I used to be all for PC games, except when I started to realize the games I wanted to play, for me to enjoy would cost me a few hundred every month for more memory, video card etc…
The concept of consoles I love, pop it in, boot it up. it works, and well also, there are exceptions tho (Drake i’m talking about you.)
And that’s exactly why they’re called computers.
You don’t see many PC’s going for ?99 do you ?. Have you seen the specs you need to run the likes of Riddick, Splinter Cell III ?.
That’s the major diff, fine if you got the money, me I rather put it towards games.
But I would never buy a PC juts for gaming.That makes it’s price justifiable.
The basic parts of a PC are justified, but sound card? 3D card? Lots and lots of RAM? All that isn’t needed to surf the web, use Word/Excel/etc.
You figure…
Decent-to-good 3D card = $250
Good sound card = $60
1gig PC4200 DDR = $150
That in itself is $460. And that’s not including a more powerful CPU than you’d probably need to run non-gaming applications.
Also, you have to upgrade, what… every 3 years?
Compare that to a $150-200 console?
[quote=“Abadd”]
Also, you have to upgrade, what… every 3 years?
Compare that to a $150-200 console?[/quote]
That you have to upgrade, what… every 3 years?
Not all people use a PC just to surf and play.But I don’t really remember what point I was trying to make anymore anyways 
Consoles = Every 5 years
(Xbox is the one exception… and even that is 4 years)
And not to mention that you’re guaranteed (aside from the occasional bad production runs, etc) that all games will work on your system… not always the case with PCs.
They’re getting better with that these days, though. Not nearly as bad as it was back before Windows 9x and the like. I don’t know if that’s due to software, or hardware being more standardized. Or perhaps it’s a combination of both.
I couldn’t imagine going back to the old ways and using different boot disks just to play different games because one doesn’t like my expanded memory manager while another requires it.
I’m not even talking about bootdisks (although, from that perspective, yeah… it’s better). Hardware compatibility, etc. For example, I installed Norton on my computer at home, and it disabled all my disk drives for no apparent reason o_O
Or, my friend bought a motherboard that had a certain (Via) chipset that turned out to have incompatibility issues with his sound card.
Just all kinds of unforseeable issues.
[quote=“Arcie”]
[quote=“Abadd”]
Also, you have to upgrade, what… every 3 years?
Compare that to a $150-200 console?[/quote]
That you have to upgrade, what… every 3 years?[/quote]
The big diff is people buying a console will play games to the exact same standard as somebody that bought the console 4 years ago. Console owners are safe in the knowledge that even the latest games will run on their console and look exactly the same (No matter when you bought the console) because it?s a closed system.
Now you try running some of the latest PC games on a 3/4 year old PC (with no upgrades) and tell me, you’ll be playing the game as it was meant to be played, or to the same standard as somebody that’s just bought a PC
To run the likes of Doom III, and HL II most people had to upgrade , even if their PC?s were just 3 years old .That?s the massive diff.
For the price some people paid on the latest Graphics Card to play Doom III on the PC.
You could buy a X-Box, Pre-Order Doom III, get LIVE and have money left over for a night out on the town 
Exactly. I don’t know about other people, but even though I love PC games I’ve become an almost exlusive console gamer lately because I just can’t afford to keep my PC up to date enough to play them. It’s hard to justify shelling out hundreds of dollars to upgrade my PC constantly and still not play the games as they’re meant to be played when there are tons of games available for the two consoles I bought for $150-$200 a year or two ago that are practically guaranteed to run perfectly.
hmm improved fable for PC
sounds good for me then =)
It’s only a matter of time. In the meantime PC gamers are able to play the likes of Far Cry, Doom III, Tribes Vengence, Half-Life 2 (all of which came out last year), and many more, all in high resolution graphics.
My PC is two years old and it can run any modern game that I’ve tried, even Doom III (although not at full graphics). If Fable will run on a four year old console I don’t see why it would have problems running on a three year old PC as well. Sure you probably wouldn’t be able to have the graphics on full, but then again it has to look nicer than any low resolution console such as the Xbox. Even 800x600 on a monitor is quite a step up. And the frame rate issues are unlikely to be there, which makes for a much more polished game. Unfortunately Xbox Fable owners are stuck with the shoddy framerate seen in some of the towns 
I can’t stand a bad framerate… BBB should have really toned down the graphics for a smoother gameplay experience. They were pushing the Xbox harder than it was designed to go.
Exclusive just for consoles then, I guess. That’s where the Saturn had an edge over the Playstation IMO. Games like PDS, Shining Force III, and NiGHTS could be found no where else and made the console worth owning despite its “failure”. Mind you, that’s also partially due to fact that I have a different taste in games.
[quote=“Shadow”]
Pfft, beats me. Ask Solo. >>[/quote]
It’s not so much that people were a fan of Fable itself, but rather the project that Big Blue Box were working on. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been a fan of several game projects before they were released. That doesn’t mean that the end product is necessarily going to be any good, but they’ve been promising from what I’ve seen and have been worth trying (by purchasing them). So when Big Blue Box said that there were no plans to bring the game to PC, “fans” of the project had no choice but to buy an Xbox or to miss out.
[quote=“Team Andromeda”]Like I said fine if you’re got a top Spec PC. Me I rather play it on my ?99 console, on my big sofa right now.
Oh Look Pro Evo, Silent Hill 4 ect are on the PC too. Quess console owners are screwed again 
:P[/quote]
Believe me when I say that I like console gaming. It’s just that if I already have a PC capable of playing a superior version (without framerate issues for some games, no less) why would I get a console just to play those games? Unless there’s a good bunch of exclusive games on the system, it makes more sense to wait a few months and get the “complete” version of a game, such as in Fable’s case.
And the difference between games like Silent Hill 4 is that they are third party games designed for multiple platforms in the first place. If Microsoft wants earn fans by creating a good range of Xbox “brand” games like Nintendo has with Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Pikmin, Pokemon, Fire Emblem etc then they can’t expect buy their console when “exclusive” games only stay on the Xbox for a year or two. However if they don’t really care about creating a solid range of exclusive Xbox games and just want to get as many people to buy their stripped down PC then they’re more than welcome, but it’s not making it very tempting for me to buy an Xbox 2 when it comes out when I know that better versions of most of the must have games will end up on the PC anyway.
[quote=“Abadd”]The basic parts of a PC are justified, but sound card? 3D card? Lots and lots of RAM? All that isn’t needed to surf the web, use Word/Excel/etc.
You figure…
Decent-to-good 3D card = $250
Good sound card = $60
1gig PC4200 DDR = $150
That in itself is $460. And that’s not including a more powerful CPU than you’d probably need to run non-gaming applications.
Also, you have to upgrade, what… every 3 years?
Compare that to a $150-200 console?[/quote]
Yeah, you won’t really buy all the extra stuff unless you were planning on using it as a gaming machine too. For the average user, a cheap low end PC is more than enough to use for web browsing. The main things that you’d need to upgrade for gaming would be a better CPU, RAM, and a decent graphics card. The CPU and RAM aren’t too expensive these days (although still more than you’d pay for in an Xbox), the graphics card can be quite a money drainer though
Things like sound cards are optional though, as a lot of motherboards come with inbuilt sound on them (think of it has the same as your TV having sound - you don’t have to upgrade your TV each time you buy a new console :)). Overall, although it is more expensive, I think it’s worth it if you want to play a game in a better resolution/higher framerate. Plus you can play all the PC only exclusives, and it can run older PC games as well as some older console games.
I have integrated audio. It sucks a LOT, to the point where I’d question whether a sound card is really optional.
At least if you bought a new soundcard you’d only have to buy it once, right? I mean, it’s not something that you’d have to do each time you upgrade.
EDIT: I forgot to respond to Abadd’s point about games not working on certain hardware. While this is true (although as I said earlier, I have been able to run every modern game that I’ve tried on my PC), it’s not something that is too much of a problem these days. Much better than it was.
With consoles there are also hardware compatibility problems, although they’re deliberate. Want to play Phantom Dust on your PAL Xbox? Or Shenmue II on your American Dreamcast? The chances are you’ll have to mod your console which, in the Xbox’s case, will stop you from playing online. The PC does not have region lock out.
If you honostly think Fable will run well on a three to four year old PC, download the Halo PC demo and run it, you will be surprised, even if your system destroys the recomended specs.
That was just a shoddy conversion, not that PCs can’t run X-Box level games… Other games (such as KOTOR and its sequel) fare MUCH better when good work is done.
Btw, Sudeki is going PC too.
Also, to add to what Solo’s said, you can always run newer games on older PCs if you select the appropriate graphics options. Within limits ofcourse. You might say that this way you don’t get all the graphical bells & whistles but then again, an oudated console doesn’t get those either. It’s just that in the console’s case the game doesn’t have them on first place rather than have you able to disable/enable it according to your system. Not a real difference tho…
Then on the PC you have a ton things to do other than retail games… There’s a thriving freeware games community (with some top quality games such as the ones shown in the familiar thread in these forums, and many many more), indie developers who sell their games cheaply as shareware over the net, and basically a gazillion things to do to entertain yourself even if your PC isn’t up to date since those things usually don’t implement the latest and greatest in technology so that they can reach a wider audience.
LOL The diff is anyone that buys FABLE now and play it on a brand new X-Box will be playing it to the exact same standard as somebody that’s bought a X-Box at launch 3 years ago. No need to cut down graphics effects.
I?ll put money on the fact you?re almost certainly not playing game on the PC with the expect same spec PC you had 3 years ago. With out one single upgrade ( Not even RAM or a DVD Drive).
Have you seen the basic specs you need to get SC III running on the PC It?s almost scary especially when a ?99 console version look almost as good
[quote=“Bluefoot”]
I have integrated audio. It sucks a LOT, to the point where I’d question whether a sound card is really optional.[/quote]
Intergrated Sound on the nvidia nForce chipset (Soundstorm) was one of the best quality out there. Nowadays other manufacturers have also done the same and produced amazing onboard sound. Only people that want super super sound would get a high tech sound card.
I built an average-good system at the start of 2004 and it can still run games well now. I could get a higher-end graphics card for around ?150 to play games on super settings if i wanted… But definately no need to build a new system unless its about 3 years old or something.
Well, I’m working with a crappy Intel motherboard so maybe that’s the problem. All I know is that I get staticky choppy sound in a lot of places that I shouldn’t.