Why isn't PC gaming obsolete?

I was just glancing at the video card thread in this forum and decided I'd ask a question I've been wondering about for a while now: Why do gamers continue to mess with PCs rather than just buy a console (PS3, XBOX 360, etc)?

It seems that the hassle and cost that goes along with buying memory, new video cards and all the random compatibility issues with various games/accessories make PCs a poor choice for gaming when a console can be purchased that never needs to be upgraded or have settings altered for various games.

Are PCs still superior to game consoles in terms of speed and game play? Are there games exclusive to PCs that gamers are hooked on? Are PC gamers just traditionalists and prefer using a PC?

What is it???

Just recently I picked up Fanatec's Porsche 911 Turbo steering wheel for my PS3 and noticed that it is also compatible with a PC. The manual reminded me of the "good old days" of installing drivers, etc. It just seems so old fashioned compared to the plug and play aspects of console gaming.

 

Yes pc video cards are much better than platform video cards. My ati radeon 3870x2 video card I have on my computer cost more than an xbox 360. This video card runs circles around the 'hollywood' card in the 360. Don't get me wrong the video card in the 360 is a very good card, better than the one in the ps3. But it cannot keep up with the very fast pc market of upgrading video cards.

Serious gamers play in 1920x1200 resolution and often on screens as large as 28" - 30". The shading and antialiasing present in some pc games will bring a sub par video card to its knees and often overload the card so much the computer will crash/blue screen of death.
Also, some users have multiple monitors and it requires a larger video card with dual outs to be able to support multi-monitor. One of my good friends has four monitors in his setup. But he maintains a website on a large server.
Microsoft takes a loss on every 360 sold betting you will buy the overpriced accesories.
Crysis on pc is the best first person shooter I have ever played. Requires ultra speed video card and not available on any platform system besides pc.

 

I guess I'm not much of a first person shooter player... I go more for the racing sims and am more of a "casual" gamer anyway. I feel that the consoles offer the best racing sims hands down and the graphics and speed on the PS3 are more than adequate for my purposes. In fact, this is the first gaming console I've ever bought.

Interesting about the PC video cards. A shame that the market upgrades so fast, rendering old ones incompatible with new games.

How much would you say a serious PC gamer spends on a system and it's upgrades over the course of a year? Thousands? Sounds like an expensive hobby...

 

You will never find a great RTS experience on the console like you can on PC

Warcraft 3 has kept me busy for almost 6 years now, and I can't wait for Starcraft 2

Starcraft 1 in Korea is a sport that is televised over TV, some players make over 100,000$+ a year

 

consoles pale to the proper built PC. by this i mean quality parts, i have 8 gigs of premium ram ( 16 in dual ddr), twin evga 8800gt 512 cards, 2 sata burners, 3 sata 350 gig drives, 6 120mm fans, and a 780w modular power supply. i built this pc for "fun" and have 2 others in case this one is down for mods. i have a modded ps2, and a hacked x box. i agree the newer consoles are great, but i would rather play at high resolution on my 22 inch widescreen, and than on any of my televisions. my tosiba is a 60 inch widescreen, a few years old, but the pc still has a better picture than the "huge" tv.


i have the means to buy what i want, and i dont want a console,

pc for me.

my .02

 

The biggest issue is the controls. For First Person Shooter hardcore gamers, the clumsy Xbox, etc controls do not match the precision of a keyboard/mouse.

 

Agree.

We bought a PS2 around 2000 and ended up using it as our DVD player. I bought a few games for it and it can't touch a PC.

The big advantage I see to consoles is for two-player games.

 

New XBox 360 control setup.

http://liftlab.com/think/nova/2008/06/03/tweaked-alternative-game-controller/

 

In terms of multimedia capability, PC's have way more resources invested in them. Our economy depends on our ability to remain powerful in the computing industry. Therefore, computers will always offer far more cutting edge capabilities. Emerging technologies find their way onto computers first. But consoles are less susceptible to crashing from hardware failure or software/virus issues. So, if you want simplicity and reliablity, stick with the console. If you want versatility (handling of both business and pleasure) and cutting edge capability, go for the PC. My opinion, of course.

More: My 9 year-old has 3 Xbox 360's (one is dead, one is an Asian modified, and another is a stock U.S. Halo Edition), a PS3, and a Wii. They are used quite regularly. They are happy with them. However I go upstairs and play Unreal Tournament on my PC. Like many people, have a broadband connection for lots of reasons. For me, one of the most important reasons is that high-speed internet allows me to virtually shred and be shredded by people from all over the planet in damn near real-time. I haave never played any online games on the console so I don't know how they compare. And again, technologies have doubled or tripled the processing power and graphics on multimedia computers since we purchased ours a couple of years ago. I am getting smeared by youngsters with off-the-shelf supercomputers they purchased on sale at BestBuy.

I am not, by any means, a traditionalist. I only think that computers have far better graphics today than any console. Add to that the online multiplayer aspect and the ability for me to handle other tasks at the push of a button. After I get a new computer, I plan to research the new games that are available for PC. I'll revisit the thread.

 

There are a lot of people addicted to the online games on PC, like WoW. My son plays that a LOT and says it can't be touched by anything on a console. Additionally, he agrees with the statement above concerning the controls. He indicates that the PC controls are MUCH more accurate on a PC than a console. He plays a lot of FPS and hates the console (360) versions that I play vs. his PC versions.

 

I prefer the PC 100 times over the XBox/PS3 whatever. I find the game box controllers infuriating, and comparitive ease of downloading upgrades, tracks, etc. for the PC to be much better.

 

I was just about to list that as another reason. Unlike most console games, PC games have the modding community behind it that can keep any game alive long past its fun point. Many games like Counter Strike Source or Sim City 4 are still played by many today due to the constant modding that certain games allow.
The modding software offered by the developers themselves is also a big part of people staying PC games.

Take the Source engine found in Half Life 2 and CS:S for example. Thanks to the developers allowing this program to the public, Counter Strike Source has continued to see a large amount of modding in any form, whether it be gun skins or completely new modes like Gun Game or Zombie Mod. The developers of the Source engine have stated that a new CS will probably never be needed for a few more years as long as the game engine is continued being experimented with. (The engine even helped create a brand new game created by community alone).

The modding community is just incredibly large. Console games can be fun until a certain point. Afterwards, it can become the same old thing. With the PC guys, we can continue to be blessed with new things we create ourselves.

 

Plus, who wants to be playing with your thumbs anyways?

I have been playing CS since beta, and now a bunch of TF2. I can't stay away from the keyboard or mouse!

The modding community is definitely there. Oblivion and Counter-Strike(originally a mod for the Half-Life engine) to name a few.

I have a pretty beefy computer along with a 24" monitor, and gaming never looked so beautiful at 1920x1200. Of course these days, consoles are pushing 1080p and that too looks fantastic.

But keep in mind, when it comes to consoles, you see incremental advances in technology every 4-5 years. The PC market is always pushing the limit in a linear fashion.

Game developers for consoles have to gauge the limits of hardware, so they end up removing some eye-candy just to please the performance a console can deliver. Not so for us computer gamers. That's why we have to pay a bit more coin for eventual GPU upgrades every now and then. However, we get the good stuff in the end -- higher resolution textures, quicker updates, sharper images, fine control over detail, the modding community, and that game that makes every pc cry called Crysis.

Keyboard also makes it easier to talk trash across the interwebs too! =)

 

Keeping in mind a three-year obsolescence cycle, PC's are easy to hardware-upgrade and extend the useful gaming life to maybe six years.

My Dell XPS system, originally with a 3.4 Ghz P4 processor and 1 GB memory, was topline in February '05, when purchased to run CAD apps and for action gaming. Since then, dual-core processors and 750-watt+ power units have become the norm.

This year, I added a new nVidia 8800 series graphics card and 2 additional GB of memory. I recently played through Assassin's Creed, a May '08-release "Next-Gen" action game, with few problems, though my system failed the pregame compatibility test and had to run at mid-to-low graphics settings.

A new 850 watt power supply unit and compatible motherboard are next on the list; all the new stuff together will total out to about $1200, but that should keep up with new-issue PC games till maybe 2011, and enhance the CAD capabilities sufficiently to provide another ten years of use.

 

If you have a good computer PC gaming easily trumps console gaming. The picture is absolutely incredible. Plus I like the feel of a mouse over any gamepad.

 

World of Warcraft.

 

Seriously? On PC, you have GTR 1 and 2, GTL, rFactor, maybe Race, and all of those hardcore sims like netkar... I can't think of any decent sim on a console... and Gran Tourismo is NOT a simulation

 

You will hear a lot of people still using the argument that PC's have more graphics and computing power than a console, and are therefore superior platforms. Up until these latest generation consoles, I'd have agreed with you, and that it made a difference. The problem now, 85% of the games sold go to the console, so programmers taylor their games to those platforms. It used to be they'd program to the PC platform, and dumb down the game later for consoles. Now it doesn't make business sense, so us PC users often have more powerful platforms than can't be used to their full potential.

Me, I'm still sticking to PC's if for no other reason I hate console controllers.

 

Hmm... I actually have a copy of GTR sitting on my desk here at work unopened. A coworker gave it to me months ago and I've yet to try it. Maybe I'll fire it up tonight...

 

Another reason is online play. For a while not many games for the consoles had online capability. Nowadays, theres hardly a game for the consoles that you cant play online.
FPS are still better on a PC though. That makes me wonder, since you can hook up a keyboard to the PS3 can you also plug in a mouse?

 

I use a laptop for convenience, I have music, movies and games and its easy when I travel. I am totally self contained.

 

I've a vague memory of hearing someone, probably a sales guy at a tech store, say that some consoles will accept a keyboard and mouse.

Haven't bothered to find out more, though...set in my ways

 

The last game i played on a PC was Wing Commander. I kicked all the ass and blew up all the galaxies.

I'm console now just cuz PC's are so much more convienient IMO.

But man did i kick all the ass. Paladin..anyone remember him?? We were like best friends.

 

Solider of Fortune was my game. I dominated! I like PC gaming because I can check my email and surf the web while I'm dead. Its good for doing work & gaming on the side, especially if you travel. Also feel I get better sound quality & graphics on the PC, although I haven't played a consul in a while.

I have a family friend who's very good at Counter Strike and he's in the Hall of Fame. Makes great money for playing games all day.

http://chicagochimera.thecgs.com/index.php?1547

 

Because there are still good pc games that aren't on consoles and because pcs have more technology backing them which leads to better visuals etc having said this I just ordered my first new pc in 5 years (finally!) a nice new alienware