Why PC Gaming Rules

December 30, 11:35 AMPC Game ExaminerBryan Edge-Salois

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PC World's Matt Peckham has a great read on 15 reasons PC Gaming beats all.

I don't think that many of Matt's reasons are 'slam dunks', but here are two of my favorite excerpts:

Keyboard and mouse beats all.
"We've yet to see an interface as intuitive and broadly commanding, including (without question) Nintendo's Wiimote and nunchuk."

Online PC matchmaking is free.
"...It's worth remembering that online PC matchmaking and multiplayer are, and always have been free. It's not a luxury item, it's not a special service, it's not a value proposition -- it's an entrenched and completely reasonable customer expectation."

Most of Matt's reasons ultimately boil down to the PC's superior flexibility over consoles. Many PC games ship with editors and built-in support for user-made content, for example, and hence offer a lot more potential long-term play. Finish off Neverwinter Nights 2 or your favorite first person shooter? Odds are there's a already a huge mod-making community out there with tons of free content waiting to be tapped -- for free.

On the down side, PCs are more complex, more expensive, and generally a bit more fickle than consoles. Not all games work as well from one system to the next, and some may not work at all.

However:

• The price advantage of consoles has eroded -- consoles are more expensive than they used to be and PC's are less expensive than they used to be.
• Windows XP and Vista windows Vista have helped make PC gaming much more reliable than it once was. (Sorry Linux and Mac lovers, but your platforms still pretty much suck for gaming.)
• Consoles aren't as iron-clad as they used to be with regards to reliability and bug-free games. I'd probably take a Blue Screen of Death over a Red Ring of Death any day, generally speaking.
• PCs (naturally) offer far greater functionality than consoles-- email, Web, etc.
• There is an ocean of free games and entertainment on the Web if you're willing to look for it -- including arcade and older console emulators and free ROMs to download. (Sure, not all of them are good, but it's still an ocean of opportunity for inexpensive/free games.)
• PC gamers are smarter, more mature, and get more dates than console gamers. (OK, I made that one up.)

You can read Matt's complete article at PCWorld.com here

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