Jimquisition: Xbox 360 and PS3 Are Just Very Crap PCs

[cyvaris]

Hey, consolers: Why don't you spend some time looking at the steam sales coming up on the 12th?

You might understand where the value starts to kick in.

I use all systems but its just the simple truth: PC > all

The 12th you say? I highely doubt that....12 is a multiple of 3.

 

[Joos]

I can't do anything but agree. It feels like every time I put a disc in the console and turn it on, I need to do system updates, download patches, agree to ridiculous EULA's etc. My PS3 is definitely the last console I own. Planning a decent PC build concurrently.

 

[Vanilla_Druid]

I am a big fan of old console games (like 16-bit old) and have been a Nintendo fan for as long as I have been playing video games. I could not care less about graphics and have very basic computer skills (I have no idea how to make GIFs or run torrent files, and have not a clue how to make a computer). I am sorry that I cannot programme a robot in my sleep nor can I hack into the government's databases like you guys can. I guess a console pleb such as I will never be as wonderful as the all-mighty PC elite. At least I can pronounce a wide range of phonemes, have knowledge in basic Welsh and Mandarin, and can read and write in Cyrillic script, Elder Futharc, Hiragana, Katakana, and basic Chinese Characters (I can roll my r's and have a basic understanding Basque and Dakota grammar). I forgot to mention that I can also draw somewhat well, so I am not a complete moron.

 

[DonTsetsi]

I have a PC that cost about 900$. No, it's not a gaming PC, it's a 3D modelling and rendering PC. I use it to make 3D animation visualizations in 3DSMax with V-Ray. Granted, my system is somewhat weak for a rendering PC, but it is more than enough to max 95% of the games I play.

Specs: GF GTX 460; 8 GB DDR3 ram; i7-2600k

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Congratulations Mr. Sterling. You've just made a video stating essentially what I've stated ON THIS FORUM several times since 2009. The only difference is that you've got your own webshow that takes inspiration from MovieBob and everyone listens to you and nobody listens to me. ...ever.

I listened, because I too often said the very things you and Mr. Sterling say on the matter. 'Course, almost no one listened to me either. Those that did often exploded into a tirade of insults and pointless banter either agreeing with me (and taking it upon themselves to berate console players. something I don't do) or disagreeing with me (and berating me for everything I said, often opposing my points with nonsense, personal insults, or strawman arguments).

Yeah that sounds a lot like my experience as well.

To be honest, I'm not even sure how it's an arguable topic anymore. Let's get real people. PCs ARE better than consoles now. That's a quantifiable FACT.

You can still prefer consoles, for any number of reasons. After all, we all like different things. I still love my old consoles. Just don't try to convince us they're better on a technical or functional level, because they're not. They don't have to be better, of course. They still play games. That's the important aspect in all of this. But it still remains that their form, function, and business model are the very definition of antiquated.

Well being the sort of person who'll game on any platform, I don't really care so long as I can enjoy the game. Which is part of the reason the whole console vs PC thing irritates me, not to mention the console wars.

 

[Futzpah]

Upon reading the headline I thought to myself "gee, no kidding." I've been a PC gamer since the 386 processor. I liked consoles for what they used to be. Simple, quick and straight forward. I stopped using consoles after the Sega Genesis. My friends played the Playstations and X-Box variants and it never really appealed to me. Fast forward to present day; I now have an 8 year old daughter. So I bought an XBox 360, mostly for her, but since most of my console gaming friends have one, I also picked up Black Ops.

I utterly hate the glob of plastic that is known as a game controller. Unless you shell out the cash for a keyboard/mouse emulator, nothing will surpass a pc mouse/keyboard in an FPS. Yes, I know some console gamers are shaking mad at me saying that but it's true. Do I knock console gamers? Not in the least. I loved playing Black Ops and being able to sit on a nice comfy couch and playing on a big screen tv vs. a lame office chair as I do enough of sitting behind a bloody office chair for 40 hours a week.

Getting back to what consoles used to be; simple. What a rude awakening to see how its evolved into patches, updates, etc. The excuse for patches with pc games was; to be more compatible with multiple pc builds ....yet a PS3, Wii, or an X-Box only has one build, so why the patches (yes I know some of the answers)? More importantly what was the single most appealing factor to me for console gaming was lack of online cheating in multiplayer. That's no longer true as well.

The market for console gaming is going to have to wake up and realize that some pc-gamers, like myself and others, will probably never convert unless they at least have a built-in option for a keyboard/mouse, along with some version of cheat/hack detection. If they were to go that route, my pc gaming rig would more than likely collect dust aside from my use of it as a recording studio.

Oh and for the record I'm not implying online cheating doesn't exist in pc gaming ...that's a serious problem that will probably never go away but it's nice that some games come with something to keep most of them honest.

 

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

I love Morrowind, on the xbox it was hard to get into, very hard. But the game was awesome. I love it. On PC, you mod it to death and it loses what it is. Its to easy to click god mode and the game is ruined. Not saying we would all do this, just if you replayed the same part of a game 5 times, you would click god mood just to get past that area and continue with the story. My time with Morrowind on xbox was awesome, Morrowind on the PC wasnt as interesting at all.

Ironically, it was the opposite for me. On Xbox, I used god-mode, on PC, I got the extras Bethesda made to go with the game and nothing more.
Edit:

I rarely see anyone hook their PC up to a TV and play it like a console, so is it hard to pull off or is it easy?

Its easy, but pointless and stupid. The aspect ratio doesn't always work very well. However, it can be done. My sister used to hook her laptop to our TV and we'd watch internet videos and such when friends came over. All that was needed was an HDMI cable. So, as I said its easy, but pointless and stupid. Also, nothing stopping you from just using a TV as your monitor... besides the near complete lack of privacy having a monitor that big would bring.

 

[Allthingsspectacular]

It pretty much comes down to exclusives.

Then again, I just got a ton of playtime off of the meager money I spent getting 3 months of Playstation plus.

 

[lord.jeff]

I rarely see anyone hook their PC up to a TV and play it like a console, so is it hard to pull off or is it easy?

If you have a modern TV and and HDMi port on your computer(fairly common now) you just plug and go.

 

[DalekJaas]

The facebook comments on this are stupid, "you need to upgrade your PC all the time.." I haven't touched a part of my PC in almost 4 years and I am still making the most of late games like Skyrim.

 

[Korolev]

PC is good for those who know how to make a PC.

I don't know how to put together a computer. I don't know which parts to order. I'm lucky that I have a brother who does know how to do that. Yes, you can say that it's easy - easy because you've done it for years. You don't have the perspective of an outsider looking in. I, as a science/medical student, could claim that doing a patient cardiovascular physical exam is easy, or taking a patient's history is easy, but that's because I've done those before - most haven't.

PCs are superior, but realize that not everyone can 1) afford one and 2) know how to put one together. Yes, a powerful gaming PC can be relatively cheap, provided you order the parts separately, and put the thing together (which takes anywhere from 3 to 9 hours, provided everything goes well). Not everyone can do that. Not everyone WANTS to do that.

I play 95% of my games on the PC - a good, decent gaming PC. But I can do that because 1) I can afford to upgrade my computer every 3 years and 2) I have a brother who can put it together for me. Not everyone does.

 

[Futzpah]

The facebook comments on this are stupid, "you need to upgrade your PC all the time.." I haven't touched a part of my PC in almost 4 years and I am still making the most of late games like Skyrim.

Agreed. I'm running the latest pc gaming titles (Battlefield 3, TOR) on an Intel Q9450 (core 2 quad), with a GTX 460 card with zero issues.

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

Um...pcs are expensive and require upgrades to the pc itself to play new games. They are still a bigger hassle. That outweighs anything a pc can do as most gamers wont spend 15000 dollars to have higher definition graphics that add fuck all to the game itself.

snip

And everyone who owns a console is going to be able to find a PC at even a fraction of that value? Just a year ago I spent a couple of weeks looking on Newegg for a computer that could run most PC games and I could not find one that could run a Skyrim level game on lower settings for under $1200.

snip.

Sorry i didnt want to scroll up but I am backing you here...

less than 30 seconds at Newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883108938

less than 2 minutes: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883203766

Someones argument holds water like a bucket made out of window screen.

That would be the case if the minimum system requirements for Skyrim didn't require a Dual Core 2.0 GHz processor. Unfortunately I'm not to savvy with graphics cards so I really don't have a good idea on how either of those would stack up. Also keep in mind that I was buying for a laptop (I'm sorry, I don't think I mentioned this in my first post) and I was buying it a year ago. The cheapest I could find then that could run it on minimum settings were in the $1200 range.

 

[Pirakahunter788]

As Shewolf pointed out, both PC and Console have good sides and bad sides. I like to use my PS3 for higher tier games like Battlefield 3 and Skyrim, because not only is there less hassle involved knowing that it will run it just fine, but I don't have to spend more than $300 or so to achieve that, regardless if the graphics or hardware are less than current. Consoles are built for convenience. If you're a hardcore gamer, most likely you'll go for a PC anyway. I use my PC for PC exclusives that interest me, or for general internet surfing.

Fighting over which is better is just plain childish.

 

[Narcogen]

If it wasn't for the cost of constantly upgrading the hardware I'd be more inclined to use my PC for gaming.

But you don't. Buy a mid range rig and it'll vastly outperform the current gen consoles

You mean, if I spend twice as much as my Xbox 360 cost six years ago on a PC now, it'll vastly outperform my six-year-old console?

You don't say!

The advantage of the console is a stationary target for developers. Early in their life cycles, what this means is getting into gaming is significantly cheaper, significantly more convenient, and "almost as good" as on dedicated PCs. Over time, the performance gap gets wider and wider, and the cost gap gets narrower and narrower. Pretending that this is a function of "this generation" instead of just "the end of this and every generation" is silly. One might argue that this generation is going on longer than most, but in response one can argue that the law of diminishing returns means that the extra CPU/GPU power available on the PC side isn't worth as much now as it was in previous generations.

For instance, comparing screenshots of modded Morrowind on the PC to the vanilla Xbox version is one thing. Comparing screenshots of modded Skyrim on the PC to the vanilla Xbox 360 version is something else. (This applies only to cosmetic mods, obviously. It is a shame that mods can't be offered as DLC. I'd buy some.)

Steam is great, but for me-- a Mac user-- the Xbox 360 is my gaming PC. It's all the Windows I have interest in.

 

[kwagamon]

The big thing is price. You can get a new Xbox or PS3 for around $200 (although I'm not sure on exact figures for the playstation), and then that's it. No constant upgrades to stay current (they do come out with better models, BUT your old ones still run the games so nothing's making you buy them), no hardware compatibility issues, and even after you factor in buying three more controllers if you need four of them, that's still a little less than a PC that could run anything decent, and a LOT less than a PC that's actually good.

 

[aescuder]

I'm sort of in-between the issue, but maybe only because I have an ok i7Sony VAIO laptop. If I had a 2000 dollar PC than I might be more inclined to agree with Jim. Also, I don't really like going through the hassle of updating hardware.

I do love both my PS3 and my laptop though. Couch co-op games with friends is still my favorite gaming pastime although Steam still manages to rob me blind.

 

[Fearzone]

I've posted a couple abbreviated versions of this before, in the past year or so, and I didn't even get any hate over it.

As a general rule, when all is said and done, it is best to avoid devices where the builders limit the functionality of the device such that users can only use its computational power in certain ways, like reading Barnes and Noble products for the Nook Tablet, or playing games on the PS3 or the XBox360.

One would see that consoles are actually fine computers if you could install Windows XP or Windows 7 on them, doing everything most computers can, a little weak for playing games now but not surprising since they are several years old, but they'd both be perfectly functional and even quite good for surfing the internet, editing photos, or writing a paper--if only we could use them for that. Too bad.

 

[lacktheknack]

Xbox 360 and PS3 Are Just Very Crap PCs

They were cheaper, easier to use, more convenient.

Last I checked, consoles were still cheaper than gaming PC's.

However, if I used the parts used in an Xbox 360, I could stitch together the PC for about eighty bucks.