PC vs. Console

[hurleybird]

which do you prefer, why?

[peteyg]

PC.

1. Mouse+Keyboard is best for first person games.
2. Mods, patches, etc.
3. PCs have way more exclusive good games. Civ3 on Xbox? Not likely.
4. PCs have more genres available. Wargames, adventure games few and far between on consoles.
5. Can't play Vega Strike on consoles!

Though consoles are becoming more and more like $300 pcs. Which is good, I suppose.

[richard]

I like both, here's why...

Console (can only speak about PS2 here):

• simpler controllers, much more user-friendly
• games work out of the box
• games can tend to be much, much more polished (less time spent with platform-specific fiddling, I s'pose)
• can sit in front of Big TV with Big Stereo in Big Couch, without hassle of lugging PeeCee from desk and fiddling with cables
• can hand controller(s) around the room really easily

PeeCees:

• mouse / keyboard excels for twitch games like FPS
• mmm, patches and mods
• open source games
• more strategy / role-playing games
• can use PeeCee for other things

Specific hates:

Consoles:

• Someone needs to come up with a decent FPS controller to plug into those things
• I hate that there's only been one Ico, and it looks like there's not going to be another :(

PeeCees:

• driver incompatibilities
• continual hardware upgrades
• Windows is required

[pincushionman]

I personally prefer the PC for most games, but for playing games with friends the consoles win hands-down. And within that category, I'd say Nintendo has the best library of party games. I don't think there's any other game on the market that lets you get three of your best friends together and just beat the snot out of each other like Smash Bros.

-pincushionman

[Duality]

I would perfer PC games because some PC games could be customizable by adding new content into the game.

Unlike, the fans always add pre-created content made by a big corperation into another game which not makes the game fun.

[pontiac]

I agree with most of richards arguments.
Though i don't have a console anymore.
My old NES is somewhere in my cousins house and i only play it when i visit him.... the good old Mario Brothers + Snow Brothers... this driving music, the dialogs ... yeah

Though i still have my sharp-zaurus with linux on it (mind the integrated qwerty keyboard)
http://www.sharpusa.com/images/hpc_sl5500_pic1.jpg
By running various emularors i can play most of the portable console games (e.g gameboy...)
There are also a bunch of linux games that run on it , eg qt-nethack, freeciv,
astroids, CFcave, Kpacman, Brickout, crimson fields and more

Pontiac

[hurleybird]

I personally prefer the PC for most games, but for playing games with friends the consoles win hands-down. And within that category, I'd say Nintendo has the best library of party games. I don't think there's any other game on the market that lets you get three of your best friends together and just beat the snot out of each other than Smash Bros.

-pincushionman

LAN parties...

I've never found a console that can beat a 10 man face][ UT CTF match for fun.

[RFBurns]

PC.

Reasons are as follows:

1. PC is where the defining standards of many of the consoles came to being. Oh sure we had Atari and the like back in the hey day of the late 70's and 80's, but it was the PC that started the drive to faster hardware which opened the doors to these fine graphics and game engines we see on both the PC and consoles.

2. To me, the TV is for just that, watching TV or movies. Tho it is very nice to pipe the video from a console or PC into a 63 inch Grand Vega and be in awe at the sheer size of everything, at some point the better half or little ones are gonna want their TV back! (I hate having pots and pans or little toys thrown at me!)

3. Only recently has consoles had the ability for multiplayer via the net. And even tho some do now, they are limited. But in a way its a trade off, the console doesnt have to divert resources like a PC does, thus can focus on the game being played, while the PC has to have resources just for the OS to run. But the PC is versitle, I can not only play games, but I can watch DVD's, or burn DVD's, or make CD's, or play CD's, or websurf, or chat in forums like this one. Putting the PC and console on a scale of balance...the PC would tip that scale in the "things it can do" department.

4. A console clutters up the living room floor, gets kicked around, coke or coffee spilt on it, control cables tugged and pulled till they break. I am a technician and I see consoles every day at my shop, and the most common problem with them is either control cables broken or controllers mashed up, discs scrached and marred, or tons of dust inside them. Ive seen more dust and dirt inside a PS2 and X-Box than I have inside a PC. From a service point of view, a PC is more easily fixed than a game console. Chances are...the console might be unrepairable if the optical block dies out and they no longer carry that particular optical block. That ruins the entire console and becomes useless. On a PC, if the optical block dies on the CD or DVD drive, you simply replace the drive, not the entire PC, thus I can still do things and play games on the PC with a dead CD or DVD drive. Even a HD failure doesnt require replacing the entire PC unlike having to replace the entire PS2 or X-Box.

5. A PC can be beefed up...a game console cannot. The only way to beef up a game console is to buy the newest model beefed up by the factory. With a PC, you just waltz down to the PC store and get what you need, slap it in and your up and running. Try putting in a faster CPU or memory in a game console!

But I have no doubt that within a very short time..we will see these game consoles developed with abilities that the PC has, perhaps even ability to upgrade them or improve them like we can with a PC. However...I find it puzzling that X-Box is just like the other consoles. Once you buy it, you get what you get. You can add save game memory, maybe even find someone who can install one of those crazy chips to let the thing do tons of other stuff, but until these consoles have the ability to do more than just play a game or play a movie, I will stick with the PC for the games, and the TV and DVD player for watching movies.