For some time, my plan was, when purchasing a PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360, to get a copy of Oblivion with it.
A few weeks ago, I realized that with my new computer I could play Oblivion now. Better, the game would look superior, because my television set is standard definition, and my computer monitor is higher-than-high definition--taller than high definition anyway.
This is not a high-end computer, but it is more powerful than all but the most ridiculous (and expensive) configurations from a year ago, so it should be able to run a year-old game like Oblivion well, right?
No.
Searching the Internet for Oblivion benchmarks shows that systems like mine set to reasonable resolutions (like 1024 x 768 or 1280 x 1024) and with a reasonable amount of (not all) graphical features enabled regularly run at under 20 frames per second. The game would be unplayable at my monitor's native resolution.
Perhaps Oblivion is poorly coded, but there is a bigger problem when a mid-range computer cannot run a game from a year ago well and current consoles have no trouble.
What does this mean for upcoming games like Assassin's Creed and BioShock? Surely those games will require more power than Oblivion, even if they are well coded. Will I need to spend hundreds of dollars to replace my video card, and possibly my power supply, so soon after getting a new computer? The console versions are likely to run well in high definition as is.
The increased prices of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 over their predecessors along with the "need" to get a high definition television set to see their superior visual capabilities is said to even the price advantage console gaming had over PC gaming, but if you need the latest (and most expensive) hardware to make those games look just as good on your computer as they do on a console, it is a lie.
That's without taking into account that unannounced, future computer games will, as always, continue to require more and more powerful video cards and additional RAM, more or less requiring yearly upgrades. A console you buy once every four to seven years.
Not that any of this will matter for a while. I bought my spring wardrobe yesterday, and the price of that prevents me from buying anything but necessities for some time.