Is PC gaming worth it?

[SamMason]

I have finally saved up the money to buy a fairly good PC, about $800 worth. My only worry is that all my friends now play the PS4. I know I want to progress from my xbox 360 but I don't know whether the clear benefits of PC gaming is worth it if I will never play with my friends. So I'm wondering is it worth my money to buy a good PC to game by myself. Or will a better experience be with friends on a next gen console?

[itaroken_]

I have to admit, I had that worry. None of my friends play PC, so I've found a few online friends that I play APB Reloaded and Heroes with and its super fun

Imo, if you want to play on a PC, your friends shouldn't stop you

[othertomperson]

This gen of consoles is a complete waste of money. You're much better off with an $800 PC.

[bchampion96]

It is always worth it.

[XTankSlayerX]

Trust me, all your friends will make their way to PC just like all my friends made their way to PC From Xbox/PS3

[UltraNeonGaming]

Trust me, all your friends will make their way to PC just like all my friends made their way to PC From Xbox/PS3

 

My friends did the opposite

[SkilledRebuilds]

Find online mates with your PC, the experience of PC Gaming is EPIC once you get modding and if you like shiny extra Image Quality in your titles, PC is the way to go.

Then save for a PS4 afterwards.

 

Your friends will follow suit or not care, either way, win win.

[itaroken_]

Trust me, all your friends will make their way to PC just like all my friends made their way to PC From Xbox/PS3

 

Exactly! My friend bought a pre-built gaming PC (unfortunately) and a few months later, he got bored with it and bought an Xbox One and PS4. I asked him "WHY THE F WOULD YOU DO THAT" and he was like "all my friends play on the Xbox One" Then he tried to explain how consoles are better, so I went rage mode on his ass. I actually told him "you're gonna regret selling your pc" and "in about a year and a half, you're gonna be whining: all my friends have pcs" "shouldn't have sold it" and that crap.

 

Anyway, trust us. Get a PC, because you can also do work on it, research, watch videos with ease, and play games. What more could you want?

[SamMason]

Thanks, I think I will probably go for the PC. That was my first post and the community already seems nicer and more approachable. Thanks for your input

[ologiic]

PC brings everything you could do with the PS4 plus some. It's definitely the way to go.

[mapegl]

Honestly it really depends. A buddy of mine has to work all day and when he comes home he just wants to crash on his couch and game a bit. Perfect console gamer, very casual.

If you are very enthusiastic about graphics and other stuff besides gaming and maybe into building PC it is a lot of fun, with or without your friends.

 

I don't think consoles are stupid or anything, just take them for what they are. They are a little expensive though, considering what they can actually do.

[SkilledRebuilds]

Thanks, I think I will probably go for the PC. That was my first post and the community already seems nicer and more approachable. Thanks for your input

The customization for PC's alone (inside and outside hardware mods, and even Windows Software like Rainmeter & alternatives) can make your machine really look and feel ONE of a KIND for YOUR personality.

Mods (Stated above already) Any high popularity moddable game can be made to look QUITE different, sometimes make it a whole new game to play with new content.

Calculators and shit... (All the apps you take for granted, are here on PC, or can be added for free if not already included)

 

Many reasons, not hard to find a few good ones.

[KemoKa]

I have finally saved up the money to buy a fairly good PC, about $800 worth. My only worry is that all my friends now play the PS4. I know I want to progress from my xbox 360 but I don't know whether the clear benefits of PC gaming is worth it if I will never play with my friends. So I'm wondering is it worth my money to buy a good PC to game by myself. Or will a better experience be with friends on a next gen console?

You'll be kicking yourself in the head till kingdom come if you buy a console. There's gonna be a last generation of consoles, and odds are it's gonna be this one or the next one. They're simply not powerful enough and you get nickel-and-dimed off of your ass later. In a few years of actually gaming on the console, you will have spent so much money keeping your console usable that you may as well have gotten the PC in the first place, whereas with the PC there are literally thousands upon thousands of free games that you can max out on the PC, including Wii games, and they are all cheap.

If you want a console-sized PC that will tear the throats out of every console that is ever likely to exist, you can totally have that. Hell, have you seen the Gigabyte Brix ? eight of those things are smaller than a single Gamecube, for heaven's sakes.

[MPX309]

You'll save so much money on games tbh. . . I bought a PS4 a few months back, and eventually there will be enough games on it for me to get. . . LOL I have the UFC ha, but what I mean is, everytime a game is released I see the prices for PS4 and PC, usually use Kinguin, and PC games are as much as £30 pounds cheaper in some cases.
Watchdogs when it was released as £25 on Kinguin, and close to £50 on console.

Bought a Shadow of Morder steam key for £20 the other day.

 

[Trik'Stari]

PC gaming has all of the advantages and non of the drawbacks of console gaming. Find a decent gaming guild and join it, and forget your peasant friends, they aren't worth it

[Guest]

I guess it totally depends on whether or not you want to play exclusively with your existing friends or not. It's also not like you can't also own a PS4 (or PC) in the future either. I do a healthy amount of PC gaming but I also enjoy hanging with my friends playing console games too. It's not like you're not allowed to enjoy consoles if you have a PC or vice versa. 

[Shine_Syahr]

Too much console bashing. Yes it is worth it to go PC gaming. Very much worth the cost and time.

But the consoles also have very good exclusive games and sometimes being able to play with your friends who own consoles is awesome.

PC gaming and all its advantages are clearly being advocated here but it doesn't mean console gaming is complete shit.

[NotGoodAtLying]

Alright listen, 

 

PC Gaming is worth it for a large number of reasons, and i may not list them all here right now, but there are some things i believe you should know about it, or at least things you should think about if you are thinking about PC gaming in general. First off, games are largely getting bigger, and switching to digital download. The wireless/wired components of a PC can be upgraded to to support higher bandwidth later when you increase the speed of your internet connection. This wont and doesnt matter at all now but when (WIFI (the ultimate collectors edition...)) comes out, a console will be waiting quite a number of years to advance to that....(not that this matters at all over a wired connection, or currently but it will in the future) 

 

Thinking about the greater size of PC games though you come to thinking about hard drive space. And realize that it is uber upgrade-able in a PC, you can have an almost limitless number of games floating around your networked drives, and your internal drive(S, multiple, and large capacity) so you never really have to worry if that next game you download is going to be worth it enough to actually download because of the size on a pc. 

 

Thinking about that though, you have to think about exclusivity on a console device, while its always true that a majority of games will eventually reach PC, you can also look at it another way. That all the console ports that you actually enjoy playing will be reaching the PC through both the playstation, and the xbox eventually (unless totally exclusive) so i can see that as one reason to buy a console, but then you have to think about...

 

The quality of game you are receiving for a much higher price than competitors, the PC generally yes does have games around the same cost of Playstation and Xbox, but usually the PC game comes with many more options such as resolution adjustments and texture quality and anti-aliasing, along with other things built into the graphics card that can be flicked on or off. Even if these are things you never even WANT TO TOUCH on a pc game, the options are there, adding along with them a difference in value for the same cost, and futureproofing the game even for the user. No PC gamer out there can tell me they haven't updated their system at some point and not gone back to try a game they have already beaten after upgrading their machine, just to see the new insane antialiasing or to see what the game may have looked like without some kind of lag or texture smearing or flickering, or generally any kind of minute error, every time you upgrade your machine it brings new life to a PC game, considering this is impossible for a console, i sincerely doubt the same feeling can be obtained, except maybe for a lesser kind of nostalgia. 

 

There are also a number of problems when it comes to resolution on a console which worries me, the fact the consoles are not able to reach 1080p 60fps when their previous counterparts could means that they are likely lowering other quality parts of the games as well, they are making compromises, AND selling the game to you at a premium, which to me doesn't make a lot of sense to buy as a consumer, 

 

The consoles themselves have a purpose though and the reason they exist, in my eyes, is to push developers to use different features in their engines to make their games more flashy every time the console upgrades (something they rarely do with graphics cards, or processors on PC, though it does happen on occasion) so every time a new console comes out, even though they are significantly weaker we usually get upgraded graphics on our PC games, in one way or another. 

 

Also that whole 2 free games a month thing sounds awesome from the new PS, just wouldnt do it anyway because im not going to allow someone to steal the same amount of money out of my pocket for a game that exists on another platform and is significantly better, not the xbox, not the playstation, only the PC. 

 

now there are many other reasons out there to go to PC gaming, those are just some of mine. 

[thatguyjerry]

When you start to understand computers on a deeper level, and what is used to optimize gaming performance in terms of FPS, processing power, resolutions, etc. you'll begin to understand that consoles simply can't keep up with the trend of technology right now. Tech is moving FAST, and consumers are looking for a reasonable price to get the experience of that fast moving technology, but, as shown by some recent post, the next gen consoles have already hit a performance wall with some of the upcoming titles! A goddamn shame. I'm not saying consoles are absolute crap, because that's obviously just bashing and not taking into account that the community of consoles is a large part of the experience; however, the PC gaming community is growing, and support is growing as well. So, IMO, we will see a lot more people move to PC gaming in the future, I believe PC gaming IS the future.

[Technous285]

Don't forget: A Console is primarily for playing games, and you typically have to buy expensive addons for things like running PayTV through it. Build a good gaming PC and you'll be easily set for a good gaming experience and a fast workstation or media consumption/production system.

Had a good round of DOTA2 and need to get to working on homework? Close DOTA2 and open Office (Microsoft, Open or Libre, whatever floats your boat) and start typing away. You don't need to leave your chair or pick up a remote.

[frostin1990]

Cheap games ...There is also a good chance you could get free games ... Metro 2033  was free on pc yesterday and valve might again giveaway left4dead2 for free on christmas.

[MF Patrick]

You can download porn, of course it's worth it.

[PurplDrank]

I have finally saved up the money to buy a fairly good PC, about $800 worth. My only worry is that all my friends now play the PS4. I know I want to progress from my xbox 360 but I don't know whether the clear benefits of PC gaming is worth it if I will never play with my friends. So I'm wondering is it worth my money to buy a good PC to game by myself. Or will a better experience be with friends on a next gen console?

 

You save more money on PC with cheaper games in the long run. For example I just went to best buy just the other day and I saw that Left 4 Dead 2 was still $19.99. Go on steam and Left 4 Dead 2 is on sale very often for like $5.00. Secondly many of the old multiplayer games still have alot of people playing, such as CS 1.6, COD 2, Unreal Tournament. While in the console world these multiplayer games would be shut down due to Xbox or PS moving on to their new product. Oh and you have tons of free to play games on PC. The Xbox and PS are only just starting to get some free to play games on their platforms. 

 

So Planetside 2 is one of my favorite games, I consider it to be a futuristic Battlefield like game. Now when battlefield 3 & 4 were released they were $59.99? I can save that $59.99 and put it in the gas tank of my car and just play Planetside 2. That $60 is going to go a long way especially for a college student such as myself. 

 

My guess is this year I have saved a total of $180 dollars just by buying Steam Sales and playing free to play games. 

 

I find I have more fun with my PC. For me I have the sales and free to play like I said above, but I also have a ton of indie games which I would'nt necesarily find on console. Take Insurgency for example, Insurgency is a Rainbow six like tactical battlefield game that is only on PC. Insurgency has become i'd say pretty popular on Steam. 

 

I find that why not have an All in one tool? I type college papers and do homework on my PC, I surf the web on my pc, I play free to play games on my PC. I have a very interesting music library on my PC. I sometimes work from home on my PC.  The only time I dont use my PC is when watching a movie or using my tablet, which I do both of those pretty often. 

[STRMfrmXMN]

Well, you not only have a gaming computer but also a computer for work, school, browsing whatever. It's more than just a (mostly) one use console which will last you a lot less in terms of playing games. It's worth it if you spend the extra money on an SSD IMO. If you can't afford an SSD then save up more so your computer will be super fast or buy a console.

 

If you enjoy gaming on a couch, I say console. I get that you can plug in a PC to a TV but it's going to have horrible refresh rates anyways so....

I dunno. I say PC all the way but if you want to go down the dark alley of consoles then go on ahead...

[Prettyfinej]

If I was still in highschool or university, I would choose the platform where most of my friends played, which for me was pc. Now I just buy them all because I can.