PC Games vs Consoles

[CactuarKing]

I can SEE how theoretically PC would be better as it offers unlimited customisability, but to get a top end gaming PC would cost more than a console and would need to be constantly upgraded, whereas my PS4 will continue to play games that I put into it without me having to upgrade it.

While you're correct that a good PC is more expensive than a console - sometimes substantially so - the 'constant upgrades' thing doesn't really apply. Yes, you'd need to do that if you wanted it to stay 'top of the line' forever, but that would be like buying a high end car and then trading it in for a slightly faster high end car a year later. Most of the time, you'll keep the same car for years and years.

I bought my gaming PC in 2012 (at about 3 times the cost of a PS4 - as I said the initial expense is a perfectly valid criticism!) and haven't upgraded it since. It'll still play pretty much every new game on 'High' graphics settings and outperforms the consoles. And as the games get tougher and tougher on the system I can just turn the settings down more and more instead of upgrading, and when I do upgrade in another few years it'll probably just be a graphics card, not a whole PC.

And of course - why would I need to upgrade? The majority of big games also come out on console, therefore they're somewhat limited by the consoles. I doubt very much something will come out on both console and PC that my PC won't be able to handle, so I should be good until the end of this console generation.

True.

That's true. You only need to upgrade if you want to stay on the bleeding edge of performance and quality. If you're budget-minded, you can almost always get away with building something that costs slightly more than a current gen console when it is new, and it will most likely run all multiplatform titles until the end of that console generation.

Eurogamer even has a "PC-that-equals-consoles-for-close-to-same-price" build, and tests new games up against the console versions every now and then. It's a bit of a mixed bag, but it is extremely rare for that PC to end up with less performance than an X1, and also pretty uncommon that it is significantly behind PS4.

When DX12 hits, I actually think the PC version of multiplatform games will get even a bit better relative to console versions, especially those PCs that have a discrete card combined with an integrated CPU. There are a few post-processing tasks that can be handled by intel's integrated graphics adapters, and probably even more things that could be handled by one of AMD's integrated GPUs.

Additionally, CPU requirements are projected to drop by a significant amount (I'm hearing 20% in most cases) because of the more efficient API. At the same time, all the same games still have the same CPU power limit on PS4 and for the most part also XB1, so developers can't throw more stuff at the CPU than before, even if weaker PCs can handle more.

Not to mention, it will be a lot easier to recycle your old graphics card. You don't need to throw it away, you can just let it work in tandem with the new card you buy, even if they are of a different make and performance level.

Yeah, true.

Both of you raise good points. I am a father though which limits my spending power so the PS4 was the better option. If I had enough money spare I MAY be tempted back to PC in future generations, but not for the foreseeable future unfortunately.

[escobert]

PC > all.

[DMKA]

PC is certainly a better platform with several advantages over consoles that consoles by their very nature will never match.

On the other hand, many of my favorite games either weren't on PC for months to years or still aren't on PC today. Actually, all my favorite games seem to be console exclusives that literally takes years to end up on PC. There seem to be entire genres that simply don't exist on PC. For example, 3D platformers, like Ratchet and Clank and Mario, simply aren't present on PC, and I don't know why. Aside of Final Fantasy, which just started being ported over in the last couple years, turn-based JRPGs are also very rare on PC. And then, my other favorite genre, fast-paced action games, like Devil May Cry, and Bayonetta, are incredibly sparse. Oh and story driven action RPGs like Zelda and Kingdom Hearts are also incredibly sparse on the platform.

Bear in mind in recent years this has begun to change, as damn near every high profile release that isn't developed by a first party Sony or Nintendo studio, inevitably ends up on Steam.

So yeah, I'm probably going to be an idort forever. I like console exclusives too much, but the advantages and overall comfort and customization PC offers are undeniable. But in a perfect world, consoles wouldn't exist and everything would be on PC. There's so many console exclusives I've played where it's evident the visual fidelity is held back by hardware limitations and all I can think is "Man, if only this were on PC, imagine how awesome it would look."

[Crop]

There are a few PC games I really enjoy (RA2, Total War, Civ V, Deus Ex to name a few) but I've always preferred console, it's far more convenient for me and for the most part I prefer the library of games.

[Pike]

I'm fine with either but currently I prefer PC, I actually feel like PC is much easier to use than console. There would have been a time, long ago in the cartridge era, where I would have said the opposite but now it feels like every time I turn on my Xbox 360 I have to wait like a half hour for updates and make sure I have a big enough hard drive and etc. etc. My Steam account is so much more plug and play. Hit the button to download, then hit the play button. My controller works with a lot of games too

[Madame Adequate]

I grew up a PC gamer before PS1 and found them to be fiddly and nightmarish unless you had the EXACT settings for "FILES=" and "BUFFERS="and stuff like that.

Since PS1 - It has been consoles (especially SONY consoles for me all they way as I lack patience and prefer to just pop a game in and be able to play it.

I can SEE how theoretically PC would be better as it offers unlimited customisability, but to get a top end gaming PC would cost more than a console and would need to be constantly upgraded, whereas my PS4 will continue to play games that I put into it without me having to upgrade it.

PC games are cheaper though.

I can understand this line of thinking (The first games I ever played were even before yours, and required a working knowledge of DOS just to get them running ), but things these days on PC are incredibly convenient as Pike says. Thanks to stuff like Steam and GOG, once you have the actual PC itself, it's as easy as a console to sort everything out.

Of course for many people actually getting the PC can look daunting as heck, and if you forego that, you're going to be paying for the convenience of someone else assembling it for you. It's really not that difficult though, and there are plenty of great guides out there that will take you step-by-step through it.

As for upgrading, eh, the last console generation kind of skewed things because the 360 and PS3 hung around so long, but there's really no need to upgrade a PC that often, much less replace it wholesale. Plus you can easily just update the one part you think is lacking, so you can shove some extra RAM in or replace a gfx card and it's much cheaper than a whole new console.

But hey, swings and roundabouts - as long as you're playing videogames, the how is secondary at best!

[FinalxxSin]

PC has the biggest selection of games out there. A lot of games can eventually be emulated to run on a PC, that may be difficult to obtain for a console. When it comes to MMOs, PC does it best. PC does come with 2 major cons though:
1. A higher number of hackers associated with the games in comparison to console games. Maybe this isn't a PC specific problem and more of a problem on the devs/admins/gm/whatever that are overlooking the game.
2. Soooooo many PC builds. Since there are a lot of variations with PC, some people are bound to have a different playing experience than others.

The upfront cost of a good PC will be more than a console, but there seem to be a lot of sales that take place PC wise. So maybe in the long run, things break even?

Console gaming is simple. You hook up your console, put in a disc/catridge, and the game just plays. It's so nice to know that your console will automatically meet the requirements of the game. I do believe a person can have a better experience playing solo on console than on PC. Consoles do have their own issues as well such as:
-lagging behind technology wise in comparison to PC
-takes time for a new console to get a decent sized library of games

I prefer gaming on my console. I normally only play a game on PC, if it isn't available on console such as the upcoming western version of Blade & Soul.

[DMKA]

The upfront cost of a good PC will be more than a console, but there seem to be a lot of sales that take place PC wise. So maybe in the long run, things break even?

Eh, if we aren't counting torrents.

But honestly if you're one of those wholesome folks who pays for every game you play, console gaming can be way cheaper if you buy used/wait until things have been out awhile. You also have the option of reselling console games, so if you take that into account the numbers change even more in favor of the console side.

Honestly you can't really worry about that too much though if you want to fully enjoy the hobby.

[Mirage]

Console gaming is simple. You hook up your console, put in a disc/catridge, and the game just plays.

Don't forget the mandatory installation and day one patch!

It's definitely less to keep track of on a console, but you don't really have to deal with more than 3-4 specifications on a PC these days. Fast enough CPU, sufficient amount of RAM, and fast enough GPU. Lots of new games auto-adjust settings for your hardware these days so you don't need to fiddle with a lot of stuff to make it look as good as it should. Even if the game doesn't, nvidia's software can adjust to the optimal settings for almost any game for you.

That gives me an idea. It would be pretty neat if Steam would check your system specifications automatically and check them against the game's requirements, then give you an approximate performance rating that could tell you on a scale from 1-5 how well your PC would run it, where 1 would be below 25 fps even with minimum settings, and 5 would be 60fps with all settings maxed. A rating of 3 could be 30 fps with medium settings.

Although it could be made even simpler, and just base the score solely on the minimum/recommended system requirements and whether or not you met them, disregarding the fact that some system requirements are very exaggerated.

Approximate/projected performance numbers, of course. Even if their rating messed up once in a while, you can cancel your purchase for a period of time on steam, so you'd be able to get your money back in case it wasn't performing to your satisfaction.

[Slothy]

Console gaming is simple. You hook up your console, put in a disc/catridge, and the game just plays.

Don't forget the mandatory installation and day one patch!

Before you install the latest firmware update? Let's not get ahead of ourselves here.

[Mirage]

Console gaming is simple. You hook up your console, put in a disc/catridge, and the game just plays.

Don't forget the mandatory installation and day one patch!

Before you install the latest firmware update? Let's not get ahead of ourselves here.

Oh dear, your online subscription ran out? Better cough up 40 bucks to play with your friends for another year!

That's actually an important issue. Assuming your console is gonna last you 8 years, that's another 320 bucks to its total cost, if you want to play with friends. You can get a pretty crazy graphics card for that kind of money

Between that, and PC games being consistently cheaper, it's pretty easy to keep the cost of PC gaming at the same level as the cost of console gaming, as long as you don't fall into the "must play every game on ultra+60fps" trap.

[DMKA]

You can get a pretty crazy graphics card for that kind of money

Where? My GTX 980 cost me $500, and I'd hardly consider it crazy.

[Fox]

Console gaming is simple. You hook up your console, put in a disc/catridge, and the game just plays.

Don't forget the mandatory installation and day one patch!

Before you install the latest firmware update? Let's not get ahead of ourselves here.

Hang on, you may have just done that to try Rocket League, but didn't you want to play Tales of Xillia after that? That's a PS3 game you silly bun! You'll need to swap out your entire console!

[Ayen]

DAMN YOU PS4 AND YOUR LACK OF BACKWARD COMPATIBILITY!

[Vyk]

Controller and functional TV. Somebody else can work out the other biz

This is fairly close to how I feel. I'm not a big fan of complicated PC controls, and I hate hate hatehatehatehate WASD. I shouldn't have to toggle a walking function. This may change if keyboards that are pressure-sensitive ever become a standard and we can get analog walking and vehicle throttle and all that jazz. Everyone talks about how much better a mouse is to aim. Well an analogue stick is far superior for gradual speed increments. I don't care about precision shooting. And your average RTS games purposely make things needlessly complicated. I think for me, I prefer console simply because it demands a controller. Sleek, elegant, no extra uncessary bells and whistles. If it can't be played with a controller, then you're not trying hard enough :P

Unpopular opinion and hyperbole aside, WASD really makes my hands ache for some reason. I can sit and type a thesis or story for hours, but I think my hands are moving more in that regard. And honestly I do prefer analog movement, and there's no option for that on PC. I truly do hate toggling walk/run

So most of the PC games I play are with a controller anyway. The only bonus is sometimes mod support. So if I had to choose, it'd be console. But I am happy this need is slowly slipping away. There are tons of PC games these days with gamepad support, and even plenty of PC games with local co-op. Which even a year or so ago was completely unheard of

It's a good time to be a gamer. Plenty of valid options for everyone. And mine is with a junky $300, 3 year old gaming laptop. And there's still plenty for me to play that's coming out. Thankfully I love me some low requirements indie games