Also, can your console play a game from a decade ago? Other than the few available downloadable titles, it's limited.

I'm not just talking console emulators like on the PSP either, I mean PC games from the past 20 years...even if it takes a little configuration sometimes for the super old games, for the most part you can play any PC game forever.

You can't stick an N64 cartridge into the Wii, but you can play the original Age of Empires no problem on a current PC.

Also, see all of Sqrl's arguments.

I say most of you guys are completely missing the point when it comes to PC gaming.

If you like to game and wouldn't mind playing some PC games, and plan on buying a PC for regular home use, it would only cost a little more to make it "gaming-ready," and by making it "gaming-ready" you also increase the PC's performance for everyday things like browsing, photo-editing, etc...so what's the problem?

Not to mention PC games get cheap very fast, so even if you spend a few hundred more on a PC, you'll save that much after a year of buying videogames.

Quick price comparisons of some games I own, assuming Amazon has normal pricing:

The Orange Box (360) - $59.99,
The Orange Box (PC) - $47.99 (I got mine for $45 plus Peggle and the TF2 beta 2 weeks before it came out)

Bioshock (360) - $56.99
Bioshock (PC) - $29.99 (I got it for $40 from Circuit City on day 1)

C&C3: Tiberium Wars (360) - $37.79
C&C3: Tiberium Wars (PC) - $29.99

And then just nearly every release on the PC is $50 at most, compared to $60 on 360 and PS3. I got COD4 for $50, I could get RSV2 for $50, Assassin's Creed for $50, etc...I know from the multiplatform new releases alone I have saved nearly $100 in the past half year or so compared to the same games on 360 or PS3.  That's $100 you threw down the drain for the sake of the cheap console.

Sqrl said: @Rainbird, I think you missed the point. I'm not advocating PC over console. I'm saying that people need a PC in todays world anyways. Since the cost of making your standard PC into a gaming rig is cheaper than the consoles it just makes sense to do it if you actually want to play PC games. At your points specifically, Crytek has stated they think they can run at High but they haven't stated what at what resolution. 1080p is ~2m pixels, 720p is only about 920k pixels. Thats a big difference in performance right there. The resolution I play on with a mixture of high and X-High settings is about 1.75M pixels. It really depends on what resolution they get high settings running on that determines how impressive a job they've done. On the point of outdated hardware, consoles become outdated just as fast (if not faster than PCs). This is definitely mitigated by software designed for the platform but the PC has the option of incremental upgrades where the console does not. On the subject of games, I won't argue which has the coolest games since it is subjective. But I will go back to my point that if you don't want to play the PC games then you shouldn't pay the extra cash. But if you do then you should..thats a simple concept that anyone should be able to grasp.

 I know that I "missed the point", but apparently you forgot to read the post I was responding to ;)

True, PC traditionally had the better games and with FPS,Strategy and space-sims my favorite genres. Mouse/Keyboard is also by far the best input schemes for the first two genres. On the other hand most great games are now PS3/360 ports. (Sometimes bad ports like Assassin's Creed) And if you get the console game you can play them wirelessly from the couch on your shiny LCD TV. Therefore when I had to upgrade my PC I bought a PS3 instead. I hope I can still play Starcraft2 on my PC but otherwise it was a good decision. PC gaming has many advantages (game prices, RTS, mouse ...) but now that grown-up PC game franchises like Bioware have mostly switched their main development platform to PS3/360 they are really good competition.

I have both a PS3 and a gaming PC and my PC is only used for games that don't come out on the console...
There's never a problem of a game not working or needing a new patch + I would say it's unfair to compare a PC monitor to a HD-TV.
Personally I rather sit on my couch and play on my 42inch 1080p with my wireless gamepad than sit at a desk with the screen 20 inch from my eyes. It just doesn't compare....

Sqrl said: @TheRealMafoo, Now you're just being obstinate. The original point was not that Shio's bro had to play it on the absolute minimum of minimums but that features were on the "Low" settings.  He was probably playing 1024x768 or 1280x960 etc..which at those resolutions the game still looks pretty damn good on both of those settings on my monitor, and considering how stretched that was on a 22" monitor that says a lot.

I didn't mean to be a jerk about it. he just said it got a lot of slowdown in places, so I assumed he went as low as posable to combat that. Al he said was on the lowest settings, so I didn't have much to go by.

Even if you play it at 1024x768, there is a lot of popup on low, and all the physics are gone. Building don't blow up, trees don't move. Black looks a lot better in motion then Crysis at that level.

Oh, and I played it in windowed mode, to make it at least look a little better. I have a 30 inch dell that does 2560x1600. It looked really bad stretched across that :p 

BenKenobi88 said: Also, can your console play a game from a decade ago? Other than the few available downloadable titles, it's limited.

Yes, I have thousands of PS1 and PS2 games to choose from. That's all the way back to 1995. And a library of over 9,500 games.

You talked about "tweaking your PC to get them to work". I just put the game in, and play it. Aside from games that take special controllers (like DDR or Guitar Hero), all of them just work. No tweaking needed.

Also, I can buy all the old great ones from my local GameStop for 7-12 dollars used. You have to go to ebay to get your used games for the PC I am guessing. Also, I can rent all the latest games from my local video store for 5 bucks a week. There is no place local that rents PC games.

The overall cost of games is cheeper IMO for consoles. 

Interesting piece - Tomshardware.com is doing a strict $500 build - includes case and 8800gs graphics card.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-graphic-game,1810.html

doesn't look too shabby actually!

P.S the funny thing is - Microsofts remote could be more a threat to consoles (Including their own) Than a benifit. You can run windows from a distance, which is what you want anyway.

I just bought a new PC, and it costed about 1100 euros for me.

Stats:

Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q6600 @2,40 GHz

3Gb RAM

Geforce 8600 GT

500GB HDD

Windows Vista



I also bought Gears of War just for comparing it to the 360 version. Graphics looked slightly better on High settings, but framerate was not so good anymore. When I turned it to medium, framerate was good but graphics were below the 360 version.

And I have also tried Crysis on my friends PC, graphics were nice but the game just blows. It's just one more average shooter, which is being killed by Halo3, Gears, Resistance, CoD4 and other better games.

So when you think about pricepoint and graphics, PS3 and 360 have very good value.

And no matter what or how expensive PC you buy, you still can't play GTA IV, MGS4, Gears of War 2, Final Fantasy, Gran Turismo, Forza Motorsport, Metroid Prime, Mario, Zelda, Resident Evil 5, Rock Band, Burnout games, Ninja Gaiden 2, Devil May Cry, Uncharted, SSBB and dozens of other great console exclusives. ;)

TheRealMafoo said: BenKenobi88 said: Also, can your console play a game from a decade ago? Other than the few available downloadable titles, it's limited. Yes, I have thousands of PS1 and PS2 games to choose from. That's all the way back to 1995. And a library of over 9,500 games. You talked about "tweaking your PC to get them to work". I just put the game in, and play it. Aside from games that take special controllers (like DDR or Guitar Hero), all of them just work. No tweaking needed. Also, I can buy all the old great ones from my local GameStop for 7-12 dollars used. You have to go to ebay to get your used games for the PC I am guessing. Also, I can rent all the latest games from my local video store for 5 bucks a week. There is no place local that rents PC games. The overall cost of games is cheeper IMO for consoles.

 The PS3 is somewhat limited with its backwards compatibility just like the PC, only I can tweak my PC to get them to work, if something's wrong with some PS2 game, you can't do jack.

And that's only the PS3, the 360 and Wii only go back one generation and the 360 is severely limited with that.