The Cost - PC vs Console Gaming?

ScumLord

areyawell wrote: »

there expensive sons of bitches

Once you use an SSD normal hard drives will seem like they're powered by a small sick mouse in a running wheel. I have to use a normal hard drive at work and have to fight the urge to punch the screen all day long.

Another thing PC will open up is the simulator world. Nothing on consoles really comes close to what you can find on PC.

Washington Irving

I can't believe people are using Steam Sales as a point against PCs.

Also, including broadband costs with PCs and not with consoles?

Aaanndd "consoles get exclusives". PCs don't?

ShadowHearth

MadYaker wrote: »

Eh if you read my posts properly you would see that I recently spent €700 on a gaming PC and I'm delighted with it.... The gaming experience is just so much better. But it isn't cheaper.


Can someone please answer me this: If PC gaming is cheaper and better then why the f*ck does anyone buy a console?????

because people are too ****ing lazy and not get fed with adds on TV.

ScumLord

SaulGoode9 wrote: »

Aaanndd "consoles get exclusives". PCs don't?

There are tones of PC games that will never make it to consoles.

krudler

Magill wrote: »

Guild Wars
Diablo
World of Warcraft
League of legends
Dota
Starcraft
Tribes
Stalker
Warz/Dayz/ARMA
Blacklight
Planetside
Path of Exile
Tera
Secret World
etc

Its fair to say that PC exclusives are at least 20 times better than xbox/ps3 exclusives.

Not to mention when stuff is released and its glitchy/broken etc pc games are easily fixed, or modded, can be reskinned for years, entire new games built from the engine etc etc etc. Skyrim isnt exactly an ugly game (scenery, not character models they're horrendous :pac: ) yet you can get new water skins, accurate stars for the sky etc etc. look at the amount of GTAIV mods for pc, or stuff on the source engine. Its the part of gaming I'm most envious of when it comes to pc gaming.

VinLieger

Yes PC gaming may be more expensive but its worth it since the games generally look and play better.
Also arguing that downloading drivers etc is a negative?? WTF i can upgrade my PC so a game looks as good as the developer can possibly make it how is that a negative? You cant do that with consoles.
Then theres modding and all that comes with that, have you seen the **** people have done with Skyrim,Just Cause 2,GTA 4 and Minecraft to name a few, all games that are available on consoles but are made better by being on PC

danthefan

I must have spent about €1800 on my PC

But for me it was worth it, it's what I chose to spend my own money on. Despite games being so much cheaper it'll take a fair while for me to make up the difference in cost (i.e. it isn't going to happen).

Edit - the other point I'd make is the PC will last years and years and when I do decide to upgrade things like the case, the PSU will all be recyclable.

areyawell

MadYaker wrote: »

Eh if you read my posts properly you would see that I recently spent €700 on a gaming PC and I'm delighted with it.... The gaming experience is just so much better. But it isn't cheaper.


Can someone please answer me this: If PC gaming is cheaper and better then why the f*ck does anyone buy a console?????

No one said it was cheaper. Games are cheaper if you "buy" them. I was talking about people going on about spending 1000 euro on gaming pcs and comparing these to Ps3s and Xboxs.

A 440 build or even a 390 build is are better than any xbox or Ps3. You were talking about added peripherals. Mouse and keyboard which nearly every household has anyway is 15 quid. If you "buy" windows 75 quid on top of it. You can connect the PCs to digital tvs same as the xbox.

An xbox is roughly 200 euro.
A Pc that could beat the xbox graphically would could about 390 euro.

Pc graphics are miles ahead ahead of xbox and Ps3 graphics so if you want to spend the extra 200 or 300 for a machine that would hammer the xbox and Ps3 graphically wise then get a PC. Xbox and Ps3 graphics are not great these days compared to the power of Pcs. If you want a proper gaming machine get a PC if you can afford it. If you want to game on a budget buy the xbox.
Most peoples friends either have an xbox 360 or Ps3 and want to game with them so this is another reason why people opt for game consoles.

Suryavarman

MadYaker wrote: »

Skyrim is not demanding on hardware at all and a poor example to use. Go load up battlefield 3, put all the gfx settings on ultra and get on a server with 64 players and see how many fps you get. I guarantee it will be unplayable and would be far superior on a €250 xbox 360.

Well it would be superior on the Xbox considering it plays Battlefield at the same graphics quality as low on the PC. Play Battlefield on low settings on a PC and compare it to an Xbox and I guarantee it will be far superior on a PC.

ShadowHearth

danthefan wrote: »

I must have spent about €1800 on my PC

But for me it was worth it, it's what I chose to spend my own money on. Despite games being so much cheaper it'll take a fair while for me to make up the difference in cost (i.e. it isn't going to happen).

i think my new PC stands 2200eu so far, not including games. though it is more of a hobby for me. Its the main entertainment place. music, movies, games, internet, everything.
plus building your setup itself is a very satisfying thing.

areyawell

Suryavarman wrote: »

Well it would be superior on the Xbox considering it plays Battlefield at the same graphics quality as low on the PC. Play Battlefield on low settings on a PC and compare it to an Xbox and I guarantee it will be far superior on a PC.

MadYaker you really don't know what you are talking about do you?

ShadowHearth

btw farcry 3 24eu and it was released like... yesterday?

http://www.gameholds.com/far-cry-3-pc-cd-key-248.html

MadYaker

**** me that is NICE. I am jelly.

mayordenis

SaulGoode9 wrote: »

Just on the price of games. You say AAA releases are about €40 on console (personally, I haven't seen any that cheap). On PC, they are also around €40 at release but many of the them cost less than half that a month or two after release. Take Dishonored for example, released last month and last week was available on PC for €14. ShadowHearth has given more examples above.

The emboldened part simply isn't true. It's very easy to make back the initially higher price of a PC as you have access to films, music, TV, internet, far greater value in cost of games and far greater range of games to choose from

I got black ops 2 for 40 on the ps3, I've already picked up Hitman for about 30 possibly slightly less on ps3.
Dishonored I would wager if it is not already available in and around 25 for the consoles it will be soon.

Harps

Paid €200 for my xbox 5 years ago and nothing since, I rarely spend more than €20 on games and most I do buy I trade in for around 50% of what I paid so there's no competition for me, xbox would be far cheaper

As for games looking and playing better, its never something that bothers me playing on the xbox, games nearly always look good and aside from things like fps games which are obviously going to play better on pc, gameplay on xbox is also perfectly fine. There's also the benefit of lying back on the couch instead of being stuck in front of the screen with a keyboard

Given the choice I'd still love to have a proper gaming pc but just cant justify the cost for relatively small benefits

Magill

At the end of the day, both console and PC are targeted at different demographics... consoles are for kiddies and fat women to exercise on... whereas PC's are for awesome people.


Seriously tho, you just gotta work with what you have.... If a person moved into a new house and has £1000 to spend on a load of new gear he could get either.

£200 TV
£200 Console
£100 on 2/3 games
£100 on Desk/TV stand
£400 on a laptop

= £1000

or you could spend

£600 PC
£100 Desk
£100 on 10+ games
£200 on TV for a dualscreen/multi media setup ?

=£1000

At the end of the day.. it just depends on what you have already available. If you already have a TV and a Laptop then obviously its going to be cheaper to get a console setup. If you've got a copy of windows, monitor,mouse/keyboard etc then PC gaming could work out a cheaper option.

Tij da feen

I'm sorry but the whole you have to keep putting money into a PC is a myth. I spent 500 quid on my PC and it has an i3 + 6870 and it can run most games flawlessly on med-high graphics at 1080p. An xbox runs most games 720p, and the games end up looking far less superior.

I probably won't need to upgrade until new consoles come out and realistically they will cost in the region of 400-500 quid.

Washington Irving

ScumLord wrote: »

There are tones of PC games that will never make it to consoles.

Yes, that's what I'm saying.

Tomk1

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Is that the LG 3D monitor, have one and recommend.

I think PC-gaming, largely due to steam has completly changed from what it was like a few years ago, nevermind when I started PCing.
Only started gaming again recently, spent ages saving & waiting for a good deal and wanted a next gen i7 under the hood. (the thought of a console did, pass my mind). Got a few games in brick-shops, and had a few old games, some wouldn't run normal stuff. Setup a steam account which did a full system software and driver updates, now everything runs. Years ago you would spend ages trying to find patches often unsuccessful, now steam does it for you.

PC: was handy in skyrim that you could edit bug tasks as complete, also some old favorite games do get remastered.

One thing people don't consider is the afterlife, a consoles afterlife once the tech has moved on could be the attic or for playing DVDs, a PC afterlife well, web, music video, even Word, aka a PC or some new hardware.
The bought PC games will be compatable with a newer machine, console games may not be => bin.

My laptop has outlived a few consoles & is still fully funtional and in use every day, ok never much use for heavy gaming.

As often in life cheaper is just a compensated* short term gain?

hightower1

I was looking into setting up a gaming PC recently. Basically I wasnt gonna do it by half measures, was looking at a machine for around 800eur which was my limit and it was perfect for me performance wise but what I wanted was to replace console gaming with PC. Thats all well and good but if you want to play a PC like you do a console IE sitting on the sofa with at least a 32 inch screen in front of you - and lets be clear , getting 1080i is great but you wont see any benefit on a small screen - your looking at 200+ eur at least for a monitor like that. On top of a med / high end PC (because why would you build a gaming PC to simply level peg a console, IMO you wanna blow it out of the water) which is in the region of 500-800eur then your tipping over or close to a grand.

I just couldnt justify that when your going to be loosing out on exclusive titles to consoles that are relevant to me (strategy games wouldnt bother me in the slightest to counter balance) combined with the high cost then looking at the next console cycle going to be starting in the next 12months.... it just didnt make sense. That and I mess with PC troubleshooting all day the last thing I wanna do when I get in is some more of it, the far cry 3 thread was the very thing I feared (trawling through driver updates , patches and settings to figure out FPS, draw distance, shading etc details)

areyawell

hightower1 wrote: »

I was looking into setting up a gaming PC recently. Basically I wasnt gonna do it by half measures, was looking at a machine for around 800eur which was my limit and it was perfect for me performance wise but what I wanted was to replace console gaming with PC. Thats all well and good but if you want to play a PC like you do a console IE sitting on the sofa with at least a 32 inch screen in front of you - and lets be clear , getting 1080i is great but you wont see any benefit on a small screen - your looking at 200+ eur at least for a monitor like that. On top of a med / high end PC (because why would you build a gaming PC to simply level peg a console, IMO you wanna blow it out of the water) which is in the region of 500-800eur then your tipping over or close to a grand.

I just couldnt justify that when your going to be loosing out on exclusive titles to consoles that are relevant to me (strategy games wouldnt bother me in the slightest to counter balance) combined with the high cost then looking at the next console cycle going to be starting in the next 12months.... it just didnt make sense. That and I mess with PC troubleshooting all day the last thing I wanna do when I get in is some more of it, the far cry 3 thread was the very thing I feared (trawling through driver updates , patches and settings to figure out FPS, draw distance, shading etc details)

I think your missing the point, graphics on a 400 euro self built pc would be miles better than xbox or ps3. Most people have digital tvs as well which you can hook the pc upto. Console games are generraly run on low settings for a pc where a 400 euro pc would play 90% of games at full settings.

tuxy

hightower1 wrote: »

getting 1080i is great but you wont see any benefit on a small screen - your looking at 200+ eur at least for a monitor like that. On top of a med / high end PC (because why would you build a gaming PC to simply level peg a console, IMO you wanna blow it out of the water) which is in the region of 500-800eur then your tipping over or close to a grand.

I don't think pc monitors even support interlaced scan. 1920x1080 looks great on a 23 or 24 inch monitor once you are sitting close to it. If you are sitting back on a couch you might as well get a 32 or bigger tv and connect to the hdmi port on the graphics card.
This argument is not relevant to the pc vs console one.
If you are sitting close get a monitor and if sitting farther back get a TV regardless of which platform you are using.

Suryavarman

hightower1 wrote: »

I was looking into setting up a gaming PC recently. Basically I wasnt gonna do it by half measures, was looking at a machine for around 800eur which was my limit and it was perfect for me performance wise but what I wanted was to replace console gaming with PC. Thats all well and good but if you want to play a PC like you do a console IE sitting on the sofa with at least a 32 inch screen in front of you - and lets be clear , getting 1080i is great but you wont see any benefit on a small screen - your looking at 200+ eur at least for a monitor like that. On top of a med / high end PC (because why would you build a gaming PC to simply level peg a console, IMO you wanna blow it out of the water) which is in the region of 500-800eur then your tipping over or close to a grand.

I don't think it's true at all that you have to spend more than €200 to get a good monitor. Look at all these 24 inch monitors on Hardwareversand that are as cheap as €130. I can assure you that you'll notice the quality better sitting 1-2 feet away from a 24 inch monitor than sitting across the room from a 32 inch TV.

Magill

hightower1 wrote: »

I was looking into setting up a gaming PC recently. Basically I wasnt gonna do it by half measures, was looking at a machine for around 800eur which was my limit and it was perfect for me performance wise but what I wanted was to replace console gaming with PC. Thats all well and good but if you want to play a PC like you do a console IE sitting on the sofa with at least a 32 inch screen in front of you - and lets be clear , getting 1080i is great but you wont see any benefit on a small screen - your looking at 200+ eur at least for a monitor like that. On top of a med / high end PC (because why would you build a gaming PC to simply level peg a console, IMO you wanna blow it out of the water) which is in the region of 500-800eur then your tipping over or close to a grand.

I just couldnt justify that when your going to be loosing out on exclusive titles to consoles that are relevant to me (strategy games wouldnt bother me in the slightest to counter balance) combined with the high cost then looking at the next console cycle going to be starting in the next 12months.... it just didnt make sense. That and I mess with PC troubleshooting all day the last thing I wanna do when I get in is some more of it, the far cry 3 thread was the very thing I feared (trawling through driver updates , patches and settings to figure out FPS, draw distance, shading etc details)

Very silly post. Firstly.. ofc you will notice the difference between 720p and 1080p on a smaller screen(You can get really nice 21inch monitors for <100 these days)... possibly the silliest thing in your post that.

My PC is probably a mid/midhigh range PC (Its a year old now), cost me about £800 for the tower + monitor + OS + Gaming mouse/mat + Keyboard. Runs BF3 on High settings @ 1080p at well over 60 fps. BLOPS2 runs on max settings @ 1080p at a solid 125FPS (Its capped). Both look and run far superior than my console versions.. so im sure you could easily build a PC with the same spec's as mine for < £700 now(Also.. my HDD cost a fortune thanks to those floods, much cheaper now).

Lastly, RTS is just one genre your missing out on.. there are exclusives on PC for pretty much every genre.. i don't see how there are no exclusives that are relevant to you on PC, what are the console exclusives that are ? i'll recommend 2/3 games on PC of the same genre that are probably better.

tuxy

Magill wrote: »

Lastly, RTS is just one genre your missing out on.. there are exclusives on PC for pretty much every genre.. i don't see how there are no exclusives that are relevant to you on PC, what are the console exclusives that are ? i'll recommend 2/3 games on PC of the same genre that are probably better.

Will this is the one place he might have a point.
What PC exclusive would you recommend to replace Red Dead Redemption which never made it to PC and also Metal Gear Solid 4

Magill

tuxy wrote: »

Will this is the one place he might have a point.
What PC exclusive would you recommend to replace Red Dead Redemption which never made it to PC and also Metal Gear Solid 4

Point taken.. still, i find it very hard to believe that there are no PC exclusives that are of his taste.

aN.Droid

tuxy wrote: »

Will this is the one place he might have a point.
What PC exclusive would you recommend to replace Red Dead Redemption which never made it to PC and also Metal Gear Solid 4

There will be some games that consoles will win on like the two you posted (both fantastic games) but the pc has thousands upon thousands of games that you cannot get on consoles including an endless amount of free to play games and 99% of the mmo market.

Also indie games which allot of the time blow AAA games out of the water largely only show up on pc bar some of the bigger ones which where on console first ( super meat boy, castle crashers etc..)

krudler

Magill wrote: »

Lastly, RTS is just one genre your missing out on.. there are exclusives on PC for pretty much every genre.. i don't see how there are no exclusives that are relevant to you on PC, what are the console exclusives that are ? i'll recommend 2/3 games on PC of the same genre that are probably better.

Uncharted Nintendo are pretty much the only exclusives I'd miss if I was pc only, love them or hate them stuff like Mario Galaxy 2 and the Zelda games are some of the finest games of this gen of consoles. Most major release games come out on pc but there'll always be stuff like Uncharted, God Of War, loads of rpgs if you're into those etc. I'd view games the same as movies or music, if you're confing yourself to only one genre then thats your loss. As much as I enjoy playing stuff like Assassins Creed or Uncharted or whatever there's something simple and joyous about playing a new Mario title.

If you have the funds then pc for fps/rts and stuff you want to look ridiculously pretty, and a console(s) for stuff that will never make it to pc, problem solved.

Magill

krudler wrote: »

Uncharted Nintendo are pretty much the only exclusives I'd miss if I was pc only, love them or hate them stuff like Mario Galaxy 2 and the Zelda games are some of the finest games of this gen of consoles. Most major release games come out on pc but there'll always be stuff like Uncharted, God Of War, loads of rpgs if you're into those etc. I'd view games the same as movies or music, if you're confing yourself to only one genre then thats your loss. As much as I enjoy playing stuff like Assassins Creed or Uncharted or whatever there's something simple and joyous about playing a new Mario title.

If you have the funds then pc for fps/rts and stuff you want to look ridiculously pretty, and a console(s) for stuff that will never make it to pc, problem solved.

Damn u... im pretty sure hes an xbox gamer tho ! :P

Mark Hamill

I spent just over a grand on a gaming laptop 2 years ago and it still outstrips console versions (Batman AC, Spec Ops, Borderlands 2 on full settings)
I use a CM storm gaming mouse (cost me about €35 at the time) and a logitech usb keyboard that cost me about €12.50 from argos.
But aside from gaming I use it to watch all my TV, for browsing Boards and the internet, not to mention I wrote my PhD thesis on it, while running chemistry-specific software on it.

I do have consoles (PS3 and 3DS) but I only got them for their exclusives, and when they dropped in price (am now considering getting a wii on the cheap, for its exclusives).

If a game is on both PC and PS3, I get the PC version, not just because its usually a bit cheaper, but because if something does glitch (or when something glitches, if you are playing a Bethesda game:pac:) its easier to fix on the pc, either because of quicker patches or by doing it yourself (by which I mean looking for solutions on boards or the internet ). Not to mention there are more likely to be mods for PC games.

PC gaming is unquestionably of better value to me, and I think it would be the same for anyone who's not very young or very old.