I recently reviewed a few titles like Gears of War and Geometry Wars. Neither have anything particularly inciteful, but are decently written and may or may not convince you to purchase either one if you haven't already. Also before I begin, Penny-Arcade responded to Spencer Halpin's piece on Video Game violence which I addressed in my previous blog. The results are, more or less, spot on.
Recently I recieved the latest addition of PC Gamer and read a letter sent in by a gentlemen who was concerned about the amount of console bashing in the magazine. More or less PC Gamer responded twice, once by saying that the ribbing was good natured, and a second time by asserting that console gaming was really just a poor mans step down from PC Gaming. I wouldn't go so far as to say that I was outraged, but I was mildly irritated with the statement. As I gave it more though however, I found that this may have been a more inciteful statement than was meant.
The primary advantages of the console over the PC is price, not technical supremacy or catalogue of games. Everything consoles do, PC's have done better, and it's only now that consoles are starting to catch up in terms of performance. The Xbox 360 for example offers a variety of functions such as a fully developed multimedia center, a movie and tv download service, digital distribution for arcade games and demos, and so forth. I've been impressed with what can be achieved as a stand alone unit, but it often requires a computer to stream movies off of as surfing the web and downloading isn't available. Same with music, though it is possible to listen to cds. Either way, these features are a first for a console, but native to computers.
The online service in general for consoles is starting to heat up, with xbox arcade, wii download center, and the PS3 Online Store all beginning to offer games at affordable prices for download. The PC has been doing this for over a year now, Steam being one of the first notable d2d services offering Half Life 2 to consumers digitally. It will take at least another console generation before the PC can expect any real competition.
Consoles focus more on party style multiplayer at the moment than the PC, another area where the units thrive. Games like Mario Party, Wii Sports, Fighting games, racing, and rythm games like DDR or Guitar Heroes have yet to be replicated on the PC without an emulator of some sorts, and only then they're meant for a solo player. Consoles tend to thrive in packs due to the nature of their ease of set up and play, but this caters to the casual crowd, and still doesn't achieve any significant gains.
Consoles are simple, easy, and cheap, giving them priority over computers to the computer iliterate or the casual gamer. Obviously the console can either become a serious multimedia platform and offer a variety of services to rival the PC, or the PC can try adding simplicity to cater to the casual crowd. Either way, the power of the PC still eclipses the best entries on consoles, which is sad for both parties because without both sides, you only experience half of what modern gaming has to offer.