PC vs. Console

[[AK]Swae]

Is PC gaming dying?

[[AK]StitchJones]

[long wind post]
I myself have posted here about this situation many times. Consoles are were your seeing the most development and growth. And it will continue to stay that way for quite a long time. The simple truth is that there are too many 3rd party hardware vendors creating PC based hardware. This adds additional time to game development and also leaves companies in a lurch to leave development team members to patch and update games after they are released to fix bugs and hardware based issues.
There are and have been games released over the years that offer jaw dropping graphics, but that comes at a cost. For a PC you already own, depending on it's age. You may or may not be able to play the newest and coolest 3D game that just came out. Let's pick Crysis for example. Okay maybe Crysis will play on your machine but you have to run the resolution at 800x600 with very low quality settings. This will take away from the overall experience from the game. Now if you spend several hundred dollars or more for new video card(s) and or maybe you uplift other parts of your system, let's say you invest about $500 in total. You now can play and enjoy Crysis with better quality. And you will be very impressed.
Move the clock forward a year or so, maybe a new super duper game will be out that you simply must play, but you are faced again with having to look at a upgrade to get the best quality possible. You are now in a constant rat race.
Consoles on the other hand, all have the same hardware and configurations. Developers know exactly how and what it can do and code their games as such. Any singe one of you who have walked into any type of Video Game store (E.B. Games, Gamestop) can attest to the fact that the PC gaming section has been reduced to a single portable display, or in some cases a floor bin. And the console games (Sony, Xbox, Nintendo) take up the rest of the store. This has become the trend. In many cases with the newest wave of consoles that produce higher output resolutions, 1280x720 and 1980x1080 you now have the HD generation (except for Nintendo). You are seeing higher quality games that look great, play smooth and most importantly when playing on line,,,,, No cheating or hacks.

Wow I went on a freakin rant.

Okay to get this post complete, let me say that PC gaming is and has been in a lurch. The best thing possible to re-boost and get sales numbers up, hardware companies need to unify devices for better compatibility when running games. Things need to be more Mac like on the PC side
[/long wind post]

[[AK]Vaxschulah]

I love my PC but have been seeing this for some time now...especially since playing on the Xbox 360. That thing is incredible. I am so tired of not getting to play stuff because I can't afford the PC upgrade to.

[[AK]StitchJones]

Vax, thanks for posting something in here. I was overly worried that I nuked this thread

[[AK]The Beast]

PC games aren't dead, but they are being relegated to a niche market. Can you imagine playing WoW on a console? Same goes for strategy games. Civ 4 or Company of Heroes just doesn't work with an XBox 360 controller. And just ask Hylander what he thinks of sim racing games for the console. That opinion is shared by flight sim enthusiasts, too.

Of course, I can't really imagine playing a shooter on a console, but more and more that's where they're coming out (at least first, if not exclusively). Sports games rule on consoles, though.

[[AK]Hylander]

PC games aren't dead, but they are being relegated to a niche market. Can you imagine playing WoW on a console? Same goes for strategy games. Civ 4 or Company of Heroes just doesn't work with an XBox 360 controller. And just ask Hylander what he thinks of sim racing games for the console. That opinion is shared by flight sim enthusiasts, too.

Of course, I can't really imagine playing a shooter on a console, but more and more that's where they're coming out (at least first, if not exclusively). Sports games rule on consoles, though.

Exactly right. How often are consoles released with updated hardware? Once every 3 to 5 years? How advanced do you think Graphics would be if the PC platform had no games on it? Do you think AMD/ATI or NVIDIA would be pushing forward with more powerful and better equipment regularly when there is no platform to sell their hardware on?

In terms of Sims (racing, flight, etc.) the biggest draw back is there is no modding community possible for the console. Just go take a look at rfactor central and look at the hundreds of mods available for rfactor, or look at the hundreds upon hundreds of community created tracks and vehicle add-ons. The same holds true for air and rail sims. It's just not possible on a console. Until the console stores it's games on a HD, and there is a traditional OS that allows modders to tinker with it... the consoles will be limited to FPS and sports games for the most part. Modding is a huge part of gaming these days. I won't even get into the controller aspect and communication limitations. I wouldn't even want to think about trying to play Civ IV or something like WoW without a keyboard and mouse.

[[AK]Clay]

Stitch is right of course, but so is Beast. If consoles really want to put the nail in the PC coffin, they're going to need to better integrate keyboards and mice. I believe such can be plugged in, but it's an anomily. Games like WoW, Civ IV, etc, just can't be played on a stock conventional console. WoW in particular is as much a social game as a video game - keyboard/text communications are crucial for that model to work.

Not to mention the modding and constant need for patches that some game models require.