Sweet. I am 65 and I live in a 5th wheel I bought many years ago when I lost my house. My last year's taxable income was $9,741. I am fighting to get my pension and if I do my income will rise to a staggering $1200 a month. I will be happy to get to that level, it will make life quite a bit easier.

It isn't that often when you are sticking to one series. Now, if you are sticking to multi-series of games and have a PC game you want coming out every year then you may have to do so.


@Albinodunmer - I ain't willing to get rid of my consoles. Only PC games I play are pretty much Elder Scrolls and Stronghold. Other games, like Halo, Newer Mortal Kombat, etc I like better on the consoles. I do know I prolly can make enough money if I sell all my games and consoles to buy a new laptop but I wont do that just for Skyrim... Also, I still have Morrowind and still modding the **** out of that game.

Gotcha. Not interested. Just felt like sharing some info.

I've probably mentioned it somewhere in here, but Skyrim runs great on my PC from 2008. It would have run ok on my PC from 2007 (I replaced that because the mobo was faulty).

One of the nice side effects of long console hardware cycles is you don't need $2000 PC to play a lot of games. A $2000 PC from 2006 will do, or a $500 (maybe less even) from this year. I find it convenient even though I currently have a pretty fast PC.

Eh.. Just don't tell me go buy a PC or anything like that because that is something I can't afford. Trust me, if I can afford a PC like that, I wouldn't be here saying this to you. Oky? I'm a little mad because people telling me to do something I know I can't do and saying how I should be able to do it (At least that is how I'm reading it.)

I built a computer years ago that I used to play Morrowind. I also played Oblivion on the same rig. Was it high end by that point? Could I play the game at max settings? No, but it was good enough. I did not have to go out and buy a new one just to play the game. In fact, I used it for another year or two after that, playing games like WoW on it.

I'm sorry, but listening to you, you have no clue what you're talking about.

I have a clue what I'm talking about, okay? I've seen this stuff happen a lot with people.. So it's either true and those people were idiots wasting their money on new PCs/laptops over and over again.

I do know for sure Oblivion and Skyrim wont work on this computer.. Morrowind barely works itself...

Every three years is plenty. The consolization of games has restricted game development to quite an extent. Pretty well all the games that go cross platform do so on Directx 9 which is ancient. You do not need much power to play on that and keeping up with a crippled develpoment cycle has become very easy.

not unless it's the average shop bought computer that 90% of the world uses that can push a few old games but not the ones the user would like to play, oh and when it was bought plays in the factor game.

Most families have only one machine to share for everyone and if the kids get a machine for themselves it's usually not the latest,if they're laptops then it's even more than likely that they are not aliens.

If the machine falls short then the box or p3 is the only other option and that can be picked up second hand.

Yes i'm angry at the retardation of game development,software should always push hardware that's how we got to where we are now,well...2007 when crysis smashed the world over

But a used pc. My little brother plays Skyrim on high using a $80 tower from craigslist. He has mods, he has 5 second load times, he runs the game at 45+ fps and he has real hd graphics. This myth of pc gaming requiring a uber expensive pc is seriously old. We have ancient consoles. So now for the most part the games are ancient also. The PC I used to play oblivion in 2007 could run Skyrim if I still owned it. Lol $80, If you can't afford that then you have a lot more to worry about than playing video games.

You live in the 1990s?

No. Jez.. What is wrong with you people? Can't you guys understand there is a lot of people in this world that can't afford a new PC for a game?

I'm well aware of that. I'm referring to your comment "get a fast computer like that every 1-2 years". It's been a very long time since you needed to do that. Even back then, you only needed to upgrade that often if you wanted to play the latest and greatest pc only games.

They are simply telling you it is more affordable than you think. Most PC users really would like to break this Myth that PC's are so damned expensive. Most people think they have to chug out $2000+ for an amazing PC or something...

The lowest price I've ever seen for a PC was $499... I never seen any lower. I also cannot 'upgrade', or something like that, a computer because idk how to and prolly don't have the time to do so...

Mine still does, granted, it has had a couple of upgrades put in, but no more of those due to mobo limitations. It also plays every game released in the last 12 months.

Gamers do not need state of the art uber machines, so long as they actually do research and shop around, and learn what the computer tech all means...people who don't or won't do that are also the people who probably won't be able to do mods anyway, or trouble shoot the ones they install if they stuff up.

A lot of people on these forums, and it's primarily consolers, have no concept of what is involved in actually creating a decent mod. It's not like you are opening up your game inventory and swapping and changing things around. And when you actually install mods, some don't work with others, some are just cr*p, some don't start up, some crash, some cause weird effects...for instance, I have one that causes a crash to desktop if I select to return to the main game menu, and that is inconvenient at best.

It all sounds great when you read about it, or see videos etc, but the reality is that on the whole, it's not much.

If you can use a screw driver, match colors, match shapes, and read, you can do it. But I can understand rough financial situations (broke ass college student here). It's mostly just sort of a sore spot with many PC gamers when we hear the same old exaggerations over and over.

Actually, GameRevolution recently did an article http://www.gamerevolution.com/features/pc-gaming-is-cheaper-than-you-think-heres-a-guide about cheap PC gaming.

Anyways on topic; It is unfortunate that console gamers miss out on mods but as I said in another post, "Consoles are easier to use (plug and play) and generally more secure than PC's, but that ease of use and security comes at a price, and that's being locked into a closed system."

I don't intend to. I've been similarly poor and once used the same laptop for five years. For the first year after Oblivion came out I became very good at finding time to use other people's PCs because I wanted to play it so much.


The cheapest PC package HP will sell you is $300 and Dell's $400. Those of course aren't going to run Skyrim very well, if at all (Intel graphics). Dell's cheapest prices are about $100 more than they were four years ago when I worked for them. I find that interesting. Of course, PCs are cheaper if you buy from a company that mostly sells parts or a cheap local shop (if you have a cheap local shop).

Depending on where you live and who you know, it might become much easier to get a PC for free or ridiculously cheap. That works for me sometimes, but I'm lucky enough to have a friend who burns money on new stuff and then figures his old, but functional stuff is junk. I think he's insane.

Ever played farcry 2? That game included an amazing map editor. I would like something like that for the next TES.

I agree.
The problem here isnt Bethesda, whether they want to provide something like this or not, the main issue here are the companies that own the console tech.
You would have to get them on board first.

Just a couple things I have learned from my experience as a console gamer and PC gamer:

1. If you know what you are doing you can build a PC for the same cost as a console that can run better. The PC I use right now cost me $400 to build and runs skyrim very well with HD mods.

2. Taking the initiative to learn things online it is possible for a console gamer to turn their console into a working PC. I have done this with both XBox and Xbox360, making each one run windows and any windows game that the hardware cold support. So it IS possible to use mods on consoles. (Will prolly get in trouble just for saying that, though.)

So, in short, where there is a will, there is a way.

I just want a 'turnskyrimintoanactualrpg' mod but its impossible so meh

Could you pm me some advice as to how to build a computer for $400??!?

Get a PC if you want the creation kit ffs. It's not supported for Xbox 360 cos mods have bugs in, and can cause other issues which Bethesda shouldn't be responsible for. Think before you speak console players.

I can post it here prolly, so everyone can benefit.
It just takes patience, to look for online shops with discounts or overstock, and waiting for the stuf to arrive in the mail.
And you sometimes have to settle for slightly less then the highest end parts.
Skyrim doesn't take an expensive gaming rig to play, the PC version has the same requirements as the console version, just slightly higher since you have to run things like windows in the background.