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View Full Version : The End Is Nigh?


WyrmFyre
11-12-2007, 11:15 AM
Nope, not some old spiel about how the worlds going to end, dont panic.

Im talking about how I fear the end is nigh for my PC, and not just for gaming. And no, this isnt intended as a rant about which is best, PS3, xBox or PC.

Over the road from me, my friend has a PS3, plumbed into his 32 inch TFT telly. Id played on xBoxes and PS3s before hand but this is the first time I witnessed the console being played in high def. Quite frankly it scared me!

We started of browsing through some of the game trailers he'd downloaded, then played out way through countless demo's, before slaughtering the living hell out of each other on Resistance : Fall of Man, and soon after, his missus came into the room and checked up on how her items were doing on eBay.

Now none of this would normally provide such an intense amout of pleasure. The thing is, I was doing all this while sat on a nice comfy sofa, watching it all on a huge wall mounted TV, in the comfort of the lounge.

This has started off a huge debate between me and a few work colleagues, and although I am an avid PC gamer right now, come christmas, a shiny new 360 will festoon our front room, and Im starting to find it hard to rationalise keeping my PC.

Music - xBox can do
Gaming - xBox can do
Browsing - xbox can do
Messaging - xBox can do (via WLM, but we cant always have it how we want)

These are the four main things I do with my PC, which again is nothing fantastic, but ive asked about and the same thing recurrs - most people dont keep their PC in their lounge, and those that do dont generally keep it somewhere it's accesible from their sofa. Better yet, I can do all of the above four on my TV, which means a couple of presses of a button will get me out of a game and watching something amusing on Sky, or a DVD, both of which I cant do on my PC because it simply isnt located anywhere accesible enough for that.

With the advent of wireless controllers, dolby 7.1, high def and more and more comfortable sofa's, what use is my PC? I personally keep mine in a hallway between the lounge and the kitchen. I have a friend who brags about his 7.1 surround sound on his PC and his massive flatscreen monitor, but again the same thing pops up; to watch a DVD or listen to a song, he has to sit at a desk or on a bed, surrounded by speakers, watching a monitor, on a desk, just next to the drawer he keeps his underwear in, rather than (and yes I keep emphasising this point) on a nice, comfy sofa in the lounge.

Are we witnessing a revolution yet, or just the start? Will this generation of consoles be the PC killer, or the next? Yes, my PC can do whatever the xBox or the PS3 can do, but it would require substantial upgrades, when for under 300 nicker, i can have it all, in one small box, and I can invite friends round to play without worrying about whether or not Ive left last nights dirty boxers on the floor.

Im interested to see what people think of this, hopefully it all makes sense.

Some_Mate
11-12-2007, 11:48 AM
Nice post man :D
For me..i have PC 19" Flat screen hooked to a very nice pair of studio monitors..
I use PC for...
Surfing, Gaming, Talking, Watching, listening to and making music etc.
I have a TV to my right at the mo with a freeview box on it and have that on most of the time with random crap, i can also hook TV audio to soundsystem etc.
As far as PC vs anything else...i see ur points... but can xbox etc...
Listen to shoutcast, ftp to servers, P2P sharing, burn/copy DVD/CD, for these points alone i will always use PC... do u trust the security for personal info on an xbox?
Its a personal preference at the end of the day...as different people find different things/requirements more or less important, u can have a PC hooked to a 40" HDTV easy as pie if u wanted to :D....in interesting point none the less :wink:

Kronikiz
11-12-2007, 05:20 PM
Consoles are just cheaper because they are all manufactured on a massive scale, and because everything is done by as few companies as possible. PC's would cost about the same thing if you were to buy all materials off a wholesaler and build yourself.

I'm bored, so I'll quickly explain shit. Consoles: Parts come from company A and B for really low prices, and are assembled and marketed by company C, D gets the finished product off C and sells it.
Computers: Just about every seperate part will be manufactured by the first company, sold to various companies, then sold to the computer manufacturer, which is sold either directly to consumers, or else to shops, then consumer. This causes prices to skyrocket, because for every part, there is a middle man.
Hell, someone built their own supercomputer (http://www.geekologie.com/2007/09/supercomputer_does_26_gigaflop.php) and it only would cost $1256 to build atm.
Anywho, console games tend to be less first person shooter based, and more driving or adventure or something like that.

Wormz
11-12-2007, 05:37 PM
Music - xBox can do
Gaming - xBox can do
Browsing - xbox can do
Messaging - xBox can do (via WLM, but we cant always have it how we want)

I've got a 360, just like to point a few things out:

Music - XBox can do, but i find it easier to just stick my ipod on as i don't buy any music, just downloads =] but thats me..

Gaming - £5 a month for xbox live and even then most of the servers are in america with retarded americans and 10 year olds yelling at you through their mic's

Browsing - Browsing for game downloads yes, anything else - no

Messaging - Dunno, never really used it as its more convenient to use xfire =]

Basically everything the xbox can do, the PC can do better.

but thats just my opinion, a pc gamer, and console basher =]

Will this generation of consoles be the PC killer, or the next?

Neither. and not the one after that, or after that, or after... well you get my point.
tbh, all you need is a PSP!! =]
DvDs + Music + portable + Games ;)

Immortal
11-12-2007, 07:30 PM
You can never upgrade a games console...PC's will always be in the next generation.

WyrmFyre
11-12-2007, 08:16 PM
Just finished another shift and yet again this was a topic of debate :D (yes we are that sad) On VM it seems the balance is firmly tipped in the favour of the PC but at work its hanging at about 50-50.

A couple more points that were raised; one was the subject of accesibility, which is something I used to get bashed about when I worked as a web developer. For me at least, consoles have simplified the things that they do a whole lot. To load a game, you stick the CD in. To listen to music you press you little xbox button or home button and flick over to your collection of MP3's.

The second is the social side, and this mainly applies to the gaming element. PC gaming for the most part involves one person sat at a PC playing with a group of others online. Yes this is still social in the sense that you are there, with other real people, in various locations around the world, and yes, programs such as TS let us speak, but your not there, in real life, next to your friend(s) enjoying a game over a beer or a coffee.

I dunno, im still stuck on the fence over this one at the moment. I think my comment about consoles killing off PC's may be somewhat brash. I think consoles may take away a large part of the entertainment side of it; entertainment being defined in this case as gaming, chatting, music etc and not the more "hobby" oriented things such as making music or photo editing (hope you get my meaning lol! >< ).

Im starting to wonder if this thread makes me sound like some kind of caveman who has just discovered the wheel a hundred years after it was invented!

Wormz
11-12-2007, 09:52 PM
nah, the caveman theory is wrong,... its more like the caveman who thought a square wheel would be good only to find out that it wont move (don't mean to be offensive)

Kronikiz
11-12-2007, 10:20 PM
I just find consoles too casual, too easy. PC games are far more challenge, and for me challenge=fun. I find PC more sociable too. On the console, its mostly... well pricks, who have mics, who, instead of annoying you because you are shit, annoy you because you're good.
One day, I was playing Halo 3 in a friends house, my xbox live name is ArseGravy, and I was far better than all the others in the server, and every single fucker would not stop shouting my name going "lol, ArseGravy is fucking ownage" "Fucking Arse-bollox won't stop killing me, fucking gay prick" and shit like that.
The PC however, seems to have few of these American fratboy dickheads, and is a much more fun gaming and social environment.

Some_Mate
11-13-2007, 11:32 AM
Lots of good interesting points! yeah :-)

HenryLJ
11-13-2007, 04:08 PM
hooked to a very nice pair of studio monitors..:

Ohh what Studio monitors? i should have a Digidesign 003 Console Factory Edition by christmas and then maybe a set of either Dynaudio Active Monitors or some Genelics

EN4evr
11-13-2007, 05:44 PM
or some Genelics
mine came with me at birth:D

RBlood
11-13-2007, 11:31 PM
Well, I kinda prefer PCs over consoles... In fact one problem I have is that PCs will plug into TVs, but consoles have always been a bitch to plug into monitors... I think the new ones can with an adapter, which is probably out of shear luck that somehow the protocols for HDMI and DVI are similar...

Anyway, I'm a computer science student so erm... I kinda need a PC to do all my programming and office stuff etc. And let's face it, after a couple of decades of PCs they just have more applications for them than any console does, and more cool stuff to play around with :p For me PCs win over consoles easily for anything other than games, for games, consoles can be ok, but only because some of the games on consoles aren't available for PC :( Also console games don't tend to be as modifiable as PC games, like you can usually write cool mods and use the editor etc for PC games, but with consoles, no chance :p Besides, you can emulate console games on PC's after the console has been released for about 7 years :D

Also,
Consoles are just cheaper because they are all manufactured on a massive scale, and because everything is done by as few companies as possible. PC's would cost about the same thing if you were to buy all materials off a wholesaler and build yourself.

You are probably partly right, but they also actually sell their consoles at a loss and hope to make money from the games... Hence, console games are more expensive than PC games, it is also difficult to program console games unless you are a big company who pays for their SDK, because they don't want people making lots of free games and stuff...

Some_Mate
11-14-2007, 09:51 AM
More interesting points.. and yay for FREE STUFF!!!
And henry...speakers 4 x Rogers LS6a/2 i picked up 4 from a liquidation sale for £80!! they didn't know how much they were worth or how good they are looool!
Mine are the Bi-Wired version. They have an amazingly accurate low frequency reproduction, great for programing basslines etc (to keep on topic ish) which u cant do on a console...program basslines that is :-D
http://www.audioenz.co.nz/2004/archive_rogersls6a2.shtml (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogers_International_Ltd)

_edit..put wrong speaker name

PEDRO
11-18-2007, 04:08 PM
i concur with rblood:tongue: