I am now a Console-Convert, and I have seen the light! Console is the way!!!
Naaaah... I'm not much of an FPS gamer, but FPS games will always be played best and with most "skill" on a computer - playing FPS games on a console sort of handicaps everyone. Although, I'll admit, I fell in love with The Darkness - it's a beautiful, captivating game.
Two things that drive me up the wall - blocks and low frame-rates. I'm still waiting for one brilliant game on a console where there aren't noticeable frame-rate drops. I also noticed that anisotropic filtering isn't very high on either the PS3 or the XBOX - get in close enough and it's a big blur.
I'm a computer gamer through-and-through. Consoles are great for casual-gamers, and handhelds are a gift from the gaming gods during black-outs but few things compare to the tactile, nubile touch of a keyboard & mouse.
When I was younger I always wanted a PlayStation or console but my parents never saw the need
So instead I lived in strange and fantastic worlds through my computer. Eventually I could buy a console, and I did - a little rambunctiously - I bought a PS2, PS3 and a PSP. See a pattern forming?
I went a little crazy, spent a few grand on games I always wanted - from Suikoden to Final Fantasy to Okami to Shadow Hearts to The Darkness to Rogue Galaxy to... well... I could list them, but I'd be wasting time I could be using to prove a point. Basically - I lived the dream I always wanted to since I was a kid. While I love those games, mostly because they never came to the PC, and I don't regret buying any of them in the least, they would've been better on PC
Graphically, especially.
The Darkness, for one, was
very badly ported from XBOX to PS3. You notice small frame-rate drops each time you board a train. In the last scene at the end before you kill that arse Paulie (at least I think that was his name), the severe frame-rate drops make you want to rip out your hair.
I've played a bit of Mass Effect on the XBOX, and I was disappointed because there are a few minor frame-rate drops even there.
If I get to choose between buying a game for a console and a PC, it will
always be the PC. Simply due to the fact that even if I don't have a top notch computer at that point, when I eventually upgrade, problem solved. If there are mods or fan-made add-ons later on, I'd like to try them out and see if it gives the game another feel and some longevity.
Consoles are great right now because they've been sensationalised - made to sound so fantastic and awesome, when, in reality, PCs have been doing the same stuff for years, and even better.
I very nearly wasted my money on an XBOX as well before I found out that Mass Effect was coming to the PC in a few months. And Fable II will do the same.
The only reasoned I haven't pawned off my PS3 yet, is because I'm looking forward to FFXIII.
There're just some things that no console could ever take away from a PC - depth, love and control. If you're a computer fanatic, nothing's as meaningful to you as building up your own computer and knowing that it's
yours.
Eh... But maybe I'm wrong and I just don't see the big whoop about consoles that someone else might see. It's a personal thing in the end, I guess. Then again, I suppose it's in the hands of the developers. If they come up with a great game, then hopefully there's a great device out there to let it run beautifully.
