Any gamers around here?

[Plu]

Maybe at launch. Give it three months :P

(And buy a cheap premade from a budget store. It's what I do. They're great. Got my current pc for $400 and it's been in use for almost 2 years now.)

[Hydra009]

The only way you can get the specs of a next gen console in a PC for the same price is if you shopped for the parts yourself built it with your own two hands, and that actually is a level of tech savvy I don't expect everyone to have as a baseline. And even then $500 is really pushing it. You can buy a dell for $500, but you'll be lucky if it can open Excel in under 30 seconds.

But if you play a lot of games (PC games tend to be cheaper), the price difference shrinks somewhat.

[Solitary]

:-D  I'm glad I have a son that made my water cooled gaming computer with a 22 inch monitor and sets everything up for me.  :P    Solitary

[Hydra009]

Btw, the perennial PC/console cost debate leads me to some odd places sometimes:

http://gangles.ca/2007/10/07/why-consol ... pc-gaming/

You can tell some stellar research went into that article.  

[Nonsensei]

That article reminds me of some stuff Plu pointed out about relaxing on the couch. As if you can't plug your computer into your TV with an HDMI cable and get a wireless mouse/keyboard/headset and just sink into the lazyboy.

[Plu]

That article reminds me of some stuff Plu pointed out about relaxing on the couch. As if you can't plug your computer into your TV with an HDMI cable and get a wireless mouse/keyboard/headset and just sink into the lazyboy.

You could do that. But how many do you know that actually do that?

I think the main problem isn't so much which of the devices is better, but rather rooted in human behaviour and expectations; things far harder to change and unfixable by updating hardware.

[Shiranu]

Meh, honestly I have just had far better social experiences on my 360 than my PC, even since my friends have started pc gaming as well.

-It is fun being able to sit down with friends at one console and play on one T.V. ... that goes back all the way to some of the old school arcade games. 4 player Super Smash Bros, Halo, Star Wars Battlefront... my childhood was basically filled with getting together with friends and playing console games together.
-The shooting may be less intense and precise, but you know what? I'm fine with that. I honestly prefer console shooters to pc shooters. It's not because I am bad at either one (I grew up dominating kids on Elite Force and Counter Strike and Team Fortress), it just honestly feels both more engaging and less "twitchy" on a console.
-I have a $400 computer, and it doesn't run nearly as well as my $300 xbox. Granted I didn't chose the PC so there may be better deals out there, but if you want a good PC with a good mouse, keyboard and monitor, you are looking at more like $1000+. My friend's is a $1600 gaming P.C. with a several hundred dollar mouse and I honestly feel very little difference between playing it and my 360.

-In the P.C.'s favour, I would never play a strategy or RPG on a console if I didn't have to. But the P.C. is much more fun for solo games than multiplayer games, and that is why I prefer consoles.

It's kinda like arguing that P.C.s are better than arcades; yes, they have the better specs. Yes, they have the better precision. But you know what? If someone asked me to play Super Mario on the P.C., I wouldn't do it. It's a different style of gameplay and it's a different culture associated with it.

Not everyone's end-goal is, "Can I run this game with the most beautiful graphics and the quickest reaction time". I personally prefer fun > graphics, and I have simply found that on the consoles I have far more fun than I do on P.C. (again, strat. games aside).

[ParaGoomba Slayer]

I bought a pre-built gaming PC on sale for $450. I then replaced the "meh" graphics card with a good $200 one.

I could have spent less money and probably got better components if I assembled it myself isntead of going pre-built, but it's still not a $1000+ affair unless you want to get Crysis going on max at +60 fps. Considering that PC's can do much more than play games, you're getting more for your money.

[Hydra009]

-It is fun being able to sit down with friends at one console and play on one T.V. ... that goes back all the way to some of the old school arcade games. 4 player Super Smash Bros, Halo, Star Wars Battlefront... my childhood was basically filled with getting together with friends and playing console games together.

My childhood was a mix of both SNES and DOS games.  But in all honesty, I'm more nostalgic for the latter than the former.  Red Alert, X-Com, and Mech Commander was my life.

-In the P.C.'s favour, I would never play a strategy or RPG on a console if I didn't have to. But the P.C. is much more fun for solo games than multiplayer games, and that is why I prefer consoles.

That's exactly why I went PC and stayed there.

It's kinda like arguing that P.C.s are better than arcades; yes, they have the better specs. Yes, they have the better precision. But you know what? If someone asked me to play Super Mario on the P.C., I wouldn't do it. It's a different style of gameplay and it's a different culture associated with it.

I don't get this.  I don't see games as dependent on their intended systems.  I have no problem whatsoever with porting any game.  In fact, I've played Super Mario on the PC and loved every minute of it.  Plus, you can quicksave/quickload!

Not everyone's end-goal is, "Can I run this game with the most beautiful graphics and the quickest reaction time". I personally prefer fun > graphics, and I have simply found that on the consoles I have far more fun than I do on P.C. (again, strat. games aside).

That's true, but I think what people really mean by that is that they want the game to run smoothly and be aesthetically pleasing and feel that they don't get that from the console version.

[frosty]

PickelledEggs I added you on LoL but you didn't accept my request.

As for the never ending PC vs console debate, I think it all comes down to self preference. Of course the PC has many more options and features available that consoles simply do not but I feel like more of a 'gamer' when I use the console instead of the PC. Perhaps it's because I grew up playing console games, or perhaps because the entire theme of a console is to play video games (with some side features) while a PC can do many more things. The PS3 has tried to bridge this gap, and it seems it is the only console to somewhat successfully combine the console tasks and miscellaneous tasks into a modern gaming console system.

[Hydra009]

Of course the PC has many more options and features available that consoles simply do not but I feel like more of a 'gamer' when I use the console instead of the PC.

That's another thing I don't get!

Being a gamer is not dependent on a specific system.  Gamers are console gamers, PC gamers, handheld gamers, arcade gamers, pen-and-paper gamers, wargamers, card gamers, board gamers, etc.  Being a gamer is no so much a fan of a particular medium as it is a zest for gaming itself.

http://www.tubechop.com/watch/1481957

[Plu]

-I have a $400 computer, and it doesn't run nearly as well as my $300 xbox. Granted I didn't chose the PC so there may be better deals out there, but if you want a good PC with a good mouse, keyboard and monitor, you are looking at more like $1000+. My friend's is a $1600 gaming P.C. with a several hundred dollar mouse and I honestly feel very little difference between playing it and my 360.

That's probably because the PC games you're playing that run reasonably but not great would not run on your xbox at all. Consoles are brutally underpowered, but because everyone knows the specs, all the games for them are designed with really low-powered machines in mind so you don't notice as much.

And because most games are ported from the console to the pc and then the graphics are brushed up, you don't notice it as much since it seems like the pc and the console run the exact same games only they're smoother on the console (and look slightly prettier on the pc, if you have a very expensive one)

But then if you look at some high-end PC only games you see things that completely blow consoles away and you realise just how much of a powerhouse your cheap pc really is, and how ported console games are just wasting its potential.

But it, again, feeds into the perception that consoles are somehow better at these games than pcs.

[Savior2006]

For me, console over PC is easy because you don't have to go through all this shit hoping that your specced out PC will manage to game right. For me, you really have to buy a gaming PC if you want to play PC games, especially now what we are heading into the eight generation of consoles. Anything else, you have to tone down the graphics until they look as bad, or even worse, than they do on console.  

That said, arguable the best community I've played with has been on the PC. In games like Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, Left 4 Dead. You really don't deal with a lot of COD kids playing the games. And even the kids who DO play on PC games like Left 4 Dead are easier to deal with than many of the jackoffs the devil saw fit to give a mic playing COD.

[Nonsensei]

Believe it or not I just played Freelancer for the very first time this morning.

What a game.

[Jason78]

Believe it or not I just played Freelancer for the very first time this morning.

See you in 6 months :D