Just two years back, people were starting to talk about that how long could the PC hold an eventual death. With the release of 360 that year, and PS3 and Wii the next year, things were looking sour for the PC afficionados.:|

Though, I am not a very big fan of PC gaming, but I do like it for all the games it has offered. Now, at this stage reports show a rise in the PC gaming and with more better games in the pipeline, PC gaming still looks far from dead. Let's see some facts of PC gaming in the current gen.

 ( THIS IS NOT A PC VERSUS CONSOLES. IT'S JUST AN INLOOK ON BOTH THEIR CAPABILITIES IN DIFFERENT AREAS):twisted:

GRAPHICS.

No one could disagree that the PC has got better graphics capability than any of the consoles. Some of the gameplay videos of games like Crysis show that PC graphics are much sharper than it's console counterparts.

 In the graphical world, PC is always growing. The thing is that console creators, make their graphics engine and stuff as a single piece and sell it with the console. Once sold,they can upgrade it but probably not to that much extent of how the PC does.

Companies like Nvidia have shown their support to PC. In short, PC's graphical technology is an ever improving process.:)

SOUND

Now, this is an equal ground. PC has the speakers who always have those special bass surround ability and stuff like that. The consoles are obviously hooked onto the TV sets, so you have the TV speakers which are also equally powerful. So, sound wise both PC and consoles are almost equal. It just depends that what you have and what you don't.:P

MULTIPLAY

A time like nine years back, multiplayer was unknown to consoles, PC attracted large amount of attention with highly addictive multiplayer/single player games like Diablo, AOE, NFS and what-not. :D

Of course, who could forget the legendary Counter-Strike without whom the gamers would have never left their homes to form clans. But with XBOX, ethernet became a part of consoles. So much so, that even handhelds like PSP and DS, have got it. With 360, the area expanded. XBOX Live, Downloadable content and what not. Gamers may now never have to hear the word ' BUY FROM SHOPS' if this continues.:D

REALISM

The next two areas are the two major DOWNFALL points for PC. Let's agree to one fact. The realism in PC is zero.:( The monotonous clicking of the mouse, yawn yawn!!

Enter the console realism. Right from the revolutionary PSOne's DualShock Controller, to Nintendo Wii's Nunchuk, the saga continues. Console gaming and realism are like closest of friends. 8) Some of the games for consoles these days would not EVEN be made had it not been for the realism the consoles offered.

And NOW THE THING WOULD HAVE LED TO THE DEATH OF PC

GAMES

This is a thing we all gamers agree on. No platform is good if it doesn't offer nice quality of games. There used to be a time when some franchises were PC only. Diablo, NFS, Warcraft, Half-Life, C&C etc. Ten years after that we now see, that the op PC franchises are still those. Yes, the thing that PC lacks is franchises.

 Gamers who are humans ( I am not talking about aliens like gamers) always like to love something.

So they become fans. Neon says he is a GoW fan, fine! Ipodhero says he is a KH fan, nice! Quintly says she is a Tekken fan, no prob! I say I am an FF fan, no prob again!

In short, we like to follow some gaming franchise we like. And out of 98% times those franchises are console parties. So they make games only for a particular console (like Gears for 360) others make games for a multiple console. OKAY!

These days, you would have to scramble around trying to find a GREAT PC-exclusive franchise. C&C 3 has gone to 360 also, so you can't say it is a PC-exclusive. Look, ten years back, games like FFVII used to appear on PC, games like GTAIII, Vice City used to appear on PC. Now, they all have gone out.

All PC has become now, is just a plain MMORPG battleground.:(

Franchises, like MGS( they too appeared as a PS port on PC),FF, GTA, C&C all gone. Now, EA made annual games like FIFA, Madden, NBA Live, NFS all are there for PC gamers.

I doubt that by the time Crysis comes out, even it shall remain a PC exclusive or not? Because NO ONE plays on PC as a primary platform. We all play (some of us don't) PC gaming as a secondary platform.

So, writing a contradictory editorial like this is not easy. Those who have had the patience to read this whole thing have my fullest appreciation.

 I am sorry that I will not be able to reply to your comments as I am going out for 4 days and will be back by Sunday evening. I am on a hilly trip to beat the heat down here in the city. 

But please DO reply:) your comments encourage me to write such editorials.

Also, tell me whether you liked it or not.

See ya all!!

lightwarrior179

I do hope that Square release Crisis Core soon. I can't wait for it. Poor me, can't read Japanese or I will be buying it in September.