Support NeoGAF

[angular graphics]

Of course it is.

 

[ElectricKaibutsu]

Very interesting breakdown. Compared to other gens, this gen definitely looks like the gen to go mainly PC. You just have to weigh all the benefits of that against the Zeldas and (God willing) The Last Guardians.

 

[RK9039]

Yes it is, get a next gen console later down the line instead.

 

[bj00rn_]

Now insert the graph for showing which of those games are compatible with XbO and PS4 compared to PC

 

[AdventureRacing]

If you want to spend three times the money, sure.

Every thread the same stupidity. You're doing something horribly wrong if you need to spend 3 times as much money to get a decent PC.

Plug and play all the way.

Like consoles are plug and play anymore. If anything i find it less of a hassle playing games on my PC. Gaming used to be plug and play and that's what made consoles so awesome, those days are long gone.

 

[52club]

So much misinformation in this thread already. I'll just state my own experience. Both my PS3 and 360 broke this generation. The same could happen on a PC, but they are built (or can be built) to easily replace the broken part. So that, and the ability to upgrade when you are ready instead of when a company is ready to put out new hardware are a couple of reasons I'm canceling my PS4 preorder after picking up a 770.

A few other reasons to go PC, humble bundles, steam, indie games, free to play games, more open OS, and custom builds.

 

[Magic Mushroom]

Totally depends on what you want to play. I want the best of both worlds really, as there are far too many games on consoles that don't make it to PC. My Gamescom games of the show were Resogun, Killzone, inFamous and Killer Instinct for example, all console exclusives. And my most wanted games right now are Bayonetta 2 and Velocity 2X.

But I'm gonna play games like The Witcher 3 on a PC.

 

[fluffydelusions]

That PC wouldn't run a launch 360 game.

But a mid-range PC built in 2007/2008 will still run Skyrim better than a 360/PS3, even though that PC is outdated.

This time, a mid-range PC built in 2012/2013 will run games better than an X1/PS4, even in 2018 or whatever.

Sounds about right. Especially if bf4 specs are similar to bf3 as dice says. That guy that saw ps4 version said it was possibly 900p and comparable to medium settings. Guess we'll really see in a few months

 

[Blearth]

Gaming on my PC is far more convenient than on my PS3.

I don't have to download and install a bunch of patches when I play a game that I haven't touched in a while. All the patching is done silently in the background and every one of my games is always up to date.

 

[Minsc]

Generally every system you don't own is full of great games you can't play, I don't believe you can really make a better or worse choice (setting one's personal taste aside) if you for some reason are set on not owning a platform.

 

[erick]

I love these threads. OP, you should have included the consoles in those graphs to see how many of those top 10 were available on X360 or PS3. It's an even tie at least for PC, quite possibly either of the consoles comes off worse while the other ties.

Other than that, the 8GB of RAM talk... well PS4 can use 5,5GB for video RAM and XO 4,5GB. How do I feel about it on my 24GB DDR3 RAM + 6GB GTX Titan system? Pretty damn good. Also, there's a 6GB version of the HD7970 out, which is much, much cheaper than the GTX Titan. And you probably won't need 6GB for launch game ports anyway, as devkits had 3GB vRAM max.

And you know, porting between console and PC has never ever been so easy as it will be this coming gen. A few quirks aside, the new consoles are based on standard PC architectures.
What I do see coming this autumn is massive changes in the Steam Harware Survey charts as people upgrade their specs for the coming goodness.

 

[SamRambles]

Gaming on my PC is far more convenient than on my PS3.

I don't have to download and install a bunch of patches when I play a game that I haven't touched in a while. All the patching is done silently in the background and every one of my games is always up to date.

Isn't that precisely one of the main bullet points for the new generation of consoles?

Anyway on topic:

I'm in exactly the same position as OP, and up until the last month or so was almost dead set on building my first gaming PC. But, the resolute feeling of apathy towards building, maintaining and upgrading the thing has put me off.

I work long hours, live in a small flat, and spend most of my disposable on other things. Despite the obvious hardware advantages, simply sitting on my couch turning on my xbone/ps4 and then chatting with mates seems like the far superior option.

 

[Duxxy3]

If you have no interest in console exclusives from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo then it's a good choice.

 

[partyphone]

I seriously doubt that either the PS4 or Xbone are doing to sell anything like the PS1 or PS2. They're going to have trouble matching the PS3 and 360.

Combine that with rising development costs and similar hardware architecture across all three platforms and you have a recipe for a lot of multiplatform games. Sony and MS will have to spend a lot of money to keep a 3rd party game exclusive indefinitely since most studios cannot afford to miss out on combined sales.

 

[Tain]

If I could have only one platform it would be a new PC, every time.

but I'm too much of an enthusiast to have just one platform

 

[OldAsUrSock]

But they won't keep modifying the games to meet the low end PC specs while they will with consoles.

try running skyrim on 512mb of Ram on a PC with no dedicated ram for the graphics card.

Those are not even made so your comment makes no sense

 

[Anustart]

It's difficult and/or cumbersome to watch porn on a console, ergo, pc!

 

[Felix Lighter]

The PC is in an amazing position right now and while I do believe the 3rd party console exclusive will see a small resurgence with the advent of a new generation, I believe those games will be fewer than the previous generation and most will turn out to be timed exclusives. PC gaming is easier to get into than at any other point and with DD, their is now a strong infrastructure for purchasing games with regular deep discounts and Steam is now a very strong centralized platform for managing friends and your gaming library.

At the same time, PC's strongest benefit, it's openness remains. You can still choose the input device you'd like to use, customize your gaming experience from actual mods to deciding whether framerate, IQ or eyecandy is most important to you and you can decide when you're ready to upgrade your hardware. While the openness will almost always require a bit more user knowledge and commitment, games are increasingly getting better at basing settings on your current hardware and Nvidia actually has a utility to aid in finding the right settings for your machine so in most cases you can decide how much effort you want to put into tweaking.

As for games, multiplatform titles that do not show up on PC are becoming more and more rare. There are still some genre's poorly represented on PC, mostly due to the slowly improving yet still poor Japanese PC support. On the other hand there are a number of exclusive PC genres and a multitude of PC exclusive titles and the Oculus rift with it's already impressive prelaunch support will result in even more unique PC experiences. You also have an unrivaled back catalog and the best backwards compatibility possible on any platform. Indie support looks to be improving on console with this new generation but PC is already there.

I won't say that it's the best platform for everyone. It is a platform for enthusiast and for people looking to invest in the hobby to get the most out of what's available. There are popular 1st party console exclusives that will obviously never be seen on PC (well maybe in a decade after launch when emulation is available). The initial hardware investment is higher though there are opportunities to recoup at least some of the extra cost with lower priced software. There are people who will be better served with consoles but someone who is interested enough in gaming that they spend a good amount of time on a forum like NeoGAF should at least seriously consider the PC platform.

Keep an eye on the next generation of graphics cards if your looking to build soon. AMD's 9000 series is right around the corner, prior to the new console launches and Nvidia's 800 series should be early next year. Current CPU tech should be more than sufficient.

 

[Ghost]

Generally every system you don't own is full of great games you can't play, I don't believe you can really make a better or worse choice (setting one's personal taste aside) if you for some reason are set on not owning a platform.

Definitely agree that choice, especially when it comes to consoles, comes down to personal preference, yes maybe you're spending £400 rather than £300 in a year, but that's about you're only reason for holding off, either way you've made your decision.

The PC choice on the other hand is totally time dependant, for example buying a gaming PC in 2000 would have been a really shitty decision because so many of the biggest games didn't come out on PC. And when they started to come back, your PC would have been obsolete.

Conversely buying a gaming PC in 2010 would have been a great decision because since then the vast majority of non first party games have come to PC and ran better on PC.



There's a lot of people in the thread saying buying a PC now would still be a good call, they think that PC versions of Watchdogs, the Division, Titanfall, BF4, etc will be as good/better than the next gen versions. I don't think that's ever happened before with brand new consoles.

 

[Vio-Lence]

I think it's pretty easy to recommend someone going PC exclusive. The exclusives are better (imo) and you have the definitive version of third party games.

 

[daviyoung]

Yes.

Cheaper games
Biggest game library of any system
Shorter load times
Free online
Resolution and framerate as you like it
Graphics as you like it
Control as you like it
Mods, lots of great glorious mods

This may change, but there really is no contest at all.

I'm also surprised that gamers don't like the challenge of putting together a gaming machine. It's the most rewarding puzzle game ever made.

 

[RedSwirl]

The OP's list assumes that those top 10 games are better, when they're really just more mainstream. A lot of people would argue many of the best games of the PS2 years were PC games, they just didn't come out on consoles and didn't get as much exposure.

What's changed this gen isn't that PC developers caught up, it's that PC developers started making console versions of their games.

As for which to get, it really depends on what each person wants. I'm trying to get a new PC this year because I'm not really interested in either of the next-gen launch lineups and just want better performance out of my current games right now. The first next-gen-only game I'm going to try to get will probably be The Witcher 3. Plus, I have a lot of other uses for a new PC since my current one is around seven years old.

Just know this: you'll probably have to upgrade your GPU at least once within the next five years.

 

[IcyEyes]

PC is always awesome, but no, it's not better and neither worst and the new-gen consoles will be awesome, so don't skip them or you will regret it!

 

[moltonasty]

YES. Unless you absolutely need to play one of the few exclusive franchises (God of War, Halo, Gears of War, etc) then PC is clearly a better choice than any console. It's pretty ignorant to argue otherwise.

 

[Carlisle]

You might not even need to build a whole new $1000+ tower. Another option is to just spend a couple hundred bucks to upgrade a few bits here and there. This way you can at least run current and upcoming games with high-ish settings and a good performance. Then get a next gen console once games start demanding even more from your PC in a year or 2.

This is what I did when I found myself asking the same question as you. I had a shitty old Dell tower, so I'd written that off completely. But then I started doing research and really dug into it. For something like $250, I upgraded the RAM, CPU (still only Core 2 Duo), and GPU (max the PSU could take is a 7770), to the most that I could do without upgrading anything else (my only rule), and a got a new heatsink for good measure. And now it's a beast (relatively speaking). I can run most of what I have now on high and still pull 30 (or nearly) fps.

I'll definitely be able to run the rest of 2013 without much trouble, and probably most of 2014 as well. Certainly well enough to hold me over until the console exclusives make a PS4 purchase more justifiable for me.

I wouldn't worry about a new high end tower until after consoles hit their peak and games start looking/performing better on PC again. But at this point anything decent you can build now will cost 2-3 times more than a new console and only perform as-well if not a bit worse.

 

[nasos_333]

PC costs a lot more, so that is not a question of what to buy, but what you need and what games you like

Most of the top PC games will PS4 or xbox one, so it depends a lot of what you prefer to game with

If for example you like MMOs, PC is the clear choice

If you like JRPGs, consoles are the only answer etc

Personally i would get one next gen console, PS4 or xbox one and keep my old PC that will play all kickstarter titles, plus 3DS for JRPGs and on the go gaming

That combo will get me through for at least 4-5 more years without ever having to worry about anything else

 

[pixlexic]

That unified memory does not mean much when comparing to a PC. the consoles have a limit to how much texture data it can render at one time. A 2 gig PC gpu will be plenty until PC games really start upping the texture res in PC ports.

 

[fluffydelusions]

Wasn't around during current Gen launch, Were there threads like this back then too? I see one of these nearly every day but PC gaming wasn't as popular back in those years.

 

[Future PhaZe]

I wouldn't worry about a new high end tower until after consoles hit their peak and games start looking/performing better on PC again. But at this point anything decent you can build now will cost 2-3 times more than a new console and only perform as-well if not a bit worse.

This is already a thing. PC's are already outperforming next gen versions of games based on developer interviews on games like Titanfall and BF4.

It's true getting a beastly new tower will cost you twice as much as an Xbox One, but where you're wrong is in the performance. Especially with how well SLI is functioning you can get a beast rig for a grand.

 

[Liha]

I played the last months mainly Dota 2 or Team Fortress 2, from next week Total War: Rome 2 is my life.

 

[Tohsaka]

YES. Unless you absolutely need to play one of the few exclusive franchises (God of War, Halo, Gears of War, etc) then PC is clearly a better choice than any console. It's pretty ignorant to argue otherwise.

If you're into Japanese-developed games you pretty much need a console. Most of them don't get PC releases.

 

[fluffydelusions]

This is already a thing. PC's are already outperforming next gen versions of games based on developer interviews on games like Titanfall and BF4.

It's true getting a beastly new tower will cost you twice as much as an Xbox One, but where you're wrong is in the performance. Especially with how well SLI is functioning you can get a beast rig for a grand.

Cod on PC also has higher resolution textures

 

[Grayman]

Going all in on PC you are likely to discover some great things that you may not otherwise. Play Or is the PC running the show in terms of innovation and technical capabilities now?MMOs, a moba, the rift, game jam games, old school adventure/spacesim/crpg, some new genre invented 3 hours ago, Arma, horror games, mods that completely change what you are playing, replay old greats with bells and whistles or new content.

Especially if you are not already invested in pc gaming there is going to be a huge library opening up to you while the new consoles are in drought mode with 90% overlap on PC. There never is a perfect time to upgrade or start fresh but the consoles don't have a sweet spot either.

My bias here is having played PC and console games all my life the PC has nothing new to prove and the new consoles do.

 

[SmashN'Grab]

In my opinion, a PC is a better choice. However, from your post, you seem to be interested primarily in console-centric titles and AAA-type games. In this regard, you're still likely better off playing them on a PC, but if you're worried about how a PC built today will handle the big PS4/Xbox One games of 2017/2018 and so on... you'd do better to wait about 12-18 months and save your money towards a PC that vastly outclasses them on technical specifications for a better price/performance ratio.

If you absolutely must buy something in the meantime, you should factor in the reliability of first-release hardware from these two manufacturers, as well as the inevitable post-release software drought.

 

[Blearth]

Just know this: you'll probably have to upgrade your GPU at least once within the next five years.

I dunno about that

I was rocking an 8800GT five years ago and it still kicks 360/PS3 in the ass.

Sure I upgraded a couple years afterward, but that was because I wanted to. Not because I had too.

 

[Zeth]

Get as many platforms as you can afford (with priority for PC)

 

[Schnei871]

Without an absolute doubt. Everyone complains about the price but you'll end up saving that money in the end buying $10 games on the steam sales instead of $60 games on consoles.

It's the way to go hand down

 

[erick]

That unified memory does not mean much when comparing to a PC. the consoles have a limit to how much texture data it can render at one time. A 2 gig PC gpu will be plenty until PC games really start upping the texture res in PC ports.

Curious, as I remember Killzone SF already uses 3GB vRAM. I would bet that 2GB grpahics cards will see a drastic drop in aftermarket value as people discover they can't even reach console levels of IQ with them.

Yes, rendering power is an issue, but isn't running out of vRAM (or RAM for that matter) the absolute number 1 performance killer that will bring any system to it's knees regardless of IQ settings? I mean a GTX 680 2GB will be reduced to single-digit fps as well as a GT 630 2GB entry level card, as soon as the vRAM capacity is exceeded, regardless of the 4,5x difference in rendering power...

 

[Bradach]

a PS4 will be a better investment than a $400 PC

 

[Shambles]

I wish I could say my 4870 made it past 5 years but it kicked the bucket this summer right before it could make it to its 5th birthday. RIP

Yes, rendering power is an issue, but isn't running out of vRAM (or RAM for that matter) the absolute number 1 performance killer that will bring any system to it's knees regardless of IQ settings? I mean a GTX 680 2GB will be reduced to single-digit fps as well as a GT 630 2GB entry level card, as soon as the vRAM capacity is exceeded...

lol wut

 

[SniperHunter]

For hardcore gamers YES!

For me personally? No

But I don't game much anymore, I game for about 5 or 6 hours a week. And more recently I have enjoyed playing games on PS3 more compared to anything on PC. Really loved Last of Us, looking forward to Beyond, GTAV and Killzone Shadow Fall. I don't remember the last game I bought off Steam and the only PC game I am looking forward to this year is BF4.

 

[kharma45]

With the extortionately high prices of games on the new consoles I can't look past PC gaming for now. Looks at the difference in price in new releases, it's massive.

After being burned by unreliable hardware in the current generation of consoles I'm holding fire for a while to see how they turn out, and hopefully by that stage the RRP on games will have dropped to more sensible levels.

 

[louiedog]

a PS4 will be a better investment than a $400 PC

Yes, but over time an $800 PC will likely work out better than a $400 PS4. My PC is also a media center and general use computer. My Steam/GOG/etc library was really cheap thanks to Steam sales, Humble Bundles, etc. and plays games from the last 20+ years.

 

[The Janitor]

I can play a lot of those console games listed with emulation.
Also I can play the games from 1998 all the way to 2013 on the same PC, I but I probably need 4 different consoles to do the same.

 

[Gbraga]

If you have to decide right now I'd say yes, because on launch there isn't much to next gen consoles, but if you're talking about only getting one for the entire generation, then who knows...

 

[FACE]

I think it's pretty easy to recommend someone going PC exclusive. The exclusives are better (imo) and you have the definitive version of third party games.

I agree, if you have the money then building a good gaming PC is a no brainer.

 

[trw]

Curious, as I remember Killzone SF already uses 3GB vRAM. I would bet that 2GB grpahics cards will see a drastic drop in aftermarket value as people discover they can't even reach console levels of IQ with them.

Yes, rendering power is an issue, but isn't running out of vRAM (or RAM for that matter) the absolute number 1 performance killer that will bring any system to it's knees regardless of IQ settings? I mean a GTX 680 2GB will be reduced to single-digit fps as well as a GT 630 2GB entry level card, as soon as the vRAM capacity is exceeded, regardless of the 4,5x difference in rendering power...

The PS4 runs unified ram so if you want to compare it to a pc those 3gb ram that killzone uses is also used for things that the non v-ram pc handles and most have 8gb+. So a 2gb vram card will probably have much more ram dedicated to the things we traditionally see as vram.

 

[Tain]

I can play a lot of those console games listed with emulation.

You can play a lot of console games with emulation in the same way that consoles can play games that are also available on PC: with compromises.

 

[dark10x]

Yes, but over time an $800 PC will likely work out better than a $400 PS4. My PC is also a media center and general use computer. My Steam/GOG/etc library was really cheap thanks to Steam sales, Humble Bundles, etc. and plays games from the last 20+ years.

Over time? Are you so sure?

We don't yet know what kind of requirements the new generation of PC ports will carry. It seems to me that it would be best to wait until the next round of PC hardware if you're building from scratch.

In 2005, if you built a high-end PC, you weren't going to be set for long. However, if you waited a year or two for the 8 series nVidia cards you were going to be set for years to come.

Will that happen this time? Maybe not, but it's best to wait if you're building new.

 

[Boerseun]

Normally I would say "PC + Nintendo", but with Nintendo dropping the ball as badly as they have in recent years, I reckon you could probably come right with just a PC (and 3DS for handheld gaming).