Hello again. There is a great deal of catching up to do and I have a lot of ground to cover. Let’s get started.
On a personal note, I have been extremely busy recently. Not in that I have obligations to fulfill. No, I’ve been keeping myself busy with my prior development projects and catching Pokémon fever and doing other things that geeky college kids do during their summer — including working part time. I likely won;t be spending much time on this post, and to some of you it may seem a bit abrupt compared to my usual postings. As such, much of this post will reflect my personal opinion and I disclaim myself from unpolished writing.
Console or PC?
The first thing I wanted to discuss today was video game consoles gaming computers. Microsoft recently announced their next generation “game console” and being a prior owner of three Xbox 360 systems I decided to pitch in some arguments for both sides of the PC — a Mac is a Personal Computer; get over it — vs. Console debate.
Despite my arguments for both sides I want to make one thing very clear: as a video game consumer, blogger, designer and enthusiast, the system used is one of the least important aspects of a gaming experience. Due to the psychological processes involved in playing games, controls are often the first to fade into the background — this assumes that the controls and/or input devices, frankly speaking, don’t suck.
The first argument I want to make is a very neutral one: console gaming systems are not inherently better than PC gaming systems. In addition to this, the reverse holds: PC gaming systems are not absolutely superior to console systems.
Now, my subsequent arguments:
- Personal computers designed for high performance gaming are expensive. There is no getting around this one. As games require higher and higher systems performance, the need to upgrade and maintain a high end gaming rig can be a huge drawback. Despite this, those who build or custom order their own systems get the opportunity to know the systems contents, and therefore it’s strengths and weaknesses.
- Personal computers allow for much greater customization for the system including resource allocation, graphical capacity. One drawback to this is that there is a certain body of knowledge required to make the most out of a high end PC gaming system.
- Personal computers are, in a sense, “unlocked.” For better or for worse, on a PC gaming system there is no unifying standard for developers. Online play is more open and options for modifying and generating game content are far less restricted. This is one of the greatest features of PC gaming, as independently created content, mods, various input device, and a large selection of available games allow players to have nearly unlimited options for play.
- Gaming consoles are extremely cheap, and I mean that in a few different ways. For any form of working computer system, mass produced game consoles give you a considerably large amount of power for your dollar. On the flip side, since console developers and manufacturers plan on developing a better console later — and they want to keep their costs down — it is not uncommon for manufacturers to use lower grade materials than those typically found in high end gaming PC’s. The Xbox 360 was a prime example of this.
- Gaming consoles are standardized. Because specific consoles are mass produced to uniform specifications, developers know exactly what type of system they are designing for. This allows for console specific design and features in some games and it allows for otherwise complicated processes such as networking and security management to be simplified immensely. With specialty uniform features, handheld consoles are good examples of this.
- Gaming consoles are closed and narrow. These consoles were previously designed to do nothing but play games. Although there have recently been more advances to make game consoles well rounded entertainment devices, at their core they still use custom designed APUs and chipsets designed for high performance data and graphical processing.
