In anticipation of the imminent announcement of the ninth generation consoles, it's time to take stock of the confrontation between PC and eighth generation consoles - PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. In this article we talk about the advantages of consoles over PC. We found 10 reasons for this and now we will tell you about them!

Your games are truly yours

The past 6 years have changed little when it comes to purchasing new games for consoles. It's still easy to buy a game disc, give it to a friend to use, or resell it. And even the tenth owner will be the same licensee as the first one who bought it was.

At the same time, physical copies of PC games died out as a class and the opinion that “discs are not needed when there is digital distribution” wrong. You know that you don’t own the games you buy on Steam, Origin and other services, right? It’s not for nothing that license agreements take up dozens of pages:

It states that for money they give you an unlimited time right to use the game, with no guarantee that you will be able to launch it in 10 or 20 years; that its servers will work; that the service itself will work; they prohibit selling your account or giving it to a friend - and a million other tricky legal formulations that remove responsibility from everyone but you.

If you have a working console and disc, you will still be able to play games for PS4, Xbox One or Switch in 10 or 20 years, although yes, the servers may no longer work and some of the content will become unavailable. However, the Internet is still debating whether it's worth buying a PlayStation 2 now for the rare games:

Isn't this the best proof of the durability of consoles? But on modern PCs you are always in a suspended position and here's why:

• Your account may be damaged and you will lose all games attached to it.
• There is no reselling of games or the ability to give the game to a friend.
• Your region may be affected and your account will simply become useless.
• The publisher may prohibit distribution of the game within the .
• The account can simply be stolen - and you will spend weeks proving that you are its rightful owner.

More competition - higher quality!

No matter what anyone says, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are really fighting for the user. They figure out prices, release exclusives, and make the functions of PlayStation Network, Xbox LIVE and Nintendo eShop as practical and convenient as possible for all players.

The competition between platform holders is so high that an interesting feature of a competitor is immediately implemented for their own. That's why there are over 60,000,000 unique users on PSN and LIVE every month. Not to mention the great benefits PS Plus and Xbox LIVE GOLD subscribers get.

Competition for users between Steam, Uplay and Origin? No, no and NO. The number of new features on Steam over the last six years can be counted on one hand, with Battle.Net, Origin and Uplay receiving only security updates, design updates and minor improvements. None in the recently opened Bethesda.Net, Microsoft Store, GOG and Epic Games Store.

There is understandable dissatisfaction with the many distribution platforms that belong to large corporations and which, in theory, should compete among themselves for the attention of developers and users. But this happens rarely and happens unsuccessfully.

And for all of them, PC players can buy cheats (headshots, highlighting the enemy) - this is illegal and ruins the entire gameplay, but many players use this method and among them there are both professional and professional ones.

And the developers can do absolutely nothing against this - they can only hand out bans. The numbers speak for themselves - in PUBG, which cost $60 (in 2019 - $30), there were 13,000,000 cheaters! More than 335,000 accounts were banned from Apex Legends three weeks after its release!

There is simply no cheating on consoles - playing dynamic games on a joystick is not entirely convenient, but the absence of cheaters puts everyone in the same conditions. And no one bothers you to enjoy the game.

Ease of use and maintenance

An important aspect is the ease of use and maintenance of gaming devices. And here PS4 and Xbox One, as well as Swtich, win on all counts. You can always take the console with you on a trip, it is lighter and takes up almost no space. Launching the console in a new location will not take more than 10 minutes.

Nintendo Switch is designed as a powerful mobile gaming console - it's convenient to carry in a backpack, but easy to connect to a stationary TV. Use alone or with friends. You can play it on the subway, while working in a coffee shop, or during a camping break.

The PC system unit is much heavier and larger, it cannot be carried far and it will be useless without a pile of cables providing power, peripherals and the Internet.

Consoles are designed so that maintenance is not required throughout the entire life cycle. Yes, they have less power than current top-end PCs, but due to passive cooling systems they do not have to be disassembled and cleaned.

Moreover, all platform holders took into account the experience of the Xbox 360 - the standardization of components made it possible to avoid serious hardware problems in the current generation consoles.

When assembling a PC, you need to think about the compatibility of components, check the balance of the processor and video card, and watch testing. And hardware errors are still possible due to insufficient compatibility between different products.

Once you've built your gaming PC, you'll need to maintain it regularly. Computing power has increased, manufacturing processes have decreased, so much more heat needs to be removed from a much smaller chip surface. The modern standard is a large radiator with several heat pipes:

With the GPU the situation is even more serious - any gaming video card is wrapped in a multilayer radiator (just look at that number of fins!) and two or even three coolers:

All this needs to be disassembled at least once every six months, and you need to spend your time cleaning it from dirt and dust. Over time, cooling systems become heavily clogged and the thermal paste dries out, so everything needs to be disassembled, cleaned and washed. Coolers need to be lubricated regularly.

While console players continue to play, “bakers” spend a day, or even two, to get their iron friend in order. Laptops? Yes, they provide a good gaming experience if you have the money to buy it.

Lots of great exclusives

There are no problems with exclusives in this cycle on consoles - each company has done a lot of work and, 5 years after the eighth generation went on sale, you can purchase a whole bunch of unique projects.

Sony was a powerhouse, releasing two or even three exclusives for PS4 every year - all of them received more than 80 points on Metacritic. I remember , or , but this is not a complete list. There is also a backwards compatibility program where you can play PS3 games.

On Xbox One, you'll find several iterations of Forza Horizon and Motorsport, but there are classic shooters, and, as well as unusual ones, and.

Nintendo is not far behind, having released several new games in the series and ported them for the Switch, and is also fighting for the market for unusual projects with the Splatoon and Pokemon series.

We don't want to say that there weren't any exclusives on PC this generation. We want to say that there are no games for PC that sell components, and this is a big problem.

Let's remember 2007. The Xbox 360 and PS3 had just come out, publishers were pushing game development for them, and there was already talk that the days of PC gaming were numbered. And then an incredible exclusive comes out with an addon, designed to show the current capabilities of graphics engines.

Immediately after this, many players ran to stores not for consoles, but for a pair of NVIDIA 8800 GTX and brand new Intel Core2Duo, only to see... traces of cars on the ground, how a minigun “mows down” the forest, physics and a destructible environment, how naturally waves roll over beach.

At the same time, the shooter was especially popular in the CIS countries, which, although it could not compete with Crysis, also had high-quality graphics for those times (especially with).

What PC exclusives can you remember in this era that were worth running out and buying new components for? There weren't any of those!

Moreover, the PC is losing the exclusivity of entire genres - developers are adapting MMOs, strategies and simulators for joysticks and releasing them on consoles with downgraded graphics.

You can buy three consoles for one gaming PC

We believe that no one will argue with this. In recent years, not everyone can afford a gaming computer, and the reason is the rise in prices for components. This is best proven by the cost of Nvidia video cards at the time of announcement (according to the database):

• 9800 GTX - $300;
• GTX 280 - $500 ($650 before market revaluation);
• GTX 480 - $500;
• GTX 580 - $500;
• GTX 680 - $500;
• GTX 780 - $650;
• GTX 1080 - $600;
• RTX 2080 - $700 (current price from $730 to $750);
• RTX 2080 Ti - $1,200 (market price from $1,250 to $1,350).

The situation is similar for other components - the cost of processors and RAM has increased by 20-25%, less growth for motherboards (if you don’t get carried away with top-end solutions), hard drives and other components.

Take the cost of a gaming system unit that will play games for 5 years, and compare it with the total cost of the PlayStation 4 Pro, Xbox One X and Nintendo Switch. You will see that the price is equal. It is a well-known fact that platform holders make money from games, not from selling hardware. But the current cost of a PC doesn't justify the savings on games.

An upgrade is an obvious, but not the easiest to implement option for improving a PC - it will cost at least $400-500 (according to our estimates). While a new PlayStation 4 Pro or Xbox One X with a 1 terabyte drive costs about the same: $450 - $500.

Attention: why spend money on a new gaming PC or keeping it up to date? There are no PC exclusives; all graphic games are released for consoles, just like traditional exclusives (strategy games, MMOs). For the sake of console-level graphics in most projects? Or for new technologies that work in a few games?

"Full" games are selling like hot cakes only on consoles

A few numbers showing how the state of the market has changed. Starting the cycle in 2013 in a very strong position, the volume of the PC (and games) market began to fall and continues for several years in a row. According to GamesIndustry.biz, in the year the market share of PC games decreased by 1% to 28%, the market share of consoles increased to 29%. In the year, the PC sank even more - to 25%, and consoles continued to grow.

According to analysts from SuperData, at the end of 2017, the leadership (69%) on the PC belongs to shareware projects, games with microtransactions and subscriptions. At the same time, 80% of console players purchased “full-fledged” exclusives and blockbusters from major publishers.

PC and console sales that year were neck-and-neck - $32.3 billion versus $33.3 billion. But if you multiply the numbers, it becomes clear why there are more cool single-player games on consoles, and if something online comes out, then multiplayer is not stuffed with microtransactions like a turkey at Christmas.

By purchasing a console now, you will have enough money to buy games that will eventually go to the studios, allowing you to pay for development and move on to your next project. And there is no risk of failure with a single-player game. While the “proud PC boyars” spend all their money on a PC (not always enough for a top-end one), they are left without money for “full-fledged” games, so they spend their time in shareware entertainment.

Returning to the topic of boxed editions, this market segment continues to grow thanks to consoles. In 2018, it increased by 5%, with PlayStation 4 to thank for 44% of all disc versions sold. Xbox One comes with 31.8% of “boxes,” and Nintendo Switch has 19.6%. PC share is only 0.8%! And what kind of fan service is this? Of course, only digital garbage!

Consoles offer cool games for families

Let's finish this article by looking at how co-op play differs on different platforms.

Consoles and many console games still have co-op functionality. This is when 2 people play together on the same console. We're not talking about big or thoughtful games that require skill or immersion, but about arcade games that you can just enjoy for 30-40 minutes. Nintendo especially specializes in this, producing cool mario games for the whole family:

But Sony with arcade games like Little Big Planet for PlayStation 4 or Ubisoft with Just Dance and Rayman Legends are also not far behind. That is, consoles provide a fun pastime, despite the fact that you are with family or friends, it makes sense to get together.

While PC players are deprived of this and even with friends they play completely alone. And everyone should have a suitable gaming device, as well as games purchased from the same service.

And this is a common problem - one person’s computer is boiling, but it can handle new games, while another has a slideshow. Or one bought the game on Steam, and the other on Origin. It's no wonder that almost all bearded nerds are PC fans and hate consoles.

While the online debate continues between console owners and PC gamers over the title of the best gaming platform, we will try to understand the main advantages of consoles over computers. In this article, we have collected 6 main reasons why consoles are better than PCs.

1. No need to understand the technical part

Consoles free gamers from the long and boring choice between computer components. There is no point in studying the components when buying a console. Current models have been supported for quite a long time and will support all games without exception. It is worth noting that the current generation is more than five years old and will remain relevant at least until 2020.

2. Works out of the box

At the moment of choice, there is no point in thinking about further configuration. Assembly, installation of the operating system, configuration of additional software - leave this to desktop computer lovers. In the case of consoles, just connect it to the TV and press the power button, and then insert the game disc or click “download” in the store.

3. More AAA projects

One of the most compelling reasons to purchase a console as your primary gaming platform is the availability of exclusive AAA games. You can argue as much as you want about the superior number of games for PC, but unfortunately, computers will not receive such hits as God of War, Red Dead Redemption 2 or Bloodborne.

4. Convenience

To play in a comfortable position on the sofa, you do not need to perform additional manipulations. Simple instructions from the second point: turn on the TV, press the “power” button and pick up the gamepad - you're done! In the case of a PC, you need to start it, connect it to the TV, then open Steam, connect a gamepad, activate Big Picture mode and only then start playing.

5. Local multiplayer

During a small house party, if you and your friends want to fight Mortal Kombat or play FIFA, it’s easier to gather in the living room around a large TV and a comfortable sofa than to huddle around a computer desk. In terms of speed and convenience, consoles again win on this point.

6. Price

Another important reason is the price of the device. On average, the cost of a basic console starts at 18 thousand; you must admit, for this money it is difficult to buy a gaming computer that can handle all the current games.

These were the six main reasons why consoles are more interesting in terms of the main gaming platform. What do you prefer to play on?

The release of many excellent games on different consoles and PCs, the eve of SteamMachines, all this gave me the idea to write an article about what is better, is it even possible to use the word better, and if you are going to make a purchase, where to stop and what

The word "better" in this comparison of a computer with a console is a very vague concept. Which plan is better? In terms of functionality or as a gaming system? We need to figure this out a little.

Let's look at the pros and cons of a computer and a console (we won't take a specific platform, let's take consoles in general).

Console

+ Exclusives

- Expensive games, more than 2000 rubles.

+ Convenient media device for the living room (In particular, new generation consoles)

- Playing shooters on a gamepad is more inconvenient and the accuracy is lower*

- Loses in PC graphics. more about this.

PC

+ You can turn your PC into a console by connecting it to the TV and attaching a gamepad. It’s just that you won’t be able to play the exclusives that are only available on one console or another, but that’s not a problem, because there are very few of them and it’s pointless to bet on them.

+ Flexible control in games with keyboard+mouse/gamepad

+ Licensed games are much cheaper than consoles. Moreover, it is possible to download from torrent trackers of prohibited sites.

+ Powerful and it is possible to easily install the part even more powerful.

- Sometimes it’s not “plug and play” and you have to work with your hands

+ Multifunctionality. A PC can do more than just be a media center. PC is everything.

+A huge variety of games. Only console exclusives are missing. There are not many games on consoles and there never will be that are on PC, in turn, consoles don’t have many exclusives for which on PC, but only a couple of worthy ones per year.

Conclusion: I think everyone will draw their own conclusion based on the facts presented. However, it is clear to the naked eye that a PC can be said to be a console (without exclusive games) and at the same time be a multifunctional PC. However, it is possible for those who do not like any difficulties in computers, but want to just take a gamepad and immediately start playing, for those who want a device only For games and related entertainment in the form of TV, music and video consoles will come in handy. Only PC can give more.

*The topic “Gamepad versus keyboard and mouse” is perhaps worthy of a separate discussion.

Should I buy a console or a PC?

Some people doubt whether they should buy a console, a PC, or upgrade an old PC, or what to do at all. It all depends on what you are buying the device for. If you want to play console exclusives, then the choice is obvious. Otherwise, it is advisable to buy new hardware for your computer or if you have a desktop computer (Desktop), you can buy a laptop, but as a gaming platform it has several disadvantages compared to a desktop.

All the given pros and cons are laid out absolutely to the point, as is. If you want to add something, write in the comments.

The announcement of PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox Scorpio became another reason to be convinced of this

Computer next to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3

This may surprise some of you, but we here at the editorial office are big fans of PC gaming. Shocking statement, I understand. Console fans will probably accuse us of being biased, but we will still take the liberty of saying the following: PC games are more accessible today than ever before, and for many they have a higher value for a variety of reasons. once again convinces us of this.

And that's why.

Price

Let's start right away with the price issue, which for some reason they prefer not to mention out of politeness or caution. It is clear that previously PCs were significantly inferior to consoles according to this criterion. “Yes, I would have to spend thousands of dollars on a PC, while a game console can be purchased for only 300-400 dollars.”

PC games still cost more, at least initially. And little has changed here. Anyone who can build a desktop computer for $400 is either a wizard or a lucky guy who buys all the components at a discount and spends his whole life waiting for sales. All that remains is to wish him good luck.

At the same time, PCs are no longer as expensive as they used to be. In a number of online stores you can find a lot of entry-level models for $550, but when I saw high-end computers for only $800-900, my eyes widened.

Prices have fallen very much - especially for video cards. The AMD Polaris GPU now seems like a very good buy for anyone who wants to game on the cheap. A Radeon RX 470 video card based on it will cost you only $200 - simply incredible! Those interested can familiarize themselves with the test results in detail, but I will only touch on the essence. At 1080p you get 60 frames per second on virtually any modern game. And it's only $200.

Yes, today it’s not easy to find an RX 480 at a recommended price, but the whole point is that manufacturers are striving to make PC gaming accessible to consumers. They want enthusiasts to buy GPUs. And competition is causing PCs to become cheaper than before.

But a $200 graphics card is much more powerful than what’s inside the recently announced PlayStation 4 Pro console. Let's compare at least the pure performance in teraflops:

Xbox Scorpio (with unknown AMD GPU, presumably Vega): 6

We might be going a bit wrong by doing this, though, because consoles and PCs use the available hardware differently, but it's good enough for a rough comparison. For $200 you get a graphics card that (at least on paper) looks better than the PS4 Pro. Add the missing components and you'll have a great computer for very little, especially if you (like many others) already have a keyboard, mouse, and a suitable monitor.

And if you focus on the performance of PS4 and Xbox One, everything will be even cheaper. A $110 graphics card like the GeForce GTX 950 or Radeon RX 460 paired with an affordable FX-6350 processor gets you past that low bar.

However, this is still not enough

“Okay, I’ve convinced you: games on PC today have become more accessible than ever before. But they are still quite expensive compared to consoles. And I don't understand why PC is so much more valuable to most players." A moment of patience, dear skeptic, now we will come to this.

Easy to upgrade

There have been big changes in the world, which inspired this article.

Many people are looking forward to November today with vexation. After all, several years ago they bought the PlayStation 4 - the most powerful console in the world at that time. And these people expected that it would serve them for a long time. For many, many years.

Sony PlayStation 4 Pro console

Isn't it strange: why are users willing to shell out more than $600 for a phone every two years, but at the same time believe that a $400 console should serve them for at least ten years? However, we are talking about something else now. I generally don’t care much about this - after all, I write for PC World. And the argument presented takes us away from the main topic.

The main thing is that console manufacturers decided to adopt the modernization strategy characteristic of PCs. And based on the current PlayStation announcement, we can expect the transformation of consoles into “platforms” - dividing equipment into tiers with the advent of more powerful devices every three to four years. And it's not just Sony that does this. Microsoft has its own Project Scorpio, according to which the Xbox One update is planned for the fourth quarter of 2017.

However, the consoles are not suitable for modernization. In practice, it is completely impossible to modernize them. And here we generally need different terminology. You can't open up the PlayStation 4 case, put a new GPU in there and continue to enjoy games as if nothing happened. You'll have to take your old PS4 to a flea market and buy yourself a new one.

You won't be able to install a new, more powerful Scorpio processor in an old Xbox One console.

I’m ready to admit that when you first buy a PC, it will cost more, but upgrading it later will be much easier. If you approach this sparingly, the processor will easily last you up to six years, and the graphics card - four to five years. Frame? Memory? Power unit? Fans? Hard disks? All this is relatively inexpensive, and you can upgrade it ad infinitum, from assembly to assembly, replacing only what is really necessary.

You can easily stick to your budget by making the necessary upgrades over a very long time, especially if your goal is just to stay ahead of the consoles. Plan ahead and you'll end up spending no more than buying a new console every three to four years.

True, I’m not sure that in a few years we will see the next iteration of the PS4/Xbox One. Perhaps this is all a one-time event. Still, I think regular console updates will become the new norm.

The era of exclusive console games is over

Tonight I can open Steam and launch Street Fighter V. Or play Dead Rising 3, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Axiom Verge, Talos Principle, Killing Floor 2, Darkest Dungeon, No Man's Sky, Downwell, SOMA, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, Transistor, Grow Home, Hotline Miami 2, N++, Volume and much more. In the video presented here you can see what Tekken 7 looks like on PC at 4K resolution.

All of these games were developed exclusively for the Xbox One or PlayStation 4. More precisely, they were positioned on the market for a specific console with the “Console Exclusive” mark, although in addition to the console version, as a rule, a PC version was also released. Both Sony and Microsoft considered the PC to be neutral territory.

Sony, however, was more cautious, keeping first-person games to itself. You still won't be able to find a PC version of Uncharted 4. But there are already signs that things may be changing. Sony recently launched a subscription-based game streaming service for PCs.

Microsoft went even further and immediately announced its support for Xbox and Windows 10 by launching the Xbox Play Anywhere program. Today, almost every "Xbox Exclusive" game releases a version for Windows 10 on the same day. Examples include Gears of War 4, ReCore, Quantum Break, Forza Horizon 3 and many more. The only Xbox series not yet included in this program is Halo.

Essentially, when you buy a PC, you now get access to most console games. True, a number of first-person games remain unavailable for Sony consoles, but everything else is already on the market, and often (with the exception of rare cases like Arkham Knight) in higher quality than the console versions.

Nothing exclusive to PC

You probably have a friend who will sarcastically chuckle: “But there’s nothing exclusive at all for PCs.” Everyone must have met such people at some point, and if not in personal communication, then certainly on forums.

The argument is quite strange, and it only indicates ignorance of the PC platform. Perhaps your interlocutor simply does not finish: “There is nothing exclusive for PC that I would like to play.” Meanwhile, today there are many more games exclusively for PC than for consoles.

Civilization VI: PC Only

Take the strategy genre, for example. With the exception of Halo Wars and a few less successful games, all strategy games, both turn-based and real-time, are found primarily on PC - and there are plenty of them there.

Moreover, the matter is not limited to just strategies for the assiduous. There are hundreds of games released every year that make a name for themselves on PC and never make it to consoles. They belong to a variety of genres, ranging from shooters (Unreal Tournament, Quake Champions) to role-playing games (Tyranny, Mount & Blade II) and... I don’t even know what (Duskers, Factorio).

backward compatibility

It should also be noted that once you get the game for PC, you become its owner forever. (True, some are panicky that the Valve Steam service will close and their games will stop working. But in any case, there is also an alternative in the form of GOG.)

The PC gaming legacy stretches back forty years. Thanks to the passion of the PC community, most games released over the past 40 years are still available today. Text adventures? The Interactive Fiction database is at your service. DOS? Thanks DOSBox. More complex environments from 15 or 20 years ago? Again, GOG.com plus (if the game is popular enough) dozens of modern options that improve the experience.

This 24 year old PC game is still playable

But I have not yet mentioned console emulators for PCs that are not entirely legal from a legal point of view. However, we will not dwell on them in our article.

Buy a PC and the whole story will appear before you. Just last week, a whole series of classic Sierra games appeared on Steam, ranging from Gabriel Knight to Phantasmagoria and Caesar III. The best of what was offered in the 90s is still available to today's players.

Of course, this approach also has its drawbacks. Installation can be a daunting task, especially if you have no idea what you're doing. But if I get the chance to play Planescape: Torment on the hardware I have (without having to go looking for a 1999 PC or relying on a publisher to maybe fund a modern version), I'll definitely take it. Meanwhile, PlayStation 4 owners can only play PlayStation 3 games, and then only if they pay $20 a month for a PlayStation Now subscription.

Sales and free games

“Okay, but I don’t like classic games and/or have played all these games before.” Great news! If we are talking only about new products, playing on PC becomes even cheaper. Prices fall quickly, become lower and tend to remain at this level.

The first thing that comes to mind is Steam Sales, but it doesn't stop there. GOG.com, Amazon, Green Man Gaming, Gamersgate, Humble - they all regularly have sales. You can easily get a huge library of games on the cheap and completely offset the cost of your hardware.

It's not uncommon to see pre-orders for popular games on Steam at a 10 or even 20 percent discount, and six months after release, many publishers sell their products for $15-20, or even cheaper. Great indie games can often be found on sale for under $10 or even $5. You just have to be patient. What about consoles? Even on sale, most AAA games haven't gone below $30 in years.

And there are also free products. Oddly enough, even the most famous (and beloved) games are sometimes distributed for free. You must have heard about Dota 2 and League of Legends? About Team Fortress 2? About Path of Exile? About Evolve? You can spend hundreds (or even thousands) of hours playing some of these best PC games without paying a cent.

What else

Are you annoyed by flickering on the screen? Correcting the field of view will mitigate the negative effect. Personally, I prefer to have a field of view of around 100 degrees when gaming on PC. When playing on a console, the screen is further away and the field of view is usually limited to 60 degrees. But this is not the main thing. The most annoying thing is that console games usually have a fixed field of view, which means you can't change it even if you get tired. (This also includes motion blur.)

Playing a game you don't like? Steam, Origin, GOG.com and many other sellers are willing to refund money for the game if certain criteria are met. This allows you not only to get money back if the developer does not release the game on time, but also to check whether it will run on your machine. Many doubts can be dispelled in this way.

We probably won’t touch on paid online tournaments. No, no, not now.

Management flexibility

You can talk about the merits of a mouse and keyboard for a very long time, but I would prefer to refrain from doing so. Suffice it to say that they are much more accurate, more familiar (for new players) and more responsive than a controller.

However, today so many console games have already been transferred to PC that it would be natural to use the original control scheme on at least some of them. Dark Souls and Assassin's Creed immediately come to mind. These games are best played with a gamepad. Luckily, connecting an Xbox One or DualShock 4 controller to your PC is easier than ever. It doesn't matter whether it's via cable or (as in the case of the Xbox One S and DS4) via Bluetooth. Most games today support PC controllers, especially when it comes to popular multi-platform titles.

PC anyway

Well, in conclusion, the most important thing.

It’s probably not right to discuss the price of a gaming PC in isolation from everything else. However, there are reasons for this. Perhaps you prefer laptop computers in your daily life. And some people are used to doing all their work on a tablet.

But for many, a desktop computer is still a must (or at least a preferred option). People who process photos, sound and video, who spend long hours typing on the keyboard and are used to gaming for fun, need a powerful PC. And some people just like to sit at a table in front of a large screen and a comfortable keyboard.

Why not use your PC for both work and play?

In other words, there will almost always be a reason to subsidize the purchase of a gaming PC. “Well, I still need a desktop computer that can run Ableton, Word and Premiere, so why not splurge on the extra $200 that the Radeon RX 480 is asking for and turn it into a gaming machine as well.” ?

What about the console? Unfortunately, it only has one purpose, and this is especially noticeable in the era of $35 Chromecast. There are so many ways to display Netflix, Amediatek and the like on the TV screen that buying a console for this is no longer necessary.

Conclusion

Of course, playing games on a PC comes with certain difficulties. Twitch streaming seems too confusing for the uninitiated. If the game crashes, be prepared to spend some time on the Google or Steam forums. Need to update your graphics drivers? Another obstacle. Even the process of assembling a PC can be stressful at first.

After all, this activity is not for everyone. Not yet.

But PC gaming has become much more accessible than in the past. On the Internet you can find the answer to almost any question you may have, explaining all the error codes that the game gives. Driver updates are now done with the click of a button and take significantly less time than updating firmware on any existing console.

PCs are in good shape - perhaps the best in the history of their existence. At the same time, they are constantly improving. And if the Sony PlayStation 4 Pro announcement left you disappointed or left you wondering, perhaps now is the time to make the switch to a more open platform.

And we will be glad to see you in our ranks.

Are you going to play? Immersion in the fascinating world of computer games is available to everyone today. There are many games, but which one will be more convenient, brighter and cooler to play on? A home personal computer is a universal device; it allows you to play everything. But the game console maximizes all the attractive aspects of the gaming world.

Today there is a wide selection of game consoles to suit even the most picky tastes. Such, for example, as XBOX 360 (Microsoft company), its rival PlayStation 3 (Sony company), Wii (Nintendo company). There are also PS3, XBox, Wii rentals.

Wii has the ability to detect human movement in three-dimensional space. In addition, the controller has a built-in speaker and a vibration mechanism, which in turn provides feedback to the set-top box.

A similar gaming console, XBOX 360, has similar capabilities. Its human movement detection device is called Kinect. It is a set-top box located on a round stand, which is equipped with a video camera and microphone that localizes ambient noise, which in turn gives greater freedom of action without using headphones and a microphone. This console, without any controllers, can recognize any human actions in three-dimensional space, perceive the voice and facial expressions of players. Because you are the controller.

There is an eternal debate on the Internet about what is better: a gaming console or a personal computer. Here are a few reasons in favor of game consoles. Of course, game consoles are not as versatile in their functions as personal computers. But it is completely specialized for reproducing beautiful graphics and is much more powerful than conventional computers; you don’t need to worry about the graphics settings on your computer. And not all computers will be able to play any modern game, which in itself is a sad fact for gamers. Therefore, you have to upgrade your computer, which is of course a waste of money. The main advantage of game consoles is that the latest game releases are published first for the Xbox 360 and PS3, and then for personal computers. Also, game consoles save us from waiting for the game to be installed from a disc on the computer; simply put the disc with the game into the console and start playing.

Despite the fact that these consoles were launched in early 2006, they still show good performance. Games on consoles always run in high resolution and it is advisable to play on consoles with widescreen TVs with a diagonal of 32” and Full HD support, which makes it possible to admire a beautiful picture, unlike computer monitors with an average diagonal of 17 or 19 inches.

The big plus of game consoles is that they are transportable, and you can take it to a party with friends and arrange gaming competitions for up to 4 players; of course, you will need four joysticks and a large-diagonal TV (it will be divided into 4 even parts for the convenience of players ). Of course, you won’t be able to have such gaming battles for four people on a personal computer.

Game consoles have their own Internet gaming services on which you can play any games of your choice, such as XBOX Live or PlayStation Network Platform for PS3. For personal computers there is a similar service such as Steam, but, unfortunately, it supports very few games. It is convenient to receive content updates and necessary patches through online services for consoles. It can also be noted that through game consoles it is possible to access the Internet. Playstation 3 has its own browser for accessing the Internet. Some skeptics may say that it is more convenient to play strategy games on a computer, thanks to a controller such as a mouse and keyboard, but for the Playstation 3 it is possible to buy a completely ordinary USB mouse. But the pleasure from fighting and arcade games will certainly be better on the console.