Why buy consoles?

[Sabiancym]

It's cheaper and more convenient than to constantly keep updating your gaming PC worth over $5000. It's that simple. I'd like to game on PC, I just don't have the money or the effort.

Do you not already own a PC?

That's what gets me. Most houses already have a PC. It would take very little money to get it gaming ready if it's not already.

And $5000 is a bit ridiculous for a PC. I bought top of the line everything on my PC last year, watercooled and everything it was only around $3000. I could have easily got a gaming ready PC for $500.

 

[Paragon Fury]

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.

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.

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?

1: MMOs are PC exclusive because of WoW. You can barely compete with WoW on PC, how do you expect a console MMO to do it? And indie games fall into the "97% of all user generated content sucks ass" slot.

2: Bullshit. Absolute, bold-type fucking lie. Mind telling us how much your graphics card(s) cost? Let me guess....somewhere in the area of $150-$300USD, right? Thats not counting your processor and MBoard either.

3: Many games do not support gamepad use, or have terrible unalterable game pad controls. Examples: Battlefield games, Crysis 1, Team Fortress 2.

4: Dedicated servers cost money, and have their own set of balance and fairness issues to deal with. And how many PCs can really handle playing multiple copies of a high-end game; and how many really allow it?

5: Again, bullshit, and they're costly, even more so than desktop PCs.

6: Nice blind attack. Perhaps you ought to have at least taken a cursory glance at my profile before launching that particular move.

But personal attacks aside, lets take measure, shall we?

If I were to go to TESNexus and look for Oblivion mods right now and sort them into groups, what did you think I would wind up with more of? Well-thought out and implemented mods designed to add to or significantly improve or add to the game experience, or would I find more mods dedicated to "TEETIES" and stupid, inane BS?

7: Now what sounds better?

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say you have never owned a gaming PC in your life and probably don't have any idea of how one works.

1. Ever played an indie game? The majority of my games are indie now because they are at least creative and FUN, as opposed to 99% of the ass the comes out on consoles. How's that for a blind and biased attack?

2. Ever made a computer? Ever seen the inside of one? Ever used one to game? No I'm not going to look at your profile since your words let me know you obviously have no idea what you are talking about. My 5 year old computer with a $50 graphics card gets a higher frame rate than my brother's PS3 eaisly when not running dx10.

3. This is a preference question. Keyboard and mouse is better to use in every situation I can think of except the lack of a rumble feature.

4. Dedicated servers cost nothing if you know how to set one up. I've had 15 players using my pc as a server whilst I played on it as well, giving us a nice even 16 with no lag.

5. My laptop is more powerful than a PS3, I'm not sure what world you live in where the PS3 has "earth shattering new hardware" but it stopped being new a few years ago.

6. Fine, I'll give you that but next time anyone quotes "little big planet" as being a good game I'll point to you and you can explain how it's crap for relying on user made content.

1: I'm using one right now. Its three years old. And yes, I know what indie games are; I also know the Escapist has a penchant for using "creative" and "original" as synonyms for "shit" and "pretentious".

2: I've done all of those things? Let see what $50 can get you for a GPU, huh? A quick trip to NEWEGG reveals for the price range of $25-$50 a nice grouping of 512MB etc. (thought the occasional 1GB card is there) Geforce 210s that are all inferior even to my laptop's 3 year old Geforce 8600M.

Try again?

3: Precision or pressure sensitive movement. Flight. Vehicle driving. All things the keyboard is inferior in comparison to the gamepad.

4: Dedicated servers for games like Battlefield, CoD and Crysis are certainly not free, by any measure.

5: How many people do you think would want to plop down $1000+ for gaming laptop or PC when the PS3 cost at its worst $700 and still runs games at very good level, and was a very good Blu-ray player to boot?

6: I've done that several times before. Sure, there are few mod/user content gems out there but they don't counteract the massive pile of suck that is the rest of user content.

 

[AlexLoxate]

One of the biggest turn-offs in terms of PC gaming for me are those unexpected, unexplained crashes and system requirements.

 

[trooper6]

First things first. I'm a Mac owner. Which means a lot of these games are not available for my computer, however they are available for my Xbox. So that takes care of that for me.

But also:

- No worries about system requirements.
- No worries about spending money for those said requirements.
- No DRM.
- I prefer the controller to mouse & keyboard.
- I like watching my video games on my big HDTV rather than on my smaller computer monitor.
- I like sitting on my couch rather than at my desk.
- I like the psychological separation between where I do my work (computer) and where I do my fun (console).
- My console is an Xbox 360. Which I bought for...I don't know...$250 in 2005. And so...I've spent $250 on my gaming rig over the last 6 years. That's pretty good value by my book.

 

[FalloutJack]

Why buy consoles? Alright, honest opinion for an honest question. If you're willing to shell out the money for it, your answer is this:

Options. You are paying for games which you can't get for PC. There are games you always wanted to get into, but you didn't have what you needed to play them. So, then you get the console and suddenly a door opens.

 

[mireko]

Console vs. PC threads should be moved to the Religion & Politics forum, imho.

 

[googleback]

I would like to just buy a gaming PC every few years but they're so fucking expensive, I'm on an Alienware M11x right now which I got half price because a mate imported it, it does the job really well and I get all of the benefits of pc gaming with the conveinience of consoles. the only thing I dont like about consoles is having to keep them so I can play my favourite games after its successor...

which is why i'm pissed the ps3 has no backwards compatibility! Seriously! My ps3 is my movie player now too! I'll probably keep that forever! it would have made things SO SIMPLE if they just gave us proper backwards compatibility!

I dont want a house full of consoles, I prefer digital distribution these days to boxed (unless its a special edition). THAT'S why I prefer PC gaming. there is no other reason, I even use a gamepad most of the time haha!

and on the topic of exclusives, most of them are just tech demo's that make you justify the purchase of their system... Uncharted, Killzone, Resistance. they're "technically" good but I didn't find them very memorable. as for the 360 the last exclusive for that I bought was Alan Wake which was great but I would have preferred a PC version.

the only thing that consoles offer me is the exclusive games and my ps3 has blu ray, the rest of my gaming is done on my M11x with cheaper and better looking games. simples*

 

[DTWolfwood]

consistency is my only reason for getting a console. Also its pretty hassle free. Plug and play. No driver updated for the most part, no anti-virus needed, or spyware protection etc. O its Cheap and serves as a dvd/bd player without having to install some kind of dvd/bd software.


I can't use a pad to save my life. I just can't imagine how anyone can shoot using a stick. my favorite genre is RTS which to date is still exclusively a PC genre.

 

[enriquetnt]

Consoles are cheaper, easier and dumber

PCs, are expensive, cumbersome, harder to use, but more intelligent and "usefull"

and they ARE more expensive, until someone can built a PC for under 300 dollars that offer graphics on par whit the likes of Uncharted 2 or Gears of War 2 you wont convince me otherwise, i believe somewhere someone built a computer whit a bit over 700 dollars that could run Crysis on console level graphics, well whit 700 dollars you could buy ALL 3 CURRENT GEN CONSOLES.

and a mediocre trained monkey CAN NOT change a GPU, most normal people wont even dare to open the cover in theyr PCs especcially now that people practically run theyr entire lifes from them.

I have all consoles and a powerfull PC (at least last year it was top of the line) i play all the exclusives across all the platforms and have a blast, but to the absolutely true every year there are less and less games i play on PC (last year i only played Starcraft 2, ONE game)

 

[Sabiancym]

Feature wise, is there anything a console can do that a PC cannot? I can not think of a single thing.

 

[shroomie]

It can be cheaper than shelling out for a high specced PC that can run a game well, dont have to worry about specs, they last until and beyond in some cases the next generation comes out, controllers are easier to use than a billion different keyboard functions, easier social aspect for the most part (I accept MMOS will always work better on computers). Computers used to be better because console gaming was fairly new, however progress has been made very quickly for consoles whilst PCs arent stagnating, but they are slowing compared to consoles in terms of games.

 

[Shirokurou]

I bought a PS2 back in the day for the exclusives, mainly JRPGs cause I was into that.

So reason to buy - different game libraries.

 

[Silas13013]

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. snip

1: I'm using one right now. Its three years old. And yes, I know what indie games are; I also know the Escapist has a penchant for using "creative" and "original" as synonyms for "shit" and "pretentious".

2: I've done all of those things? Let see what $50 can get you for a GPU, huh? A quick trip to NEWEGG reveals for the price range of $25-$50 a nice grouping of 512MB etc. (thought the occasional 1GB card is there) Geforce 210s that are all inferior even to my laptop's 3 year old Geforce 8600M.

Try again?

3: Precision or pressure sensitive movement. Flight. Vehicle driving. All things the keyboard is inferior in comparison to the gamepad.

4: Dedicated servers for games like Battlefield, CoD and Crysis are certainly not free, by any measure.

5: How many people do you think would want to plop down $1000+ for gaming laptop or PC when the PS3 cost at its worst $700 and still runs games at very good level, and was a very good Blu-ray player to boot?

6: I've done that several times before. Sure, there are few mod/user content gems out there but they don't counteract the massive pile of suck that is the rest of user content.

1. I don't use the escapist to base my opinions on a game so I'm not sure what relivance that statement has here.

2. You're doing it wrong. You can get a nice selection of dx11 and other cards for under $50.

3. This is an opinion? I can't stand controllers, that's the main reason I stopped playing my PS3, the controller doesn't feel right in my hands. So I use a keyboard and mouse.

4. Do you mean developer official servers or your own?

5. I missunderstood what you were saying. Yes laptops are expencive.

6. Glad we are in agreement here.

 

[Rayansaki]

Another big reason I didn't see anyone mention are genres that neglect the PC. If you want to play a fighter, a driving game, or in a more extreme case, a Hack&Slash action game, you have very limited releases on the PC.

H&S is my favorite genre, and the only good game to be released on PC in the last few years was DMC4. And it was a straight port and very unplayable without a gamepad. Games like God of War, DMC and Bayonetta are a big part of what made me become mostly a console gamer. I still game on my PC, but generally only 1 or 2 different games per year max.

 

[Sabiancym]

Consoles are cheaper, easier and dumber

PCs, are expensive, cumbersome, harder to use, but more intelligent and "usefull"

and they ARE more expensive, until someone can built a PC for under 300 dollars that offer graphics on par whit the likes of Uncharted 2 or Gears of War 2 you wont convince me otherwise, i believe somewhere someone built a computer whit a bit over 700 dollars that could run Crysis on console level graphics, well whit 700 dollars you could buy ALL 3 CURRENT GEN CONSOLES.

and a mediocre trained monkey CAN NOT change a GPU, most normal people wont even dare to open the cover in theyr PCs especcially now that people practically run theyr entire lifes from them.

I have all consoles and a powerfull PC (at least last year it was top of the line) i play all the exclusives across all the platforms and have a blast, but to the absolutely true every year there are less and less games i play on PC (last year i only played Starcraft 2, ONE game)

8800GT on Ebay - $60 http://cgi.ebay.com/EVGA-NVIDIA-GeForce-8800-GT-GDDR3-/320679416962?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item4aa9fb9482#ht_500wt_922
E6750 on Ebay - $70 http://cgi.ebay.com/Intel-CORE-2-DUO-E6750-2-66GHz-4M-1333-SLA9V-/230570254882?pt=CPUs&hash=item35af0ee222#ht_1234wt_905
MSI G41M on Newegg $50 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130305
GSkill Rijaw 4GB RAM on newegg $50 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231277
LOGISYS 550W PSU on Newegg $25 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817170028
LITE-ON Black 18 DVD Drive $17 on Newegg http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106274
Microsoft Keyboard and Mouse on newegg $30 http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.623199

Total $302, and it would run those games at the same level of the Xbox or PS3. Especially if you overclock slightly, which is free.

And that's in 5 minutes. If you spent time hunting, you could find much better hardware at a really good price.

 

[beema]

So far all of the responses seem to boil down to: laziness or cheapness

I find gaming on my PC to be MUCH cheaper than with consoles though

I also hate controllers

The only thing I can see consoles have going for them is that developers and publishers are starting to treat PC users like dirt

That said, with consoles they are able to exert more control over the end user and take away more and more of what you can do, so they are kind of treating console users like dirt too in the end.

btw, for the people who are super lazy and technically inept, you can always just buy an iMac, dualboot Windows on it, and have a perfectly fine PC for gaming. They actually have pretty good hardware in them now (and you can always pay more if you want a better one) and the only wire you have to plug in is the power cable (hopefully you know how to do that). Oh, and their displays look about 3 billion times better than most TVs.

 

[-Samurai-]

Feature wise, is there anything a console can do that a PC cannot? I can not think of a single thing.

Motion controls, if you're in to that sort of thing. Some of it is actually fun.

 

[Okysho]

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.

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.

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?

Consoles:

They still get more exclusives than PCs.

I've been gaming with a 2005 HP BEAST and it can barely run Saints row 2 on low graphics. YOU ship out $300 for my upgrades.

Third Person... anything never translates well to PC (I know I play saints row 2 on a PC, that doesn't make it a good third person shooter, I'm just cheap)

Many people don't care about mods (Anyone remember that school shooting mod still?)

PC gamers tend to be elitists and unpleasant people, met far too many I'd rather trap them in a room.

Consoles are more fun.

Remember that? FUN? no? guess not.

I'm even willing to admit that cursor aiming is better than bloody stick aiming for shooters (not that I play that many shooters) but the Wii has fixed that for me, so why bother?

 

[LuckyClover95]

Gaming computers are very very expensive - and my PS3 Slim was around £250, not £300, and that was in a deal with multiple games and stuff coming with it.
I like the controls, I like the exclusives.
And the generations are easier with consoles, computers can be outdated easier as games develop.

 

[Sabiancym]

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.

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.

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?

Consoles:

They still get more exclusives than PCs.

I've been gaming with a 2005 HP BEAST and it can barely run Saints row 2 on low graphics. YOU ship out $300 for my upgrades.

Third Person... anything never translates well to PC (I know I play saints row 2 on a PC, that doesn't make it a good third person shooter, I'm just cheap)

Many people don't care about mods (Anyone remember that school shooting mod still?)

PC gamers tend to be elitists and unpleasant people, met far too many I'd rather trap them in a room.

Consoles are more fun.

Remember that? FUN? no? guess not.

I'm even willing to admit that cursor aiming is better than bloody stick aiming for shooters (not that I play that many shooters) but the Wii has fixed that for me, so why bother?

Consoles do not get more exclusives than PCs, that's just flat out wrong. PCs have 20x the amount of games consoles do.

You bought an HP...it's like buying a bootleg xbox and then blaming microsoft. Plus $300 for an upgrade is the same cost as an xbox. You could have bought the upgrades and had a better gaming experience.

All mmos are third person. GTA, torchlight, etc. They translate exactly the same as they do on console. I don't know why you say they don't.

Many people do care about mods. Just because you don't doesn't mean not very many people do. Also the fact that you named the school shooting mod kinda shows you only read articles about PC gaming instead of actually doing it.

And if you can't play games on your 2005 hp I have hard time believing you've spent enough time gaming to get a grasp on the pc gamer attitude. I've never heard of someone who was in an mmo guild who said that PC gamers were elitist. The only people who say that are console gamers who can't think of a better way to defend their system.