The Great BD PC vs Console Debate

[loki]

I have seen the overtones of this debate rumbling along a few threads so hopefully it can help from cluttering them up. On scale with the AMD vs Intel, Nvidia vs ATI and probably just as futile

These are just my musings and ramblings on it purely from my experience. Pretty much like everyone else it's opinions and there is no categoric right or wrong answer to it.

Instant GameplaySo to start us off where consoles take the lead is the out of the packet experience. So if you just want pure gameplay as soon as your DVD/CD hits your front door mat then the Console is the one for you. Plug it in, play it and your away. Certainly a lot better than installing on DVD That said the almost sanitised experience offered by the console is not for everyone. Some people do like the tweaking of a game, hacking and chopping some of the code.

Is there a clear winner ?? I would say no as its horses for courses.

Mouse & Keyboard are better than Control Pad - Fact Well is it a fact. Things have kind of gone full circle for me on this. Ever since the days of playing a scrolling 1st person shooter called Operation Wulf on the old Speccy, that used a controller. Then onto PC Gaming witht he mouse and keyboard and now back to a controller for Consoles.

Out of all three I would say that I am most comfortable with a mouse and keyboard but is that because it is what I have been used to using the most. Having played a bit of Gears of War 2 over the weekend I found it difficult but I think that was more to do with being used to using both hands. It is taking time getting used to moving the cursor with a thumb stick rather than zipping with the mouse. Over time I suspect I will get better.

Again no clear winner

Games need patching on release, I need to update grahics drivers
Again this can be looked at in one of two ways. If you want your game time out of a box and are happy with it then console gaming is for you. But ask yourself a question, why are driver updates released, in most cases it's to advance the performance of the existing hardware, so is it safe to assume that from a visual perspective at least my experience should get better with time. For me it's not really a big issue to download a driver update.

The last time I had an issue with a game out of the box was for Battlefield 1942 when the native drivers for the nvidia 5200 were gash. Other than that I have had no real issues with gameplay and performance because of incompatible hardware.

You need the latest PC Hardware to make it look good

This is think is a dangerous argument from the console gamers as it isn't factually true. Again from my experience you don't need to have the very latest hardware to run the very large percentage of games nowdays. Using one of my relatives as an example, an old Athlon 3700 and a Radeon 9700. His experience of Call fo Duty 4 is just as enjoyable to him as it is to me on Quad Core and 4850. Ultimately you don't have to upgrade all of your PC to get some very good performance issues.

The ExperienceConsole Fans would have us beleive that XBL is the best thing to happen to gaming because of the achievment system and social networking of gamers. Up until a few months ago I probably would have gone with that but I don't think it offers anything dramatically different to what Steam offers at present. All with integrated chat and match making. In some case I think Steam can be a little better given it's catalogue of top games available direct to drive. This gives the added benefit of not having an Apache Gunship (Xbox360)whirring underneath the TV whilst your playing your game

Where the PC fails on this count is that there is too many platforms. Steam, Xfire, GameSpy Arcade, Metaboli, Direct2Drive, Good Old Games, Gametap. Not to mention the ill fated PC Gamers alliance.

The other argument on the experience front comes from "Well I can just sit on my setee playing on my plasma whilst you are hunched over your desk" Well I am comfortable with each. One thing I will say is that console gaming has kind of turned my wife (Game Hater) into a casual gamer of sorts. We have had a real laugh playing SingStar on the PS3. Me and Litte Loki have had some good fun playing Little Big Planet and Fifa which I don't think can be replicated on PC.

That said gaming for me isn't about grinding out achievements or results, the social experience is far more important to me than any grinding session. I have made some very good friends over the years through gaming. A lot of the time I am happy chatting away on ventrilo to them talking the usual boys stuff whilst browsing the web, doing some work or watching a film and them doing something completely different. I doubt I could be arsed to fire up the console to do that in all honesty.

Conculsions

In a perfect world, you would want a system as quiet as PS3 with the games catalogue of the X360 on a platform like Steam. I think there is no clear winner in this and it is down to personal preference in a lot of cases.

What muddys the waters is that it is no always a level playing field. Too often we get caught up in the debate of Consoles sold x more games than PC so it is naturally better. In a lot of cases the official sales figures don't include digital downloads on platforms like steam or D2D. The only facts we do have is that there are less PC titles being released yet PC sales figures are up year on year (According to MCV) Console games also get more shelf space than PC Games.

If PC Gaming is to progress it absolutley needs to sort out DRM as a matter of urgency. It's amazing that the proper paid up gamers get treated worse than what the pirates do. I don't think it needs the dramatic overhaul some would have us believe. In as much as its great playing on a big screen with the family, I can still have my main PC plugged into it and it will look better than the console version like for like

Do I have a preference over what system I use ??? Well actually no and I am happy to put them in particular order. They all offer something different to me from what I want from my interactive gaming experience. I like the idea of playing on bigger multiplayer maps for PC Gaming but am really liking the story driven games on console. I also love the idea of some really classic games being transformed by some wondeful maps and mods on PC. So my gaming experince potentially is cheaper and lasts longer on PC than on console.

For me there is no clear winner. The cynic in me says that the only clear winner is the software houses as they will get a sale of there software regardless if you use a M & K or Controller.

Thanks for tuning in....