TheRedSnifit
Member
Well, if we're talking about the price of running PC games at their highest potential, it's only fair we look at the cost of doing the same for console games.
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Why is PC gaming still considered difficult with too much tinkering?
- Thread starter Fredrik
- Start date
Well, if we're talking about the price of running PC games at their highest potential, it's only fair we look at the cost of doing the same for console games.
Fredrik
Member
A display cord and power cord?
The rest is your own "fault" for wanting wired internet access, wired controllers/keyboard/mouse, triple screen setup ect.
Check the PSVR connection pic shown frequently on this board if you think console gaming is without wires.
Maintenance
Member
Because sometimes it is? I love my PC and I'll be upgrading it soon, but to say that there are no problems at all is just as disingenuous as saying it is always a hassle.
I had problems with Fallout 4 for months and nothing solved it, until I per chance deactivated one of Bethesda's own DLCs, and suddenly it worked well. I had to work a whole day to find a solution for Stardew Valley, it just wouldn't open. I installed the same game on my laptop and it went flawlessly, without any problem unlike my desktop.
Shit happens. It isn't "It just works", and OP reminds me of those magical PCs that sometime appears in threads that everyone is having problems saying "oh mine is just fine, don't know why y'all are complaining". I hate that.
I had problems with Fallout 4 for months and nothing solved it, until I per chance deactivated one of Bethesda's own DLCs, and suddenly it worked well. I had to work a whole day to find a solution for Stardew Valley, it just wouldn't open. I installed the same game on my laptop and it went flawlessly, without any problem unlike my desktop.
Shit happens. It isn't "It just works", and OP reminds me of those magical PCs that sometime appears in threads that everyone is having problems saying "oh mine is just fine, don't know why y'all are complaining". I hate that.
nkarafo
Member
That's a different expectation though. You don't have to run everything on ULTRA to get better graphics and frame rates than a console port. And i'm pretty sure the 970 still exceeds what the consoles can do today by a wide margin.
The point is that if you built a more expensive than a console PC, to have better results than a console, you still get your money's worth.
I mean I don't know why you'd buy cod on pc for mp anyways. Activision killed the series on pc with their mishandling of it. People like to laugh about the mw2 boycott, but the series is basically dead these days on the platform because of the changes Activision made. Kind of sad because the CoD community used to be really big on pc but it is what it is.
I started pc gaming iun 2007, ggot a lot of frustration until irealized the importance of cpu, gpu, and compoennts. I learnt to search how to opitmize a game, how to edit files, how to run very very old games. I also spent money for a gaming pc.
I compensated the money invested with deals i found on Steam and other platforms, as well as games sometimes given for free, like command and conquer games. Being able to have control on games i play and enjoying cheap deals compensates the efforts provided when i play on PC.
When i see how deals are awful on eshop for example, or how a console maker is offending players by blocking the simple possiblity to back up game saves, i do not regret my decision to focus on pc gaming.
I compensated the money invested with deals i found on Steam and other platforms, as well as games sometimes given for free, like command and conquer games. Being able to have control on games i play and enjoying cheap deals compensates the efforts provided when i play on PC.
When i see how deals are awful on eshop for example, or how a console maker is offending players by blocking the simple possiblity to back up game saves, i do not regret my decision to focus on pc gaming.
I've had games on steam work with controller support, then the next day just...not.
I spent hours trying to figure it out and then just said "fuck it" and never went back. It's not necessarily that all games require tinkering, it's just that when something doesn't work, I don't want to fix it. I want to play the game, not dick about trying to get something to be OK.
I spent hours trying to figure it out and then just said "fuck it" and never went back. It's not necessarily that all games require tinkering, it's just that when something doesn't work, I don't want to fix it. I want to play the game, not dick about trying to get something to be OK.
Black Pewter
Member
tell that to the tens of games in my Steam Library that refuse to work simply because theyte on a modern pc.
With PC software it is always going to be hit & miss for each configuration so they will never be as simple as consoles unless the software gets dumbed down to a standardised console level.
These days consoles need a lot more fiddling for the optimal experienced if you really are into getting the best out of your gaming experience. You also need to know a lot about the console market, Pro vs Standard and what that means, 4k, HDR, input lag, subscription accounts, apps etc.
That is what inherently makes PC gamers feel like they need to tinker more as often most people are pushing for the best experience they can with that hardware so may be running overclocks, mods, ini hacks etc.
I was playing FO4 over the weekend and it booted and ran "fine" out of the box, apart from I'm using a 21:9 3440x1440 res monitor which meant finding and installing a mod for the UI and an ini edit to get the experience to it'd best. That type of tinkering is still a large issue for most of the PC gaming market.
The technical issues are a lot more of a pain to deal with when they do occur as it could be a combination of a 100s things where as with a console you can always just flash it clear out a game to get back to square one.
These days consoles need a lot more fiddling for the optimal experienced if you really are into getting the best out of your gaming experience. You also need to know a lot about the console market, Pro vs Standard and what that means, 4k, HDR, input lag, subscription accounts, apps etc.
That is what inherently makes PC gamers feel like they need to tinker more as often most people are pushing for the best experience they can with that hardware so may be running overclocks, mods, ini hacks etc.
I was playing FO4 over the weekend and it booted and ran "fine" out of the box, apart from I'm using a 21:9 3440x1440 res monitor which meant finding and installing a mod for the UI and an ini edit to get the experience to it'd best. That type of tinkering is still a large issue for most of the PC gaming market.
The technical issues are a lot more of a pain to deal with when they do occur as it could be a combination of a 100s things where as with a console you can always just flash it clear out a game to get back to square one.
Chairmanchuck
Member
I sometimes think some Gaffers PC might look like that:
Before Steam came along it could sometimes be pretty awful.
Manually installing multiple patches, screwing around with settings just to get the game to launch, making sure you didn't lose the cracked jewel case with your CD key, multidisc installations that took an hour, etc.
But yeah, now it just works. The only time I run into any problems is sometimes while trying to get mods to work (recently it took me a bit of trial and error to get the Infinite View Distance mod for Morrowind to work... there was a lot of swearing), but that sorta comes with the territory.
God I'm so glad I don't have to hunt down patches and manually install them in the correct order or babysit installation wizards anymore.
Manually installing multiple patches, screwing around with settings just to get the game to launch, making sure you didn't lose the cracked jewel case with your CD key, multidisc installations that took an hour, etc.
But yeah, now it just works. The only time I run into any problems is sometimes while trying to get mods to work (recently it took me a bit of trial and error to get the Infinite View Distance mod for Morrowind to work... there was a lot of swearing), but that sorta comes with the territory.
God I'm so glad I don't have to hunt down patches and manually install them in the correct order or babysit installation wizards anymore.
It's pretty crazy Activision hasn't made a PC focused F2P Call of Duty that's run as a game as a service with free maps and weapons but weapon skin microtransactions.
Put out a couple of big updates a year for the F2P game, maybe one around March and one around August or September to not conflict too much with the mainline CoD. Spend enough money on the F2P CoD and you get the yearly game for free. When you buy the yearly CoD you get weapon skins or loot crate drops for the F2P game. Have them feed into each other.
Chairmanchuck
Member
They have in China. Tencent has a special CoD MP version for the chinese market. Also NBA2k.
Agent_ShortBus
Member
PC gaming isn't hard and unless you're running sli or overclocking everything is really simple nowadays. Building you're own pc is easy and satisfying but if you don't enjoy tinkering just buy pre built and off you go. Its honestly as easy as just updating video drivers every now and again. It can be expensive if you want it to be but it dosent have to be. I spent about $1500 but I usually upgrade every 4 or 5 years and its either cpu or gpu but the cost of games really does offset the initial price. It's really rare to buy pc games at full price when you can get alot of games day 1 at $30-$40 from different websites. Then there's the steam sales where you buy games you'll never play because they were too cheap to pass up on lol.
Thereby backing up the sentiment that PC gaming is considered difficult with too much tinkering.
If you aren't fiddling you aren't getting the benefits of PC.
I've been a PC gamer in the past, main things discouraging me from going back are
-AAA releases being poor ports of console games is still too common (Mafia 3 and Arkham Knight off the top of my head, but I don't follow PC performance threads).
-PC is supposed to have a graphical advantage (if you are willing to pay for it), but some of the best looking games at the moment are console exclusives (Horizon Zero Dawn).
(-My graphics card died recently and I cba to replace it)
If you don't want to fiddle then you get something very close to a console-like experience, but at least in the AAA space you will be paying more for less.
I've been a PC gamer in the past, main things discouraging me from going back are
-AAA releases being poor ports of console games is still too common (Mafia 3 and Arkham Knight off the top of my head, but I don't follow PC performance threads).
-PC is supposed to have a graphical advantage (if you are willing to pay for it), but some of the best looking games at the moment are console exclusives (Horizon Zero Dawn).
(-My graphics card died recently and I cba to replace it)
If you don't want to fiddle then you get something very close to a console-like experience, but at least in the AAA space you will be paying more for less.
SmokedMeat
Gamer™
I'm a lifelong console gamer that got serious about PC gaming in the summer of 2015. I was nervous about it going in and talked myself out of it in the summer of 2014. I was reading horror stories.
Turns out it was nothing. Like anything else, you just need to do some research, and I think that right there turns people off. Nobody wants to bother learning how to use, build, or fix anything. They can't be bothered to look something up because it requires a little effort on their end.
But for me, the overall PC experience has been better. Building it was easy. There's a ton of help and how to videos for you to follow along with. There's a PC parts picker website that allows you to list the parts of your build to see if there's any compatibility issues. Once you're up and running the experience is not much different then a console. I click on a game icon and off I go. My PC boots faster. I get into my game faster. My games run far better.
As for issues arising with games, yes it does occasionally happen. Not often, but it does and I forget the name of the game but a recent purchase of mine had problems launching. When it happens I simply check the discussions on the game's Steam page, because guaranteed you aren't the first person that encountered that problem. I've yet to come across a problem that I couldn't fix in a couple minutes or less.
But it's all a matter of how important it is to you. The cost of entry is higher, but how high that cost is, is up to you. You can easily build a console beating PC without dropping big money. And once you're in, you're in. Upgrade as you need and enjoy the benefits of free online gaming and the cheapest prices on games. Best of all when you upgrade, your entire game library improves.
But it's up to you and how badly you want it. Judging by the Scorpio and Pro threads people want better performance and higher resolutions pretty badly.
Turns out it was nothing. Like anything else, you just need to do some research, and I think that right there turns people off. Nobody wants to bother learning how to use, build, or fix anything. They can't be bothered to look something up because it requires a little effort on their end.
But for me, the overall PC experience has been better. Building it was easy. There's a ton of help and how to videos for you to follow along with. There's a PC parts picker website that allows you to list the parts of your build to see if there's any compatibility issues. Once you're up and running the experience is not much different then a console. I click on a game icon and off I go. My PC boots faster. I get into my game faster. My games run far better.
As for issues arising with games, yes it does occasionally happen. Not often, but it does and I forget the name of the game but a recent purchase of mine had problems launching. When it happens I simply check the discussions on the game's Steam page, because guaranteed you aren't the first person that encountered that problem. I've yet to come across a problem that I couldn't fix in a couple minutes or less.
But it's all a matter of how important it is to you. The cost of entry is higher, but how high that cost is, is up to you. You can easily build a console beating PC without dropping big money. And once you're in, you're in. Upgrade as you need and enjoy the benefits of free online gaming and the cheapest prices on games. Best of all when you upgrade, your entire game library improves.
But it's up to you and how badly you want it. Judging by the Scorpio and Pro threads people want better performance and higher resolutions pretty badly.
Fredrik
Member
No I was just agreeing with the one problem PC gaming have, imo. The cost of getting the PC experience people use to sell PC gaming to you. Higher framerates, better graphics, etc. I went in with zero knowledge, no accessories since before, a blank slate, and I wanted a beast of a PC, and eventually had a 144hz triple screen setup and roughly $3000 less on the bank. :S
As crazy as it may sound I'd still say it was worth it though. Today I only use consoles for AAA exclusives. But 4K is an issue for me, I love my triple screen setup and 4K triple screen is way out of reach for many years. Might have to buy a Pro/Scorpio to taste 4K until prices go down on PC. But tbh so far I'm not super impressed by 4K gaming, I saw Horizon Zero Dawn at 4K and without doing an A-B comparison I thought it looked pretty much the same. :/ I think the devs should use the new consoles for higher framerates instead, the low famerates was what scared me away from consoles. Edit: Or at least give the choice to tweek the visuals the way I want to. This thing that some games is 4K, some 1080p, some have super-sampling, some don't, is really dumb. People say that they don't want a bunch of options on consoles but personally I'd rather have more options than play the games in a way that I don't want to.
MilkyJoe
Member
I'm not talking about using, the only way to avoid getting mugged off in PC gaming is to build it yourself.
Sit your average Joe down and start banging on about motherboards, socket types, thermal pastes, power requirements and then send them out into the wild to source the shit, then put it together... it's not in the same park as lifting a console out of a box and plugging it into the tv.
Ah right, i get you now.
PC gaming is and always has been a bitch.
For starters, the build you choose can be flawed out of the box and you will never know why.
"Oh that motherboard is known for having X issue"
"That graphics card doesn't get along too well with that CPU"
"You have created a bottleneck with those parts, this part is slower than that other one and you're not taking full advantage of it"
"The PSU you bought is insufficient, should have gone with a bigger one"
"That RAM is slow, this other brand with the very same specs is better quality, more expensive, faster RAM"
Etc etc etc etc.
This is the kind of stuff you only learn about AFTER you bought the thing, and drives me mad because no matter how good you think you are at researching you will always fuck it up at some level.
For starters, the build you choose can be flawed out of the box and you will never know why.
"Oh that motherboard is known for having X issue"
"That graphics card doesn't get along too well with that CPU"
"You have created a bottleneck with those parts, this part is slower than that other one and you're not taking full advantage of it"
"The PSU you bought is insufficient, should have gone with a bigger one"
"That RAM is slow, this other brand with the very same specs is better quality, more expensive, faster RAM"
Etc etc etc etc.
This is the kind of stuff you only learn about AFTER you bought the thing, and drives me mad because no matter how good you think you are at researching you will always fuck it up at some level.
I agre that now pc gaming is really easy compared to past, but take into account that many people don't have a good gaming pc, on console you buy a game and you know it will run well, on pc everytime you want a game you need to see the requirements, meaning that you should know how your hardware compares to the one requested meaning that you have to be informed about hardware, and there are settings that yes are great, but many people would just play a game without worring about those things(not always you get the result you like)
nkarafo
Member
Τhe bolded is true for current consoles though, their CPU is much worse than what their GPU could deliver. And in this case you can't even do anything about it even if you are informed.
It comes down to perception. One person's "this is simple! I can do it in minutes!" is another person's "fuck that".
There are plenty of people who a PC is a terrible choice and a console is a better one, and they're not wrong in wanting that, or inferior, or whatever. The words "console is better than PC" can exist and be valid. My PC is better than a console, go me, but for my sister, who hasn't had anything since a PS2 and a Wii, absolutely PS4 is better than a PC.
There are plenty of people who a PC is a terrible choice and a console is a better one, and they're not wrong in wanting that, or inferior, or whatever. The words "console is better than PC" can exist and be valid. My PC is better than a console, go me, but for my sister, who hasn't had anything since a PS2 and a Wii, absolutely PS4 is better than a PC.
Trickster
Member
Of course if you want to build your own pc then you are looking at something much more technical than hooking a console to a tv. I don't think anyone would deny that. But I mean that's pretty much the equivelant of choosing hardmode to save a bit of money
When it comes to the topic of pc gaming being considered too technical, I feel like it's generally more about stuff like optimizing the settings for each game. Maybe installations. And of course the dreaded "ini" file, that I've seen a stupid amount of people use as an excuse for why pc gaming is supposedly too hard over the years.
I've had my first "gaming pc" at around 1998 with a dedicated graphic card and I had to do a lot of tinkering to run my games like the drivers and searching for game updates or patches.
Now in 2017 I think that pc gaming is actually "easier" than console gaming in general. Both systems (pc and consoles) are having the same low amount of issues and crashes but if something goes wrong then there is a 0 chance to fix it on a console on your own.
Now in 2017 I think that pc gaming is actually "easier" than console gaming in general. Both systems (pc and consoles) are having the same low amount of issues and crashes but if something goes wrong then there is a 0 chance to fix it on a console on your own.
MilkyJoe
Member
Well I've never had an ini file issue the weirdest I ever came across was CoD 1 on windows 7, had to rename the executable to a different game name for that to run.
And lets face it, not a bit of money is it, sometimes it's shocking, wasn't there a fella on here a few weeks ago that spent 2 grand and it had a 1060 in it?
SmokedMeat
Gamer™
Those are such nonissues it's ridiculous. Thermal paste? Seriously? It's preapplied on the cooler that comes with your CPU fan. If you buy a new cooler they give you a packet. What's so difficult?
Power requirements? Really? This isn't rocket science and you don't need super high wattage PSUs to power PCs. Socket types? C'mon. Do you own a socket set?
I mean, it's like saying people can't figure out a Microwave over because they have to be concerned about wattages.
Bl@de
Member
What he or she said.
But it doesn't matter. A console game will run on a console no matter how inefficient it is. On a pc, those inefficiencies can be the difference between the game working properly or not.
Fredrik
Member
I only had headaches because of the cost but my - this is so worth it! - moment was Trackmania triple screen at 144fps. I had never seen anything move higher than 60fps ever in my life before. And to see it on a racing game. Holy crap it was so awesome
This is also why it's really bugging me that 4K seems to be 60hz on PC for now. I don't want to go down to 60fps again!
When shit works like how you expect it's easy.
When shit breaks in ways you don't expect and it's literally only you having this problem and none of your friends' computers for doing the same thing with similar hardware = why PC gaming can be considered difficult.
Recent case: Friend wanted to start using her mic with her new $1000 gaming PC (ASUS ROG). All the mics she had and bought sounded like shit on her computer and on nobody else's. She bought different mics, splitters, and soundcards until finally a random external soundcard that costed $45 fixed the problem after 2-3 weeks of experimenting and returning shit to Amazon.
No other computer had a problem with those mics.
When shit breaks in ways you don't expect and it's literally only you having this problem and none of your friends' computers for doing the same thing with similar hardware = why PC gaming can be considered difficult.
Recent case: Friend wanted to start using her mic with her new $1000 gaming PC (ASUS ROG). All the mics she had and bought sounded like shit on her computer and on nobody else's. She bought different mics, splitters, and soundcards until finally a random external soundcard that costed $45 fixed the problem after 2-3 weeks of experimenting and returning shit to Amazon.
No other computer had a problem with those mics.
nkarafo
Member
You wrote "That graphics card doesn't get along too well with that CPU". I guess i don't know what that means exactly... i never run into this problem. You can have a game that doesn't get along with certain CPUs or GPUs or drivers but not because of a "bad" combination. If the CPU and GPU fit in the slots of a motherboard then it's a good enough combination for things to work properly.
Also you wrote, "You have created a bottleneck with those parts, this part is slower than that other one and you're not taking full advantage of it". That doesn't make games not work properly either. It makes games run at slower frame rates than they could.
daninthemix
Member
The number of variables is far greater with PC than something like PS4.
Just because everything works for you doesn't mean it will for everyone else.
Just because everything works for you doesn't mean it will for everyone else.
Can you give an example because that doesn't make any sense to me.
I don't understand why some PC gamers have a hard time admitting that playing on a PC is more complex. You need to tinker around for hours in rare cases - most of the time it's smooth as butter but as someone who is always maintaining a gaming PC next to my PS4, I just can't ignore the many hours I had to fix stuff in order to play a game.
Windows 10 likes to randomly disable my internet connection for example: NVIDIA drivers can't install, produce the same error over and over again - so I have to wait until another version is being distributed; games (especially older ones) don't run without hours of research; titles like GTA IV refused to run on my 3 previous rigs (I spent easily 10 hours trying to fix it, so I could play for 6 hours in the end). The whole magnitude of things that can go wrong is huge but that's why I like having a PC. I don't mind the tinkering for the most part and it's something which naturally comes with more open systems. It's just not plug and play for a lot of people.
This is also why it's really bugging me that 4K seems to be 60hz on PC for now. I don't want to go down to 60fps again!
I feel like I am in a similar camp but with resolution.
When you've been in 4K-land for awhile, 1440p starts looking a bit sad, and 1080p? Garbage! GARBAGE!
Er, as I wrote?
Because my point wasn't the specifics of what they said, it's the idea that with a console the issues are dealt with by the makers and developers, whilst on a pc the issues have to be solved by the user, even if the only thing they have to do is mess with settings.
But the 780Ti is also considerably more powerful and was a lot more expensive than PS4. A PS4 equivalent hardware from that time which performed as well or better back then will most definitely have some issues tody, if not for architectural disadvantage then due to VRAM limitations...this was 3.5 years ago and we'll keep getting PS4 games for another 3 years or so. That's what I am trying to say because there are people here who have claimed that you could pretty much get a console equivalent or something slightly better around launch and be set for the entire generation when it's not really true.
Candescence
Member
It's not quite as easy, but it is significantly easier than pre-Steam PC gaming to the point where most of the time fiddling with stuff isn't required to get things working properly, especially with newer games - it's the older pre-gen 7 games that haven't been 'remastered' that you gotta be more wary of.
Many people seem to be overwhelmed by the huge varity of different pc components - which is understandable. But there is no need to built a pc on your own and you can always simply ask any friend or just buy a pre-build pc.
Once the hardware issue is out of the way you basically only need to download the graphic card driver (or install it from the cd) and download steam (or any other plattform of your choice). Thats just 2 installations of pretty much fail proof software. Both need 2 clicks on "Next" and everything is done.
I think that pc gaming is easier than console gaming because I can actually see what my pc is downloading or the fact that I could replace any broken hardware piece if I need to. When I start (for example) my ps4 or the nintendo 2ds then I usually see several downloads in the background and have no idea what the hell is going on and I'm not getting asked if I want the update for this or that (like old games that I'm actually not playing anymore).
Another example of "sometimes pc is easier" would be my Rocksmith 2014 experience: I've red into several threads of how to fix the input delay for this special game (because it uses a real guitar over usb) and the different solutions with most of them beeing "use additional hardware interfaces". In the end I've noped out and just directly plugged it into my pc
MilkyJoe
Member
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/cpu-socket-types-explained-from-socket-5-to-bga-makeuseof-explains/
If you are going to mouth off, it really helps if you know what you are talking about.
No, power supply choice is nothing like choosing a microwave.
Anything is easy when you know what you are doing, how difficult is that for you to understand.
Trickster
Member
The part about the ini file isn't really because it's really ever needed. But rather that it seems from my experience, that a good number of people see ini file tinkering as something you have to do, even though it's really not, unless you are extremely fuzzy about min/maxing settings. Which if that is that case, why would they ever use consoles?
As for the other thing. Yeah you can get screwed hard if you just go out and blow money on those shitty prebuild machine that you see many places. But it's also not hard to find good stores that will actually help you put together a good rig, and then for a fee will more or less make it plug and play ready.
Honestly I think this mostly boil down to how much people wants to understand stuff before jumping in. Some people don't want to have to google things, they go out and buy the new console, smartphone and tablet every x years. Other people like myself, spends hours looking up whether graphic card x is better than y, even though the price and performance differences might be pretty negligible.
I do see in many cases the complexity of PC gaming gets overblown. Enough people I've seen bring up drivers seem oblivious to the fact they've been automated for years with stuff like Geforce Experience. The cost angle gets brought up by people, with enough times I've seen links to overpriced pre-builds, or the person inflating the cost of a build list through stuff like an expensive CPU fan that is only needed if you do overclocking. The worst offender is the exaggerated idea of graphic options tinkering you have to do with PC games, when 95% of my time it is a single 1-5 minute period of tweaking, and SSD speeds on my PC will more than make up for it with faster load times.
Still, I sympathize with people being intimated by the building process of a computer, because there is some basic stuff you need to learn, some cases won't fit the stuff you want, and tech/gaming sites are often pretty crap at linking people to easy to understand resources like pcpartpicker.com. More motherboards could be color-coded, more cases could be offer tool-less component installation, and more hardware could be named less confusing.
If you buy well reviewed components, you minimize the chances of failure or bad performance in games. I've had minimal issues with the last 3 PCs I've owned for the last decade, along with any PCs I've helped friends put together. I refuse to believe it's just luck, but PCs do offer a greater chance of failure vs. console fixed SKUs. The ease of use in modern PCs is fairly close to consoles, and the divide keeps getting smaller as PCs get easier + consoles get more complicated.
Still, I sympathize with people being intimated by the building process of a computer, because there is some basic stuff you need to learn, some cases won't fit the stuff you want, and tech/gaming sites are often pretty crap at linking people to easy to understand resources like pcpartpicker.com. More motherboards could be color-coded, more cases could be offer tool-less component installation, and more hardware could be named less confusing.
If you buy well reviewed components, you minimize the chances of failure or bad performance in games. I've had minimal issues with the last 3 PCs I've owned for the last decade, along with any PCs I've helped friends put together. I refuse to believe it's just luck, but PCs do offer a greater chance of failure vs. console fixed SKUs. The ease of use in modern PCs is fairly close to consoles, and the divide keeps getting smaller as PCs get easier + consoles get more complicated.
nkarafo
Member
Τhe problem is really the VRAM i believe. 3 years ago, the equivalent of a PS4 was a PC based on a 750ti. Could this card perform as well as a PS4 today, in multiplatform games, if it had more VRAM to support the same textures? When i say "well" i mean 30fps/medium settings, 900-1080p.
The decline of consoles is pretty much inevitable as it evolves from a medium stuck to a single TV into something that can be accessed anytime / anywhere, the same way that music, films and TV have.
That's completely unrelated over personal preference for one particular option over another that's available right now though. People aren't "scared" of anything.
GoldenCrow
Member
As long as you avoid older games, most Japanese games and if you don't mind the performance of certain AAA games not being up to scratch then avoiding tinkering is easy. However a lot of the time you can get a lot more out of most games by messing, it also depends on if you really want to take advantage of the hardware you have or not.