PC gaming - any point in building a system for this ?

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I bought a notebook about a year ago after many years building pc rigs. My reason - more and more single player games these days seem to be console ports and can run badly on PC's unless you have a very high end machine, are prepared to upgrade, and even then there is the endless patching. So I bought an Xbox 360. However lately I have been thinking about PC gaming as I do miss copious levels of AA and native 1920x1200 gaming which consoles simply can't provide.

But wait..there just seems to be a lack of big ticket games coming out. Just now I was looking at what games are coming out on PC's in the next 6-8 months, and besides Starcraft II and the new Stalker game, almost everything I found which I might be interested in is coming onto the Xbox 360 and later ported to the PC. In other words, there doesn't seem to be much coming out which will do justice to a brand new GTX295. No more games written specifically for the PC. Nothing to top Crysis.

For example, these are all coming to the 360 before the end of the year, and some to the PC. But historically PC ports usually suck.

14th August - Wolfenstein
22nd Sept. - Halo 3 : ODST
25th Sept - Tekken 6
23rd Oct - Forza Motorsport 3
30th Oct - Bioshock 2
30th Sept - Max Payne 3
10th Nov - COD : Modern Warfare 2
20th Nov - Assassins Creed 2
27th Nov - Lost Planet 2
27th Nov - Warhammer 40000: Space Marine
27th Nov - Metal Gear Solid: Rising

So I've probably answered my own question here. Is there any point in building a PC for gaming, if not into multiplayer (Wow, BF etc..) and you already have a decent notebook. Is single player gaming dying out on the PC due to consoles ? Is there any point to these high end video cards, besides benchmarks ?

 

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PC games are declining but on your list most of those will be much better technically on PC so well worth it. X360 is great I play mine more than PC now but lets face it the PC version of the same game usually looks incredible. The X360 looks good but the screen tearing and lack of resolution also looks dated then the long loading time etc etc. Resident Evil5 is coming to PC this year and looks better than X360 plus supports the Nvidia 3D glasses then you have Fuel & Street Fighter 4 in the next few weeks both will be much better than the console versions. As long as companies are willing to make decent PC ports its worth building a gaming PC. Lets face it 360's are cheap nowadays so you need one of them as well anyway!!!

You would think so. And while the games I listed wil run at higher res and with more AA on a PC, I expect they also run like a lame dog. It seems to be an issue with games designed specifcally for a console and ported later. e.g GTAIV,DeadSpace. I just think the majority of ports to the PC from consoles are done poorly. At least the ones I played. Then again there are PC games which look and play great e.g. Fallout3. And you make a very good point about screen tearing. Still not convinced I should land out serious money on a gaming rig when a console does the job 80%-90% as good. Maybe I'm wrong.

 

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I think I agree with you. I'm going back to college in Sept as well. Back to full time education. Will probably stick with the notebook for now.

 

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Yes..it would be possible to build a decent PC for moderate money to play the games I want at 1920. My problem is I go overboard. I end up going down the upgrade rathole. For years I've been building high end rigs, last few years doing watercooling. Upgrading every 6 months or so, even if I can't afford it. In the end I gave it up..partly because I recognised it as a serious addiction eating up a lot of disposable income and partly for reasons I said earlier. I'm thinking I shall stick to my Xbox360 (and PS3) and stick with my notebook (macbook pro 15) . Thanks for the advice

 

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True about the PC being superior, but the question is not which is better (I don't want to start a console v pc debate as it's pointless). It's whether it is worth building a PC exclusively for single player gaming, considering I have a laptop which does everything already except game well. Plus as there seems to be very few pc games coming out I like besides console ports which generally play better on consoles, building a PC for gaming just doesn't seem worth it right now. I think the question has been answered to my satisfaction.

As for the PS3, it's a damn fine BD player. Not impressed with the BD software players I have seen on the PC.

 

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I already own a macbook pro so am taken care of when it comes to non gaming. So a PC being upgradable while a console isn't, being able to do a hell of a lot more on a PC compared to a console doesn't factor into it for me. Plus I was asking about whether it's worth building a PC for gaming not which was better, a console or pc.

PC games look nicer for sure, but it's not all about looks, and I've played all the pc games I wanted to play up until Crysis came out so I'm not going to build a rig to play games that are out more than a year. It would be for newer games. And there isn't much that's come out that is exclusively on the PC that I want to play since Crysis. And that's an important point because it's those games which are developed for the PC 1st that not just look better than their console counterparts but play better. But where are they ? All the games on my list are mainly ports so will probably have a better gaming experience on the 360, at least going by past history these ports do better on consoles. Deadspace, Halo2, GTAIV, DevilMayCry4, Fear2, PrinceofPersia, ResidentEvil4/5, Burnout, Bioshock all played better on my 360 in terms of stability, perceived framerate than the PC I had at the time, though they may not have looked as good on the console I admit. And it seems some games are so badly ported to the PC it doesn't matter how much horspower you though at them. Sorry if I am making this look like a console v pc thread.

I do agree with your point about PC games being a lot cheaper though. If there was more AAA titles coming out in the next 6 months which do justice to PC hardware, I'd consider building again.