14 DAY TRIAL // As a response to an article published by Softpedia News a few days ago one of our readers has dropped a few lines. The question was if the PC can compete with new generation gaming consoles. Here is his opinion:
You are well, probably not looking at this from the PC angle. This may go on for a little bit but it covers a lot of good ranting grounds in regards to video games, and if you start to read it, then finish it or you won't get what I'm trying to say.
Most assuredly PC gaming will never die, especially when the consoles are just like stockcar PC's. My PC is very close to the specs of the PS3. The differences are small such as:
I have one gig of RAM (though in a week will have 2 gigs of PC 4400) the PS3 has some ware around 256, though the new architecture is nice, it still isn't that much, especially for the little things like bodies and shell casings on the ground.
Also the CPU clocks faster than mine and the CELL CPU is a nice piece of technology for size and price, but the AMD FX-55 even at 2.6 GHz still owns it with its 1.5 MB cache, which is the thing that counts the most in games; though it doesn't own it by much. My 6800 ultra is apparently less so than the PS3's but with the new 6800 ultra that has 512 MB of DDR3 RAM, that will more than make up for the slower clock speed, and if I had the money to waist I would get an SLI deck and be about 3-4 times faster than the PlayStation3 GPU.
Online doesn't matter much, just who ever your ISP is, but PC's are upgradeable in ways that can help as well.
Interface wise is all a matter of opinion, I was raised on the keyboard, so that is my preference, but I more than understand that an equal or more amounts of people were raised on the controller. Even in respects to that, the variety of PC controllers don't sit at the keyboard and mouse, variety from something alike a PlayStation 3 controller to a laser mouse in the model of a gun turning any FPS into a really violent version of duck hunt. Though I have to say the controller looks like I could hit people with it, and maybe toss it and have it come back to me.
Games are a real to be decided category but now that consoles like the PlayStation 3 have caught up to the PC, console ports wont make my skin crawl, in fact gaming will be better in general for every one. Though the PlayStation 3 for the first year or so will probably have more releases than the PC as always, the new technology will make porting the game a near one click process, and not the back breaking process that it is to make a good cross console game these days.
Never the less, I can only wait on this, but releases for the PC will be very well planed out as they usually are (PC exclusive releases that is). But the PS3 may have a lot of crap games released, either way it will still have the good ones, that will match up to what PC games can do for the most part of the first year or so it is out.
Open ends: despite the new consoles internet access and the ability to mod it out on the PC and drop it back into the console, it will never be as open ended as the PC. Consoles are still regulated by the corporations that birth them; the worst example of this is the Xbox 360. (I'm going to call it the Xbox 2 probably once or twice so don't hold it against me) The new Xbox has an ability to mod out things, then upload them and sell them for a buck or so, they call it "mini transactions" doesn't really matter, introducing mods, tweaks, and or home made maps in the same realm as money is a horrible idea, and knowing Microsoft, it will only expand further into something much worse, and that is bound to affect me as a PC gamer. PC's are a compilation of what tools are provided, and what tools exist that you can find on the net, whatever it takes to mod it, mess with it, or run it better; The consoles will no doubt be regulated to the core as to protect its copy rights, or worse.
Longevity is also an issue that PC's own at. By the time the PlayStation 3 is released out in 2006, My PC that is neck and neck to it now, will be leagues ahead of it, either in just additions, or maybe in some new jump in technology. The PlayStation 3 or any new console will stay as it is and grow older and older and will be rinse repeats till the new consoles come out.
Its just too bad the PC games get consolitus towards the end of a consoles life, though there are a few games out there in this twilight period (for the Xbox and PS 2 this was started about 2 years ago until now where PC gamers feel the terrible effects at its worse of the out of date console games).
Game concepts, PC games will have the real time strategy to boast over the consoles, just as consoles will have fighting games over the PC. RPG's are at a crossroads, mutually Morrowind and for the new consoles Oblivion (Xbox 360 maybe but PlayStation 3 is in the picture because Microsoft wont bend to Bethesda's needs in order to port it to the Xbox Live system since it is released in chunks as they finish them); any how, Oblivion is sort of the part were RPG is good on both the console and the PC in an even way, this is probably due to Bethesda's part in both development and publishing, giving it an unbiased view over PC or console, no need to make it any different when it doesn't have to be.
Another aspect of concepts is that of just the game, this is just a common thing since it is real all up to the developer and as long as that developer isn't an Ubisoft related one, the game is the same for all the systems it is released on, unless hardware is an issue.
In conclusion, the PC isn't disappearing, its getting better, It may cost a lot to compete on the front lines for the first year or two with the consoles, but this isn't much if you are already a PC gamer though in the end it is a lot more money than the consoles are. You get what you pay for though and for those whose life is entrenched in video games, or for those who want the best of the best experience, the PC is still and will always be the way to go.
But in defense of the consoles, for those who aren't 3,000 dollars into video games, and want a good premium yet depreciative gaming experience, then by all means go to the consoles, the important thing is that you are frying your brain with mind numbing violence. The problems come when you hurt the other systems out of pure bullsh-t like what Microsoft has been doing with both its Windows XP monopoly hurting gaming performance, to releasing certain games in a series on the PC and not the sequel or so on. Let's not even talk about the screwing they pulled on the PS2.
I understand the world of economics, and I also know that alienating people isn't the way to get them to comply. Attempting to force someone into a situation to buy a product by handicapping others ability to compete is a poor practice, and the Oil companies are finding this out, so will Microsoft hopefully with the PlayStation 3's massive upshot past it. If people would just make their system a better product in order to get sales instead of pulling legal bs on the competitors ability to compete or just spreading crap around about the opfor.
Fortunately the PC isn't a competitor company which puts us out of the way, but that also makes people think we don't exist, or where this whole thing started, The PC market is huge, and if you make a game worth buying for us it will fly off the shelves, look at Half-Life 2 (despite in store copies having bugs).
Also its good to see games like Far Cry sell what they deserve now, Doom3, Raven-shield, BFV and BF 1942, Ghost Recon, COD, Morrowind, Max Payne; PC copies all sold in the millions of each of these games, even though some have console ports still. The PC market is no midget; you just have to have something worth money (unlike PARIAH). With this new generation of games coming out, suddenly something is worth money, and PC copies will sell, as well as will the console ones, and the corporations will make the maximum profit since they are expanding all potentials.
It breaks down into if the game is good. Good games will get good reviews, and that will cause people to want to buy it. Not cause its a PlayStation 3 game or a PC game, cause it doesn't suck, and they will by it for what ever suits them best, so make your console suitable (which Sony defiantly has) and make products.
PC's aren't in the race because the consoles have something over them, they aren't even in the same league (imagine consoles are NASCAR and PC's are Formula 1 racers. The end result is that the drivers are still crazy mother f----s that love driving fast as hell.
PC and consoles are the same only with video games. The only difference that 2006 will bring is that the stockcars will be a hell of a lot better than they were last year, it still doesn't stop the F1 racing or replace it, and it never will.