Azaraxzealot said:
Admiral Stukov said:
I see no reason to use a console at all. Never had one never will.
I'm a tech guy, I like tinkering with stuff. And I like modding.
The PC has superior graphics, cheaper games, modding capability, I don't have to replace the whole thing as it age, etc...
i'd like to call you out on the "cheaper games" thing.
if you don't buy from retail, you pay with your credit card, right? credit cards have interest rates, so that 49.99 you spent on the shiny new 59.99 game? it really translates to something like 70 dollars with interest, plus, with console games, you get the "pre-owned" market, which you can get games there for downwards of 20 bucks.
Also. no DRM to stop you from enjoying pre-owned or borrowed products.
No installation required (as long as you're not on PS3)
Multiplayer for most new games is better (since people make games for consoles first these days)
Couch multiplayer (ah... the Goldeneye days...)
of course with PC you get modding, all the features you "need" (like internet browsing, doing homework/work), and with emulators you can get almost any game you want.
but then again, most computers (from the get-go) are only made for work and business and not for pleasure (unless you buy a 3000 dollar one from alienware or something) otherwise, you have to make it yourself. and honestly? it's easier to skip the technobabble and learning to just buy a console and some games for it.
I'd like to call you out on you're calling out the "cheaper games" thing.
I have, in my hand, what is called a debit card. No interest is costed me with a debit card and all I have to worry about is using it responsibly so as to not overdraw my bank account. So that $49.99 game I just bought off Steam? $49.99 because Steam doesn't charge me tax. That $59.99 game I just bought from Gamestop? $64.48 because of taxes. I just saved fourteen-and-a-half bucks on my game.
I will hand it to you on the pre-owned market, though. Except... no I won't. Unless it is an older release, anywhere you can get a pre-owned copy probably still has it pretty highly marked up. You'd be saving five bucks on a new release which is basically still in the range of 59 bucks from taxes. Older games, though? So, let's say I want to buy Assassin's Creed 2. Steam: 29.99. No taxes. Walmart? 27.99 for a PS3. 30.09 with taxes. Pre-owned? $19.34 with taxes included. However, from Steam, you're getting a better edition, too. You're getting the deluxe edition. Is that worth the extra ten bucks? I don't know. This is AC2 we're talking about here, though. It's nearing two years old. I'll give you a point for that.
Steam DRM is very little and if you have a PC good enough for gaming, it's nothing to worry about.
Multiplayer for PC games is typically better. A more tight-knit community that doesn't scream obscenities at each other and at times actually feels like friends. Unless you're playing CoD or something else by Activision, your multiplayer will be better on the PC.
Something that almost makes me want to slap you, though, is you talking about Alienware! Ha ha ha! If you're buying from Alienware, you know nothing of Gaming PCs! Truly, if you buy from Alienware, you deserve to have them rip you off. Let me tell you of a site that's well-known across the internet. It's called Newegg. You can get computers from them for little up-pricing because they have a special relationship with manufacturers and getting a good gaming PC costs about $500-600 or even cheaper if Newegg is having a special deal. Sure, you'll have to upgrade in a few years time, which you can do through Newegg, too, and get another special deal most likely. So, you can get a decent gaming rig that's more powerful than a PS3 for what the PS3's entry price was. Another thing that's great about Newegg? No taxes! Sometimes, you'll pay for shipping, but it's typically less than what the taxes would cost you.
From Newegg, I learned of a manufacturer called iBUYPOWER. Great, great service. I highly recommend them. I got a gaming PC from them that can run, say, Crysis on its highest settings at a decent framerate. The PC cost me $800. I got a brand new monitor, too, though. However, for that $800, I got a computer that will last me about six years without the need for upgrading the graphics or the mobo, unless of course something earth-shattering comes out, which I doubt because developers wouldn't want to get into something like 3D gaming quite yet on the PC or consoles. Metro 2033? I can run it. My computer handles is quite fine. Crysis? No crisis at all, my computer says! Not only this, but my PC isn't just a PC. It's a NES, SNES, and an N64. It can be a Gamecube. It can be a DS. It can be a Sega Genesis. It can be a Playstation. It can be a PSP.
Clearly, if people gave it more thought, they'd realize they'd be getting more for their money with a PC. I'm not the most technically-savvy person in the world, yet it's not hard at all. You learn the ropes quite easily. Spend a few hours online doing research and you'll know a lot about what is this and what is that and how this compares to that and if this deal really is a great deal. And upgrading? It's pathetically easy unless you're a nimwit. It's like a jigsaw puzzle. It's like one of those games that you played as a kid where you put the triangle shape in the triangle hole. Then, once you get the new card in, you put the driver disc in and install it in the PC. It's as simple as that! If you're having trouble, there's a manual!
For $800, I got:
AMD Phenom II quad-core 965 Black-edition that has a 3.4 GHz per core.
RAM: 4 GB
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-770T-USB3 -- AMD 770 Sata 3.0
Power Supply: 700 watts
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 - 1GB - EVGA Superclocked - Single Card (Special note: Relatively cheap, GDDR5, factory overclocked. It'll run -all- games out there and it doesn't cost a lot.)
Hard drive: 500 GB HARD DRIVE -- 64M Cache, 7200 RPM, 6.0Gb/s - Single Drive
Mouse: CoolerMaster Inferno Gaming Mouse -- 4000 DPI Storm Tactical Laser Sensor - 128 kb - 115 inches per second - 11 buttons - 9 programmable buttons - Polling 1000 Hz - Response time: 1 ms
Operating System included: Windows 7 64-bit
For $100 more, I got:
Monitor: 22" LCD 1680x1050 -- Sceptre X220T-Naga
Yeah.
For $400 and a little know-how, you can build your own PC that will -still- outperform the PS3 and the 360. It really isn't all that hard. You might need some help, but there's technical support places you can call for that.
