What if consoles were updated once or twice a year, would you still buy?

[Zlejedi]

Joelcool7 said:

Zlejedi said:

Joelcool7 said:

Squilliam said:

I hear the PS3 is quite popular and that system gets 12 updates in a year at least.

You know I was refering to hardware updates. I'm not an idiot Wii , 360 and PS3 all recieve software updates. But that is not what the thread is about. Its about hardware updates. Needing to buy a new graphics chip or new model every year or so. Would you be willing to buy a new console every year? or a graphics card upgrade so you could play the latest games? Or would this turn you off console gaming?

Zlejedi said

There's one flaw in your comparision - you don't need to have latest CPU/GPU to play new games on PC

 

Yes but you do need the latest graphics card and video card. I upgraded mine constantly. Eventually I found in some cases it was cheaper to just buy a whole new tower. This cost hundreds of dollars where as a console cost a few hundred and lasts 5-years. But what if you needed to buy the latest graphics upgrade for your X-Box 360, or a whole new model to play the latest games. Would you be fine with constantly upgrading your console?

GPU= graphics processing unit= video card

CPU= central processing unit= processor

And no you don't need new ones constantly ever since current gen started - 2 year old GTX 260 won't have any problems pushing Mass Effect 2/New Vegas to maximum details full hd @ 60 fps and will likely last few more years.

Also if you remember Oblivion was game killing computers and needing $ 300 graphics cards when it was released and at that time it looked better on X360. Now noone would consider it demanding game on pc and even cheap computer can run it fine. At the same time it runs on X360 exactly like it did 4 years ago and no matter what you do it won't ever look better and same can be said about other console games they will only have evolutionary improvements over previous titles.

In the meantime pc games started to look "a bit" better:

Well I stopped upgrading my computer about 7 years ago but thats sure not how it worked when I was upgrading constantly. Even today I have a friend who got a computer like 2 years ago and it can't run StarCraft 2, he's super pissed off. .

Plus you say a computer bought 2-5 years ago will still be able to play new games now. Yah at what quality? I bet a three year old computer that can play StarCraft II was A a really expensive computer and B today probubly doesn't run the game in optimum resolution or frame rate. I remember playing AOE: II on an old computer the thing barely ran at all, yes technically it was able to run it but it was horrible playing it. I had to upgrade so I could play it alright. Then AOM came out and my newer computer couldn't play it. Of course I lived at home and didn't have income and my mom wouldn't upgrade the computer again so I was out of luck. Till I bought another computer in like 2001 but that one stopped playing new games fast too, the computer tower broke down and needed repairs from over heating. The repair shop wanted like 200$ so I decided to go out and buy a new computer for University. More money I went to a custom PC shop and told them to really deck the thing out.

So are you saying in the last seven years that computer technology has slowed down so much so that a 3-5 year old machine can play StarCraft II and other new PC games without problems? Because I highly doubt that is the case. As my uncle at Microsoft says once the PC is on the market it is already obsolete. I also have an uncle at IBM constantly telling me about the latest stuff. it doesn't sound to me like you can play new games on older hardware?

At least with a console I know for five years it will play all the latest games at the same steady frame rate in the same resolution. Where as a computer owner has to pay for it, my computer I have now cost me 1,300$ and I had it custom made to run Adobe's programs like PhotoShop CS2 etc...etc... It won't play StarCraft II infact it won't run CS3 either. I don't have another grand to buy a new one. But for 300-500$ I can get a machine that plays everything and runs all the software for five years and in this gens case even longer.

1. Times have changed

2. If he bough it 2 years ago and it can't run starcraft 2 then he probably bought cheap shit in supermarket.

3. Even if it doesn't run optimally it's still at least a class ahead of "current" gen consoles.

Today if you are smart you can get 700-800 euro machine that will run games for next 2 years at very good settings (and more like 3-4  if you accept "lower" 1600x900 resolution) and still have life ahead itself with simple gpu upgrade for 100-200 euros.

I think that you are missing important point PC games don't get more demanding without reason - they get more demanding because they look better and better with each passing year.