To PC game, or not to PC game?

[steevee]

Well, recently I've got kinda bored of most of my games on 360. I play with quite a few friends but I find myself doing less and less.

I really enjoy RPG's, RTS and other genres that are alive and kicking on PC, but I also like FPS's with the controller control system.

Now the problem is, I want to run a car next year and I've been saving all my money for that. I only have about £200 to spare, which, from what I'm told isn't enough to build a decent gaming PC. Now, if I sold my 360 and all the games I think I could easily get another £200-300.

SO a few questions on that front.
Firstly, is he transition huge? I've never really PC gamed before and the talks of optimisng this and overloading that get me a little confused. WIll I be able to pick this up pretty quickly?
What are the best sites to buy a good base model from? Or how can I ensure I get the best bang for buck? People have told me I should build my own, but I've never even been inside a modem as I've always owned laptops.
Have you made the transition? Or game on both? What are the pro's and con's of PC gaming over console?


Overall, do you think it would be worth it for me? Or wopuld you reccomend sticking with a console and just waiting another year or so until I have more spare cash?



Oh, and one more question. What one PC game would you reccomend to someone new to PC gaming? If I do make the switch I know I'll be getting -
-Total War series ( a few )
-Starcraft
-Fallout 3
-Crysis

 

[Silent_marauder]

I've been pc gaming since I was 6 so there was no transition. Also I recently built my own computer and it wasn't hard at all. I'd recommend Newegg to buy parts from. ALso whether or not you should make the transition, you wont find any other console with the same amount of unique games.

Narrowing it down to 1 is impossible

World War 2 online (mmofps) http://www.battlegroundeurope.com/
Men of War (great rts) http://store.steampowered.com/app/7830/
Any of the stalker series (great rpg/fps) http://store.steampowered.com/app/41700/
Team Fortress 2 (hell the last class update just came out )http://store.steampowered.com/app/440/
And just cause I can still play it years later and have tons of fun, Stronghold Crusader http://www.fireflyworlds.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=128&Itemid=320

 

[steevee]

Hmm, thanks for the link Ultratwinkle, but I should've added I'm in the UK.

So a general consensus, is £400 enough to build a decent gaming rig, i.e run new games at decent spec?

 

[Radeonx]

Warcraft 3 and Warcraft 3: Frozen Throne
Made by Blizzard, and a fantastic RTS game.
I'd also recommend Audiosurf, a fun music game.
As for RPG's, there are tons of them, but some standout ones are the Mass Effect series, Diablo 2 (All expansions), Torchlight, Dragon Age: Origins (And Expansion), and The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind.

 

[Shock and Awe]

I personally would not recommend selling you 360 and games for a PC because you will probably be left with less games, and you might get screwed if it turns out you just like a console better. If I were you I would wait to get more cash and then buy the PC. As for games, I reccomend,

The Orange Box
Dawn of War
Company of Heroes
DEFCON
And as you mentioned, anything in the Total War franchise.

You should also buy a SNES or PS1 controller and something to connect it to your PC. Why? Because it makes free retro ROMs that much more enjoyable.

 

[uvr5672]

£600 should be enough if you build it yourself. Don´t know any of any british hardware-site though.

As for games I would recommend Metro 2033, Dragon Age: Origins, Supreme Commander and Just Cause 2.

 

[hyperhammy]

Hmm, thanks for the link Ultratwinkle, but I should've added I'm in the UK.

So a general consensus, is £400 enough to build a decent gaming rig, i.e run new games at decent spec?

If you build it yourself that should be enough. I bought my pc for 500$ and it can run Battlefield: Bad Company 2 on high at 30 fps.

 

[Diligent]

Keep a 360 controller around too, because you can plug that in with most modern games to give you the option of playing on a controller if you want.
Also, Steam is the only thing you will ever need to buy games.

 

[CheeseSandwichCake]

Starcraft 2, because Marines and Marauders injecting themselves with crack to run/shoot faster is reason enough.

 

[Vampire cat]

A lot of games can be played with the 360 controller, I do that for GTA4, Just Cause 2 and Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 amongst others. You'll be fine =3.

 

[Scobie]

DELETED

 

[Enigmers]

You don't even need a decent gaming rig to run Starcraft, you could probably get that working on a high-end graphing calculator or a cell-phone or something.

I really have to recommend Torchlight. It's a great, really fun actionRPG/dungeon crawler. The VALVe complete pack on Steam is an amazing deal as well.

 

[Airsoftslayer93]

The major difference that ive experianced between Pc gaming and console gaming that you should probably take into consideration is that a console will last you longer, look at the 360, it will probably be 10 years old by the time it is replaced, and it will still be running games to a decent level then, i would like to find someone running modern games on a pc that is 10 years old (or even 5 years old, at top spec graphics) that hasn't been upgraded significatly.

 

[V8 Ninja]

The transition (from console to PC) isn't that huge in general. It may be a bit weird when you start off playing with a mouse and keyboard, but in about a week or so it'll wear off. As for websites, I don't know any websites where you can get good base models. However, if you plan to build your own PC, you can use Newegg [http://www.newegg.com/] to buy your parts. As for my current gaming situation, I still own a console mostly because there are some great console games that you just can't get on a PC. As for Pros and Cons, I'd say the biggest is the hardware differences of consoles and PCs. With consoles, you can only play games released for that specific system, the catch being that every game released on the console will run on the system. PCs, on the other hand, might not be able to run future games (due to different computer having different hardware), but as the added bonus you'll be able to play almost every game released for a computer (if you know how to run DOS-Box).

Overall, I'd say wait until you have more spare cash unless there are basically no exclusive games you want for your 360. If you do go the way of the PC, here are some games that you may want to consider:

Darwinia -- It's like a combination of a strategy game and an overhead shooting game (with the end result leaning more towards the strategy side). It's quite fun, but I would recommend the demo first to see if it's your thing.

AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! A Reckless Disregard for Gravity -- No, seriously; that's the name. It's a futuristic BASE jumping game with a great sense of humor. Recommended that you watch a video of the gameplay before you buy.

Cave Story -- In my opinion, it's the best 100% FREE game of all time. Basically it's a platforming game that has a good story, great gameplay, and an absolutely outstanding soundtrack. And it'll run on anything since it's and 8-bit game that's under 4 megabytes.