!
(However I can run The Sims without a problem, though I suppose it keeps the family happy when I’m hogging the main TV and “In bases, killing doods” on the PS3.)
*I tried messing with BIOS but to no joy, increasing RAM did jackanackanory to the games.
cc_star
I’ve been spending a lot time with Onlive recently. I’m a day1 purchaser.
My lappy plays a lot of games but it won’t be able to do DX11 games Metro 2033 justice – Online will sort me out.
cc_star
*onlive will sort me out