PC Gaming is Cool And All... But...

[scott91575]

Here is the thing. A console will perform far better then a PC with an equal level of hardware. In fact it performs better then many pcs with a much higher level of hardware. If you want to contiue playing games on a pc you are FORCED to upgrade far more frequently then with consoles. That is a fact and you cant deny it.

I can. The problem console gamers run into is they think they are running a game at 1080p in high frame rates when it's often a lower resolution at 30fps with some stuttering. In the mean time a PC gamer is complaining they can't max out settings at 1920x1080 or 1920x1200 with frame rates above 40 fps.

The only games that run poor on PC are terrible ports like GTA4. Games that are developed to run on PC's and consoles will run as well and often better on a PC, plus you will be given more graphical options to ensure it runs smoothly. Consoles on the other hand, you are stuck with stuttering and can't do anything about it.

 

[scott91575]

I do not own a PC anymore and I do not need one. Other then to play games there would be absolutely no reason at all for me to ever buy a PC. Sure mabey PCs were considered necessary five years ago but not anymore. Go on give me some actual valid reasons as to why a pc is basically a necessity. I guarentee I will have a valid counter to every single one.

Gaming is not a necessity, so no, computers nor consoles are a necessity. Yet I don't think you are going to be able to do spreadsheets, word processing, video editing, photoshopping, web design, video encoding, video broadcasting, game design, 3D modeling, power point presentations, databases, heavy statistical calculations, and many more on a console.

If you can do those without a computer and as efficiently, please let me know.

 

[Kevon Huggins]

i play on both but when it comes to games like crysis 2 my consols run it better

 

[Treblaine]

Why do people still care about PC vs. Console? I don't see the big deal. As long you're having fun, what does it matter what platform it's on?

It's called progress.

It does not matter what platform people play games on because it literally is just a fucking personal preference. Anybody to thinks otherwise is a fucking moron.

Look you are not FORCED to upgrade. Just because a game is released with "Ultra Graphics" and you can only run the game on Very High, that does NOT somehow mean that your PC running Crysis on Very High is equivalent to consoles medium-high settings.

The advantage which that Cheap-PC has over 360/PS3 it will ALWAYS HAVE! It will only change when Xbox releases a new iteration of the Xbox 720 or something which doesn't seem to be any time soon, E3 2010 they said they were half way through the 360's cycle and they don't double-dip.

Here is the thing. A console will perform far better then a PC with an equal level of hardware. In fact it performs better then many pcs with a much higher level of hardware. If you want to contiue playing games on a pc you are FORCED to upgrade far more frequently then with consoles. That is a fact and you cant deny it.

I deny it.

There.

See your problem is you are deluding yourself quite how much consoles dial shit down to get the graphics they have. Running games like Halo 3 at a measly 640p, no Anti-Aliasing and struggling along with 30 frames/sec. Reach has to resort to a ghosting render pathway to get marginal improvements. Killzone 2 sacrificed SO MUCH in terms of frame consistency but mostly in input lag, something verboten with PC games, it was only able to get quite good graphics by sending each frame through three cycles but at 20-30 frames/sec that lead to quarter-second input lag on a single-player game. That is not the weapons "weight" even pulling the trigger it took 1/4 second to register.

I am Comparing price-with-price because really there is no "equal hardware" as Xbox 360 is full of stuff unique to 360 and especially true with PS3 that has a ridiculous amount of software rendering.

YOU ARE NOT FORCED TO UPGRADE!

If you upgraded at the beginning of this generation then you will be able to play every game as well as 360. This. is. a. fact.

8800GT is a very moderate upgrade for the beginning of this generation when it truly started (PS3 + Wii globally launched and some games for 360 that didn't look like ass).
Look what 8800GT can do with Black ops:


This game is running at 1440x900, 2.10x the native resolution of the Xbox 360 / PS3 version of this game. Extra detail environments as well.

It would have to be dialled RIGHT DOWN to 1024x600 to match console's pitifully low standard.

Say you bought an Xbox 360 in 2007, the 20GB model because frankly the Arcade is too hamstrung by no-hard-drive and Elite model was always ridiculously priced. Still at £280 the Premium variant wasn't cheap. But what added costs would be incurred of its life:

Xbox Gold for 5 years = 5x £40 = £200
-necessary 120GB Hard Drive = £80
-Attach rate of 9.0, therefore with £10 premium per game over PC = £90 extra spent for same number of games
-Wifi adapter I had to drill a hole in the floor but I did use Ethernet.
-Play charge kit = £15 (not as expensive as batteries)

Total = £665

Average exchange rate with US dollar since 2007 has been around 1.8 so that's about $1200 to give a more widely understood metric. That is VERY expensive! You could get a wickedly powerful PC for that amount of money.

You do know pretty much every single one of your prices is off right.

Elite xbox 360 was $399 at most back in 2007 and came with a free game.

Xbox Gold is $60 a year = $300
120GB hard drive is not necessary but = $65
PC games are at most $10 cheaper not £10.
Play charge kit was only $10.

So that brings it to a grand total of $784 including five years of xbox gold. There is also the used game market that I am choosing to ignore.

Is there some problem with your browser? Do you recognise that the " £ " symbol means Pound Sterling. The unit of Currency in the United Kingdom. Those prices are definitely accurate and the thing is computer components either side of the Atlantic have always tracked with the exchange rate, so £665 really would have gotten you $1200 worth of computer components.

Consoles really do cost this much. Are you aware of how much you could get if you had not bought into the console scam? I play my PS3 and my PC both plugged into the same screen and it's quite startling going even from the best looking PS3 games to PC games with merely decent graphics, PC is so much better.

PC price-for-price outperforms consoles by an astonishing margin.

You CAN deny it. I'd just like to see you prove otherwise.

 

[darkcommanderq]

darkcommanderq:
lol if you didnt want to start a flame war about this why start?
you have 3k+ posts...havent you already seen topics like this 30 gazzilion times?

The lines are drawn simply, PCs are best overall, however Consoles are good for action / party games that just dont make sence on the PC.

Errr wrong

PC's allow more modification and for FPS and RTS the mouse and keyboard are better controls in general (also flight sims are better if you have a joystick).

Consoles however require no mucking around with hardware/software compatibility and are generally better for racing & action games.

Both have games of all genres that are good and work well on them, so the above generalisations are just that.

Consoles however do have the advantage of portability and thus are easy to take from place to place as long as there's a TV and power outlet about.

I have a PC and PS3 and use them both equally, and the differences are getting so small it's bluring the line quite abit.

Yeah you took me wayyyyy to seriously. I just tire of people starting threads like this because they are pointless.

But as for portability PCs win again. They are called laptops. If you have a micro ATX motherboard and a small case moving that rig is about the same hassle as moving a xbox or ps3.

 

[Mister Benoit]

I just picked up a PC that can run Starcraft II on Med/High for 200$ CAD. >.>

Also picked up the Humble Indie Bundle 3 which consisted of like 12 good/great games for 6CAD.

I'm very tempted at the moment to sell off a lot of my retail 360 games and just keep it for exclusive arcade games (Although even games like Bastion are coming to PC relatively fast now).

 

[Treblaine]

Sure mabey PCs were considered necessary five years ago but not anymore. Go on give me some actual valid reasons as to why a pc is basically a necessity. I guarentee I will have a valid counter to every single one.

-Put music onto your MP3 player/phone, also rip from CDs or download said music.

-Sync your iPad/tablet (even the #1 "post-PC" device still NEEDS a PC)

-Buy music/movies/games from a store OTHER than the one it is baked into your device. Capitalism without real competition is the path to stagnation, and if with one device you can only use one store that IS NOT COMPETITIVE!

-BBC iplayer desktop (download and play shows up to 5 weeks later)

-Indie games that could only get started on PC

-Real web browsers. With ability to download many files, have scores of tabs, customised navigation (mouse gestures), etc, etc

-Mods

-PC exclusives

-Upgrades - most importantly with plummeting Hard-drive capacity with simultaneous sky-rocketing in performance. You need terabytes of storage that your ipad/360 can't handle.

-Steam

 

[Gorilla Gunk]

Can that "Destitute" build play Crysis at the highest settings without any problems?

It can't

Could have stopped right there.

And you missed my point, which is if playing on a PC is really that much better I'm not going to settle for middle-ground. If I'm going to play on PC, I want a PC that can play every game at it's highest settings without any kind of problems and I expect that it'll keep that level of performance up for 5 years or whatever without ever having to update it. If there's a way to build a computer like that for under $300 then by all means tell me how its done.

That's ridiculous. If you don't expect that of a $600 console at launch, it's completely unreasonable to expect of a $300 PC.

I paid less than $200 for my console. And I'm always being told that a cheap, home-built PC can do everything a new expensive console can and so much more. Are my expectations really that unreasonable?

 

[northeast rower]

I tried to get into PC gaming this year with Steam. It seemed great. Then I tried to run Amnesia. It wouldn't work. I bought Fallout 3. It also didn't work because it isn't optimized for Windows 7. I prefer console gaming because if a game works well on one console, it will work well on another.

 

[Bearjing]

Can that "Destitute" build play Crysis at the highest settings without any problems?

It can't

Could have stopped right there.

And you missed my point, which is if playing on a PC is really that much better I'm not going to settle for middle-ground. If I'm going to play on PC, I want a PC that can play every game at it's highest settings without any kind of problems and I expect that it'll keep that level of performance up for 5 years or whatever without ever having to update it. If there's a way to build a computer like that for under $300 then by all means tell me how its done.

That's ridiculous. If you don't expect that of a $600 console at launch, it's completely unreasonable to expect of a $300 PC.

I paid less than $200 for my console. And I'm always being told that a cheap, home-built PC can do everything a new expensive console can and so much more. Are my expectations really that unreasonable?

It is since consoles cant play games anywhere near their highest settings.

 

[karamazovnew]

Here's my take on it, although I might just repeat what others have already said.

Noob friendliness:
Consoles are easier to get into. Controls are simpler, all you need to to is stick the disc in and overall, the games are more casual. Even my grandma can pick up a fighting game.

Price:
No contest here, a console is cheap and will last you for the entire duration of that console generation. All you need is a good TV and a few batteries. No need for upgrades, all games should in theory move great on it. On the other hand, there are so many things you can do with a PC that gaming can be the last reason to buy one. So most people don't even need to buy a console because they already cave that spreadsheet monster on their desk. And there are tons of good simple pc games that don't require good hardware. Plus there are so many old superb games that there's no need to upgrade for years and years. I bought my PC for gaming 4 years ago and it's going strong, as PC tech has slowed down a lot in the last years. Still, for gaming only, consoles win.

Game library:
As fond as I am of PC's, there are already soo many console only games, that I feel tempted to just buy a damned console. Red Dead Redemption, Catherine, God of War, the list goes on and on. But I've owned a PC since I was 7, so I have 21 entire years of using a mouse and keyboard. 21 years of awesome gaming history. I can't even imagine my life without flight sims like Falcon 4 or the new DCS Warthog, or strategy games like Rome Total War. On the FPS side, I've played everything from Doom 2 to Thief, from Dark Forces to No One Lives Forever and beyond. History aside tho, recent PC games have left me in the cold. I'm also older so I might not have the same interest in wasting time anymore.

Future of:
Consoles are on the rise and have always been like that. They get more and more exclusive titles. PC's have become a last thought port platform. However, PC's are still the first place to find superb indie games like Minecraft, and immersive RPG's like Elder Scrolls. HOWEVER, if Windows 8 will really be able to play any XBOX title (even older ones), it will open up a huge supply of games for PC's. PC's have done more for the console industry than viceversa, pushing up hardware technology. Even now, PC's are so ahead of consoles that it's impossible to imagine the death of PC gaming. We're still years away from photorealism and future Virtual Helmets will at first require the mammoth power of PC's. There will be a point however when DRM and technological slowdown will push us towards consoles, as they will finally get the better controls, surpassing ye olde Maus Und Keyborden (I don't know german).

 

[someguy2300]

To be honest the only reason i play pc games are for RPG's it just feels more fun on pc than consoles.

 

[honestdiscussioner]

I wouldn't want to give up my ps3 or my PC.