You are a console gamer. Why ?

Why are you a console gamer instead of a PC Gamer

  • Not worth my time to keep updating my hardware just to play games.

    Votes: 52 64.2%
  • I like the idea of a central game service (ie. Xbox Live or PSN)

    Votes: 23 28.4%
  • I like not having to fiddle around with settings to get things 'right'

    Votes: 37 45.7%
  • I like the console controller(s) on the console(s) that I play on

    Votes: 30 37.0%
  • I like the console exclusives.

    Votes: 41 50.6%
  • Other

    Votes: 23 28.4%

  • Total voters
    81
I used to be a big PC gamer and for a few years kept up with the latest and greatest in hardware. I still keep a nice rig but everytime I go back and try to get into PC gaming, I walk away disappointed.

While the 360 games certainly don't look as good as their PC versions, I can forgive that for the conveniences. The biggest being the lack of PC upkeep. I keep my PC very clean but still, you need a lot of apps as the PC is multifunctional by nature. This can ofcourse lead to random crashes and such. Another issue is drivers. New video driver comes out, uninstall, boot into safe mode, driver cleaner, install new driver, reboot. Find out that new driver fixes one thing and breaks another. oops! Do I stick with it? go back to the old one or try out a beta one!

Random crashes in certain games. This one is my favorite because you can spend more time playing the "find the cause of crash" game than the actual game itself. Is it the drivers? is it another app? is the over clock? Is it possibly a hardware issue? Does the game just need to be patched? Having the same issues across multiple games is one thing but it's these one off's that kill me.

While I'm better at aiming in shooters with a kb/m combo, I enjoy the relaxed enviornment of the gamepad. I can lay down, sit up, move around on the sofa and just have a lot of freedom vs sitting down with the keboard and mouse on a solid and stable platform. Yes I can use a gamepad on the PC also but I'm really going out of my way to setup a bad MP experience for me as majority will be using kb/m.

The final push for me is the xbox live. I enjoy having the various services and community aspects avialable to me via one central location.

Having said all of this, I'll be jumping right back to PC gaming with a BF3 (that's as good as BF2) and a Counter Strike 2.
 
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Console exclusives and not really wanting to bother with PCs anymore for gaming, because of my own unhealthy habit to fixate on my computer's performance. I keep thinking to go back to PC gaming, but like with the Wii, I just can't find enough of a library to convince me.
 
When I had my PC running I spent a lot of time tweaking game performance and working out issues. Now I spend absolutely none of my time doing that. That's a huge plus.
 
The first alternative, but I would like to add that console gaming is more social as a bunch of people can participate in front of a TV,
 
Nearly everything RobertR1 said. The major reasons for me were the continual upkeep needed as well as most friends I gamed with stopped PC gaming or went off to XBox360. When I'm on the PC, I'm too easily distracted by emails/ims/irc/forums and rarely get around to gaming. That doesn't happen when I turn on the console.
 
Consoles have nice exclusives, and the rate at which you need to upgrade your hardware on pc is ridiculous + few pc games that are worth the hardware.
 
One other thing, is not only the hardware cheaper but the software can be cheaper as well. Provided you're not stealing PC games off the Internet. I love being able to buy & trade used games. Only bad thing is that Arcade & Community games can't be traded, but they're cheap enough & have free trials, so it's not so bad. Reminds me of the PC Games & MaximumPC demo desks.

Tommy
 
I use my Xbox for Halo and the occasional exclusive. Otherwise all my gaming is on my PC and I don't have nearly as many problems as some of you guys seem to have..
 
As others have said, it's just too much of a hassle. For instance, the last time I got the urge to play BF2, I had to spend almost two hours downloading, patching, troublshooting, and tweaking. When it was all done, I didn't feel like playing. Probably not a typical experience if you keep on top of things with your games/PC, but then again, that's sort of the point. With consoles, I don't have to keep on top of anything (except where Al's flying the Banshee :smile:). I just turn it on and play. It's about convienence really.

That said, my PC will be ready and waiting for BF3. That's pretty much the only game franchise that is worth the hassle for me.
 
An interesting point about this pole is that you could make a very similar one for why PC gamers enjoy PC gaming while keeping most of the same basic questions. Just change "I don't like" for "I like" :D

i.e. one of the reasons why i'm a PC gamer primarily (I do have a 360 as well) is that I enjoy being able to upgrade the hardware when I fancy more performance. And I enjoy tweaking the game to play / look exactly as I want it to.
 
I used to be a PC snob, I've been through probably 20+ GPUs since the early days. It a ton of hassle and cost. I just want to sit on my recliner with a single controller and play. I still have a HTPC capable of gaming, but I'm to lazy to use it.
 
While I do like consoles for all those reasons, I still like gaming on the PC. I guess I'm not exclusive to either...its just nice having both.
 
Um, Im a PC and console gamer. Every shooter thats available for both, I get for the PC. Because a controller and a shooter is just stupid to me. A gamer that wants to play every game he likes, needs to be just that. It needs to be an option. "Other" doesnt cut it.
 
I used to play quite some on my xbox last-gen but quit becouse I got feed up on all the hardware failures and framerate issues coupled with tearing and horrible prices for flaky HW quality. Seems things dont change on the console front with the RROD fiasco and PS3 having it share of failures to which means a whole system crippled until exchanged or repaired by Sony/MS. Really obnoxius to pay such prices adn have to go through this complications. And then 'sub standard graphics' and even the top tier looking games looking quite mediocre due to lack of AF, AA, bad framerate and HW limiations is another issue coupled with sub HD phenomena.

Economically it is a also not as good as the fans would say. With such ridicolous high prices for games you easily would save up 300-400$ in 2-3 years by instead buying the PC version game and same amount of games over the time period. Basically a free hardware update for a 3-4year period to maintain highest settings unless console equivalent settings are enough thus a high-end 2005 year PC will ride this gen out. Considering 8800GTX owners still can achieve max settings in basically all games at HD/true HD res and that GPU is roughly 3 years old.

Though there are some good games out for the consoles they really lack depth and the game type category amount rather slim and dull all in all.
 
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Chose "other" as my main reasons for going console only are missing from the list.

- use Linux as my desktop OS and not willing to pay for Windows just to play some games

- sit in front of the computer enough as it is, nice to get away from it

- like to game with my ladyfriend and the PC sucks for that

Cheers
 
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