I have been an avid PC Gamer since, I was 7 or 8. I always preferred the PC over consoles, the advantages were just so apparent. Then the PC dominated over the consoles with considerably better graphics, better prices (remember when AAA PC titles cost $30?), and better on-line play. Now, it is approaching time for an upgrade, but it has just hit me, is it really worth upgrading my PC?

When one looks at the difference between consoles and PCs, the PCs advantages over consoles is dwindling quite rapidly. AAA PC titles cost $50, merely 10 under its console counterparts, and even when you shell out $50 for a game you don't know if it is going to run on your PC, run at all or run it well enough to play it as the developers intended. A few months ago I upgraded my graphics card. My computer is rather old, and PCI-E slotless so I had to buy an AGP card. I bought the best AGP card on the market, and I was happy with the purchase. I loaded up Oblivion and was pleased to see "Game Set to: Ultra High Setting". Two months later, I buy Supreme Commander and my computer can't handle more then three AI playing at once.

What does this mean? I have to upgrade, again and this time I need a new motherboard, processor, video card and even then there are no guarantees that the next game I buy will run well.

This has been hanging over me, and then comes E3. Maybe there will be so many games at E3 it will make sense to bite the bullet and spend the money to upgrade and now that E3 has gone, it just doesn't make sense.

The one PC only title that looks good is Crysis, and out of everything coming out this year it is going to be the most graphics intensive. Do I really want to spend who knows how much to play one game? And then I thought about buying an XBOX 360 for the first time. Lets see, Halo 3, Call of Duty IV, Bioshock, Fallout 3, GTA IV, Mass Effect, there all coming out within the year (except for Fallout) and they all look amazing and all I can think of for the PC is Crysis.

Windows promised to turn PC into a platform with the Games for Windows initiative, but the initiative has been weak and almost non-existent. All PC Gaming got at the press conference was an "Oh yea, btw, Gears of War and Viva Pinata for the PC!! And now for Xbox...". Microsoft's focus is still on the XBOX and at this point it seems like it always will be.

And when I think about it more, I would much rather play games from my couch on a large HD-TV then in a chair huddled around a monitor. When friends come over to play games, you don't all sit around the monitor and watch as one plays a game, you sit around the TV and have some good old split screen action. And then the small blissful feeling that the game your buying will run how the developers intended it, at the highest settings. Face it, consoles are looking just as good as PCs graphics wise, and to have the insurance that your game will run 100% on a console is too hard to pass up.

I am caving in, I have the money to buy a 360 and as soon as that price drops I am driving down to Target and buying one and I have a feeling I will not regret it.

So there it is, I just don't see it worth the money to shell out one or two grand to upgrade for Crysis when I can spend a fraction of that and get so much more for less. I really hope PC gaming pulls through at some point, but right now it is looking grim.