[PCWorld]

Post your comments for PC Games Market Largest in the World, Claims Study here

[chuckchuck]

Friends have always asked me why I don't have a PS3 or a Wii and my answer has always been - why should I, if I've got a PC?

[JcHc3in1]

Amen chuckchuck! My wife and I bought two gaming PC's (with all necessary accessories) a little over a year ago for less than $5,000 combined. PC's give us access to MILLIONS of FREE games and thousands of demos to try out before buying the actual games. Plus, PC games drop in price after 6 months, console games do not. I get better quality graphics, better sound and a better experience on a PC.
Don't you think this could be why consoles are trying to BECOME PC's by connecting online and giving the user online content?

[Evildave]

I'll just restate my position on PC games:

The 'free' stuff is mostly cross-platform. There are 'millions of' games for the PS3 or Mac because they have a web browser with Flash 9, too.

The PC game section of your Best Buy retailer is small compared to the shelf space for consoles. Lots of old, discontinued PC games that you can't get your hands on are included in those figures.

It costs $200 for a complete new console, and the video card for your $5000 PC probably cost a LOT more. From the beginning to the end of that console's life, it will run 100% of the software developed for it. Your absurdly expensive PCs will be too wussy to run new games in a couple of years.

You could have gotten yourself two cheap, but decent PCs with 24" monitors, bought yourself EACH KIND OF CONSOLE, and had enough money left over to buy a stack of console games you won't finish in a year, especially if you bought second-hand games.

[JcHc3in1]

Wow! Couldn't even bother reading my post could ya? Once again you live up to (or is it down to?) your name. I mentioned that we got EVERYTHING for our PC's. That would include monitors, keyboards, mice, gaming pads (same as the XBox 360), joysticks, speakers, router, UPS, etc.
Don't we all need computers anyway, just to get by (work, email etc)? Plus, my wife and I can play with and against each other in whatever we want, online or on each other's computer.Our computers were hardly top of the line, but they will last 5-10 years, which is long enough for me to play the games I have stockpiled over the last two years. I can hardly say the same about consoles. My friend's PS3 died after a month of not even constant use!
When you figure the total cost of ownership, PC's are the best bargain and probably always will be. Add up all the consoles the average person buys (+ games) over a 5 year period. Probably will come to about the same price a single PC cost, and the PC gives you so much MORE than a console ever can.

[JcHc3in1]

By the way, trying to play new games on a PC is possible, just with lower settings that still kick consoles butt. It is the newer games that force console owners to buy new consoles to play them.

[Evildave]

All I said was you could've gone cheaper on the PCs, not that you could do without them.

Talk about not reading forum posts.

Two 24" WUXGA monitors: $1000 (and these will last you through SEVERAL computers, and you could plug game consoles directly into them).

Two modest new PCs that would do all your work (and probably play all PC games that are currently out): $2000. Note: most new PCs come with all the accessories like keyboards, mice, speakers, etc.

Leftover for three consoles and a big stack of games and accessories: $2000

Or save that $2000 and spend it on two completely new PCs when your current ones stop playing the latest games. I can't fathom why people will overpay every three or four years for an 'uber' PC when for the same price they could keep replacing the PC every year with a new one that's better in every way than the older one, and giving the older one to 'charity' or to other family members.

As for buying a new console for new games, do you think 'upgrading' PC hardware to play games is FREE? How about paying WAY TOO MUCH for 'killer' PC gaming hardware in the vain hope that you won't need to upgrade any time soon?

The XBOX 360 has been out since 2005. The PS3 came out in 2006. I bought a new PC about the same time as the 360. Buying games for that PC is now a minefield of guessing whether it meets the minimum requirements. The same XBOX 360 or PS3 runs the newest stuff without a problem.

Yeah, you paid way too much for a couple of PC clones, and now you're gone from denial to anger in one jump. You'll be down to acceptance in no time.

[JcHc3in1]

LOL!!! You just keep thinking that son! You just keep thinking that!!! Obviously you haven't done your research on the matter. Enjoy cozying up with your gamepad while us PC gamers run rings around you with a keyboard and mouse. Wait, that's right, you can't play Diablo, Hellgate, or any one of hundreds of games that I can list on a console!
That's just too bad. LOL! By the way,I know I didn't overpay. It's called research (you know that thing you refuse to do?), and my wife and I did it thoroughly before we bought. Alienware, Dell, Digital Storm, CyberPower, Vigor Gaming, we looked at them all. We've even had a power supply go out on one of them. Guess how much it cost to replace? ZERO. If it happened to your console? Gotta buy a whole new console. I'll take my peace of mind thank you very much!

[JcHc3in1]

You don't even know how to look up the minimum requirements on a game? Wow! Talk about hopeless!!! Try this:
http://www.systemreq...referrer/srtest

[Evildave]

Doesn't matter anymore, but the 'minimum requirements' for 'Supreme Commander' said a particular DirectX 9 shader feature had to be in hardware to run it, and though the video card chipset that I had NOMINALLY possessed that feature, the STEPPING for that chipset didn't. So that game collected dust until I got another machine that did run it. Had to fail to install it to discover it wouldn't install, and then the store wouldn't accept it back, because the seal was broken. Your link wouldn't have helped.

But that's just the point. I don't have to worry about 'compatibility' AT ALL, let alone hardware requirements and trivial details down to the chipset on my video card.

While you have a convenient hotlink to 'double-check' every game that you buy, I just grab a disk off the shelf (or download a game), and it runs every time.

No need to worry my little head about it. I don't have to stay 'up to date' with the latest B.S. about Vista not running my game, but XP SP2 will, just not SP3, let alone what hardware and drivers can/can't work, how to update those drivers, etc.

And two years from now, all the stuff I bought over the last three years will still run on the console, and brand new games will still run on that console. You'll be upgrading your video cards and maybe buying more RAM (maybe even a new motherboard that supports more RAM) by then. Money that could have purchased two or three game consoles pissed away to run PC games that tend to have versions shipped on consoles.

Console games even go through more thorough QA before they ship, because not every user has an internet connection to patch their console. This means I can reasonably expect to play all the way through a game without it crashing, or invalidating my save games, or needing patches to get past Level 3.

[eltacopirata]

Consoles versus PC is a matter of preference. I find that many console gamers have simply never experienced true PC gaming (mouse and keyboard, online multiplayer, etc.) and therefore are not able to properly compare consoles to PCs. Most PC players have played and/or owned consoles, so we tend to be a bit more open minded about which platforms we prefer to play on. Bottom line, I find that PC games are much more competitive and addicting. They also often times aim for hard core gamers, so you aren't stuck with a "made for mainstream" set of dumbed down games.

As for cost, I built my last PC, and it rocks. I did a lot of research and found excellent deals on Black Friday of last year. Some of the deals were simply amazing. Bottom line, I built a great gaming PC for below $800 (or was it below $900? can't remember) and that includes a Samsung 19 inch wide screen LCD. Also, the software on my computer alone is worth more than a console. Right now, I can purchase a video card that is more powerful (theoretically) than all previous consoles combined for around $200 or less. Trust me, consoles look nice, but moderate to high-end PCs will run circles around consoles, and consoles will then later adopt the PC technology for the next generation systems. So, in effect, you are playing on a medium performance PC when you currently by a PS3 or an Xbox 360. No shame in that, but at least know what you are buying. Yes, I know they optimize better for consoles, but the extra raw power of PCs can more than make up for that lack of standardization.

I am finishing up a masters degree, so I frequently use my PC for homework, something I could never do with a console. Of course, I also use it for its basic functionality that is quite akward on consoles (really, whoever sends emails from a console? I'd like to see someone who really does, not that you couldn't). Fry's on Wednesday was selling a 2.83 ghz Core 2 Quad with 12 MB L2 cache and a motherboard (a crappy mobo, but at least it came with one) for $230. You can find amazing PC deals, you just have to be willing to build your own system, which is really not that hard. You also get to choose the components of your system, so you don't get stuck with anything that is low quality. With consoles, you just have to accept the product they give, knowing that some of the components are low cost rather than performance parts

As far as games are concerned, I am able to use networks such as Steam to download games that other people I know have bought. We share accounts so that we can play each others games. Try that on a console, I dare you (show my one console user that paid $22.50 for a legit, non-asian copy of Far Cry 2 brand new). I also get games extremely cheap off of eBay (I know, you can do that for consoles, too). If you want the latest and greatest PC game and don't want to wait, you will pay less than you will for the same, often lower graphics capable version on a console (console makers demand a royalty fee that pushes the expense above a PC game). I just got a brand new copy of Fallout 3 for $26.50 after live cash back. Find me a console user that is paying $26.50 for brand new, non-pirated Fallout 3. Try $50 to $60, most likely, for the average console user.

Those extra charges for games really add up over time. Also, to enjoy a console, I feel like you really have to have a full set of controllers. That'll set you back how much? $30 to $40 per extra controller? So, to get for, you pay for three more at a cost of $90 to $120? How about new batteries for those wireless controllers? How about the Xbox live account (for PS3, you don't pay, but you also don't get as good of a service, so don't even compare)?

Finally, to see a console's nice graphics, you have to buy an HD TV. So, how much of a TV are you going to buy for that console? A 30 inch for $400? A 40 inch for $700? 50 inch? Can you turn down the graphics on a next gen game and stick it in a console to extend it's life? No, you can't, you just can't play the game.

/rant

[JcHc3in1]

"No need to worry my little head about it. I don't have to stay 'up to date' with the latest B.S. about Vista not running my game, but XP SP2 will, just not SP3, let alone what hardware and drivers can/can't work, how to update those drivers, etc."
I'm sorry but I've never seen nor heard any of these problems ANYWHERE, nor have I experienced them. Just a straight forward gaming experience. Unfortunately it seems you just repeating myths you've heard from Apple fanboys.
I can download mods all I want. I can download older games for FREE all I want. Sure, consoles are NOW moving in that direction and trying to become like PC gaming, but it is all copycat and doesn't even come close to fulfilling the PC gaming experience.
I'm sorry you've obviously had a bad experience and are not able to figure things out. I don't believe this is a knock on PC gaming at all. In fact, it just makes my and eltacopirata's point that PC gaming is for the real gamers while consoles are for the teenager and casual gamers who don't really care about the immersive experience that one gets with PC gaming.
Oh, and by the way, two years from now if I want to replace a hardware component (unlikely no matter how much you think it will happen), all I have to do is replace a part, for less than $100. You'll have to replace your whole console and buy a boatload of new games. Not to mention the fact that consoles have a hard time lasting just a few years without completely breaking.