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[Felix Lighter]

Valve is a console first developer? I don't know how you could come to that conclusion. As for targeting games specifically to the high end, yes that is rare but there are many, many PC exclusives that take advantage of the platforms unique strengths.

 

[jaypah]

I'm going PS4 for launch, 180 sometime next year. My PC isn't great but it still has a bit of life left and when it get unbearable, hell it's still a PC! I'll enjoy some classics that I never got around too and have fun with the indie games. But in 2015? Oh, that's when I do a complete rebuild and sit a monster rig next to my TV to replace the modest rig next to my TV. I can't even imagine the power that I will be able to buy by then!

 

[Vulcano's assistant]

just wanted to highlight where we're at right now.

four posts away from a page filled with Killzone gifs?

 

[Kanyon]

I have all the parts for a new PC lined up, which would cost me around $1200. On the other hand, PS4 is a much cheaper alternative and has console exclusives that really interest me, plus all the PC games I would end up getting ayway. I will end up getting PS4 at some point - the only thing that made me seriously consider PC is the impending death of my current laptop. I've never been a big PC gamer, but maybe now is the time to switch?

So, GAF, can you sell me on one or the other?

Also, nobody say XBO - I don't plan to get one anytime soon.

Depends on what you really plan on spending most of your time playing... If it was for something like Battlefield 4 then definitely go PC but if you're leaning towards GTA-styled, sports and action/adventure third-person games then I would probably recommend the PS4.

At the moment my PC is basically a BF3 and Adobe machine and my consoles are for everything else. That might change with next-gen but who knows...

 

[ALBOFIGHTER]

This shit always pops up in these thread, it's so wrong it's sad.
pc gaming has WAY more exclusives, way way more, not even in the same league.

I understand but that's why I said next gen is now as open if not more so then steam which means PC no longer has that huge advantage that they had for a decade now. It's a different situation naa mean brah?

 

[Superflat]

If you're new to the platform, experiencing PC gaming for the first time is quite the experience. You have the option to play tons of games from any practically any generation at your fingertips, insane sales, etc. There's a strong argument for going PC first in that regard.

With a PS4, the best thing going for it right now is the price. At a quarter of the price of a PC you get a brand new box that can pump out similar visuals, but the number of games it can play will be limited at launch.

If you're all about the newest games and interested in the first party exclusives, PS4 is a really great and much cheaper option.

If you're interested in a vast catalogue of games from the get-go and more interested in third party titles, PC first. It's hella expensive, but worth it.

EDIT: forgot that you have a gaming laptop so you're already well into the PC game market. Just go PS4 mang. It'll take less time to recoup the cost of a PS4 and buy a PC soon after, lol

 

[Orayn]

If you're new to the platform, experiencing PC gaming for the first time is quite the experience. You have the option to play tons of games from any practically any generation at your fingertips, insane sales, etc. There's a strong argument for going PC first in that regard.

With a PS4, the best thing going for it right now is the price. At a quarter of the price of a PC you get a brand new box that can pump out similar visuals, but the number of games it can play will be limited at launch.

If you're all about the newest games and interested in the first party exclusives, PS4 is a really great and much cheaper option.

If you're interested in a vast catalogue of games from the get-go and more interested in third party titles, PC first. It's hella expensive, but worth it.

I agree with pretty much all of this, but I feel the need to say that PS4 is closer to half the price of a PC that won't need major upgrades for a while. Not a quarter.

 

[ultimatebestusername]

If you know that you're going to get both eventually, get a ps4 now and wait a couple of years for a pc. The ps4 hardware (specs wise) will remain constant until its successor, whereas the pc market is constantly changing/improving. Personally, I don't see the ps4 getting a significant price drop within at least 18 months of its release, but a pc you buy now will be significantly less powerful than one built 2 years later. Consoles will almost always provide the best price vs. performance ratio at launch.

 

[Joco]

If I were in your position I'd build a PC first and wait on the PS4. There will likely be issues within the first several months of launch with either network infrastructure and/or hardware that will take some time to sort out, plus it will take a while for the system to build up its library so you may as well get a PC in the meantime.

 

[Momentary]

1K for a halfway decent machine barely less powerful than a PS4? PC stay losing.

Those NVIDIA GPUs are putting in some work for these console games. PS4 shells with Titans in all of them.

Spoiler

jk

 

[natsuyasumi]

I think it's awesome that you can build a PS4. Maybe build a few to scalp before the official release? Then put that money toward a PC.

 

[D3RANG3D]

I understand but that's why I said next gen is now as open if not more so then steam which means PC no longer has that huge advantage that they had for a decade now. It's a different situation naa mean brah?

It will still be somewhat the case next gen some indies, are not going to pay the engine fees like say on the Unity engine because the current gen fees are expensive, who knows how expensive they will be for next gen consoles. These games on the other hand will most likely go to WiiU because Nintendo is at least willing to eat the fees.

 

[Lasthope106]

I don't care where you get those multiplatform games from. We are not talking about price here, just games. Having more options on a multiplatform game is not more important then having a different unique exclusive game. Also, even multiplatform games are coming with console exclusive content anyways. Even if price is an issue, never mind the console being cheaper but ps+ gives you free games, I don't see any pc doing that.

You can like pc all you want, doesn't matter, but recommending someone a computer made for multitasking etc. over a "GAME" console where the user is mostly interested in games is quite questionable. It makes no sense. Even if you recommend an xbox one it's a more objective answer cause xbox will still have more games then pc, at least high budgets one. Maybe if OP asked he wants something to play games on but also do work, etc then of course I would recommend a pc in a heartbeat. I wish people would make more objective decisions rather then pick sides. I have a high end pc and pre-ordered the ps4. If games were secondary, I would have never bought a game console since pc has more then enough plus productivity.

How does that relate to the statement you were making about the "PS4 being as open as Steam"? Steam has free games, ever heard of Alien Swarm, or when that time they were given away Portal, or the free weekends a lot of game do throughout the year.

Open to me means you have a choice. My point still stands because the pc is not open because of Steam.

 

[Chinpoko_Master]

Get a PS4 now, get a new PC later.

 

[InvaderZimmer]

If I were in your position I'd build a PC first and wait on the PS4. There will likely be issues within the first several months of launch with either network infrastructure and/or hardware that will take some time to sort out, plus it will take a while for the system to build up its library so you may as well get a PC in the meantime.

Nailed it. Launch games are fail despite a few outliers.

 

[ghst]

do people ever stop to think about how horribly sycophantic they come across? i keep seeing the same few titles trotted out by console gamers and i'm not sure if it's a victory of marketing or a failure of the human condition.

you'll occasionally see a PC person mention some big PC titles in rebuttal, but rarely do you see whole threads where every third post is name dropping dota, total war, arma or any other myriad titles which are limited to PC only. given the complete eclectic depth of the PC library, it seems trivial ram a single title down someone's throat; PC caters for every taste and it's more important to open up a person to its possibilities than impose your own idea of the platform on then.

it'd like going to a film festival with a loud haler and screaming "oh yeah, but have you got olympus has fallen!?".

 

[thekingff]

PC all the way. You can play both current gen games without worrying about backwards compatibility. Plus between steam, origin, amazon, gamersgate, gog, and greenmangaming you can get a ton of current games cheaper and they look a ton better. Hook up a 360 controller and you're money.

 

[ALBOFIGHTER]

How does that relate to the statement you were making about the "PS4 being as open as Steam"? Steam has free games, ever heard of Alien Swarm, or when that time they were given away Portal, or the free weekends a lot of game do throughout the year.

Open to me means you have a choice. My point still stands because the pc is not open because of Steam.

Open for developers to release games. Up until now, steam was the most open and best platform to release games due to very little restrictions and cost. It is praised for that and it has a lot of sales. Now Sony is doing the same thing so devs are finally publishing on a game console just like steam. It took a very long time for this to happen but we finally got there and it's great for everyone.

 

[Vulcano's assistant]

I think buying a console at launch makes you feel like a kid on Christmas. That feeling of the new toy alone might be worth it for some, and it will just dilute over time. So it's not always about what reason and logic tell you, emotions also take part in it.

 

[TheD]

Every generation I invest in consoles early and PC 3-4 years later. Fact is, PC's might have more raw power under the hood but there is no developers taking advantage of it. Even less so now with prior PC heavyweights like Carmack and Valve becoming console first developers. A PC upgrade in 3-4 years will show a tangible advantage. Right now? Not at all

Wut.

Last I checked DOTA2 is Valve's focus and that is not a console game.

And Carmack is working on the Rift and not doing much/anything with ID.

 

[Stallion Free]

do people ever stop to think about how horribly sycophantic they come across? i keep seeing the same few titles trotted out by console gamers and i'm not sure if it's a victory of marketing or a failure of the human condition.

you'll occasionally see a PC person mention some big PC titles in rebuttal, but rarely do you see whole threads where every third post is name dropping dota, total war, arma or any other myriad titles which are limited to PC only. given the complete eclectic depth of the PC library, it seems trivial ram a single title down someone's throat; PC caters for every taste and it's more important to open up a person to its possibilities than impose your own idea of the platform on then.

it'd like going to a film festival with a loud haler and screaming "oh yeah, but have you got olympus has fallen!?".

Godlike.

 

[Shambles]

I don't care where you get those multiplatform games from. We are not talking about price here, just games. Having more options on a multiplatform game is not more important then having a different unique exclusive game. Also, even multiplatform games are coming with console exclusive content anyways. Even if price is an issue, never mind the console being cheaper but ps+ gives you free games, I don't see any pc doing that.

You can like pc all you want, doesn't matter, but recommending someone a computer made for multitasking etc. over a "GAME" console where the user is mostly interested in games is quite questionable. It makes no sense. Even if you recommend an xbox one it's a more objective answer cause xbox will still have more games then pc, at least high budgets one. Maybe if OP asked he wants something to play games on but also do work, etc then of course I would recommend a pc in a heartbeat. I wish people would make more objective decisions rather then pick sides. I have a high end pc and pre-ordered the ps4. If games were secondary, I would have never bought a game console since pc has more then enough plus productivity.

So what you're saying is that the platform with the most games win. Sounds like you're agreeing with him.

 

[roMonster]

do people ever stop to think about how horribly sycophantic they come across? i keep seeing the same few titles trotted out by console gamers and i'm not sure if it's a victory of marketing or a failure of the human condition.

you'll occasionally see a PC person mention some big PC titles in rebuttal, but rarely do you see whole threads where every third post is name dropping dota, total war, arma or any other myriad titles which are limited to PC only. given the complete eclectic depth of the PC library, it seems trivial ram a single title down someone's throat; PC caters for every taste and it's more important to open up a person to its possibilities than impose your own idea of the platform on then.

it'd like going to a film festival with a loud haler and screaming "oh yeah, but have you got olympus has fallen!?".

You know this is just videogames--your posts come off as if its a struggle for good vs evil.

 

[tokyostomp]

if it helps i am going ps4 first (preorder paid in full) than master race pc.

My reasoning is that want to see what kind of chips Intel/Nvidia come out in response to consoles rocking AMD chips.

i'm hoping for some good prices in response to console lanuches

 

[CrankyKong]

I had the same problem, but went with PS4.
Been playing nothing but PS3 and xbox for the last 7 years so a new console will be sweet.
PC will probably come next year

 

[Lasthope106]

Open for developers to release games. Up until now, steam was the most open and best platform to release games due to very little restrictions and cost. It is praised for that and it has a lot of sales. Now Sony is doing the same thing so devs are finally publishing on a game console just like steam. It took a very long time for this to happen but we finally got there and it's great for everyone.

Ok, now I see what you were referring to as open. Yes the PS4 has become more open in that respect. And hopefully it will mean that a lot more people will develop indie games for the PS4. However, I would argue that Steam is not open in the way you are referring. Steam has a huge problem in that only the games Valve deems good are sold there. They tried to address this issue with greenlight, but that remains a problem.

Also, I can't classify the PS4 as open until I know how much it costs to get dev kits, software packages needed, etc. I've seen some people namedrop Unity which is not free. On pc, you can make a game and pay $0 to create it. The only thing I've heard is that Sony is letting indie devs borrow dev kits to make their games. Are those loans permanent? Will every PS4 become a dev kit in the future? If not, are developers going to have to pay to continue using the dev kits? Those are the questions that I need answers to before I can say the PS4 is open.

 

[SneakyStephan]

I understand but that's why I said next gen is now as open if not more so then steam which means PC no longer has that huge advantage that they had for a decade now. It's a different situation naa mean brah?

Consoles still aren't open

There's only one dd storefront(xbl, psn), there's only one control scheme (you still won't see mobas, rts, grand strategy games , not to mention all the sim genres)
There's still no ability to mod either so stuff like ns2 wouldn't make it on there even if the controls were suited.

There's a whole breath of game genres that won't be on them, just like always.

Self publishing is just one step and there are no guarantees that there won't be hilarious restrictions again like not being allowed to offer free dlc on xbox live (gears of war) or having to wait weeks or months for patches to go through the walled garden filter or being able to price their games however they want or use pricing models.
All we have to go off is some vague promises and hoping for the best, that always turns out well in console land (hah)

Remember at the start oft his gen ps3 supported otherOS, had keyboard and mouse support and even mod support in UT3, there were big tales of how we'd be playing online cross platform with pc gamers now that the online era arrived in console land.
And look where we are now at the end of this gen, none of this was ever realised or adapted as any kind of standard.

New racing games are releasing on these systems and people still don't know if we'll be able to use logitech g27 or fanatec racing wheels etc.
If it was even remotely open this wouldn't even be a question.

There's also big talk about how mmos will come to consoles (3rd gen in a row that they'll try this, ROUND 3 : FIGHT), but what happens when people realise they still need a keyboard to communicate and their idea of comfy couch mmos goes out of the window.If you want to see what an mmo without text chat is like you can try out defiance, that game launched with a bugged chat during the first month and there was no community and it is doomed.

I admire you optimism , though perhaps naivety is a better word.

As for the pricing thing, games are on average much cheaper and I got 12 big 'AAA' games for 2 dollars (combined) this month from humble bundles.... and I don't have to pay 50 bucks a year just to be allowed to keep playing them.
We've mulled over this a thousand times before, not going to go there all over again.

 

[artist]

Get a PS4 now, get a PC next year. Best of both worlds. (The GPU war between Nvidia and AMD will be rife next year with Hawaii and Maxwell)

 

[Evolution_1ne]

Consoles still aren't open

There's only one dd storefront(xbl, psn), there's only one control scheme (you still won't see mobas, rts, grand strategy games , not to mention all the sim genres)
There's still no ability to mod either so stuff like ns2 wouldn't make it on there even if the controls were suited.

There's a whole breath of game genres that won't be on them, just like always.

Self publishing is just one step and there are no guarantees that there won't be hilarious restrictions again like not being allowed to offer free dlc on xbox live (gears of war) or having to wait weeks or months for patches to go through the walled garden filter or being able to price their games however they want or use pricing models.
All we have to go off is some vague promises and hoping for the best, that always turns out well in console land (hah)

Remember at the start oft his gen ps3 supported otherOS, had keyboard and mouse support and even mod support in UT3, there were big tales of how we'd be playing online cross platform with pc gamers now that the online era arrived in console land.
And look where we are now at the end of this gen, none of this was ever realised or adapted as any kind of standard.

New racing games are releasing on these systems and people still don't know if we'll be able to use logitech g27 or fanatec racing wheels etc.
If it was even remotely open this wouldn't even be a question.

There's also big talk about how mmos will come to consoles (3rd gen in a row that they'll try this, ROUND 3 : FIGHT), but what happens when people realise they still need a keyboard to communicate and their idea of comfy couch mmos goes out of the window.If you want to see what an mmo without text chat is like you can try out defiance, that game launched with a bugged chat during the first month and there was no community and it is doomed.

I admire you optimism , though perhaps naivety is a better word.

I'd ask where you brought your time machine, but it would probably cost me as much as a mid range PC

 

[ultimatebestusername]

Get a PS4 now, get a PC next year. Best of both worlds. (The GPU war between Nvidia and AMD will be rife next year with Hawaii and Maxwell)

Yeah this is another great point. Next year's gpus will likely be based on new architectures (I'm not certain about this on the AMD side, but NVIDIA should definitely be introducing the maxwell cards), so we should hopefully see a jump like we did from fermi to kepler. For this reason alone it might be worth the wait for a new PC.

 

[oneils]

The first two years I had my ps3 I only played two or three games on it. I ended up gaming mostly on PC.

There really doesn't seem like there will be that many exclusives that will come out in the first year. If it absolutely has to be one or the other, I'd go for the pc. Kill zone, infamous and naughty dog will still be waiting for you.

 

[OldAsUrSock]

I don't care where you get those multiplatform games from. We are not talking about price here, just games. Having more options on a multiplatform game is not more important then having a different unique exclusive game. Also, even multiplatform games are coming with console exclusive content anyways. Even if price is an issue, never mind the console being cheaper but ps+ gives you free games, I don't see any pc doing that.

You can like pc all you want, doesn't matter, but recommending someone a computer made for multitasking etc. over a "GAME" console where the user is mostly interested in games is quite questionable. It makes no sense. Even if you recommend an xbox one it's a more objective answer cause xbox will still have more games then pc, at least high budgets one. Maybe if OP asked he wants something to play games on but also do work, etc then of course I would recommend a pc in a heartbeat. I wish people would make more objective decisions rather then pick sides. I have a high end pc and pre-ordered the ps4. If games were secondary, I would have never bought a game console since pc has more then enough plus productivity.

1. We are talking about prices and games.
2.More options that you do not get on consoles is a plus and there really is not a lot of console exclusive DLC
3.You get free games, but you have no choice over what you get while with Steam you get low prices year round and you decide what you get. All of the things except free games is what you get with Steam without any subscription.
4.Microsoft and Sony, mostly Microsoft, are pushing how their consoles can multitask so multitasking is also an important thing to consider.
5.PCs have the most games

 

[Evolution_1ne]

eh we're going in circles, go with your gut OP.

I'd wait, better/cheaper hardware down the line, but you do need a PC soon as your laptop is about to kick the bucket. So maybe you should pull the trigger on the PC

 

[Brofist]

consoles are a curated experience. you pay a modest price, get your modest hardware and get a guided tour of the lot. they are great entry level or supplementary devices, but offer the user no agency beyond what the manufacturer has planned for them.

there is a lot of fervour right now as some of those who are deeply connected to their hobby are having trouble coming to terms with the fact that their preferred console model is one which doesn't necessarily reward a large degree of investment. they offer a prescribed package tailored to the mass market.

if you are someone who wants to invest in this hobby beyond treating it as a distraction, you must have a PC. it's not even a question. in both next gen console's entire lifetimes, they won't build anything close to library of defining titles already available to the PC today. though i'm not sure how much of that you can already explore on your laptop.

there are big things coming to the PC market. DD has given way to an entire frontier of maverick game design, price and distribution which the consoles are scrambling to emulate, multiplatform support will be of unprecedented quality, the oculus rift is on the cusp of starting a revolution, esports is firmly rooted on the platform and 20nm GPU tech should see a performance leap like we haven't seen in years.

so i guess it all comes down to how active you want to be in your hobby. do you want to kick back at the end of the day and enjoy titles for what they are, enjoying tightly honed AAA blockbusters and signed-off indie titles without too much scrutiny or agency beyond playing the game itself? or do you want to actively invest in crafting the best experience you can for yourself, personalised for your idiosyncrasies?

all this is before getting into a power debate, the results of which are already firmly established. i will say that come october, the radeon 9000 series is dropping and the 20nm fabricated nvidia maxwell is pencilled in for q1. should you choose to go with PC, if you can wait until then, do.

do people ever stop to think about how horribly sycophantic they come across? i keep seeing the same few titles trotted out by console gamers and i'm not sure if it's a victory of marketing or a failure of the human condition.

you'll occasionally see a PC person mention some big PC titles in rebuttal, but rarely do you see whole threads where every third post is name dropping dota, total war, arma or any other myriad titles which are limited to PC only. given the complete eclectic depth of the PC library, it seems trivial ram a single title down someone's throat; PC caters for every taste and it's more important to open up a person to its possibilities than impose your own idea of the platform on then.

it'd like going to a film festival with a loud haler and screaming "oh yeah, but have you got olympus has fallen!?".

pure win

 

[Finaika]

Don't buy a PC now.

Wait a few years till the PC catches up with the PS4 in terms of power, then jump in.

 

[TheD]

Don't buy a PC now.

Wait a few years till the PC catches up with the PS4 in terms of power, then jump in.

Joke?

(it is getting kind of hard to tell these days )

 

[Hayabusi]

I still have some catching up to do on PS3 (Last of Us, GTAV, Uncharted 3, God of War, Ni No Kuni), so the PS4 will have to wait.

But I will get a new graphic card for my PC (its a 2500k, so still sufficient for every game with the right gpu - have a 5770 now..)

 

[nbthedude]

Do not buy a console on launch if you are concerned at all about value.

You are paying a premium for hardware that has not been tested and software that has been rushed.


Build the PC now if you care about value. You get most of the best games that will be on those new consoles this fall early next spring anyway if you want them (Watch Dogs, AC IV, TitanFall, Battle Field, Call of Duty etc.) and you get a huge back catalog of games that are really cheap.

 

[copelandmaster]

correct, never spend more than $1k on any gaming rig.

No.

No No No No nononononono.

Especially not if you are building from scratch.

Sub $800 gets you good. $1k gets you great.

$1.5k gets you really really great stuff. $2k is sweetness.

$2.5 gets you a 780/titan rig with a ZXR and sound suppressing/reducing components, plus accessories and playback software. Which is good, if you wanted something much smaller, but had to settle for mATX because onboard sound makes baby jesus cry.

 

[Mass Effect]

Hmm, this one is a difficult one. On one hand you say you aren't really a big PC gamer, so it's hard to judge how much interest you have in the advantages of being on PC. And on the other, it's not like the PS4 has this vast library yet, so you might be better off waiting a while. And we don't know how much you care about PS4 exclusives.

I say, if you really like Sony's first-parties and Japanese games then go PS4 for now.

Every generation I invest in consoles early and PC 3-4 years later. Fact is, PC's might have more raw power under the hood but there is no developers taking advantage of it. Even less so now with prior PC heavyweights like Carmack and Valve becoming console first developers. A PC upgrade in 3-4 years will show a tangible advantage. Right now? Not at all

lol wat. No.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

There are benefits to owning both a PS4 and a PC. If the most staunch supporters from both sides can come to terms with that then there really is no need for screaming game names as loud as can be.

I feel good about having a tremendous PC and a great new console in PS4 coming along in a couple of months. I don't try to put myself in a corner of which I only depend on PC but I did spend over 2k on PC parts this year alone. I'm as committed as can be but also love the benefits and exclusives of a console. I also like the ease of getting things done in a nice little interface which is easy to manage. PC is what it is and will always be a great multipurpose device.

 

[satori]

Can't tell the future but I am sure there will be no price drops or redesign of the ps4 within the first two years. Plus you already have a gaming laptop. So might as well get the ps4 first to play sony exclusive games such as infamous.

And you can build a monster rig next year or so with better parts than you will find today.

If I you don't have a pc at all then building one first is a no brainer. Also it depends what you are playing on the pc right now into the foreseeable future as well. I have a decent rig but all I'm playing is LOL and Dota

 

[Nafai1123]

What are the specs of the PC and how do they compare to the PS4?. If they are close in GPU spec, go PS4. Way more graphics for your buck now and you can get a PC in 2 years. Buy a tablet or notebook for your PC needs unless you really need the horsepower. Given you've been using a laptop I doubt that's the case, so there you go. PS4 now, PC later.

 

[-MD-]

At least 1000 dollars, more like between 12 and 15 hundred to be exact, 1k should do if you leave little to no room for upgrades and skimp out on components like storage and case, etc.

Lol

 

[ALBOFIGHTER]

Ok, now I see what you were referring to as open. Yes the PS4 has become more open in that respect. And hopefully it will mean that a lot more people will develop indie games for the PS4. However, I would argue that Steam is not open in the way you are referring. Steam has a huge problem in that only the games Valve deems good are sold there. They tried to address this issue with greenlight, but that remains a problem.

Also, I can't classify the PS4 as open until I know how much it costs to get dev kits, software packages needed, etc. I've seen some people namedrop Unity which is not free. On pc, you can make a game and pay $0 to create it. The only thing I've heard is that Sony is letting indie devs borrow dev kits to make their games. Are those loans permanent? Will every PS4 become a dev kit in the future? If not, are developers going to have to pay to continue using the dev kits? Those are the questions that I need answers to before I can say the PS4 is open.

There have been some interviews here and there where Sony will pub fund a studio if they like them, lend dev kits, I think also allow them to use some engines like unity to publish. It will be more clear for release. Microsoft is saying that every XBone is a dev kit by default so that's something. Either way it's a huge step forward. I think most next gen indie games that wil go to steam will also arrive on ps4 since it's very easy to port and cheap for them unless they have an exclusivity deal.

PCs are good for those who like old games though. I plan to get Ultra SF4 on pc since ps4 might not have it so that's very helpful. In the end, it depends on the person's priorities. There is pros and cons for both. I would rather get a next gen console first, wait a few years and get a pc for about the same price and have it twice as powerful since there is new gpu architecture every few years and consoles seem to last for a decade so that may be a better strategy if money is a problem.

 

[Grief.exe]

Get a PS4 now, get a PC next year. Best of both worlds. (The GPU war between Nvidia and AMD will be rife next year with Hawaii and Maxwell)

Maxwell is codename for an Intel CPU.

What are the specs of the PC and how do they compare to the PS4?. If they are close in GPU spec, go PS4. Way more graphics for your buck now and you can get a PC in 2 years. Buy a tablet or notebook for your PC needs unless you really need the horsepower. Given you've been using a laptop I doubt that's the case, so there you go. PS4 now, PC later.

If his build costs $1200 then it is significantly more powerful than a PS4 in all respects.

PCs are good for those who like old games though. I plan to get Ultra SF4 on pc since ps4 might not have it so that's very helpful. In the end, it depends on the person's priorities. There is pros and cons for both. I would rather get a next gen console first, wait a few years and get a pc for about the same price and have it twice as powerful since there is new gpu architecture every few years and consoles seem to last for a decade so that may be a better strategy if money is a problem.

Middle range cards are already twice as powerful as the GPU in the PS4 in terms of raw power. In a few years its going to be ridiculous.

 

[hemtae]

Maxwell is codename for an Intel CPU.

No, Maxwell is definitely nvidia's new stuff. Intel does have haswell and broadwell.

 

[Angry Puppy]

Reading through this thread has me so confused at the ignorance of some console gamers...

People should read the ghst posts in here. The posts are great and based on reality.

consoles are a curated experience. you pay a modest price, get your modest hardware and get a guided tour of the lot. they are great entry level or supplementary devices, but offer the user no agency beyond what the manufacturer has planned for them.

there is a lot of fervour right now as some of those who are deeply connected to their hobby are having trouble coming to terms with the fact that their preferred console model is one which doesn't necessarily reward a large degree of investment. they offer a prescribed package tailored to the mass market.

if you are someone who wants to invest in this hobby beyond treating it as a distraction, you must have a PC. it's not even a question. in both next gen console's entire lifetimes, they won't build anything close to library of defining titles already available to the PC today. though i'm not sure how much of that you can already explore on your laptop.

there are big things coming to the PC market. DD has given way to an entire frontier of maverick game design, price and distribution which the consoles are scrambling to emulate, multiplatform support will be of unprecedented quality, the oculus rift is on the cusp of starting a revolution, esports is firmly rooted on the platform and 20nm GPU tech should see a performance leap like we haven't seen in years.

so i guess it all comes down to how active you want to be in your hobby. do you want to kick back at the end of the day and enjoy titles for what they are, enjoying tightly honed AAA blockbusters and signed-off indie titles without too much scrutiny or agency beyond playing the game itself? or do you want to actively invest in crafting the best experience you can for yourself, personalised for your idiosyncrasies?

all this is before getting into a power debate, the results of which are already firmly established. i will say that come october, the radeon 9000 series is dropping and the 20nm fabricated nvidia maxwell is pencilled in for q1. should you choose to go with PC, if you can wait until then, do.

 

[copelandmaster]

Assuming no bullshit, Nvidia Maxwell will be nice and Volta will be neat-O.

Still say that buying a kepler is a viable option right now. 6 - 12 months is only a short time in hindsight really.

 

[artist]

Maxwell is codename for an Intel CPU.