PC Gaming: Correcting some common misconceptions
I’ve been reading some extremely infuriating bullshit on the internet recently. These types of comments have always been around, but the fact i have been really getting back into PC gaming recently has probably helped me notice these comments more and more. I’m a gamer, i don’t limit myself by platform and never have, so i own the consoles and a PC capable of running everything out there on maximum settings (i refuse to call it a Gaming PC). I enjoy PC gaming, so i have spent quite a large amount of money on it over the years, but this is where the silly myths connected to PC gaming start, cost. Yeah, it can be extremely expensive, but does it have to be? No.
Look here, i have just put together a system for this post, which in terms of performance and longevity, will wipe the floor with any of the current consoles. All for less than £600, i could go for much cheaper than that using the Core 2 Quad series, and less powerful graphics cards and it still be a more powerful gaming system than those silly consoles. But i went with the new P55 chipset for the i5 processors, and one of the better graphics cards out there for the price, will run everything on maximum settings.
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I paid that amount of my PS3 when i bought it, a games console, it plays games and blu-ray movies.. whereas with a PC i can do much more than that. So there is more value to be had it in from that perspective. Then, we actually come on to gaming, there are valid complaints against PC gaming, such as some people not liking the lack of any universal system and games not always working on different hardware configurations on release. But feel free to challenge me when i say this, because this is just an opinion but, on the PC versions, you get:
- Better graphics – Higher resolution, better quality textures, control over Anti Aliasing and Anisotropic filtering to bump them up well over what a console could run those games with and now extra graphical effects that the consoles won’t ever be able to support. Like we are seeing with DirectX 11, we won’t see the equivalent on consoles till the next generation of consoles at least.
- Better performance – Being able to a game to match your display’s refresh rate (most commonly 60 hz, so 60fps) greatly enhances the feel and gameplay of a game. Many console games, aside from Racers and Call of duty run at 30 frames a second, many console gamers won’t really see the fuss, but once you go and play all games at 60fps or above if your monitor supports it, then go back to console gaming, it seems like games feel slow.
- Better control – Yes, keyboard and mouse isn’t for everyone – but that is the point, you can use absolutely anything you want on PC, you’re not locked to any control methods. I know,you have things like FragFX on the consoles to kind of simulate a keyboard and mouse, but it doesn’t work properly, its slow, laggy and unresponsive since it is just a remodeled controller.
- Better control over your games – You can mod your games, add new content, share your content easily, create your own community within an online game by hosting your own game server, administrate and moderate your own servers, everything!
- Decent voice chat – I don’t care what anyone says, the voice chat on consoles is terrible, the quality is just unacceptable, especially when you compare to services like ventrillo, Skype or teamspeak.
Oh and, i’d like to say, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO UPGRADE YOUR VIDEO CARD EVERY FEW MONTHS. You know, like everyone seems to say you do. An 8800GTX, came out around 3 years ago, still outperforms a console and will run pretty much everything on the highest settings.
Then, the game prices – steam does sales regularly through the year, there is pretty much a game on sale all the time, and even if they’re not – pc games are still cheaper. But look at the recent sales for the past 8 days on steam, the special day only ones. There has been hundreds of games with money off during this time, not just a 10% off or so, but from 50 – 88% off on not only old games, but new games released within a few weeks of that sale!
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There are some very valid complaints against PC gaming, but not all of them are true and most of them are greatly exaggerated. Think about it next time you open your mouth, because i’m not trying to convert you all to PC gaming, just to inform you that you might of been talking rubbish the last time you mentioned PC gaming.







