Consoles are shifting to installations too. Like some PS3 games already require installs.

I haven't had much compatibility problems in the last years. Mostly it's the older games (or copy protection) like Vampire the masquerade bloodlines that have issues (I had to lower my memory temporarily to get it run with maximum settings). It helps to keep GPU drivers updated, small things usually gets you off from the most of the problems.

It helps a lot to get more info about different parts when buying a new PC. There is always some great CPU, GPU & other parts that are much cheaper than other parts and can still be almost as good.

I am getting all the games that I can for PC. I have consoles for exclusive games / if I can't wait for PC release. I always regret that I get the console version when PC version is finally released :/

What I like about PC gaming is that older games can be get really cheaply. Like I got Serious Sam 2 couple days ago for 1€ :) Also there is lots of quality free games to play too.

Overall I really like 360, DS, PSP and PC. All of them are great system and have good games but still PC gaming is what I love the most. Maybe it's the tweaking part that I really love... sometimes when I play 360 I go to options to look setting and remember oh yeah nothing here heh.

It helps that I love RTS & FPS games too and PC is the ultimate RTS & FPS machine. SupCom, CoH, DoW, C&C, StarCraft 2, Demigod... and all the hundereds of other great RTS games.

Good thing is that this game is probably going to run really smoothly on consoles too. It's really impressive technology I hope many developres would use it.

Well, I have to admit I'm also a PC gaming fanboy, only my computer sucks right now so I often get bitter about it.

I promised myself I would build a new one for UT3 but that never happened.
Maybe Rage or Doom 4 will do it...

Lol, exactly..

The whole financial excuse is only secondary.. Most people simply do what's easiest and most convenient for them.. Obviously most people don't want to put to much effort into fiddling arround with a PC.. They rather go for the more convenient option that is a console which does everything for them in a nice closed box lowest common denominator kindof way..

And a lowest common denominator by definition is never the best..

You just have to put a little bit more effort in to get the best.. If you don't want to that's fine, but you won't get the best then.. A console is easier and more convenient, not better.. Not even close (less powerfull and way more restrictions)..

It should also be common knowledge that what sells best or wins a market is not by definition what's best.. There are numerous examples where a better product lost a market to an inferieur product for whatever reason..

Most people will play Rage and Doom 4 etc on a console because that's most convenient, but the best version will be on PC.. And when it comes to new tech games like this I simply want the best (because getting the best graphics etc is the whole point of these type of games imho)..

I love PC gaming, but the price "excuse" isn't, it is a big--huge--price of admission even I'm not willing to get into that often.

We have games like Crysis that really don't run on most "gaming PC's" to a level that makes console games look poor. You need a ton of money, with a graphics card roughly the cost of a console itself, and you need more than just a graphics card.

When I bought my current PC, it was a very decent gaming PC that could play just about anything at great settings, and that is when it rocks, but one year later you find yourself outdated and new games that simply don't run that well on your system making them way less attractive--and taking that PC advantage away.

That's when you start to wonder if you should get that upgrade and if it is worth it for this years' games........then you kind of "wait" until next year and not too long after that your whole system is obsolete and you just decide to wait until your system truly becomes obsolete. This cycle continues on an on.

But then PC gaming is NOT mainstream. I'm SURE your average gamer does not know what soft shadows are and the effect of disabling this option does for the framerate of the game. In fact, they don't even know why the game runs like crap! Some are too scared to change anything in the "advanced" graphics options. Another reason why PC gaming is not mainstream is because you have to keep your whole system running well, again, something your average gamer will most likely not do. I've seen great gaming PCs with a million startup applications, anti virus software that gets in the way all the time, and full of other unnecessary crap--all this affects performance of the system, including gaming performance.

For some it is a matter of changing a couple of thing and prevention, to other a big headache and the only thing they know is their system is running slow.

PC gaming done right on the high-end is not mainstream at all, that is correct.. But with the right ammount of money and effort to gain knowledge put in it's the best gamingplatform arround, hands down..

I'm simply talking the best here, not the easiest, cheapest, or most convenient for your average Joe (the mainstream).. It's very obvious consoles are so popular because most people lack the money and/or knowledge (or will to gain it) to game on the PC.. Besides the consolemakers keeping certain games exclusive to their platform, forcing you to buy their hardware if you want to play those games..

Being in the PC-hardware buisiness myself for over 15 years now already I think I know my stuff, and it also allows me to upgrade regularly with very little cost.. But I understand very well that for 99.9% of the people outthere it's a different situation.. But that doesn't change a thing about the PC still being the best gamingplatform around when it comes to pure power and technical advancements imho..

Being high-end and a early adopter costs money and requires a bit more tech-knowledge, so be it.. Be glad it exists, otherwise we would all still live in the stoneage (of gaming).. It's also why I'm not into the Wii at all, to me that thing is last-gen in terms of tech..

Well Inflatable thats not true either, my PC as it stands at the moment can play crysis in 720p with all setting set to maximum with no problems at all.

There are only a very small handful of games out there that I want to play though, and thats the main problem for me, my pc at the momemt is much better than a 360 or PS3 but without the games I want to play what does it matter ?Well you are assuming that technology = best, and thats not the case, better gaming for me = what I want to play, nice graphics are always a plus but they don't make a game better if you don't like the gameplay.

For me it's adventures and strategies (and tycoons etc.) on PC and action games (including firs person shooters) on consoles. Recently I don't really feel like playing action games, so I spend majority of gaming time with PC. Building your financial empire in Patrician 3 is amazing. :)

i think that consoles' biggest selling point for me (besides the obvious points that everyone points out: money, confort etc etc) is that it's a common platform with standard hardware, with which the developers have to work. this makes them work more focused, and not go overboard (eg Crytek with Crysis).

What made me switch to consoles one year ago, was getting sick and tired of updates, drivers, conflicts and what not, and on the other hand see people enjoying games like God of War, Shadow of the Collossus or Gears of War. The two former ones, running on a hardware ridiculously outdated by PC standards at the time. But what matters is that this hardware was present, with little to no difference, in the homes of millions, and so the developers just had to squeeze it out, make it run to their favour, and do stuff like hdr or soft shadows, stuff that no one dreamed possible, but was made possible because they focused on this hardware, and not on 10 billion different pc configurations.

Or worse yet, like Crytek developing a game meant to be played in 2 years....I don't want a game to be played next year when i have money to upgrade...i want to get home from work, chill and play, the way it's meant to be played.

And nowadays, i confess that playing games on a keyboard (that is, a typewriter) just feels wrong! I know i know, was playing on them for years, and i know nothing beats playing an fps on a PC, but look i have a pretty decent pc rig, cod (at least the demo) runs like silk, and beautiful, controls wonderfully on the mouse....but still, i prefer to play it on the 360...but that's just me :)

Well perhaps I miss worded it, I meant that for the majority a more diverse list of games provides a better gaming platform, im sure anyone who likes FPS, TPS and RTS as their main genres will obviously gravitate towards the PC, but there are many genres that PC's don't have.

An why do you think that is?

Consolemakers love to get everybody to buy their stuff they have 100% control over, so they can also make money on every accessory and game sold for it (consolegames are more expensive then PC games because the consolemakers want a percentage aswell).. And the more people buy their hardware the more gamedevelopers are tempted to make exclusive content for that specific hardware aswell.. Kindof a chicken or the egg story..

There's not a console-exclusive game outthere that couldn't easily be released on PC aswell.. You can hook up a PC to a HDTV aswell, you can hook up a controller to a PC aswell, you can even put a Blu-ray drive in your PC and watch Blu-ray movies just like on a PS3.. Only the Wii is kindof special as there's no controller like it for the PC..

In the end it's mainly about the money, and it makes me sad that's more important for a lot of gamedevelopers then making the best game possible on the best possible hardware.. Besides that, a lot of console-specific genres originate from Japan, and that country has always been about consoles, not PC.. That's also a cause why you don't see certain games on the PC..

But if a FPS or RTS game is both available on the consoles and PC, I'll pick the PC version anyday.. 1. better controls, 2. better graphics, 3. most of the time free extra content and modsupport etc.. It's an easy choice for me.. The PC is the better platform if you take away the cost and possible hassle with drivers, settings, and compatibility etc (both non-issue's for me)..

"There's not a console-exclusive game outthere that couldn't easily be released on PC aswell."

That does make it sound a lot simpler than it really is. There are many more problems that are present for a game that gets released on the pc than there are for a game that gets released on a console. They should be obvious.

Whereas with a console there is a practically 100% chance that a player will have exactly the kind of controller you designed the game around, same can't be said for a pc. Then we already know the system requirements can never be perfectly predictable for pc customers.

What I meant was that there is no guarantee that the player already owns the device needed to play your game the way you designed it. Any developer that creates a 360 title or a ps3 title or a wii title can guarantee that the people that buy the game have a 360 controller, a ps3 controller or a wii mote.

Sure the 360 d pad and pretty much any other controller may work, but there is no guarantee that a pc gamer has that specific controller, much less any other controller at all. All that is really guaranteed is a keyboard and a mouse and some mice are outright crap.

There are some that wouldn't even know how to properly configure a controller to properly work for a pc game. I tried my 360 wireless controller for ff7 on my computer, but ran into all sorts of annoying issues regarding sound and a couple other things when the wireless adapter was connected.

Then again, maybe that was just a bad game to try it with and I tried to do this with Vista. So maybe Vista also caused some issues.

There is no doubt in my mind that pretty much any console game would work better on a PC but there is little point us thinking up what if's, beccause its not guna happen.

I would love to see JRPG's on a PC with no region protection and better graphics, but sadly thats not guna happen. (I suppose LR is coming to pc, but not for a few months after the 360 version and I can't wait :S, maybe FF13 will come to PC seeing as its being developed on crystal tools who knows)

I have my PC set up to my HDTV and use the xbox 360 controller for some games I play on it (mostly emulation stuff), so there is no difference between my PC and my 360, expect for the OS.

But fact remains that most of the games I like will never come to the PC.

Yes the PC has the potenital to be the best gaming platform but for me and many others it isn't.

I think every platform has pros and cons.

I definitely agree that the PC is NOT AT ALL mainstream anymore. Hence if its not mainstream, ITS NOT easy, and ITS NOT CHEAP... But for some the rewards are worth it.

The fact that almost any game thats multiplatform includidng pc is better on the later shows that the PC is the premium platform, but the whole piracy BS and whatnot doesnt help the PC cause. Personally i dont believe piracy is the issue, not in north america anyway.

If a game is trully good it will sell, just like any movie. Batman is awesome, its killing it at the box office, cat woman was junk, and so were its sales...

Blizzard will tell you a AA game will sell plenty. I think this is a good indication that MOST games are junk, which i happen to think is the case anyway.

DL a pc game is like getting a decent demo, you like it, you will buy it for the mplayer, and the fact is, by now ALL games should have an mplayer component, i used to play baldurs gate 2 on mplayer, so yeah, no excuses....

EDIT: what was the topic again, i just read the last 5-6 posts? lol

Console gaming FTW!! :)

PC gaming for me has its pro's and con's IE:

PC's have allot more games esp mmo's, pc's are always on the cutting edge of gaming tech, pc's give us multipe ways to connect to the internet for online gaming to different brands of pc and os ect..

Cost!, PC can be tech nightmare O/S to configure, drivers to update, vid card to tweak, learning curve can be steep for the most basic game functions, ect...

For me console gaming is were its at for many reasons that have already been mentioned in this thread, but i have many workmates that are hardcore pc gamers and would not have it any other way.

I know what you mean Grift. It's a really big problem too. Many out there feel perfectly justified in downloading cracked games. They use everything from prices to convenience as an argument.

Most I've argued with about it actually blame game developers personally for the piracy that they commit. I can never make sense of their logic. Their logic of course being that the developer who makes a bad game deserves piracy. "This game isn't worth paying for anyway" So in a sense many of them see piracy as a weapon used to punish developers they feel are undeserving of strong sales.

They become absolutely incensed when anti-piracy measures are ever discussed. It's an almost "How dare you!" reaction.

Convenience and value is a valid argument, depending on the platform.

Consider unsupported platforms.

They cry and cry about piracy, but when it comes down to it, they don't really support a product past its prospected lifetime anyway.
How in the hell is a person supposed to play Vectorman nowadays, if his Genesis doesn't work?

You missunderstood me, i didnt say piracy is alright, but the fact that theres few quality games means the other game WERE NOT GONNA SELL ANYWAY, piracy just means a bunch of people played those game, but those SAME people would have otherwise NOT touched those games, so its NOT like those games lost any sales.

Why to download and play the game if it's not good? There must be something interesting about it then. They could have bought it cheaper price or something.

I agree, thats why i think demos are critical to see what a game is about. I cant think of 1 game where i didnt like the demo and the full version turned out great.