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No upgrades needed. Buy the console. Play it.
- Works out of the box. No need to install. No need to patch. No need to register, etc.
- Doesn't crash. More reliable. Less buggy.
- No technical prowess needed. What specs do I need? Etc.
- No troubleshooting. It just works out of the box.
- Fluid graphics. Unless the game was poorly designed, there are no framerate drops. Or they aren't noticeable, etc. On a PC, it depends on your hardware. If your hardware is bad, then shucks on you. Get used to that slow framerate. Plus no twiddling with graphics settings.
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- Works out of the box. No need to install. No need to patch. No need to register, etc.
Not exactly true. Many console games have fixes to make them run better. Bioshock required that XBox users clear their texture cache...and most didn't even know they had one. Their are games on the consoles that have technical problems just as much or more as the PC since the hardware isn't the most modern in the world.
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- Doesn't crash. More reliable. Less buggy.
This has more to do with the developers than the platform and is a generalized sweeping statement that is not accurate at all. The PC in general should not crash, should be reliable and should be less buggy. However companies adopted the ship now, patch later attitude which killed the quality of games. It will happen on the console as well and is already starting since you can patch console games. Listen the problem isn't the platform...it's the mindset of those raking in the cash for these games and eventually their attitude will destroy the console market as well. Why...b/c their attitude towards games and gaming is utterly flawed.
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- No technical prowess needed. What specs do I need? Etc.
I'll give you about 50% of this statement. Some technical prowess is needed to say hook the Wii up to a LAN or use XBox Live. As well when other games require you clear the cache or do this or that to your platform to run better it requires technical prowess. It also doesn't hook itself up to your TV or your stereo system so some bit of technical knowledge is needed to even get the thing up and running. It will only get worse when other consoles release their motion sensing technology.
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- No technical prowess needed. What specs do I need? Etc.
This is the same as your first statement so does not qualify as a separate statement.
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Fluid graphics. Unless the game was poorly designed, there are no framerate drops. Or they aren't noticeable, etc. On a PC, it depends on your hardware. If your hardware is bad, then shucks on you. Get used to that slow framerate. Plus no twiddling with graphics settings.
This is completely false. There are more troubles with framerate on consoles than there are on PCs - far more. Just go look at the forums. Some forums for the console look more like PC troubleshooting forums than console game forums. There are a lot of framerate issues with games on consoles. And guess what....you are stuck with that framerate since you can't go out and buy your fav video card for about 100 to 150 bucks which would improve your gaming experience. So not being able to upgrade the console is a huge minus in my book. My computer is already a year old and yet can run any game out there just fine. NFS Shift had framerate issues on the console and yet it never even stuttered on my PC. My PC chewed it up, spit it out, and asked for more. I could have probably played it in dual screen with max settings and it would have been fine. There are several console game reviews at GameSpot that mention framerate issues. Every time I read this I just smile a bit b/c I usually have the same game on the PC and it never hiccups once.
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On a PC, it depends on your hardware. If your hardware is bad, then shucks on you.
It is no different on a console except since you know you have inferior hardware yet are trying to run the same games as the PC with the same quality....you are stuck with your crappy console hardware until they make the next generation of your console.
On a PC at least you have the ability to upgrade and keep your system up to date.
I just don't buy that PC upgrades, when done right, are any more costly than buying a console every few years. In fact I would say buying consoles like the PS3 every few years is more costly than upgrading a PC every 4 or 5 years.
No games require you to upgrade your video card to some 400 or 500 dollar card or top of the line card. You can get a card that is a few years old and still play most, if not all, of your games just fine. The only issue really is shader versioning and it is devs fault that they did not provide shader fallbacks for your card....not the fault of your PC.
And companies that only release on the console are just plain stupid and shortsighted. PC dev is cheaper and when you already have the game on the XBox 360 porting it shouldn't be a major issue.
Plus why would you turn down another source of revenue? It can't be piracy b/c the company already made all their money on the game in the console market. The PC market should be funny money or just extra cashflow - why would a company ever turn that down is beyond me. Really shortsighted and it angers the PC market which may be the only market in the future that will support your games after the console craze and fanboyism is over.
PC specific releases don't really bother me b/c there are also console-specific releases so buying this console or that won't fix the issue unless you buy every console. That is the only way you can be sure you won't ever be left out in the cold.
I did not intend to turn this into a PC vs console debate. My point is I just don't understand all the craze over inferior games and inferior hardware. Step backwards in time if you like but as for me I would at least like to play on modern hardware. Consoles always have a been there done that 4 years ago feel for me.