The PC as a Gaming Platform

Shad0WeN · Unread postby **Shad0WeN** » 27 Nov 2006, 15:00

the PC gaming section at Walmart is ignored by customers because:

A. - it sucks

B. - people shop at other stores like Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, Gamestop, or online for gaming related stuff rather than at Walmart

Also the notion that you have to spend $2000 for a great gaming computer is utter nonsense (unless you are talking about a laptop). You can easily put together a damn good gaming system for well under a $1000. In fact when I get to around to upgrading it's probably going to be around $600-700 or so. The problem with most of the computers you will see in stores is that they put cheap power supplies and low end video cards in them. You also end up paying for things that you don't really need or that are redundant. Do you really need stuff like new (cheap) speakers, or a mouse and keyboard, etc, every time you buy a new PC? These things add to the cost unnecessarily when most gamers are probably going to end up replacing them with something else anyway.
Edited on Mon, Nov 27 2006, 08:02 by Shad0WeN

DaemianLucifer · Unread postby **DaemianLucifer** » 27 Nov 2006, 15:11

LordErtz wrote:And to the person who said there will eventually be bugs and such in console games just like PC games...when was the last time there was a bugged game on a console. Maybe 5 ever in the history of good consoles? How many PC bugs have there been. I rest my case. Bugs won't go into console games because they are tested 100x as much as PC games by Microsoft and Sony. But to further prove my point I bought Halo when it came out for the computer and it literally crashed it and I had to send it back to Microsoft for a full refund and they even gave me a free Dungeon Siege (POS by the way) for my troubles. Never had a problem with Halo for the XBOX though

Oh please!How many bugs were there before patching became obligatory on PCs?How were the game tested them?Once patching becomes as custom on consoles,youll see loads of crap there too.

As for the price,since 2000 till now,you coulve changed 4 consoles if you wanted to play top notch games.I changed my computer just once in total(not counting the same monitor,speakers,and such),and can still play the newest games without a problem.

Shad0WeN · Unread postby **Shad0WeN** » 27 Nov 2006, 15:19

Not to rain on your parade or anything but those PC specs are not really all that up to date. That is not much better than what I am running, mostly due to the video card. The CPU is certainly a bit better than mine but my video card is definitely a step or two above. To be honest, the 8500 series was targeted as lower mid-range product at best and was never that powerful of a video card, so I suspect that that is not taking full advantage of your processor.

Shad0WeN · Unread postby **Shad0WeN** » 27 Nov 2006, 15:31

Also, the person who mentioned using an HDTV for consoles as a reasonable basis for comparison made an interesting point. Unless you have an HDTV you aren't really taking advantage of the newest consoles such as Xbox 360 and PS3 (Nintendo Wii is not HD), and HDTVs are expensive, although the prices have started to come down. Computer monitors and games on the other hand have already been "hi definition" for quite awhile, and it's not something you will have to pay extra for.

Caradoc · Unread postby **Caradoc** » 27 Nov 2006, 18:02

Consoles are good for realtime action games. Period. Alter egos wired into your neurological system by manual interface devices. PCs can access additional content -- mods, upgrades, web resources. The potential is far greater than the boxes. And of course PCs are good for more than games.

JessieLC · Unread postby **JessieLC** » 27 Nov 2006, 18:41

I agree Caradoc..........thats it in a nutshell............PC's are more universally useful now.............but in the future the settop box or modular computer will be running just about everything.........with a few mini-computer/remotes linking everything together...........we are not that far from what our predecessor writers from the 40's-60's were imagining in their SCiFi novels........anyone read any Heinlein lately?

Risks · Unread postby **Risks** » 27 Nov 2006, 18:44

Some people here have mentioned console games being tested more than pc games so there are never any bugs.

The reason console games tend to come out with fewer bugs due to quality assurance practices is because there is no medium for patches to reach the masses of console owners because the games for consoles are all run completely on a disc. Console games aren't loaded onto a harddrive anywhere.

With the newer systems offering big hard drives, I can imagine some things that will be happening in that arena that will start to change things, but in the meantime, the PC games are patchable because everyone has the ability to download the patches and the system can run the exe and update the files on the hard drive.

Do I agree with the lack of Q/A that PC devs put their products through? Hell no, but it's a matter of cost really. PC publishers can send out a game with bugs but people will still buy it and accept patches as they come. Console games must be send through the works because there is no saving the game once it is released. If it's trash, it'll stay trash and there's no way to fix it at all.

The bottom line is that there is a completely different risk factor and you're comparing apples to oranges. One side can clean up their mess, the other side currently cannot.

P.S. PC gaming isn't going anywhere. Historically speaking, the latest technology and newest game concepts are done first by the PC and imitated on consoles.

Plus the PC has a standard development platform (Windows). Having a standard platform to develop on means nobody has to completely re-think how they do things, vs. something like Xbox 360 and PS3 when they were released. You'd be amazed what that does for costs in a development department.

Demiurg · Unread postby **Demiurg** » 28 Nov 2006, 01:27

What DaemianLucifer has said. Also, Gothic 3 and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic "didn't get the publicity they deserved possibly because of the arrival of two major consoles."? Possibly they didn't deserve much publicity as they were major disappointments. I just think it is an odd comparison - two disappointing games compared to two major new consoles? A more fitting comparison would be the two consoles vs. Vista/Direct X 10 as the new PC game platform.
Edited on Mon, Nov 27 2006, 18:28 by Demiurg

asandir · Unread postby **asandir** » 28 Nov 2006, 01:39

good point there Demiurg

Also, the person who mentioned using an HDTV for consoles as a reasonable basis for comparison made an interesting point. Unless you have an HDTV you aren't really taking advantage of the newest consoles such as Xbox 360 and PS3 (Nintendo Wii is not HD), and HDTVs are expensive, although the prices have started to come down. Computer monitors and games on the other hand have already been "hi definition" for quite awhile, and it's not something you will have to pay extra for.

thank you, thank you *takes a bow*

CloudRiderX · Unread postby **CloudRiderX** » 28 Nov 2006, 13:18

PC's are by far better than consoles. While consoles might have great graphics and run-speeds and lower total costs, many games for consoles are crap.

Console games are often short, shallow, and once you beat them, that's it - you beat the game. Of course, its not always that way, but I've played way more crappy console games than crappy PC games in my experience, about three times more. Every computer game i am currently playing(Neverwinter Nights, HoMM, Dark Messiah, Disciples 2) has an amazing amount of replayability and a complex storyline.

I have two large stacks of PS2 and Gamecube games that I can play. I only play Star Wars Battlefront 2 for the PS2, and for the Gamecube I play Super Smash Bros. Melee, Zelda, Metroid, Soul Calibur, and Starfox. That's it. All the other games I bought are short, stupid, repetitive, and get boring after 20 minutes of play.

I also have a huge stack of computer games. I play about 90% of them total. Games that I bought for Windows 95 I am trying to reinstall and play because they were awesome(I found out how to run Dungeon Keeper on a Windows XP, woo hoo!).

Consoles also have bugs and glitches just like PCs, so the consoles aren't perfect. I went through four PS2s in three years because they were broken, wouldn't play any new games, or were locked in parental controls I never set. You *might* have to get a new computer after three years, but its not likely.

I don't mind playing console games, some of them are really nice, but computers have always been my favorite.

DaemianLucifer · Unread postby **DaemianLucifer** » 28 Nov 2006, 13:56

Also,lets not forget that you can emulate console games on your PC.

ThunderTitan · Unread postby **ThunderTitan** » 28 Nov 2006, 14:05

Bottom line: most hardcore gamers use PC's. Then they own consoles.

I'm reminded of all those talks about how next gen consoles will be better then PC's when they come out and how this time the advantage would last more then 6 month or somesuch crap. Well seeing how the tech is out there how did they ever figure it won't be applied to PCs?!

hein321 · Unread postby **hein321** » 28 Nov 2006, 22:02

ah i was wondering when this subject would eventually pop up.as long as pc's are being sold and games are made i will only buy that,i am gonna buy a geforce 8800 anyways never even had a thought of buying a console when i saw the "colorful" price tag on the 8800.all i can say about piracy is that as long as software is being produced piracy will continue,i was against piracy at first but now i feel different after i studied more carefully just how greedy microsoft's windows server and desktop licences exactly is.i support piracy against microsoft fully but games on the other hand is another story as it was previously mentioned pc-games are dying out it is becoming like a movie nowadays you only "test" it and then you never touch it again not like things used to be i mean i still play heroes III to this day.i "tested" hommV but due to factors like poor coding,bugs,improper changes like town portal and instant town gate which makes heroes of might and magic what it is,i have abandonded hommV alltogether because it will NEVER be as fast and smooth as homm3 is today no matter how ood you pc gets (i tested this myself) and thats all i got to say about that

ThunderTitan · Unread postby **ThunderTitan** » 05 Dec 2006, 17:21

In the future they'll all be replaced by phones: http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech ... ple-iphone

But before that consoles will turn into PC's that need TV's: http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech ... -4-by-2010

Told you so.

gravyluvr · Unread postby **gravyluvr** » 06 Dec 2006, 19:54

If I played games more often I might be able to go out and buy a console and just play that but I use my PC for other items that the consoles can't do that well... email, office apps, browsing, music, movies, remote desktop to fix client netrocks, chatting, etc. Their will always be games for the PC but if you are a game player you should get the consoles.

The target audience for gamers is under 21 - they may have a computer for homework and porn but gaming is their full time job - so the console is the best way to go. For those of us in the real world - games a are a diversion from our day-to-day. If you play games for more than 16 hours a week you should buy a console. Less? Why bother.

The modern pc is morphing in three ways (imo)

1 Handhelds - Cameras + Mobile Phone + Wireless Networking - Smaller Faster Cheaper Better (Smafachebe). Blackberry, BlueTooth, WiFi... the USB connections now make it easy to take part of your computing with you with IPODs, BB, Palms and Cell phones.

2. Laptops - the tweener - These should eventually replace desktops as the prices and technology get closer and closer. You can't whip a desktop out at Starbucks but you can grab a laptop. Again, USB connections are helping so that you can add keyboards, mice, flashdrives, etc.

3. Desktop PC/Server + TV + Tivo - Home Entertainment Systems. Now that we download music, movies, and live television, your desktop PC will resemble more of a VCR, DVD, Tivo, Stereo, TV mastermind. Once someone figures out how to make a truly great home server, that product should dominate.

ThunderTitan · Unread postby **ThunderTitan** » 06 Dec 2006, 21:00

gravyluvr wrote:If you play games for more than 16 hours a week you should buy a console. Less? Why bother.

Depends on the games you play atm. But if the PS3 is any indication consoles will turn into standard gaming PC's, and maybe some more complex games will come out for them, and come with a keyboard and mouse.

In the end the PC's market biggest weakness is it's strenght: the constant upgrade of hardware. Now if more ppl would start making less resource demanding games...

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