I
suppose it’s best for me to start with some honesty: I'm too lazy these days to
be a PC gamer. I realize that things have likely improved since the nineties,
but that doesn't mean I want to spend any time whatsoever setting up a game to
play it. What I like about console gaming is that you don't need to worry about
resolution, colours or graphics card.
Obviously
this comes at the sacrifice of customisation but I’ve never been one to move
from default much anyway. Except when an FPS has too much sensitivity. I’d
prefer my entertainment to be spoon fed into my face straight from the box;
playable exactly as the developer intended. I don’t have the time to spend
working out the optimised options for each title I purchase and I’m not a fan
of tinkering with different pieces of hardware every few months. I’d rather
upgrade my system in one fell swoop every
6 or 7 years.
That
said, being lazy doesn't make me stupid. I love a challenging, complicated
game. I'm sick of the handholding, tutorial-centric crap in games like
Assassin's Creed. I hated the "consoleification" of Mass Effect as
much as PC gamers did, and my favourite experience with Fallout: New Vegas was
playing through on hardcore mode. Just because twitch shooters and cinematic
adventure games sell well on consoles doesn't mean we're all looking for
simplified games that everyone can master within minutes
It’s
probably because I spend 40-50 hours a week in front of a computer for work,
and I'm sure most of you do too. The last thing I want to do is spend my
leisure hours there as well. Console gaming gets me away from computer, out of
my chair (or in the case of mobile gaming, out of my house completely), and
away from work. Plus you get to kick back on the couch, which is a great way to
take a load off at the end of a long day.
It’s
probably about time that I addressed the age old questions here – controllers or
a keyboard and mouse. I'm not huge into twitchy first person shooters, so I
could care less about precision. I'll play and enjoy the occasional slow
shooter like BioShock, Dishonored, or Metro, but you typically won't find me
playing Battlefield or Call of Duty unless my friends are involved. So, that
whole "mouse and keyboard is the best and most precise control
scheme" just doesn't do it for me.
For
all the keyboard-centric games on the PC, there are just as many games that are
best played on a controller. Dark Souls, while looking exquisite on PC, is
suited far better with the Xbox One controller in hand. It’s the same for all
the Batman Arkham games, Dead Space and Fable. I have a far stronger preference
to the pressure sensitive analog sticks to the heavy skill required with a
mouse.
Those
of you making a mental note that you can in-fact use controllers on a PC, I
completely agree, but this takes time to configure as well. And in my
experience they never quite feel like the real deal.
The
other thing that always gets me is that most of the AAA titles made for PC
instantly, or shortly thereafter, come to consoles anyway. But console
exclusives like Halo stay exclusive (excluding the original Halo) and the games
are the only real thing that matters.
Some
of my favourite titles of the last decade have been console exclusives – you
can’t get the Naughty Dog games on PC (The Last of Us and Uncharted are some of
the best action-adventure games I’ve ever played). You can’t play Trials, Journey,
Super Smash Bros or Metal Gear Solid on your PC.
I
love a good strategy game but unless you’re hugely into them then the PC games don’t come close to the
quality of exclusive IPs.
It
wouldn’t be fair for me to say it’s all about consoles because PC gaming and
console games are two very different things. Both have their strengths and
weaknesses. Honestly, I'd argue they're so different that they're almost
impossible to compare. Both attract a different kind of person entirely, but
that doesn't make one better than the other. Sure, maybe us console gamers are
a bit lazy, but that doesn't make us stupid. We crave intelligent, hard, and
complicated gaming experiences. You just have to trust us more.
0 comments :
Post a Comment
Leave a Comment...