[coastie65]

psynophile said:

Had to sign in for this one. 10 reasons PC Gaming sucks.

1) CRT/LCD screens on computers suck . I didn't spend X000.00 on my LCD/Plasma to NOT play games on it.
2) 1000.00's of dollars on computer hardware that will cost a third or less in a year is pathetic.
3) Too many BS technologies. Well, they're not BS in and of themselves, I just don't have time to care about them all. Who cares about 154xAA. I'll withstand a slight difference in detail if I don't have to fiddle with all of that crap.
4) Emulators? Whatever. Everyone always goes on and on about emulators. Sorry, but I'm old enough to have played the old games through more than once, on the original consoles, and on emulators. Emulators never work 100% correctly.
5) I have to install how many things just to get this to work? DirectX what? OpenGL what? Steam what? Incompatible drivers? HDCP? I don't give a crap. I want to play the freaking game!
6) qwertyuiop[]asdfghjkl;'xzzcnm,./ How many button's do I need to remember to play this game? 105? 120? I need a quick guide just for the buttons? Yea, that's totally rad. Not.
7) Keyboards are good for typing. TYPING. Holding control to crouch for long periods of time with my pinky? Forget that crap...
8) Sales. Biggest selling game of 2006 for PC? World of Warcraft. The rest? The Sims. The third most sold game sold less than a million copies. Halo 3? 6 million? 8 million? Aren't you tired of playing with bots?
9) Separation and loneliness. I can go from watching a movie with my buddies, to playing L4D with a click of the button. To play together with PC's, we all have to either lug around 50 pieces of hardware or go back to our respective places and log in to our computers.
10) Quality of games. Every decent game that's come out for PC has been on console. The PC players are pretty much the sad kids that are in the corner playing with themselves trying to find a way to justify their expensive hardware. Get real man.

Look, I started playing games in the mid 80's. I've been through consoles since Atari and PC games since config.sys and King's Quest. It's over, man. Shed a tear and get on with your gaming on a console. The only games left for PC's exclusively suck (Crysis), and the ones that don't aren't called games, they're called social networking now...

On Point 1, LCD monitors do very well and will give you HD quality, if you have the right card & monitor. Point 2, Thousands of dollars in computer hardware? I wouls direct your attention to my signature. I can play any PC game out there with no problems, and I can tell you there aren't "Thousands " invested in this thing. Not even close. So, that is a falacy, that you have to invest "Thousands" into your rig, in order to play the newer games. Point 3, You don't necessarily have to make "Adjustments" to play the game. Some people do happen to like tweaking things a bit for performance and graphics issues. Point 4, Emulators, Like you, I am old enough to have been gaming on a Commodore 64, and I happen to think emulators are a waste of time, and quite possibly illegal in some cases. Point 5, You do not have to install DirectX as it is aready installed, HOWEVER, you may have to update it. Yes, unfortunately, you may have to download and install a a patch or two. Point 6, No argument here, it is a bit much at times. Point 7, I have found that not to be too great of a problem. Point 8, THE WITCHER sold somewhere over 800,000 copies, not too shabby. It will be released for the console in the fall of '09. You put out a decent game for the PC and people will buy it . This also covers Point 10 as well, As for your description of a sad kid sitting in the corner playing on his Uber rig get real. It is a matter of game preference. I prefer playing single player RPG's for the most part and find them entertaining. If I want to interact with others, I go over to my VFW post and play Poker, as I enjoy that as well. I would consider buying a Wii for that reason though,although I do have a PS3. I guess that takes care of Point 9 as well as I do not feel any separation, as I take time for other things with people and spend only so much time gaming. coastie

[djnforce9]

Before I say anything, I apologize for the horrible formatting. This editor really messes with the layout.


1) CRT/LCD screens on computers suck . I didn't spend X000.00 on my LCD/Plasma to NOT play games on it.

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You can connect a PC to that LCD/Plasma screen without much trouble. Modern PC's do come with the necessary ports. My video card even has HDMI outputs for modern day Tvs. However, monitors (although smaller) tend to support much higher resolutions and in general, can look a lot crisper than televisions (so why you say they suck is beyond me unless you had a really bad model). I remember a friend of mine being very disappointed because his relatively large TV only allowed a resolution up to 1440x1080 (which is dumb considering its size).
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2) 1000.00's of dollars on computer hardware that will cost a third or less in a year is pathetic.
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You actually are right there if you are going for the highest end PCs possible but as stated in one of the posts above, a gaming PC CAN be much cheaper if you know what parts to get and where to get them. Even cheaper if you build it yourself instead of relying on overprice bloats like alienware.
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3) Too many BS technologies. Well, they're not BS in and of themselves, I just don't have time to care about them all. Who cares about 154xAA. I'll
withstand a slight difference in detail if I don't have to fiddle with all of that crap.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I guess having better image quality does not suit you? Nevertheless, the fact remains that these image settings can make the graphical output on a PC exceed that of a console. The side by side comparison linked in an earlier post truly depicts this.


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4) Emulators? Whatever.
Everyone always goes on and on about emulators. Sorry, but I'm old enough to have played the old games through more than once, on the
original consoles, and on emulators. Emulators never work 100% correctly.
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I can go on for pages about this matter but I'll just highlight the major points. So you're saying that since you played and beat those old games, you NEVER want to touch them again? I guess in that case emulators won't suit you but for people like me who love to try the old classics again:
a) I'd rather have one box capable of playing literally thousands of games across dozens of systems than have 7 boxes (and their respective cords) lying around the living room (not to mention games that are progressively ceasing to work (even well kept ones) through natural wear and tear as well as decay).
b) Emulators also allow you to play games you would have easily missed back in the day either because they were very rare or only released in Japan thereby requiring a fan translation (e.g. good luck finding an English cart of Final Fantasy 2 for NES because it does not exist unless you make one from a blank cartridge).
c) Emulators can utilize PC video hardware to make the game look far better than on the original console. Try turning on an HQ4x filter for Super Mario Bros and you'll know what I mean. Another example is Kingdom Hearts which looks AMAZING when played through PCSX2 (no ugly scanlines and very nice hardware filters to improve visual quality).
d) I can use the same controller (or set of controls) to play all games and even CUSTOMIZE my controls which was a very rare feature for old consoles.
e) I will admit that some emulators (especially for newer systems like PS2) do have their share of glitches, but older ones should work perfectly in regards to playing games. If they don't for you, then you have a very poorly written emulator or a highly outdated one.

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5) I have to install how many things just to get this to work? DirectX what? OpenGL what? Steam what? Incompatible drivers? HDCP? I don't give a crap. I want to play the freaking game!
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Yes PCs do require a few hours of pre-setup before you can play games as opposed to consoles where you slip the game in and you're good to go. Some stuff is bundled and even updated automatically upon installation (e.g DirectX) but you still have drivers and the installation of the game itself to worry about which could take a while. HOWEVER, you only have to set up your drivers once and you only have to install a game once. In some cases, you never even have to worry about putting your disc back in just to play after the initial install (i.e. all steam games and other downloadable ones). You are also free to make backup copies which is more difficult to do on consoles since mod-chips are required to even use said backups thanks to DRM.

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6) qwertyuiop[]asdfghjkl;'xzzcnm,./ How many button's do I need to remember to play this game? 105? 120? I need a quick guide just for the buttons? Yea, that's totally rad. Not.
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Ok I don't know ANY game that uses all 104 or so keys on the keyboard and if any did, it was either a "typing" game or VERY poorly designed. Most games use a standardized set of keys in order to reduce the learning curve and make the game feel natural to those who do not have (or do not want to use) a controller. I can pick up almost any modern game and know right away that WASD moves your character, mouse looks around, SPACE jumps, and control crouches (and in a lot of cases, E or F is used to manipulate objects). Everything else is just game specific functions and a lot of games give you tutorials and/or easy to follow instructions on how to play. In light of that, I'd have to say that you are exaggerating on the matter. If all else fails, most games let you set YOUR OWN keys or you can use Xpadder to map keystrokes to a controller.
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7) Keyboards are good for typing. TYPING. Holding control to crouch for long periods of time with my pinky? Forget that crap...
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I've played many FPS games and none of them have ever required me to crouch for that long (and if they did, the game would not require me to hold down a key to do so). Also, if keyboards were meant for typing only, then there wouldn't be a market for "Gaming Keyboards". Me personally, I'm happy with the standard type and my hands are never sore or tired after extended play.
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8) Sales. Biggest selling game of 2006 for PC? World of Warcraft. The rest? The Sims. The third most sold game sold less than a million copies. Halo 3? 6
million? 8 million? Aren't you tired of playing with bots?
------------------------------------------------------------------------First of all, I question where you are grabbing your statistics because I seriously doubt the Sims and World of Warcraft are the only two games on the PC selling a significant number of copies? What about Fallout 3? The Half Life games? Even Spore sold quite well considering the DRM issues and high piracy rate.
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9) Separation and loneliness. I can go from watching a movie with my buddies, to playing L4D with a click of the button. To play together with PC's, we all have to either lug around 50 pieces of hardware or go back to our respective places and log in to our computers.
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Once again, I re-iterate that you CAN hook your PC up to your TV the same way as any console OR you can also watch movies on your PC and switch to a game afterward. PC's also support multiple controllers too allowing for friends to play while at your place. Each person does NOT need to have their own PC any more than you would require four Xbox 360's to play a four player game.
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10) Quality of games. Every decent game that's come out for PC has been on console. The PC players are pretty much the sad kids that are in the corner playing with themselves trying to find a way to justify their expensive hardware. Get real man.
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Ok so what about Crysis? Aquaria? AudioSurf? World of Warcraft? The list goes on. Are all those games not "decent" to you and I haven't seen them on anything BUT PC? Your latter comment about PC gamers sounds like a generalization with absolutely no facts to back it up. PC gamers ARE social (I am one of them and I know others who prefer PC games as well) and people get expensive hardware for many reasons like:
a) Max out the detail settings in the newest games in order to achieve the BEST visual (and audio) quality possible (exceeding the output of consoles)
b) Bragging rights
c) It's a hobby to enthusiasts and/or those that like to build PCs
d) They totally agree with all points made in this blog and want to take advantage to the fullest extent.

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Also, for the record, I too started out on the commodore 64 as well so I'm not "new" to gaming by any means. So yeah, this article is right on the money with the 15 advantages because they do turn out to be true if you are familiar with PC gaming.

[JaywalkerExtraordinaire]

{quote}he isnt talking about realism, and the wii remote is intuitive for a few select situations{quote}

On the other hand, the only situation in which a keyboard is intuitive is when typing. In other words, using a keyboard and mouse for gaming is not the least bit intuitive.

{quote}a large number of games dont even make use of the motion sensing technology{quote}

Agreed, and mentioned previously in one of my posts. The Wii is not without its shortcomings. The Wiimote, however, is not one of them. It easily bests the keyboard and mouse.

[MysteriouX]

Another advantage of the PC over consoles
--> the ability to connect multiple screens. Especially useful when you're playing a game and perhaps want to look up some hints, tips, tricks online at the same time. Just move the mouse over to the second screen and...voila!

Can the PS3 or Xbox or Wii connect to more than one TV/Flat panel/LCD/Plasma at the same time? I've played multiplayer games on consoles, even with large 42"+ screens, and the screen split so that each player is on a portion of the screen is annoying. I would rather have an entire screen to myself and have other's on their own screens.

And since many of the latest laptops (sub $2000 ones included) are coming with Geforce or ATI dedicated graphic cards, it's easy for friends to get together and start a wireless LAN party and play high end games. Not to mention the fact that setting up a wireless connection and managing it on a PC or Laptop is much easier.
I currently have 2 laptops, ASUS M70vm (with Geforce 9600m GS 512mb dedicated) which I use in the office and a M70vn (Geforce 9650m GT 1024b dedicated) which I use at home and on both I can play a high end game like Crysis at a resolution of 1440x900 or more very smoothly. Both laptops have a 17" wide screen, the VM's screen has a max native resolution of 1440x900 (HD ready) while the VN has 1920x1200 (full HD), both come with full surround sound speakers and subwoofer, dual 320gb hdds, 4gb ram. And neither of them are considered high end laptops, they're mid range. I consider both to be a complete gaming console screen controller + audio entertainment center all packed together.
And on a PC because of the extra PCI slots, you can add so many USB/Firewire slot expansion cards so that you have enough ports to connect as many devices as you need. While on a console you may only get up to a max of 4 controllers. (Of course I haven't actually seen a game that lets more than 4 people play from the same machine at the same time but my point is...as already stated by so many people...PCs, and including many modern laptops, are scalable. Consoles aren't.)

[MarioJP]

wow lot of you are so clueless about pc gaming that i am debating if i should waste my time on this thread or not. I have to say is that PC GAMING is the best platform ever. No other platform is flexible like you would not believe. PC Gaming expensive you say??. Well that all depends of what is expensive to you. And no you don't have to fork out 3 or 4k to game on the pc get real. Even laptops are getting cheaper with more horsepower under the hood.

PC gaming is expensive If you do one of the followings

1.believe in the marketing hype

2.Buy Retail parts or worst "RETAIL PC's" off the shelves.

3. Have the store to build it for you (Labor is very expensive for what you are going to get out of that build)

4. Not understanding the systems specs that might cause problems.

5.And lastly which this one kills me the most of all things is upgrading right on the borderline. This is the far annoying thing EVER!

Now as for laptops. Make sure you do you homework before buying a Laptop. And also stay away from known retail brands too such as hp/compaq, Sony Vaio, and maybe dell since they bought out alienware who knows. Asus seems to be the best for a gaming laptop. And i also been hearing that you be able to build your own laptop just like you build a pc pretty soon. That means it is going to be much cheaper.

Till this day i haven't looked at a console since i build my rig ONE YEAR AGO. And haven't upgraded since then. My system can go for another year or so if i choose to. Notice how i said i choose not forced. Yup thanks to pc hardware cost at a all time lows you can pretty much upgrade big without having a impact on your wallet.

Consoles our outdated to me very limited and made for the average person. And also i don't mind the ports to the pc which always looks better. (Excluding games that are poorly ported where the obvious things does not work like controls settings won't save).

Modding is the best thing for pc gaming. I can get very detail about LCD's and monitors about sizes which could in fact affect overal performance including consoles. (this is where pc's shines the best over consoles) but i won't go there until it is brought up.

all i have to say is PC GAMING RULES!!!!!

Here is my quote of the day "real gamers buy real hardware to play real games"

[HolyJohn]

I'm a PC gamer, and I agree with everything on this list. I used to play games mainly on consoles, but PC gaming is so much better. I will never buy a console ever again.

[comp1982]

there is NO way that pcs beat consoles in multi player fun (excluding over the internet gameplay like WoW or Starcraft)

[frozentundra]

I have to disagree with the poster who stated that the Wii has the best controllers and is better than a mouse and keyboard. Grated, the Wii is more "realistic" in that you can move the controllers in a motion similar to the motion of the item you are using in the game. However "realistic" the controllers are though, it is still only a game. I know people who can bowl consistantly over 200 on the Wii who cannot break 100 in a real bowling game. Is this "realistic"??

I like to play sports and casual games on the Wii, but cannot imagine playing a shooter like any of the Call of Duty games on the Wii. The controllers and cursor are simply to imprecise and could never match a mouse and keyboard.

[Hichardo]

I GO ONLINE TO DO ALOT OF THINGS. I ACTUALLY PREFER TO TYPE ON MY COMPUTER BECAUSE ITS FUN. I CAN DO IT RIGHT HERE. RIGHT AT MY COMPUTER RIGHT FROM MY KEYBOARD I HAVE ACCESS TO EVERYTHING.

[JohnEB]

For the price of a "good" gaming PC, you can buy one of each current console and MANY excellent games.

[MysteriouX]

Hmm the price of a PS3 in the US: $400 (all prices are taken from Amazon.com and rounded to nearest 10.)
Price of the WIi: $300
Price of an Xbox 360: $200-300 (let's take the middle ground of $250)

Thats a total of $950 (which doesn't include a monitor/screen) and just perhaps 1 or 2 bundled games for each console

Price of a good 1080 32" flat panal TV: at least $500

Total: $1450









Now a decent gaming PC:

22" Acer monitor: $170

Logitech gaming keyboard and mouse: $100-$120

Geforce graphics card by ASUS: ASUS EN9500GT TOP/DI - Graphics adapter - GF 9500 GT - PCI Express 2.0 x16 - 512 MB DDR3 - DVI, HDMI ( HDCP ) $100

desktop/tower case: ~ $20 for the cheap cases

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Quad-Core Processor, 2.40 GHz, 8M L2 Cache, LGA 775 by Intel ~$190

Motherboard/Mainboard: ~$50

Decent sound card: ~$50

HDD: Western Digital 500GB 3.5", SATA, 16MB Cache Bulk/OEM Hard Drive WD5000AAKS ~$60

RAM: OCZ DDR3 1333MHz 4 GB (2 x 2 GB) Kit Gold Edition ~$120

Windows (XP or Vista home editions, ultimate and professional editions are not needed for gaming): ~$150

total: ~$1030

Not much of a price gap to make a difference. I still prefer PC's for their ability to multitask and versatility and scalabality. Anything else that I can say about the advantages of having a PC will just be repeating what everyone else has said so far.



And I can even make the price of the PC even lower if I cut back on some hardware:

regular keyboard and decent mouse instead of a gaming keyboard/mouse: saves about $60

Core 2 duo instead of Quad core: saves about: saves another $60 or so

250gb hdd instead of 500gb: saves $40

19" instead of 22: monitor: saves about $50

I've already said this: PCs have the advantage of being able to choose the hardware you want and put it all together, either saving or spending more depending on your preferences. And when I'm not play games on it, I can use it for other purposes: surf the web, do graphics and imaging, write reports, program my own applications and games, etc. With a console, when you're not playing on it, its just sitting there idly doing nothing.

And if my PC had a 2 monitors or more, while I am gaming on 1 monitor, I can be chatting either by im, voip or video conferencing, browsing the web, playing the music I want while the ingame music is muted, etc.

So because of the PC's ability to multitask and multifunction I can feel that I spent my money well. I can feel good about having spent so much of my hard earned money.

[lonewolf22]

Let's face it, Both serve thier purpose. One thing about Consoles I like is not having to worry about do I have the right card or enough memory, etc. However, gaming on a console does not offer modding like you can on a PC. However, consoles are getting close being they now have hard drives and two of them offer keyboards. I love playing games on both PCs and consoles.

[arbocorp]

I agree about pc and consoles but I'm curious about one thing, older games? How can I have an updated pc with Vista and still play older games for XP? I'd like to upgrade to Vista but I'm still on XP!

[mrwarrenzhang]

In theory, this author is correct for most of his points. However, a lot of his reasons are irrelevant for the average user. Just because something is an option does not mean it is possible for everyone.
I think it should be a matter of personal preference, as some people will like one more than the other.

[coastie65]

I game on both the PC and the PS3. The games i have for the PC are well suited for that platform and the same goes for the PS3 games. I enjoy both formats equally, and it gives me a broader range of games to play. coastie65

[NoSmokingBandit]

1) Yes, Pc's are scalable, but most of the general public doesnt want to fidle with their system in order to play a game. Most people dont want to sit down and compare which $500+ video card is best. This really turns into more of a hassle than it is wroth to 99% of the population.

3) I have every system pre-N64 on my psp, as well as the built-in psx emu. On my xbox i have a n64 emu. They might not be quite as easy to set up, but its much easier to move my xbox or psp to another room to play tahn it is to grab my pc/monitor/speakers and move them.

12) This is really just a disadvanage to the xbox.Theres nothing here that makes a pc better than a wii or ps3. It just shows that all of them are better due to the free online than the 360. If you want me to take this article seriously you have to point out more than just one flaw in one system that supposedly makes all pcs better than all consoles....

[MysteriouX]

1) Yes, Pc's are scalable, but most of the general public doesnt want to fidle with their system in order to play a game. Most people dont want to sit down and compare which $500+ video card is best. This really turns into more of a hassle than it is wroth to 99% of the population.

--> Guess someone here listens to all the hype about hardware. I believe in my previous post I mentioned a sub $200 graphics card that can perform better than the GPU of any PS3, XBox, Wii.

3) I have every system pre-N64 on my psp, as well as the built-in psx emu. On my xbox i have a n64 emu. They might not be quite as easy to set up, but its much easier to move my xbox or psp to another room to play tahn it is to grab my pc/monitor/speakers and move them.

--> Nowadays, laptops with 17" screens and nVidia graphics cards are under $1500 and can perform just as well as $2000 desktop gaming machines.

12) This is really just a disadvanage to the xbox.Theres nothing here that makes a pc better than a wii or ps3. It just shows that all of them are better due to the free online than the 360. If you want me to take this article seriously you have to point out more than just one flaw in one system that supposedly makes all pcs better than all consoles....

--> I thought several weaknesses of consoles had been pointed out already.

[NoSmokingBandit]

1) I am well aware of the budget cards, but do you think that makes a difference to the people who want to just buy a game and play it? Most epople dont want to be bothered with endless list of hardware configurations. Consoles make this easier for them. PC Gpu's have always performed better than any console, but once again, that doesnt make it esier for the average joe.


3) I, for one, am not paying $1500 in order to take some old emulators on the road with me. The only stable emulators we have are in the pre-n64 era anyway (n64 emulation is still rather glitchy) although psx emus are pretty good. As far as emulators go, theres nothing that $1500 will do that a $200 psp couldnt do. The psp aslo fits in my pocket, so its a double win.



12) You obvoiusly missed the point of this. The autor is telling me that PC gaming is better than console gaming because one of the consoles charges for online.... Using that logic i can say that console gaming is better because one computer (MBP) has a video card that explodes )not litterelly, but it has the same effect). One console's disadvantage does not apply to all of them.



I also think its funny that the author doesnt really post any specifics about the ps3 or wii, but poitns out several specific fails of the 360. Perhaps thatjust the 360 hater in me...

[craiden]

What the.....
I am a avid player on the PC and whilst I think most games are more suited to it I still play on consoles. I don't see why people have to do this whole my ones better than your one. We have the PC, its going to be around for, hopefully, a long time.
I find know logic in banging heads. There will always be those that prefer consoles over the PC, if there wasn't we'd all be bored to death with nothing to argue about.
Enough, grow up, move on.

[Kinman]

There are a few elements that PC games can't offer. The motion control, a feedback system, and the realness of of play a game. These elements keyboard and mouse can't offer.
Also, for those latest FPS games, you got to have a pretty recent PC, at most 2 years old. After 2 years, the PC won't be able to play most new FPS games, or won't have a good performance, even if your PC was a upper middle range one when you bought it.
By the way, I found in forums that many people find using keyboard and mouse to play FPS games is easier. At least it is easier to aim using mouse then using the analog stick, I am one of them.
And if you are playing xbox360, you can save power by not turning it on and play PC games instead (if your PC is running anyway). The 360 uses 150 watt when idle, 180 watt when play game.
The downside is, some games for some reason only have console version, but not for PC.