New PC: Build vs Buy / Console vs PC

[Fiach]

This is a split-off from a different topic

Yup :)

It's amazing since I got a PS3, I have been paying more attention to the line up on it, to find how few exclusives are on it.

Apparently a combination of its market penetration and the fact that its difficult and time consuming to programme for, makes for a fairly lacklustre list of games.

I used to be mainly PC, but the cost of a machine that will play cutting edge games nowadays is too prohibitive for me, PC's are madly expensive here, I built my own once (PIII 500mhz), I'm surprised I still have any hair left lol after that experience, but consoles are now my main platform, I only use PC for MMORPG's.

[Art Blade]

I know exactly what you mean, hehehe, but I've never built a PC on my own. Even knowing that Master PZ made it, managed to build a next-gen rig, I still can't think of doing it. I try hard to find a good prefab PC and only buy in offline stores (lol), real shops. That is hard too, if you want to get a good machine at all, and if you find one, it should be worth the money. I was quite lucky with my current machine though: i7@920, nVidia GTX260, 3 Gig Ram, 1 TB HD, and all the rest like windows etc, plus it's got a slightly modded case (blue LEDs inside). Costed like 1,300€ last Xmas which was good. Now like 999€, which is excellent.

[PZ]

Hey, if I can do it anyone can - like Fiach, I built PCs long ago, and it was a challenge at times to find the right parts that worked together.  The industry seems to have worked things out now, and going to a few of the hardware forums answered all of my questions about how things would w@&k with one another.

[deadman1]

I agree with Fiach and PZ, next time you need a new PC Art build it yourself. It´s not really that hard AND it´s almost always cheaper. I saved about 5000 Skr (about 500 euro) when I bought the computer I have now and that was roughly 3 years ago, and these past few months I have slowly upgraded it for very little mone compared to buing a new one.

[Art Blade]

Well, I've got a friend who is quite busy on the net comparing prices, and he agreed that the machine I now have couldn't be built much cheaper if you did it on your own - so he bought the exact same machine  ;D

[Art Blade]

by the way, just please check this link "PZ talk" erm, no, hold it... it's "PC talk"  ;D

[Fiach]

To play eg. Crysis, would cost me about €1800.

360 = €199
PS3 = €299
Those prices include a free game (each) too, worth about €100 total, at local prices for new releases.

Just the exclusive titles for both those consoles, would be more appealing to me than getting a PC, Sure I miss the Mouse for FPS, but other than that, I think I have a greater range of games to choose from, than being confined to a PC.

Of course, couch and widescreen tv also have an added bonus :)

[PZ]

• To play a game on a PS2 - amusing
• To play a game on a PS3/XBox - stunningly beautiful and fast
• To play a game on a PC - priceless

Just kidding Fiach, I like playing on the console for exactly the reasons you mentioned, but being able to use a trainer and cheats like I can on the PC allows an old gamer like me with awful skills to actually play a game rather than put it away because it is too difficult!  ;)

[Art Blade]

I agree that building a PC is in general not as expensive as buying a ready-built one. But I get no fun out of fumbling with screwdrivers and that such, so I pay for a ready-built PC. A couple of times I had a PC manufactured, the last one by some completely incompetent idiots - sh!$ happens. My last two ready-built PCs are still up and running, both at reasonable prices.

A console, on the other hand, would require a new screen (I don't have a TV) and I'd still need a PC for the internet (even if it was only a cheap one, I'd still need it). Plus I hate game pads. Never liked them, back in the day when some PC console games were converted for the PC, like Sega Virtua Fighter, I couldn't use the keyboard (ask me about special moves - you needed at least three hands for them) and man, that was annoying. Now the conversions are usually a lot better, but still, some can't deny their origins.

I love to have everything on one machine: Games, Music, DVD (movies), various programs, internet... A proper 5.1 surround sound, a high-res 26'' monitor (versus the still crappy image of a console game on TV, due to crappy TV resolution as in dots/pixels per inch).

And games... man :) Saving at any time, screenshots, if necessary a trainer or some cheat program, mouse gaming (shooter)... :) Plus, games for a PC don't cost that much, the brand new NFS:Shift costed 39€ (some console: 69€).

Well :)

[Fiach]

Yeah I can see where you are coming from, btw NFS shift is 39.99 here on 360.

Well, on consoles, you have all the multi media stuff, esp on the PS3 there is Blue Ray to make it more appealing too.

One thing about Sony consoles, they were always cheat friendly, usually you can get trainer discs for most any sony platform release on any playstation iteration.

M$ were always very particular about their systems security and there are probably no trainers for 360 games, maybe only for modded consoles, which are not allowed on LIVE.

You repeated PC twice there mate, about Virtua, so I'm not sure what your point is, I love fight games on consoles, I have VF 4 and 5, plus all the soul caliburs going back to the Dreamcast console, plus a few tekkens, cant inagine using anything but a console pad for them tbh.

As I said, the mouse is the only thing I miss for FPS, on saying that, I first used a pad for FPS, Duke Nukem, Goldeneye etc. So getting to grips with a mouse (for Half Life 1), was a steep learning curve for me.

Of course when Halo was released, I had to learn to use a Pad again as it was an XBOX exclusive, I hated it and even bought the Halo game again on PC, a couple of years later, to try it with a mouse, funnily enough, by then I preferred the pad (only for Halo though), but I dont play a whole heap of shooters, Far Cry 2 was the first FPS I liked whole heartedly on a pad, because there was alot of driving too, for which I prefer the pad.

But for the genres I play, mostly RPG's and racers with some shooters, tbh a pad is the ideal interface.

On saying that, even the shooters I play are not straightforward FPS games like CoD, The ones I tend to play have an extra dimension that makes a pad more versatile.

The Darkness, Condemned 1 and 2, Chronicles of Riddick, Clive Barkers Jericho, Dark Sector, Fallout 3, Far Cry 2, Halo, Oblivion, Perfect Dark.

Thats the sum total of FPS games I have on 360, they all benefit from having a pad, for different game mechanics, (eg. the Glaive in Dark Sector, I cant see how you could control that with a mouse).

I think Prey and Quake 4 were the last FPS games I bought on PC, maybe Doom 3 as well, but I dont think my PC would run any newer games than those tbh.

So I guess in the end its all down to preferred game genres, my favourite games are very story driven, so slumped on my couch, with a 40" HDTV, is more immersive for me, its kinda like curled up with a really good book, as opposed to being hunched over a keyboard, twitching a mouse back and forth :)

[Art Blade]

Hehehe  :-X I can see where you are coming from, too  :)

I fixed that double PC typo thing (console games converted for PC like Virtua Fighter or, Sega Rallye). Also, I changed the subject for this topic.

[Fiach]

Ah, cool, yeah I know what you mean, I have seen alot of games ported to PC and you sorta look at the control scheme and think ..... wtf were they smoking?  :-X

[PZ]

One of the reasons I was able to convince my wife to get the PS3 was for the Blu-Ray capabilities, and I must say that it was the correct move at the time.  Consider that the PS3 was $399 when I purchased it, and the cost of a Blu-Ray player was about the same - not a tough choice!

The new Wolfenstein for the PC has been designed to take advantage of the XBox controller.  I have a Saitek, and it works!  All you need do is go into the game options and set the controller as being active, and you've got a really cool way to play the game.  This is not the addon way that most controllers w@&k - (WSAD).  The developers actually programmed the steering mechanism to be as responsive as on the console, not the annoying all-or-none usually associated with trying to get a controller to w@&k with the PC.  I hope that other game developers for the PC games do the same in the future.

[Art Blade]

Ah, cool, yeah I know what you mean, I have seen alot of games ported to PC and you sorta look at the control scheme and think ..... wtf were they smoking?  :-X

Just now I had this terrible experience with Heroes Over Europe. I had never before returned a game to the store, but this one. I imagine it could be quite alright on console, but the PC version even lacked a joystick setup, let alone a functional keyboard control transcription. The menu system used "END" to select and "HOME" to confirm, what the heck were they smoking  ;D