As others have mentioned, modding is one of the major differences. The fundamental trait that separates a PC from a console is that a console is locked down by the manufacturer to only run what the manufacturer wants to let you run.
It's possible to use a keyboard and mouse on a console (though most games released for consoles tend to avoid this). It's possible to use a control-pad type controller on a PC (and quite a few PC games support this rather well, especially if they're also available on consoles. The only real differences between the 42" TV in my living room and the 24" monitor on my desk are that the monitor has slightly higher resolution, and the TV has a built in tuner for over-the-air video broadcasts (if I had an antenna to plug into it).
I have a PC on the desk and a PC in the living room. I also have a console connected to each display as well, but they are rarely used and quite old (TurboGrafx 16 and PS2).
All the differences of control schemes, game styles, and what room they're placed in are basically quirks of market targeting and past hardware limitations, not fundamental differences. For example, some older PCs, like the C64, were designed to be used with standard TVs, but due to the low resolution of SD TVs, this was poorly suited to many non-gaming tasks. Making a high res monitor big enough to be suitable for TV viewing was prohibitively expensive at the time. Game consoles stayed with standard TV display technologies, while PCs temporarily diverged with separate display technologies until TVs could meet their requirements. Now with HDTVs being the norm, there is no more need for two separate categories of display technology.
Really, the only fundamental difference is open vs locked down. A major consequence of this difference is that PC games tend to have a much more active modding community.
-Kasoroth
It's possible to use a keyboard and mouse on a console (though most games released for consoles tend to avoid this). It's possible to use a control-pad type controller on a PC (and quite a few PC games support this rather well, especially if they're also available on consoles. The only real differences between the 42" TV in my living room and the 24" monitor on my desk are that the monitor has slightly higher resolution, and the TV has a built in tuner for over-the-air video broadcasts (if I had an antenna to plug into it).
I have a PC on the desk and a PC in the living room. I also have a console connected to each display as well, but they are rarely used and quite old (TurboGrafx 16 and PS2).
All the differences of control schemes, game styles, and what room they're placed in are basically quirks of market targeting and past hardware limitations, not fundamental differences. For example, some older PCs, like the C64, were designed to be used with standard TVs, but due to the low resolution of SD TVs, this was poorly suited to many non-gaming tasks. Making a high res monitor big enough to be suitable for TV viewing was prohibitively expensive at the time. Game consoles stayed with standard TV display technologies, while PCs temporarily diverged with separate display technologies until TVs could meet their requirements. Now with HDTVs being the norm, there is no more need for two separate categories of display technology.
Really, the only fundamental difference is open vs locked down. A major consequence of this difference is that PC games tend to have a much more active modding community.
-Kasoroth
