Exposure to media networks and various blogs since last year, I've come to be aware that there's a type of gaming console war between Playstation, XBox and PC where in PC seems to be leading.
Truth be told, I've never considered my PC as a source of gaming, I even removed those free games that was bundled in with the OS when I bought my laptop.
Through much internal deliberation, I tried Steam and played my first ever game on my PC a few weeks ago. My initial disposition was mind enthusiasm. imagine that, two full games for less than 200 PHP (around 5$) and now I know what the whole "The cake is a lie" thing is all about.
After going through Portal 1 and 2, I bought other games as well and therein I understand the meme concerning empty wallets and Steam sale. It was, honestly, frustrating.
For a person who has grown up along Playstation, My experience with PC gaming is that of mixed feelings. I am accustomed to having a controller on hand. Although I could buy a gamepad for the PC, I have struggled with questions - Is it worth it? Could it replace my long-time love with the Playstation? My answer is no, or at least it depends on the game.
I bought Tomb Raider from the recent Square Enix Publisher Sale on Steam recently, I played it and I was impressed on how much Tomb Raider and Lara Croft has changed through the years. Although the keyboard interface was easy to learn and optimized for PC gaming, part of me wished I was Playing it on a PS4 with a controller layout I am familiar with. Playing Portal 1 and 2, I think First-person shooters are great on a PC, so on that genre, PC gaming has won me completely, I think most of you would agree on that.
I also bought and downloaded Murdered: Soul Suspect as well, but for the life of me, I was unable to make it run. I tried every troubleshooting suggested by Steam, and later on, by Square Enix. I double-checked the specs and I was well near the recommended setup. The game just would not play for me. On the Playstation, problems are usually resolved by restarting or re-installing the game, there's not much brainstorming to figure out how to fix the problem.
Console gaming is best depending on how you want to approach a particular game. Controllers might be great for that game but too complicated when played with a keyboard. There's no compatibility issues so there's little factors to prevent you from playing games you've bought. Also, playing console games means you are actually giving your PC a rest that it might need, the problem with all-in-one devices is that even when extreme care is made, wear and tear happens faster than in dedicated machines.
The problem with consoles are actually not on the consoles themselves but with the companies that sells them. Companies like Sony and Microsoft has complete control on games and their pricing. Exclusivity that has made players resentful and weary, it has fuelled the console wars. Unapologetic high pricing for games,infrequent price drops and irrelevant sales that at times leads players to try other services like Steam. And why would they lower the price? It's not like you can download games from other sources. To make it worst for Sony's Playstation, they have region difference as well on game releases. It's like having an island inside an island. This unfair practice of separating east and west and anything in between, from units, games, and PS stores are causing much frustration on people like me. I find the button difference between Asian and North American versions completely annoying. If you're living in Asia without an American credit card, your only way to purchase from the PSN store is through US PSN cards and they are expensive in Asia. As I've said, the problems are not in these consoles, its how the companies behind them deal with its fans, and it's these dealings that are steering them away to other markets.
PC gaming's primary attraction, specially through Steam, is game availability and incredible and frequent sales, my wallet can attest to that. There's thousands and thousands of games to choose from (that being a good thing, as I've said in a previous post, is subject to personal preference). Steam even made old games readily available. I doubt if you'll ever find some of those on game shop's shelves anymore. Steam is impressive. Period.
While possibilities are limited only by the imagination, games you can play and your gaming experience are limited specially by your PC's rig: OS, RAM, Graphics card , storage space, and relevant software packs, ETC. There's also my point on multi-purpose machines, you don't just use it for gaming, you use it for a multitude of things: image editing, Internet browsing, watching porn, it is also where you mostly keep your digital treasures. It is not like the body where the more you use it, the more it becomes durable and rugged, it is quite the opposite. Overtime, you will start to worry about all those overwrites to the hard disk. I'll also add that troubleshooting a PC problem can be messy and frustrating, leading much to the dreaded "Reformat it" last ditch solution.
So my final judgement is that it really depends on how fat your wallet is and your preference on what games to play. You can have one or both. Really, as long as you enjoy the game, who gives a damn what platform it is.
No comments:
Post a Comment