Ps4 or a Gaming Pc

Hi everyone. I just register to Gamespot because ive been having a dilemma on buying a ps4 or a gaming pc for Christmas. Im only 15 years old so most of the free time il have will be on holidays. I already have a laptop but its 3 years old and can barely run decent games on lowest graphics. The budget is around 500 euros. Could you tell me what would it be best to buy and why? Thanks in advance.

few things for you to consider:

what do your friends game on? are you interested in playing online with them?

pc games are considerably cheaper than console games so once you're up and running with a pc it'll cost you less to game, and the ps4 catalogue of games is just a drop in the ocean to what's available for the pc. there are plenty of exclusives for both so you need to think about which appeal to you the most.

for your budget you should be able to get a modest gaming pc but it won't be a powerhouse. if you also need to buy a monitor too then that'll drop your specs further and you're looking at a pc that on paper could still be technically superior to the ps4 / xbone but that performance on a game per game can't always be guaranteed, like it will be on consoles. you can always upgrade at a later time to improve performance of course.

maintaining a gaming pc takes work. drivers need updating, fixes / patches for games need finding, you'll have to deal with clashes and conflicts in software and you will reach a stage in a few years when you can no longer run the latest games at the settings you're used to, meaning you'll need to upgrade. you won't have that problem with a console but by choosing a console you'll lose the ability to customise and configure games to the nth degree, plus all the wonderful benefits of pc gaming - free online, mods, huge back catalogue, higher resolutions, better looking games etc.

so ultimately it comes down to what's most important to you

@Macutchi: Thanks for the info. Il probably go for ps4. My friends use ps4 as well so it will be more fun plus i don't have much free time (studying) to customize my PC and keep improving it. Basically will only use it for approximately 3 years. Also what is a monitor?

@nicapoel007: the screen you play on lol. i've got a gaming pc and ps4. if you're just looking for convenience you won't go far wrong with a ps4 although they're not without their faults

@Macutchi: i just found out that with ps4 you must buy monthly subscription to be able to play multiplayer...Um what??

Xbox One

@nicapoel007: yeah, as you would with an xbone. whereas its free on the pc for the most part. these are the kind of things you need to weigh up when making your decision

500 Euros? PS4, you can't buy anything great with that. 500 dollars perhaps, but euros, hell no.

I only really use my P.C. for single player games, the PS4 for games I get very social with- May it be Party-chat/ coop/ or PvP. It's also worth noting you can still party-chat and message for free on PSN. However the sad reality is for multiplayer it is behind a paywall for most games. Plenty of online only games, such as The Elder Scrolls Online however do not require PSNPlus.

So, depends on community and the games you're after.

With a proper gaming P.C. you will have a more flawless gaming experience. Higher FPS unless you get a really badly optimized game (Dark Souls). A downer not many mention is (hackers, and interface breaking bugs). & if you're into Mods; check carefully what you're downloading! Seriously! You have the chance of getting corrupt files that will mess up your computer big-time.

They both have pros and cons.

Overall, I'd judge based on the second paragraph I wrote.

I personally play on PS4 for the exclusives and convenience. I saw your worry for the PS Plus monthly subscription, but it's actually a better deal than you're thinking. You can buy a year subscription for $50 and you get something like 2-3 "free" games every month (generally not the disc based, AAA ones). Still, it's worth the money.

Everything in the first reply is true on the PC front. Lots of games that will look better, IF you put the money in, but for $500, I'm not sure you can build a machine with a monitor that will match what PS4 can do graphically. Plus the maintenance stated in that first reply. Maybe with sales of parts and if you use your HDTV insteadof a monitor to plug the PC into.

Ps4 it is then. Does anyone know if games like star wars battlefront that include online and campaign or like cod III require ps plus subscripion?

@nicapoel007: Both those games require PSPlus for multiplayer.

PS4

With your budget, I think you made a good choice. Assuming you don't have a spare keyboard/mouse, monitor, and cheap/free way to obtain an OS, that would cut deeply into your budget. I guess you could use a TV as a monitor if needed, but still, the OS is expensive if you have to buy it. There's a lot of good PS4 bundles out there now, I don't know how much they are in your region. But I'll assume you can get a game bundle for 300 Euros. So that leaves you plenty of room to buy more games, and if you look in the right places, they're pretty cheap. But then again, I'm unfamiliar with your currency and what the prices may be where you live. And PS+ is a good value if you take advantage of some of the "free" games you get along the way.

With your budget, ps4 is the best

While PC is the much better gaming option, it does have its costs.

@SoNin360: il probably get the 2 week free trial ps plus for Christmas then two months for summer.

In my country theyre way expensive. 409 euros the bundle ps4 with a game

You can get a pretty sweat budget gaming PC with 500 euros, then you can play any game you want

Edit:

Read this http://peekand.co/budget-pc-build/

Both is the best. That way you are not as hassled by the problems with PC gaming and PS4 gaming. Also you do get not stuck as one of the worse type of gamer (PC only gamer.)

@jenbabycakes: Il buy a ps4 instead. I dont have the time to make my own pc plus since in my country there is almost none gaming industry it means i should get all the parts online so forget having a new pc before christmas

As someone who is proud owner of both, I say both! However since you are in position of needing to chose because of budget....I would suggest PS4 simply because 500 euro is little for real gaming PC, i7 and i5 processors that has at least 4 cores cost lot of money alone(i5 4460 3.2 ghz for in place in where I live costs 260 euro) costs around and lets not even mention graphics, plus you need hdd and sdd as well that are going to cost, still all in all budget goes over 500 euro( but as I said I'm counting prices according to place where I'm at, your place might have cheaper stuff idk), because you are aiming for next gen games right?

So as I said if where you live has similar prices to my country then buy PS4 instead of PC or collect a bit more money so you can buy proper gaming PC, if not then get PS4 because PC is best for gaming in my books don't take me wrong, but if you don't get proper build you will just need to pay more and more money for new upgrades or even new PC soon, so since you are just 15 and can't get money for all upgrades you might need then buying PS4 will save you trouble in that aspect.

@thatsnotmyname: Yea il do that.In my country as i mentioned above the gaming industry is very limited and individual components even a pc or ps4 cost waay more than in your country.

I got my laptop 8gb ram, cpu i5 duo core , shitty intel graphics card and with touch screen 500 euros from the supplier two years ago. From the electronic shop it was almost a thousand euros.

If i had a pc i would just change the graphics card and i could play most of the games