I know I'm going to receive tons of hate mail from all the console fanatics out there, but yes, I much prefer the PC to any other system of gaming. Sure, sometimes you've got to sink a little money into upgrades to keep up with the graphical trends in new games, and communities tend to be a little bit smaller, but the variety of games available only on PCs (HA, games on a Mac) and the graphical quality of the picture available most definitely trump the cons, at least for me.
Take Skyrim for example. On console, its visual interface is actually relatively flawed - it's probable that if you're playing on a television, you won't be able to see your compass or your inventory updates very well at all. To me, missing out on both of these parts of the game definitely removes some of the fun. But that isn't all - graphics are definitely sub-par when compared to PCs. Textures are reduced, polygon count is lowered, view distance is much smaller, and everything looks muddier in general. This detracts a lot from the game when I think of the experience I know I could be having (albeit the fact it would be on a smaller screen).
Another problem with console games is the lack of extreme variety. Practically nothing is free, and all the 'big games' that 'everyone plays' don't interest me. I prefer smaller, free games - League of Legends, for example! - and I love investigating individual developers' games, like the works from Studio Pixel. Team Fortress 2 and many other Steam games aren't supported nearly as well on consoles as they are on the computer, and individually developed mods aren't even a thought on the console, unless you're willing to crack it illegally - and even then, they're challenging to use. I never need to worry about stupid patches breaking any of my games - I can always revert to the previous state.
Gaming is a lot more rigid on consoles, as well, and I have fewer options available to me at once - I can only be doing one thing at a time .I can actually personalize my control layout on the PC - so maybe it is
weird if I want to map movement to Y, I, O, and X, but who cares? At
least I have the ability to. While I'm gaming, I'll often have youTube, iTunes, and sometimes even facebook (for really, really stacked games of LoL) open in good old Mozilla Firefox, easily accessible via Alt + Tab. Speaking of Mozilla - webgames! Everything available to you on the internet, right at your fingertips, rather than on two different systems. Websites like Kongregate and Addictinggames have brought me through hours upon hours of boredom.
At the same time, I absolutely love knowing my PC so well. I'm anchored to it - it isn't easily transported as consoles are, but I've got much more processing capability, and I can literally look straight inside it if I move my eyes 20 degrees to the right from my screen. I know where my GeForce GTX 550 Ti graphics card is, I can see my 4gigs of RAM chilling on the motherboard, and my ((relatively) weak little) i5 Processor spins happily along in my view. The hard drive is anchored securely within my case, and I can download any files or move them about with USB drives if I really want to transfer files - but why would I? I'm always at my computer desk, ready to play. :D
Have fun, good gaming, and remember: don't feed the trolls.
-Toast
I wonder if the reason for the extremely small print on Skyrim is the proliferation of ginormous televisions. If you're playing the thing on a 54-inch screen, you can probably read it fine. I prefer not to make my living room into a shrine to Sony, so I am reduced to squinting to figure out how much gold I just picked up from the Bandit Thief.
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