GeneralEtrius

Join Date 04/2007

+62

PCs VS. Consoles

Advantages and Disadvantages

Well, there's always debates whether PC's or consoles are better. I've put together a comparison list, so you can decide for yourselves.

PC Advantages:

Can have better graphics than any current console. (PC's are the reason consoles exist)
Much more powerful. (Core i7 and 8 gigs of DDR3 RAM, anyone?)
Is the best at many game genres, like FPS, RTS, and of course, MMO.
Can do a lot more than just play games.
Customizable, and very upgradeable.
Has some great exclusive games.
Can mod games.
Online is mostly free.
Can be portable (laptops).
Mouse and keyboard controls are often superior to gamepads.
Easy for developers to patch games.
Digital distribution!
Games often have very deep gameplay and keep you occupied longer.

Console Advantages:

Very popular.
A LOT of games.
Have a lot of exclusive games of their own.
No worries about hardware requirements.
Cheap(er)
You aren't confined to your deak.
Party games! (Rock Band!)

PC Disadvantages:

Can be VERY expensive.
Technology gets outdated fairly quickly.
The big one: Piracy and DRM.
PC versions of most big games are almost always delayed, and often the PC version is poor quality.
Viruses and Spyware.
Can have hardware problems (Like melting your CPU from Overclocking to 4.0 GHz)

Console Disadvantages:

Hardware problems (Red Ring of Death)
Games cost more.
Game genres sometimes don't go well on consoles (RTS, for example).
You can't do as much stuff as you could on a PC.
A lot more crap games come out on consoles, such as the stuff on the Wii.
Online services can cost money (Xbox Live).
Can't upgrade the hardware. You have to wait several years for the next generation to come out.
Games are often short and sometimes forgettable.

I like PC, but that's my opinion. With all this info, which do you like better?

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Hey forum people: How come when you press enter it puts an extra space in between? The forum didn't use to do that. Having it double spaced make a forum post longer than it needs to be.

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Hey forum people: How come when you press enter it puts an extra space in between? The forum didn't use to do that.

I've seen it do that for...probably more than a year.
You can get it to only do a single space by hitting shift+enter, if that's what you're after.

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Quoting ,

quoting post

Much more powerful. (Core i7 and 8 gigs or DDR3 RAM, anyone?)

Ooh ME! Just built it too, and it is awesome! Plus an HD Radeon 4870 (soon to be 2)

But, I'm still a console gamer by heart. I couldn't decide between the systems if they made me choose. I own Wii, 360, DS and psp. All the systems have advantages and dis. PC's are still awesome too.

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Quoting GeneralEtrius,

reply 1

Hey forum people: How come when you press enter it puts an extra space in between? The forum didn't use to do that. Having it double spaced make a forum post longer than it needs to be.

hold shift and press enter. That is also how you DO go down a space in most instant messaging programs (rather than just send, which is if you press enter alone.)

alternatively you could go into the HTML and remove the <p> or move the </p>

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Definately PC for me. I don't own a console and don't plan to. But then I only play a few games, still I prefer to play on a PC.

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hold shift and press enter. That is also how you DO go down a space in most instant messaging programs (rather than just send, which is if you press enter alone.)

Thanks for the help. Using bullet points makes it more readable, though.

I have a low end i7, and I like it. It makes Windows think that there EIGHT cores going. Loads Vista really fast, too. The main thing that makes the i7 so fast is that all four cores are directly connected together. The Core 2 Quad and Core 2 Extreme were essentially Core 2 Duos hooked together.

Another console disadvantage is that a lot of garbage comes out on those systems (I'm looking at you, Nintendo Wii!)

List updated.

If any of you have any advantages/disadvantages that I didn't put up, put them in a reply and I will put them in the list.

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Both have their places. I play some games such as Ace Combat, Force Unleashed, and Halo 3. (Great when you don't get the annoying people.)

But when it comes right down to it, I'm a PC gamer.

PC Pro: Online is generally free. Console con: XBox Live has set up the trend of gouging gamer's eyes for payent, and nobody seems to mind. I wouldn't have XBox Live Gold if I didn't catch an Amazon sale for 13 months card at something like $15 and free shipping.

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The only reason I owned consoles was for party games, but my friends and I don't play them much these days.

I've been building PCs and playing games on them since 1993 or so. To this day, it's my favorite hobby. Thankfully, there are still some studios out there that understand what makes PC gaming great. (Looking at you, Stardock.) Despite being portrayed as graphics whores, PC gamers, I think, really appreciate the oldies but goodies. Lots of active communities for Fallout 1&2, T.A., SimCity 4 ... you name it. Hell, I can still find full servers for most FPS games of note from the last 10 years. That's another thing: the PC gaming community is awesome. A more mature playerbase (still plenty of newbs and llamas out there, don't get me wrong), modders, forum posters, etc. etc.

I do have to thank Nintendo for getting me into videogames in the first place with the lovely NES. (Hence the Bullet Bill avatar.)

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DarthCaedusMorgan

Join Date 12/2007

+12

Viruses and Spyware ain't a problem if you have decent software, I have the most recent free avg anti-virus edition and works well, and have a spyware blocker that was fee that came with the computer, and of course keeping you computer up to date on patches keeps them intact very well, I have never had virus problems in years.

Console disavatage if there is a glitch on the game, they can't patch, on a pc they patch glitches and other problems or give added bonuses to the game

also console can have hardware failues but are very rare, only when the console gets old die, my friends wii cd drive flaked out.

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Quoting DarthCaedusMorgan,

reply 9

Console disavatage if there is a glitch on the game, they can't patch, on a pc they patch glitches and other problems or give added bonuses to the game

im pretty sure they are able to patch games up on concsoles now because of the internet capabilites. a few games have alrdy had patches available for downloading. theyre even able to add features or improve on existing features in games through these downloadable contents.

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yeah they can patch console games now- but if you have no internet, you can't just burn it to a disk somewhere else. though DRM seems to try to stop you doing that, wich seems resonably fair.

but you can still get patches without the internet through magazines etc. for a lot of games.

i would be a pc gamer if it wasn't for halo. as thats the game i actually play most, but i tend to play pc games more than other xbox games.

also for pc it is more portable, without losing some of the variety (as hand held games consoles do) through laptops.

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Id add also:

Many PC game have somekind of toolset or editor where you can create mods and custom skins and stuff.

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PC, PC and PC !!!!!!

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Quoting ,

quoting post

PC versions of most big games are almost always delayed, and often the PC version is poor quality.

The PC port of GTA IV is an extreme example of this. The GTA fanbase has been protesting against Rockstar.

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I say like Yahtzee. The PCgaming master race against the poor consoleplaying peasants

I'd say that the biggest reason people play consoles is because they are lazy and/or not as intelligent or smart as PC gamers. F.e. I got a friend that's slightly retarded (he's childish, slow and say dumb things) and he got every console there is but he only got a laptop in the PC department. And the excuse he came up with when explaining why he wouldn't get a PC...."my girlfriend would break up with me" <-- I thought it was the time you spent on consoles, not how many you have.

I was a consolegamer until 1999 when I finally got my first PC (was 16 then). I had seen my classmates LANs where they played Red Alert, Quake and Duke Nukem 3D and had to admit that my Nintendo 64 and Playstation could not match PC games. PC games were also free (yeah I know) compared to consolegames which you had to pay alot for (add to this my stupid refusal to buy used games....).

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To me there are 2 reasons I like PC. First of all, PC mouse + keyboard combo is a far superior control method than the dual atari sticks and a few buttons they call a gamepad. MANY console ports to PC really show off the superiority of mouse and keyboard, especially shooting games. Often times the difficulty of the AI have to be turned up so the enemies dont get steamrolled. There is just more control and precision available from a mouse than from a joystick.

Second, consoles suffer from a stairstep effect. The hardware is essentially the same until the next gen is released, which after about a third of the way through their lives makes them obsolete. I would argue that "Technology gets outdated fairly quickly." belongs under the console section rather than PC. PC is more linear, since you can upgrade your PC one part at a time without having to wait for a completely new version or buy a completely new machine.

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Ryat

Join Date 06/2006

+429

Just to throw my two cents.

I am definetly a PC Gamer, hardcore. Once had someone brag to me that the playstation3 could play Blu-Ray. My response was that the PC could play both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. PC are the lamborgini(misspelled i know) and porsches of the gaming systems, always on the cutting edge. Consoles games are like mustangs and camaros, still hots cars but are always in the shadows of the upperend cars.

Of course not everyone can have a porsche, but most can get a camaro. Same with PC and consoles.

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DarthCaedusMorgan

Join Date 12/2007

+12

@alway,

I absolute agree with what you are saying.

@gkrit,

You are right that they can do that because of internet connection, however they don't, I have a wii with multiple games, ex: SSB, many glitches play concepts that needs to be fixed, but I have never seen patches, only patches for the console itself.

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Thanks for all these great ideas. I've added them to the list. Seems PCs are taking the lead in terms of advantages.

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kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

Why should one have to choose between the two? Having both is a perfectly valid option

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I own a PS3, a Wii, and my hand-built two-years-still-strong gaming rig.

With a few exceptions, PC games tend to be much deeper than console games. You don't see stuff like GalCiv2 on consoles. But consoles get a stronger lineup in terms of arcade-y action games (with the exception of FPS).

And then there's Rock Band, of course.

I find that if I have 20 minutes to drop a quick game, I'll boot up my PS3 or Wii. If I have an hour or two, definitely PC games of various flavors.

Two other HUGE bonuses to PC gaming:

1) the really old, classic games? They probably still work. Not too long ago, for example, Tribes2 was relaunched - free to download, free to play, free free free - as TribesNext. Who doesn't miss skiing, really now?

2) indie devs? They can actually get stuff launched on the PC. I don't just mean StarDock, I mean the guy (essentially the one guy) who made Mount&Blade, for example, or the guy (the one guy) who made the Out of the Park Baseball series...

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Quoting kryo,

reply 20

Why should one have to choose between the two? Having both is a perfectly valid option

Yeah, which one am I going to buy and which one are you going to buy for me mirite?

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Ryat

Join Date 06/2006

+429

Some of us are on tight budgets. Though consoles are cheaper they are not cheap in themselves . Which is why I am exclusively only PC.

Hey, if you are going to spend the money go for the best.[e digicons](\(\[/e]

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I just have a PC and a 360... though I wish I didn't have to pay for every little thing on live... I mean the 50$ a year is fine and renting movies is fine but paying for little pictures, themes and tiny expansions... no. But you can blame microsoft for that.... But hey I got Steam and Impulse which is GREAT!

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Why should one have to choose between the two? Having both is a perfectly valid option

Yes it is. I'm not making anyone choose between a PC or a console, I'm just showing the advantages and disadvantages of both. No forced choices here.

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