What year did you realize PC gaming was superior to consoles?

The best console games far exceed the best pc games. Console games created the hardcore gamer and the competitive scene which is only growing in popularity. Granted it doesn't include crap consoles.

I've been playing on pc since the early 00's but never considered it superior or anything to consoles until some time after the ps3 came out I think. I really wanted a ps3 but it was too expensive so I just kept checking out the games online and saw people having system wars everywhere. PC folks kept saying that pc's are stronger etc and as time went on I slowly began to realise that high end pc's pack a lot more power and stuff than I thought (I was still young). Then Crysis happened and my jaw dropped. Been wanting a high en pc since then but never had the money for one so I just stuck with our laptops for pc gaming which did the job.

I should have more than enough money saved up later this year to finally build my first high end rig. Can't wait to be able to play the newest games on the highest settings for the first time ever, lol.

I still like my consoles though.

Funny related factoid, IIRC the install-whilst-play feature was even used way back in the PC version of Halo 2. Not sure if that was the first case of it, but it was the first one that got my attention.

@jun_aka_pekto said:

I guess 80's. I had my choice of either Amiga Falcon or MS-DOS Falcon. I considered the Amiga as a PC. We used to snicker at PC CGA.

During the late 80, PC has VGA's 256 colors and 262144 palette against classic Amiga's 64 EHB color mode** with 4096 palette.

**VGA's 256 color "chunky" mode is a lot more useful than Amiga's 4096 color HAM mode e.g. Doom PC. Not factoring Amiga copper chip's extra color tricks e.g. 256 color modes in some games for Universe adventure game for classic Amiga.

My dad has IBM PS/2 Model 55SX with X87 FPU and VGA, and I have Amiga 500 (later upgraded to Amiga 3000 in the early 90s). I skipped Amiga 1200/4000, and switched to X86 PC in the mid 90s.

First time I played Battlefield 1942 Online with 60 other players.

Which PC now has a complete 90% dominance over.

You're right....I am looking at this in a simple manner, but that's because I heavily believe quality is objective and taste (obviously) subjective which many don't. Sure, all factors must be weighed when determining what one prefers, but I don't see how that impacts the quality. When I look at PC (not the whole picture, just how the games perform), I see nothing but objective, technically superior gaming in every area. Do you disagree? That it takes some tweaks and presents problems here and there doesn't negate that quality of performance when it performs, it's merely a consequence of it.

There's a huge distinction between quality and preference, and I find to be getting into this debate far more often than I'd like. Just because someone prefers garbage doesn't all of a sudden turn that garbage into gold. And I'm not calling console gaming garbage by any stretch (I'm a console gamer myself), but just because you can put a disc in a drive and play with no problems doesn't suddenly make the experience of playing the game better than that of a PC that may have some issues. It just makes some prefer consoles over PC because of it......but our beliefs have no say on facts.

Btw, I agree about all the various combinations. Frankly, it astonishes me that they can get it to work as well as they do.

I wouldn't be surprised if the pc format had an edge. 90 percent though? From the fighting game scene to the speedrunning scene to the COD scene--those are all bigger on consoles. Not saying consoles hold a majority--maybe a more varied scene?

i'd actually much rather be playing Original Sin, The Old Republic, Neverwinter, FIFA, or NBA2K, or almost any of the other co-op or multiplayer games than NHL Madden. the last football game I enjoyed was Tecmo-Bowl. so, i don't get the argument? sarcasm?

and you talk about PC user's insecurities and wasted threads? how come every time another PS game gets announced there's 2 threads a day started about how "Sony has finally proved it has the best graphics in the world!". only to be proved that it is another blurred out low-detail button masher. or all the desperate attempts at validation with: "my consoles are so much better than PC because I can use a controller and a couch, and "I get a couple exclusives that you can never play, so my console is the best!".

just another trying to validate themselves in the bullshit platform-race war

Meh, I was always a console and PC guy, and still am. What I did realize is that it's not worth it to buy a console for games already available on PC.

Still, Nintendo consoles > PC. It's a shame the 80% of the most desirable PC games are now behind DRM (Steam counts). I miss the simple CD check.

I still like the simplicity of consoles, and exclusives are still exclusives. Resolution is just one element of a game.

@asylumni said:

Then there's the hardware. I tried to replace an HD 3850 with my HD 6870 and even with the right slot, enough power and updated drivers for every chip on the Foxconn system board, it wouldn't work. No BIOS nor even successful POST. Communicating with Foxconn and the GPU manufacturer and replacing the GPU didn't help. Only recently was I able to actually start using it (since I couldn't return it once I cut the bar code off for the rebate) when I replaced the system board, CPU and RAM. But then the RAM didn't run right and I had to figure out if it was a problem with the RAM (which required making a boot disk to test), the memory controller in the CPU, or if it was a flaw in the system board. (Spoiler - it was the system board.)

and even if it was the OEM stock hardware's fault, i've known more than a few consolites that had their Xbox, 360, and PS3 die on them so hardware failure can't be counted as a bonus or negative for either platform.

I'd say Sega and SNK as well.

Console has fighters and lolCoD. PC has moba, rts, few mmos, and shooters.

PC also has many more tournaments, prizes, and players.

Right, it was pretty foolish of me to think a PCI-e video card would work in a PCI-e slot. It's not like these are industry standards created to assure compatibility. :rolleyes: What do you mean "didn't use proper hardware'? These aren't parts I fabricated myself, they are parts from major manufacturers; Foxconn, XFX, Kingston, MSI, Intel, AMD, etc. Are you saying replacing industry standard parts in a PC is the same as putting non-industry standard parts in a closed system designed to prevent such use? How exactly was I to test compatibility before I had the part? Sure, I was a little anxious to get the rebate process moving, but it's not a stretch to think a PC issue could be corrected with the right drivers or software. Am I expected to have an array of testing tools at hand just to replace a graphics card or build a PC?

The difference between a console breaking and a bad part showing up for a PC build is I don't have to figure out exactly what part is broken on a console or risk a restocking fee if I send back the wrong part (plus the delay when I have to send a different part back).

Trick question, it didn't. Despite owning a gaming PC (mainly for Dota 2, Cities: Skylines, and Football Manager) I'll always prefer consoles and even handhelds to PCs.

The problem with simply looking at a performance angle is, while you get a set level of performance and visual fidelity from a console, the same can't be said for PC. There's no official PC set up. Can a PC be built to far outperform a PS4? Absolutely. But there's also a great number of PC's that perform worse or maybe not at all. An undefined PC can not logically be called superior nor inferior because it's an unknown. Therefore, the blanket statement of "PC is superior" makes no logical sense.

@Jankarcop:

Consoles have fighters, FPS, tps, racing, gamers dedicated to keeping old console games online, and an ever growing speed running community that competes and raises money for charities.

I was talking about big scenes. I guess if you wanna include all the small stuff, PC still has quite a lot more.

I just assumed we were arguing under the presumption of each platform's fullest potential.

Those are big scenes.

You think any of those comes close to Moba or RTS?

Over 10 percent close, yes. I forgot about the exploding retro craze(which has its pros and cons). With that it may be possible that consoles occupy a bigger space, scene wise. I don't see pc games selling for over $500 at indie shops. Consoles have stores dedicated to them dating back 30 years. Consoles have a bigger youtube scene overall, as well.

@Heirren

I think you are mistaken. That was a rhetorical question. No system even comes remotely close to PC's e-sports/competitive scene or genres.

-http://www.esportsearnings.com/players

-http://www.esportsearnings.com/games

-http://www.esportsearnings.com/tournaments

-http://www.esportsearnings.com/

-Concurrent players of LoL, CS, Battle.Net, or Dota2 dwarfing any console title.

-Genres with a skillcap, complexity, or apm of rts/moba/twitch-shooters.

lol 10%

Late PS2/GC/Xbox gen. When consoles started trying to be PC's and forgetting they were consoles.

As someone who played PC and console games since the early '90's, in tandem with one another, as complementary experiences, to see gaming where it is these days is just downright depressing.

I'm aware there is big money in the those games. My only issue is that they have become so big that a lot of the money is coming from big companies advertising product. The tournaments are a means to sell. People use x and y monitors--people buy them because of it; more money goes to the tourney, players, etc. The last ADGQ brought in 1.5 million to charities in 160 hours. I know that pales in comparison, but all the money is from people watching the streams vs multi million dollar companies trying to sell their products.

I don't know how to look up the retro scene. Convention sales, attendees, ebay retro game sales...not sure if that stuff is available.

***I'd say the big speedrun games have require more skill than any of those pc games.

More tournaments, more players, more viewers, more money, more competitors, more games. Uhh yeah. It's not even close.

I guess the skill cap thing is debatable, but lol c'mon.

I generally preferred console games in the late 80s and early 90s. That first PC (DOS/Windows) game to blow me away technically was Wing Commander 3 in 1994 with its gorgeous SVGA graphics and polygons. Until that point, I generally thought console games looked better. I skipped the PS1/N64 generation altogether and played exclusively on PC. I came back to Playstation eventually in the 00s, but PC won me over entirely by the late 90s.

if you don't check what hardware(especially with a motherboard) is listed as compatible, you cannot blame either component or the platform. just guessing if a piece is supported, even if it is on an industry standard port, is the buyer's fault if it turns out to be incompatible. there are so many firmware changes and technology upgrades to the same standard hardwares that many do end up incompatible.

even if you had purchased a faulty card, it is still on you if you have no way to test all of your hardware to be sure which piece is faulty. and that wasn't the case, as you stated it was a problem with the board. if you want to avoid or can't deal with these types of circumstances you should be purchasing preconfigured, manufacturer tested, extra-expensive PCs, the same as you do with a console. then your repairs or returns are handled exactly the same way.

and yes, it is exactly like modding a console. all you are doing is changing out the existing components and installing a new OS.