To PC or Not To PC
I seem to be at cross-roads… looking left… looking right. Not sure, which way to go. Caught between change or sticking to what I really know and feel comfortable with. It’s a question that most of us gamers have faced at some point, deciding our chosen platform. I am wondering if I should stick with consoles or swap… to PC gaming?
It’s a debate that has been bantered around ever since the 8bit days, with the emergence of the NES and Master System. As you may know I have used most system, yet have always settled for console gaming. Two reasons stand out for this decision; cost being the primary one, and on my side a little laziness! I like to go into stores, look around at the games on offer and pick one. I know that as long as it says Xbox 360 on the box, unless the disk has been scratched it will work as soon as I get in. With PC gaming its a little different, having to check the system specification first, making sure it will run nicely on my invisible rig! Sounds petty I know… it’s just one of my little quirks!
Cost is another factor, with a decent PC rig costing anything from £800 upwards. There are cheaper alternatives out there but how future proof are they? How long before I need to upgrade the graphics card, add more RAM just to play the latest Battlefield? These are the questions that made me choose to stick with this console generation. Obviously in a perfect world I’d have them all, but in this economic climate it really isn’t a viable option… for me anyway.
So why am I now pondering this question, once more? Why am I wondering whether to ditch the consoles for a PC? I’ve seen a lot of changes in my time and for me the PC platform is becoming more and more a tangible proposition, especially for the next gen. Several things have changed over the last few years, and certainly in the past six months I have found it even more difficult to dismiss the platform like I have done in the past. So what has changed? Why do I think that the PC is soon going to be the perfect choice?
Let’s start with the choice; certain genres really don’t seem to translate well to the console. MMOs and RTS games, just to begin with, work really well on the PC. Yet when you look at the offerings on the console there are only a few that really worked. Then let’s take a look at the Indie scene – indie games on the PC are offering a lot more variety and originality over the AAA titles, which at the moment tend to be sequel after sequel. With hardly any original ideas or IPs being developed, the indie scene certainly has a more attractive pull at present. All is not lost on consoles though – for instance Journey on the PS3 was just simply amazing, and one of the best games I’ve ever had the pleasure to play. Also Minecraft is now on the 360, allowing us console gamers to create our own worlds. However when you compare the console version to the PC… so much is missing. It’s a cut down version at best; still addictive and great to play, but missing that little shine that the PC version has.
As stated earlier price has always been my main issue with PC gaming; the initial outlay can set you back quite a bit. However the PC is future proof! Moving with the times as it happens, no restrictions for developers as long as you keep updating your PC regularly. With consoles it’s a case of ‘this is the hardware, this can be achieved now what are you going to do with it?’ Anyone seen Battlefield 3 running on the PC next to the 360? I hate to say it but it’s when you see something like that the penny drops as to how old the 360 really is.
Don’t get me wrong the 360 version still looks beautiful, yet the PC version offers so much more with better lighting and textures throughout. Also the actual price of the games between the different formats is just silly! Battlefield 3 when released, like other console games, retailed for around £39.99. If you shopped around you could indeed get a much better deal, but the PC version (the most expensive I ever saw it on a retail shelf) was £29.99. Now I know £10 doesn’t sound a lot but that’s the general rule of thumb on pricing. So mathematicians… let’s add this up. The general life of the consoles is around 10 years; would you say that’s a fair life cycle? Ok, so let’s go with buying a game every month, with this price difference. That’s an extra £1,200 we’ve spent on games over that ten year period. That’s the price for one hell of a gaming rig… wouldn’t you say?
Then we have the extra £40 a year to enjoy the features of Xbox Live Gold. Features such as cross-game chat, parties, Netflix and Love Film. On the PC you can use all of these features for free!
So you see folks I’m really beginning to think the next generation for me will be the PC, unless something rather beautiful is unveiled by the big three…. something that blows my mind! But what do you all think, are the consoles the logical choice still, or is the PC going places the consoles just can’t touch? Let me know… to PC or not to PC?
As a PC Gamer most of my life and an owner of most consoles, I can see it from both sides. Thank you for not bringing up controls – it’s a boring argument.
You can actually build a PC capable of playing virtually all games for around £500 minus monitor, and if you aren’t going to be playing the very latest FPS games, you can probably get that down even further. My girlfriends PC, capable of running Mass Effect 3 at full settings and playing Battlefield 3 on medium, came in at around £450 minus monitor.
As for future proofing, it’s a bit of a myth these days. It’s working out cheaper to buy low-mid range components every few years than it is to buy something expensive that you hope isn’t going to be obsolete in 3 years time. Ram, CPU, Motherboards, Sound Cards.. pretty much everything but graphic cards rarely need upgrading more than 2-3 years anyway.
I haven’t really upgrading my PC in 3 years, and the ONLY game to tax it is Battlefield 3, which funnily enough is the only game in recent years that has had the PC as the lead platform. All time console ports are dominant and this generation of consoles is still around, running a PC is very cheap.
As for the price of games though, console isn’t as far out as you might think. You’re missing out one critical difference; you can trade in console games, you can’t really trade in PC games at the same level. That can take the price of console game down a fair amount.
You also miss out the number one reason for being a PC gamer IMO: Modding. If you think the 360 Minecraft is a pale comparison to the PC version, you should check out what the Minecraft modding community have been up to. From Minecraft to Skyrim to Left 4 Dead to Mount and Blade there are some excellent mods that can take a game in a totally different direction.
With games like Eve Online, Guild Wars 2, the Total War and Age of Empires series, the various Civilization games… PC all the way!
Consoles have their place, I wouldn’t play a shooter on anything else, but the kind of games I like are done best on PC, and without being held to ransom by Microsoft or anybody else who thinks I should pay a monthly subscription before I’ve even bought a game.
Im at a similar crossroads myself. I feel like im missing out being a console gamer, mods are a big pull for me, I’m incredibly sad that I cant play the likes of Day Z or the Cod 4 Star Wars mod. Watching BF3 videos kind of drives it home for me aswell. 64 players, higher quality, the difference is vast. Im seriously starting to look at PC gaming as a near future investment. The technobabble overwhelms me I must admit, But Im sure its just because Ive never had to deal with anything like that and I could easily learn, at least I hope I could!
My current PC set me back £400, not including the monitors. I’ve had it for 2 years, and only now am I thinking that it might be time to upgrade the graphics card to something a little more modern.
Even then, I’m only thinking that because very certain games have trouble running on it at maximum graphical potential (Skyrim doesn’t want to load that many trees), but I can run them fine on a medium graphics setting.
If you do make the decision to invest in a PC, then just remember where the hidden costs are: Monitor(s)/Mice/Keyboards tend to set you back a bit if you don’t know what you really need, and the actual chassis itself can be easily way overpriced for what it does. Then again, if you know where to look then you can buy chassis/CPU packages that will save you a bit of money, and net you two of the essential components you’ll require. If you’re willing to build it yourself, then you can save yourself even more money; especially since you can shop around to find the parts you need at a better price.
My PC is currently 5 years old and can just about play new releases on medium settings. It was £700 + monitor and junk. You get stability with a console but I quite like shopping around and researching what mice etc would work best for me.
The best thing about most indie games is that they don’t take much to power. They can be played by rubbish PCs most of the time.
That and Mods. DayZ is worth it on it’s own and the Skyrim mods are lots of fun. The ones that make the menu system work and look better are great.
Great thoughts guys, I have to admit I did miss the mods, I used to mod Battlefield 1943 all the time. Just checked out some of the Skyrim Mods….OMG they are sooo amazing. Defenitely getting used to the idea of a PC now.
Thanks for all your input :-)
I agree. There have been a handful of really good games over the last year, mostly downloadable titles IMO but mostly I’m getting a little bored of the console titles and would like to look into PC gaming too. My current set up will probably run indie games OK but I’d like to get a system built to play some of the more advanced games (mostly the Day Z mod), if anyone can advise what parts I should be looking for it would be fantastic.