1: you get to own your games
2: the graphics are way better
3: you can do other shit with a PC like work or school
4: All games from forever to now are compatible.
5: You can emulate any games from older non-pc systems.
Did I miss anything?
- you usually don’t own your games, you just own a license; they can’t take away a console disk, but they can revoke a digital license
I agree with the rest, and here’s a few more:
- games are typically cheaper because of #4
- lots of form factors - can use controller, kb+m, handheld PC, etc
- repairs are easy - if my PS5 breaks, I need PS5-specific parts; if my PC breaks, I can get anything off the shelf
- streaming is easy peasy (related to your #3) - I don’t stream, but on PC, you just install something and click “go,” on console, you need hardware capture cards and whatnot
- storage is a non-issue - can have multiple TB of space and store every game I own if I want to, whereas I’m stuck with whatever capacity the console comes with
All in all, it’s a way better experience for me, though it is a bit more complicated. It’s hard to beat “plug and play” like with a console.
they can’t take away a console disk,
Technically not but you still only own a license and those walled garden platforms of consoles can easily be used to block you from using that disk for anything meaningful.
You can always play the version shipped with the disk with the game unplugged from the internet.
On PC, you’d have to pirate if a game is taken down.
On PC, you could pirate, but you could also buy DRM free games from GOG.com and keep a copy locally backed up.
It’s also worth noting that optical media will delaminate over time, rendering them unusable.
deleted by creator
One thing GOG doesn’t do is allow me to sell older games. I can do that just fine with physical media on a console. AFAIK, it’s also legal to make physical backups of physical media you own, so it can theoretically live forever (not sure if you can sell backups if the original dies though).
That said, I’m still almost 100% on PC. Cheaper games and being able to upgrade on my schedule is way better than the overall experience on consoles.
I suppose not but every time I went to sell console games the prices were insultingly low at every store and not much better selling it online.
Idk, Switch games hold their value pretty well. I buy mostly used, and it’s rare to find anything under $30. If I wasn’t so lazy, I’d be able to play for just the cost of shipping.
The version that shipped with the disk? It’s not 2005 anymore gramps.
Either there’s no disk but a redeemable code (for a license), or there’s a disk but without even the day 1 patch (which requires a license and the game probably runs like shit without it).
Piracy is WAY superior in those aspects. At least a repack had all the game updates bundled in.
Pretty much every game released on console, even today, can be completed just using the disk. Check out the Someordinarygamers YouTube video about playing Cyberpunk 2077 all the way through on the disk version, and that game was “literally unplayable.”
Yeah, you could probably get the full pirated version for most games, but with physical media, you at least know you can play that version of the game. There’s value there.
That said, I mostly play on PC because I trust Steam enough.
No, you don’t own a license if you have physical media. This is a myth that’s totally unfounded and needs to die.
When you buy a physical book, you don’t have a license to read that book.
When you buy a physical movie, you don’t have a license to watch that movie.
When you buy a physical game, you don’t have a license to play the game.
In all cases you have a copy of the copywritten work that you can use under the copyright agreement, you can resell it, you can use it as many times as you like, they can’t take it away from you. This is all enshrined in various copyright protections throughout the years in every juristicion.
You own a physical production that is a copy of a copywritten work. It can’t be taken away.
Aren’t there games where the physical disc doesn’t have the entire game on it or won’t even run without a patch? Wouldn’t that effectively be the same thing if they decide to stop providing the patch?
The only one I can think of was the Spyro trilogy remaster, which had games 2 and 3 as downloads.
In any case I think there’s more chance of Valve going bust than Sony or Microsoft…
If you buy DRM free games. you effectively “own” them not in a legal sense, but in a practical sense.
Sure, and that’s only mostly true if you back them up.
That said, I can’t sell a DRM free game, so I don’t really own it like I do with physical media.
Nothing’s stopping you from copying the game onto a flashdrive and selling it to a friend
What are you talking about selling it? We share our games with friends.
So you’re going to put your USB stick on eBay? Because that’s what I do with old console games
I think you missed the biggest one which is PCs don’t have a profit driven life cycle. You update hardware when it no longer suits your need. Not when some predetermined life cycle expires and its time for the brand new thing.
You can choose whichever input methods suit you best. I’ve always been a controller kind of guy. As someone left handed I always struggled with keyboard and mouse setups.
deleted by creator
You can also emulate a lot of newer games and they run better than in their native hardware.
playing online games for free and not needing subscriptions is a huge one. these days they try to justify it with attaching free games or some other kind of live service so i don’t discount the value of them nowadays but it’s still mind blowing to me how for almost two generation they got away charging for online play without barely doing anything but being the monopoly man.
the great thing about PC is its flexibility and if you don’t want or need flexibility consoles are a good choice but i think more and more people are appreciating the flexibility PC platforms have.
You don’t own your games on PC, unless you mean gog. Which you likely do not. You have an account and you pay to add games to that account. That is all.
1: you get to own your games
*Citation needed.
You absolutely do not. Even GOG is just a license to the game.
You don’t own games on Steam. You licence them - at any time they can be removed from your library.
How is point 1 in favor of PC? A physical console disc gives you far more ownership than a steam game. PC would be equal to consoles, but not better than them, if you exclusively buy games on gog. But then you miss out on most new games.
scout gaming
COVID Lockdown may have helped. PC has finally got a strong grasp on the eastern market over the last couple of years and the companies have followed suit. I think suggesting it’s due to the boom of vtubing may be a bit too specific but there seems to be a trend
Well thanks PC Gamer, for that unbiased news.
Until GPUs get a sane price again, I’ll stick to my PS5 for anything that I want to look good.
Are there games for which you need a current GPU for to be able to play it with more than acceptable graphics? If you want to turn on all the fancy dongles to maximum, then there might be a few, but realistically, you don’t need that maximum fanciness to be able to enjoy the gameworld.
There’s definitely games where my 1060 really struggles even at minimal graphics. I even had to play Talos Principle 2 on PS5.
It’s rather telling that the most prominent PC exclusives (MMOs, etc) can run on a potato.
The Intel Arc GPUs looked interesting, but the lack of compatibility on older titles is off-putting. AMD lack the raytracing oomph and support isn’t as good as it is for DLSS. PC gaming has thrown all it’s chips in with Nvidia, and now it’s at the mercy of their pricing.
Eh, I game on AMD and it’s totally fine. I don’t use raytracing, but imo that’s a bit of a gimmick anyway and many people on NVIDIA disable it for better performance. FSR is pretty good as well, and it works in games that don’t support DLSS.
You can get a good AMD card for $300-400, and if you play a decent amount of older games (i.e. more than a year old), you’ll probably save a ton on games and that purchase will pay back for itself pretty quickly.
In fact, an upper mid-tier GPU from AMD will probably look better on average vs your PS5, especially on higher resolutions.
The 1060 is a 3 generations older mid tier card, released almost 8 years ago. Is it the 3gb or 6gb version? 3gb will be very gimped by now. If you want to keep playing demanding 3d games, then at some point you have to upgrade. I don’t think you need an overpriced current gen Nvidia cards to enjoy any modern title, but 3 generations might be pushing it a bit 😉
If you want to stick to Nvidia and want a reasonably priced option, then I would look for a second hand rtx 3060-12gb.
And yet still the third most popular card according to the Steam hardware survey.
Only the 1650 (similar spec to 1060) and 3060 above it.
I was hoping the 4060 would be the new mid tier go to card, giving good results at a good price, but Nvidia want the new normal to be a 4070 or higher.
By this point 4K screens are not some extravagance. They’re standard. You can’t even buy a modern TV less than that. PC gamers should not be accepting the price they have to pay to get what “lol potato console hurdur” gamers get out of the box.
The gtx 1650 only has 4gb ram, I wouldn’t call that similar to a 1060, I call it worse :). It’s an entry level + 2 generation older card, it’s going to be good enough for many titles still, especially indy ones, but new games that push graphics to new limits are just not going to work. Even when it was new, it was only really suitable for 1k gaming with compromises in the graphic settings.
Tbh, I don’t get why you’re so set on getting an Nvidia card. Unless you’re into vr or ai, amd and intel really aren’t bad choices. And since all current gen consoles are using AMD GPUs, all game engines + fancy games will be optimized for AMD gpus anyhow.
