So in the 360 days, I would sit and play the classics like Halo 3 for hours upon hours on things like custom games with 15 of my friends or grind the shit out of MW2 getting godly quickscopes off the top of highrise, or endure the waves upon waves of hoard on Gears of War 2 with my pals and they were the best days ever that I can remember gaming.
Although about 5-6 months ago when all the hype about the new consoles was on the go I thought nah Im gonna convert to the "PC master race" and enjoy smooth 60fps with better visuals etc, and I can truly say that I have experienced that. Also I have enjoyed benefits like getting brand new games like Titanfall for a discounted price and using my badass K70 keyboard. However, what ive found is I have been playing games for an hour or 2, then I just seem to get bored, I cant grind out games as much as I used to. I think that my time here has been different, and I will be sticking around in the PC gaming world casually here and there, but I think what I need is my console platform back with all my friends and home comforts, and guess what? I bought an Xbox one.
Before everyone shouts at me for buying it, I think I need to get my main point across. Only buy and play on the platform that your friends are on. That is the biggest advantage of any specific platform.
You're obviously drawn to pc games because of graphics and online gaming. There's a lot more to do and single player games to discover that may not have the social aspect or graphic appeal but are a lot more fun than anything consoles ever produced (except for maybe Super smash bros., and coop/splitscreen games). Back in the real console days you would play with your friends near you not online. I think consoles today are more antisocial than ever (because of social networks integration and only online play), they're basically dumbed down PCs with a minimalistic OS and internet access with controllers.
Dont think I haven't tried, money is always the limiting factor. Nobody has a spare 500-600 to spend on a PC when they already have a console. Although like I said I would find myself playing a game on PC for 1-2 hours then feel bored. Couldn't get into Skyrim, completed Mafia 2, Half life 2, Far Cry 3, Portal, couldn't get into The Witcher, and all I was left with was multiplayer games that I want to play with my friends. If I could convert them to PC then yeah of course I would stay a PC gamer. Unfortunately that is not the case. I do love the console format though. Yes you dont get as good graphics and all the rest of it, but what you get is a platform which you switch on, you play games, you talk to your friends, and have fun doing it.
I left the 360 because I had no friends left. After the halo 3 community fell apart I pretty much stopped talking to my XBL friends. So I went to PC, found new friends and enjoy the Master Race living.
The catch was that the friends that I play with on console are my real life friends and have been for the last 8 years so leaving them isnt an option. Thank you destroyed007, I shall.
Some of the best times gaming was with mates, Tekken 5 on the PS2 beating up on 4 mates, Tekken 6 on the 360 the same and even bowling on the WII with 4 mates shooting the shit and having a few beers and a good laugh.
If you aren't enjoying your gaming on PC no-ones going to begrudge you returning to console land because Gaming should be one thing FUN.
Fun indeed, just watch me pursue a full time pro gaming career or make it as UKs #1 youtuber. I wont forget you lads and lassies back at TEK SYNDICATE ;)
I'm not a gamer, but I do understand a preference for gaming on consoles.
My wife is a hardcore gamer, and she is also a PC gamer. She often asks me to play a game with her when I have time. The problem is, that I don't have Steam or games installed on my machines all the time, not even on my home PC. I do have a portable appliance with all of my Steam games, one for Windows and one for linux, but I don't take the disk with the appliance with me everywhere, because I just don't care enough. So if someone wants to play a PC game with me on short notice, it's probably going to be Xonotix or Nexuiz or Minetest or another open source linux game, that can be installed safely on any linux system in two minutes and for which I can quickly configure my own server, or it's going to be a console game, because those are also fast to get started. My wife got a new gaming PC recently, and it took an entire weekend to reconfigure Windows 8 and all Steam games and graphics and controller drivers, etc... and to be honest, I just couldn't do that, I don't have the patience even to wait for stupid forever-taking Windows system updates lol. I'm a plug-and-play person, I need immediate results, and I'm used to that from being a linux user since the 90's, so PC gaming is never really going to float my boat. I do however buy games when they're cheap on Steam, just because, and I have them in the appliances, both on Windows and linux, but I just never really use them. I also don't care too much about the graphics quality of games, I care more about the social gaming aspect and about not being confronted with the limitations of software consoles. Like every time I want to play Chivalry or CS:GO because a friend calls me that they need an extra hand, I make people wait because there are updates. That just ruins it for me. I'd rather play on a console then, where the software is always sorted, and I don't care about the config of the software because it's not on the same system or network as my PC's that contain my work or personal data.
Another thing is, that if you have small children, you know why consoles make a lot of sense, especially Nintendo. It's fucking expensive, but if you include the fact that for PC gaming, you have to downgrade even more expensive hardware with software consoles, and the fact that PC games are worth nothing in resale, if that is even possible, and that there is a good residual value for console games, especially with small kids that go bored of games every few weeks and the need the latest Disney Infinity 500 USD worth of crap, consoles start to make a lot of sense.
Try Warframe and make some new friends, or just run about with some random strangers that you've bumped into because they happened to be on that section of the map at the same time as you. Warframe will also alternately allow you to run it in solo mode, private mode (where only your friends can randomly join you on missions) or invite mode (which is like private mode, but with a new bouncer at the door so only people you've allowed in can join you.) The only real problem with Warframe, aside from the blatant monetization of people's impatience with waiting for the RPG-style weapon foundry to finish construction on something that you'd already spent hours grinding the components for, is the fact that the varied update schedule for the PC version and the PS4 version frequently disables cross-platform play, limiting your interactions to either the PS4 or the PC community, depending on which system you've made an account on. Given that it is a shooter, 3rd person over-the-shoulder with lots of potential for melee and crazy-fast movements, I would recommend playing it on PC, and anyone with a processor equipped with four threads and a GPU as capable as a GTS 450 should find the game more than playable at low settings. This game can be played very well on any high-end APU system and offers many hours of entertaining gameplay as you plow through what is currently available within the solar system.
I would begrudge you the transition back to the console, but only if you stay there permanently. I don't mind if you also own and use a console, but the PC is really where gaming should be. I can understand the convenience of a console, the fact that people are going to continue to support it and make awesome games for it for much longer than they will bother with on PC, as game requirements climb to new extremes and make hardware perpetually obsolete. I get that, but there will come a point where consoles essentially become computers because the interface is simply better for gaming, at least, for most games. There are the exceptions: the fighting games, the simplistically controlled RPGs, etc, where a controller may simply be an easier solution than dealing with other complex keybindings, but for the most popular genre, the first person shooter, there is nothing available now that beats the granularity of control provided by a keyboard and mouse.
Yeah convenience is another factor that I have had issues with before. With the new beta drivers from AMD which caused invisible blocks on Minecraft (some java issue with beta drives) and I was also experiencing some issues with Titanfall which I cant actually remember the details of. Also with Skyrim and regards to playing with keyboard/controller I found that playing with keyboard I just got owned repeatedly on the easiest difficulty but on controller I felt a bit limited as to what I could do with the simplistic controls. If PC became the mainstream platform and replaced console then I would love it. But I agree with Zoltan, I am more interested in the social aspect of gaming, being able to play games on a platform that is easy for everyone to just plug and play. Dont get me wrong, im not gonna stop buying PC games, I still cant resist a good steam sale, I just wont be using it as my main platform anymore. Although its a bit of a bummer though because I like all the accessories of PC gaming such as getting a cool keyboard/mouse/mouse mat etc.
Also with regards to your system becoming obsolete with more demanding games coming out each year I think that would be a large turn off for people who are used to spending £400 every 6 years and being able to leave it at that.
Consoles are also getting updates now and then which need time to install. Many consolers are complaining about this right now. You need to improve software (drivers, firmware) for hardware as you go along because no software is perfect. And this applies to all consoles, pcs, macs whatever.
Also, it is a misconception that you have to update hardware every year. Many gamers are still running sandy bridge cpus and Gtx 500 series or HD 7800 even 6900 graphics cards and they can run most modern titles fine although they may have to turn down details a bit. i used to play battlefield 3 on phenom 4 and gtx 560ti @ 1080P on high settings. So unless you want Ultra everything on every game and want the latest high res monitors like 4k then there is no need to buy hardware every year.
I'm not saying you are wrong to leave pc gaming or stuff like that. just saying, do what you wanna do right? cheers
I didnt mean a hardware upgrade was required each year, I just meant that games were getting harder to run each year. So hardware can only survive so many of those jumps before needing an upgrade.
Umm those would be poorly coded games and console ports that the developers clearly didn't put in much effort into. But even with that, pcs are more than capable of handling them if even on a budget build. On the other hand, the consoles aren't looking so good. They can barely handle 1080P now, do you think they will still hold up after 5-6 years which is the average console generation period. I mean come on, 792P? It's obvious that that was the max resolution they could drive and still get 30 fps. You could argue that console devs get hardware level access so they can extract every bit of juice out of them but still there's only so much you can optimize before you hit a hardware wall. DX12 won't help much when the Apu is reaching its limits of computing power.