Originally posted by: BenSkywalker
1920x1080 is really low resolution? Most people make comments about this that have an analog TV hooked up through the standard interface running games in interlaced mode. That isn't a limit of the consoles.
Whoa now, you can't on one hand say this, then turn around and say "The typical XBox or GameCube title looks better then the typical PC title by a decent margin." It's one or the other. The typical console has extremely limited resolution because the typical display it's hooked into is 512x512 NTSC.
- Significantly superior multiplayer (Lan Parties, Internet, etc)
What is much better concerning the on line and LAN party aspects of PCs? My XBox may be heavy, but it's a quarter the weight of my PC, doesn't require a bunch of configuration either. Live! I would say is very easily comparable to the best online PC gaming service.[/quote]
No split-screens, and PC games are by far superior in almost every aspect of multiplayer gaming, from number of players to different gaming modes. Not only that, but the PC has much wider multiplayer support for the various types of games. On the PC, almost every game type is multiplayable: MMORPGs (what I was actually classifying as adventure games), RTS, FPS, and so on.
On average, I'd say consoles still best PCs here. The typical XBox or GameCube title looks better then the typical PC title by a decent margin. Look at Splinter Cell on the XBox, it actually plays quite a bit smoother and doesn't require ~$500 in upgrades to get a decent framerate with all details set to their highest.
I disagree. If you compare any console game's graphics to the Unreal II Engine, the upcoming Doom engine, etc., they look like cheap garbage. Keep in mind that arguably the three best game engines in the entire industry (Unreal, QIII, Half-Life) didn't have any updates for around four years (1999-2003 for Unreal, 1999-pres for QIII). The Unreal engine ran on everything from a 4MB PCI Video card on up to the latest and greatest, and continually got better looking. It also spawned a whole load of new game types, and had some of the best mods out. I have both Quake III Arena, and possibly the prettiest QIII-engine driven game: Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force. The difference in image quality is incredible, but it's the same core engine. How many console game engines can say they have had the same longevity, or ran well on as much hardware? Would you like to know how many FPS my current 'substandard' and 'average gaming' rig can pull at 800x600?
Live! offers downloadable additional content for console games. PCs are better in this aspect, but not nearly as much as a lot of people think.
Actually, I have yet to see anyone release a mod for any existing console game. Do you have any links to where these supposed things exist? I'm presuming you don't since you're countering my statement with "It's possible to do it" and not, "These four games do it already."
I'd say FPSs, RTSs and Flight sims out of your list are better on PCs. For Mech sims, compare Steel Batallion to the best the PC has to offer. Racing, sports and fighting games there is no contest, consoles obliterate PCs in every aspect there(particularly in title availability). Adventure games the PC hasn't been strong in in years, consoles have Zelda, Ico and numerous others every year.
Steel Batallion vs Mech 4: Vengeance = No contest, Mech 4 wins hands down on every front -- from graphics to sound to multiplayability.
Racing games: Ain't nothing like booting up NFS4 with my Sidewinder racing wheel, but I digress, not all racing game owners have racing wheels. That, and the consoles do generally have better racing games. Again, my point was that the PC did a number of games well, not that it was best at said games.
And as for adventure games, when you factor in the various MMORPGs, the consoles lose out. You cannot draw any comparison between something like say, Ultima Online, or Everquest, and Zelda on the Gamecube. The Adventure games lose out all the time IMHO.
Also vastly superior for local multiplayer under most circumstances. One of my friends is stopping by tonight and we usually check out the latest PC games I have briefly, then we spend the rest of the night playing on the consoles. Why? Pick it up and play. Don't have to fire up the LAN and have us playing in different rooms nor have him pack up his rig and bring it all the way over here then configure everything then make sure we have CDs for each rig to play a game. Just turn the console on and we are ready to go.
First of all, I said "Better for pick-up gaming", and second of all, you obviously don't have your network configured well for lan parties.
Better graphics too, at least if we ignore the PS2 The XBox has GF4 level graphics while the GC offers R8500 level visuals. Sure a lot of people pack better graphics chips that have PCs, but it's not the average. The PS2, for what it's worth, has really fast Voodoo1 level graphics
Lol, the Xbox does not have GF4 level graphics. It has GF3.15 level graphics. I compared an Xbox on an HDTV to a PC with a GeForce 3 Ti200, and they looked the same. There is no improvement in image quality on the console, but my Radeon 64MB VIVO looked better than both in terms of image quality. Personally, I think the fact that the PC CAN be upgraded is a big selling point for a lot of people, simply because they can go out and spend the $500 to make their system go from good to best without having to replace the whole thing. Personally, the graphics thing is rather moot, because both systems are targeted to run on different visual hardware. They both can run on the other's hardware, but they're really designed and geared for different things.
Well, you really do want a HDTV with the consoles unless you want to run in low res, interlaced mode.
Tsk tsk, you go from typical to rare to typical. The fact is most console owners don't have a TV, and it is a pro that they don't have to buy a monitor.
One thing I didn't mention was inputs. The PC can accept a wide variety of inputs (they make any console gaming hardware, plus gaming hardware specifically for the PC, plus keyboards, mice, etc.. On the console, you're rather limited to whatever gaming hardware the console's games support.