Sometimes it feels like console gaming would be the best choice for gaming overall.  Why you ask?  Well, system requirements for games are constantly going up with each new title, the compatibility of games with your computers, and just the overall patchwork that always needs to be done with computer games constantly. 

I've been a huge supporter of computer gaming for quite a few years, but as of late, it just seems that developers just want to build the next best thing, particularly pertaining to the graphics component of games.  No one can argue that Crysis was just little more than a tech demo used to display Crytek's new engine.  I can hardly believe some of the scores that the game received, but many sites did state that the game was technically (graphically), a work of art, but that the actual gameplay was lacking quite a bit.  That it was more than your average shooter with a new glossy look, and if you do argue that point, you may find yourself with a fanboy sticker on your chest.  What were the minimum specs for that game now..

And if you tried to play the game with those specs, you were be chugging along at a framerate well below 30 even with a lot of graphic features turned all the way down.  Heck, even with a top of the line computer supporting dual top of the line graphic cards, you'd still be seeing some slowdowns here and there.  This game was made for computers of tomorrow, which you're expected to have, but even if you do have a computer to run this game without worry, you still have to worry if something else won't go right.  It is just my thoughts that once a good gaming engine is built, developers should take advantage of it and use it for quite awhile improving each new game release along with it.  Such as the game not being completing compatible with all of your other components in your computer or even your drivers.

Testers for the game can only test the game on so many computers with so many different combinations of specifications, and even so, there could still be something on your computer that's wrecking your game's performance overall.  And this really isn't the fault of the developers, nor the gamers themselves, more so the industry because of how many different combinations that there can be with computers today.  There are multitudes of different components and brand names to choose from with sound card, video cards, processors, motherboards, ram, etc... which really puts the gamer/developer in a sore position when installing any game really.  Once a title comes out, you can easily roam the forum boards of the game and see complaints of gamers having issues with the game whether it crashing to desktop midgame, giving a random error, or now even loading the program.  You're just looking for a needle in a haystack if the game doesn't install and run properly the first time.  But don't smile so widely yet, there could be spots midgame where the game sees a problem with your computer and you're forced to reinstall, go back to a previous save, etc.  There are just too many issues that could be wrong during the course of a title to cause stress.

And someone has to bring up the quality of games that are released on the pc, dealing with issues and bugs that need to be patched after release.  This can be a tiresome inconvenience to any gamer who has to wait after purchasing the game to fully play it because bugs that are restricting the game in some way.  Sometimes patches are used because of issues found in different hardware, which revolves to the previous paragraph, but most times a patch fixes some component of a quest that won't trigger that's vital to the overall plot of the game, or maybe a certain enemy is unkillable, which would understandably be a pain, and you can argue that console games are patched also, but to a much more minimal extent. 

You have to understand, that when developers are making games for a system, such as a Xbox 360, it's a much easier task only needing to test the game on the system itself, not having to worry about different video or sound cards, or even different processors.  This makes their overall job much easier that being compared to a computer developer overall the course of the development of their specific game. 

This is not to say that I've sworn off pc games, hardly, but I now look forward to console games much more than pc games because I know my system can handle it from day one and that there won't be any trouble, but as long as my computer keeps chugging through releases, I'll keep playing them as long as I can, but as far as upgrading my pc, it won't be happening for some time because of not only expense, but lack of trust in developers for future game releases.  Most games are released for all platforms, so I won't be missing out on too much when dealing with the upcoming holiday releases.