Why buy consoles?
- Thread starter Susurrus
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1)I really hate Windows.
2)I suck with computers and couldn't build my own if I tried (and I did).
3)My genre of choice are platformers and adventure games, game that I feel play better with a controller.
4)I am willing to tolerate a gamepad for shooters.
5)Rock Band and other party games.
6)I really hate Windows. I don't care if I'm repeating, I just want that emphasized.
7)I prefer laying down on my couch to relax at the end of a day, not hunched over my desk.
Those are pretty much my reasons.
2)I suck with computers and couldn't build my own if I tried (and I did).
3)My genre of choice are platformers and adventure games, game that I feel play better with a controller.
4)I am willing to tolerate a gamepad for shooters.
5)Rock Band and other party games.
6)I really hate Windows. I don't care if I'm repeating, I just want that emphasized.
7)I prefer laying down on my couch to relax at the end of a day, not hunched over my desk.
Those are pretty much my reasons.
Consoles are much cheaper, an equivalent spec pc with a huge monitor and bluray player would cost enough to buy my playstation and tv twice over. Also if a game is released for ps3 it's specified for my exact graphic card, processor etc, not the case with pc.
I was almost cured, but then I decided to buy an Alienware computer. Don't get me wrong, it's pretty nice, it can run almost any game perfectly with much better graphics than my Xbox OR PS3. But only for a few months. Then all kinds of problems start occuring. Like my screen randomly going blank, or my drivers malfunctioning, or my SLI randomly going to stealth mode, or my touchbuttons stop working...PettingZOOPONY said:
I'm just awesome like that. I replace them for being to small occasionally, but my oldest is seven (I think) years by now.Falseprophet said:
As for the price of games, steam sales. And I don't go buy games on release unless it's something I want really really badly.Azaraxzealot said:
I couldn't agree more with you about DRM however. All platforms have their share of problems, and DRM is one of the biggest for PC.
Thirdly, I don't have a TV to begin with, and most certainly not an HDTV. Playing games in a resolution below 720p? No thanks. 768p was the standard for Windows 98 for crying out loud.
And again with the prize; I can shave of 10 to 20% of the prize by building it myself, according to what I need it to do. For an Alienware as you said you pay a bunch extra just for the brand.
[hr]
In the end this is mostly a question of convenience for me, when my graphics card gets old I can replace it, and only it. If I need to do a major upgrade I can still keep the chassis, fans, harddrives and maybe the power supply too.
And last but not least I can feel a bit smug about my system of choice. HDTV you say? My cellphone has half the resolution of your HDTV.
Thats just Alienware, I've had so many problems with the 5870 BIOS on the GPU on my wifes laptop that it was unplayable until I put a 3rd party BIOS on it.Fidelias said:
That, and because sometimes PC gets really shitty ports that aren't worth trying to run when the console version is so much better.Susurrus said:
Oh, and DRM. DRM is pretty much always worse on the PC. Buying a Ubisoft or EA game for your PC is basically asking to be treated with no respect.
1: Consoles have the superior games: Basically all major AAA titles are designed for consoles now, and some don't even go to the PC at all. While the PC does still get quite a few good exclusive AAA games, consoles get the lion's share, making investing in them a better value oriented approach.
2: PC performance superiority over consoles is waning. Unless you really shell out for parts, most gaming PCs do not have significant graphics/performance advantage over current consoles, and they certainly won't over the next gen of consoles.
3: The controller is an infinitely better control setup for gaming over the mouse and keyboard, with the exception of RTS, MMO and certain select games. While the mouse still controls better for precise aiming, the joystick serves that purpose just fine and has the advantage of being infinitely better for movement controls than the keyboard.
4: The more you plan to play multiplayer, the more appealing the consoles become. PCs basically have ZERO in-house playability, and only increase and spread costs of PC gaming to multiple people, while with 1 console 4 people can play multiplayer together; it only takes 4 consoles for 16 to play together. With few exceptions, the console community also tends to stick a bit more with games too; its easier to find matches for console games for longer than it is on PC, unless you REALLY, REALLY like playing a particular way.
5: Portability. Consoles are easy to transport, work basically anywhere there is a TV and power, and don't take up as much room. Good gaming PCs are often HUGE, and often way A FUCKING TON, in addition to having multiple parts that must be transported.
6: Player-generated content is one of the few advantages PCs really have, and its not even that great an advantage. Because when you think about it honestly, 97% of all user content is shit or smut, 2% is decent and only really 1% is truly good worth saying "Yeah, this was worth it".
7: What sounds more appealing, in all seriousness?
Pay $300-$500 for a system that is guaranteed to play any game that comes out for it for the next 5 years, is easily portable, has an extremely simple set-up and plays games at very good level of performance, OR pay anywhere from $1000 to $2500 for a system that may only be relevant for 3 years before needing new parts to play the latest games, isn't portable or sharable, can have an extremely complicated set-up, but can play games at a higher level of performance.
2: PC performance superiority over consoles is waning. Unless you really shell out for parts, most gaming PCs do not have significant graphics/performance advantage over current consoles, and they certainly won't over the next gen of consoles.
3: The controller is an infinitely better control setup for gaming over the mouse and keyboard, with the exception of RTS, MMO and certain select games. While the mouse still controls better for precise aiming, the joystick serves that purpose just fine and has the advantage of being infinitely better for movement controls than the keyboard.
4: The more you plan to play multiplayer, the more appealing the consoles become. PCs basically have ZERO in-house playability, and only increase and spread costs of PC gaming to multiple people, while with 1 console 4 people can play multiplayer together; it only takes 4 consoles for 16 to play together. With few exceptions, the console community also tends to stick a bit more with games too; its easier to find matches for console games for longer than it is on PC, unless you REALLY, REALLY like playing a particular way.
5: Portability. Consoles are easy to transport, work basically anywhere there is a TV and power, and don't take up as much room. Good gaming PCs are often HUGE, and often way A FUCKING TON, in addition to having multiple parts that must be transported.
6: Player-generated content is one of the few advantages PCs really have, and its not even that great an advantage. Because when you think about it honestly, 97% of all user content is shit or smut, 2% is decent and only really 1% is truly good worth saying "Yeah, this was worth it".
7: What sounds more appealing, in all seriousness?
Pay $300-$500 for a system that is guaranteed to play any game that comes out for it for the next 5 years, is easily portable, has an extremely simple set-up and plays games at very good level of performance, OR pay anywhere from $1000 to $2500 for a system that may only be relevant for 3 years before needing new parts to play the latest games, isn't portable or sharable, can have an extremely complicated set-up, but can play games at a higher level of performance.
Dont worry, thats going ot happen to the "standard" PC. Notice how when they were talking, they said stuff was going to go handheld, and to things like iPads and larger versions of touch screens? Yeah, thats going to happen PCs too. So the PCs and Consoles will fuse together and we'll basically get Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo putting out their own high powered ipad like devices.Levethian said:
So yeah, PCs arent safe from that little future. They'll just be lopped together with consoles and shurken down to make some bastard child device.
Because I have a mortgage to pay and I don't want to constantly have to mess with my computer to play the latest games.
I prefer a controller designed specifically for games instead of a keybaord where it's impossible to tell where anything is instinctively unless you touch type.
Computers require thinking. Consoles require buying, then calling for repair if soemthing happens.
Computers require thinking. Consoles require buying, then calling for repair if soemthing happens.
Good god I hope your trolling because your argument is way off base and not even close to being objective.Paragon Fury said:
I don't own a gaming PC, I actually own a console, but I do agree that PC is the best way to game, if you're willing to put in some work.
The only real advantage to console gaming is the convenience. You can buy it, set it up and be playing games in 10 minutes easily. No installing, and no need to build anything.
But if you're willing to put some time into building a gaming rig you'll be rewarded with stunning graphics, more varied and in some cases superior control choice (some people don't realize you can use virtually any controller with pc if you don't like keyboard and mouse), the ability to mod anything in the game, the ability to customize settings to make it run better, choice of servers, cheaper games, steam deals, a wider selection of games and much much more.
edit - also you can hook your PC up to a tv and play on the couch in case anyone was trying to use that old argument.
The only real advantage to console gaming is the convenience. You can buy it, set it up and be playing games in 10 minutes easily. No installing, and no need to build anything.
But if you're willing to put some time into building a gaming rig you'll be rewarded with stunning graphics, more varied and in some cases superior control choice (some people don't realize you can use virtually any controller with pc if you don't like keyboard and mouse), the ability to mod anything in the game, the ability to customize settings to make it run better, choice of servers, cheaper games, steam deals, a wider selection of games and much much more.
edit - also you can hook your PC up to a tv and play on the couch in case anyone was trying to use that old argument.
That's a question I have never personally found the answer to, as I likewise do not own and have no particular desire to ever own a console. Sure, I clocked a decent amount of playtime on other people's systems back in the days of the NES and Genesis, but our household never owned one when I was growing up. We did own a whole bunch of computers though (I think my first gaming memory was Archon on the Commodore 64), and I grew up in an environ where you didn't simply use computers (unless you were one of the female members of my family, in which case you would have only just achieved a level of basic competence with them say... a year or so ago? It got pretty pathetic there for a while, especially when my mother was more willing to take intuitive leaps and try new things than my younger sister was/is), you understood them - how they worked, what went inside them, what technical specifications actually meant, etc.
I remember being maybe 8 years old the day I first realized that there were in fact adults who didn't instinctively know how to use a mouse - that entire concept was astonishing to my younger self.
So that's me - a fellow who has been assembling his own computers from components since before the introduction of 3D accelerated graphics cards, and gaming on them since well before the advent of non-DOS based Windows OSes and hardware abstraction layers. When people explain their preference for consoles by suggesting that assembling a system is difficult, or that installing and running games is generally more of a hassle on the PC, it makes me want to laugh really hard at them, because I know just how much crap those assertions are.
Yes, there is a far greater range of possible things that could go wrong, and sometimes getting a game to run can be like pulling teeth, but it is piss easy to assemble a computer even if you have never done so before: read a guide like this one [http://www.techspot.com/guides/buying/] to figure out what to buy, and then use basic logic to put it together (or you could watch someone assemble/disassemble a PC online for a few minutes and learn everything the experts know - cases, connectors, slots - all that shit is standardized and intuitive these days (and it kind of always has been)). As for troubleshooting and having to wrangle with your games to get them to run, you have to understand that modern PC gaming is nothing like what it used to be - back when hardware directly addressed the software using it and everything ran in DOS, then yes, it was always a crapshoot whether an individual game would run or not, and it did require quite a bit of "technical chops" to set things up even if they weren't somehow broken and in need of genuine troubleshooting.
But these days? You put the disc in, then follow the installer prompts (probably without reading any of the options and just clicking next), and your game installs. Then you run it. Seriously, this notion that installing and running a PC game will require you to download obscure drivers and search the furthest reaches of the web to find the arcane command-line string you need to make everything work properly, it is very rarely true. Of the last 20 games I've purchased, you know how many of them I had to coax into running? 0! Weird show-stopping errors are the exception, not the rule (provided you have a non-broken computer that isn't an infested hive of malware) - people who "just want things to work" are dismissing PC Gaming based on a worst-case scenario they probably wouldn't experience.
You might as well dismiss say... the X-Box 360 as not worth your time because it's just going to red-ring on you and you'll have to send it back. Heck, based on the figures I've seen for failure rates, you're actually way more likely to have that happen to you than you are to see a truly show-stopping bug on your PC that would require more than rudimentary troubleshooting to resolve.
I remember being maybe 8 years old the day I first realized that there were in fact adults who didn't instinctively know how to use a mouse - that entire concept was astonishing to my younger self.
So that's me - a fellow who has been assembling his own computers from components since before the introduction of 3D accelerated graphics cards, and gaming on them since well before the advent of non-DOS based Windows OSes and hardware abstraction layers. When people explain their preference for consoles by suggesting that assembling a system is difficult, or that installing and running games is generally more of a hassle on the PC, it makes me want to laugh really hard at them, because I know just how much crap those assertions are.
Yes, there is a far greater range of possible things that could go wrong, and sometimes getting a game to run can be like pulling teeth, but it is piss easy to assemble a computer even if you have never done so before: read a guide like this one [http://www.techspot.com/guides/buying/] to figure out what to buy, and then use basic logic to put it together (or you could watch someone assemble/disassemble a PC online for a few minutes and learn everything the experts know - cases, connectors, slots - all that shit is standardized and intuitive these days (and it kind of always has been)). As for troubleshooting and having to wrangle with your games to get them to run, you have to understand that modern PC gaming is nothing like what it used to be - back when hardware directly addressed the software using it and everything ran in DOS, then yes, it was always a crapshoot whether an individual game would run or not, and it did require quite a bit of "technical chops" to set things up even if they weren't somehow broken and in need of genuine troubleshooting.
But these days? You put the disc in, then follow the installer prompts (probably without reading any of the options and just clicking next), and your game installs. Then you run it. Seriously, this notion that installing and running a PC game will require you to download obscure drivers and search the furthest reaches of the web to find the arcane command-line string you need to make everything work properly, it is very rarely true. Of the last 20 games I've purchased, you know how many of them I had to coax into running? 0! Weird show-stopping errors are the exception, not the rule (provided you have a non-broken computer that isn't an infested hive of malware) - people who "just want things to work" are dismissing PC Gaming based on a worst-case scenario they probably wouldn't experience.
You might as well dismiss say... the X-Box 360 as not worth your time because it's just going to red-ring on you and you'll have to send it back. Heck, based on the figures I've seen for failure rates, you're actually way more likely to have that happen to you than you are to see a truly show-stopping bug on your PC that would require more than rudimentary troubleshooting to resolve.
1: MMOs are pretty much PC exclusive, RTS games, and most console games come out on PC. Making your argument completely false. Not to mention the amount of free indie games out there for PC.Paragon Fury said:
2: Not true at all. If I dropped my graphics settings down to DX9 and at the same level that consoles run, I'd get 100+ more FPS than consoles. Guaranteed. You aren't even close to being knowledgeable about this.
3: I use a controller with my PC all the time. Xbox or PS3, you can use them both. Another useless point.
4: PCs have way more dedicated gaming servers. That's a win right there. Plus you can have multiple people playing one game on a PC if you have multiple monitors.
5: Gaming laptops are more powerful than current gen consoles, and more portable. Plus you can build a decent desktop in a relatively small case.
6: You're a console gamer. You don't have a clue about user created content. I can think of 50 great mods in Oblivion alone.
7: Seriously, what sounds better now?
Because consoles tend to get more titles, and the ones PC's do get that consoles also have are often poorly made ports and rarely have as much content available.
Console exclusives. Every game I've really enjoyed in the past two years hasn't had a PC version. This probably says more about my choice of genres than the quality of games on either console or PC, but there it is. As a side note, I never buy consoles when they're new, too expensive and have about 4 games on them, I wait a year or two and get them much cheaper and with a backlog of good titles to choose from.
As a university student I move residence at least 6 times a year for holidays or when my contract is up. I own a gaming PC but wouldn't dream of moving it around with me, it gets carted to a new studsent property once a year. When it's time for holidays I can just slip the 360 in my bag with some games and not have to make the difficult choice of have to move my PC or give up gaming for a month or two.