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Gaming Platform of Choice - Console
An anonymous reader writes "Sick of PC snobs bragging about their "superior" gaming rigs? This opinion piece (a rebuttal lobbed at a previous article taking the opposite stance) presents the other side of the eternal debate over gaming preference — consoles vs. PCs. Get 10 good reasons why consoles are a better way to game with your hard-earned dollars.
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Yah, that's page 3, where the article rehashes the same crap every console gamer always says. The other 3 pages are just stupid flames. The whole article is basically meant to be a humor piece, but if you're just re-hashing the same article that's been posted constantly all over the Internet for the past 20 years, the humor is likely to be just as tired as your arguments.
1. It's cheaper.
Console is cheaper. Console gaming is more expensive - for the very reason you mentioned: More expensive games. If you want to buy 1-2 games a year, console may be the choice. But then switching to 0 games a year is a better choice.
2. Every game is guaranteed to work.
Except for scratched DVDs. I heard this one way too often. Harddisks don't get scratched as often. And you can make backups. And there's a dozen of troubleshooting steps you can take to get the game to work. If your XBOX game ceases to work for some reason, you're screwed.
3. You needn't tweak, optimize, or otherwise fiddle with a console game to make it look good.
You can't make your game look any better. You're stuck with certain level and the only possible upgrade is to buy a PC. With a good gfx card, PC blows XBOX out of the water. Of course consoles have better bang for the buck, but you're stuck with what you got.
4. Lots of console exclusives to choose from. Pick your poison.
This all will be available for PC in 3 years through emulation. From ALL the consoles. Plus usually you get "[console X] AND PC" so the total for PC is much better than for any single console. For one console exclusive there are three or so "And PC" ones. For EACH of the consoles. Plus quite a few PC-exclusives.
5. Xbox Live.
Are we talking Console or Xbox?
Besides, thank you very much, I've heard enough of the XBOX
6. Backwards compatibility. When I upgraded from Windows 98 SE to WinXP, I lost the ability to play some of my favorite classic games.
And when you upgraded from XBOX to XBOX360?
Or from SNES to Playstation?
Or from...
Currently I play all these on PC, using emulation. And I can always double-boot or multi-boot to any system I want. Or run Dosbox. Or even WINE.
Backwards compatibility is a VERY rare animal for consoles. And cross-platform compatibility is nonexistent. In the meantime, you have to dig up a really antique game to be unable to come up with a current setup unable to run it.
7. Virus, adware, and spyware free. No porn, no viruses. 'Nuff said.
No porn. 'Nuff said.
8. Games look better in high-def...from the couch.
Your assumptions are wrong. I don't care if the device under the desk is a console or PC if it does what I need it to do. And I can alt-tab and find a webpage with a hint to the game I'm playing if I got stuck.
9. Controllers are more comfortable than gaming with a keyboard and mouse.
A console-like controller for PC costs like $10. And has all the functionalities of the console one. But you really don't want to use one when you play first person shooters. I really feel for poor misguided kids who think XBOX controller is better than a mouse+keyboard to play HALO.
And I cuss at games that try to emulate console interface (Hi, Oblivion!) by digging every frigging option 3 levels down a menu and providing you with 6 assignable hotkeys.
Most popular Oblivion mod for PC? BTMod, interface rewrite to make it less XBOX-like.
10. Controller innovation.
PC is here usually a step behind consoles. And generally nobody found anything better than mouse+keyboard for FPS games yet, and it's going to stay that way.
11. Multifunction
If you pay your $399, you get a game console and a DVD player. It can hardly do anything else. If you want to surf the net, or get some work done, or write a letter, you need a PC. So the choice is: not PC or console. The choice is PC plus console or just PC. And I prefer to spend my money to beef up my PC because the extra investment will be useful not only for gaming.
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"