The Glade 4.0

Can't quite go that far myself. For one reason, and I know personal taste has a sizable influence on this, is that for the past several years, for every PC RPG that's come that I've really liked, there's been a half dozen console RPGs that I've liked nearly as well.



Only partly agree with this one too...and I was a huge Ultima fan in the old days. IMO, I'd have to say:

FF7 > Ultima 1, 2, 3, and 5
FF7 = (or close to) 4, and 6
FF7 < Ultima 7, and 7 part 2
FF7 >>>> Ultima 8 and 9.

Oh, let's not forget how atrocious VATS targetting is on console vs. PC.

And "adequate" was a poor word choice, I was hedging in case somebody brought up the half-assed click-to-move option KotOR added instead of giving the camera a better PC-oriented control scheme.

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Missed this question.

It's not quite console vs PC, but, Unreal Tournament on the PS3 does let you play with mouse/keyboard, and it's a server option wether or not to allow the two to mix.

Really? I never had a problem with it on my console at all.

_________________

Holy shitsnacks!

I would argue the three games I listed above are the greatest strategy games and I don't see how you could port any of them to a console in any playable way. I've seen them try to port Civ and other similar strategy games to the DS and they were godawful. YMMV.

_________________

With consoles supporting mouse/keyboard now, it wouldn't be so bad.

You must be machine psychic. I played it on both, and am glad I got the PC for myself, because trying to cycle body parts on the X-Box VATS was infuriating -- I couldn't figure out any rhyme or reason to how it decided what to switch to next. With a PC, you click where you want to shoot with your mouse cursor.

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

I still disagree. While the consoles are now down to $300 it has taken years for them to reach that. In addition, my PC is used for a lot more than games, but even so, there is no need to spend over $1000 for a gaming PC unless you want the latest and greatest. It is easy to buy/build a gaming PC for $500-$600, and far less if you want to use 3-5 year old technology.

Also, there is no reason to update your entire computer every year/two years, unless again you want to spend the money to be on the front end of technology. My current PC, complete package, including 22" ultra-sharp flat panel monitor was under $800 four years ago and still runs current games without problems (Dragon Age being the latest purchase) and has not been upgraded or had parts replaced.

While we are at the "comparing" price thing, don't forget to add the cost of the TV you are plugging your console into as well. Dollar for dollar it would be easy for either (PC or console) to spend a lot or spend a little, but saying one far exceeds the other doesn't seem the fair assessment to me.

_________________
Gorse

I don't see how that's a point in your favor. While yes, it's taken years for consoles to reach $300, that's because they used to be $100. They're way UP in price with each new console generation.

A low end gaming PC and monitor isn't going to come in much under $1000. The cheapest reasonable gaming video card costs as much as a PS3 on its own. Nothing you built for $500 will look half as good as a 3 year old PS3 or Xbox360. (And this is coming from a person who much prefers PC gaming).

A high end gaming computer will easily break $2000. But a $600 PC is likely to have integrated intel video, a hard drive that will be full in a week, and a 3 generations old CPU -- likely single core at that. And that's without a monitor or operating system.

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Not at all.

A quick search turned up a $489 computer with 6gb DDR 2, dual core E5300 2.6 Ghz, 1 TB HDD, Windows 7, DVD-RW, etc on Tigerdirect.com. A video card that will run pretty much anything short of Crysis can be had for under $100 now.

And if I were to find the parts and assemble it myself, I could easily come in under $489, probably with video card.

I think the last PC I built handled LotRO like a dream for $350ish (went cheap on it because it was a second PC.) I think the PC we built for Ber went even cheaper than that, IIRC.

As for the monitor, well, I just plugged it into the same display I plug my PS3 to, so if you want to add that cost to the PC, you'd have to add it to the PS3 too.

Or, for $499 (Plus display), this would run pretty much anything out there quite adequately

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... =N500-3000

First of all, that CPU is crap. If I were going to go something that low end, I'd get an AMD Phenom...the new phenoms run faster, cooler and cheaper than anything in the Core-2 line. On the Intel side, the i5 is as low-end as is worth buying on a new gaming PC.

Secondly, how are you getting off playing current games on anything less than a Radeon 4850 (which is still rather long-in-the-tooth. I would go for anything less than a directX 11 5800 series or higher at the moment, or else I'm better off gaming on my PS3.)

I can't build a gaming PC even close to $600 from any PC store i've found. This place has good prices -- http://www.lucomputers.com

Hell, a PSU capable of handling a reasonable video card is going to cost $100 on its own.

edit -- That "barebones" system you posted after needs another 2GB for a minimum memory configuration, but that's minor. The video card is suspect, and it's a power hog. That thing doesn't have enough power to reliably run its own parts. It also doesn't has about a quarter of the hard drive space I've already got used...on a 5 year old computer. It also lacks an OS ($120) and monitor ($200).

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Don't act like you wouldn't have a TV if you didn't have a console. They are separate expenses.

Furthermore, if you have a TV, you may have a console, even if you never game at all. The PS3 is worth it just as a media box.

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

And anymore, it's trivial to just plug the computer into that same TV. *shrug*

It's been many years since I've had to buy a seperate computer monitor hehe.

Talya, your bleeding edge is showing.

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

You don't need an i5 yet to run anything out there quite well. I've still got PC's sitting here far older that'll still get 30+ FPS in Dragon Age, Mass Effect 2, etc, and is something you could probably build for $300-$350 now.

Possibly not, but if you're not getting an i5 or better, you're better off going with AMD, as I said. The new Phenom Quads are cheaper, cooler, use less power and perform better than the Core 2 line. They're actually what I'm looking at right now.

Kaffis: I generally clock in at about half the "bleeding edge" prices when pricing out a gaming PC. That's why I started them around $1200 (The most I can reasonably justify paying, the least powerful I'd consider getting).

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Well, that's not a computer I would buy personally. It was just a quick search result, that showed you could get a lot more than you claimed you could get for $600, for a lot less than $600 now. =)

Edit: Though I keep my main system pretty bleeding edge, if it were to burst into flames and I had to start over, I'd be quite happy gaming on a PC that I could build for under $400 while I wait for the new GeForce cards to come out to rebuild it.

Except ATI is better :p

Its hard to be bleeding edge with a blunt knife

_________________

Holy shitsnacks!

Well, as i said, it needs at least another another 2 GB of RAM ($50), a 1TB hard drive ($100), a stronger PSU (even for what it already has to power - $75), better video card ($220 for a Radeon 4890 if you want to go with an older, budget card, or $330 for a Radeon 5850 if you want something DX11 compatible), in addition to an operating system (Windows7 Home Premium 64 $140), and possibly a monitor ($200 for a cheap samsung 22")


Much.

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Apples, meet oranges :p

ATI/Geforce = Vid cards

_________________

Holy shitsnacks!

Well 1) If you're going to add all that stuff, I wouldn't add it to that PC, because you could do it a hell of a lot cheaper.

And 2) You don't *need* all of that stuff. People have been building Crysis capable machines for $500 for awhile now. The one I linked, one of the comments said it was getting 35-40fps in Crysis on high settings even, so you wouldn't *need* to buy another $300 video card, etc.

Wait...you don't need an operating system? And Windows will barely run on 2GB of memory, not to mention that Windows+Crysis (I have no interest in Crysis, but it seems the comparison to make, even if it's over a year old) and you've got a full hard drive. :p

Let's put it more simply:

The $500 you quoted is less powerful than a PS3, and could have been topped by a reasonable gaming computer 2-3 years ago. It's not a gaming PC. Just because you can game on it, doesn't make it a gaming PC.

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... CatId=3669 $91 Card
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... CatId=4297 $130 CPU
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... u=C13-6084 $75 4gb RAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDeal ... mbo.325690 $110 Case/650watt PSU
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... =H450-9002 $85 TB Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6823109156 $22 Keyboard/Mouse
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... 1362%20OEM $28 DVD drive
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... u=V18-2234 $159 22" Monitor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6832116754 Windows 7 $107

Just peaked over $700 for a computer system that would rock any game out on the market with no issues, and with a lot of room to cut costs further (I didn't spend time hunting for the cheapest, just basicly clicked something that showed up on the first page for each category, and everything on there is more than you need to run everything). Even included the monitor which is arguable because these days you can plug it right into whatever the PS3 is plugged into.