10 Reasons Why Gaming is Better on PCs

Crowbar Error 42 writes"Being this site focuses on PC gaming I knew that this is a list that I would be doing one day. So I decided to get it over and done with, and make it our first official list article. So welcome to our 10 Reasons That Gaming is Better on PCs."

[simplyRealistic18]

PIRATINGGG

[Pandamobile]

Get out. You don't know anything.

[Saryk]

Pirating has been on the decline for the PC because of Digital Distribution. Likewise, Console pirating will be on the rise.

Don’t believe me, look here………….
http://www.1up.com/do/newsS...

I do own a PS3 and Wii. I do like my sports games on them, that is where they shine............

[StanLatMarveldotCom]

Pirating isn't the reason for the decline in PC gaming. It's the spiraling costs of upgrading your hardware to keep up with the tech advances of newer games. I myself was an avid PC gamer but it was becoming expensive.

[joydestroy]

^he's right.

i'm looking to buy an alienware m17x but to get one spec'd out like i want is going to run me about $3100, and that's with the EPP discount! it's just too expensive to be a real pc gamer.

[dirthurts]

Alienware is just a jacked up Dell. You don't want those horribly over priced POS.

If you HAVE to buy a prebuilt, go to Ibuypower.com

[Syronicus]

Ok, maybe that is harsh but with all due respect, you can build one hell of a PC that will run any game at full spec for less than 1500 bucks. And you will also have the satisfaction that you can fix your own PC when anything happens to it. Don't waste your money on over-hyped Alienware PC's, build one yourself.

[StanLatMarveldotCom]

I see a lot of fanboys saying you can build a quality gaming PC for this and that amount but take if from someone who knows and has built one recently, a $3,600 configuration system represents the middle ground for performance gaming. It didn't set any performance records, but it can play most current games at decent image quality settings on a 24-inch LCD at full resolution. That's the truth!

Edit @ above: Detail for me the parts and benchmarks for the parts you're going to use and come in under $1500 running Crysis at full res, medium or high detail at 30 FPS. You guys don't know squat if you really believe you can get the performance your claim from a $1500 rig.

[hates video games]

Thats why crytek is jumping ship to the consoles. Crysis on the PC was pirated more then it was bought! Lots of developers dread to create games for the PC anymore. Besides MMO games.

[Syronicus]

You would not know the truth if it ran up on your backside and bit you in the arse.

Sorry, but you must fall in that catagory of folks willing to pay more than 3100 bucks for a PC...

Do you have a large L printed on your forehead?

1050 bucks will buy you:

AMD Phenom II X4 945 3.0GHz
EVGA 896-P3-1170-AR GeForce GTX 275
Antec TruePower 750W PS
Antec 1200 Case
Corsair 4GB DDR3 RAM
ASUS M4A78T-E ATX Motherboard
Samsung 1TB SATA HDD
Samsung DVD Drive
Vista Home Premium

If you add another GPU (239.00) and a 1000w PSU (+100 bucks) you can run the GPU's in SLI and run Crysis in full with no issues and still be around 1400 bucks. The current PC minus SLI GPU's you can run Crysis on high settings. Oh, and it all runs well on my 24" monitor.

[StanLatMarveldotCom]

Dude quit running you mouth and just tell me the components you're going to use and the price listed at newegg or any other online retailer. I can easily look up the benchmarks for most parts and we'll really see if it can run current games at full specs, which I highly, highly doubt. If you can, I'll eat my words.

Edit: Price those parts and that GTX 275 is $200 plus and wont give you the performance you think. It's best for running the inbetween res, not full res.

[Syronicus]

Sorry, but you are not so smart are you? I am currently running that PC and have played through Crysis. Decent game by the way. Take a look at my list above and then get back with me. Heck, NewEgg posts combo deals every week for consumers to save money so do your worst. Heck, I feel that no matter the deal, you still will find some stupid argument to bolster your ignorance in the PC matters here. Don't hate on me, I'm just trying to share my knowledge with ya so you can get gaming on a PC for less than half of what you were willing to spend on a pre-manufactured pile of crap.

[tda-danny]

Your kidding right? PC rigs are cheaper now than they have been in recent memory.

Vid card that will run any game at med-max settings - $200
Quad Core processors - $150-250
Ram, 8gigs - $120
1 TB HDD - under $100

You can by a complete PC that will run games for under a grand.

[StanLatMarveldotCom]

Dude, I'm not hating on you. You miss the point. I always hear posters say you can get a PC for this amount that runs Crysis at full res, 30 fps, high detail and I'm like, year right. Dude, there is no way your rig can run Crysis at full res, 30 fps and high detail. Whatever the performance benchmarks, I don't doubt they're decent but even at $1500 it's a high price of entry for the games that are exclusive to the PC. PC gaming just isn't as attractive as it used to be with the evolution of XBL and PSN and current console hardware. The payoff isn't worth it.

[Play Now My Lord]

it will play multiplatform game at super resolutions, no questions asked, but it lacks the library. And its release dates are always later.

[Pandamobile]

The delays are usually due to additional features, which is more than o.k with me.

Three week delay for Arkham Asylum for hardcore physics? Sounds great to me.

@StanLatMarveldotCom

Stop. You're embarrassing yourself. A $500 PC will run Crysis on high settings at an HD res at 30 FPS. I built one for my friend over a year ago. 3.2 GHz AMD dual core, 4 GB of RAM and an 8800 GT. You can completely max out (not including AA) Crysis at 1680 x 1050 for under $1000. AMD Phenom II X3 720 tri-core CPU, HD 4870 video card, 4 GB of DDR3 RAM, it's a joke to run Crysis nowadays.

[dirthurts]

What is it?
Phenom IIx4 3.0 (overclocked to 3.4)
4gb ddr 800 ram (corsair)
500 gb Seagate 7200.14 Hard drive
Foxconn A79A-s
MSI HD 4890 1gb card
Liteon DVD drive
Rosewill Case
And BFG 500 power supply
Vista 65bit (system builders version).

You should be able to get all this for even less than I did (6 months old, except for the card).

Now shut up, and learn how to build a computer. Geeze.
I'm amazed by how people can not work with a budget...

[Ocelot525]

I laughed with the Backward compatibility argument.

many old games run like sh!t. Take halo1 as example: it has a bad framerate on EVERY pc with a geforce GPU.

and working with dosemulator for games will give you much frustration, problems with emulating the wrong soundblaster, setting up a virtualdrive, framerate too fast,.. sound is jerky...

even the games of the win98 era don't work:
AoE2: wrong colors
quake: VERY BAD framerate for VERY BAD graphics
...

and not to mention you have to set an affinity in the taskmanager for games who don't use multiple cores, or the sound is not in sync

and i forgot to mention that VSYNC doesn't work anymore with old games

[JsonHenry]

You are either a liar, or a fool.

Either way if you think building you own PC that costs $3,100 is "middle" ground for PC gaming you are dead wrong. I built my PC a year and a half ago for about $1,500 and I can still play just about everything MAXED at 1920*1080 on my Sony HDTV.

[Jamescagney]

@Ocelot525

That's strange then, I could have sworn I played through Halo on my old 6800gt a couple of years ago, hmm. And backwards compatibility can involve a bit of brainwork now and again but it's there, and achievable.

How much chance has a 360 or ps3 got at backwards compatibility? There's no middle ground, you either can or you can't, whereas with a pc there's a possibility that you can get a game to work, you just have to persevere, but more often than not it's easily done.

[Anon1974]

It just didn't pay to keep up for me. At one point, I had to have a switcher that allowed me to select different videocard drivers depending on which game I was playing because drivers were a nightmare. And the cost just continued to spiral out of control to get games to run even close to what I was seeing on the PS2 and 360. Now with PS3's only $299 - that's some damn fine value for your gaming buck. A $300 PC couldn't run minesweeper.

[SaiyanFury]

3100 dollars build a middle ground PC? Have you been shopping at Best Buy or some other electronics store? First rule of PCs: don't buy computers or computer components from electronics stores. The prices are marked up about 40-50% and the stuff is not worth it. My PC is worth closer to 2G and I have a lot of high end hardware. Not to mention nearly 2TB of HDD space. I can build a lot lesser PC that will still play the newest games for roughly half of what I built my PC for. PC's are the best gaming machines because not only can you play the newest games on a modern one, you can play all of the older games as well from the old consoles as well as MAME.

[STONEY4]

"Price those parts and that GTX 275 is $200 plus and wont give you the performance you think. It's best for running the inbetween res, not full res."

The hell? Do you even know anything about graphics cards? The GTX 275 is one of the best cards for the price out there. I have 2 of them. Before I went SLI with 2 GTX 275s, I still had extremely good framerates with one GTX 275 in every game on max on 1920x1200, the full res of my monitor. And after SLI, my rig was just overkill for everything except for Crysis, which ran 50-60 most of the time and dipped to about 45 sometimes.

"I see a lot of fanboys saying you can build a quality gaming PC for this and that amount but take if from someone who knows and has built one recently, a $3,600 configuration system represents the middle ground for performance gaming. It didn't set any performance records, but it can play most current games at decent image quality settings on a 24-inch LCD at full resolution. That's the truth!"

That's total BS then, I built my PC (check my bio) for about $1700 (which now costs about $1500) I think, and it can run everything on max settings on a 28-monitor at it's full resolution. Most of the games I own run way above 60fps.

"Detail for me the parts and benchmarks for the parts you're going to use and come in under $1500 running Crysis at full res, medium or high detail at 30 FPS. You guys don't know squat if you really believe you can get the performance your claim from a $1500 rig."

CPU: Intel Core I7 920 2.66 Ghz overclocked to 3.6 Ghz
Motherboard: EVGA E758-TR 3-Way SLI (x16/x16/x8) x58 Motherboard
RAM: OCZ Platinum 6GB DDR3 1600 MHz @ 7-7-7-24 timings
CPU Cooler: XIGMATEK Dark Knight
Hard Drive: 1 TB Western Digital Caviar Black 7200 RPM
Power Supply: CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX 850 Watt
Graphics Cards: 2x MSI 275 GTX TwinFrozr OC in SLI
Optical Drive: SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD Burner Black
Case: Antec 902 Black Steel ATX Mid Tower

My PC. This runs Crysis at VERY HIGH AT 50-60 fps. Back when I made it, it cost around $1700, and I recently built the same rig for a friend and it ended up about $1500. If you don't use the PC for stuff like CG or rendering videos, go with AMD instead of Intel you'll save maybe $300, and still get nearly the same framerate in games as the I7. And second GTX 275 is a bit overkill, even one gets extremely good framerates. Then tah-dah, PC that will run everything out there smoothly at max settings for about $1000. And Crysis at 30 fps.

[paul0388]

Please, PLEASE! Don't buy an Alienware unless you just have tons of money you can just throw around. Any PC marketed towards gamers is going to be massively overpriced. My advice is save a grand, build it yourself, and make it your own.

[raztad]

TOP reason why console gaming > PC gaming: it is EASY TO PLAY/USE. It's just more accessible and not so geeky oriented as PC gaming.

I used to play mainly PC games, but every game needed a troubleshooting tutorial. Back in those days, I found the PS2, its visuals werent that cool but I wasnt worried about getting the damn game running.

BTW, I'm far from weak on computer related subjects.

[STONEY4]

@raztad

Those days are long over though, for nearly every game now it's just pop in and play on PC.

[evrfighter]

"but take if from someone who knows and has built one recently, a $3,600 configuration system represents the middle ground for performance gaming"

Being able to unpackage and setup an Alienware does NOT equate to building your computer. If you did build it yourself. Guess what. The local store or guy you got your parts from took you for about 2 grand. GUARANTEED.

Amazon, Newegg, Tigerdirect. NEVER EVER EVER EVER buy your parts from anywhere else.

I could build 3 pc's for that price that could put crysis to shame.

[badz149]

that's insane!

try:
750W PSU with 2 GPU power
decent tower case
Intel Core i7 2.66
Asus P6T
2x Radeon HD 4870 1GB (xfire)
3x Corsair DDR3 1GB
Super-multi DVD RW drive
1 TB HDD
Acer H233H 23" Full HD 1080p
Logicool Wireless gaming keyboard + 6-button mouse

all that for around $1600 and I think it can run pretty much all newer game on high setting with more than 30fps

[cyborg6971]

You can watch porn at the same time. Ejaculation ftw.

[JonnyBigBoss]

I agree to some extent. However, I feel much more comfortable playing a PS3 on the couch with a controller. Also, playing on an HDTV is WAY better for group activities. Have you ever tried playing a 2 or 4 player offline co-op or competitive game on a single PC? IT SUCKS. You basically have to LAN.

This isn't even taking into account the exclusives on consoles. What about Uncharted 2, Gran Turismo 5, Killzone 2, Little Big Planet, ETC.? I would HATE to miss out on these games just because I'm hard-headed.

[dirthurts]

So your argument doesn't have much ground there. Although most people don't realize you can do that for some reason...

It's pretty sweet. You've never played a HD game until you do native 1080p, with 8xaa at 60fps.

[eagle21]

This is why I ONLY buy Sony and Nintendo. They make awesome console exclusives. :)

[dirthurts]

And I'm not just talking Crysis.

[evrfighter]

Arma 2 and Empire: Total War are two games that consoles do not have the ability to run (Notice I didn't say Crysis)

[Rixynator]

PC games OWN!! Class dismiss.

[SuperStrokey1123]

I expected things like WoW, starcraft and guild wars to be their reasons lol (and those are good reasons)

[Tee7soo]

pc gaming is the best for me for one and only reason
PIRATING !

[dirthurts]

I'm glad someone did this! Maybe more gamers will make their way to PC. Much better experience.
They didn't list the fact that you can still use the 360 controller on PC though. I thought that would be in there.

[kingme71]

I only need one reason to console game and that is my couch and my big old TV. Ok, that's two.

[mrv321]

Because being a PC gamers means owning a PC.

My LAPTOP can run Trine and it's nothing fanccy, sure it won't get 120fps with 16AA but it'll run it nicely.

I'm pretty sure it'll run WoW to, and all the classics, see PC gaming will never be what it was 5 years ago, it's changed to be about graphics not gameplay or immersion, and that's a sad fact.

[Jamescagney]

It's true. I've had consoles, and some I've kept for a while and others I've got rid of fairly quickly. But while a console gets a short amount of my time I always come back to my pc.

I've had a 360 and I sold it after 6 months. I ran out of games to play, I either completed them or got bored of them. And then I'd be down the game shop for ages trying to find one that looked worth playing, I really am a game whore. My Wii's still in the front room and I play on it every so often, although the games worth playing on it are few and far between. But my kids enjoy playing on it, and it's got some great games coming out in the near future so it will stay with us a while yet.

And FPS games are just naturally far better to play on the pc, both graphically and control wise.

The fact is I never ever get bored of playing my pc, there are so many games to play, from new ones to old ones, hell I've just started playing Day of the Tentacle as I didn't play it when it was out and that game is OLD!

[mrv321]

Check out 'the ur-quan masters' it's a classic PC game, it's an RPG and it's long... best of all it's free. It's a bit like Fallout 3.

http://sc2.sourceforge.net/

It's a fan remake of Star Control 2..

[Jamescagney]

Thanks, I'll give it a try :)

[Jamescagney]

How have Crytek jumped ship? They will be releasing games alongside consoles, they won't stop making them for pc.

[nightelfmohawk]

Crytek specifically cited piracy for focusing more on consoles and less on PC, which is why they also snapped up Free Radical with its PS3 game design experience.

[paul0388]

I could think of more reasons than 10...

[jmare]

THis article overlooks the biggest issue of why it sucks to game on a PC: Convenience. Yeah, you can build a gaming rig. However, most people don't buy a PC just to play games. They use it to go online, for school and work, etc. There is no guarantee that if you buy a PC game that it will actually work the way it is supposed to. With consoles, the games are guaranteed to work unless there is a problem with the disc or if the console malfunctions.

EDIT: I'm not saying one is better than the other. Both have their respective strengths and weaknesses. I just pointed out the biggest barrier for people to get into hardcore PC gaming is the uncertainty. There is no uncertainty with consoles. That's not even getting into the hassles of needing new drivers or whatever else bleeding edge games require.

[Jamescagney]

Yes, but that's part of pc gaming. I'm not saying it's for everyone, but pc gaming can be a far superior experience.

[Pandamobile]

Where's the fun in having the same black or white box for 6-8 years?

I upgrade my computer every year, not because I have to, but because it's fun.

I look forward to the new gen of graphics cards with the same amount of anticipation that you guys have for a console generation. Mine just comes a lot more frequently :P

[paul0388]

Sure, it's a little more money than a console, but consoles, in my opinion, are kind of boring. The PS3 is pushing boundaries to an extent (for consoles) but everything else is just kind of stagnant.

I attribute everything I know about computers to PC gaming. And I think I'm pretty knowledgeable in the field because of it.

I only have fond memories of tinkering with my old low-profile gateway at 10 years old, sawing a hole in the case to get a graphics card to fit so I could run CounterStrike 1.5 (yes, even before steam when it was still a free mod!)

Learning for the first time how to install RAM and what each of the system requirements on the bottom of a computer game box meant. Now, at 21 years old, I treasure those memories and regularly work on computers today just out of sheer pleasure. I can work on a computer just as a mechanic can work on a car, it's just what I know! (I also work on cars too fyi)

In the end though, the feeling is comparable as to when I installed my cold air intake on my Mustang the other day. Yes, believe it or not, sometimes you have to actually WORK to get a game running on a pc. But when it starts up, both the car purring like a kitten and the computer running the game beautifully, you get a sense of satisfaction that can't even be explained and the game is just that much more fun.

[paul0388]

My best friend purchased my old video card off me (8800 GT 512 MB, I now rock a Radeon 4890 1gb). I also had an unused 400 watt power supply lying around from when I upgraded to a 700 watt that I gave him. In addition, he also bought 2 gb of ram to upgrade his celeron desktop (3.6 ghz... I know it sucks but it's not the first choice for me, i have a Q6600).

Well anyway, I installed all that for him and left him to his own devices as he was downloading Team Fortress 2 (legally from steam I might add).

I get a call the next day from him about how 'this' is the reason he hates PC games, the framerate was practically a slide-show.

After work, I stop by and take a gander at his PC. I always thought the thing sounded like a freight train and now I found out why - a corrupt program had been using 100% of his CPU's resources!

I immediately fixed it and now he can't stop raving about how much better PC gaming is and how steam is better than Xbox live and free (yes the steam interface is that damn good).

I might add, he's been a console gamer ( and a *cough cough* xbox fanboy) all his life and this is his first ever successful attempt at running a PC game.

The point to my story is that console gamers aren't willing to use their brain a little to get something working. They lack patience all together and would prefer to just put a disc in a box and choose to ignore the limitations of their consoles graphically.

And don't give me that old "gameplay over graphics" argument. If that's the case then sell your Xbox 360 and buy a PS2 or original Xbox. The only reason consoles evolve is because they can do more graphically every generation (excluding wii, but that's in a class all in it's own). To me, the gameplay has to be there, but the graphics are what cap off the immersion factor. Playing CoD 5 with it's graphics maxed out on a 1440 x 900 monitor (that's mine, 75hz refresh rate) is much more immersive than playing it on an Xbox or Playstation with upscaled, muddy graphics.

What I'm trying to say to all console gamers is don't be afraid to get your hands dirty. Experiment and tinker a bit and when you finally accomplish what you set out to do, the feeling of satisfaction makes everything worth while.

He'll probably get pissed that I called him an Xbox fanboy if he reads this lol, but whatever, he worships that machine for some unknown reason.

[Jamescagney]

But they will still release on PC though, and piracy is a big problem for PC gaming, but it won't stop games coming to the platform. Piracy will be around for ever, that's a fact, no matter what platform.

[cyborg6971]

Well aren't you at the top of the world jimmy.

[Jamescagney]

Thanks Ma, lol.

[snaileri]

Really great article!
PC is the ultimate machine for everything from watching movies to gaming and work.

[Chimerhazzard]

"When it comes down to accuracy the mouse is light years ahead of the analogue stick. This is why most console shooters include a small amount of auto aim, to compensate for the loss of control. The analogue stick is also not very good for making quick movements around a screen, meaning a pointer set-up in games is always better with a mouse."

This is SO true. I am more of a PC gamer, and after all these years playing FPS on the PC I have a hard time to adapt to the controller model. Basically, FPS on a console SUCKS compared to a pc, the control you have with a mouse and a keyboard is WORLDS apart from a console controller. The difference is so great, it's not even funny. I have searched around, but I can't seem to get my mouse to work on ps3 games :(
In my opinion, Pc gaming beats console anyday... too bad it's not doing so well right now :\ That's one of the reasons I decided to get a Ps3... but still, the multiplats I get them on PC whenever it is possible.

[Chimerhazzard]

Maaan, emulation is one of the best things in the PC. I can play genesis, super nintendo, gameboy advance, nintendo 64, playstation, playstation 2 (only some games), sega saturn, Dreamcast, Gamecube and Wii on my PC. I even went to the trouble of buying Sonic Adventure 2 (one of those games I always wanted to play, but I didn't own a dreamcast...) when I found out I could play it perfectly emulated on my PC. I am thinking of buying Super Smash Brothers Brawl, once they perfect the emulation on the Wii, the game is very playable right now, Battle mode works perfectly, but it crashes on a level of subspace emissary. I hope they fix that soon.

[Jamescagney]

Indeed, although I prefer a nice physical purchase the Steam way is still very effective and I wouldn't mind buying games all the time that way.

EDIT:In reply to Pandamobiles post below lol.

[Mr Bean Laden]

my only thing I don't like with PC is offline multiplayer, everything else is the best

[Pandamobile]

If more developers used Steam the way Valve did (i.e, having to activate the game, and associate it with the account, even the retail games) piracy would be almost a non-issue.

How often do you here of people pirating Valve games? You don't, because Steam is the most effective anti-piracy countermeasure in existence.

[GamerPS360]

gimme battlefield 3 on PC and I won't need another game for 3 yrs :D

I don't really care if PC gaming dies or not. I am just gonna enjoy it until it don't die.

PC is my platform of choice for FPS and WRPG.

I brought Fallout3 for PS3 and I literally didn't even play more than 30 mins before I sold it off. Then I got PC version of Fallout3 as gift on my birthday. It's 100 miles better than PS3 version and I loved it. :D

[Pandamobile]

PC Gaming can never, and will never die. Console gaming as we know it will die long before PC Gaming does.

[Mr Bean Laden]

PC gaming and console gaming well run hand and hand as long as we live guaranteed, as consoles have been here for about 40 years and the consoles and games are selling well, so it won't be going anywhere soon, the same with PC gaming

[evrfighter]

Console gaming might go the route of streaming one day. The PC will always stand alone on a level never attainable by a console.

[Tee7soo]

dude i got left 4 dead , all counter strike games , all half life games
and more
pirated on my pc !

[Pandamobile]

Congrats.

You can't even play online with a cracked L4D.

[GamerPS360]

why pirate valve games ?? That's pathetic dude. Valve always delivers and its worth it to have legal copies.

[mrv321]

Your so cool, not giving money to developers then no doubt complaining when said developer either doesn't support the game, doesn't support the platform YOU pirated on, or goes bust.

I hope your happy with yourself, I have never pirated games, seems wrong, I only pirate films which are more than 50 years old no copyright etc I even went on to buy the film I legally downloaded.

Pirating is good, it allow competition and that's why I'm sort of scared of online with companies charging what they want. But pirating games just to save $20 which is perfectly resonable considering how much effort was put into them, how much enjoyment you get and the hours of which you play.

[Chimerhazzard]

That is no true. I pirated left4dead for PC before I bought it (I like to try the games b4 I buy), and I did play online. You can use a program called "Garena" to play Left4dead, and it actually plays rather good. I loved the game so I bought it on steam when they did that 40% off weekend thing (18 euros lol, what a steal :D) and, well, playing on steam is much better. On garena you had lag here and then (depending on the host), on steam you usually (USUALLY) don't have lag. But still, I gotta admit, it's not THAT different to play with a pirated version. In some ways, it was actually better. For example, on garena, I connected to other people's games using their IP adress. If I got disconnected, I just used the same IP and voila! I'm back to the game. On steam, if I am disconnected it's much harder to join the same game :\, I can still try to access the same IP adress through the console, but on most dedicated server's you can't do that. :( Besides, on garena the l4d population ranged from 2000 to 5000 players so it was not bad at all.

[Tee7soo]

my comment was a respond for

"If more developers used Steam the way Valve did (i.e, having to activate the game, and associate it with the account, even the retail games) piracy would be almost a non-issue"

wtf are you talking about ?
valve games are easy to pirate ass every other developer game
pirating and pc gaming well never die and thats the truth .

and your wrong i can play left 4 dead online on cracked severs !

[Pandamobile]

Yeah, I'm sure there's a whole lot of cracked servers out there.

[Tee7soo]

yes there are allot believe me !

[SSS]

I have a pc, 360 and ps3. The pc is a graphical powerhouse and has great games, and a better community in general. However I have many moer freinds who play on 360 and i am a beast at cod4 on 360 so I play that most of the time(i have cod4 on pc, i'm ok at i). my pc has TF2 and L4D which i occasionally enjoy too. My ps3 has amazing exclusives which makes it worth its price. All in all i enjoy them all, though i get the most use out of the 360 because of xboxlive and freinds having it.

[Vortex3D]

I don't agree with "Backward compatibility" on PC. Try to play many of the great games made for DOS, Windows 98 and DirectX 6 and few will run properly on XP or Vista.

With PC, it doesn't always just work when you install a new game. Drivers update is often a must and when a new driver is installed, it often breaks some of the older games. When DirectX is updated, it also often breaks some of the older games.

PC games are also less optimized. It's easier to get PC gamers to upgrade to more powerful hardware than fully optimize the games to run the best possible on older hardware that hasn't be used to the full capability.

[foreverflame]

PC's cant do HD yet

[Jamescagney]

Lol wut?

[Pandamobile]

PC's have had HD resolutions since the 1990's.

[paul0388]

HD gaming has been a staple of PC gaming for at least the past 10 years. I made my first rig and purchased my first LCD monitor in 2003 and was running all my games in what you would call HD.

Where the hell do you get your information from?

[mcgrawgamer]

Pc gaming is the way to go for me even with my budget rig, check my profile to see my specs I can run all my games on high settings. Even though I have a ps3 and a 360 the biggest thing that puts pc gaming over the top for me are the indy devs and community mods. I like my consoles just as much as the next guy for games like god of war, uncharted, crackdown, etc,. but I'd pass on halo 3, gears, or killzone for team fortress 2, counter strike, left 4 dead, or ArmA II any day of the week simply my preference.

[Dogswithguns]

The gaming PCs are great and all, I love my PC, the problem is if I wanna play some latest games I dont really want to buy a new graphics card or CPU or whatever that requires. Say if I had an 8600gt, I would like to play that new game without a problem, but yes there's is problem becuz it wont run it even on a lower or higher any settings - it just laggy. I mean I dont care about superb graphics, I just want to play that game, but my PC cant run it.... that's stopping me from playing right there.
On the other hand, it's not about your PC can run that new game or not, it's about game developers making money. If the developers dont want to make games for PC then that's the end of it.
Now if game developers making more games for consoles, then there's a reason to buy a console. Consoles gaming owned by companies, therefore somebody are always keeping track and working on the next step. While gaming PCs do not own by any company, then it would be the other way around.
I love my gaming PC and I love my consoles. Peace

[Tee7soo]

your right pirating is wrong
but why buy what you can get for free ?
i only buy games for my ps3 .
i do not work and i cant really spend 40 $ on every pc game i want
so pirating is the way to go !

[Tee7soo]

LOL haha .

[bunfighterii]

For me, the reason I stopped with PC gaming was it always seemed to me my PC would be outdated within a year and could never run the latest software. Many times I remember purchasing a PC game only to bring it home and have it run so poorly I'd have to return it with an elaborate excuse.

Last game I had on my PC was a few years ago: Medieval II: Total War. I loved it, just like I loved all the other total war games. I was going to get Empire, but my PC simply won't run it- or run it on good enough specs.

Consoles are never outdated by the games made for them, that's why I keep turning back to them.

PS3, what I have for example, has a 10 year life cycle. If tried to play today's games on a 3-4 year old PC, which I have, they won't run well enough. It gets down to your priorities. PC's will always be pushing the limits in terms of what games can achieve, because their hardware is continually improving month over month. But a console is good enough for someone like me who prefers a one-off, long term hardware investment.

[kraze07]

The author made some pretty good points. Backwards compatibility not being one of them.

[Sie]

I started PC gaming back in 1999 with quake 3 and have been hooked since, i own a 360 and PS3 but it's just not the same although XBL seems to be getting nearer and nearer to bulding the community present in PC gaming.

You cannot beat a mouse and keyboard for FPS but the costs for upgrading are just too high now.