PC gaming has always reigned king of all gaming platforms in
the 14 years I’ve dedicated to gaming. it was the platform I began gaming in
back when dial-up was what most of us could afford, and I’ve seen it develop
and grow from 8Bit games into the monster it is today, with million dollar
championship prizes and games with unbelievable sceneries and detail.
Continuing on the subject of graphics; million dollar companies
are paving the way developing ever so astounding video cards that allow big
game companies to really push and create spectacular game sceneries and new
engines. Unlike consoles, which are built with a set video capacity that cannot
be upgraded, PCs can be constantly upgraded with new video hardware in order to
accommodate new technologies that make games look ever so beautiful.
Graphics are in charge of giving games that initial “wow”
factor when one first looks at a trailer, or box. People unconsciously look at
the graphics and automatically associate good graphics with good games.
Now let’s face it, graphics aren’t everything. How many of
you would like to have personalized peripherals to fit their gaming styles
instead of the stock Xbox or PS controller? Consoles offer a very limited –if
not no- range of substitutes for their controllers. PC on the other hand,
offers a huge range of peripherals. All from padded keyboards with backlights
that come in all shapes and sizes to motion controls that give some games a
completely different feel.
The one beautiful invention that wasn’t mentioned above, and
not because it isn’t worth mentioning, but because it deserves its own section
in this article is the mouse. I’m yet to
see one game that requires quick camera panning that isn’t made better through
the use of a mouse instead of a joystick. Mice have become perhaps the most
important part of any PC gamer’s arsenal; they’ve become much like an extension
of our bodies. Sure, console joysticks
are good and whatnot, but they simply don’t have the feel of a camera rotation
that is achieved with a mouse, nor have they got the customization capabilities
that mice do. While the only thing you can do with a joystick in a controller is change its
sensitivity, in a mouse you’re able to edit everything that the laser does,
everything from the accuracy it measures movements with to how much lift the
mouse can have before it stops responding. Not to mention the fact that mice
come in all shapes and sizes, and have anywhere from 1 button to 20 or more.
Anyway, enough preaching on about peripherals and how good
they are; let’s look at the PC as a whole. Everything in a PC, whether it be
the size of the monitor you use, to the bolts that hold the motherboard in
place can be customized to one’s preference. Computers allow each individual to
express their gaming styles and preferences; while consoles don’t really give
you that touch.
Putting esthetics and peripherals aside, PCs are superior to
the rest of the gaming systems out there is the availability of having far more
processing resources than the other systems do. Not only that, but the
capability for companies to build various graphic cards, motherboards,
monitors, mice, towers, fans, coolers, etc. as they please instead of having a
single company copyrighting one gaming system allows for competition to happen,
and we all know that where there is competition in the marker, we’ll have lower
prices on these products; thus keeping PC prices at a moderate level.
Another great thing PCs have that other systems do is the
ability for the player to play old games in the latest machines, or even play
the latest games in a machine that isn’t brand new. Unlike other gaming systems
out there that cannot run new games on previous consoles.
So long as one runs the operating system that the game
requires, one can install the game and run it without any compatibility issues
–with that being said, the computer the game’s being run in holds hardware that
has a processing power roughly around the minimum of those required by the game.
Now let’s not be too biased, let’s look at some of the down
sides of PC gaming.
Computers are complex machines that are developed to do very
complex jobs. So one major issue us gamers run into a lot of the time is
compatibility. With so many companies developing all kinds of improved
components at a rapid rate in this 21st century, one cannot really
expect one particular video card to meet the requirements of say.. every
processor out there, or every kind of video card for that matter.
Having said that, PCs aren’t victims to hardware problems
alone; With PCs running operating systems designed to do all round tasks like
write documents and accessing personal information such as emails and online
bank accounts, PCs fall prey to all kinds of different viruses that can do
anything from merely rebooting a PC every given interval of time, to more
serious things like stealing personal information.
All in all, PCs are not perfect; they do have faults that
other gaming systems don’t and they are more vulnerable to things such as
viruses and compatibility issues. HOWEVER, these issues are easily worked
around by doing some research into the compatibility of the products one is
buying, or simply getting a good anti-virus for your PC and staying away from
those pesky sites that are filled with viruses and scams.
The advantages of PCs outweigh the disadvantages on a big
ratio at the end of the day, and PCs remain as the best option gaming platform
in the market to date in my opinion, and may perhaps always be on-top.
