Ah the age old pc v console debate.
Right now i have a high end pc,games like farcry2,Fallout3 look far better than the console counterpart.
There is nothing like running these beautiful games at resolutions of 1920?1080 on a proper monitor with maxed out graphics and maxed out AA and FSAA.
No console can compete with that and even if they could very few people have TVs that can display that kind of resolution.
Im sure 2-3 years time there will be a console capable but by then the pc will have evolved even further.
I havent even mentioned the superior controls on the pc.
To sum up no console can compete with a high end pc.
BUT this all comes at a vastly bigger price,then you have to deal with drivers etc etc which to many many folk are huge turn offs.
I also am the proud owner of a 360 and subscriber to xbox live.
I love it,i bought some games for it that i already have on the pc,for example COD4 and Mass Effect.
I bought Mass Effect with the console last Christmas and bought COD4 more as an experiment to test out what online play was like on the 360 even though i already had the pc version.
It was more for a personal experiment and also my little lad could play his own version of Daddys game so to speak
XBOX live is so user friendly its untrue,its so easy to forms parties and go play games together.
There is no need to rent servers as it takes seconds to get into games with your mates on Live.
My biggest worry back then was the controls on the xbox compared to pc,im a long time pc gamer having being a pc gamer for years.
Yes it was awkward and strange playing COD4 online with a pad but i blame my background on the pc for that.
If i never played a pc fps id have had no problem.
After an hour i was feeling comfortable with the pad,nowhere near as accurate as the twitch aiming on the pc.
Strangely enough i actually enjoyed having more time to react when im face to face with an enemy player.
There was little instant death upon seeing the enemy player.
Dont get me wrong,i will always prefer pc gaming but the consoles have so much to offer and for a lot less hassle.
Im running my 360 on my pc monitor using a cable for this exact job.
The 360 games look a lot better on my pc gaming monitor than my 32" Panasonic Viera HD TV which supports 1080i BUT simply cannot compete with the high res textures of the pc as ive said.
This sort of topic inevitably almost always arises the question "is pc gaming dying?"
Well ive seen countless gamers leave pc gaming for consoles for the simple reason of less expense,no hassle getting the console to run,no compatability issues, the list goes on.
It seems a lot of pc gamers are willing to put deal with the less attractive graphics
[NOTE this is only an issue if your comparing to a high end PC]
They are willing to deal with the pad which i admit after a short time is very fun and a very accurate means of playing an fps,after all its an even playing field as everyone else is using a pad.
[yes i realise there are third party mouse thingys for the XBOX but trust me they do not work,the have issues where one second your sensitivity is fine the next its allover the place,these things DO NOT work]
Then we have the gamer that has never played pc games and really doesnt know what the potential ,he is going to go with a next gen console everytime and this is the key factor in this whole debate.
Then we have the guys like us,Longtime PC gamers who know the score with seting up your pc for games,we know the sheer joy of games looking better than any console [with the proper hardware]but we also know the expense and the software/hardware issues.
For me atleast id hate to lose out on gaming on my pc.
Its hard for us to let go,i dont want to let go and as long as there are games for pc ill be playing them.
A few months back we had the top man in iD software saying pc gaming is dead,its strange he was saying this after the pc Unreal Tournament community refused to buy the flop that was UT3 from iD software.
Well ive got news for him,right now for pc we have new games and games soon to be released like Fallout3,Far Cry2Dead Space,Left 4 Dead,Red Alert3,World of Warcraft expansion Wrath of the Lich King [11 million subscribers keenly awaiting its arrival],CODWaW.
Then we have the simulation crowd,flight sim addicts and racing sim addicts like myself,
Huge amount of software just released and soon to be released,we just dont see them listed on the normal gaming sites/magazines as they are specialized subjects.
www.iracing.com for example is a subscription based racing simulation thats used by professional race drivers.
You just dont get this sort of niche products on the consoles,you cannot play MMOs like WOW on consoles.
In my opinion PC gaming is far from dying,there are too many massive players out there with keen interests to see to it that pc gaming will never die,
Microsoft,Intel,Nvidia,ATi,Gigabyte, etc ,there are hundreds of huge companies manufacturing cpu,ram,hard drives,motherboards,drives,monitors,cases,fans, etc.
These guys as a whole will never let pc gaming die.
So yeah pc gaming is losing more users than the consoles are,the gulf is pretty huge at this stage but the world still has more than enough eager beaver pc gamers willing to put int the effort and expense to play games on their beloved platform.
Theres room for both pc and console gamers.
I for one recomend both formats to everyone,just make sure you never pick a ps3 above a 360 for a gaming machine.
The 360 has a much bigger catalogue of games,much better online support,a lot more players playing online,much easier to develop games for [just look at Fallout3, the ps3 version is at the bottom of the pile acording to comparison reviews ive read]
The PS3 is the far better choice if you want a blue ray player,i buy a console to play games however
Trust me, after a while using a pad with fps games on console is not as bad as you may think.
Having said that a good pc with mouse / keyboard wins everytime for me
Jaysus i didnt intend such a long post.
