Why do people play games on computers?

Isn't it less expensive to buy a good computer and also buy a Playstation or XBox that can be hooked up to an HD television instead of buying a gaming computer system?

How do graphics on an Xbox or Playstation compare to a high end gaming computer?

 

fps games and mmos are really not as competitive or good on a console, which forces lovers of these genres to buy a pc if they want to get the maximum enjoyment from the games. PS3 and 360 do not have dx11 either which definitely makes pc gaming much better for eye candy. And the one thing that made me make a gaming pc over buying a ps3, would have to be that pc games are usually $10 cheaper making the savings add up to cover the costs of the pc.

 

Graphics on computers are much better \
As a rough comparison, we've GPUs that close in and exceed 1 terraflop, compared to the 200Gflop of the PS2 (or PS3, I'm not too sure)

 

One word: Freedom!

 

1: games are cheaper

2: graphics are normally better ( some to a MASSIVE extent over current gen consoles )

3: playing many RTS and FPS games without a keyboard and mouse is a great way to LOSE. RTS games just plain are terrible with a console controller.

4: if we play on a desktop we can upgrade easily and cheaply vs buying a new console.

5: we can use the computer for more than gaming. consoles just figured out that LAN and online play is great. PC gamers have beein doing this for 2 decades.

6: ever tried hooking a ps3 or 360 up to 3 large monitors or TV's for real surround viewing? not gonna happen for awhile.

7: we dont usually need to complain we cant play really old games without having other consoles around. its easy for us to drop in something like Myth and get a few hundred hours of game play from a 15 year old game.

8: normally more extra content, mods, maps and goodies. Look at the cry engine and all the games fans have made ontop of it.

9: crapload more games, no not all are that good but its easy to find a few thousand good ones online for free.

10: lots of PC games have better replay value.

theres my top 10 list

 

PS3 Faster Than XBox360?


But yes games look better on a PC.

 

It's costy to play on-line games. I would refer to buy an Xbox 360.

 

nah lots of us old timers still haul our gear to a building and have LAN parties too where when we frag someone we actually SEE them jump. and if you look closely online play for PSN or Live is actually more than many of the PC game servers.

and you can spend as much or as little as you want on online games, it just depends on what you WANT to play. for our family of 5 we dont pay for any online gaming except for the ISP charges.

 

EXACTLY what he said.

/thread

 

Because I want to play Starcraft 2

 

I would say this

 

:O
I thought the RSX (GPU) was @ 24FLOPS/pipe/Cycle, which, @24 pipes @550MHz, is round about 320GFLOPS. [ Citation Needed]

That would make sense, as that's roundabout the 7800 GTX, and the GPU is similar to the 7800 GT (so the RSX is like a pimped up 7800).

I wouldn't know, though. From what I heard, all these numbers are made up, as Sony and nVidia have been sketchy about the details.

 

Pfft...games. What a waste of time.

 

It also says 1.8Tflops here:
PLAYSTATION 3 (PS3) Specifications and Details

I don't know, even if it is 1.8Tflops it doesn't matter since it can be beat with a GPU that has 500Gflops.

 

I guess I wasn't subtle enough?

 

The freedom part is one of the best things. Freedom in parts and peripheral customization. Also controls for FPSs and RTSs are natural for the mouse and keyboard.

Actually make that 2 TFLOPS for the Radeon 5870. Though FLOPS are subjective as their are different tests, and of course certain processors are better than others for specific tasks from an architectural point of view.

I look at computers as being tools as well as gaming machines. Generally, a good home computer (for our time period) can be upgraded for well under the cost of a console, and would kick that console's collective in gaming capabilities and still be useful for non-gaming purposes. Consoles are purely limited to certain forms of entertainment, with very little practical usage. Taking laptops into account, they the potential power that would still beat the crap out of a console, and are portable to boot. A decent gaming machine for todays games can be had for under $500 with proper budgeting and persistence. *Edit* Make that $450 (just did it on newegg with Athlon II x2, 2 GB DDR3, Radeon 5670 512 GDDR5, Win7 64. You could go Athlon II x4, 4 GB DDR3, Radeon 5750 1 GB, Win7 64 for $550 )

 

I personally have a PS3 and a wii yet i prefer playing on a laptop

 

I dont think this is a perfectly fair argument to go about saying "why game on pc when a console is cheaper" because lets face it almost nobody goes to buy a computer only for gaming they have a computer to do word processing, internet, email, facebook, research, google, photshop, etc...

Meaning you already have a computer or will be getting a computer, your not choosing a computer or a console, you are choosing to have a better computer that can play games or get a console in the situation your presenting.

If your going to have a computer anyways, your not looking at the cost of a gaming computer compared to the cost of a gaming console. Your only now looking at the difference in cost between a gaming capable computer and a normal computer compared to the console.

Considering you can get a ATI 4870 for $100 and that would make a computer very gaming capable (max out all current games for the most part) the cost of upgrading your regular computer to a "gaming" computer is probably cheaper than a new age console like the 360 or PS3.


HDTV? Your PC can easily hook up to the HDTV if you would like, you can even use the HDTV as your monitor, the console has no advantage there.


Infact the console has no real advantage at all other than its simplicity.

The PC has more options, usually games have user created mods to extend the life of the games and more configuration options. The games generally cost less, accessorizes generally cost less.

You get to have an all in one package, just that one PC and not 3 consoles taking up half your room with the spiders web of cabling. And your accessorys dont become outdated with each new generation of console.

I have had almost every system since the Atari and what a nightmare trying to hold onto the old stuff and still play it. At one point I had 2 toggle boxes and 3 power bars so that I could have my sega, nintendo, super nintendo, sega cd, dreamcast, saturn, playstaiton, and playstation 2 all hooked up at once to be played.

None of the cables are compatible with one another, none of the games compatible with one another, none of the things like controllers, every time a new console comes out all your old stuff turns to dust.

With PC you can still play your old games, you can still use your old controllers. Things like this easily make it worth the investment that is PC gaming rather than giving into the simplicity that is console gaming.

The main reason I would go console was for price and that was about 2 generations ago. A SNES or something was not too expensive nor a N64 but today's consoles like a 360 or a PS3 are just outrageously priced. I built a HTPC for under $300 that can play any modern game on high settings, thats less than a PS3 cost and it comes with all the advantages that PC has over a console and its upgradable!

A good PC can last you a long time with the idea of upgrading, when the PS4 rolls around what is your $300 PS3 to become? You have to spend the $400 for the new system, you cant just spend $200 to upgrade and still keep all your old stuff.


I can go on and on all day with real life reasons and examples why PC gaming is better and more desirable than console gaming. Console gaming has its place for sure, but for those of us that know computers we have little reason to be a part of that crowd unless there are some games on the consoles that we want to play that are not on the PC and we have the funds to have both.


Looking back on things now. All my money spent on old consoles. All those consoles are gone now, lost a cord I need, dont have a place to put the console, lost the games, something happened and now its gone. However all the games I have for PC are still there, I was able to digitally back them up and just keep them on a HDD and I can play all my old games on my new computer.

The old consoles are now worthless, I can emulate 99% of them on my PC anyways, the old PC's however are not worthles they still hold duty as servers, or work machines, or for use by the kids.

Computers are a good investment, they are worth the money you spend on them.

I think its just like renting an apartment v.s. buying a house. Renting is both cheaper and easier but by far the house is a better investment.

The console is like the apartment and the pc is like the house. Not everybody is up for the challenge of buying a house but for everybody that does it pays off for them in the long run when they get the return on there investment while the apartment people are just throwing there money away for a temporary keepsake.

 

You are all obviously missing the fact that consoles get more attention from game producers and get the majority of the best games that dont ever come out on the PC. Name all the huge PC games that arent on console, now name all the huge console games that arent on PC. Enough said. Like someone stated earlier when it comes to gaming the real advantage pc has over console is KB and Mouse for RTS, MMO, and shooters. Not to mention if you have a couple buddies over are they going to watch you play your PC game by yourself? How many split screen games are for the PC? They both have their advantages and disadvantages, but when it comes to straight gaming the console still has the upper hand even though the tech in the current systems is 5 years old, game producers design the game around the console hardware not 100 differently configured PCs allowing them to take full advantage of its power. Granted if a game producer designed a game specifically for a 4ghz i7 with dual 5870s completely optimized it would blow any console game out of the water graphically, but that wont ever happen.

 

Gah, stuff all the 'Best Games' we have Gmod, enough said

 

lol...two things:

When my buddies come over, they bring their PCs, and WE DONT NEED SPLIT SCREEN! we each have our own.

Disagree. Not to mention you seem to have never heard of an abstraction layer. I'll spell it out for you: A designer designs games for directX, MS's graphics API. The API does the work of running the game on any different hardware it supports. And BTW, The 360 works the same way. Anytime somebody designs a 360 game, they are designing a PC game. You're pretty damn ignorant dude. Oh, and that crazy spec'd game does exist...actually there's about 10 of them...(Crysis, Metro 2033, come to mind, they would fry a console). Your never going to win this argument. PC's will ALWAYS be better for gaming as long as people are making games for them.

 

I am very glad for consoles because I can emulate most of them on my laptop at full speed. I should sell my consoles since I haven't used them since my gaming laptop arrived but I just haven't got around to it.

To summarise, PC gaming is freedom, Console gaming is like being supervised and told what you can and cannot do.

 

another console VS PC thread... just what we need

 

Because i like good games... Enjoy your stupid Hack and Slash linear games...

 

I guess I should have done a search.

My bad.

 

So your buddies carry around their laptops/desktops whenever they leave the house....really. Or do all of your kids and wife all have gaming computers so you can all play an FPS, MMO, RTS games together....

And both of the games you mentioned frying a console are both on consoles, so I dont know where you were going with that. Secondly I understand theres a graphics API that games are designed for on any system. You cant sit there and say that if you build a desktop with similar hardware thats in a 360 you will get similar performance/visuals with the same game, it wont happen. Also when a game is designed for a 360/ps3 its designed to take full advantage of the hardware period FULL ADVANTAGE OF ALL THE FEATURES OF THE HARDWARE (1 specific set of hardware, unlike a computer) through its graphics API. BTW keep your childish remarks to your self.

 

It's just a matter of preference. Some games are better on one platform and some are better on the other.

As someone stated, Starcraft is an easy example: it flopped on N64 for a reason.

Nowadays both platforms want to emulate the other where you see PCs with joysticks and consoles with keyboards/mouses but IMO, it'll never really be the exact same thing.

 

Lol, they're not even close to the same games. The graphics are scaled back MASSIVELY. And yes, when I call my buddies over to LAN, they bring their notebooks...

 

FFXIV is my main reason. Hell I'm not waiting 6 months for a poorer looking/performing PS3 port.

Also ever hear of a series called Battlefield? NO not the Bad company crap that console gaming has conjured up! I'm talking about BF2 and 2142... Those were thet games of the centuary.

 

Most of us probably also have a console collecting dust, only to be used when stupid friends who does not play PC, visit. (Atleast me).

 

most games whether PC or console port over - big franchise games are cross platform. in fact, consoles only titles don't debut as big anymore - the series with the biggest names that are console only are Nintendo games it seems (Mario, Legend of Zelda [my favorite], etc), which are all great games, though, PC has game franchises of equivalent popularity.

MMO's are becoming increasingly more popular since WoW mainstreamed the content, and many developers are looking to dabble in this niche market in gaming. when you define huge, how huge do you mean? do you mean over $1 billion a year in revenue, do you mean the average number of people playing, do you mean how many have bought the game, because PC has record sales as well. one single game can easily counter any popularity argument you have.

the misconception that consoles get more attention is a bogus lie from PC developers threatening PC games because of the developers anger due to piracy. the most popular game in the entire planet is a PC game, and it has perhaps more than 6 times the amount of active players of any console game. and the game is also free.

 

Farmville? =)

I have a PS3, I use it to play PS3 exclusives that interest me. Infamous, GoW 3, MGS, etc. I am a new PC convert, but I like a key board and mouse MUCH more, it is just... better. I have nothing against consoles, I've owned my fair share, but PC gaming is much more fun for me. This argument is age old, it won't be decided here on NBR, we are just fanning flames. This is a matter of taste, and you can't force opinions on other people. Let it rest guys =)

 

Honestly, I have a wii and xbox 360, I have to say that most console exclusive games are absolutely crap. There is only a few of them that is even good, and after playing those few of them, my wii and xbox 360 is basically collecting dust in the corner, and since dolphin, there's little need for my wii anymore.

 

Personally I'm just terrible with console controllers. And to me those controllers were more meant for arcade games which I don't play. Even with games like Batman Arkham, I prefer keyboard mouse.

I have nothing really again consoles, but when I was gaming the most, the PS2 and Xbox were nothing compared to PC. Nevermind Gamecube etc. So after so many years of gaming on PC, I simply have no desire for consoles.

And I game when I'm alone and have nothing to do. If friends are over, then I don't game, we go do something away from TV/PC. If we want to game, we can just play online with ventrilo. I see no reason why they need to be sitting next to me on a couch. And again, if they are over, rather be outside doing something than gaming.

 

There's always the time factor; you have to find time to sit down and play a console, and what if you're out and about? If you have a laptop with games installed, all you need is a mouse (and maybe a power adapter), and who doesn't always carry that around anyway?

If there is one thing I still like that would be Nintendo's multiplayer games; get 4 friends in a room and throw in just about any game with 2+ players and you can waste a whole day away, and beat up your friends in the process

 

=/ only HDTV in house is downstairs.... and other family uses it. i like my room where i can game in my bed, watch a film check out some web comics etc. dont get me wrong i like my ps3, but currently it's sitting in a box downstairs while if i'm going to stay anywhere for 2-3 days im gonna bring my laptop.

P.S. Jukens is trolling HARD

 

MCP

Computers made the Consoles.

End of line...

 

why do people play games on phones?

 

beats the crap out of me, if i want to waste time on the go I have a book reader.

 

Also, xbox/ps3 doesnt have fast access to other things...say the internet?

You can download a movie while playing games?

xbox you have to pay for a shirt for ur little retard guy to wear?

not many kids are as good at pc as console?

So you can kick their butt and watch them cry.

 

good point I never thought of the dumbed down UI until my 13 year old pointed it out. take away the auto aim bit and the close is good enough aspects of a console port and force them to use a precision mouse where close only counts in horse shoes and hand grenades. The average never used a PC player gets slaughtered. think an RTS where we can use hotkeys and mice to build and allocate resources 20 times as fast. or FPS where we can actually track extremly fast with mice vs the much slower pace of aiming on a console. there was an article somewhere awhile back where MS was going to have us PC players on LIVE and could play against our console breatheren but it was canceled due to rumors that even the most novice PC player with the KB and mouse was destroying the hard core console gamers.....

Let me look that article up if I can.

edit: here we go

 

My pc doesn't red ring after just a few months of use and I don't have to listen to 12 year olds every day. That my friend, is why a pc is better

 

lol exactly...

I just think they should do cross platform, but have gamers choose between a controller or kb/mouse.

it needs to happen, bc obviously if kb/mouse is beating controllers, controllers shouldnt even be used for online gaming.

Sure there are some games that maybe a controller is better, but no one cares about those games anymore.

 

fine disillusion me. I still load up DosBox and have a round of Commander Keen with an old gravis gamepad

 

haha I know... some games are priceless like that.

but I think its been years since i played a game like earthbound or streetfighter.

i gave xbox a shot, but then it was stolen...so i said thats a sign of how much consoles suck now. i was actually glad someone stole it.

 

Don't know if this was mentioned, but I sometimes like to use mods in the games to freshen them up after they get stale. Can this be done on the console games of today?

 

nowhere near the extent PC games can be... actually VERY few console games have much of a mod available that I have seen

 

this is a really dumb question.. its like asking why ppl buy cars and not use public transport? But to answer the question..

1. PC's have way more power and better graphics.
2. They're upgradeable unlike consoles..
3. Games are always way cheaper than consoles and u always get great deals.
4. Consoles are not portable unlike laptops.

And lastly because PC gamers are always better than poor console gamers

 

I honestly cannot think of one console game that allows this.... So to summerize

Spoiler

Nope!