PC vs Console: 10 good reasons to choose a PC
Forget everything you thought you knew about PC gaming: probably you are wrong. Play on PC is very easy and comfortable. You can play lying on your bed, in the comfort of your living room couch or at your desk. You can use any controller you want: PS4, Xbox One, or any other existing joypad, and of course, mouse and keyboard or more recent virtual reality devices as Oculus Rift or Steam VR.
It’s not over: a PC allows you to play last 30 years released games, with backward compatibility for the future theoretically unlimited and multiplayer always free. Not enough: the PC is more cheap than any other console on the market and will save you loads and loads of money in the mid/long term. This isn’t a dream or a delirious madness: let’s see why.
1. PC is more powerful and versatile
PC’s graphic capability is not below or above a console: it is customizable. You can decide for yourself how much to spend and what to get: Higher FPS and smoother gameplay? Or better resolution and graphics quality sacrificing some FPS? If you have some extra money to spend, you can decide to buy a machine with no compromises and play in 4K at 60fps. That’s right, but you can also choose to build an average PC for now, save money for a year, then buy a new video card: you’ll go directly into the realm of 4k and virtual reality.
No more need to wait the next generation of console, that you can’t upgrade till the next gen. Every year can be a new generation. But not necessarily: although the graphic power of the PC is growing every year, no one forces you to buy new components. If with some most recent game you got some problem, you can just adjust the graphics settings: lighten some filter or lower some details and, usually, play with not too much problems.
Your destiny is in your hands.
2. PC is cheaper than a console
Even if this looks strange to some people, a PC with same graphics performance, is cheaper than any console on the market. However, hardware for PC, comparable to PS4 and XBox One, were already obsolete before these console came out. Therefore, even if the base price is necessarily higher, graphic performance can be significantly higher and, in some cases, double or even triple the performance of a console.
| Component | Price |
|---|---|
| AMD FM2+ X4-860K | ~ 88$ |
| ASRock FM2+ FM2A88M Pro3+ | ~ 70$ |
| Kingston HyperX Fury 8GB DDR3 | ~ 49$ |
| Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB | ~ 53$ |
| nVidia GeForce GTX 760 2GB | ~ 150$ |
| Rosewill 450w PSU RD-450-2-sb | ~ 50$ |
| Totale | ~ 460$ |
The above hardware for PC, allow you to play at 1080p and 60 fps in all modern games at medium-high details, surpassing the performance of both, PS4 and Xbox One with not so much effort.
3. PC games are cheaper
The price of console games remains, on average, higher over time, while the price of PC games tend to fall quickly, allowing you to buy the games you want at lower prices within a few months from the release or a bunch of bucks after a year. Let’s see a few examples; here’s the price of some PC games roughly released the last year, but also available on consoles, so you can yourself make a comparison:
| Game | Base price | PC Best price |
|---|---|---|
| The Evil Within | 29,99$ | 14,99$ |
| The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | 49,99$ | 27,99$ |
| Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor GOTY | 29,99$ | 16,99$ |
| Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin | 29,99$ | 19,99$ |
| Divinity: Original Sin | 39,99$ | 26,79$ |
*Prices updated on October 2015
What about exclusive games?
One of the common factors that drive fans to consoles, are obviously exclusive games. Many people still think that PC has fewer exclusives, when actually is exactly the opposite, but that’s not the point. I play on consoles for the same reason, maybe the only remaining reason, that holds hostage all gamers. But exclusive games are immoral and should not be taken into account to decide the best platform, in fact, in an ideal world, they would be completely eradicated in favor of multi-platform games. In any case, the next-generation consoles will probably look as living room PCs: it’s easy to get it looking at the constantly growing PC market, the direction taken by Microsoft with Windows 10 and Xbox One experience, as well as the moves Valve is doing with Steam Machines .
4. Save even more with bundles
In recent years, have established sites like Humble Bundle or Bundle Stars, through which you can buy bundles of games for a few bucks. Here’s an example of a bundle released recently:
A bundle is a “package” of games with a deadline (usually 1/2 weeks) after it’s replaced by another bundle. Paying a single dollar, you can receive multiple games, very often of good quality. Paying more than the average, you can receive additional games even better. In the example above, paying just over 9 dollars, you can purchase games as Resident Evil 4/5 and Revelations, Remember Me, Devil May Cry and many more. An average of one buck per game: not bad, right?
5. One platform, many possibilities
PC can be connected to monitors, TVs, or both. If TV is placed in another room, living room for example, you can connect it to your computer using Steam Link and you will immediately have all purchased games for PC, immediately available on your sofa. There are endless possibilities. You Decide if prefer the Xbox One or PS4 controller, or both, why not? You can also choose the Steam Controller, or a gaming mouse and a keyboard. Again it’s all about your preferences.
6. Backward compatibility
The PC never gets old: just update it. This allows you to have a virtually endless backwards compatibility. If you buy a PC today, you can also play old favorites gems released decades ago. Similarly, in 10 years, you will be able to play current games. If in the meantime you have updated the PC with new stuff, games will continue to be available: no incompatibilities, no older console stored in the cellar. But there’s more: fans usually release community updates to improve graphics and gameplay of good old games; this means that you will not have to wait for re-mastered versions: just download free mods.
7. Mod magical world
As we said, games can be modified, or “modded”. Communities of fans, continuously release mods that add new maps, new characters, new weapons or new features. Sometimes they improve the graphics of older glorious games, giving new life to the games we loved in the past, fixing bugs and adding features to more or less recent games. In 99% of cases, mods are free and easy to install. Here’s an example of how a modded GTA IV for PC looks like:
8. Multiplayer and free services
PC has no kind of subscribed service for multiplayer. Platforms like Steam, in addition to being very comfortable and customizable, allow users to the free use of multiplayer, chat, cloud, achievement, digital delivery, streaming of movies and music, and more, with no additional costs. In particular, Steam allows the family sharing, or the ability to share the library of purchased games, with our parents or friends. Buying on GOG, you receive a DRM-free copy, ie without anti-piracy protections, which can be installed wherever you want.
9. PC is much more than a console
PC is not just a console, but a multi-purpose platform that lets you install all the programs and services you want: games, applications for production, audio or video processing, and more.
As an old VIC-20 advertising said: “Why buy just a video game when you can get a full computer?”.
10. PC is the new market leader
Someone said, PC is dead. Fortunately, it’s never happened. Indeed, if it’s true that once, console were the medium through we saw the best technological innovations (think of SNES or Nintendo 64), now is true the opposite: all the new technologies such as 4K and virtual reality, or phenomena as retro-gaming and affirmation of indie games and developers, are all things born and raised on the PC ecosystem.
All the recent data suggest, in addition to the growing affirmation of mobile gaming market, that the PC has become once again, the worldwide market leader for gaming, both in hardware and software sales. This means: if you decide to invest in a gaming PC, the investment is going to resist over time and will be certainly durable and full of satisfactions.
