Section 5: Game Cost
PC: If digital games have done one thing, it’s brought prices down dramatically. With Steam leading the way, massive discounts are available for both new and old games, and the increasingly popular Humble Bundles allow you to pick up a range of brilliant (and generally recent) games for a few quid. Recent EA, THQ and Deep Silver bundles are perfect examples of this, giving gamers a boost to their game collection while contributing hundreds of thousands of pounds to charity. Free to play games are also making a massive impression on the PC, with quality free games such as Planetside 2 becoming hugely popular.
Console: I love the Steam sale, and the Humble Bundles, they can be staggeringly good value for money. But don’t discount Sony’s efforts with PS+. I have an absurd amount of games for less than £4 a month. That’s 4-6 titles, 2-3 of which are AAA, for less than a pound each, every month. Sony and MS have been berated for their digital pricing, buts both move toward digital distribution, they’re beginning to learn lessons about it, with sales and price drops happening constantly. Plus with pre-owned games no longer out of the question there’s still a lot of money to be saved there, another thing absent from PC.
Section 6: Hardware Cost
PC: While initial hardware costs can be high, if you’re careful with your setup you won’t need to upgrade for years, and even when you do it’ll just be a new graphics card to stay that step ahead of consoles. You won’t need a pricey monitor if you’ll be using your TV, so a full setup needn’t be much over the £600 mark.
Console: Initial hardware costs are spectacular if you want a gaming PC. Spend £350 (the price of a PS4) on a PC and it will play precisely none of the games you bought it for, you could spend that on a graphics card alone. If you didn’t you’d want to upgrade within 2 years, that’s three times sooner than a new console. To say that PC visuals are ahead of console is to say that a bang up to date high end PC is ahead. But how often do you want to upgrade? A 2006 PC is not ahead of Xbox 360 or PS3.
Section 7: Communities
PC: PC games are far more open to community involvement than console titles. Skyrim developed a massive community of hugely talented designers and programmers, all making mods for the main game which took an already huge game and made it even bigger, with amazing effect. Again, Steam are also leading the way with their Workshop Enabled games, allowing players to get involved and improve games in a huge number of ways.
Console: PC modding communities are strong and full of creativity, but they are totally inaccessible to the average gamer. Steam are making progress, but user generated content is making a huge impact in the console sphere, with Minecraft on 360, and Little Big Planet on PS3 (7 million levels and counting) leading the way. The difference is the games are designed specifically to facilitate creativity with no prior experience or skills necessary. This trend is set to grow, and it’s open and simple for everyone.
Section 8: Gaming Environment
PC: There’s a stereotypical view of PC gamers tucked away in a cupboard with a little monitor and crappy little speakers. But it’s no longer out of the question to build a small gaming PC which looks at home next to your TV and plays games in 1080p using your standard XBox or PS3 controller. Steam’s Big Picture is designed exactly for that, and doesn’t even need a keyboard or mouse to be plugged into the PC.
Console: Ok, Big Picture doesn’t work. I mean it does. But the games don’t. It’s a great idea. But not enough games support controllers, or if they do it’s only partial, so you can play the game but you need a mouse and keyboard to use the start menu, not a problem if you’re at your desk, but this is not conducive to sofa play at all. In fact it’s ridiculous. Also things like contextual buttons are still shown on screen as keys not pad buttons, so learning button mapping is counter-intuitive, and intuitive controls are the reason for a controller. Until developers are on board properly with it, sofa PC gaming is a bust.
So there we have it… two strong opinions, both equally valid but bot totally different. How do you see this? Do you think that PC gaming is the way to go, or are you happy with your console sat beneath your TV? Let us know in the comments, we’d love this to open up to you guys!
I prefer to game on console, i’m not very technical minded and like to keep things simple. So, console for me. 🙂
Consoles for me. Far too much hassle installing on PC, configuring, concerning about gpu drivers etc., unable to sell physical copies once installed, non-native controller support. I’ll live not having a super high resolution and framerate to play a good game that just works. Dark Souls being a good example.
I game on both PC and console, but far prefer console despite my PC being closer in spec to a PS4 than a PS3. As well as the exclusives (just this gen I can name the Killzones, Resistances, SOCOMs, Warhawk, Starhawk, Heavy Rain, Heavenly Sword, Motorstorm, Gran Turismo, Journey, Flower, The Last of Us, God of War and Dead Nation, and that’s just off the top of my head), the reduced hassle and ‘it all works together’ factor of console is what wins me over. It took me four hours of searching through forums and trying different fixes just to get Mass Effect to run on PC, and then had a couple of glitches during playthrough. ME2 and ME3 worked from the get-go on console, without one freeze or CTD (Crash to desktop) between them. Jade Empire, Victoria 2, The Witcher, all great games on PC, all cause numerous technical headaches. If SteamOS can get around this, well and good, but until this is sorted, PC gaming will be where I go to get the games I can’t play on PS3/PS4, rather than my first choice for gaming.
I prefer PC, modding games, higher resolutions, some amazing graphics and a lot of cheap games. I do have a PS3 for games like tales of xillia, tales of grace, uncharter, the last of us and other exclusives. But PC is my number one choice. I’ve never had driver issues or games not working and I have over 150 games. Plus controller works for all of the AAA games.
I’ve been torn over this debate quite a bit this go around. Previously I had the cash to (eventually) get a decent PC and both consoles, but this year my choice was either an upgrade to my PC or one console. Arguments on both sides are good, and although I agree with many parts of both, I’m leaning towards PS4 this year. It’s in my budget, and I think back on the titles I would have hated missing in the last cycle I think of Catherine, Uncharted, The Last of Us, and Heavy Rain.
In the past my main reason for playing PC was that I had a friend base there, but sadly many of them no longer game. On the up side, in another year I’ll probably have the money and find some great deals on PC upgrades, so it’s really a win-win. I mean, in the end shouldn’t it be about the games you like to play?
I’ve alwaysed prefered pc over console because of it’s control, graphics and res options, diverse options of gameplay and steam.
for me personally I play both PC and console gaming, but if some one want to just bother me I don’t care, but I am more confterable with a PC over a console because I grew-up around PC’s and things like that. so for me i am a PC persion