Another decision that you should make when deciding on a platform is what type of video games you most enjoy and/or intend on playing. Many action games thrive on the console systems, and there is a huge variety of titles. Much greater than what is available for the PC. Video game consoles also seem to get newer games titles first. Action games such as Splinter Cell, and Grand Theft Auto became popular on a game console before becoming available on the PC platform. Sports video games such as football, hockey, baseball, basketball, in this author’s opinion, are better left to the game consoles. This could explain the drop in price for NFL Madden 2003 for the PC while the console version is still priced at it’s original release price. Sports games have a huge fan base but playing against another human opponent is much more enjoyable. Sorry, but it just doesn’t work the same on the PC. Where PCs rise above consoles video games is in strategy, simulation, and real time strategy games where the fast paced use of both the keyboard and mouse are required. Games such as Age of Mythology, Command & Conquer Series, and Age of Empires are great examples. First person shooters for the PC, using the keyboard and mouse are extremely popular and work very well in that game-play format. Many fans (myself included) say that first person shooters have much better game-play on the PC than they do on consoles.
A final consideration that may play into your decision is the availability of games that have online game-play capabilities. Games such as Everquest, Asheron’s Call, & Age of Empires have thrived in the multi-player universe. Virtually every PC has Internet access thus allowing gamers to play online anytime. Consoles are slowly coming onboard, with Xbox live being the best example. The downside to that is that the small number of console games that are currently available for multi-player capability as well as any fee charged, is on top of your Internet service provider charges.
With all of this to think about, I’ve put together a small list of the main pros/cons of the platforms.
[u]PCs[/u]
Pros
- Multiple uses other than gaming.
- Great multi-player capability via the Internet
- Upgradeable.
- Great for strategy, real time strategy & simulation games.
Cons
- Expensive.
- Smaller library of games.
- Sports games play very average on this platform.
Console
Pros
- Relatively inexpensive.
- Huge variety of games.
- Sports games thrive on consoles.
Cons
- Not upgradeable.
- Limited use other than playing video games.
- Limited multi-player capability.
