Why is it so terrible in games these days? BC2 and Crysis 2 are pretty obvious examples of games where your success is more dependant on whether the code likes you that day than on skill. Yet I remember playing UT and Halo and HL2DM on a tenth the bandwidth I have today with zero noticeable issues. Heck I remember playing Far Cry with no real issues. What happened? Why can't Crytek or any other company make functional net games anymore? Do they really need Rage to come out for Carmack to school them in how to program games?

Why is it so terrible in games these days? BC2 and Crysis 2 are pretty obvious examples of games where your success is more dependant on whether the code likes you that day than on skill. Yet I remember playing UT and Halo and HL2DM on a tenth the bandwidth I have today with zero noticeable issues. Heck I remember playing Far Cry with no real issues. What happened? Why can't Crytek or any other company make functional net games anymore? Do they really need Rage to come out for Carmack to school them in how to program games?
It's because of consoles dude. Back then every game developer was focused on PC and PC only. Playstation and Xbox were quite new and risky to dive into so they were all focusing on PCs. God i miss those days =(
Now they are producing games for Xbox PS3 and PC and all 3 have different arhitecture and they have to do much more then they could if they only released on PC so theyre like ah **** that 1 little line of code it'll survive without that(and that 1 tinny little code could mean better ping les lag etc). When it was all about PCs every1 was giving their best to get the codes right^^
***EDIT***
For example just think of Crysis 2. How good would it be if they were ONLY focusing on PC. If there were no consoles to work and optimize for its **** hardware. Just imagine what a blast of the game it would be. 3 years of work only on PC would optimize each single corner of the game.

Why is it so terrible in games these days? BC2 and Crysis 2 are pretty obvious examples of games where your success is more dependant on whether the code likes you that day than on skill. Yet I remember playing UT and Halo and HL2DM on a tenth the bandwidth I have today with zero noticeable issues. Heck I remember playing Far Cry with no real issues. What happened? Why can't Crytek or any other company make functional net games anymore? Do they really need Rage to come out for Carmack to school them in how to program games?
I haven't played BC2, but I know Crysis 2 uses client side detection. You can still play decently if you have 400 ping. With UT it's server side (exception is the Zeroping shock rifle mod but that's beside the point), so if you're lagging you will find it almost impossible to play (only reason I stopped is because there aren't any Australian servers anymore). HL2DM in particular is extremely susceptible to lag, even with a good ping you can still find yourself stuttering a bit occasionally

You can't play decently if you have a 40 ping, let alone 400. Because the system is fundamentally broken. At least with the other system one of the cases provide a smooth experience. Even with 200 pings though I've found these games pretty playable. Because at least there's a consistent predictable delay that is easy to compensate for.

To me anything under 150 is perfectly fine (I've never had anything as low as 40 ping anyway), but at the same time, 200 ping makes UT unplayable. I find it much too hard to compensate lag, especially in a game like UT where it's impossible to predict where the enemy will move considering everyone is jumping and dodging around like crazy maniacs.

Well I get 40 on a number of servers in Crysis 2 and I can't tel lthe difference from a 200+ server. That's how bad it is.

Well I get 40 on a number of servers in Crysis 2 and I can't tel lthe difference from a 200+ server. That's how bad it is.
because you never played on a 200+ serers in other games. If ur lag is over 200 ull notice that theyre "tougher" and wont drop. Thats due to lag. on a 40ping ull see that they drop almost instantly after u rounded em up with 4 or 5 bullets

I am well familiar with high ping scenarios in other games thank you very much.

I was never mad on Crytek, or anything, but why didn't they first made the game for PC then for consoles?! Why?!?! Just look at Battlefield 3....
"Consoles were good 4 years ago, but now, PC is the superiour platform.." -some director in DICE said this!!!

Consoles lol, tricks are for kids. Seriously the only people that ever defend playing on one are those that can not afford to build or run a decent gaming pc. The day they come out they are already outdated next to a pc which has had nvidia or ati come out with a new graphics card or intel and amd release a new set of procs, because a console was set in stone at least 6 months before it ever launches.

I don't think consoles are the problem at all. Good networking and game design applies to both platforms. Great games have been made for consoles.

The problem is lack of competence or poor design desicions. The problem is when PC developers target this hypothetical demographic of "console retards" who can't wipe their own butt. A demographic I don't think is real.