So what is the advantage of a console?

[OldDirtyCrusty]

The no DRM thing that people keep bringing up for consoles is confusing me, have publishers abandoned online passes then? Also things like call of duty elite and Battlefield 3 Premium are starting to become more common. Granted they don't effect single player games that much but to say there is no DRM is shortsighted.



Also there is at least one game I know with actual always online DRM for the ps3.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/100238-Capcom-Apologizes-for-Final-Fight-Double-Impact-DRM

No they haven`t abandoned it, but it only matters for used-market buyers. You can be a day one buyer or still wait for a price drop, aslong as you don`t buy it used the online pass-code is inside the game. You can`t compare it to DRM since you can still play the singleplayer offline and just enter your online code once for the mp. Besides i really doubt that any other console game aside from COD or BF could make profit from such services like CODelite or BFpremium. You don`t even need them for the mp.

That i have to be online to play online mp makes kind of sense doesn`t it? That`s not DRM.

Let me be the guy who says it: There is no DRM for consoles (yet) (besides Final Fight Double Impact for the ps3).

 

[Trippy Turtle]

Xbox Live I prefer over separate games have separate friends list and the like. I prefer being able to use a tv which is cumbersome to use with a computer connected. In my personal experience I have found nicer people on xbox. Of course PC would also have good people I probaby have just had bad luck.

 

[notyouraveragejoe]

To me it's ease of use. For pc games I have to know whether I can run it and see whether it'll be smooth. And if I want to upgrade my computer that's even more difficult. Whereas with my ps3 I just buy ps3 games and then I can play.

 

[captaincabbage]

I also heard it's physically impossible to sit back and relax on a sofa whilst gaming on a PC.

That. . . Is an extremely good point! I never even considered that.
I have beanbags at my place and playing my PS3 whilst hanging back is infinitely more relaxing than sitting at my computer.
Other than that, I think it's just a personal preference. I personally love having a controller in my hands. Being a Playstation kid all the way back to PS1 days it seems like a no-brainer to me, but it's really hard to explain how something just feels 'off' without one, y'know what I mean?

Don't get me wrong though, I'm also a lean mean PC-gaming machine, I just love console controls just as much.

 

[Tropicaz]

Well console is more social for me; I live in a house with a few other people and its nice to have FIFA tourneys/splitscreen all in the same room which just wont happen with PC.

 

[deathninja]

If I'm on the 360 in the lounge, more often than not my SO will join in, either hotseating or just working through the story together.

It's a lot harder to sit around a desk and monitor.

 

[fuzz]

I think every reason has been said, and promptly ignored by pc users. I will say that for all the claims of pc superiority it always makes me laugh when you complain of a bad port. That in itself is a superiority of consoles. You can get games without worry of botched controls or other such problems because they don't have to be changed for an overly complicated control scheme. Also ps3 has Demon's Souls, that alone is worth buying one for.

 

[omega 616]

The only one I've ever seen brought out is "simplicity" and while that argument maybe had some ground to stand on in 2001 or so, it doesn't stand up at all nowadays.

I recently bought orcs must die (not the second), the thing is the game set it's self to run on 1 core although it needed 2. The second core is used for all the animations.

So I had to search the internet to find out the solution, which was to open the game, alt tab out, open task manager, find "orcs must die", right click it, click find process, right click on the process and then set affinity to use all the cores.

The problem was, for what ever reason, I didn't have set affinity at all ... there was literally no option for it, so I had to spend another 30 mins looking round the net to find another solution. That solution involved opening msconfig.

I would never have that problem with console, I just pop the disk in and after a DRM free install, I play the game.

I have also had problems with other games, so it's not a 1 off occurrence.

Plus with a console you never have to wonder if your console can run game X, sure if you have just spent 5 grand on a computer then you don't have to worry either but a console is cheap compared to that.

If a game says PS3 on it, I know I can play it. Steam has black light: retribution and I have a PC but I can't play it 'cos my PC isn't good enough.

 

[Entitled]

Where is it more comfortable to sit, is a matter or genres. It's more comfortable to stare at some cinematic AAA game on a TV from a couch, but anything like a turn-based game, any god-game, or any other slow-paced type of game where you are fiddling around with menus and stats and large scale controls most of the time, is much more comfortable while leaning on a desk, 40-50 centimeters from the monitor.

 

[In Search of Username]

Only one I can think of is the exclusive games. That's the only reason I use consoles any more, I'd stick to PC if all the games I wanted were available on it.

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

For the convenience of just plugging in and playing without any installations or updates. Although Playstation firmware updates have eroded that advantage somewhat. But not having to worry about system specs is a plus, although my pc can handle pretty much anything I still check the system specs to see what kind of experience I will likely have with a game. On console I don't need to do that.

 

[chadachada123]

Comfort is one possible reason. I won't use this reason, though, because my laptop is just as comfortable for couch-based gameplay and far, far more powerful than a 360.

Simplicity is another reason, though. When you plug in your 360, you know the game is going to work (well, mostly). No installation, no installing of drivers, no compatibility issues, nothing.

Fun with friends is a third reason. Part of the fun of Mario Kart or Super Smash Bros is that you can play with friends on the same television, and with controllers for certain genres.

 

[chadachada123]

The only one I've ever seen brought out is "simplicity" and while that argument maybe had some ground to stand on in 2001 or so, it doesn't stand up at all nowadays.

I recently bought orcs must die (not the second), the thing is the game set it's self to run on 1 core although it needed 2. The second core is used for all the animations.

So I had to search the internet to find out the solution, which was to open the game, alt tab out, open task manager, find "orcs must die", right click it, click find process, right click on the process and then set affinity to use all the cores.

The problem was, for what ever reason, I didn't have set affinity at all ... there was literally no option for it, so I had to spend another 30 mins looking round the net to find another solution. That solution involved opening msconfig.

I would never have that problem with console, I just pop the disk in and after a DRM free install, I play the game.

I have also had problems with other games, so it's not a 1 off occurrence.

Plus with a console you never have to wonder if your console can run game X, sure if you have just spent 5 grand on a computer then you don't have to worry either but a console is cheap compared to that.

If a game says PS3 on it, I know I can play it. Steam has black light: retribution and I have a PC but I can't play it 'cos my PC isn't good enough.

I'm in full agreement with you, so don't take this reply as some sort of disproval, but I do know of two funny things:

1) I remember hearing of one game on PC that had major issues, including freezing, if you had an FPS rate of more than 200 or so (with no forced FPS cap). Meaning that you PC can actually be TOO GOOD TO PLAY YOUR AAA GAME. (That is, if it was triple-A, it could have been indie, I can't remember).

2) The N64 had an extension pack that gave it extra memory. Some games were only playable with this pack, so at least in that generation there was an instance where you *may* not be set with just seeing N64 on the box.

Also, Halo Reach can't use Forge mode with arcade editions of the 360 (without a hard drive or with the 4gig versions), without being labelled on the box at all. Not quite as big as not being able to play an entire game, but still kinda dumb.

As a final slight nitpick, with 360s you don't even need to install any games if you have the disc (to no knowledge). Which makes *all* (single player) games even better than PCs in this singular respect, on top of the lack of DRM.

 

[Winthrop]

I'm going to mess with everyone and say that consoles have better graphics. Sure a GOOD computer may have better graphics, but mine is at the point where I run everything in 800x600 with everything turned down to run modern AAA games at 20 fps (I'm fine with 20 by the way). I still use it sometimes because of steam sales.

Other benefits of consoles are initial cost and the long term cost does not balance it out(Sure PC games start cheaper and steam sales are amazing, but Amazon quickly fixes that. I bought like 10 games for 50 bucks on Amazon not too long ago).

Ease of access is the big one. I don't need to spend hours installing user made patches just to boot up a game. If I put a game in a console I know it will run. Furthermore, standard hardware means that none of my opponents have a hardware advantage.

Second is controllers vs. mouse and keyboard. I know a lot of people disagree, but I hate playing most games without a controller. Especially action adventures and shooters. I don't know where the idea that people cannot aim with controllers came from, but my TF2 headshot rate with the sniper about doubles when I use a controller. I've never played an action adventure that felt right on a keyboard either. I know some games support controllers on the pc, but for the other ones joy-to-key is just buggy enough that it doesn't feel right. There are exceptions, for instance any RTS without a mouse/keyboard is likely going to suck. I'd imagine the same for adventure games and text adventures. I'm not a fan of RTS's or Adventure Games though and text adventures went out of style a while ago so not many are made (not that I don't play through Zork at least once a year).

There are also significantly fewer modders online on consoles. I don't get killed across the map with knives which is unfortunately all to common on the pc.

Finally, split screen is a big plus for consoles. Some pc games do offer it, but I have never seen anyone actually use that feature and many more console games do than PC games. Unfortunately, this seems to be dying down a bit on consoles.

TLDR: Graphics (for some)
Cost
Ease of access
Controllers
No "haxors" online
Split screen

 

[sanquin]

I would say that sony and microsoft are much, much, MUCH harder to deal with then steam. Just saying.

You also have to deal with microsoft at least when dealing with pc's. (you know, the largest part of the market has windows on it and all that)

Anyway, yes, the COMPANIES are harder to deal with when it comes to gaming. The DEVICES are not. It's the only -real- and -clear- advantage consoles have. Ease of use. As in, you don't need to spend an hour or so on the net to figure out what components to buy, and you don't need to manually install any games.

 

[Entitled]

I'm going to mess with everyone and say that consoles have better graphics. Sure a GOOD computer may have better graphics, but mine is at the point where I run everything in 800x600 with everything turned down to run modern AAA games at 20 fps (I'm fine with 20 by the way).

Well, a GOOD console might have better graphics than that, but one as outdated as the PC that you described, will probably have 640x480 graphics, because it will be a 6th generation console or a Wii.

Yes, you can always play every 360 game on a 360, but expecting your old or cheap PC to play Skyrim, is like expecting to play Skyrim on the Wii or on the xbox 1.

Except that on a PC, at least you also have the option to lower the graphics if you REALLY want to play it but you are really poor, and stretch the platform's lifespan even longer.

Not to mention, that it always works the other way around, you can still play Morrowind on a modern gamer PC, and you will on your next ones five or ten years from now, and even mod it to look pretty (at least prettier).

 

[NotALiberal]

Easy to use: Just plug in and play

Games are guaranteed to play everytime, don't have to worry whether or not it could handle a game. No fiddling with new video cards, drivers etc...

Controllers: Not all PC games have gamepad support

Split-screen is tons of fun with friends.

But mostly financially: I've spent MAYBE $500 total on hardware the past ten years. That includes two consoles, controllers, headsets etc...

And for that amount of money, compared to the performance of the machine is a pretty good deal. Contrary to what the "PC Gaming Master Race" would tell you, console games don't look that much worse than PC games.

Consoles are also a nice baseline for developers building their games

I'm sorry but I'm going to have to call bullshit on this. Major bullshit.

 

[sanquin]

-sniiiip-

TLDR: Graphics (for some)
Cost
Ease of access
Controllers
No "haxors" online
Split screen

The graphics part is just not true. Saying that your very old pc can't run games as well as your console is like saying that the xbox can't run games as well as the xbox360. If you have a pc that's not older than say, 4 years it'll run games better than the current consoles.

Cost really does make a difference. Sure you can sometimes get deals for cheap games for consoles as well. But pc games are almost cheaper by default. Only day one prices are about the same, and even then a lot of pc games are a bit cheaper.

Ease of access is true.

Controllers can be used by a lot of games on the pc as well, and the amount it can be used on it rising. Plus it's a preference thing, so can't really use it as an argument.

There are also hackers on consoles. Sure it's a lot harder to hack a game on a console, but they're still there.

Split screen is close to disappearing from consoles as well the way I see it right now. Almost all co-op/multiplayer games opt for lan/internet.

 

[NewQuest]

This is more of a personal issue, but still:

On PC, even the people with the best graphics cards and best PCs seem to have issues running games. I don't mean like getting 60 fps or anything, but I'll try to run a game, and there will be some issue. When I look it up, people explain that you need to download unofficial patches, or download other things because games don't work on certain computers. A lot of those people have the latest Nvidia graphics cards, and yet you have to worry about peformance rather than just playing the fucking game.

I remember trying to play Max Payne on my laptop and it turns out you need to download some program because the sound is messed up, and you need to copy and delete files in order to fix it. Yeah, it's worth the work, but I've always enjoyed just popping a game into a console and playing it with no issues.

People will probably quote this saying that I don't know what I'm doing/talking about, but some of this sends me over the top.

I also think split-screen is a great reason to have a console. Playing multiplayer games online, on a pc/xbox live or whatever is fine, but splitscreen is fun as shit. Because shit is fun.

To end this post: I play a lot of games on PC, don't get me wrong, I enjoy it, but I get frustrated with it sometimes. Sometimes I feel as though it's more about the technical aspects rather than the gameplay or the story. People pride themselves with having 60 fps, high resolutions, large draw distance, anti-aliasing, etc., but I can easily just pop in a game on a console and enjoy it. I don't know. It just feels easier.