| scorptile said: a decent gaming pc doesnt mean you spend 200 bucks every two years for a graphics card. u spend it once for the 512mb card once then you dont have to worry bout it for at least 6-8 years. in my computer i am on now the graphics card i had bought 8 years ago and it still plays amazing and i play wow and half life 2 granted i cant play bioshock but the processor i hvae cant do it now. my next pc i am getting will cost roughly 700-1000 dollars and will last me 5-6 years and i can enjoy better graphics then the ps3 and 360 which tech now has made them look outdated now. |
If I'm still using the same midrange PC I recently configured (Q6600 Quad 3GB/9600GT 1GB) in 5-6 years, something is seriously, seriously wrong.
If it's still usable for current games during the lifespan of the PS3 (another 5-6 years), I'll consider it one of the best bangs for the buck (even better than the PS3 at $600) considering it wasn't even purchased primarily for games.
2-3 years is a perfectly reasonable lifespan for a desktop PC given how cheap they are to build/configure or just buy preconfigured these days.
It seems unlikely one wouldn't experience some sort of critical component failure in a 5-6 year time frame, but if not, rest assured, I won't be complaining. Of course, I won't be using that PC by then anyway, so it's a moot point.
But as for today, as a long time console gamer since the time consoles were literally introduced (Odessey w/ Pong), a decent gaming rig unquestionably allows better display output than any 360 game will ever provide just due to the laws of thermodynamics given the CPU/GPU/memory differences. A quick play through Portal on the PC compared to Portal on the 360 made that pretty clear, at least in terms of resolution. All other visual aspects were the same though. And it played better with the controller since I've never liked playing with "WADS" and probably never will.
But when it came to Half Life 2 Coast with HDR effects, suddenly paying to play Orange Box on the 360 seemed pretty pointless other than being able to use the 360 controller. Visually, a major difference even just by taking advantage of the high output res and additional effects.
Since the PC plays on the same big screen as the 360/PS3/Wii, with wireless keyboard/mouse, about the only games I'll be buying for the 360 in the future will be 360 exclusives not ported down from PC.
As for the PS3, there is a current list of exclusives never to show up on PC in addition to the list of upcoming exclusives never to show up on PC as well. It doesn't matter if a gaming PC could output higher resolutions at higher framerates if the games are never made available for PC.
