The Red Comet

Piracy on PC >>>>>>> piracy on consoles, worldwide, anytime. This is fact. Don't bother contesting this one.

I've been a PC gamer most of my life but have recently admitted that consoles are a much more elegant gaming solution.

There are many console exclusives that many ppl consider significant milestones in gaming that will never make it to PC. There are entire genres of games that are best experienced on the console too. One of the reasons I switched to consoles is that I couldnt get those games on PC. Consider Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, Okami, God of War, Ninja Gaiden, Final Fantasy, Grand Turismo, Metal Gear Solid. Consider that entire genres are better on the console like sports games, other racing games, action adventure, 3rd person games. Hell, CoD4 is better on console because you cant cheat online. Try it on PC, its almost totally ruined by cheaters..

The simple fact that there are people that prefer console over PC means that PC isn't the ultimate experience. To use mva's analogy, who would turn down a ferrari over a toyota? No one. But I know many people, myself included, who would turn down PC gaming over consoles.

baccardi84

Pc gaming make consoles look like a bad compromise and thats all they are.If you dont believe that then your kidding yourself.Sure i own some consoles but they are left by the wayside 90% of the time just gathering dust and some consoles out there arent even fit for those duties.

UFO

proust

Many people prefer sitting/laying on their couch wathcing a big screen tv rather than sitting at a desk and staring at a monitor.

Many people prefer popping in a disc and just playing, rather than installing, patching, resolving conflicts and other errors.

Many people prefer value for money.

Many people prefer the quantity and quality of console titles that never get on the PC. It's also true vice versa, but if you don't play world of warcraft or the sims or rts, isnt console almost always better?

Also, piracy really hurts the PC. When devs have to decide where they are going to put their resources, it's almost always a better business choice to make a game for a console.

Also, how can you call PC the best gaming experience possible when you can't even play GTA4 on it?

baccardi84

People are too hung up in numbers these days. You can fool any CS gamer for example to think they run the game at 100fps by telling them to turn off vsync. They just like SEEING the NUMBER 100 when in fact it's a lot lower.

McKack

@bobbytomorow: True, true, just went with the most common setup. And managed to mistype the aspect ration...

ara

I_fit_in

poke50uk

"Look, in widescreen, you can see my hands when my arms are open".

and I went

"sure, genius, if you told your cameraman to zoom out just a bit in standard ratio I'd be able to see your hands, too."

Plus, you could go and say:

"Look, in standard screen ratio, you can still see my head when I stand up!"

solar_tf

SegevRaz

bobbytomorow

Laser_iCE

@0479: Most entertaining crash simulator maybe.

@willyolio: The given resolution is for two 24" 16:9 screens, not three.

ara

0479

Slash3

willyolio

If I may suggest something: Turn off, tune out, and drop in.

homernoy

Uh, if I follow your meaning.

Atheist Jew

You also have to phone the car dealership once a week to get permission to drive your Ferrari.

Many Ferrari's won't be able to use every type of fuel without having some work done to the engine.

And fewer and fewer gas stations will stock the only type of fuel you can use in a Ferrari, because people keep driving off without paying.

V1L3

Well, some places (Tiger Direct AFAIK, maybe other places) bundle processors, memory, and a motherboard together.

I just found a motherboard (SLI-capable, although I don't know if that's a motherboard-based thing or not) that comes with 2 GB of dual-channel 800 Mhz DDR2 RAM and a Q6600 processor for $390. You're downgrading the processor (the one you chose was top-of-the-line, so that's not saying much :P) from 2.66GHz, with a 12MB cache, and 1333MHz FSB to a 2.4 Ghz, 8 MB cache, and 1066MHz FSB, which is still more than enough to handle most games out there, plus you get your motherboard and your RAM (though you should probably get more than 2 GB)

So yeah, PC gaming is far cheaper than people think, you just have to know where to look.

That motherboard, a GeForce 7600 GT (512, factory OC'd), and a decent power supply, and the rest of your parts (as well as OS and case) you can just cannibalize from your pre-existing computer.

That's basically $550 for a rig that can (to use the universal benchmark) run Crysis, and probably pretty well at that.

man in gauze is king ramses II, silly.

My first real test for those cards though, was Bioshock. A DirectX 10 title that was written up as being hardware intensive. To my suprise, the game rocked, and I finished the game before I upgraded to two 8800GTS's (G92).

homernoy

Specs (that matter):

AMD Athlon 64 X2 2.2GHZ
4 GIGS DDR RAM
8800 GT 512.

When I bought the system 2 and a half years ago I put a 7800 GTX 256 card in there and could still run Crysis beautifully at medium settings. With the recently purchased 8800 I have no problem running the game mat max settings, and I doubt I'll need to upgrade any further within the next couple of years.

It is absolutely not necessary to build a super awesome "god-in-a-box" computer to run today's latest PC games.

Atheist Jew

My next rig is going to be SLI again, and I am moving up to DDR3. The cheapest mainboard on the market is priced at $327.00 online. DDR3 is much more expensive.

Of course I am talking about this two moniter hyper high-def type of setup when I talk of state of the art. I can't afford another moniter @ $600, and the ulta widescreens have not been released yet.

For PC gaming on a functional level without breaking the bank, what you have listed is accurate to a T. I get so sick of people confusing how much you can spend on a cutting edge PC and what you need.

I kind of blame Alienware and Voodoo for their $10,000 PC's. I don't know if they still make models at that price range, but they did for quite awhile, and many people noticed this and ran away from the PC.

homernoy

430 Watt Antec PS - $60
320GB HD, SATA - Free from my old PC :)
and my random mobo is an ASUS P5K.

Also, you could drop the memory to 3GB to save some coin, because that's the max XP will recognize anyway.

Cogito

Intel Q9450: ~$370
Random motherboard: ~$100-$150
4GB DDR2 800MHz RAM: $120
OC'd NVidia 9600: $200 (And that's only because it includes Call of Duty 4)
XP Home or Vista Home Pre.: $100-$170
Total: $890-$1010

That seems pretty affordable to me, especially since that Quad-core CPU will probably last quite a while before going obsolete.

Maltose

homernoy

PC Gaming = Ferrari. They're beautiful, expensive, over-the-top, and the best experience possible on the market. They're just aren't enough people out there who can afford it to realize it.

mva5580

LordMagnusMastah

Atheist Jew

In other news, did they happen to announce an expected timeframe for release?

Magnum1024k

ostartero

Gantz: Your Trusted Friend in Science.

This is pure awesomeness. I hope those ultra wide LCD's come out soon. The one from NEC looks very cool. I think Asus showed one off as well.

homernoy

Roflcopter_Down: Wants you to follow HIM!

RaepGoblin

Seeing the middle of the screen in a Burnout game is pretty important so having them separated might create some visual perception issues.

cactaur

ninjikiran

warpped655

Yuki

CitizenInsane27

wait... what?

AntiZERØ

Don't get me wrong though, looks great. Have had the game from Gamefly for almost two months now, and should probably just buy it already.

aveneyer

kosbee

PatMan33

aveneyer

I expected it to look like that, but really, it didn't seem to look like that to me. The vertical height was the same as a regular resolution, it was just really wide. Looked fantastic to me. Like, really fantastic. I'm not quite sure why either O_o

Mit

Seriously though, I don't think you know what you're talking about. This is great.

Woodwater

Muffin_Man

TOCATL

Overdoing it much...?

Car2oon

half-beast

Which is what I always thought about widescreen anyway. I mean, I accept it nowadays, and I think it even makes sense because it sort of mimics the viewing "screen" area you get from your own two eyes... but this up above, it's just silly :P

solar_tf