I'm on W7 but started back in 1995ish with PC's, and I think that the PC experience is easier than ever other than some annoying assed DRM schemes. As for cost, no question a PC costs more, but it also does more, it's the flagship of the gaming devices, but, you need to buy both at the right time and be smart about your components, it also never hurts to allow for one GPU upgrade over the life of the system. I built my current PC back in Q4 2008, and added a Spinpoint 1t and 6850 to it nearly a yr ago, and I might keep it for another 12 or so months. I'm not going to buy until the new consoles are out to see how demanding PC games become, that said, I might buy the next gen console/s, but will still build a strong gaming PC to piss all over it and give me maximum versatility for my needs. If you can make a sandwich, you can install a GPU, so it's really just a question of building the PC, and there's plenty of places that have reasonable deals on proper PC gaming machines, and you can often alter their specs to suit, so it's a mystery why so many migrated to the lame ass current gen consoles which have disgusting GFX compared to my modest PC. If you wanna see how far we've fallen, max out FEAR 2005 on a 24-27in LCD and you'll be gobsmacked how impressive that game still looks, in fact, I don't think any game's outdone the combat lightshow/physics yet, could be wrong about that, but what an awesome game.
You know, I havnt agreed much with what I have read from you....but that comment there...especially about how good the game was...I will totally First game I have ever had to stop playing as it was scaring the living bejeazus out of me since the original Doom in a dark room all alone in the pitch black with noone else in the house......hey I was like 13 or something. The other one that impressed me not for its awesome look or anything of real note was Call of Duty Modern Warfare. I ran a LAN centre and that thing could run on ANYTHING and even at 800 x 600 looked pretty damn good considering its settings. That was impressive, making a poor resolution and settings still look pretty decent.
FEAR is without question the best combat shooter, and also has extremely strong technical merit on top of an above average storyline, and definitively had it's scary moments. They've lost the plot ever since though. Btw, I'm routinely misunderstood, lol.
LOL...never let it bother you....what others think of you is none of your business But yeh...it fell in a hole after the first one. I loved how it used subtle backrgound bass to replicate the heart beat and how it sub conscously made your own beat faster......clever. It was a truly fun game.....a rarity.
Just look at how successful the PS2 was despite the PC having the better graphics. Just look at Diablo 3. Graphics are okay at best and still people buy these games. Graphics are not the main selling point of a game. And the graphics of the BF3 console versions aren't bad either if you installed the texture pack. Sure the PC version looks way better but to be honest: most PC versions doesn't look that much better as in the case of BF3. Also the lifecycle of the current console generation isn't that long. Currently we just reached the lifecycle of the PS2 and personally I think the difference between PC/PS2 was so much bigger than it is now with the current consoles. So why throw another piece of hardware on the market that you won't make profit with for the first years while you can still milk the cash cow with the current gen for another year? As a console owner I don't mind if the next generation will be released 2013/2014. I'm still happy with my hardware and there is also some stuff coming to this gen consoles that I'm looking forward to.
That is the point I made, there is no current gen Console. As for if you can make a sandwich you can install a graphics card...well really...a sandwich is a set of components that when put put together by anyone from a three year old to a centurion simply works, a graphics card is not. It requires a fair amount of knowledge about the internals of your PC just to pick one, power supply, pci slots, dimensions of card. Once its in there it need tweaking, forums are full of "why does my game look like crap" literally millions of threads related to graphics card problems...I'm willing to bet each and every one of those folk stumped by the mysteries of their PC can make a sandwich... Lets look at two games relevant to us, rfactor 1 and Forza (putting to one side the flaws of Forza as a "sim") rF1 is complicated, you need to now how to install mods, how to have a lite install, you need to configure it, tweak it to get it looking the best. Update the program and some mods crash, and it's back to the forums to find out why. Forza just works, downloads and DLC's install themselves, if there are issues you just wait and sooner or later your Xbox will download an update and the issue goes away. If you can make a sandwich you can use a Console. If you can make bread, cure ham, churn butter and forge a knife, you can use a PC to do the same job.
I had a 4850 in my system, and it was one 6 pin like my 6850, so I had an exact reference for the physical install...done, then it's a simple matter of installing the drivers, which W7 tends to do by itself, so lets be honest, it's just not that complicated.
Beautifully put. A console is just a PC with a different revenue model (cheaper hardwardware subsidised by the game revenue stream) I play with both. Interestingly having purchased ny first ever PC in 1989 to play a flight sim. Having had great experiences with PS1, Xbox, Xbox 360 my next purchase is (game driven) a gaming PC. We need to stop treating these electronic devices as if they were a religion.
That is just about 100% due to the devs giving up and not making the PC versions as good as they could be, settling for console level even on the PC.
Probably, but why spending time and money on that extra polishing if it doesn't guarantees you the extra revenue? Money is made on the consoles. So if you want prettier PC games then buy more PC games
Sometimes it's not that complicated but let us be honest, every card need optimising for games, different games different settings. You need to wrap your head around all kinds of technical terms. Sometimes drivers make games crash, sometimes they don't. Yes things have got a little better and I can't remember the last IRQ conflict I had...Look did you read my first post? I am not knocking PC gaming or PC's I am typing on one I built, I am PC literate. The vast majority of folk out there are not, and even for many who are the pleasure of just sticking a new game in a console and having it just work, as it is meant to, no upgrading no BSOD, no stutters, just load the game and play. That is the beauty of a console, plug and play literally. PC's are different, there is a bloated OS in the way, eating your resources, why the hell we don't have the option at boot up, to boot to a cut down OS optimised for gaming I do not know. So we have to tinker, get under the hood, start messing with config files, see what is loading at boot up and find what we can disable...for some this is like an adventure game in itself, for others it is a deal breaker, not because they are lesser human beings, not because they are stupid. Just because they want to play a game.
Yes...but also with a console developers have one single platform to code for, there are almost as many PC configurations as there are PC's that must be a nightmare...well it is, look at all the issues here. Everyone with a different PC all experiencing different results from every upgrade.
I never said that, but I did say that in most cases, the PC is the flagship and it comes at a cost and yes a higher degree of complexity, but at the same time, the level of knowledge isn't as drastic as people think. One of the advantages of the consoles is more people on MP, but most are P2P so suffer any and all sorts of problems.
No I didn't mean to suggest you did, just following a train of thought, but once again Flagship? a thing that is hobbled by a bloated OS, that has a raft of issues, and will crash if you do nothing with it but leave it switched on for long enough...You are entitled to your opinion as I am to mine, and I think we will just agree to differ on this one
There is no best, there is only what is best for you. That doesn't make whatever choice you have made the best option for everybody...I know someone who spends their time playing nothing but Facebook games...you and I may sigh sadly and feel she is missing out on much better things, but for her that is best. I have five computers, three consoles, a Tablet and a Smartphone..which is best? depends entirely on what I am doing.
By technological merit the PC is the best, and also, the PC has genre's that no other platform has, it also often has DServer options. I played the yoyo craze canon calculator game back in the early eighties, and I've no desire to back to that type of low grade stuff.
Pc gaming isn't nearly as expensive as it used to be. You can buy a very decent gaming pc for about 500 euro's (motherboard, CPU, RAM, GFX). That will be about the same as as the introduction price for the consoles. Also: - Games are generally cheaper - Game variety is far more complete (e.g. decent flight- and racesims for consoles do not exist) - Ability to upgrade (e.g. buy a new (or second) GFX card with good price/performance ratio for under 200 euro) - Communities and MODS! - Ability to run old games. My game collection for the original XBOX became pretty much useless overnight when I bought an XBOX360. Let's be honest, nobody is going to find and hook up their old consoles to play one game. But hey, at least you can buy the exact same games on XBOX Live to pay again for the same content Don't get me wrong. I think consoles excel at other points, gaming on the coach with some friends for example, but to state that gaming = gaming is too easy for me. Also, that would be an insult to the gaming industry which has really evolved and become mature. I dare you to say "a car is a car" to a car enthusiast. Of course you are right in the literal sense (apples and bananas are both fruits), but we all know that it is an oversimplification.
My position has been made clear, it comes from 40 years of playing games on every platform you can think of, it is what I think, you can believe what you like as I have said that is your and anybody else's right...I am done sitting on this particular roundabout.
