Last message on previous page:
console games are more innovative (in terms of gameplay).
console games are more stable.
 
but then again console graphics are almost equal to the medium settings on nextgen pc games.
 
the pc gives you your moneys worth day in and day out.
 
oh btw the price of a decent hdtv is how much?

I just had a flashback to when I was in college and I bought my first 3d card, an AGP Voodoo 3 3000. It was an awesome card and lasted me for 3 years of great gaming. It still works; I have it in an old PC I just put back together.
 
Its great for playing games like NFS:High Stakes in Windows 98.
 
It cost me $99 (It had just been reduced from $149). The good ole days.

For what it's worth, the answer to why we spend all that money and time on PC gaming rather than on a console is because we want to. PC gamers and Console gamers are different breads - with a few hybrids who cross over.  
 
We have two consoles and one PC soon to be two. I like PC gaming because, getting my PC to a level where it can play system demanding games is a challenge in itself.  
 
Console gaming is easy and (on the whole) for people who aren't interested in how things work - which is of course fine.
 
Don't forget PC games are often cheaper, so in theory if you buy alot it helps off set the cost of having to build a decent PC over buying an off the shelf console.
 
The only downside is that people think you (we) are sad for being obsessed by what's inside the computer! - and they are probably right most of the time.
 
Time for an upgrade anyone...................

PC gaming vs Console gaming.
 
PC gaming, if it costs 2x to 8x as much as the console, is often a much more thrilling, graphically intense, and immersing experience.
 
Mouse and Keyboard offer superior controls.
Single player on a 22" 1680x1050 LCD beats the **** out of you 40" 720p (1280x720) CRT "HD TV".
Games are always $10 cheaper than their 360 counterpart.
Companies use steam so you can forget that CDs even exist.
You can upgrade anytime you want, any way you want.
You can't pay $180/$100 for a hard drive that ONLY works with one computer and would normally cost $100/$30.
 
Of course, console gaming, although the experience is still potentially hardcore, it will never be as serious as PC gaming. PC is just for gaming elite, and the elite will probably have a PC and all consoles (if money allows).

 
Episode 2 seems to be substantially more graphics-hungry than Episode 1; I played through Ep1 at 2048x1536 with 4xAA on my 7800GS, but I had to drop to 1280x960 on Ep2 to get an acceptable frame-rate.

I just built a great rig for about $875.  I took some research and a little experience, but when it was all screwed together it booted right up.  Everything runs great on it, including the latest games, and I use it for a host of non-gaming applications as well.  This was my first upgrade since 2003 - I recommend Newegg for some seriously amazing prices.
 
I've been told that PC gaming is dead since 1997.  I think that what we're seeing, however, is a switch in markets.  If I'm right (and I could be totally wrong, natch), Europe will become the primary PC game market with the US getting translated imports.  Extrapolating from the current trend, I anticipate that the PC game market will see fewer, but higher-quality games released with an ever increasing availability of user-created content.
 
The one trend that I'm still very uncertain about is what the next 'next-gen' consoles will be like.  I'm guessing that they will be even more similar to PCs than the current generation.  If so, it will be wierd - like buying a mac designed to play games - all proprietary hardware and software controlled by Sony or, more likely, Microsoft.
 
I dunno, just some thoughts....

oh btw, pc games are expansion-capable
 

You guys forgot the best part of PC gaming, replay value.  By that I mean mods, mods, and more mods.  This is the only reason I will never ever buy a console.  I have tons of different mods for every game I own.  100's of hours added replay because of them.  How games we play today started as mods?  And how many started as mods for consoles.......oh sorry, I forgot you are stuck with the same lame original content that came with your over priced game.  How many console gamers have played GTA online in multiplayer, or Desert Combat for BF 1942, or on a server that has more than 32 people?  I have, on my PC.
 
On the flip side, with consoles you can simply rent games and return them after you have beat them, for very cheap.

I could not keep reading all the post, but I wanted to put in my $0.02!
 
1.  PC Gaming is expensive if you need to brag about your box.  
 
2.  PC > Console because of all the other uses for a PC.  BUT with that said you can get a internet/media PC for dirt cheap.  That amount of money you spend on getting a PC for media grade to gaming grade is about the same cost of a console.
 
I personally have a wife and small child.  I only have about $300 to upgrade my PC, but instead I am going to invest more money into my console for games that we can all play.  I am thinking about getting away from PC gaming because it can/does take up too much time when you have a family.  If I am going to be playing games I would rather play Mario Party 8 with the wife.
 
I have always love Shooters and you cant beat PC Shooters, but my 7600GT will power most current games at 1024 res and med detail.  I dont have to have 100% eye candy turned on.  As long as I can pull 45+ fps and never go under I am happy.

Need I say it?  
 
Mods/Customizations/Patches..... These are worth every penny of difference.  
 
Can you manually customize your console control to do everything that it wasn't designed for? Easy to remap on computer, manually or the way the developers designed it..... And I have a friend still using a 9800pro, it's not all about the latest and greatest.
 
 

Hi all,
 
Should say I don't own a console!! But I ain't no PC fanboy, oh no!! I even have a friend at work who has an Xbox 360 - I kid you not!! I wouldn't buy a console anyway because I would end up with no life outside gaming!!
 
 
For PC gaming the key advantage is incremental upgrading. Upfront payouts will pay off later on. Get a very end PSU. You can make a PC run a whole lot'a'years if you get a good case and fit some high-end watercooling. Then you replace the blocks as you upgrade components. Flog the old gear on Ebay!!  
 
With a PC you can get optimal price performance parts. Like the X1900 Pro (512Mb version) I am running... This GPU can play the Crysis demo (@ medium quality 1600x1200) and eats up older games!!
 
Also it should be noted that games do not get better over time. While they do tend to get better looking the actual game play does often suffer... I am back playing Doom 3 because in SP it still outshines most modern games (@ 1600x1200 Ultra quality)... OK I do like BF2 and BF2142 in MP. My favourite game Deus Ex 1 has yet to be matched in SP by the games I have played over the years...(Any suggestions gratefully received of course cough, cough - let the flame war start).
 
 
BTW I am only 10 years old!!
 
But seriously when I was 10 I had already build a scale replica of the Cray 2 - look at kids these days all just playing games!!
 
Bob

 
My 7600GT can support a lot of games at 1680x1050! Come on dude, live a little!

I've been a PC guy all my life...had the Commodore VIC-20, then the Commodore 64 and the 128 after that.  But I have always been a buyer, not a builder, which has been expensive for me.  The Commodore's were all bought for my brother and I by our parents...after that it was all me.  First it was a Gateway with a 486 and 1X CD-ROM...everyone was SO JEALOUS!  Haha!  Then, years later, a Dell...then another Dell (hate Dell)...then built my own with a friend's help...then an Alienware (sigh).  Now I am, for the first time, going to be building my own SOLO for my kids...I am going to stick with my Alienware (sigh) for another year...this build is going to replace the one I handed down to my kids that was built in 2001.  Depending how this solo build goes I am committing myself to build all future PC's and never buy another pre-built again.  Anyway, back to the topic at hand:
 
I have been a "hardcore" (sort-of) PC gamer all my life.  I love PC's...and always hated consoles.  I never had any interest in them.  Then my friend got Tomb Raider (yes, the first one) for the PS (yes, the first one).  I was wowed but not enough to get a console.  Ended up getting my oldest son (he was my ONLY son at the time) a PS2 though.  He loved gaming on the PC but all his friends had PS2's (because, he said, their parents couldn't afford a PC).  I still couldn't get into it though.  Then I had a good friend get the XBOX (yes, the first one) and go on and on and on about HALO.  Well, my brother got a great opportunity to get a great deal on the new 360 when they first came out so I said what the heck...then the same great opportunity for the PS3.  
 
So believe it or not, I know have the two PC's, the XBOX 360, and the PS3.  My wife and three kids (that is how far the fam has come) are ALL gamers...they use all of the above, as for me, I'm still mainly a PC guy but love the 360...and here's why...(this was ultimately the point of my post):
 
I buy the game, take the game out of the box, I put it in the 360, and I play it.  As a long time PC guy, there is just something so damn refreshing about that!  From dealing with playing "TELENGARD" on the tape deck (yes, the games came on actual cassette tapes for those of you that are not old enough to remember, yet blow me away as far as PC knowledge goes   ), to dealing with SSI Baseball, Impossible Mission, Summer Games, Beachhead, and the like on a 5 1/4 floppy in the 1541 Drive for the C64, to Pirates and Tony LaRussa Baseball on 3.5" diskettes in my Gateway floppy drive, to Baldurs Gate and Dark Forces on CD for my Dell's, to Half-Life and Earth 2150 on CD for my home build with friend, to RTCW and HL2 (the latter on DVD-ROM) for my Alieanware (Sigh).  
 
Do you know how much it sucked installing Tony LaRussa baseball?  It was something like 12 Diskettes...and about 6 more if you wanted the stadium pack installed, and another 3 or 4 if you wanted the face pack!  Haha!  Baldur's Gate took about 45 minutes to install!  Black & White, the original one, gave my wife and kids nothing but problems with every patch I installed to fix the other stuff that was giving them problems!
 
But my 360?  Man, I just slide it in and play!  Damn that feels good!  With that being said, I still prefer PC gaming (love my mouse and KB), but it is such a pain in the butt to install this stuff, deal with key codes, patch it up, and then all that troubleshooting because something is creating a conflict with something else.  Now, for one, this is a by product of one of the benefits of PC over console, it does SO MUCH MORE than play games...but the software and utilities you use to do so much more, or to protect yourself from others doing stuff to you, creates hassles at many times...damn those damn conflicts!  Haha!
 
I could never go to console and leave PC completely...never, but man do I wish we could get to a point where we slide the game in and play....which will probably never happen...if for no other reason than all the customization in PC world (which is yet another reason that makes PC'ing so much fun)...
 
Looking back at my post...did I actually have a point?    
 
 
13Bravo -- USHA!!

 
Whereas I can't imagine going back to the bad old days of game content on CD-ROM so you'd regularly have to wait an age for it to load. I was so glad when hard disks got big enough to install all the content for fast access.

 
Heck no!  I'm totally with you on that!  Unfortunately, I still have WAY too long hiccups regularly with HL2 but I am sure that is due to my system (running p4 3.2 EE with 2X512 mem).  My point, if I had one...as mentioned in the last line I am not sure if I actually had one, was that it is nice to be able to buy a game, unwrap it, slide it into the drive and play it.  As opposed to having to install it, patch it up, deal with software/hardware conflicts, patch it up some more, deal w/more SW/HW conflicts, etc.  Obviously it isn't all that bad for every game title, and I NEVER speak for anyone elses experience as I can only speak to my own, but I have had 25 years of dealing with issues instead of JUST playing the game.  Now, I wouldn't trade any of it...it's been a great ride!  However, as someone who never "consoled" to all of a sudden having the PS3 AND the 360 in my house, I just found it damn refreshing to throw the game in and play...nothing more, nothing less.  It just felt plain good.  But I still prefer PC gaming...maybe that's hypocritical, maybe it isn't...it just is what it is...I think...

PC have been and will always will be more expensive than console. Let me tell you about my upgrade path for the last 6 years (without monitor). In the summer of 2001 I bought a PC with Duron 800, 256MB RAM and Geforce 2GTS for $500. In the summer of 2003 I upgraded that PC with Athlon XP 1700, 512 RAM, and Radeon 9500 (hacked to perform equal to 9700) for $300 and use that PC until 2005 when I buy a completely new PC. Now you can clearly see that just to keep up playing multiplatform game that come out for XBOX 1 and PC I have spend $800. For 2 years (2001-2003) I had to live with a worse image quality than the XBOX. $800 is almost three times the price of the original XBOX when it come out. The conclusion of my story? You need to spend 3-4 times more when you game on the PC (if you compare it to console), but during the twilight year of that console (2 years before the next generation of console is released), you will get better image quality. If you always used the cutting edge PC component you will always get a better image quality when you compare it to console but it will also cost you 5-6 times. It all come down to what do you want, and what are you willing to do to get it. If what you want is only to play game than console is the obvious choice, it's much cheaper and for half of the consoles live cycle the image quality is about equal. But if you are like me (a person that use PC for a lot of number crunching with Matlab and edit video) than it make sense to upgrade the GPU to keep up with the latest game because it only cost about $200.

Saying that a console @ 500 (or whatever it is for americans, I don't know cause I live in australia) is cheaper than a PC is all well an good, but a good TV for it will cost quite a lot (like >1000), whereas for 1500 odd you can build a killer system with a monitor that looks just as big because you sit closer to it.
Plus, PC's can do many different tasks, play movies, msn, email, word processing etc.
I personally wouldn't buy a console simply because games cost a fair amount more (usually, why is that?).

If you are good with your PC you will never have problems… I know I have never had a hardware or software conflict in the last 7 years with any games what so ever. I am also able to play any game I want with out upgrading but sometimes I choose to upgrade as it can add extra features. On top of that, since when has installing been a problem. It means for 5 minuets worth of install time I can save hours worth of loading time and waiting for the games to read off a disc.
 
What all these console people seem to miss is that to game well on a console it will cost you a lot of money. Over the space of say 30 games in a consoles lifetime you will have spent £300 ($600) over what you would have if buying the same games on a PC. You will also have to buy a new TV to get the games playable on this current generation of consoles, with the cheapest costing you in the region of £350 ($700). Not to mention the £300 ($600) outlay on the console it’s self. And on top of that the 360 has a £40 ($80) a year subscription to play games online.
 
It’s not about price at all, the initial outlay on a console is lower, that’s if you don’t have to buy a new TV. But in the long run a console will cost you just as much, if not more. Than a PC will set you back. And the thing about a console is they are only good for one thing, gaming. So what’s better in the long run… depends on your needs and wants. If you want to play nothing but games and don’t need a PC then a console is for you. If you do want a PC and like gaming then to be honest in the long run you are actually better off buying a good PC if you can afford the initial outlay.