T5seconds said:
I bought a ps3 bout a week ago and found out that today’s consoles are computers that have been optimized for gaming so I call bullshit with this because there not consoles they ARE computers with fucking remotes...
Making my fucking download mgs 4 *sigh*
Y'know, I'm gonna go with this too. Especially the XBox series, which is simply a cut-down specialized gaming PC with imbedded Windows OS. Of the three major consoles out today, I'd say only the Wii stays at least partly true to the classic console definition- a machine dedicated solely to the playing of games.
Now, I will make a confession here: I am a PC gamer who owns Halo. (assorted gasps from the audience) I cut my gaming teeth on the Atari 2600 and Intellivision; I was a proud owner of both an NES and a Master System (oh, you thought this whole fanboy thing was new?), and stayed true to Nintendo through the SNES and N64. However, it was Half-Life that really put me on the road to PC gaming- it was a glimpse into something bigger, more complex, and even as I strugged to get 5 FPS in a 320x200 window on my terrible first computer (a Packard-Bell; remember those?) I knew the path I would take into this strange new world.
Why have I stayed, despite consoles themselves becoming more complex and capable of amazing graphics and stories? One word- Mods. I certainly wouldn't still be playing Oblivion today if it weren't for the staggering number of Mods [http://www.tesnexus.com/] available for the PC version of the game, whereas XBox and PS3 owners are stuck with the stock game and the handful of DLC additions available. Ditto the Half-Life series (along with Portal), the Doom series, and no small number of other games, including those that were never meant to be modded (STALKER, for one huge example).
PC gaming is not as expensive as people who aren't familiar with it make it out to believe. You do not have to buy a new $2000 computer every two years just to "keep up with the Joneses", unless you are both rich and extremely lazy. Yes, there is some technical expertise needed to upgrade a gaming PC, but the tradeoff is that I have spent far less keeping my current PC up-to-snuff for current-gen games than it would have cost me to get a PS3 at launch. And while I don't own a 72" HDTV, I DO own a much cheaper 20" LCD monitor, and as it is at the other end of my desk rather than the other end of my living room, the viewing effect is not all that different. (Besides, 1280x1024@75FPS looks pretty darn nice close-up if you ask me; I don't know what 1440x1080@24FPS [that's 1080i, kids] does to the eyes after extended viewing.)
I personally hold no ill feelings towards console gamers. Some folks just want to pop a disc in the machine and play; why not? Console gaming by itself does not harm a PC gamer like me in any way, shape or form. However, there is one tangental issue where problems may come into play: Concurrent development of a game for PC and console. I will point out Thief: Deadly Shadows as a primary culprit here. The first two games of the Thief series involved sprawling, varied cityscapes where the player had plenty of room to hide and skulk about, and could find several ways to enter particular areas based on one's own tastes. TDS, however, was developed primarily for the XBox, and that console's limited memory (64MB) necessitated chopping levels into much smaller chunks and linking them via glowing blue portals. Due to time and budget constraints, these levels (nor the console-centric interface) were not redone for the PC version, leaving PC gamers with what felt like an overly simplified and limited game that didn't do the franchise justice. While console gamers themselves aren't responsible for this sort of thing happening, there is some bleedoff from what I'd consider justifiable anger for this sort of thing happening.
I am one of many PC gamers who feels he's getting the short end of the stick these days, with console-based games getting terrible port jobs while PC-centric games are harder and harder to find. We're no less gamers than you are, and telling us to "just go buy a console" disrespects the time and money we have spent and expects us to accept more limited choice in how we play games. Imagine if 60% of your gaming library started looking like the PS3 port of Half-Life 2 and you might see where we start to get touchy.
