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5 reasons to buy a PC this year
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This doesn't have much to do with PC's, but it's nice.
Why even bother? What's so great about a computer over, say, a PS3 or Xbox360? Chances are that if you haven't made up your mind yet, my article could completely reverse your opinion. Really.
#5: Utility
Big money games companies like to pretend that their systems are cross-platform useful. The PS3's claim to fame is that it's a blu-ray player, a web browser, and a DVD player. The Xbox360 attempts much the same, sans blu-ray. Both Microsoft and Sony think that the many different features offered by their consoles will convince the media hound PC user to convert, thereby assuring their company's huge investment doesn't actually kill their business.
Let's face it: who buys a console to watch movies? Not that people don't use the blu-ray player on a PS3, but do they really pay $400-500 to watch their movies? I don't think so. Xbox-Live has gained a lot of popularity lately, but it's awkward user interface and lack of a keyboard make communicating with people or browsing for what you want a major pain. Would an attractive young lady like the one pictured above buy a console to surf the web? I think the answer is self-evident.
PC's are not only the easiest, but probably the best way to surf the web, import photos and music, and edit movies. When it comes to rendering video data, no console can match a PC. Period. If you need to print a paper, do research for college, pay your bills, make a slideshow, create an iTunes playlist, or make audio CD's, you go to the PC to get it done.
#4: Digital Distribution
Consoles are gaining the ability to download game demos and video previews rapidly. The PlayStation Network allows users to download demos of games they're interested in, sometimes occasionally a full game (in the case of arcade-style games). This has been hailed as a great idea, something that should have been around long ago.
There is one developer who has pretty much cornered the market on digital distribution, and take it from me - they're worth their salt. VALVe software's Steam interface has far and away the best DD system out there. In two steps, you can pay for a game, download it, and have it ready to play within an hour or so (depending on your connection speed). Literally hundreds of games are available, most of them Metacritic's top scorers. Games like Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2, Fallout 3, Dawn of War, Company of Heroes, and more are right at your fingertips. You can download their demos for free and play most of them indefinitely.
Top that off with a good friends system to connect your pals to your games while you play them, a useful interface to browse Steam and your friends profiles in-game, and great patching and downloading, and you get the net's best. Steam automatically keeps your games up to date, self-updates, and informs you of any changes made and what they mean. Half the patches for games on the Xbox360 require you to actually be playing the game before you can patch it, or at least let you know that it needs an update.
Let's face it, kids. PC's have this market set.
#3: Web Communities
So you like to play poker. It's thrilling. Huzzah, cards. One problem: how do you find people who aren't jerks that you can play video poker with? Is there somewhere out there that mature, intelligent gamers can play poker with each other and not become furious internet monstrosities?
I really don't know. But when it comes to PC games, these places exist, and are probably the most useful things around. Try this one on for size to get a good idea of what I mean. Their home page lays it all out for you.
That's just one example. Other popular ones can be very game-specific, and others can be broad like my first example. Most are places that are well-organized, well-policed, and a huge pile of fun to be part of. The more active ones organize events, have their own merchandise, and even hold contests and tournaments for their people to enjoy. If you want a place to relate to those who share your interests, you can do far, far worse than an online web community.
Can you find that on a console? Do you really have to ask me that?
#2: Strategy Games
It's a widely held axiom that strategy games on consoles stink. Really badly. Take a look at how people rated PC superhit Supreme Commander. Massive fanbase, modding community, and great reviews. As soon as it gets ported to a console, it bombs. The difference between a 9.0 and an 8.0 on Metacritic can mean the difference in tens of thousands of sales, and the console port of SupCom got less than a 6.0. Ouch.
Have you ever tried playing a strategy game on a console? It's terrible! Selecting units is a gigantic pain, telling them to do something is even worse, and most of the challenge lies in telling builder units to build things. Instead of worrying about strategy, what your opponent is doing, or how to complete a mission, you worry about telling your anti-air units to shoot at the ground troops that they can't hit but will try to anyway. That's like watching a bunch of penguins try to fly. You start sobbing uncontrollably as your precious resources get swept away like cast-off hair at a barbershop for reformed mullet heads. It's painful, awkward, and stupid, and that's pretty much what every strategy game on a console is like.
There are a select few exceptions, but on the whole, if you want to play a strategy game you have to have a PC. No way around it.
#1: Modifications
Everyone knows that I continually drool over Half-Life 2 and Source engine games. It's a sad fact of life that lately I've had to put a wheeled bucket onto a Roomba programmed to follow me in order to avoid leaving a slippery trail of "Holy crap that's fun" all over my house.
The real reason I love these games so much is because their developers realized an important facet of gaming that consoles simply ignore: you can modify things. Pretty simple, huh? You'd think Microsoft would catch on, considering modifications of the original Halo game for PC took off the minute it was released off-console.
There are entire websites devoted to this stuff. Entire games have arisen based on modding another game's source code and game mechanic, some of them quite fun. I have extremely fond memories of playing home-made mods for the original Half-Life, and it just gets better and better. Mods for Half-Life 2 have gotten really, and I mean really, extremely good lately. Mods have taken over the web in a way that a console game never, ever could. Communities, businesses, developers, and marketers spring up around the simple fact that you can make certain games into what you want. The Unreal 3 engine has more ports into entirely new games than Bill Gates has Xbox underpants. Believe you me, that's a hell of a lot. (Prove me wrong!)
Zombie mods, WW2 mods, Space Simulator mods, even Puzzle mods are cropping up everywhere, and that has made it the perfect time to be a PC gamer. For the price of Half-Life 2, and I kid you not, you can get nine free mods to go with it just by visiting some websites. That's right kids, nine. Pick your drooling jaws up off the floor, order a Roomba with a bucket on it, and start making that "bubbablubbabba" noise as your brain trickles out your ears in shock and awe. Remind me of the last console game that got you 9 fully-fledged, entirely unique game experiences to go with it for under $100. Funny, you must be talking, but I can't hear you. Strange.
In other words:
If you want more bang for your buck, the ease of good digital distribution, communities of friends, strategy games at their finest, and the utility to do what you want, go out and buy a PC. If you want to sit on a couch and get thumb calus from a fighting game, do that too. Just remember that it makes playing piano harder.
