[Alastor]

Originally Posted by Blitz_

derekthetree its impossible to compare consoles and PC when considering direct competition, the PC is always versatile and ready to upgrade, whereas consoles are seen as, "once released you've got what you've got". However, times are changing, and you now see in the newspapers all the time upgrades for xbox consoles where size of the hard drive and RAM can be upgraded substantially, this will definetely flow onto the the next gen. xbox…

Who knows? A group of crafty developers may find a way to upgrade the graphical output of a console, then again, games have always looked brilliant, you just need a High Definition Plasma Screen.

The separating factor between PC and console has always been hardware. PCs have traditionally had more powerful hardware available due to the more frequent hardware update cycle. This is probably due to the fact that the PC is a multi-functional tool that can be used to game, whereas a console is strictly a gaming platform (now multimedia, but nevertheless more limited in function).

However, this comes at a price for gaming on a PC. For one, the newest hardware is very expensive. A high end video card costs 2 or 3 times more than the current consoles and that alone will not run any games. For those not running the latest hardware compatibility becomes an issue. Does the PC specification meet those of the game, are the drivers compatible, or are there hardware configuration issues.

Although consoles may lag behind in terms of hardware performance they are easy to use and set-up. There are no “hardware requirements” to check before buying a game. There is no installation or configuration to mess with. IMO, this is what makes a console so appealing.

It makes sense to me that the next generation console should be mini-computers but I don’t want to deal with hardware issues. Upgrading a hard-drive so I can have more saved games is one thing, messing around with a new video card and video card drivers is another. All the games should run sufficiently on the OEM hardware, there should be no need to upgrade until the new model is released.