A Note re: Purchases, or "Do I get it for the console or my PC?"

[Occulus]

Many people on here have both a PC and a next-gen game console, such as an Xbox 360 or a PS3. I'd like to take a moment to illustrate why and when you should buy a given game for the PC, rather than for the console- and when you should get it for a console rather than your PC. I'm not going to make any judgments on which is "better" here (PC or console), as each choice has specific strengths and weaknesses. I thank you in advance for helping me help you help us all. ;)

There are a couple rules of thumb in play here. First and foremost is the question, "how old is your PC?" If you've bought or built a reasonably powerful PC anytime within the past year and a half, you probably have the horsepower necessary to run today's new game titles. Most newer PCs today have multi-core CPUs and a decent amount of RAM (side note- RAM is so cheap these days it's almost being given away), but if you bought your PC off the shelf, you probably have an integrated video card, unless you selected otherwise.

Wow! What did all that gobbledygook mean? Basically, if your PC is relatively new, you should be able to play the relatively new titles on the gaming market. If you bought your PC off the shelf, you very likely do not have a dedicated video card, which will hinder performance ingame.

One site that can test your PC for gaming capability is located here. This site installs an app that scans your hardware and compares it to system requirements for dozens and dozens of video games. Another, perhaps more certain way to test your PC for gaming performance is to download the demo for the game you want to buy. I prefer to download the demo whenever possible, as playing the demo on your PC gives you a much better idea of whether your PC can handle it than simply reading a list of requirements you meet or don't meet. Keep in mind, however, that early prerelease demos are often not optimized and may run differently than the game itself will at release.

A second, and just as important, consideration, though, is the presence of developer tools for the game in question. DO NOT buy, say, Valve's "Orange Box" for a console if your PC can play Half-Life 2 well. Why?

Mods.

Console games simply do not (usually) have the ability to import user mods made for their PC counterparts, full stop. This is the biggest reason you should choose the PC version over the console version when at all possible; mod communities for a great many games that were sold "new" several years ago to just recently are still thriving and growing (Oblivion, Half-Life 2, Portal, and Left 4 Dead in particular). There are even mods available for the classic "Baldur's Gate 2" (which console gamers never got to enjoy), and that came out years ago.

So why should you care about mods? All you want to do is play the stock game and have done with it, right? Well, mods extend the replayability of games by a vast amount; really, if the mod community is strong, it goes into infinity if people keep playing with the game's engine and editor and whatnot (see Fallout 3). Console buyers are restricted to pay-to-play DLC offerings, but cannot use the user creations made my PC users of the exact same title (again, see Fallout 3). There are technical reasons for this that I won't go into here, but those "mere technicalities" leave console gamers Very Sad when it comes to user mods.

The choice is really up to you- consoles have the distinct advantage of having the exact same hardware from one console to another, and developers can thus optimize the game for everyone. Games always look as good as they can on a console. By contrast, most PC users have vastly varying equipment they're working with, and thus PC gamers are susceptible to buying games that might not run as well as they could expect (Crysis, anyone?); the tradeoff is in the capability for higher resolutions, more detailed textures, and user mods.

Hope I clarified things for some people here. There are many factors in the decision and, as I said, in the end it's all about what you want your gaming experience to be like.

Happy gaming!

[Ohio Joe]

1. Kick

Just because people need to see this!

[Forkboy]

2. For me it's simple. I play mainly strategy games, and there's barely any on the consoles.

:)