As the next-gen console war rages on, PC remains the King

With the release of the PS4 and the Xbox One, MWEB GameZone takes a look why the PC will still reign supreme and the next-gen consoles are fighting for second place by focusing on hardware, games, eSports and the superiority of the mouse and keyboard

[HanCilliers]

Good take on the whole next-gen war. Only the Xbox One really delivered a next-gen machine, PS4 was just an upgrade from the PS3.

[Sillicur]

Agreed Han, well said!

[R3ddBuddah]

HAHAHAHA. Thank you for a 6am laugh. helped me get out of bed aswell ;).

[Kayant]

"Only the Xbox One really delivered a next-gen machine" - In what way?? Kinect?

OT -

The hardware – Graphical Superiority and Variety

"With a console, you do not have the option to upgrade, for example COD: Ghosts already lagging on the PS4 at 1080p"

Wooow for a PC centric piece it's funny you fail to mention it's also *laggy*/buggy on PC as well atm and there is a patch coming to fix the issues on PS4.

Also there's no mention of how the more demanding/graphical game that is BF4 performs the best on PS4 with higher framerates & res.

If COD is really the only negative you highlighted then PS4 sure as hell will be fine.

"Mouse and Keyboard – The Superior Choice" - I disagree I don't think it will work well for all game also preference.

The Games – PC Exclusive Games, Mods and Free-to-Play Games

Well mods obviously PC wins. F2P games PS4 is doing a great good atm :). Well Consoles also have great Exclusives so that's not really a massive factor tbh to each their own i guess.

[Sillicur]

Some valid points, but i just highlighted COD as an example, we will have to wait and see what is going to happen in the future, as there are view games out for the PS4 at the moment.

[plut0nash]

As for the controller thing, mouse and keyboard are very precise but also are cumbersome for couch gaming. Steam Controller looks to be the solution to this.

[HanCilliers]

Well said sir

[plut0nash]

I don't think so. PS4's potential will be much, much better than we think.

[_FantasmA_]

Yeah 720p is the future because we totally didn't have that for the last 10 years. LOL! GTFO. PS4 was just an upgrade from PS3? Well duh, thats it was supposed to be. Isn't XGone just an upgrade from the 360 and the Wii U from the Wii. Could you be any more obvious and stupid at the same time?

[plut0nash]

Hasn't lesser resolution always been the case when comparing consoles to PCs? When the first playstation was doing 240p we were running 1024x768 and higher. It's a fact that consoles will always have less visual quality compared to PCs. The problem I have with the "more resolution is better" argument is that it focuses on one small aspect of gaming in general.

What about fun? What about quality gameplay? I guess some people will never be satisfied.

[NobleRed]

Yeah the x-bone delivered true next gen with 30 frames and 720p resolution.
http://replygif.net/735

The hardware is a joke. 599 for 720/900P games.

[Choc_Salties]

From a technical perspective, consoles were out of date by the time the specs were announced.

Consoles have their place, to be sure, and obviously, a dedicated console can be made to perform magic. (see GTA5 as a shining example).

[Sillicur]

I wonder how the games coded direct to hardware in the future will look on these new consoles

[Choc_Salties]

Well considering that these new consoles are basically modified PC's, your direct-to-hardware is basically moot, considering DirectX will be used by M$, so porting games to PC from there will be really easy.

Im sure PS is doing something similar, or openGL or similar. it makes no sense to write directly to hardware since so many libraries already exist

[plut0nash]

Sounds like too much work. OpenGL and DirectX make life that much more easier for devs.

[MadLad]

It's as Choc said, you are closer than ever to simply running PC tech.
I will be very, very surprised to see console graphics make even close to the leap that you saw last generation when it comes to their launch games compared to what was seen late in the life-cycle.

Not to mention, with talk of Mantle and how it will allow for developers to make much better use of the GPU and CPU in everyone's machine, people, at least AMD users (for the time being), may just be seeing a large performance boost for their tech.
With cards that are already a couple years old keeping up with the consoles as is, we can actually be seeing even weaker cards matching next-gen console performance and everything else literally smoking it.

[chrissx]

Console gamers don't care about PC that much

[Choc_Salties]

Maybe not, but they should, considering the innards of the now-current-gen stuff is almost identical, what with running x86 processors. This should make porting games between platforms much simpler, streamline development processes. It also explains why backwards compatibility isn't present, becuase PS3 used the Cell processor, based on MIPS technology (IIRC) and Xbox360 used PowerPC architecture; they were fundamentally different from each other and PC's.

Now, they are like cousins, and uncomfortably close at that...

[MadLad]

They should.
As gamers, you should want access to any game that interests you.
Gamers should want even just a competent gaming PC, which wouldn't cost you much more than any console, if more at all, in order to play the exclusives that come to PC. There are a lot of them.
It's no different than how I eventually know I'll own all of the new consoles in order to play their exclusives, though I plan on gaming, for the most part, on PC when it comes to anything 3rd party.

[plut0nash]

While I agree with you on the PC being most powerful and precise it loses out on accessibility. Driver installs and OS optimisation are a particular pain I don't miss any more. When I was younger it was cool and the passion was there. For people who cannot sit down and tinker with their PC like most PC gamers do, consoles offer a simple way to game their game on.

Master race issues aside, consoles have their place and perform their function as well as can be expected.

[Choc_Salties]

Agreed, both have their place, but the divide between them is growing smaller, considering the games published on both, the hardware that they use, and eventually, the methods of control for them.

As it currently stands, you can connect your PS3 controller or a wired Xbox controller to your PC, and the game functions and reacts as if it were on console.

PS3 supports mouse and keyboard input, just not all the games support it - Dust514 on PS3 is a good example of Keyboard and mouse usage on a console FPS (if not a good one, but enough t prove the point)

Driver installation has become simpler and even new custom built rigs are simpler to put together and get running than they ever have been.

That singularity is fast approaching...

[MrDead]

WRONG!!

I remain as King because I play both console and PC, I enjoy gaming too much to restrict myself to one platform.

To say one platform is king is beyond stupid

[Silly Mammo]

Sounds like someone feels left out and jealous with all the attention the new consoles are getting. Does your PC need a hug?