PC is the real winner of this generation

[Greatatlantic]

@Pumpkinhead

The way I have come to see it:

PC : Spend $600 to upgrade and make system “current.” Over the next few years there are less and less games that come out that will run well on the system. I upgraded 2 Christmases ago and I’m am fairly certain my machine will not run Bioshock and Quakewars well enough to bother.

Console : Spend ~$600. Over the next few years there are more and more games that will run well on the system as developers learn the hardware. I am sure Bioshock and Quakewars will run great on my 360 this fall.

Personally I have officially climbed off of the PC gaming bandwagon. I’m pretty sure my next $600 gaming hardware purchase will be a PS3.

This line of thinking (the you need to upgrade your PC to play the games and with consoles you don’t) always struck me as ill founded. When PC games have higher system requirements, its usually because it has better graphics. 9 times out of 10, you’ll still be able to play the latest games on dated hardware simply by tuning the graphics. Meanwhile, if console game tries to have better graphics it usually has to reduce performance somewhere else. Longer load times, smaller environments, less in engine cutscenes, etc. are classic examples.

In short, for PC’s you rarely HAVE to upgrade, and when you do its for much better graphics and performance. Consoles, on the other hand, end up with long load times and tiny level design by the end of their lifespans.

[TheWombat]

We have a PS2 and a 360 but still play mostly on our PCs. This is for several reasons. One is we can both play simultaneously on our separate networked PCs, with full Internet access. Only one of us can play on the console hooked up to our only real useful TV. Another is the type of games we play, which are mainly MMOs and, in my case, wargames and turn-based strategy stuff. And finally, neither of us really is comfortable, despite years of having various consoles, with many types of games on a gamepad. I love FPS, for example, but I’m still rather awkward with a gamepad as compared to mouse + keyboard. (My students are about 50/50. Half use both and prefer the latter, the other half have essentially never used mouse + keyboard and can’t conceive of a shooter not using a gamepad.)

I tend to like detail-heavy, slower paced games or games where mouse + keyboard precision is more useful, but I can adapt to other types. What I have real difficulty adapting to is not playing games outside of my little office at home, where my PC is. For about the price of a new PC I guess I could install another Xbox 360, a widescreen LCD TV/monitor, and have at it, but where would I put that stuff? I still need the PC or Mac for work stuff.

Mostly though I’m just familiar with playing on a PC. I’ve been playing games on a personal computer since I bought my first PC in early 1983 (ok, the golf game using ASCII graphics wasn’t much) or at least since my Commodore 64/Atari 800 days a couple years later–still over two decades. I’m just used to sitting with a keyboard in front of me, a small screen close to my eyes, and hardware that is finnicky I guess.

[bloo]

@Pumpkinhead

PC : Spend $600 to upgrade and make system “current.”

Would $6000 let you upgrade your system to “future”?

The PC is fine unless you’re chasing the last frame out of each second every day. I’ve never even played a game on the 360, Wii or PS3. I’m not in a hurry to either.

[Pumpkinhead]

@Greatatlantic

This line of thinking (the you need to upgrade your PC to play the games and with consoles you don’t) always struck me as ill founded. When PC games have higher system requirements, its usually because it has better graphics. 9 times out of 10, you’ll still be able to play the latest games on dated hardware simply by tuning the graphics. Meanwhile, if console game tries to have better graphics it usually has to reduce performance somewhere else. Longer load times, smaller environments, less in engine cutscenes, etc. are classic examples.

In short, for PC’s you rarely HAVE to upgrade, and when you do its for much better graphics and performance. Consoles, on the other hand, end up with long load times and tiny level design by the end of their lifespans.

Have you played Dirt or GRAW 2 on the PC? I have. And the 360 versions of each looks just as good to me. And they both run significantly better on the 360. Also I can play multi GRAW 2 with all the same people I played GRAW 1 with on the 360 with zero effort. On the PC I have to find them all over again.

@bloo

I’ve never even played a game on the 360, Wii or PS3. I’m not in a hurry to either.

Then I would submit that you are in no position to compare console vs PC gaming.

[DeathMonkey]

@Greatatlantic

In short, for PC’s you rarely HAVE to upgrade, and when you do its for much better graphics and performance. Consoles, on the other hand, end up with long load times and tiny level design by the end of their lifespans.

God of War says “hi”.

[Andrew_Mayer]

No offense, but the PC gamers around here are staring to sound more and more like "crazy old Ned next door.

Here’s a cross-section of “you kids get off my lawn” from this very thread:

Am I sad, as a PC gamer, that I’ll never see Super Puzzle Fighter II HD Remix (whatever the hell that is) on PC? No.

I’ve never even played a game on the 360, Wii or PS3. I’m not in a hurry to either.

I’ve been playing games on a personal computer since I bought my first PC in early 1983 (ok, the golf game using ASCII graphics wasn’t much) or at least since my Commodore 64/Atari 800 days a couple years later–still over two decades. I’m just used to sitting with a keyboard in front of me, a small screen close to my eyes, and hardware that is finnicky I guess.

The PC lets you read the news, chat on msn, keep an eye on e-bay, whilst alt+tabbing to play a casual strategy game.

Ultimately it’s gaming itself that’s changing. The PC isn’t dead, but core gaming on the PC is pretty much going the way of the Dodo.

But at least nobody made the “But you can get PC games super cheap in the bargain bin!” argument.

[Midnight_Son]

I got Space Rangers 2 for $3.99 the other day… :)

[Qenan]

The fact that Oblivion on the PC had mods is a powerful argument against PCs being “doomed”. MMOGs and games that are mod-able continue to be strengths of the PC.

That said (and despite the fact that I’m about to build a new PC), the majority of games that interest me are now on consoles. I suspect that will continue. Sure, PCs may get some ports – but they will be ports of games designed for consoles, which play better on consoles. And I can much more easily buy used games for consoles.

[Case]

Having spanned a number of consoles, and many PC upgrades over the years, I still tend to favor PC games.

One reason is that, despite lots of hours on game pads, I’ve never warmed up to them. I’ll freely admit I’m a mouse & keyboard guy.

I think that PCs do cost more over time than consoles. In the past, though, that meant you had better performance and / or better graphics than consoles. I don’t think the difference is so clear cut any more.

I think the PC component suppliers are shooting themselves in the foot, and risking making PC gaming irrelevant, though. It was one thing to buy a $300 video card a few years ago to get best-in-class PC gaming. Now you need $400, $500 or more.

The same isn’t quite so true of CPUs, but you still need a fairly beefy processor.

On the other hand, PC games are cheaper – and not just if you wait for the bargain bin. I picked up Rainbow Six: Las Vegas for the PC recently at $39.95. That’s a relatively common price for a lot of PC games these, days, with some tier one titles going for a whopping $49.95, while good games from lesser developers cost $35 or so. I picked up S.T.A.L.K.E.R. for $35.

Of course, as you get more craziness for consoles, like Band Hero, the cost of console gaming is creeping up, too. You get to add things like different controllers, hard drive upgrades and more. So console gaming hardware isn’t quite the bargain it once was.

You see some of this reflected in new PS2 releases. Despite the huge installed base, new PS2 games seem to be noticeably cheaper than PS3 or Xbox 360 titles. Of course, Sony has made their investment back on the PS2 in spades. It’s not clear when Microsoft or Sony will ever make back their investments on their current boxes.

[jfletch]

@Greatatlantic

This line of thinking (the you need to upgrade your PC to play the games and with consoles you don’t) always struck me as ill founded. When PC games have higher system requirements, its usually because it has better graphics. 9 times out of 10, you’ll still be able to play the latest games on dated hardware simply by tuning the graphics. Meanwhile, if console game tries to have better graphics it usually has to reduce performance somewhere else. Longer load times, smaller environments, less in engine cutscenes, etc. are classic examples.

In short, for PC’s you rarely HAVE to upgrade, and when you do its for much better graphics and performance. Consoles, on the other hand, end up with long load times and tiny level design by the end of their lifespans.

I got a new, fairly top of the line PC in early 2001, right around the time I got a PS2. By 2005 my PC was near worthless (and I put a couple hundred dollars in upgrades into it - nothing fancy, but what I can afford). It was wheezing through Half-Life 2, World of Warcraft (both 2004 games) and could barely handle Civilization IV. The games played but at low framerates, low details, etc. It sucked. But my PS2 was playing great looking games like God of War, Shadow of the Colossus, Resident Evil 4, etc. etc.

You definitely HAVE to upgrade on the PC, and every few years. It’s more expensive than consoles by far. Is it worth it? Right now I would say no. It definitely was in the late 1990s when every top developer was coding for PC and consoles couldn’t touch performance, but right now the consoles are roughly equal to PCs for less money and are far more attractive for developers (they sell more, far less piracy concerns). So listen to the music.

[gamadict]

I would care very little if all action games eventually migrated to consoles. It would mean fewer action games of the type I like(Deus Ex-ish), and inferior controls for FPS, but I see no reason why losing the high-end action market to consoles means people will stop developing PC wargames, strategy games and to a lesser extent RPGs. Hearts of Iron isn’t going to succeed on a console and isn’t hamstrung by the huge costs of creating bleeding-edge visuals. If anything, jettisoning the action genre would slow down the PC upgrade cycle, which would be welcome.

Of course, ideally I’d like to see the consoles turn into a highly-subsidized gaming PC, with mouse and keyboard support and tons of great PC-style games so I could forget about buying a new PC ever again. Weirdly it seems like Sony is moving the most in that direction this generation

[bloo]

[quote=“Pumpkinhead”]

@bloo

I’ve never even played a game on the 360, Wii or PS3. I’m not in a hurry to either.

Then I would submit that you are in no position to compare console vs PC gaming.[/QUOTE]

Oh, I’ve seen 'em. I just don’t play 'em. My point is that you don’t have to chase the fps, fsaa, super-hi-res black tar dragon on PC upgrades to have an excellent gaming platform.

It isn’t “you crazy kids get off my yard” so much as “my 17 year old volvo wagon gets better gas mileage and goes just as fast as your Scion, whippersnapper. And has more cargo space.”

[bigdruid]

@jfletch

You definitely HAVE to upgrade on the PC, and every few years. It’s more expensive than consoles by far. Is it worth it? Right now I would say no. It definitely was in the late 1990s when every top developer was coding for PC and consoles couldn’t touch performance, but right now the consoles are roughly equal to PCs for less money and are far more attractive for developers (they sell more, far less piracy concerns). So listen to the music.

Agreed - I suspect that my current PC may be the last gaming PC I ever build. Although it would help if developers would stop making must-have games for the PC, dammit.

[Fooey]

It’s high time for me to upgrade my PC, but I’m having trouble finding anything coming out that I care enough about to justify spending the money. When I last upgraded in 2004, Thief 3, Half Life 2, Doom 3 and the ability to replay Morrowind with graphics cranked all the way up were plenty enough justification for me. All I really see on the horizon now is Bioshock, but I’m not nearly excited enough about that for it to justify a new PC on its own. I’d play Crysis if I had a machine that could, but I definitely wouldn’t upgrade to play it. Farcry was good but not that good. The games I’m most looking forward to at this point are the Nethergate remake and Avernum 5, and I obviously don’t need an upgrade for those.

[Andrew_Mayer]

@bigdruid

Agreed - I suspect that my current PC may be the last gaming PC I ever build. Although it would help if developers would stop making must-have games for the PC, dammit.

I think that everyone wants to see some stability, and that’s why casual has managed to get a foothold.

The problem is that you have hardware manufacturers whose bottom line has been about constant upgrade for the last 15 years, and games have been the driving force behind that.

[Fugitive]

@bigdruid

Agreed - I suspect that my current PC may be the last gaming PC I ever build. Although it would help if developers would stop making must-have games for the PC, dammit.

Even if you (or any of us) don’t buy gaming PCs, we’ll presumably still be upgrading every once in a while just to keep up with other needs. We’ll always be able to play games, just not necessarily the newest ones. We just need digital distribution to ensure they’re still available three or four years down the road, and a more long-term view of the viability of a title (which is probably the hardest part).

[RepoMan]

@intruder

Inspired by the medicore

I’m inspired by your typocore.

[Taranis]

Yep, PC Gaming is dead!!! Thats why I’ve switched to Board Games, their cheaper, have better 3D graphics and virtually no lag!

[Shadari]

@Taranis

Yep, PC Gaming is dead!!! Thats why I’ve switched to Board Games, their cheaper, have better 3D graphics and virtually no lag!

But crap AI. ;)

[Robert_Sharp]

If I could get games like CivIV (with mods), Dominions 3, Space Rangers 2, etc. on my consoles, I wouldn’t upgrade my PC at all. I would play the hell out of consoles. As it is, I love consoles too, but there are some types of games that I can only seem to play on my PC. Until that changes, I’ll upgrade every year to try to keep up.