The PALGN Podcast, Episode 62

PALGN Feature | PC vs Console Gaming.

With study, exams and just about every other distraction over and done with, the PALGN team return to the podcasting studio. Kicking off our first episode back, we discuss one of oldest debates in the history of videogames, ‘PC versus console gaming’. PALGN’s local PC enthusiast Denny takes up the hosting chair, asking whether computers or consoles are better for playing games. Anthony, Jeremy and James look at the various pros and cons associated with console gaming, while Denny stands firm as the computer’s advocate. Clocking in just under 42 minutes, there are plenty of issues up for debate, including affordability, compatibility, and whether the mouse and keyboard are superior to the Xbox or PlayStation controller.

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From this week, we’ll be returning to our regular weekly podcast schedule, so don’t forget to tune in for the next episode.

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Podcast theme composed and mixed by Daniel Golding. Episode 62 is hosted by Denny Markovic and produced by Anthony Capone. Editing and mixing by Michael Gale.

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The PALGN Podcast, Episode 58
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7 Comments

Buttmouth

7 months ago

Ahhh Episode 61, ye will be missed. :P

I suppose now that 62 is up I'm gonna have to get back to work soon!

:D

battlegrub

7 months ago

For PC gaming boxes whirlpool has a great list of builds, updated a few days ago - http://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/?tag=rmp_sg_whirlpoolpcs_boxes

Price ranges from $550 to 2800, although anything above 1500 seems highly gratuitous. My system roughly matches the $700 box and it runs crysis perfectly smooth at a decent res, keeping in mind the game is 2 years old. Buying the parts, assembly and setup can also be a hassle if you don't pay the $100 or so for stores to do it for you.

My thoughts on the debate is that consoles are better than PCs in nearly every way except that the lack of keyboard/mouse support kills any notion of serious gaming. Most of my time is spent in the FPS/RTS/MMO genres and controllers just doesn't compare. Console "thumbstick" controls does do other games better like the 3D platformers (mario galaxy/ratchet) and action games/puzzle (God of war/SotC) and racers for examples.

That's the main difference between the 2 sides as I see it.

emech

7 months ago

I enjoy the pick up and play of a console, but given that I have skipped buying 360/ps3 I must fall into the PC camp. The biggest issue with PC gaming is DRM, but thats the publishers choice rather tham an inherant fault with the system. Why have I skipped this gen? Price! As little as 6 months ago I could get a $700 box (as mentioned above)for less then a current gen console - by the time i get extra controllers / live subscriptions / headsets etc, the price of current gen consoles was not competitive with a PC upgrade to play superior games.

Superior? I enjoy depth in a game. When your paying $90 for a game, i want replayability and depth. You just don't get sins of the solar empire (for example) on consoles. In fact, it frustrates me that the rise of console gaming has lead to the dumming down of PC titles through console title porting or casual market attraction (spore could have been awesome if it had its expected depth in-tact).

I can think of maybe 4 titles on each console that I may want to play that are console exclusive. Its hard to justfy $500 plus and another box under the TV collecting dust for that ($1500 plus if you grab all 3 consoles to play each systems exclusives you want)

And to pick up on a price point - to join the current gen console race I would need to spend $600 plus on a HD TV, my $700 pc box works fine with my 6 year old 19 inch CRT.

Having said that, my gaming system of choice this gen is my DS. Its cheap and the quantity and quality of its turn-based RPGs in particular is outstanding.

I will eventually get the current gen consoles, but I'll wait till end of life (similar to the where the ps2 is now) or just get the next gen, casue lets face it, consoles are just becoming standadised PC boxes with many of the same issues of PC (multiple SKUS / downloadable patches / Hardware errors etc. (red ring 360 also stopped me spending on the xbox machine)

rufati

7 months ago

For me the major issues holding consoles back from dominating across all genres are the lack of support for keyboard/mouse and dedicated server options. Until then consoles only really lose out when it comes to RTS/MMO games, that's all.

The only games I would really prefer to play on PC right now are RTS and MMO games. FPS are fun on either for me.

emech wrote

to join the current gen console race I would need to spend $600 plus on a HD TV

Or you could just use your CRT monitor.

It's very easy to exaggerate and inflate the cost (of either a console or PC) by tacking on various non-essentials. For example:
zomg ps3 is way expensive, i'd need, like, a bunch of guitar controllers, some racing wheels, usb microphones, a drum controller, an arcade stick, light gun, something for flight sims, and that's before i've even got any games T_T.

Sambo110

7 months ago

The thing holding me back from PC gaming is that I am a Mac user, and PC games don't have split screen, which I play a lot. I sometimes don't buy games if they don't support split screen.

Island_Wolf

7 months ago

I was a former PC gamer. Reasons why I cut back with a lot of PC gaming was because I keep missing important MSN PMs from gaming and many PC games does not support windowed mode. I don't care when I play in windowed, just give that option to me!!!. At least with console gaming, I can still have my lappy on while being on the console.

Also, cost is also a fact, my lappy isn't good enough to play many current games well now, not being dual core and being only 1.73ghz and I don't have money or space for a gaming desktop computer to keep up with the PC gaming world, even at its current pace. Also the fact that I never had a spec that ever pass the max requirements for a pc game for a while is depressing or for games of today, the minimum. PC now is just for browsing, chatting and programming, I leave gaming to consoles.

Puddingfork

7 months ago

This is my big long summary of every Pro PC point I think the article missed, or I might have disagreed on and I explain why. btw in case it is not obvious, yes I do prefer PC but I don't mind a little console on the side (I have a 360, along with MANY other consoles). I would also like to note I began life as a console gamer (on SNES) but have always had an interest in PC gaming, unfortunately though unable to play the latest games on my PC (this didn't stop me playing a hell of a lot of CS1.6 along with many other older FPS games), until I got my latest PC.

About installations being a problem, I don't mind installing as these days most games can run without the disk thanks to things like steam. And if they don't run without the disk, I make them

Disk swapping on consoles is something I hate.

And my PC is around the $1000 mark, is about 9 months old, and runs everything great, only games I've ever has to hesitate about cranking full was Crysis and Far Cry, and I've still managed get both of them to run at almost highest on 1920x1200 and they look far better than any console game.

Another advantage of PC is that it can obviously be used for so many things other than gaming, so much so that I feel it is almost part of myself (btw I'm not crazy *twitches*).

As for who it can vary between players exactly how they are playing it, unlike Neo I see this as a good thing as it allows everyone to play how they would like to play (this goes further than the actual games itself, such as things like what sort of keyboard/mouse you use, and your binds). As for the hardware side of that, it's also not really an issue as Denny said, although I do see Neo's point, but if someone frame rate really is hindered by their PC (to an extent that makes them unable to be competitive) then tough luck, it's time for a new one (just like how you can't be competitive in Halo 3 with the regular old XBox).

Mods and Custom Maps (please don't say Halo 3), 'nuff said

And lastly, I don't really think multi player on consoles has caught up to PC yet either, and I have my doubts as to if it ever will. The main reason for this is that PC multi player for almost all games based on servers, unlike consoles which are usually hosted locally (I believe there are some exceptions on PS3?).
Now I don't prefer servers just because of latency, but once again it's just another thing that gives PC users more options. We can even go onto voice chat servers (via Team Speak, Mumble or Ventrilo) which allows again for more latency, quality and more options than consoles could offer.

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