Gaming - PC or console?

Post Reply New Topic

Just curious what everyone's take is on this. The "war" is ongoing, but I couldn't give a rats.

That being said, I am considering console again. I have a powerful PC (see end of post for relevant specs), but I really only play one game on it: World of Warcraft. Lately I've become slowly bored with it, due to a number of issues. It's not that I'm addicted (I happily drop the game to hang out with friends), it's just that at times it has felt more of a chore to play than actually fun. I also think I'm starting to get off-side with having to pay a subscription fee just to play it.

I'd be fine paying for DLC in games if it's something I want, or subscribing to something like Xbox Gold/PS Plus if I would gain a benefit or advantage from it (decreased cost for purchases for example). But perhaps just buying a game should be enough, rather than also paying to play it.

Now with consoles, which I have owned before, I see a number of advantages there. My friends can play them with me just by having an extra controller, I can relax on a couch or my bed (depending on the console's location), the console can double as a media player, and the screen it's playing on would be huge (say 55" compared to a 24" monitor). I have fond memories of playing console games with friends, and also that 4 hour session I enjoyed with Infamous 2 when I had a PS3.

So what do yous think?

PC specs: Core i7 8700, 16GB DDR4 2666Mhz RAM, 1TB Samsung PRO SSD, Gigabyte GTX 1080 G1 Gaming Edition 8GB

I'm not too bothered which is better. Assuming they're both good, you can't really go wrong. I don't know if the "war" has gradually slowed to a standstill or if I don't notice anymore because I'm apathetic toward it. Either way, I don't much care.

I often just play PS4 but I would like to start back on PC again. I'm kind of like the inverse of yourself in that respect; I'm on console but want to return to PC soon.

Table-top.

Specs: Core Rulebooks, Polyhedral Dice (d4, d6, d8, d12, and d20), Paper, Pencils, Pizza, and Diet Mountain Dew

Batteries not included.

This is all possible with a PC as I do this ( except the friend bit , I don't do friends )

I have both... PC and consoles. This machine I'm using is my main PC, and then I have my laptop (which I hate) a Nintendo Switch, and then a PS4.

I'll put it this way: The switch is sort of lying over in a heap in the corner of the room, and I dont actually know where the PS4 is and havent given enough of a crap to go look for it. Useless, both of them.

I have ALOT of games. Like, alot. More than I could count. 99% of them are only available on PC. I dont do AAA games, you see... not fond of greed-infused experiences, and I stopped being impressed by graphics and cutscenes YEARS ago. I'm typically always running ultra-high-end rigs here, and I've seen the best of the best of the best as graphics go... yeah, it stopped being neat quite awhile ago (and considering that it's pretty much THE selling point of AAA games, well.... yeah). Now I mostly play indie games, which there are ALOT of. Steam alone lists me as having 572 games as of right now. And that's just on Steam.

Wheras the consoles have... almost no exclusives (that dont suck). Hell, the entire reason I even have a PS4 is because I wanted LittleBigPlanet 3 when that came out (was fond of the original, but times have changed since then, which I should have realized before buying...), but that turned out to be a horrible buggy mess... the damn thing is now only used to play Enter the Gungeon when I'm travelling (and in a hotel room) and dont feel like tolerating the laptop (I hate laptops, period). The only reason I havent sold the PS4 is that I dont care enough. Too much effort, that.

The Switch is the one console that actually has some interesting things on it I cant get on PC (and by "some interesting things" I mostly mean "Mario and Pokemon" as I dont like the current Zelda or Metroid games, and there's not much else beyond those), but.... Nintendo releases these at the speed of a dead frog in sludge with a house strapped to it's back, so it still manages to be irrelevant most of the time. In December it will finally become "that thing that plays Smash Bros" but until then it's just an odd looking thing that for no apparent reason is lying next to my room's door. Not the safest place for it, but.... eh.


But then there's this other bit you said: "But perhaps just buying a game should be enough, rather than also paying to play it."

See, that's the NORM for me. Not an exception, not a rare event, it's NORMAL for me. Again, no AAA games here. I buy games frequently... REALLY frequently (as in, whenever I bloody well feel like it, as I have no real spending limit)... and I cant remember the last time I encountered one that was doing anything greedy. I'm used to paying anywhere from 5 - 20 dollars, and getting a FULL game that could be anywhere from 10 to hundreds of hours long in terms of how much stuff there is to do. No microtransactions, no lootboxes, no screwball schemes. Ya buy the bloody thing and you GET the bloody thing that you bought.

And the last reason: Console games are VERY STALE. They cost way too much to make now, so developers are loathe to really take any risks. If I want something creative... or hell, if I just want something with some bloody difficulty to it... I have to go elsewhere.


That's why I stick to PC. The AAA stuff... and thus, the consoles... can frankly go screw themselves.

And yes, I know the consoles also have indie games. But they have very, very, VERY few, and those few they DO have are also on PC (and the PC version of some games, such as Isaac for instance, often also has mod support or are just plain better in other ways), so.... yeah. No need there.



As for the bit about friends and multiplayer and big TV? There's nothing stopping a PC player from doing any of those things. The idea that those cant happen on PC is a myth. It's all up to YOUR setup and equipment.

Granted the bit about playing with friends in the same room mostly baffles me. Sounds gross. I'll pass on that part, but hey, it's possible to do.

I've got about a dozen consoles, but haven't used any of them for at least two years since discovering PC gaming. The newest commercially released PC game I've played is Devastation, which came out in 2003. I mostly play Doom wads, of which there are almost infinite numbers and cost nothing at all.

Mostly play on a Windows 8.1 laptop. Occasionally use a Win 7 machine for wads which require first generation GZDoom, and have a couple of XP machines for other non-Doom games which might not tolerate more modern machinery.

I once owned a Wii specifically for Pokemon Battle Revolution, so having a PC just to play World of Warcraft isn't anything new. My PS2, PS3, and X360 had varying titles. This was back a few years ago before I got into PC gaming.

Berate me if you want to (I don't particularly care), but I use a third-party app to automate my rotation in WoW. It makes it easier, but by no means do I use it against other players. Only in PvE content. But such apps are being relentlessly targeted by Blizzard in recent times, because people abuse and misuse the. If all such apps get defeated, then playing manually will be difficult.

Even so, I'm becoming disinterested in the game. It has fantastic background lore though, but this isn't nor shouldn't be a reason to play a game that isn't always enjoyable, or sometimes feels like a chore. Player toxicity can be an issue too.

I own a PS4, 3DS and a PC, but 99% of the gaming I do is on PC. There are only a few games that are exclusive to console I'm interested in. I also really dislike how little control you have on console titles over how the game runs. I own a PS4 which I bought for Bloodborne, and though the game itself was great the performance was terrible. There's no reason I shouldn't be able to downsample to have it run at a decent framerate, but that just isn't how console games are made.

PC also has a ton of games compared to consoles, and it is completely open. If Sony or Nintendo decide they don't want a title, tough luck. PC doesn't have this problem, if one store decides they don't want something then it can be hosted elsewhere, on a developer webpage or sold through funding sites like indiegogo.

Also, playing online on a console just isn't a thing I'll ever consider because it's absurd that they expect people to pay for a subscription service. It made Bloodborne feel like it was missing something compared to the Souls games but there's no way I'm paying whatever price it is a month for a game that I sporadically played over a year to completion, leading to a price double that of the game itself.

Hmm, some interesting replies here. I'll try to respond in order:

I will say, the Switch is actually a pretty nice device. Well, I dont like the controls on it... gives me trouble with my arm. So I usually use the pro controller or whatever the heck they call it. But yeah, there's just not much there. Nintendo releases games WAY too slowly. I like the Mario series... always have... and I did like Arms as well. Zelda was... kinda "bleh". I always call it "Legend of Zelda: Ubisoft Edition" because that's basically what it is. Possibly one of the least original things Nintendo has ever made. It even has the bloody towers. I get why people like it... sort of... but I got bored of it after about 5 hours, havent touched it since. Mostly, I bought the console in anticipation of Smash... THAT is the one I really care about. That's looking to be beyond fantastic (as the previous game was). But even though I'm likely to get a gazillion hours out of it... it's still just one game, and the fighting genre isnt for everyone. Other than that the Switch mostly is there just to play Binding of Isaac when I'm travelling or something.




See, honestly, I just cant get interested in any of these. They're all the same bloody things over and over again, same as they always have been. Hell, even Horizon, a new IP, is YET ANOTHER open world game. Having seen some gameplay videos, it's just the same bloody thing I've seen a million times. Bloodborne is... ehhhh... I mean it'd at least give a bit of challenge (I'll get to that in a moment) but the controls on those games are just... I freaking hate them. I've played Dark Souls. Couldnt stand it. I refunded it quickly... I found the controls to be THAT detestable. And I almost *never* refund anything despite how very frequently I buy new games. God of War just looks boring, and Persona... I dont do RPGs. Not at all fond of story-focused games. Never have been. If I want a story, I'll read one of the bazillions of books I have. Also, honestly, even "hard" RPGs are typically pretty easy. There was one, and ONLY one, I've ever played (I did used to play them) that actually put up a fight, and that was SMT: Nocturne. But even in that one, every challenge can be beaten by simple grinding.

Well, I say that, but what I actually mean by "RPGs" is "JRPGs". There's another type that I've often heard referred to as a "Wizardry clone". THOSE are different. They're usually very short on story elements (as that's just not the point) and extremely brutal when it comes to difficulty. The Dark Spire, which was on the DS, is my favorite example. It'll kill you over and over and over again... many players will never pass the first floor. But that type of RPG is pretty rare (and I suspect the difficulty and lack of story elements are the reasons for that). Granted the Wizardry series itself is like 8 games. But yeah, THAT sort I can get into, but no major company will touch that subgenre. But yeah, aside from those, I dont do RPGs. Heck, I dont know why I used to play JRPGs back then... I always got bored partway through and rarely ever finished any.




Aye, this is true, even if I never buy their stuff. I will say though I wish FROM hadnt abandoned the Armored Core series... but that series was an example of simply being way too complicated to be a mainstream thing. And the later games were getting kinda wonky.





Now this is where things get funky for me. I dont consider these games hard. I mean I've played things like God of War before (just not the recent one) and they never gave me trouble. But then, I have a very warped idea of "difficulty" in games.

Just to give a very direct example of what I mean: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fktC9WKgS00

Actually this one is perhaps an even better example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuOQBL1T2o8 Skip to 1:50, and watch the first attack that the boss does. If you can even track what's happening, that's impressive. Again, I will not get hit by anything. And note: That's not like the final boss or anything. It's the FIRST boss. The actual final one is legendary for it's difficulty, even among the shmup genre. If this is the first boss, just imagine how absurd the last one is. Oddly the second boss is actually the one that gave me the most trouble... I played through that game on the PS2, which couldnt QUITE handle it... the second boss in that mode involved alot of very abrupt slowdown (due to the nature of the chaos it was producing, the console literally cant deal with it), then very abrupt speeding-back-up, over and over again, and... yeah that is a problem, I dunno how that got through testing, but that's a whole other rant.

That's the sort of loopy difficulty I'm used to, and even then, you'll notice I dont die at any point (a single hit kills you in this type of game). And yes, I can follow everything that happens on the screen (actually dodging it is another matter).

Aside from that, I'm also really into roguelikes/lites/whatever stupid term they're using these days. They are also often of extreme difficulty (though there are certain specific ones that arent so much "difficult" as "genuinely unfair", I avoid those).

When compared to games like those, stuff like God of War just doesnt come close. Dont get me wrong: I fully grasp why other people find it hard, and I realize that what I can do is quite abnormal (and is balanced out by other genres... put me in a competitive FPS and I'll show you a new definition of the word "suck" as I screw up and fail over and over). But still, that's how it is for me. Understand, I have literally nothing but free time, all the time, to play these, so that is part of the reason.




Hmm, now as for creativity, I'm going to give one more example of something: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAFrKKApHTY

That is Hyperrogue, a turn-based roguelike that takes place on an infinite hyperbolic plane. I could also say, on a representation of non-Euclidean geometry. I genuinely cant explain the nature of that very well... I'm not exactly a geometry scientist here. But it is a very difficult and very complicated game. You have no HP at all, and a single hit (from absolutely anything) will kill you, but the game wont let you make a move that results in your death, so you essentially lose upon getting "checkmated" by enemies. There are MANY different area types in the game, each one having it's own unique and often very strange mechanics, which often only work BECAUSE of the unusual geometry. Hard to explain but it's actually a pretty intuitive game. However the difficulty is very, very high, and combat is very tactical. What's more, the better you are doing, the higher the difficulty goes, eventually becoming completely bonkers. The game is absolutely not for everyone (and some players have trouble even looking at it without getting odd side effects, but fortunately this is very rare, and those few that do can typically overcome it). But it's become one of my all-time favorites.

Mostly I'm just showing it as an example of something I consider very creative. Now, dont get me wrong: I dont think all games need to be creative. I mean, if something isnt broken, there's no reason to fix it. Heck, the shmup genre is just about the least-creative genre I know of (seriously, they ALL mimic each other). I get into plenty of more traditional games. But my point is, this sort of creativity just doesnt occur in the AAA space, which I find to be a real shame. Even moreso because it USED to happen on consoles. It really did. Back in the PS2 era and earlier, there were plenty of creative things. I remember one example, called Fantavision, that was a PS2 launch title. I dont know how the hell to explain that one, but it was alot of fun... look it up if interested. Bloody strange game, but I really enjoyed it. At some point, major developers just... sort of stopped making things like this. I'm not too sure exactly when that happened.

Right now, of the "major" developers, only Nintendo seems to ever try for real creativity. Like Splatoon, for instance... they really got interesting with that one (I havent played the second game though, only the first). But yeah, most major devs never deviate from basic formulas. There's the occaisional exception like Persona (as you're right, that series has always been quite unique in it's way), but that's very rare. I tend to stick with indie devs though partly because they have no restrictions... they can make whatever bloody strange thing they want. The big guys cant do that, they're restricted by the publishers they are under (among other aspects). Hell, the lack of restrictions on indies is the entire reason Minecraft exists, for instance. Yeah, that's a REALLY major developer now, but it started as one guy with a hobby. I had really hoped that some of the Big Guys would get inspired by that, when it showed that creative games truly could be loved by many, but it never happened.




Yeah, agreed. And you know, it's a real shame in some cases. Way back when, even EA used to put out some genuinely awesome stuff... some of their old games are among my favorites, like Starflight for instance. And I will say the Sims is still pretty darned good (and very unique). Same with Activision... I remember how they started out, making absolutely amazing games back on the ancient 2600, but... somehow, they became utterly corrupted over the years. A real shame. But yeah, the "publisher" aspect, not the development side of things, is truly the gateway to greed. I often kinda feel sorry for the developers themselves, forced to do some of that crap. I *know* it frustrates the hell out of plenty of them, but it's their job... they gotta do it.



Sorry, I'm rambling a bit, but I've always found this sort of subject to be very interesting. Alot of people wont agree with me on most of this, but hey, that's totally fine. Gaming is a very... subjective hobby, no?

If you actually read this far, I salute you. Most people dont.

I didn't know the war was still ongoing...especially now that games are supporting cross-play.

...except I hear that Sony doesn't want to support it, so I suppose in a sense, there's a new war.

I love PCs because there are probably billions of games for it, they're usually much cheaper, and a lot of great games are exclusive (or were watered down when ported to console). You can even buy a gamepad and emulate a wide selection of other computers and consoles.

But I also really enjoy hooking up my old consoles and playing them the way they were intended. Maybe it's just nostalgia.

I'm not really into newer consoles. I have a WiiU because I love Nintendo games (especially Zelda), but I haven't been sold on the Switch yet.

Couch play is great fun, but our experience on the 360 has been that there are quite a few games that don't support it, or only allow a maximum of two players. Borderlands and Dead Island were big letdowns there.

My friend bought an Xbone, but it mostly only gets used as a media player, or for the 360 games that are supported, or for Jackbox Party Pack.

Ewwww....I'll take a crab juice.

You can play games with better graphics than consoles — if you have a powerful gaming PC.

Eh, not that it even matters.

Dunno why people ever obsess over that aspect.

Consoles.

I can't be bothered with PC gaming.

I'm sticking with my PC. No consoles this time around. Can't let all that power go to waste after spending so much on it.

With regards to WoW, it is currently unsubscribed and uninstalled. Even if the rotation bot I was using was 99.99% safe, it still doesn't eliminate another issue I have/had. That being the player-base. Some, but not all, can be toxic (true for all online games really). In certain groups called "pugs", they can be quite picky too. You may know how to beat something or what to do, but if your "item level" isn't at a minimum, you're rejected. I mean come on, not everyone can farm stuff for 12 hours and have millions of gold to buy gear ya know.

By that logic, I shouldn't play WoW ever again eh!? Still a good story though. Great cinematics.

....Wait a minute.

Correct me if I'm wrong here, my memory is frankly a screwy mess half the time... but arent you the same one that had made some posts/topics in the past about WoW? You were trying to quit it, or something? Or there was something off about it and you were stepping away from it... am I making sense here?

Or am I thinking of someone else? .....Or have I just not had my caffiene yet, and I'm confusing everything further?