The "General Games Chat" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.
For years the computer industry has seen sales of PCs increase exponentially, this year however has seen sales of home PCs drop for the first time. Only last week Intel announced another profits warning indicating that this slowdown has now started to hit even the big boys. The question is not what does this mean to the industry, but what will this mean for us, if anything?
Well for many of us PCs are our main games machines, yet to play the latest games we keep having to buy the latest graphics cards, and of course make sure our cpu's are up to the job. This has until now been acceptable to most, however some of us obviously can’t justify these seemingly increasing expenses for only minor improvements. Whereas before PCs became so mainstream PCs were seen as an investment because of the software applications they can run such as wordprocessors and web browsers, nowadays the PC cant offer us much more than what our old PCs already can and so the consoles are starting to rule the roost.
In spite of the slow down in desktop PC sales, sales of laptops are still increasing indicating that the public as a whole are now more interested in style and portability than how many MHz the processors in their machines are. The Playstation2 will soon get a harddrive and a modem allowing users to get online quickly without having to go through the hassle of getting their PC online. Plus the Playstation 2 is cheap enough so that one could be bought for every room in the house that has a TV in it. The Xbox from Microsoft will soon be on sale in the US, and will be here in March next year and Microsoft also dreams of people having more than one Xbox per household, at best one per TV set.
The Xbox will offer a cheap solution for people who want to play top quality games, and get online without having to shell out for new hardware every 6 months. Does this mean the end of PC gaming?? Possibly not after all the Xbox is basically a top end PC in a small box, so one would expect the PC to get games ported from the Xbox. After all whose going to spend £200 on a graphics card when for £300 you can get an Xbox that will have great games coming out for it for the next 5 years??
The Desktop PC and the Console world are about to merge, and the battle will heat up this November. Hopefully the victors in this will be us, the gaming public.
Hopefully the games can only get better as a result. : - )
Well for many of us PCs are our main games machines, yet to play the latest games we keep having to buy the latest graphics cards, and of course make sure our cpu's are up to the job. This has until now been acceptable to most, however some of us obviously can’t justify these seemingly increasing expenses for only minor improvements. Whereas before PCs became so mainstream PCs were seen as an investment because of the software applications they can run such as wordprocessors and web browsers, nowadays the PC cant offer us much more than what our old PCs already can and so the consoles are starting to rule the roost.
In spite of the slow down in desktop PC sales, sales of laptops are still increasing indicating that the public as a whole are now more interested in style and portability than how many MHz the processors in their machines are. The Playstation2 will soon get a harddrive and a modem allowing users to get online quickly without having to go through the hassle of getting their PC online. Plus the Playstation 2 is cheap enough so that one could be bought for every room in the house that has a TV in it. The Xbox from Microsoft will soon be on sale in the US, and will be here in March next year and Microsoft also dreams of people having more than one Xbox per household, at best one per TV set.
The Xbox will offer a cheap solution for people who want to play top quality games, and get online without having to shell out for new hardware every 6 months. Does this mean the end of PC gaming?? Possibly not after all the Xbox is basically a top end PC in a small box, so one would expect the PC to get games ported from the Xbox. After all whose going to spend £200 on a graphics card when for £300 you can get an Xbox that will have great games coming out for it for the next 5 years??
The Desktop PC and the Console world are about to merge, and the battle will heat up this November. Hopefully the victors in this will be us, the gaming public.
Hopefully the games can only get better as a result. : - )
Page:
I for one am sick of upgrading my cpu, ram and my graphics card juts to play a new game.
Don’t get me wrong I love my pc games but without the Ram, cpu power and graphics your game could run very slow.
As said in the original post who would buy a £300 graphics card when you can have an x-box for £200ish and great games will be coming out for the next 5 years!
In a few years we will have to upgrade again to play Half-Life 4 or Quake 7.
And me.... I’m short of cash, as always, so I don’t think I will be playing HL 4.
Don’t get me wrong I love my pc games but without the Ram, cpu power and graphics your game could run very slow.
As said in the original post who would buy a £300 graphics card when you can have an x-box for £200ish and great games will be coming out for the next 5 years!
In a few years we will have to upgrade again to play Half-Life 4 or Quake 7.
And me.... I’m short of cash, as always, so I don’t think I will be playing HL 4.
I like my computer to do everything, including gaming. I prefer a keyboard and mouse to a controller any day. In fact, my computer does just about everything I want from the technological world.
+ Hacking
+ Games
+ Television
+ Movies (DivX etc)
+ Communication
+ IRC
+ Email
+ Web-based Forums
Et cetera. Basically, what I'm saying is that I wouldn't pay for a console when I could have a higher quality, more watchable, immersive gameplay experience with my computer.
PC Gaming won't come to an end anytime soon. The future is more likely to be a combined experience, and this is where the line becomes somewhat fuzzy..
Is a PS2 + hard disk drive a computer?
Is a PS2 + hard disk drive running Debian Linux running Mozilla/Galeon for WWW, with Spruce for email, XChat for IRC and running Unreal Tournament 2 on its accellerated X server a computer?
Quite soon the only visible difference is whether it's plugged into a TV or not.
+ Hacking
+ Games
+ Television
+ Movies (DivX etc)
+ Communication
+ IRC
+ Web-based Forums
Et cetera. Basically, what I'm saying is that I wouldn't pay for a console when I could have a higher quality, more watchable, immersive gameplay experience with my computer.
PC Gaming won't come to an end anytime soon. The future is more likely to be a combined experience, and this is where the line becomes somewhat fuzzy..
Is a PS2 + hard disk drive a computer?
Is a PS2 + hard disk drive running Debian Linux running Mozilla/Galeon for WWW, with Spruce for email, XChat for IRC and running Unreal Tournament 2 on its accellerated X server a computer?
Quite soon the only visible difference is whether it's plugged into a TV or not.
You upgrade your console by buying another console. Its better than buying a booster pack, like Sega did with the 32X, cos then when games are made for it they have a restricted audience.
Its a massive bonus consoles have over PCs, that they dont need to be upgraded. The spec is always the best at the time, and by the time the gap between their spec and the latest spec get too big, they make another console.
Every game made for that machine plays on that machine, because the setup is the same on every machine. Writing PC games involves eith making it crap so the poor people can play it, or putting in loads of spec options. None of that malarkey with consoles.
Its a massive bonus consoles have over PCs, that they dont need to be upgraded. The spec is always the best at the time, and by the time the gap between their spec and the latest spec get too big, they make another console.
Every game made for that machine plays on that machine, because the setup is the same on every machine. Writing PC games involves eith making it crap so the poor people can play it, or putting in loads of spec options. None of that malarkey with consoles.
The Xbox console has a very long list of ad ons most notably the Xbox game controller, RF lead, Memory unit, High Definition AV Pack, DVD Movie Playback kit, Advanced AV Pack, Xbox Headset. No doubt youll be able to by a USB keyboard and mouse sometime soon after that to.
The question is will the consoles ever get a decent hardware upgrade??? People dont tend to upgrade consoles.
The question is will the consoles ever get a decent hardware upgrade??? People dont tend to upgrade consoles.
PC's are and will be upgradable, all the time. New components are made all the time, and people want the best.
The same is actually true for consoles. At least every month, a new peice of hardware comes along that could really improve a console. But they dont have upgrade possibilities.
So wheras new generations of PC appear every month, and consoles only appear every 5 years or so, consoles are actually just skipping out generations.
If we say the PSX was first generation, the PS2 is probably actually 23rd generation hardware.
That is why I beleive consoles will soon have nearly as much upgrade options as a PC.
TheBest: Who's 'soon' means around 5 years!
The same is actually true for consoles. At least every month, a new peice of hardware comes along that could really improve a console. But they dont have upgrade possibilities.
So wheras new generations of PC appear every month, and consoles only appear every 5 years or so, consoles are actually just skipping out generations.
If we say the PSX was first generation, the PS2 is probably actually 23rd generation hardware.
That is why I beleive consoles will soon have nearly as much upgrade options as a PC.
TheBest: Who's 'soon' means around 5 years!
The Xbox should be popular with PC owners, so long as Microsoft keep the price of the games in line with the price of PC games.
I mean just look at the price of a top Graphics card like the ATI All in Wonder, or whatever its called...itll set you back over £200. Ild sooner buy an Xbox than upgrade my PC only to be dissapointed a year later when my graphics card becomes yesterdays news.
Nintendo and Sony should be scared of the Xbox.
I mean just look at the price of a top Graphics card like the ATI All in Wonder, or whatever its called...itll set you back over £200. Ild sooner buy an Xbox than upgrade my PC only to be dissapointed a year later when my graphics card becomes yesterdays news.
Nintendo and Sony should be scared of the Xbox.
Codejunkie, eh? Haven't visited that site for ages. You see, I don't cheat (much) anymore.
I remember when people were predicting an end to PC gaming before the X-box was even announced.
It's just another topic which tries to put down the PC and make consoles look better.
e.g. Consoles vs PC
It's just another topic which tries to put down the PC and make consoles look better.
e.g. Consoles vs PC
That's why I fear the Xbox...
Page: