Topic: Why not just do PC Gaming?

It costs money to upgrade a $600 computer (average upgrade of RAM and Graphics cards and stuff should be around $150) but ti costs more to buy a new console to get the new-gen games.

Thats $600 plus $150 every few years or so. Plus money for a controller to play on the PC, plus an adapter to use that controller. Oh yeah and games too. Yes you save money eventually, but that could be years down the line. Most people prefer to buy a $300 console and a few 50 or 60 dollar games.

lmao. well at least it's a lot better than most of these reasons.

Good thing you like Nintendo, the Wii remote has like two easily accessible buttons.

Not really. It has 4 buttons with plus and minus and the easily accessible d pad. The nunchuk has s stick and two more easily remembered buttons. Both the remote and nunchuk have motion abilities which adds more. So many options.

Took over ten minutes for someone to come to Nintendo's defense and explain the variety of options the controls offer?

I expected better. Much better.

To me money isn't the problem it's the quality, besides you get what you pay for, ie spending more on consoles

B.. but I prefer the 3DS, and that one has like... 6 buttons

@koos: The 1, 2, + and - buttons are not what I'd call "easily accessible", I need raise my other hand to reach them.

It takes way more money to upgrade from PC to PC. For a PC that runs the specs you need, basically, you will either need to shell out for RAM or spend $800 for a new one. My current PC is FIVE YEARS OLD, only. And it won't LOAD the main screen on Minecraft most of the time. Sure, it has a mere 700KB of RAM, yet that's not below requirements and when it works it chugs along terribly.

As I said before, sure, I do splurge on upgrades for my Nintendo systems, but they're OPTIONAL and not required unlike oftentimes on the PC. If I'm ever in a tight financial sport and I still want to play games I can easily skip them. Denied if I want to play the newest PC games.

And to whoever will reply to my "no controller" next please read the first part of post #11

@kyuubikid321 - if you're still reading this I added you on my 3DS. I was just waiting to get an on-topic post. >_<

I would rather slouch on the couch with a console (Wiimote+Nunchuck preferably) or lay in bed with my 3DS then sit at a computer desk (like I'm at my daily job) hunched over in a back room in the dark (like a numpty dumpty) away from my wife and daughter

Another thing nobody has posted out is the issue of viruses.

You can avoid them all you want, but they creep around into your computer... Eventually... My PC got a Trojan last year but I went to my same, usual trusted sites only. The main reason I use my iPad for browsing too.

(lol actually I bet it was my sister's fault, downloading all her torrents)

I don't see how number 3 wasn't number 1, but other than that, very spot on. Really had me laughing.

Unless you want the absolute maximum best specs constantly, you won't be buiyng a new GPU every few years. You would probably be buying a new one every time a new gen of consoles roll around, because that's when developers start making new-gen games which require a new GPU. A new GPU is cheaper than a console (for example the one I'm buying is $110 and comes with a free copy of Dirt Showdown, a new $50 game), and you will eventually save money. yes it will; take years, but you save more money in the games department. For example, my entire Steam library cost me roughly $150. I have 94 games in that library.

Again, my computer is only five years old, and it doesn't even play Minecraft right.

Good thing the only place you can put a PC is at a desk.

OH WAIT!!

Firstly, we get it.

Secondly, Minecraft needs a good computer to be played on. If you haven't got the specs you cannot play it.

I cannot be bothered to try and argue this debate. Here's hoping Alex will do it for me.

I didn't know you can only view websites when your window is maximised.

"If you haven't got the specs you cannot play it."

But I have the specs. 700KB. The requirement is 500KB. I know I should really have more, but you should see how slow it goes on mine... Even with FG off.

A LOT of misconceptions and outright incorrect facts here. Let's get some things straight:

(Disclaimer: I've been an avid PC gamer for many, many years)

• You DO NOT have to upgrade every couple of years. That is blatantly untrue. Particularly these days, when the system requirements of many games are influenced far more by the HD consoles than available computing power. When I get a new PC (probably every 5 or 6 years) I build myself a decent mid-range system. It's plenty powerful to play basically anything that will come out until I next upgrade, though admittedly not necessarily at full settings. If I want to upgrade, I can get the latest mid-range graphics card for $150 or so, and that will give me a significant performance boost. The days of having to do major upgrades every 6 months to keep up are long gone.
• Viruses are NOT inevitable. You do have to take some basic precautions, but it's certainly possible to go without getting a virus.
• Mouse and keyboard is an excellent control scheme. It may take some getting used to, but PC gamers use them for a reason. If you want a gamepad still, see my point below.
• I don't know what all the problems are surrounding controllers. Basically any game made in the last 10 or 15 years will support the use of a gamepad. And they're not expensive - you can grab a good-quality Logitech gamepad for about $25, and plug it in and it will work. There's no need for 'adapters' as someone here said.
• These days, it generally doesn't matter what hardware you have, as long as you meet the requirements. The advent of APIs like DirectX and OpenGL mean that, from a game's perspective, hardware function calls are abstracted away behind a common interface, so game designers are not required to code for specific hardware as was necessary in the 90s. Sure, occasionally problems pop up, but they can be fixed.
• Your PC can be hooked up to a TV. I'm hoping to build a little home theatre PC soon that will stream TV, play DVDs and BluRay and surf the net. Consoles certainly don't have a monopoly on couch-based entertainment, and I'd wager that PCs can do it better.

People seem to freak out at the thought of needing to upgrade software occasionally, such as drivers and the like. It's not that hard. I'll admit, it's not trivial, but it's really a matter of clicking about 5 buttons and restarting your computer. Done.

Personally, I think the advantages of taking the time to get into PC gaming far outweigh the disadvantages. It's really incredibly easy to do these days, particularly with services such as Steam where installing a game requires very little from the user.

Perhaps the best thing about PC gaming? Backwards compatibility. I can play almost all of my 300-odd games dating back to the early 90s on a single computer. Beat that, consoles!

Now, I'll be the first to admit that PC gaming is not without its problems. Personally, I'm becoming less interested in new games due to DRM practices and the like that are really anti-consumer and that I believe will render many games unplayable in the near(ish) future. However, for people not worried about that, it's got a lot to offer.

People who think of PC gaming as this big, scary thing really should look into it more. If they decide it's still not for them, well, that's fine. It just annoys me when people discard the idea out of hand based on information that was only true about 10 years ago, or from complete ignorance.

You heard wrong. OK, bugs exist, but to the same extent as the consoles these days. It may have been true that PC games were buggier back when consoles didn't support patching (so console devs made sure that the games didn't have game-breaking problems) but these days there's not a lot of difference. Hell, look at the Skyrim PS3 fiasco - it was basically unplayable. On the other hand, PC gaming has a history of devs releasing lots of content in patches for free. As an example, FPS games often got patches that, along with fixing bugs, added extra game modes, levels and the like. The Unreal Tournament series is a prime example of that.

Anyway, I'll stop ranting now.

@Nibelilt: 700KB of RAM? I don't think so. You haven't been able to buy a computer with RAM measured in KB since, oh, about 1992. The minimum listed on Mojang's page is 256MB. Maybe get your numbers right before you think you've met minimum requirements!

I knew I missed something... Between KB and GB. Brain fart there. I do have 700 or so MB... I was mistaken, sorry.

OK, fair enough. Have you asked on Minecraft forums about it? Maybe there's some other requirement that you're not meeting.

On behalf of those of us who don't care for PC gaming - I like consoles because they'ree easy to use, and more importantly, fun to use. Same reason I prefer the iPad.

PCs, to me, are work. It's a deeply ingrained psychological trauma I will likely never be able to get over.

I don't think PCs are work or less fun. It was always and fun and I began gaming on PC when I was a child. The reason I stopped is because Ive bought a laptop for school at the time. Once you stop having a desktop then Its really difficult to have a good gaming laptop. I had a Dell and IBM and a Lenovo and sooner or later they became obsolete. I still use them for Office and Internet which is fine but for games hardly any can play with enough quality and that happened pretty quickly..
But the main reason is that PC does not have the Nintendo games. Nintendo games are for Nintendo consoles. They take advantage of the console... and once you go Nintendo... just not enough time for PC or the other 2 console makers.