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SvennoJ on 11 October 2025
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Zkuq said:
SvennoJ said:

One more point is convenience. Console under the TV is still more practical (and more acceptable by a spouse ;) than a desktop. PC is still mostly geared on you sitting close enough to read all the small fonts. Sure you can boot straight into Steam big picture mode, but now and then you'll have to fiddle with Windows and other settings. 

I don't think there's any significant difference between the convenience level of my living room PC and the consoles there. It boots into Steam Big Picture mode by default, and Windows doesn't really force me to do anything outside Steam, aside from occasional setting checks at startup after some updates - no big deal. I also have some other game launchers/clients installed there, so I might have to switch to them from Steam from time to time, but that's my choice, and it's also no big deal. I don't think I've had to fiddle with Windows and stuff ever since setting up the whole thing.

A couple of gotchas though. I had to build the damn PC, and I hope I never have to build a Mini-ITX PC again! Not sure if I could have bought a pre-built small-form-factor PC, but I didn't, because it was hard enough to find a case that fit the spot I had available in my living room. Admittedly some other Mini-ITX case might have made building the PC easier, but I can't know for certain. Regardless, for small PCs, I'd recommend seeing if there's pre-built ones available unless you like tinkering. Another gotcha is that I originally skimped out on the SSD, and it was utterly unusable as an OS disk after initial good impressions. Shame on you, Kingston NV2! Anyway, if you're building a proper PC for modern games, that shouldn't really be an issue, because you shouldn't skimp out on the SSD. I got the issue because I wanted a gaming PC for my living room to play some of the less recent games I have, and I even used one of my old GPUs for that PC.

You're just proving my point about 'convenience' ;) Console will always be more plug 'n play than PC.

Yeah after you have it all build, set up and working, then it can be comparable. Although updates are still less intrusive on consoles, it's easier to manage installed games, plus everything is made / already set up for the supplied controller. 

But sure, if you stick to Steam you can get very close to the same experience. Steam does most (99%) stuff for you nowadays and most modern games configure themselves for your hardware and scale quite well.

Not all of course, for example my gaming laptop can not handle Stalker Heart of Chernobyl on its lowest settings, while it could run FS2020 on its highest settings (and beyond through config files). Input lag and wild frame pacing make Stalker unplayable. It's coming to PS5 soon, so I'll play it on that. FS2024 is coming to PS5 as well, with VR2 support next year. Much easier to wait for that than build a desktop to use PSVR2 on and configure PCVR settings for FS2024 based on what and where to fly.

Pat of the 'convenience' is also peace of mind. Or rather, with consoles you simply accept what you get. Besides adding an SSD, there's no fomo of maybe it will look / run better / be more fun with a better CPU/GPU, different settings, adding mods. The paradox of choice.