PC vs Console

Well, I'm going to start things off with a bang. PC vs Console, that old nutshell that has fanboys from both ends staring down at each other, and which no-one is able to agree on an answer to. My personal opinion is that PCs are better for anyone into gaming, but for casual gamers only wanting to play one or two games, the console is a viable option.

The main reasons I think the PC is better:

- It runs things far better than a console, when the developers actually properly optimise it for the PC (*couch*unlike Skyrim*cough*). Higher frames per second, better graphical quality, better sound, faster disk read/write speeds, higher resolutions ect. Some of this will differ from rig to rig, but in general, the PC will have better graphics and a higher framerate than a console game, even when running on lowest settings. The exceptions to this are those PCs people are keeping from back at the turn of the century.

-Better controls. Whilst this is somewhat up to personal taste, and does differ for a couple of game genres (Racing and Button Mash Fighting Games), PC controls are far better than consoles. The mouse is easily far more accurate than thumbsticks, as was proven by that test (Microsoft?) did a while back that linked Xbox and PC together for an online match. The result was good Xbox users getting devastated by alright PC users. In addition, the keyboard is far better than having a good 14 or so buttons on a controller. There is a rediculously high limit to what you can have in the way of hotkeys. In RPGs especially this comes to the forefront. Console players are usually left with a radial menu of sorts that they open up and scroll through windows of their inventory to find an item, or through windows of their skill tree to pick a skill, or through a limited favourites wheel. Either way, openning even the favourites menu and scrolling through it is far less efficient than the PC approach. On the PC, players will have their favourite skills and items hotkeyed to the keys between 1 and 0 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0 on a keyboard, hence why between 1 and 0). A single press of a button will do what pressing and holding, scrolling and releasing will do on a console. In addition, whilst console players often have to open up the pause menu to open their inventory, level up screen, quest log, ect. it is all hotkeyed on a keyboard, usually with 'I', 'L' or 'U' usually and 'L' or 'J' usually respectively.

-Customizability. Consoles are stuck to basically the same hardware for however long it takes the console maker to update (This cycle has been 6 years so far, and will likely last longer), and when the new console comes out they have to buy the entire thing instead of just the parts that were upgraded that were significant. With a PC, you can upgrade any time you want, and any individual part you want. You don't have to buy a whole new PC when the latest GPU comes out. CPUs are sometimes different, and you may have to buy a new Motherboard to go with it, but not a new Chasis, RAM, GPU, CPU, CD/DVD-ROM Drive, PSU, Sound Card, and anything else that may come with it (Like Liquid cooling, which is optional)  all in one go, unless you really want to. Many mistake the constant hardware updates on PC to mean you HAVE TO update your PC every time something new comes out, and you HAVE TO get the best parts, but this is very wrong. You almost never have to update your PC these days, unless it is very old or you bought some really bad parts, as games are designed mostly for consoles, then ported to PCs, meaning that a console has to be able to run it, and any reasonable PC would therefore be able to run it too, albeit bad PCs have to run it on lowest settings (Which are better than console's only settings for various reasons also). There are a few exceptions to this: BF3 and PC exclusive games like RTS and 4X games, however they too have the foresight to develope the lowest settings for low end machines, and the highest for mid-range. A lot of people also go along the lines that they would have to have the best settings on a PC, or think that such things do not exist, and to that I say that 1: Settings do exist and make a profound difference on performance for low end machines, and 2: If you want to play on the best you can, play on a PC even if low end as its lowest settings are better than a console's default.

-PCs don't only play games. Consoles are largely limitted to playing games. Recent consoles have had a few extra featues - such as the PS3 being a blu-ray player. On my PC I can play games, browse the internet, watch movies, write documents, render and edit movies and any number of other things. An interesting thing that I will note when this is bought up however, is that half the people will argue that they prefer the simplicity, and half argue that consoles are starting to get the same extras as PCs. I find them somewhat mutually exclusive, as as the consoles get more features, those who prefer the simplicity are being left behind, whilst if the consoles don't advance because they agree with the simplicity side, the people who argue that consoles are improving their extra capabilities get it imposed that they will never reach PC potential. Both are reasonable arguments, but mutually exclusive. And if anyone thinks they aren't, then PCs aren't less simple than consoles. Reasoning: If the console is simpler because it doesn't have the same capabilities as the PC, then adding those capabilities to the console, will result in the PC and Console having equal 'simplicity levels'. If you don't feel that its just the capabilities that make it more simple, don't use the 'argument' in response to the topic of this point. Some people will see it from both perspective; some believing Consoles are simpler due to their lack of capabilities, some believing their not, but the PC does have more capabilities.

-Long term cost efficiency. If  you know what you are doing, a PC might cost $200 more than a console and run all games (Bar BF3, though if your really good including BF3) on max settings. This may seem like a significant extra investment, but dependant on how many games you are going to buy, its not. Note, I will be using new games as used games are somewhat more complex in their pricing. New games for consoles, at least in stores around here and in stores online, are $10 more expensive than PC games. As such, if over the life of your console you buy 20 games, you have equalled the cost it would take to build a good PC. If you buy more, the console is actually more expensive. To get the best price efficiency, you do have to know what you are doing when buying PC parts, and how to put one together, however both are very easy to learn. The first being just as difficult as learning how to buy a cost efficient car, and the second akin to putting together Lego, but with a couple of extra guidelines. (Note Lego; Not Legos. Legos is a brand of Pasta sauce around here, and Lego is the plastic play building blocks. That is one thing I get somewhat annoyed at).

-All the peripherals. With PC, you get great gaming mouses, gaming keyboards, Surround sound systems, headphones, Monitors, TVs, Joysticks, console controllers, USB missile turrets and a lot of other things. Whilst consoles do get some of these, there is not the same variety as on a PC for most of them, and they don't get everything PCs get either.


There are of course, some counter arguments that are bought up, but I believe I have covered most of them in my various points. The main reason I see to get a console is that all of your friends for some reason have and play on them, to which I'd advise upgrading your PC instead of buying the next console. If there are any that people think of, feel free to post them and I will do my best to argue against them.

As with many things however, this is largely a personal preference thing. People will prefer consoles over PCs and some will prefer PCs over consoles. However, everything taken into account, PCs ARE better than consoles on a raw comparisson, just not better for some individuals than a console.

And now I'm off to find something big to follow this up...