Used to be, if you wanted to play multiplayer video games with any kind of consistent quality, there was only one choice…fire up your computer. Now days, you have a plethora of choices confronting the average gamer. Playstation, Xbox and Wii have become household words and have gobbled up a huge portion of the gaming marketplace. However, PC gamers are a stubborn lot and there is still a large selection of games available to wet their appetite for exciting and challenging game play. But make now mistake…the chasm is growing larger everyday. So which is the best platform?
While computer gaming exploded in popularity around 2001, the console has been in American homes fascinating us long before that. Anyone remember Pong? I do, so I’ve seen a lot of this tug of war up close….from the Atari 2600 to Intellivision, to the various Sega units, and even a handheld Caleco game or two, each one was a step up the ladder to better graphics and more challenging game play. Most were just plain fun. By 1982 the Commodore 64, an 8 bit home computer had arrived and the battle for the home entertainment dollar was definitely on.
Which brings us to today. I purchased my first computer in 2003. I like to tell people that I needed it for the business I was in…CD burning, desktop publishing and such. Truth is, I was more excited about the copy of Black Hawk Down that came with the computer than any of that other stuff! It took a few weeks to get used to the controls, but once I did…I was hooked! Prior to that I had a couple of Nintendo console systems and a PS1 and PS2…that’s Playstation 1 and Playstation 2 for the uninitiated. I had really gotten hooked on gaming with the Playstation…they were a major leap for me in graphics quality and game play. However, they were all single player games…you against the computer. Once you figured out certain patterns in the game the challenge was simply to finish…not the game itself.
Then I played Black Hawk Down on my PC for the first time on-line in a multiplayer server. Life has never been the same since. The action, the graphics, the adrenaline, the teamwork and the thrill of taking out a sniper with an AT4 rocket…all while staring down the sights of my M60 machine gun. I became an instant First Person Shooter (FPS) fanatic. Then I made the fatal mistake of joining one of the largest and best Black Hawk Down (BHD) gaming teams on the internet which caused the addiction to grow even deeper. That collection of gaming geeks got me interested in upgrading my very pedestrian desktop with better graphics and more RAM. This was my first lesson in making sure your RAM is the proper type and how to install it correctly…oops. Once I installed my new ATI video card I got a first hand demonstration of the joy of upgrading. I went from an onboard, run of the mill video card to the baddest boy on the block. The first time I fired it up and went into a server my jaw dropped and my eyes just about popped out of my head! The detail and graphics were amazing. Needless to say, I haven’t looked back and have fired up my Playstation2 console a total of 3 times in the six years since then. The old Dell is long gone and has been replaced by a fire breathing, custom built gaming rig.
Sensing the profit potential that gaming represented, the console makers didn’t sit on their hands. Playstation3 and others have upped the ante considerably. Used to be if you wanted to play online, PC was the only way to go…not so anymore. Console manufacturers have platforms made for this type of gaming and they do it very well.
So which one wins the prize fight? Some gamers point to cheating…hacks, aimbots and trainers abound in the PC world, but console cheats and hacks are just as prevalent. For the record, I think anyone who bases their self esteem so much on the outcome of a video game that they have to cheat is a pathetic idiot. I have no use for game cheaters of any kind.
In a nutshell…the advantages of a console are: it’s made specifically for gaming, and they are generally cheaper than a PC. I guess you could also say that game developers are aiming more and more at the console market. However, PC’s still offer a lot of bang for the buck….you definitely get what you pay for. While consoles are starting to be more versatile, they still can’t match the myriad of roles a PC can play. Consoles still can’t match the graphics of a PC, but are definitely less “finicky” than a computer. To be honest, one of the things I like most about PC gaming is the fact that it lets me do something really fun and learn more about computers along the way. For casual gamers a console might be your best bet, but if you want to take to the battlefield with the advantage of a faster connection, more processing power, whoop up on your bad self graphics and amazing sound, in my opinion, nothing beats a PC. And after all…aren’t we all here because we’re into computers? See you on the battlefield!