SNES was the last console I played much of anything on. I have played a little Wii and WiiU with my daughter, but probably less than 10 hours in the last 5 years, and I probably have less than that in any other console past the SNES.
To say that any console has even touched a PC for performance/quality of graphics is somewhat incorrect, unless you are making a comparison to entry level $300 computers at the time of release for the console, which of course can't compete because A) consoles get sold well below cost, and B) computers can do a million other things that consoles can't do. The xbox 1 was the closest console to actually beating out a current generation gaming PC for graphics because at the time of release it was an actual x86 processor with an NVidia graphics card that was, by the time of actual launch, a half generation ahead of what was available for PC's. But within 9 months it was outdated. Microsoft lost around $200 for every x-box they sold, hoping to make it up in game sales and licensing.
However, it is very true that in the peak of PC gaming, if you wanted to stay ahead of the consoles in graphics quality and performance, you had to spend some money (sometimes a lot of money) and even upgrade once in a while. In the early 2000's, a decent gaming machine costing $1000 only lasted about a year before it needed to be upgraded to make the latest games run in any reasonable manner. That time is well past though.
I was playing the latest first person shooters (arguably the highest demanding software ever made for consumers) on 4 year old hardware 3-4 years ago. I did a major (~$700) upgrade over two years ago just because my old card and motherboard was starting to get a little unstable (some dried out and blown out caps). Now my current rig can run any game available in moderate to high settings and have more detail, physics, performance, and resolution than any x-box one or ps4. You could build my current rig for around $1200 all in. Granted it is still more than a console, but it will probably outperform the next console generation that will come out in about 8 years and of course it is a very good desktop computer that can do everything a PC can do. There is very little need to upgrade, and I have not seen a need for the cutting edge hardware that has been released in the last 6 years for anything outside of bitcoin harvesting or benchmarking (ie e-peen measuring). You can buy a $300 graphics card, throw it in a mid level computer (or build a moderately high end computer for $650) and have something that will easily last the next 6+ years for games AND be a computer that will do everything else a computer can do. It is harder and harder to justify the limitations of consoles any more. And frankly, with tablets and smartphones exploding like they have, I think consoles have a serious competitor to deal with.
All that being said, most people will look at the latest generation of consoles and wonder how things could possibly be improved, and to me it comes down to the controller, not the graphics, performance, or upgradability. I have great dexterity in my fingers, but not so much in my thumbs. The games I play on the PC get so crazy that I can't see my cursor, but I still manage to point and click accurately because a mouse is still one of the most accurate pointing devices ever made. I won't give my mouse/keyboard up as a fine control mechanism until an accurate and reliable direct interface to my thoughts has been developed and is readily and cheaply available. I certainly won't give it up for a couple thumb joysticks that try to translate a single square inch of movement with my thumb onto my 100" tv screen. Then again, without aiming "helpers" that all console games have, most console gamers wouldn't be able to accurately control those little thumb sticks either.
Both platforms have their benefits and detractions, but for me, I will pick a PC over a console every day of the week and twice on Sunday.
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Topic: PC vs Console Gaming... (Read 6056 times)
