consoles suck

I am a huge console fan - I own and regularily play a NES, SNES, Dreamcast, PS2, and GBA. I also own a PC (of course), but I have become absolutely tired with PC games. The only games I have on my computer right now is Sims 2 and a bunch of old Abandonware games (Sam and Max, It Came from the Dessert, Day of the Tentacle etc.).

I haven't played a PC game in ages that has anything resembling passion or creativity behind it. All you get is perpetuations of the same forms - an archetypal first person shooter with fancier graphics and maybe if you're lucky some fancy phyiscs, a racing sim that has fancier graphics and maybe a few more cars thrown in if you're lucky, or a strategy game with some new levels and maybe a new unit or two.

Whereas with consoles, recent games like Katamari Damacy and Viewtiful Joe absolutely ooze with creativity. You can feel the passion the game developers had - they aren't trying to corner some market, increase sales figures or perpetuate the pathetic race for prettier graphics - they have a precise vision and execute it perfectly. Show me a PC game with these levels of passion and creativity and my faith in the form will be restored. There are countless amazing console games - think of Dremcast games such as Rez, GameBoy Advance games such as Mario vs. Donkey Kong, SNES games such as Chrono Trigger or NES games such as Super Mario. They push the boundaries of games - something PC games just don't do anymore.

Now, I will admit that the xBox is a bit of an exception to this - they built a console with PC hardware and hired PC develoeprs and inherently ended up with passionless PC-style games. There still are some great games, and the non-intended uses of the xBox (MPEG4, Linux, MAME32 etc.) are great, but overall it is lacking the passion and creativity behind next-gen games for GameCube and PS2. You can get away with criticizing the xBox for things like that, but saying "consoles suck" is absolutely idiotic. :|
 
The only advantage of a console IMO is being able to play with friends while they're over. PCs have better graphics, they have a mouse and keyboard which most consoles don't have, they have better graphics, they are upgradable, they have better graphics, etc.

And ESPNSTI - my boot up time is the time it takes for me to type in my password (my computer is always on). :p But seriously, I'm in Windows about 20-30 seconds after I press my power button. :)
 
Mine is even faster, i turn it on, and when i turn on the monitor it takes a few seconds before the monitor "gets power" and it's already in windows :)
 
Viper007Bond said:
And ESPNSTI - my boot up time is the time it takes for me to type in my password (my computer is always on). :p But seriously, I'm in Windows about 20-30 seconds after I press my power button. :)
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Well, that's reasonably short, but by no means instant on (like turning on a TV for example).
I think that if computers were instant on or near instant on (< 5 seconds), people would use it more for all sorts of things.

For example, if you're not a computer not and don't have a computer running 24x7 (like I do), and you want to look up something on the internet fairly quickly, you'll probably say, oh hell I have to boot that damn thing up just to look something up.
If it was instant on, you wouldn't even think about it and you'd turn it on or off whenever you feel like it.
 
Jostyrostelli said:
Mine is even faster, i turn it on, and when i turn on the monitor it takes a few seconds before the monitor "gets power" and it's already in windows :)
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How the hell do you get it that fast (that sound's like about 5 seconds to me)?
What Windows version do you use?
You're talking about standby are you?
 
No not standby..just off to on. Windows XP, maybe it helps when i say it's new..it's harddisk is almost empty...and what you say is right about the instant-on thing, it will be there in the near future...I prefer books when I have to look something up though...
 
Jostyrostelli said:
No not standby..just off to on. Windows XP, maybe it helps when i say it's new..it's harddisk is almost empty...and what you say is right about the instant-on thing, it will be there in the near future...I prefer books when I have to look something up though...
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Sure, a new windows install helps, but still, 5 seconds?
Could you time it once and post how long it took?
 
No not 5 seconds..ill time it its about 10 seconds...monitor takes a couple of seconds to warm up as well...so its pretty nice..you'll hear it
 
Viper007Bond said:
The only advantage of a console IMO is being able to play with friends while they're over. PCs have better graphics, they have a mouse and keyboard which most consoles don't have, they have better graphics, they are upgradable, they have better graphics, etc.
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Well, I don't see any of those as advantages at all. I don't care about better graphics, I don't care about upgrading, and all the console games I like would outright not work with a mouse and keyboard. Now, although I really don't care about graphics, that doesn't mean I don't care about how powerful the hardware is. As long as the graphics\hardware are good enough to display the game the way it needs to be, that?s fine. I just can't stand graphical upgrades for the sake of graphical upgrades, which is something you find a lot with PC games.

Maybe I just have completely different tastes in games, but an ideal gaming session for me is sitting down on a couch and playing an intensely fun and engrossing game - something like Viewtiful Joe, SSX3, Final Fantasy: Tactics, Street Fighter 3 or Rez. There aren't any games on PC that are even comparable - not in intensity, creativity or enjoyment. PC games can be engrossing though, but it is much rarer and only seems to last a limited time. Games like Doom 3 could be considered engrossing, but it is only engrossing until you realize you've just wasted hours playing a bloated flash-light simulator.

When PC developers stop chasing market edge and financial gain and start releasing games filled with creativity (like Nintendo, Square, Rockstar, or Capcom do) then maybe I'll get back into PC games. For now, you can call be cynical, but I'll keep my consoles thank you very much. :p
 
I guess it's a personal preference thing.
I have the exact opposite experience.
I find most console games to be boring (I must admit I haven't played any since GT3).
And I only played GT3 on a console since it's not available on PC (damn you Sony :evil: ).
Graphics are important to me, but not the most important, gameplay is.
So I too find it annoying when games are mostly graphics and have little in gameplay.
Having said that, if you see Vice City on a PS2 and then see it on a PC, you can at least imagine why graphics is important to some people (you can't even read a lot of the signs on a PS2, whereas they're crystal clear on a PC).

One area besides better graphics that a PC has always been better at is networking and moddability, but I think consoles are catching up with that.
BTW, don't consoles have USB ports these days, so couldn't you hook up a mouse and keyboard and such?
 
ESPNSTI said:
haha604 said:
XBOX is a great media center. Its ability to play mpeg4 files is particularly convenient for young people.
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Interesting, didn't know mpeg4 was only for young people, I'll stop using it then :lol: .
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My definition of young is people born after the baby boom generation haha :lol: , so you still fit comfortably in.
 
ESPNSTI said:
BTW, don't consoles have USB ports these days, so couldn't you hook up a mouse and keyboard and such?
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When I first imported my PS2, I didn't even know what a USB port was. The PS2 has 2 USB ports FYI.
 
I would guess that hard drive speed would be the most inportant factor in how fast a computer boots up.
 
The motherboard is huge when it comes to boot up times. Hard drives do play a factor, but the major piece is the motherboard.

Edit: Oh, and to answer your question Jason, I have a 1.3ghz Athlon - it's not very fast but I don't play many PC games so I don't really care.
 
I have a PS2 and played almost every game that avaible (rent at blockbuster), my friend has Xbox, and I played a lot of games on it too. I love consoles, but I have to say that a good up to date PC is better, so many things you can do on a computer, even create your own game if you're that good, but consoles are are very limited.
PC=
INTERNET,free downloads, movies, games and the list can keep on going.

Consoles= BUY this BUY that and the list keeps on going.

i just my .02
 
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