This is something that’s been bothering me for a while now. I can never figure out why it is so many PC titles (admittedly, my reference point is mostly FPS’s) contain some very undisciplined hiccups when you are navigating the GUI.

I was playing Portal last night and experienced a few of these, and all the Valve titles have exhibited the same problems. First, there are times when you press a GUI button and you audibly hear the music and/or ambient sounds stutter for a couple seconds. Sloppy. And when you click the button to start the game, the music/ambient sounds stop immediately and it jarringly rips the player out of the mood the game had been projecting. All this is in product by Valve, which is typically a paragon of refinement. They are by no means alone in these offenses.

This does not happen on console titles, and is frankly inexcusable. It is as though the many years of this lack of polish have transitioned into industry acceptance. But has it translated into player acceptance? Do we want to risk that it hasn’t? What you are left with is the impression that console titles are professionally done products, but PC titles are not. Even worse, those consistent imperfections may permeate not only the player’s expectations of the game’s quality, but that of PC gaming as a whole.

-Jason