I have every single console from the current generation and have taken turns playing each exclusively. But the one "console" I believe outranks all the others is the PC. Why the PC, without any unified game service and a high entry price and some pretty crappy DRM at points? Well the answer can be long but I'll try to keep it short. I'll go through my pros individually.

• The price: something that is overhyped tremendously about PCs is the pricing. I am sitting at my computer right now that I spent about $300 on. Now I should note this does not include the price of a monitor but do you include the price of a TV when you buy a console? One of the best ways to save money on PCs is to buy a barebone kit, which is just all the components you need to make a computer but you put it together yourself, or just buy the parts individually. WARNING: You can damage parts putting your PC together yourself but I had a nerdy friend help me put it together and it took about an hour to get the whole thing together.
• The games: the PC is, in my opinion, awesome primarily because of it's indie game support. With some more popular indie games, like Minecraft and Braid, to some of the more hidden games like Breath of Death VII, which is only a couple of bucks on Steam, you have a huge library of high-quality, cheap games to play. Speaking of Steam though, if you use the Steam client you will never buy a game for $60 again because you will be waiting for one of the ridiculous sales they have on Steam every couple of months. I purchased the whole Assassin's Creed series for $25 on Steam over the summer! You can get almost any game on Steam for under $30 at some point or another.
• The freedom: unlike consoles, the limit to what you can do on your PC is unlimited! From simple things like changing your wallpaper to more advanced customization tools like Desktop Architect and Object Dock, you can do pretty much anything you want on your PC. Your PC is yourself on a digital frontier for you to explore the endless possibilities on your awesome rig. Also, how easy is it to get on GiantBomb from your PS3 or Xbox 360? Oh wait thats right there isn't even a browser on the 360 and for good reason because the PS3's browser is a piece of crap! Isn't it nice to be able to run your own music and play your games and run your own downloads without Microsoft or Sony telling you that you can only run one of them at a time, with a few minor exceptions.

Thanks for reading and as always, PC gaming FTW!!

@risingphoenix said:

but for most of you, you will look at this and say something like "What an idiot Sony/Xbox is way better!!!!!!!!!!" and for those people I am sorry because you are missing out on the longest lasting gaming platform that has been around generation after generation and can play games faster and sexier than any current-gen console ever will be able to. PC gaming FTW!!

No one on this website will come here and say this.

good for you i guess.

i have a PC and an xbox and thats awesome for me. only downside is i dont get uncharted. other than that its wonderful.

good to know, I honestly am pretty new to the Giantbomb community and im pretty used to trolls being everywhere lol

@Clonedzero: yep exclusives are the only reason I still play my consoles

Don't Hurt Yourself Patting Your Back

@risingphoenix said:

but for most of you, you will look at this and say something like "What an idiot Sony/Xbox is way better!!!!!!!!!!" and for those people I am sorry because you are missing out on the longest lasting gaming platform that has been around generation after generation and can play games faster and sexier than any current-gen console ever will be able to. PC gaming FTW!!

No one on this website will come here and say this.

@FluxWaveZ said:

@risingphoenix said:

but for most of you, you will look at this and say something like "What an idiot Sony/Xbox is way better!!!!!!!!!!" and for those people I am sorry because you are missing out on the longest lasting gaming platform that has been around generation after generation and can play games faster and sexier than any current-gen console ever will be able to. PC gaming FTW!!

No one on this website will come here and say this.

What an idiot the Sony Xbox is way better!!!!!!!!!!

@risingphoenix said:

@Clonedzero: yep exclusives are the only reason I still play my consoles

i didnt mean it like that. theres plenty of games i bought specifically for my xbox even though a PC version existed.

for example, i like first person shooters on my PC, but i like third person shooters on my 360. i like RPGs on my PC but i like action games on my 360. RTS for PC, racing games for console.

I love them awesome graphics with anti-aliasing that don't look like ass.

You could have left out the last paragraph. There's a subtle hint of flamebaiting.

I have a pretty nice PC, but the only games I really play on it are the true PC games, like Starcrat, MMO's, TF2, etc. For me a console is just so much less of a hassle. Some of my PC games run amazing at high settings, and others with similar graphic quality and recommended specs will run like crap. I never know how good a game will run or if it will even be playable. Plus it kind of sucks upgrading every few years. Oh and don't tell me PC gaming is cheaper than consoles.

You say you built a $300 system, maybe you can play games from 4 years ago okay, but I don't see anyway in hell you could play games from 2011 at a decent resolution or medium settings. Paying 300 for a new PC almost seems like a waste of money because it would be such a piece of shit. I built a rig for $850 2 years ago and it can run alot of games very well, but it is already showing signs of aging with the newer stuff. I spent maybe 300-400 (fuck I don't remember) when the 360 came out and It is still playing all the high end games 6 years later, If I built a $2000 rig back then it would be horribly outdated now. The argument of a PC being cheaper than a console will never be true, just stop.

I love my PC, but at the end of the day I just like to put in a disk and know it will work, and not have to worry about anything, plus I get a huge ass home theater experience. It's just easy.

I love my PC, I also love my consoles. I don't get the comparisons, so I don't take part in all the bickering. I mean, you love your PC, thats fine man. Just don't go out trying to act all superior over the console owners. Thank them instead, because without all the console owners, we probrably wouldn't get the chance to have the PC as a platform.

Here's why I'm a PC and console gamer:

Because I can and also because I will now never have to go "aw, it's exclusive to 'insert any console here' ? aaaw :("

id just like to clarify, I have no problem with anyone playing consoles and until about a year ago that is all I played too. I just want to help show some people who are on the fence about pc gaming some of the pros of it and why they should give it a shot.

@ZeForgotten said:

Here's why I'm a PC and console gamer:

Because I can and also because I will now never have to go "aw, it's exclusive to 'insert any console here' ? aaaw :("

Pretty much this. I'm a gamer. I don't have an exclusivity deal with any particular company or platform.

I like video games. Period.

The complement each other well, it's ridiculous to say one is always better than the other. No one should ever completely forgo one for the other, if they can help it (obviously not everyone can afford too). The only things stopping me from only playing on a PC is that I just don't find it comfortable. Sitting at my desk after working all day at my desk is not what I want. Maybe one day I'll be in a situation to easily output it to a tv, but right now I can't.

Also, another (really) big reason that PC gaming bugs me is that, sometimes, things just aren't reliable. Console games, for all their sacrifices, usually work perfectly. You don't always know how PC games are going to play with your setup. A few years ago, Source games always crashed on my computer. It had nothing to do with specs, I had more than enough power, and I always kept my drivers up to date. But for some reason, those games just didn't agree with my system and would randomly crash all the time (it eventually stopped a few years later). That's a big pain in the ass, to be honest. If I spend my money on something, I'd like to know it works. I hate having to fiddle with games to get them to work, or watch them not work at all.

Because it was the format I started off on. Oh I played starmaster(even got the hat!) and some ghosts and goblins on some earliar machine, but I was working too much to really care. Later when Pc's happened it was duke Nukem 3d, and my life changed.

@PixelPrinny said:

@ZeForgotten said:

Here's why I'm a PC and console gamer:

Because I can and also because I will now never have to go "aw, it's exclusive to 'insert any console here' ? aaaw :("

Pretty much this. I'm a gamer. I don't have an exclusivity deal with any particular company or platform.

I like video games. Period.

hey! i like video games too!

I wrote up this big paragraph, but ya know @Clonedzero said:

hey! i like video games too!

Me too.

I like my PC for RTS, Tower Defence and FPS games.

I like my PS3 for everything else.

I like my Sony Xbox.

PC gaming is awesome. i do enjoy it from time to time. tf2 is free, and there are also mods for the game. i got it on sale for $20 one time. i was amazed at how much better the game felt compared to the 360 version.

The PC is the system that I definitley use the most to play games, and I couldn't agree with you more about the crazy sales on steam. However I like to think that I love each of my consoles along with my PC equally :P

PC elitists ftw!!!

I'm mainly a PC gamer myself because most of what I do is on there and I am more than comfortable playing via a desk and chair. Sure I will miss some great games on consoles (I hope FEZ comes to PC but that's one big example for me) but with limited funds I rather keep my expenses on having a decent PC (cheaper than a lot of people think), mainly because I have more than gaming as a reason to have good hardware.

Also I like to take advantage of crazy sales on Steam whenever possible (Such as paying only $27AU for Assassin's Creed 1,2 and Brotherhood what a steal). Also a good deal of PC games are moddable, meaning you will see amazing things that will only ever be possible on a PC (mainly because of how open and malleable PC's tend to be).

Naw I also like this gen consoles. Doing SofD and Resistance3 right now..well besides Hard Reset. The only reason I got a Ps2 so late in the game was for Killer7.(which now I can play on my launch PS3-luv it!)

for me it's that it makes the most sense with where the industry is going. with digital distribution becoming bigger and bigger, it makes less and less sense to have all your games locked to a machine that will become outdated, can't be upgraded, and if they will be compatible could go either way. it was a different story in the past, my n64 didn't play my snes games sure, but i could also sell my snes games i wasn't going to play anymore to pay for more n64 games, because they were physical things i owned, not just a file on a drive, tied to an account on a network.

and that's my dumb little rant on why i don't care about the upcoming console generation.

I am a PC gamer because I must have a powerful PC for my work so might as well use it for games, which are usually cheaper and better looking on a good PC.

I have all current gen consoles but primarily play on pc. it's just easier for me and I don't want to put up with consoles anymore. Fuck them.

@Th3_James said:

I have all current gen consoles but primarily play on pc. it's just easier for me and I don't want to put up with consoles anymore. Fuck them.

That seems like a terrible idea! But it would explain why so many people break their consoles even though they wanna make everyone believe that they're taking care of their stuff

Yo, video games are for dorks.

What an idiot the Wii is way better!!!!!!!!!!

Sure, I can agree with everyone who says "yeah, I just kinda play games" but if I were to pick any one platform to be exclusive to, it'd be the PC. Silky smooth framerates, better visuals, actual HD resolution, and precise controls? Not to mention mods and communities, which are much easier to have on the PC vs consoles. But at the same time, I love my 360 and PS3. They are awesome, and it's fun to play games on them. They can feel different and great compared to PC games, and that's awesome. But at the same time, I know that Bulletstorm felt like, a thousand times more enjoyable on PC, because I was so much more capable of pulling off quick and precise and skillful shots, and jsut because that game is so much better at a high framerate.

@risingphoenix: @FluxWaveZ said:

@risingphoenix said:

but for most of you, you will look at this and say something like "What an idiot Sony/Xbox is way better!!!!!!!!!!" and for those people I am sorry because you are missing out on the longest lasting gaming platform that has been around generation after generation and can play games faster and sexier than any current-gen console ever will be able to. PC gaming FTW!!

No one on this website will come here and say this.

I also like to think most people in this site don't feel the necessity to justify to a bunch of strangers in a bulletpoint "essay" why they choose their favorite platform, but hey freespech!

Hey man, just wear the shoe that fits ya know?

I've always found PC apologists to be quite funny people: much like how a guy who buys a $25,000 family sedan has the audacity to claim that his car is "better in it's own way" than a $200,000 Ferrari, many gamers seem to want to meet at this middle ground where the console and PC are equally good, while also asking those who hold their ground to do the same. If someone were to ask a genius to meet half way with a moron everyone loses. It's time that people understand that the PC is a more capable piece of hardware than consoles in every way: it can do everything a console can plus a million more things on top. Hell even the control scheme is massively flexible. At the end of the day consoles are made for a more mainstream audience (which also demands a more mainstream price). PC's are for enthusiasts and as such have an enthusiast price attached to them; as a gaming platform consoles are barely even a competitor in real terms against a gaming PC.

Loving my PC. PC gaming's so far ahead of the curve right now in performance it's ridiculous. Worth whatever headaches you might experience from time to time. Wonderful time to be a gamer.

It's time that people understand that the PC is a more capable piece of hardware than consoles in every way: it can do everything a console can plus a million more things on top.

@risingphoenix said:

• I am sitting at my computer right now that I spent about $300 on...

Specs please.

I can't count how many times I've seen someone say this, but oddly I have yet to see one of these 300 dollar gaming rigs verified.

@Meowshi said:

What an idiot the Wii is way better!!!!!!!!!

lololol this

Anyways, I love the PC too but why not just make a thread about how it makes you soupy in your loins and leave out the trashing of consoles?

I enjoy my Sony PS3 and my PC and my Nintendo DS.  
 
What does that make me, a mongrel? 

I just built my PC yesterday, and I'm loving it. Already downloaded Portal (for free), Portal 2 (came with my PS3 copy), Global Agenda (free), and Team Fortress 2 (free)!

I prefer console games because I like the idea that I can buy a disc and as long as it says 360/ps3/wii on it and you stick it in a 360/ps3/wii it will play. Their is something comforting about that. I also perfer a controller to a mouse and keyboard.

The only PC games that I'm interested in playing are TF2 because it is awesome, Diablo 3 because I loved 2, and Deus Ex because I bought it on steam for 5 bucks along with Invisible War. Unfortunatly I have a crappy pc running vista and a Macbook pro. TF2 runs ok on the macbook, but the game is still pretty choppy and it takes me forever to get into games. I've tried to play Deus Ex on the PC and it crashes everytime. It is a 10 year old game and it crashes. I don't really know how to download the Deus.exe to fix it, and I think its kind of crappy that I have to go into the gamefiles and insert some things to make a game run properly. I know there is something I'm probably missing because I don't know much about PC's.

To me PC games just seem inconsistant, I just want to play a game, not mess around with video settings or download some patch just to get a game to run.

I like having a controller over a mouse and keyboard.

I have a great pc, but I only buy pc exclusives for it(which also means some of the best, and deepest games to be found). If it comes on console I get it for that because of the comfort factor as well as the big screen/SS/controller issues, and my gaming friends who are on XBL. But whatever floats yur boat mate. Live and let live....and all that jazz.

Some day I'd love to put together a seperate pc-HDTV w/wireless gamepad combo, and keep it for gaming only. I can't do that now for logistical reasons, and because my pc is my only internet hub also. But some day it would be sooo sweet.....

@Nottle said:

I prefer console games because I like the idea that I can buy a disc and as long as it says 360/ps3/wii on it and you stick it in a 360/ps3/wii it will play. Their is something comforting about that. I also perfer a controller to a mouse and keyboard.

The only PC games that I'm interested in playing are TF2 because it is awesome, Diablo 3 because I loved 2, and Deus Ex because I bought it on steam for 5 bucks along with Invisible War. Unfortunatly I have a crappy pc running vista and a Macbook pro. TF2 runs ok on the macbook, but the game is still pretty choppy and it takes me forever to get into games. I've tried to play Deus Ex on the PC and it crashes everytime. It is a 10 year old game and it crashes. I don't really know how to download the Deus.exe to fix it, and I think its kind of crappy that I have to go into the gamefiles and insert some things to make a game run properly. I know there is something I'm probably missing because I don't know much about PC's.

To me PC games just seem inconsistant, I just want to play a game, not mess around with video settings or download some patch just to get a game to run.

To be fair, playing a 10 year old game on a current console is next to impossible (in most cases), so that's not really a fair example. If you want to play something that was designed to run on a machine from ten years ago, you're going to have to accept you might run into an issue or two. At least there are fixes out there for situations like that.

Modern PC games (early 2000s onwards) are actually very consistent. I haven't had a compatibility issue in god knows how long. This myth of "Fuck this I have to tweak settings and change the power output of my house to get this game to run" is a complete farce. Given the multitude of possible PC set ups you can have, you are bound to run into some minor issues here and there, but lets not forget consoles come with their own issues too. For example, I haven't been able to play Fifa 11 on my PS3 for the last few weeks because it keeps locking up during games, requiring a reboot of the game. Since I bought the game, it has intermittently frozen during gameplay - an issue a lot of users have encountered. At least with the PC, I might be able to fix the damn issue. Instead, I'm stuck with a Fifa 11 coaster.

As for the controller thing. Well, my 360 and PS3 controllers work just fine on my PC.

Just to be clear, I think it's great the people can choose their favourite platform and wouldn't assume to tell people they should play on one or the other. However, there are a lot of perceptions out there about PC gaming that are just plain inaccurate. It's actually very straightforward.

@Binman88 said:

To be fair, playing a 10 year old game on a current console is next to impossible (in most cases), so that's not really a fair example.

If I want to play an old console game, I pull out the old console and be done in five minutes. With a PC the situation is far more complicated, as you simply have no clear cut-off points. Even if you still have that 10 year old PC around, you might have upgraded it from Win98 to WinXP in the meantime, rendering the game you want to play unplayable. Or the OS upgrade might have wreaked the drivers for your gamepad that you thus can no longer use. Or a million of other little things might have gone wrong. Reinstalling an old Win98 is also not all that easy, as most companies no longer have the old drivers available and whatever you have on disk might be to old. Game patches are of course nasty as well, as you have to play archaeologist to piece those things back together. And all of that assumes that you have the old PC still around, which you probably won't have, as PC are kind of a fluent thing, I always gut the old PCs for components worth recycling in the new one.

Sure, at some point emulation becomes practical and then things become much easier, but there are still plenty of games that are to new for DOSBOX and to old to run natively on a modern PC and even if stuff works, its always quite a bit of effort.

Modern PC games (early 2000s onwards) are actually very consistent. I haven't had a compatibility issue in god knows how long. This myth of "Fuck this I have to tweak settings and change the power output of my house to get this game to run" is a complete farce.

It's just plain reality. Even brand new games have a ton of issue that requires patching and .ini tweaking and those issues don't get any easier to fix if the game is a few years old and the patches start disappearing from the net. But PC gamers of course like to ignore those issues, pretent that they don't exist because all they have seen of PC gaming is like the newest Valve game on Steam that happens to work. PC gaming is a bigger place then Steam and when you broaden your horizon, you are bound to run into issues, lots of them.

As for the controller thing. Well, my 360 and PS3 controllers work just fine on my PC.

Only if you limit yourself to games that support it, there are still plenty that don't (Bioshock2) or games that have broken support (Assassins Creed 2 only works with the wired one, not the wireless one) and when it comes to older games the situation is even worse, due to the whole DirectInput vs XInput mess that Microsoft has produced.

That's not to say that consoles don't have issues, the way the PS3 handles patches, downloads and it's shop is a complete clusterfuck and crashes are no longer a rare issue, but even with all those faults, console gaming is still a no-brainer, insert game, wait for patch, play. No OS, drivers and other mess to worry about.

People prefer console games because they are easier. You buy a console, you buy a game, and you're done.

I can't imagine a more valid reason, honestly.