There will be always ongoing debate whether PC or console is best for gaming but to tell you the truth and having been a gamer for the past decade or so, there is so much difference in gaming with consoles. Nowdays, i am really starting to hate PCs for gaming not just in terms of costwise but for various other reasons.
Here is why ….
(i) Just Plug and Play with Consoles
Get a game, insert it your console and you are good to play with the game outright from the DVD drive. You dont even need to install the game to your console and it JUST WORKS! With PC, you have to install game data for hours and need tonnes of hard drive space. Consoles are like ‘Macs’ which are cool.
(ii) No worries about Hardware upgrades
With PCs you have to constantly upgrade the video car, CPU, and RAM atleast once in a year or so to keep up with the minimum requirements, whereas no worries with console. A good graphics card like ATI radeon or Geforce would cost about $300 performance wise and added to the cost for Intel/AMD cpu specific for gaming would run into $500.
(iii) No more bugs and crashes
Games released for PC platform will have no end for problems and the experience can be quite frustrating with crashes to desktop, slow frame rate, driver updates..etc. With consoles you have to least worry about game crashes and a patch can quickly fix any issue with game
(iv) Games are Released First to Console then PC
If you cant wait to lay hands on newly released game, its better to move to console gaming because game developers often tend do a first release to console platforms, then on PC platform, which typically you have to wait for months for the PC version.
(v) Joystick is more fun than Keyboard
I have always liked joystick because you can sit and play for hours non stop (ergonomically good) than with keyboards. The gameplay experience is much better with joystick and easier to control. The recent kinetic and sony move and 3D entertainment takes gaming to a whole new level.
(vi) Consoles are cheaper
Nowadays buying a console costs as much as buying a new PC and console prices have dropped considerably. Depending on hardware hungry game, you will have to spend as much as $500 to buy a single Nvidia graphics card. When comes to game titles, I have to agree that PC versions of games are much cheaper than the consoles, but in the long run, money spent in buying game titles will justify the purchase of PC hardware so as to keep up with the gaming minimum PC requirements.
(vii) Multiplayer
Multiplayer online gaming brings a lot of excitement if you are in a PSN or Xbox connect and it brings hassle free network connectivity. Keep in mind that if you own a PS3 then its free to join PSN while you have to subscribe for xbox by paying a fee.
(viii) Game Performance & Graphics
The secret for best graphics is to have a good TV for consoles hooked to HDMI. Consoles are meant to deliver superior graphics and performance uniformly for all games than PC counterparts (unless your PC have superior hardware for gaming).
(ix) Play Movies & Home Entertainment
PS3 console comes with a blue-ray player and watching movies with amazing picture quality is a great entertainment. With that being said, PCs can play movies as well but the visual experience in HD is quite different and vastly superior with consoles and big TV screens.
(x) Take Advantage of Console Exclusive Games
Some games are only meant exclusive for consoles – Xbox 360 or PS3 or whatever and not available for any other platforms . These exclusive games are usually ‘Greatest Hits’ which you cannot afford to miss them. For example Gears of War, Halo series is only available for Xbox by Microsoft, while God of War III, Killzone are are PS3 exclusives by Sony.
So the next question comes – which is better xbox or ps3? If you ask me its better to buy both, which is what i have done and i love both the consoles.
