this post was submitted on 25 Oct 2023
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Just buy a damned computer already, people.
Consoles are nice for TV setups, unless you use steamOS, which is also nice for TV setups.....
I had never heard of this before. This seems really cool!
You can pretty easily boot to steam big picture regardless of OS.
It's nice, but it's not perfect. My gaming pc currently uses big picture but I still have recurrent issues at times. Like the inability to fully disable the guide button for certain "games" when that would be a super useful extra button for emulators like retroarch.
Couch gaming is just not that great on PC sadly. I'll deal with it because it's the only way I get close to exactly what I want, especially with the emulators. But it sure as hell doesn't replace an actual console experience that I find myself using way more than my PC that I have probably spent more on over the years than my PS5 cost, which is also more powerful since my pc setup is pretty old (still on a 1050Ti).
I've got a PC plugged straight into my living room TV. There are solutions to consoles becoming unnecessarily locked down.
Consoles are easier. I just want to open the box, plug it in, and play.
Just need to download new firmware for a few hours. Load the game you wanna play, then download that update. And then download the new season.
That isn't unique to consoles. I have plenty of games on PC that tell me I need to install some third-party launcher and then update the game when I try to open it.
Lol, you never have to update drivers? Updating console firmware is rare, easy, and doesn't take a few hours.
Season downloads apply to PC as well. They get auto updated anyways so it isn't a factor for either case.
Sure, but that all happens automatically, and will simply work when it's done. It won't come up with some bs conflicting error with some other program I don't even know about on my computer.
I did, still gonna buy consoles because i can
If only GPUs were affordable. Right now buying a decent GPU would set you back as much as the price of PS5. Plus PS5 is great for the living room.
I also don't use or have a CD/DVD/Blueray drive on my PC but I do have the PS5 with a disc, just because I want to be able to buy and sell second hand games, and that's not possible on Steam. I bought the Witcher 3 complete edition for 5 bucks, a pretty sweet deal.
It's worth the cost, given the fact that a computer holds considerably more value in terms of usability. You can't write a resume or edit videos on a Playstation, for example. (Well I'm sure you could if you were determined enough, but you get my point.) And like I said, accessories like controllers are generally more expensive on consoles, and you have to pay a monthly fee to play online. This stuff adds up quickly; you've paid less up front, yes, but in the long run you spent more on your console than you would on a PC over the course of its lifespan.
Not to mention that PCs work just as well in the living room on a giant TV. I'm typing this comment from such a setup. Keyboard in lap, mouse on either the armrest or a table directly to the right of it. It's very comfortable.
Lastly, I get the resale argument, but it takes decades for most games to gain enough collector's value to be worth my time to sell it (if it ever happens at all). More often than not, you'll get $5-10 at best if you're lucky. It's cheaper in the long run to just take advantage of Steam sales, and there's the added bonus of getting to keep your games forever.
edit: Also, mods.
I've been a pc gamer for almost 30 years but I can also recognise consoles have their place. Some people wanna sit in the sofa and play on their 70" TV with a gamepad with as little care as possible. Sometimes with a friend or with family (even if it's not as common as with previous gen consoles). Price don't bother them much. Playing Smash or other co-op games with 4 people on an emulator is not as user friendly as you might think. Controllers sometimes connect weirdly etc.
The people you're talking about only account for a pretty small minority of players. Those kind of players are the ones who usually don't spend a lot of time on video games, own very little games (or only from the same series) and mostly play with other players, in the same place, so they rightfully consider it doesn't worth their time. Most players own several games, solo and multiplayer, and spend enough time on them to not be bothered by having to spend some extra time to set up a gaming PC to then benefit from it. So it doesn't explain why those players are still on consoles and don't want to bother switching to a PC.
But even aside from that, I hate hearing people complain about how consoles scam people and always try to find ways to milk their customers, yet still buy and play on those same consoles. Like, if you don't like what they're doing and don't like having to use such restricted environments which very much allow such greed and control, don't reinforce those companies in their ideas by continuing to buy from them. And I don't want to hear that that there are no alternatives: we're not in the 1990 anymore where consoles were the only way and weren't very diverse.
I play games a lot, and have a PC that can handle them. I'm perfectly capable of dealing with the PC ecosystem. Many times I choose to play on my series x just because it's easier. I have the PC hooked to the same monitor and I still play on Xbox as the default. Ease of use matters.
Ok but I don't see any reason for you to consider it "easier" to play on a console when you already have a perfectly functional PC next to you, able to handle the game: there is no extra step or steps that require more time or energy once the PC is set up, compare to the console. So I really don't know what you're talking about when you mention the "ease of use" of console over an already set up and ready-to-go PC. Maybe the settings have to be configured but you already have the default settings and either way, the PC simply gives you more options, so you just interpret the choice given to you as something time consuming, which it's not, if you don't want to bother choosing.
The number of weird issues I've seen over the years gaming on PC is what I'm talking about. And it takes time to deal with. When things work right, sure, it's just as easy.
I'm sure everyone has different experiences and maybe it's better now, but if I never have to fight with a driver issue again I'm happy.
Sure, you're obviously more likely to have problems like driver issue on a PC than on a console, but in my experience, those kind of issues (or any kind of issue for that matter) are so extremely rare, it's totally negligible in front of what bring a PC to you and it certainly won't make me want to switch to consoles for a waste of 20 minutes of my time over a year because of some program or piece of code that didn't run as expected.
I guess we have different acceptable levels of wasted time.
It's funny actually. Not directly gaming related, but I just yesterday updated my graphics drivers and my video editing software had a blue tint to everything in the preview window. Had to keep rolling back to find the version that broke it. That stuff drives me insane.
Do you use Windows by any chance? And cherry on top, an AMD GPU? That wouldn't surprise me because that's the worst combo possible. Unfortunately, I can do nothing more than empathize with your issue, it's indeed a pretty big deal considering it shouldn't be an issue in the first place, whether you game on your PC or not. I use personally Linux and I've never had any problem for drivers, whether it's Nvidia or AMD, since I use it, which could explain our difference of experience.
Bingo :-/
No one was complaining. At all. Yet quite the few of you force this 'just get a pc' argument from nowhere. Yes this thing requires an Internet connection when installed. You claiming that your pc doesnt? Nothing here is worse.
People Do complain. Have you not read a single comment under this post? Claiming they don't is just your way to be able to dismiss the argument without addressing the issue. My point is you have no reason to complain when you have alternatives but you don't want to choose them because... because why exactly? I've never heard a single convincing argument to not have a PC when that same person already complains about the very nature of console, that is being a closed system which can force whatever it wants on you. If you have no problem with consoles, I also have no problem with you using one. But don't complain over it doing exactly what it was made for.
And you certainly don't need an internet connection to play a solo game on PC or to install the OS. You need one to download the game, at most.
"Get with the times" he says without realizing that console players far exceed PC gamers, nor acknowledging all the scalping that has gone on with GPUs for a half a decade or more. If your PC costs 3x the price of a console to build, you're not saving any money just because Steam has some games on sale.
Steam sales plus not paying to use online, yes, I would say it makes up for the overpriced GPU. I overpaid instead of being patient, and the price was equivalent within a few years, and I absolutely can do more with the PC. Consoles are for people who want to apply zero effort to this stuff, and that's OK. You pay the convenience fee
It's not about the physical media. It's about the restrictions.
In some places it's still just straight up cheaper to buy something physical due to sales and competition. Plus if it's the same price both physical and digital, I'd rather buy the thing that actually gives me something I can actually touch.
Plus with things like game pass and ps+ it's harder to swallow digital purchases when they are likely to eventually be wholesale replaced by a "free" version, without any compensation to me for having bought the game earlier. I don't need to buy a game day one so I can wait. And when I eventually buy a game it's likely way cheaper physically by standard but if there's a big sale on digital then I don't mind. You won't find me buying anything over £25 digitally unless it's significantly reduced from whatever the full price is.
Lolol over priced games. I played every single game I wanted by renting them. Probably paid $250 to play well over $1000 USD worth of games. All for less cost than a shit tier GPU.
Having a sub is far far cheaper than purchasing shit on steam.
Massive pcmr projection going on.