It’s possible but hard to do an equivalent PC cheaper than a console, but for me the benefit, other than access to Steam sales, is having a generic computing device in addition to a gaming device. Doing programming, audio work, visual work, ML training, office/productivity apps, etc., on the same device is really valuable. You could almost argue the gaming is a free benefit of having the PC for the other stuff.
I also agree that iPad with a controller is essentially a console, and the same thing applies as it has a lot of general purpose value.
It’s not quite that hard though. You can get a current pre-built desktop PC with current a CPU and a current GPU that can play these games for less the 500 dollars. How much do we think the PS5 is going for? Optimism is 400. I would be skeptical of that, but let’s say it is 400, you have to add a yearly pass for the privilege of playing online, and the PS5 games are not going to be had for some Complete Edition at 30 bucks. They’re going to be 60 plus at the start. The backward compatibility means you can get your PS4 games for cheaper, but then we’re talking equivalent not better. And again, the choice should be made based on how someone wants to enjoy their games, not as some competition as to which is better. The idea that you have to have a 2k machine though to match a console is just… disingenuous. Cheap PCs have been able to beat the current gens for years, which is, again, why some PC players get pissed off when their expensive hardware isn’t achieving the results they want because the devs have locked the game down to console performance.
Right, it’s a not a $500 vs. $2k thing, but getting an equivalent build done in $400 vs. $700 can be tough. You just have to watch sales and not accidentally overbuy CPU power if you’re an average PC buyer/builder. But the downside if you fail isn’t bank-breaking.
I also like the generally better frames and render distances on PC, while recognizing that poorly tuned settings can lessen the experience and console players enjoy never worrying about those.
Yeah and then there are game that are poorly optimized or the team that ported it spent like zero time trying to address the uniqueness of the platform so you get console players saying see, this is better. And you have the reverse as well. You don’t use those poor attempts as the average. There are plenty of games that play way on both the consoles and the PC, and its really about which experience do you prefer and why.
Just to add in a semi-random point here – now that AMD is back (and dominant) with CPUs, we’re going to see dramatically lower CPU and mobo prices per performance. So the cost of upgrading your PC is going to drop even further. Does it compete with subsidized, commoditized hardware that consoles have? Not quite, but it’ll be close.
Another semi-random point: Indie ports to consoles appear to be as good as their ports to linux, i.e. they suck. They lack updates and remain broken for years after release. So it’s not just that they arrive later than they do on PC, they also arrive badly.
Third point: PC eventually is able to emulate most consoles, playing the same games at higher quality. I don’t know if it’ll happen to this generation - it’s not clear there’s much room for performance improvement of a future emulating PC CPU - but on the other hand, all consoles are basically X86_64 machines running either linux or windows, making emulation a matter of translating API calls.
True. But it took Gears 5 zero days. It took Forza Horizon 4 zero days. It took Ashen zero days. It took Afterparty zero days. There’s a mix of brand new, newish, oldish, and old games on there.
Yeah I guess it’s more Rockstar milking their billions relating to the other thread where even with billions they were too lazy to remove Microsoft Games For Windows DRM from GTA IV
What I was saddest about with GTA IV was that they stripped out the ability to press a button within the game if you liked a song, and that song being added to your cart on Amazon. I think that deal didn’t last long, but I played the game in the launch period, so I bought a LOT of mp3s from Amazon at the time.
But later on I came back to the game and the feature was gone.
What is your definition of modern? I’m still sporting a GTX 970 and can still play new games on it. That’s about 5.5 years old. I generally don’t need to turn the settings that low. The days of needing a new PC every two years are gone.
I know that it is due to my poor vision but gaming on a TV is a big no. The text and UI aren’t big enough unless I get closer and then the screen is too large such that I have to keep moving my focus.
I’m not sure what that would solve? Yes I could treat a console like a desktop and sit in front of the monitor but that seems to remove any advantage to a console over a desktop plus gives me a monitor that is huge. Desk space limitations are one reason I don’t have a 32" monitor on my desktop right now.
Vision that can’t be corrected to better then 20/70 has its drawbacks.
Possibly. I’ll let you know when I move to 4k (probably a long while from now). 2160x1440 is the highest resolution that I ever run (my Surface desktop with 150% text scaling) but I prefer 1080 or even 900.
