Issue Many factors need to be examined, to determine which one is better for your own gaming enjoyment. I've broken this comparison down into 6 different areas:
I've tried to be as objective as possible, but I'd like to say right away that I am a convert from a PC gamer to a console gamer. My comparison is as fair as I can make it. Also, I have used the Xbox for all of my console examples because that is what I own. All 3 consoles would apply here. The Environment - Where I play the games For me, the environment where I play games is very important to me. I like to be comfortable, and I want to feel as though I've enjoyed my time playing games. Often I get very engrossed in a game, and the other things in the world are the screen, and controller. But even then, when I do die, and look away from the screen, I don't want it to seem like I REALLY went to hell. So I want the room to be nice- the right lighting, airy, and a comfortable place to sit my ass. I play PC games in my 'office' which is essentially a spare bedroom with
two computers in it. This is also the room where my wife paints, and we
pay all of the bills. I would not consider putting my computer in the
living room or family room, because it just isn't that sort of thing-
and I don't think my wife would let me anyway. My computer is sitting
under a desk, with the monitor, keyboard, and mouse on top. The desk area
is stacked with papers, CD's, pens, a phone, etc, it is the typical messy
desk, sometimes it is distracting to have all of that junk around. When
people do 'gather around' my PC, it is uncomfortable for the person playing,
and the people watching who need to stand, and look over the shoulder
of the player. Do I really need all of those people behind me looking
at my bald spot? For comfort, I've got a decent office chair, but like most office chairs I sit fairly upright and the sitting position options are limited. I can raise or lower the chair, lean back, etc- but I can't put my feet up and get really comfortable. Another big annoyance in the room is the noise coming off the computer, because I usually have the cover off for some dumb reason (upgrades, dinking with hardware, etc.) although this has slowed down since I stopped using it for gaming. The office is a decent place to play games, but it is still a small room. Everything is fairly comfortable, but it is made more for work than playing. Getting more than one person involved is very difficult.
Comfort-wise, the environment is much, much better with the console in the living room. I can relax in the recliner, or move to the couch. We've got blankets out there for when it is cold, and there is plenty of room to spread out. This situation is also much better for multiple people- so if someone wants to watch, or join in- there is plenty of room. Frequently we get 4 player games going, and everyone has a good place to sit, and everyone has a good view. TV's are usually set up that way, right? Food can be set out on the coffee table for sharing without dealing with last months bills (Note to self- pay bills tonight!). One big important factor for console gaming- we do not have any television reception. No cable, no satellite, no rabbit ears. Nothing. This means that unless someone is watching a DVD, the Xbox and television are open for gaming. This is huge because if your only gaming system was constantly 'busy' with people watching TV, you probably would not be able to play many games. If your household has a conflict of gamers and TV watchers, you will probably need a second TV for gaming. The comfort difference between my living room and my office is immense. Couches were made for relaxing, and chairs were made for working. The comfort difference is amplified when there are more people involved. Multi-player and Social Gaming
On-line multi-player is handled fine in a lot of PC games. You can get on-line, play against opponents all throughout the world, and in my case- get your ass handed to you fairly quickly and easily. While this is multi-player, it is not really social. With rare exceptions, there is no voice communication, and 'chatting' via the keyboard is the only option. Still not very socially stimulating. In some games like America's Army, I've been killed many times while in chat mode- because you can't move while you chat- they just aren't integrated. Most PC game servers are free, but there is the occasional MMORPG that has a monthly charge. Another huge issue with PC on-line games is cheating. Whenever I play on-line on my computer, I always wonder if the other guy is cheating (since I am usually losing..). Play just about any FPS, and you might wonder how the hell the other guys can open a door, run into a room, and kill you with a headshot when you are hiding behind a crate. Well...good chance that they are cheating. Ruins it for everyone and it is still prevalent on most PC games. I've always thought of PC gaming as a singular activity- with on-line play just replacing the computer AI.
Console on-line gaming with Xbox Live can also be excellent. With Xbox Live getting into a game is easy, and the interaction between players is usually pretty good. Xbox Live comes with a headset/microphone, which allows everyone to talk while playing the game. If the game has a lot of players like MechAssault, the trash talk is usually pretty good. So is organizing your team to coordinate their effort toward a common goal. For instance if 'Johnny Rotten' is cremating everyone, someone can shout out 'Go after Johnny!', and the entire game can turn on him. Great fun when it happens. Xbox Live only allows people with broadband (cable/dsl) connections, and this is a good thing. Even with broadband only connections, you can experience a lot of slowdown, or lag during some of the games. Top Spin tennis seems to have lag issues- as does Crimson Skies. But if you look around for a decent hosting server, you can usually find one that is pretty fast. I usually enjoy talking in games with lots of players. When it is a 1 on 1 situation though, the conversation seems to get stale pretty quick when you don't know the other person. It's chatting- not a real relationship. I've also noticed that there is far, far less cheating on console multi-player on-line games than the PC. I don't know if I have come across any at all on Xbox Live. Some people might play in a way that is no fun (Top Spin crappy serves) - but no outright cheating. When I play Crimson Skies and have a 1/20 kill/death ratio, I don't immediately think "frickin cheaters", I usually imagine that my opponents are all 14 year old kids with nothing better to do than sit at home all day and play games. Then the bastards start talking on the headset, and I find out that DeathB4Taxes is like 46 years old, and owns a car dealership. Damn! There goes my pride.
For me, the best part of playing console games, is the yelling, screaming, taunting, and harassing that goes on when multiple people are playing together in the same room. 4 humans playing Top Spin, Links (golf), or NBA Street can get crazy- usually at least one person sucks at the game, and half of the fun can be mocking them. I just can't imagine setting up head to head Dance Dance Revolution pads in my office, while we crowd around a smaller screen and push a filing cabinet out of the way. On the console, gaming really can be a social event. People, real people, make gaming much more fun. Consoles allow you to have multiple people all playing in the same room- yelling, screaming and having a good time. The Game Types-The Controllers
It is impossible to talk about the different games available on consoles vs PC's, without talking about the different controllers. Most games on a PC are played with a keyboard and mouse. This has some benefits. First of all, the keyboard obviously has a lot more 'buttons' than a controller- this helps in thing like real time simulations, where you want to map different keys to many different functions. Or, if you want to put each one of your weapons on a different number key- common in a lot of First Person Shooters (FPS). The mouse is a very accurate pointing device, and very quick too. You can move from one side of the screen to the other, following a complicated path very easily. This is excellent when trying to aim a weapon in a First Person Shooter. Or setting up way-points on a map in a real time simulation (RTS). The console controller usually has a few 'joysticks' to control direction- in modern consoles they are analog joysticks, allowing the system to determine how quickly you moved the stick, how far you move the stick, or even how hard you pressed a button. When playing games on a keyboard, usually hitting and holding the 'W' key will move your player forward, and other modifiers control the speed. But on a console, you can usually move the stick just a little bit to sneak- move it a little further to walk- and push it all the way in order to run. Typically this type of movement control is used in 3rd person platformers. I can't say I ever enjoyed a 3rd person platformer on a PC. On the console just recently I've played Simpsons: Hit and Run, and Metal Arms- both were excellent games, and both from a 3rd person perspective, with 'platformer' levels of running and jumping. Even Grand Theft Auto was a pain to play on the PC.
Racing games are another genre that is very controller dependent. And with the default controllers, consoles wipe the floor with the PC and its keyboard/mouse. Once again, the analog joysticks on a console make steering with a console controller much easier than a keyboard. I have never enjoyed any racing games I played with a keyboard. When I got Grand Theft Auto on the PC, I thought it was a pretty bad game, due to the control. When I played it on a console I found out that it is actually a pretty fun game! Also, both the PC and the console allow you to purchase a separate steering wheel for racing games. I did purchase a wheel for my PC, and it made the games go from un-playable, to pretty darn fun. This was great in games that were strictly racing, but in any game where you jumped in and out of a car (Simpsons Hit and Run type thing) you couldn't really use it. The downside of the wheel was really just the amount of space it took in my office, and the amount of time it took to set up- deciding to play Rallisport Challenge on my PC was a big undertaking.
The PC control scheme really shines in one area- First Person Shooters. Other than that, I generally prefer the controls of a console. I've moved from hating sports games to really enjoying them just because of the controllers. My tastes in games have greatly expanded from the single-person FPS and RTS genres, to a lot of different areas. I've got Halo, which of course is a good FPS, Metal Arms is a great 3rd person shooter, sports games, racing games, puzzle games, and even a dancing game. Except for the FPS, I prefer all of the rest on the console. Moving from a PC to a Console made me change the types of games I play. Now instead of playing yet another FPS, I've branched out- and I am having more fun. Cost Initial Costs are fairly easy to gauge for consoles. Right now, the Xbox and PS2 are both $179, and usually come with a couple of games. Consoles usually start their life cycle being a little more expensive than that- but why buy a console near launch, when there are no games to play? A PC for gaming can cost anywhere from $600-$2500. Obviously the consoles are much cheaper to start with. But one additional thing to factor in is accessories. Here the console gets blown away. Most gaming on a PC is done with fairly standard hardware- your keyboard, and your mouse. Gamepads, joysticks, and racing wheels are fairly un-common. Which financially is great. It doesn't to great things for playing sports games on the system, but it does make it cheaper. On a console, expect that you'll need to buy 3 more controllers for multi-player games, memory cards for the Gamecube or PS2, or a DVD remote for an Xbox, if you want to use it for DVD's. Each controller will set you back about $30, so you can figure controllers ! plus memory/remote will run about $120 or so- tacked on to the original price of the console, if you really want to get your moneys worth. If you want to play Dance Dance Revolution, you should get a Beat Pad or two, costing you another $40-80. Maintenance/Games Good console games cost $49.99- they are rarely discounted by the different retailers. And the price stays there....for a long, long time. Good thing about computer games- you can usually buy games discounted on day one. Some retailer out there usually has games for about $5 cheaper than the MSRP. And in the next few months, the games will drop in price drastically. This looks like a win for the PC, and it is. Today at EB Games I noticed that Simpsons Hit and Run was $49.99 for the console version, and $29.99 for the PC. The only problem is that when PC games are too old, they really look out-dated. If you pay for good hardware, it is no fun to play outdated games that don't use it. This doesn't happen much on consoles, because the hardware specifications are fixed. The hardware will be the same on day 1, as it is in year 4. So other than optimizations, there is no big rush for games to push more and more polygons- because the console just won't be able to handle it. In an odd way, this is actually an advantage for consoles- because you don't need to keep upgrading, in order to play the latest games. Overall though, if I buy 12-15 games a year, I will probably spend an extra $150-200 on console games because of the price difference. Longevity- Replacement - PC gamers are RARELY satisfied with the quality of their hardware- at least I never was. And if they are satisfied, that usually means they have spent the last week running 3dMark- and not playing games. On the PC side, I would probably spend $500-$800 each year, upgrading my memory, motherboard, hard-drive, monitor, graphics card, etc. And that was to keep my rig somewhat playable- but never a screamer. There was another advantage to this though- everything else I did on my computer, surfing the net, editing photos, etc. was also sped up. And if I didn't play games, I would eventually need to upgrade my system anyway. Recently I started editing video on my computer, and because my system was in 'gaming shape' I had no problem with video. Consoles on the other hand usually do nothing other than play games. So that $150-$300 you spend every time to get a new console, doesn't usually help you in many other ways. In the most recent generation of consoles, you usually got a DVD player, which was nice. My old standalone DVD player was garbage, so it was nice to have the Xbox around when I finally decided not to put up with that other piece of crap anymore. Console generations are typically about 4 years long, so the hardware costs will only be hit every 4 years. Figuring controllers, etc- the console hardware will cost a total of about $400-$500. In terms of overall cost- consoles are much cheaper. I will always have a PC- but now I can buy a cheap PC, or even a laptop. I don't even need an AGP slot if I don't plan on playing games, which opens up a whole new world of low-end utilitarian PCs. Also, time spent managing and servicing my computer will go way down, when I don't have games forcing me to change hardware and software every few months. This may even be a bigger factor for people who don't want to run Windows- because basically the only gaming OS on a multifunction computer is Windows. When you do all of your gaming on a console, you have more of a choice on your PC. Over a 4 year period, I will probably save at least $1500 by playing games on a console, instead of a PC. Cost was not a huge factor for me, but now I find myself buying more Xbox games, because I spend less on the hardware. Overall I think I save $200-300 a year total, and still get to buy about twice as many games as I used to. Technology
*** Way Late Update - I upgraded my TV to a 32" HDTV in 2004. I also upgraded my computer to a 3GHZ machine in 2004, but I was able to keep the same graphics card, monitor, etc. The only reason I bought a new computer, is my old one died. Piece of crap. The computer system is not top-of-the-line now, but in late 2002/early 2003 when I did the last upgrades, it was pretty decent. As a non-gaming computer it is perfectly fine for everything I do. If I were still gaming on it, I would have replaced the processor and video card by now, for at least $300. The sound was never a huge issue for me, because 99% of the time I play PC games with headphones on. Graphics on PC games are better. Much better. Like, almost no comparison better. Unfortunately I do not have an HDTV with my Xbox, so my only comparison is standard NTSC, and really, there is no comparison. But this is okay, really. Getting ultra-high resolutions on a PC can be fun, and they do look nice- but rarely does it really effect the gameplay. I was playing Halo on the Xbox for a long time- finished the game, and enjoyed it all the way through. A friend who comes over has Halo on the PC, and thinks the Xbox version is crap in comparison. I have no reason to doubt him, but at this point I just don't care. The game on the Xbox looks good enough for it to be enjoyable, and that is good enough for me. The primary reason that I don't mind making this trade-off is stability. Stability- the holy grail of PC gaming. I have to say that I never achieved it. Every time I got all the settings right to finally play one game without constant crashing, I'd get a new game, and have to start everything over again. Some games run better on ATI video cards, some run better on nVidia. I've bought video cards just to play one game, which was crash prone on the 'other' brand of card. Which version of the driver does the best with a particular game? It was usually an exercise in frustration to get everything figured out- and even when it seems that it was all working well, something new would come along and cause problems. One of the very few times that I had a game that played trouble-free was Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. Other than that, just about every game could be expected to crash every few hours or so. Consoles rarely crash. I've had my Xbox crash a total of 3 times. Twice on Outlaw Volleyball- which I attribute to the fact that it is just a crappy game, and once during Top Spin tennis because of a dirty disc. The reason that consoles don't crash, where PCs do is fairly simple- hardware stability. A console game can be written with specific hardware in mind It is fairly simple and straightforward. I slap a disc in the drive, and the game starts up without any problems. On a PC though, there are many, many different factors that can come into play and screw things up- video cards and sound cards seem to be the most problematic. Maybe I am just lazy, but I really don't like to screw around with my computer just to get a game to work- even if it is the most beautiful game in the world- I just want to play it! In the technology arena- my opinion is that the console is a clear winner. In fact, the reason I started to play console games in the first place was the lack of stability on my PC, and the constant frustration of downloading and testing new drivers in order to get a new game running. Nothing is more frustrating than being near the end of winning a race in Rallisport challenge on a PC, and having your system crash to the desktop. It's jarring, to say the least. Do this every 30 minutes or so, and you are ready to just throw the whole damn thing out the window for good. Except I don't want to break a perfectly good window. So even though the graphics may not be nearly as nice on a console- I'm perfectly willing to make that trade in order to have a more stable platform. PC games look a lot better than their console counter-parts. But playing games on a console, and not having to worry about my computer crashing is much better. Fun This is the last section of the comparison, but probably the most important. The real reason I play games, is to have fun. On the PC side, I can say that I had fun playing games. But more often it was serious. Real time strategy games like Rise of Nations are about thinking- planning, and executing those plans over a long period of time. I played Diablo II for hundreds of hours, and it was a great game. But what really made the game great was the fact that I had friends playing it at the same time, and we could talk about some great new sword we found, or some armor that we imbued to give it +4 cold damage, or something like that. Running around killing the same monsters thousands of times was okay, but talking about it the next day was even more fun. First person shooters are great games. But I would literally start sweating while playing America's Army because of the tension in the game. Great game, yes- fun? Sometimes. I have a lot more fun on my Xbox. The reason is simple- people. It always comes back to the same thing for me, when other people are involved, the games become a lot more fun. Links 2004 is a good golf game. But playing Links in alt-shot mode with my wife becomes fun. The fact that she is better than me, is even more fun. (C'mon...it's only golf- it's not a real game, with killing and stuff- I can still keep my hardcore gamer status.) In fact, when I am looking to buy new games, the first thing I want to know is "how many people can play"? People are social animals- we like to interact with other people, that is what makes things fun. When I was a teenager, my goal was to be locked in my room, with the lights off, playing games for hours and hours. Maybe that is good for a teenager (and you are probably doing everyone else a favor too) but now I think that while games might be the center of the action, it is other people that make console games great. Halo cooperative? Bring it on! Multi-player sports games? C'mon, I'll take the Cavs, you can have the Lakers. Two person platformer? Cool, you can be the blue guy, I'll be his little friend. As long as we're playing together, it will be fun. Final Opinion
The controllers may be different from a keyboard and mouse, and sometimes they just aren't as good. But the magic of 16 foot cord that brings it to my couch more than makes up for the lack of precision aiming. Maybe the graphics aren't as good on a console, or the games might be a little less complex- but when I turn the thing on, and be playing a game within a minute, and not worry about crashes, things are good. Add in the fact that I can have friends play- and the answer for me is very easy- I like console games a lot more. It's taken me years to come to this conclusion, but this is the most fun I have had with games in 28 years. Who I am: I've been playing video games since about 1976, when the Fairchild console came out. This was a year before the Atari 2600. I've owned a console in every generation since then, usually owning 'both' systems that were available. On the PC side, I've been playing on Apple II (1978), Vic 20, Commodore 64, Mac (original, SE, Classic, 6100) and about 6 different versions of the PC- Essentially DOS on an 8086 on up to Windows XP on an Athlon.
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The
Xbox sits in my living room. We've got two couches, and a recliner. Enough
to easily seat 6 people. There are also enough pillows that people can
lie on the floor comfortably. My television is a 29" standard NTSC/CRT,
which is a little too small but it works. Eventually I'd like to upgrade
to an HDTV, but I am going to wait for the prices to come down a little
bit. I occasionally borrow a projector for parties, and times when I just
want to see the games 8' tall on the wall. I use the standard semi-crappy
sound out of my TV, but it seems sufficient for me. My A/V setup is definitely
on the low-end, but it still works well for console gaming.
Hands
down, this is the biggest difference to me between gaming on a PC, or
gaming on a console. I have never seen PC gaming as anything even remotely
social. The only times it was social for me, were A: chatting in America's
Army for 7 minutes and 30 seconds in between games, whenever I got killed
in the first 30 seconds, or B: my friends and I gathered around a Commodore
PET, waiting to beat the crap out of each other if one of us lost a city
on 'Missile Command'. (3 of us, 3 cities. Each was assigned a city, and
if it was lost- the person who 'owned' that city was pummeled. Stupid
as hell, but fairly social in a teenage-boy kind of way.) I have not attended
a LAN party, because frankly, I don't want to lug my computer around-
AND I'm sure I am not good enough at the games they play anyway. The LAN
party is probably the zenith of social PC gaming- but they are just not
for me. If nothing else, the only time I enjoy that type of male/female
ratio is in the locker room, and even there I don't really 'enjoy' it.
Only a very small subset of PC gamers attend LAN parties, and I am not
one of them. (But for those about to rock (er..go to a LAN Party) I salute
you.)
On
the console side, multiplayer games are often a social event. I frequently
have people over to my house to play some Xbox games. I can only remember
one or two times having someone come over to play a game on the PC- and
it was more of a technology demonstration and less about playing the games.
With a console, I've had parties where 12 or so people got together to
play Top Spin tennis- even the people who "don't play video games"
had a great time. I frequently have people over to play games together-
usually a sports game of some sort- something where we don't need to go
split screen and the learning curve is low. Even Dance Dance Revolution
get togethers work- if everyone is willing to actually get up and 'dance'.
I've gone to other peoples houses where we got together and played games
for hours and hours. The games don't even need to be great, as long as
they provide a lot of interaction. In fact, if the game is a NOT a favorite
of the host, it seems to work better, because everyone is on more even
footing. (Ever try to play a sports game with someone who has completely
mastered the game? Impossible.)
The
keyboard/mouse combination has its advantages, most notably on First Person
Shooters. When used correctly though, consoles are not bad for FPSs, just
different. The auto-aim feature which many PC gamers find hideous, is
actually a pretty good thing when you get used to it. The first few times
I played a FPS on a console, I thought it was horrible. But after a while
I adapted, and actually started to enjoy it. Strangely, I never used grenades
during a battle on a PC, but with the less than accurate aiming on a Console,
grenades are much more common, and effective.
Sports
games were something that I was previously uninterested in- why play basketball
when you could kill Nazis? Actually, I just never got into the games on
the PC because of the keyboard/mouse control scheme does not work for
most sports games, and they were typically single player. I eventually
bought a game pad for my PC. It was a good controller, and worked fine.
Sort of...I tried to play Madden 2003, and I quickly found out that my
controller was missing one of the buttons the game wanted, and the layout
was completely different from the layouts the game included. I ended up
always having to mentally translate the controls shown in the game to
the buttons on my controller. When I played a sports game from a different
company, they did not use the same controller schemes as Madden- but it
still didn't match my controller. Once again, the console controller wins
out. In my opinion, sports games are really a console-only thing. Which
is fine, because they are some of the most social games out there, and
are much better played with friends.
As
a former hard-core/dedicated PC gamer, I was amazed at how quickly I was
able to switch over to console gaming, and really enjoy it. Now when I
buy a game, I take it home, and I can start playing in about 5 minutes.
Most of that time is taken by going to the bathroom, and opening the box
(usually at the same time).
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