Jimquisition: Xbox 360 and PS3 Are Just Very Crap PCs

[AlwaysRunning]

Lately I've been feeling the very same way as Jim. I always loved consoles for their ability to simply work. Put the game in, it worked. That's becoming less and less the case, and everything on consoles is becoming more annoying, the games are less innovative and more expensive, and it doesn't seem like things will be getting any better going forward.

As for the cost analysis, this gen I've had a PS3 ($350, 60GB near-ish to launch) and Wii ($150) with battery packs ($20), needed a DualShock3 ($60) to replace the SixAxis, plus a large new HDD ($100) for PS3, and my PS3 broke down last month and is being repaired by Sony right now ($130). Over $800 total.

If I had dared to add a 360 into the mix, I'd be up and over the cost of my moderately powerful $1000 PC I bought a few years back. It's not the hottest thing around, but I sprung for the extra bit to make it last--I'm hoping a full decade, like my previous one. It runs all the latest games, better than on consoles, and unless I want to do super anti-aliasing, I don't see a pressing need to update anything on it any time soon. I fully expect it to be a reliable machine for years to come.

Between Steam and GoG sales, I haven't spent more than $10 on almost any game, which I most certainly can't say for PS3/Wii. With a 360 controller plugged into it, I can hardly tell that I'm not on a console, except that everything looks better, loads faster and doesn't have half-hour installs. Add in the far greater variety of games on PC, while consoles are continuing to narrow their focus more and more to the lowest common denominator, and it makes me unable to get excited in any way for the next generation, which I would have never imagined happening at the start of this gen. The publishers have ruined consoles.

I'll probably be sticking with a reliable PC from now on. I have almost every older console system and can still play around with those, and PC gets so large a percentage of console libraries that, yeah, next-gen consoles can just disappear for all I care.

 

[Magmarock]

I couldn't agree more. With consoles like the N64 and PS1 as well as the Sega Genesis and Super NES each system looked and sounded different while having a different feel about them. Now they are all the same. Cheap computers in cheaper cases.

 

[n19h7m4r3]

I couldn't agree more. With consoles like the N64 and PS1 as well as the Sega Genesis and Super NES each system looked and sounded different while having a different feel about them. Now they are all the same. Cheap computers in cheaper cases.

I remember a very amusing PC Format article nearly a decade ago about how to destroy your current computer and make it more like the recently released Xbox ( original ). Even then they were lacking compared to a modest PC.

My last console was the PS2 and I break it out only when the GF and I feel the need for some old school DOA and Soul Calibre.

Other than that, she has a ?450 laptop for some games and I have my work/study/gaming system.

The two most expensive PC parts I had ever bought in my life (Graphics card GTX 680 and Hazro 27" IPS LED monitor) will last me years and thanks to amazing 3-5 year warranties will easily last until the system actually needs to be replaced.

The rest of my system was under 700, and thanks to the CPU's built in GPU even if the GTX 680 dies I can easily continue to work as I wait for the RMA process to get done.

 

[MrCalavera_v1legacy]

Am I late to the shitstorm?
No? Anyway; Don't worry Jim; As soon as new generation of consoles will be realeased you'll be able to laugh at those POOR and GAMELESS Pc gamers again! That is until that generation will become even more overloaded with money-gathering/gaming-killing features, which will result in the next dawn of PCGMR...

But seriously: From what i've understood, Mr. Sterling points out that major problem of this generation of consoles is that it shares with PC's flaws that used to be associated with the latter? I don't think that makes this platform war really necessary. Oh, wait: platform war... necessary... Nevermind.

 

[mattis]

what jim said is true, consoles dont have as many advantages as they used to have.
however, they are still cheaper than a PC if you exclude bullcrap like xbox live fees (which is still rather negligible for me because i can get it ~50% off online compared to the german retail price for a 12 month subscription).
i got my PS3 slim with a 120gb HDD and uncharted 2 for 235?.
my PC, which isnt exactly super powerful but still kinda decent, cost me ~600?.
on my PS3 i might have to install games like on my PC but i dont have to worry about hardware. every game released in this generation will work on it.
if i want to play new games on my PC i might have to shell out an extra 100 bucks for a new GPU just so that the game wont look like utter shit and runs at a decent framerate.
unlike PC games i can also sell console games again after im done with them. most german stores that buy used games dont buy used PC games.

at this point i really just use my PC for smaller indie titles and older games that i want to play again and i use it to stream movies to my PS3 because it has more than enough power for that to run properly.

 

[Danceofmasks]

If I want to play all my PC games with a controller do I have to set the button controls every time?

Simple answer is no.

More complex answer is, you want an xbox 360 controller.
Mainly because it's the easiest. Games won't get confused as to which button is which, you just plug it in and it works, and (probably most importantly) a lot of games label their tutorials and other instructions with the 360's colour coded buttons ... which is hella confusing if you're trying to use a logitech rumblepad 2.

 

[Waaghpowa]

Sorry Jim, I take back what I said about people listening to someone with cred. Seems like the same people are saying the same thing over and over again without listening. As scrump monkey said:

Massive refuting reply posts, rambling paragraphs used purely for purchase-justifying and epic amounts of groan-worthy half understood misinformation. The Jimmies of the Console gamers have truly been rustled this time. Rarely have a seen jimmies rustled so thoroughly and in such amounts.

Bravo Jim, you mad genius you, bravo. Im going to enjoy this thread.

 

[The Lugz]

as a hardware enthusiast i simply cannot be a console gamer, it just doesn't work that way

i enjoy tuning as much as i enjoy the results ( the gaming and fun ) and the idea that i can reset my raid stripe to suit specific applications appeals to me in much the same way an artist chooses a specific canvas weave or a mechanic a specific gear set

the same goes for software, if i can download a mod that adds more realistic lighting or scraps unnecessary clutter from a game you can bet i'll have it ( i have several for skyrim )
and it's not just about HD either, mine-craft can be made into something astounding with a few simple mods that influence game-play

it's not to say that consoles are poor, pathetic or even limited in any way
they're more consumer electronic appliances more than they are personal supercomputers
the value in theory, at least. should never be better on a console than a pc, a console exists to perpetuate the company that made it where as a pc simply exists to modify data on a drive, and just happens to run games as well it's more a piece of equipment than any one specifically built device
which makes sense because it takes about 50 different company's components to build a pc
and you can just pick all the cheapest parts and throw them together if you want
or you could spend absurd amounts to make a purpose built machine with enough flops and bandwidth to run any program in existence in real time

courses for horses, as they say

jim's real argument is the restrictions placed on consoles are making them increasingly less attractive, and frankly i agree i haven't had a console since my ps2 days i just don't see the point anymore it's no longer insert disk run and you have instant entertainment
and that was always the point of a console ( for me, at-least )

presently, i cant see a single reason to buy a console over a pc the only downside is the initial cost of a gaming specific system will be higher because your laying out upfront for the hardware
you can get a decent system for roughly £400 that will match a console and then upgrade it to great later with the money you save versus expensive console specific games titles
the problem is technical ability and know how
but really, you can google any question you have and you WILL find an answer there is literally nothing new you can do as an entry level user that someone hasn't written an essay on

 

[AstaresPanda]

http://www.gametrailers.com/videos/0l6105/mega64-new-consoles

this pretty much sums it up perfectly. GREEEEED has ruined what could have been. But yet pc's have stayed the same for the most part and is not hurting as much. difference is, like jim said pc gamers are not always being ripped off and milked for every penny for shit that should be free. DLC !? at the cost of what an expansion pack used to be if not abit more and for far less content.

Last console i had before i really made the jump to PC gaming was the snes/ps1 online play with a 56k was not great but hell was still ALOT of fun.

 

[n19h7m4r3]

http://www.gametrailers.com/videos/0l6105/mega64-new-consoles

this pretty much sums it up perfectly. GREEEEED has ruined what could have been. But yet pc's have stayed the same for the most part and is not hurting as much. difference is, like jim said pc gamers are not always being ripped off and milked for every penny for shit that should be free. DLC !? at the cost of what an expansion pack used to be if not abit more and for far less content.

Last console i had before i really made the jump to PC gaming was the snes/ps1 online play with a 56k was not great but hell was still ALOT of fun.

The video pretty much sums it up.

Also I lOVED gaming on 56k back in the day, even just going to a lan over a weekend with friends.

back then we played tribes/starsiege and Team fortress and CS.

Now? We play Tribes Ascend and TF2 for free online. The person in our group with the worst pc is a old laptop with a Nvidia 8600M GT 256mb graphics card, and Even he can play Tribes Ascend. Sure it's on low settings, but we all get to play.

Now people, the 8600m GT was released in 2007.
That's 5 years ago! Yet it can still play modern games, sure not maxed out so it looks amazing but he can still game. On a laptop.

 

[loa]

Why are you listing online multiplayer as a "console specific advantage"?
That has only been a very recent development. It's stupid.
Consoles used to be all about singleplayer or, you know, getting people into your house, slapping a controller into their hand and playing the game sitting next to them.
That is something pcs still can't (or more like most devs just don't) quite do in the same way.

Consoles used to be the "online? Fuck that" option, now it is somehow a mandatory thing.
Some utterly inane console-specific problems such as online passes can be traced straight back to it.
I roll my eyes every time angry joe asks a developer for online multiplayer.

As for other advantages, consoles tend to be smaller than pcs (that's a bigger one than you may think) and they double up as dvd or blu-ray players.

 

[RESURRECTION21]

oh my god i am so done with this both pc and console fanboys need to stop being butthurt over this just do what i do if you like to play games on consoles play them on consoles if you like to play games on pc play them on pc stop with the stupid pc is better then console or console is better pc pissing contest they are better for some guys and not better for some having fun and playing games is what matters can we all just get along and see that we all are just gamers no matter what we play on now iam going to play some xbox and later some tf2 on my pc

 

[The White Hunter]

Yeah I agree. If I could afford to make the jump to PCs I would. I'd keep my consoles for exclusives but I'd mainly play on PC.

Also INB4 shitstorm

Same tbh, I'm seeing less and less reason to bother with consoles, updates and patches and install times asre a pain in the ass and my PC does all of it faster, and my PC is shit.

Next gen I think I'll I have to invest time and money in learning how to be a PC gamer.

 

[cyvaris]

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.

My system cost me a total of $800, monitor included, it was built two years ago, it runs Skyrim on Ultra at 60fps. Your argument is invalid.

 

[RESURRECTION21]

thank you for not being a fanboy of pc or consoles and seeing that it is games and the fun that matters not what you play it on you may now have some brownies

 

[Ickorus]

PC has a lot of cheap and free games out there so gaming on a budget is a real possibility once you get the initial purchase out the way (£400 for me, can run everything on max settings).

I mean, the games I play the most these days are League of Legends, Super Monday Night Combat, Blacklight: Retribution and a bunch of source mods; all these cost me absolutely nothing to play including the source mods due to getting HL2 free with an old graphics card.

Not to mention I do everything else on here too like watch movies, listen to music, do work, browse forums, watch por- ahem, well you get my idea.

With all the said, I do have a PS3 due to a couple of great games being released on it. (Demon's/Dark Souls, I'm looking at you)

 

[Lee Quitt]

Then you really didn't check at all

 

[Daveman]

Other than consoles never having to deal with being able to run a game or not, I too can see no reason.
Oh wait, Demon's Souls.

edit: ^And that. Local multiplayer = best multiplayer. Though I've never tried LAN, so who knows.

It's pretty cool. In my student house we all had pretty standard laptops and therefore perfectly capable of running Left 4 Dead 2. We played regularly about once a week for a whole evening with beer and pizza.

It's good because:
1) We all have laptops anyway
2) We all got L4D2 on steam sale
3) We all had a decent sized screen
4) We could download new maps when we got bored with the stock ones
5) We switched in our last term to playing TF2, which is free to play I might add, at one point getting a couple other people round and played 3v3 arena mode, which I used to think was shit, but now I think is awesome.
6) Can't wait for Borderlands 2

 

[Madman123456]

Well, i feared that Consoles would become more like the PC to the Point where i woudn't even bother. And now we have Additional Hardware for consoles that you have to calibrate and then it still wont work all the time.
I'm looking at the kinect here, if you haven't guessed yet.
I might be a bit overly zealos about my Controller being reliable. I don't buy wireless hardware not only because the hassle with the charging Batteries that wont keep my Mouse operating for more then 4 hours. I don't buy them because when they get wonky it will be when i'm in the little of the most difficult Bossfight i ever fought.

I'd like the Hardware i control my Games with to be as acurate and reliable as possible. That has not been the Case with old analogue Joysticks for the old flight simulators, which is why i never bothered with them.
Same thing with any motion controller: not acurate and not reliable enough. You have to calibrate them and then it wont work right. PC users are right at home.

Next thing, involuntary updates. I'm looking at the Playstation here. We all know the Problem and we all find it annoying. Funny Story here, i know People who where so angry when steam came out that they switched over to console. And they play Console to this Day.
Steam can be told to not update. So maybe some People might eventually come back to PC gaming.


Another thing is the Hardware of the consoles. Flimsy at best. No really, this is buildquality that the Customer shouldn't tolerate. People who buy Consoles have no right to complain about modern tech breaking down right after the Guarantee runs out.


The PC Market is being slowly killed off by opyprotection software that acts like a Virus, lacking Ports from the Console and Other Software issues. Like Drivers.

But the Consoles really do give the PC a run for its Money when it comes to annoy and rip off the Customer.
Well, on the PC, there is a slight Chance that someone will make a Tool that fixes some issues.

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