Playing console games - painful?

I've always been a console player, but, for the past year or so, I've focused more on the PC side. I have a fairly beefy computer so I can run just about any game at 60+ FPS with very high settings. Lately there's been some console-only games (Dragon's Dogma, etc) that have brought me back to the PS3. So far it has been pretty painful playing on it compared to the trusty PC.

I can get over the graphic quality not being as good, though some games are pretty poor in this department. The real problem is the "smoothness" of games. Being capped at 30 FPS is just terrible, especially when a game will dip down when there is a lot of stuff on the screen. Load times are ridiculous on some games (SSDs are the business). Along with the load times comes pop-in and model loading issues.

Yeah, I know I'm complaining about the same old issues, but some of these problems really do break immersion in otherwise good games. I probably won't buy anymore console games this generation, which is sad as I have always been predominantly a console gamer. Does anyone else get bothered playing on the console after playing on the crystal-smooth PC?

So long as the game is good, I don't care what system I'm on. I can understand things like long load times and occasional freeze ups, but I could never tell the difference between a 30 and 60 FPS version of the same game.

Yes, yes, one version is a lot smoother, but....that just never mattered to me.

Console gaming is all I have access to, and really all I need for what I do.

When I was a kid, I did a lot more PC gaming. I still remember playing Doom, Doom 2, and Duke Nukem with my dad on our first PC. Also had Dark Forces and a variety of the other "vintage" Star Wars games. Nowadays though, just have my MacBook when it comes to the computer usage.

I feel the opposite. I have a gaming PC that I built recently and playing PC games is making me want to go back to console.

I'm getting sick and tired of games that don't have proper gamepad support. Obviously with exclusions of course, games like Endless space and starcraft 2 are way better on keyboard. But why the hell cant I play minecraft with a 360 pad? WHY! Or mass effect 3. Shit makes no sense.

@LikeaSsur said:

Yes, yes, one version is a lot smoother, but....that just never mattered to me.

You know, it never really bothered me either until recently. I'm not entirely sure why, I'm just guessing it's because I have played so many PC games lately.

As a person who recently acquired a new PC, hooked up my PC to my HDTV and got my PS3 controller working on my PC wirelessly...playing the Witcher 2 on ultra with everything enabled...yeah, my PS3 is not very impressive anymore.

Unless it's an exclusive I definitely prefer to play on PC for the higher framerate especially. Having pretty much always played PC games It's still weird for me to play games at 30FPS. RPG's are usually ok, but other than that it is indeed painful. It's why I really like things like wipeout that run at the framerate I'm used to.

i recently played through assassin's creed revelations on the ps3 and had no complaints.

that being said, holy shit! the xbox360 came out in 2005!

and since most games are developed with xbox compatibility in mind, it's kind of holding everything back from a technical standpoint

30 fps is fine if the game is locked at 30 and is designed with it in mind. The problem comes in when the FPS jumps from 30 down to 20, up to 45, ect. Personally if the next generation was not a humongous leap in graphics but instead we got things like stable 60 fps, better A.I. ect, I think it'd be better for games as a whole.

the thing that bothers me are the console wars that people constantly have.

Nope. I don't have a great computer so I still play most of my games on consoles! Woe is me!

@SarjuTheRapper said:

that being said, holy shit! the xbox360 came out in 2005!

and since most games are developed with xbox compatibility in mind, it's kind of holding everything back from a technical standpoint

This is so true. There is definitely a need for a new generation of consoles. Sadly, the Wii U isn't much help on that front.

@Accession said:

This is so true. There is definitely a need for a new generation of consoles. Sadly, the Wii U isn't much help on that front.

At first, i was excited to get it based on the premise that it would play all the same games as the ps360 generation but at 1080p instead of the regular 720p and at a better framerate

but that was just hopeful self-delusion

I personally don't like playing on PC. Not a fan of the keyboard setup on most games and prefer a controller any day of the week. Though games that support the controller are a little bit more fun to play, I prefer console. To each their own. =D

Mouse and keyboard is so much better for shooters.

I have been predominantly playing on PC for most of my life, but have had the 360 since it came out as well.

Recently my wife and I decided to play through Halo Anniversary after not playing the 360 in quite a while, and I feel like my controls are in slow motion. Love the controller for racing games and platformers, but shooters are just painful.

She wants to play Borderlands 2 with me, and I'm dreading when it comes out. Maybe I'll get that second PC up and running...

The lack of AA and V-Sync in a lot of console games makes me sick.

I actually feel that console gaming might be dead, I find mine going on less and less. Steam makes it easy to manage. Digital and boxed copy prices are alway far more reasonable. NOW, having said that, a few new IP exclusives on some next level shit, the whole cycle starts again.

Nope. 30 fps is perfectly fine for most games. Also, I can go back between smoother and better looking games on PC and console games. It just takes a little time to adjust.

Playing on current consoles is painful. 
Developing on current consoles is excruciating. 

@MorkaiTheWolf said:

I personally don't like playing on PC. Not a fan of the keyboard setup on most games and prefer a controller any day of the week. Though games that support the controller are a little bit more fun to play, I prefer console. To each their own. =D

The keyboard and mouse, I think this is a common misconception about PC gaming, most PC gamers are hooking there PCs up to the TV sitting on the couch with a controller from either of their obsolete consoles, plus the support of a wireless keyboard is a wonderful thing. But your right, to each his own, there are also quite a few prohibitive factors to Personal Computer Gaming.

I played Quake 3 with 125fps 10 years ago. Getting into this 30fps (if that) generation was hard, yes.

@avantegardener said:

@MorkaiTheWolf said:

I personally don't like playing on PC. Not a fan of the keyboard setup on most games and prefer a controller any day of the week. Though games that support the controller are a little bit more fun to play, I prefer console. To each their own. =D

The keyboard and mouse, I think this is a common misconception about PC gaming, most PC gamers are hooking there PCs up to the TV sitting on the couch with a controller from either of their obsolete consoles, plus the support of a wireless keyboard is a wonderful thing. But your right, to each his own, there are also quite a few prohibitive factors to Personal Computer Gaming.

I found one of the biggest issues with it was the cost. Getting a good pc to play games is rather expensive for someone who is usually broke compared to buying a console that doesn't need upgrades almost every year. Still, I do enjoy playing indie games on steam. >_<

@avantegardener said:

most PC gamers are hooking there PCs up to the TV sitting on the couch

I highly doubt that.

I can swap between them without a problem. Of course after extensive PC playing I might go "Wow, this could use some anti-aliasing". But that all goes away after 5 minutes.

@MorkaiTheWolf said:

@avantegardener said:

@MorkaiTheWolf said:

I personally don't like playing on PC. Not a fan of the keyboard setup on most games and prefer a controller any day of the week. Though games that support the controller are a little bit more fun to play, I prefer console. To each their own. =D

The keyboard and mouse, I think this is a common misconception about PC gaming, most PC gamers are hooking there PCs up to the TV sitting on the couch with a controller from either of their obsolete consoles, plus the support of a wireless keyboard is a wonderful thing. But your right, to each his own, there are also quite a few prohibitive factors to Personal Computer Gaming.

I found one of the biggest issues with it was the cost. Getting a good pc to play games is rather expensive for someone who is usually broke compared to buying a console that doesn't need upgrades almost every year. Still, I do enjoy playing indie games on steam. >_<

I hear ya, but I found the inital outlay to be pretty cost effective in the long run, you would be surprised how long a reasonably priced mid tier graphics card would carry you, plus I use it work as well I suppose!

@MightyDuck said:

Console gaming is all I have access to, and really all I need for what I do.

When I was a kid, I did a lot more PC gaming. I still remember playing Doom, Doom 2, and Duke Nukem with my dad on our first PC. Also had Dark Forces and a variety of the other "vintage" Star Wars games. Nowadays though, just have my MacBook when it comes to the computer usage.

You saved me a lot of time writing this. Ditto. Macbook Air + PS3 + Xbox.

@CptBedlam said:

@avantegardener said:

most PC gamers are hooking there PCs up to the TV sitting on the couch

I highly doubt that.

The only hard data I have to back that statement up is that I do it :)

@avantegardener said:

most PC gamers are hooking there PCs up to the TV sitting on the couch

I highly doubt that.

@CptBedlam said:

@avantegardener said:

most PC gamers are hooking there PCs up to the TV sitting on the couch

I highly doubt that.

I double highly doubt that. Some PC gamers could hook theirs PC to TVs and sit on the couch, most just don't want to. I used to play Borderland Co-op on PC with a controller and my friends using mouse + kbs, they complained a lot about my precision (I'm way better with mouse and kb), but I love playing from the couch. I don't care about efficiency, I only care about fun.

I play on both. I came to accep my 360 for what it is, and I'm fine with it. I mostly game on PC, but consoles don't bother me in the least.

@mnzy said:

I played Quake 3 with 125fps 10 years ago. Getting into this 30fps (if that) generation was hard, yes.

But your monitor probably had a refresh rate of 60Hz... 75Hz at most, probably, if it was a CRT... Why would you overwork your GPU like that for no extra benefit at all?

the pain....it's unbearable, sometimes I envy starving African children; they don't have to deal with sub-par framerates and a lack of AA and V sync.

Really really don't care. Games are fun. They are fun on PC and they are fun on console. I prefer consoles because I spend more time monkeying around in PC settings than I do playing the game and that's a negative. Anyway I cap a lot of my PC games at 30 to make sure everything is stable, 30 has and always will be fine for me.

Biggest things for me probably are still load times.

I can deal with something looking a bit worse, then again i haven't had a console since my ps2, so i gues sit is hard to tell for me.

If I have to play another goddamn game hard-locked at 65 degrees FoV, my eyes will probably explode in my head.

my PC is within 10 feet of my tv, im not going to hook it up to my TV. im not a weirdo. i actually lately have been enjoying playing my 360 alot more than my PC. granted my PC is starting to show age, but even if it wasn't thats not the reason.

giantbomb is getting alittle too "PC-elitey" lately i've noticed.

@Terramagi said:

If I have to play another goddamn game hard-locked at 65 degrees FoV, my eyes will probably explode in my head.

For me that's actually the bigger problem, even more when PC games do it, since the monitor is closer.

reading this thread? - painful

@Clonedzero said:

my PC is within 10 feet of my tv, im not going to hook it up to my TV. im not a weirdo. i actually lately have been enjoying playing my 360 alot more than my PC. granted my PC is starting to show age, but even if it wasn't thats not the reason.

giantbomb is getting alittle too "PC-elitey" lately i've noticed.

No it's not. Most people on these forums scream elitist at the slightest hint of a PC thread, it's pretty ridiculous.

@mnzy said:

@Terramagi said:

If I have to play another goddamn game hard-locked at 65 degrees FoV, my eyes will probably explode in my head.

For me that's actually the bigger problem, even more when PC games do it, since the monitor is closer.

Yeah this always gets at me.

@Devil240Z: use xpadder, it takes a little bit to realy get familiar, but when you do ,its great. I've been playing the Secret World on a gamepad, and it's just fine. I keep the kb/m handy for menu nav and things, but I have my essential hotkeys mapped to the pad, and it works rather well.

I have played maybe around five games or less on PS3, where the not-so-smooth framerate and ugly-ish graphics bothered me, otherwise I've adjusted perfectly. Of course, I don't think I've ever had a powerful enough PC to run any sweet-ass looking games at any point in my life, but I've seen more than enough gameplay videos running at 60FPS, but it still doesn't bother me. Like someone before me said, I probably couldn't tell the difference between 30/60 FPS in a lot of games (or I just wouldn't care about it).

@Accession: my personal advice: don't get used to 60 fps in the first place.

I see a lot of PC gamers complaining about 30 fps locks but if you don't play most of your games at 60 fps you won't even know when a game is 60 or 30 fps.

30 fps will always be the standard for games so it really sucks if you want an all 60 fps world.

@pyrodactyl said:

@Accession: my personal advice: don't get used to 60 fps in the first place.

I see a lot of PC gamers complaining about 30 fps locks but if you don't play most of your games at 60 fps you won't even know when a game is 60 or 30 fps.

Degrade the quality of your gaming experience so you train yourself to expect less? That's great advice.

It can bother me but never ruin it of the game is good enough. Like it took forever to get back into Blazblue Cs1 on console since I was playing it on an arcade rip on my PC. It felt like it ran so much faster.

@Vinny_Says said:

the pain....it's unbearable, sometimes I envy starving African children; they don't have to deal with sub-par framerates and a lack of AA and V sync.

I had a feeling someone would make this inane argument. Yes, starving African children is a terrible thing, but that doesn't mean we should not talk about how we prefer to game. You're wasting time on an internet video game forum, not being useful to mankind at all. Get over yourself.

30fps is fine. But load times sometimes really break the immersion. I own(ed) a 360 and a PS3 but now I try to go for the PC all the time. Even without the SSD (coming up).

@JoeyRavn said:

@pyrodactyl said:

@Accession: my personal advice: don't get used to 60 fps in the first place.

I see a lot of PC gamers complaining about 30 fps locks but if you don't play most of your games at 60 fps you won't even know when a game is 60 or 30 fps.

Degrade the quality of your gaming experience so you train yourself to expect less? That's great advice.

I don't know...

finding it painfull to play perfectly good games at 30 fps

OR

enjoying the experience on 30 fps and 60 fps games

which to choose, which to choose?

There will allways be great games, some of the best even, locked at 30 fps so to bad if you're to spoiled by ''superior quality'' to enjoy them.

#firstworldproblems

@pyrodactyl: The problem is that very few consoles games manage to actually maintain 30 FPS throughout the game. The jump from 60 to, say, 40 is much less noticeable than from 30 to 10. If developers don't make their games run at 60 FPS is because the hardware is generally not up to the task, at least not without making any serious compromise. 60 FPS on PC have been "standard" (if you really insist on using that word) for ages now. What makes PC so different from consoles? Just the fact that consoles have to use older hardware to sell at a profitable yet accessible price. Ancient GPUs in PC terms, very little amount of RAM, complex CPUs that make it very hard to code for... If developers focus more on enhancing game performance over visual quality (which I think we all can agree is good enough for the moment), 60 FPS can be achieved with relative ease.

So, yeah, if you want me to choose I'll choose the version of the game that runs better, looks better and is usually cheaper, i.e. PC. I do understand that consoles are less powerful and I'm perfectly fine with the "step down" in quality if the game I want to play is worth it. But what I just don't understand is your mentality of "like it or leave it", especially seeing how fast and easy "standards" change in the world of technology. Do you remember floppy disks? Yeah, those.

@AngelN7 said:

#firstworldproblems

Talking about video games in a video game forum? We're worse than Nazis.

Many people will claim that they're fine with 30 FPS or that there's no noticeable difference between 30 and 60 FPS. These people are either people who have not grown accustomed to a smooth 60 FPS because they don't own a competent PC (understandable). Or they're creepy space aliens who don't perceive the world the same way we normals do (shun these monsters).