Console is blamed for the reason PC exclusives were dumbed down in the late 1990s and 2000s. When a PC series came to console, the scale of the game or its gameplay were changed. No one on console asked for this and we wanted what we saw on PC. 

We’re not sure where the idea of stuff had to be made easier and more accessible to console started. Most hardcore players were on console. Outside of menus and movement, why did these need to be changed? If console was so casual, why did most games that did this fail, end their series or take years to get another game?

You can blame console for a few games or series that were dumbed down. Crysis was one with Crysis 2 being a very generic and more linear game. It was fun when you snuck around cloaked enjoying the atmosphere. The shooting, levels and vehicle sections were meh. No one wanted a Crysis game in a city. We always felt the original Crysis was an ok game, that is loved just for graphics, but 2 was still a downgrade. Crysis 3 fixed a lot of the issues, and is to us the best of the series.

Most of the games that suffered from this dumb down to appeal effect, weren’t because of console limitations per se. It was more how they did it. The problem was after being successful, the developers chose to use console as their main development platform, then ported it to PC.

Deus Ex Invisible War had levels made smaller for the original Xbox. The studio had money problems and were trying to get a lot of sales. Im not sure why they didn’t just make big levels on PC first, then make them with loading screens on Xbox. This worked for the Xbox ports of Max Payne. Whats strange is they did this with the first Deus Ex, when the original was ported to PS2. It had the same gameplay, but with loading screens between areas and some level changes because of weaker hardware. For Invisible War, the bigger issue was the gameplay and upgrades were simplified to appeal to console. This backfired for the devs with this and Thief Deadly Shadows. People were hyped for the game because they thought it would be like the first one, and saw Xbox made it a console exclusive. Thats the only reason it outsold the first one. 

Red Faction was a decent game on PC that was ported to PS2.  Red Faction 2 abandoned the destruction that they should’ve flushed out from the first game, and told a story no one cared about. It turned into this generic shooter that was on Mars but looked like Earth. It had the Rag Tag team of misfits going on missions. The series didn’t get another game for seven years after.

FEAR was another game that was liked on PC and got ported to console. The port had some glitches but it still was fine. For the sequel, the devs original idea for FEAR 2 was cancelled. The publisher chose to use the sequel ideas of the first games expansion’s developers. They chose to make a generic game with these diverse levels, and trend chasing gameplay that no one wanted. The made another FEAR game after that, which was even worse. The Soldier of Fortune games had something similar happen to them.

There was one game where simplifying it on console was for the better. Rainbow Six 3 on PC was a detailed tactical shooter. The console port simplified the team commands and got rid of the level planning, but kept what made the game good. It kept a lot of the same modes, maps and ideas of the PC game. They turned the game into one of the best FPSs on Xbox. They brought a console exclusive expansion that was ok, it added new modes, story and a gun. The problem was they changed the design of some the games best maps and the new maps weren’t as good. The games that came after were just ok. Some got arcadey, others tried random new ideas and another was a service game.

As much as we don’t care for it, Half Life’s PS2 port is the same as PC. Many consider it the best version of the original game. It came with refinements not seen in the PC version until later and an exclusive coop mode. 

I actually never heard a PC player blame a games developers for it being dumbed down for console. It’s always because of console players. The same people saying this will say exclusives aren’t good for gaming and having games everywhere is good. When the developers chose to do this and put them everywhere, it’s criticized.