Transition from consoles to PC platform....

johnk123

OK, so, basically, i'm thinking of selling up my consoles(PS3 60GB, xbox360 premium, and a wii) and getting setup for pc gaming. From what i'v been reading over in "building & upgrading" forum, decent gaming rigs can be got for very competitive prices.

So, to explain why i'm querying about the transition, i'll just state what type of gamer i am. I am definitely NOT a hardcore gamer. I rarely play my 360 as it is. Wii was fun for family occasions, but manly i use the ps3 for COD4 online which i really like, fifa 08, gtaIV, some driving games. Just your regular mainstream games.

I am however worried about some things. Firstly, COD4 is one of my fave games we play for the online multiplayer. But where i'm stuck is the keyboard and mouse controls. I always read about how its the best control form, but i'v never gamed on a computer before...... well the sims is as far as it goes.

Please, help me here....... what do you think of this plan to sell the consoles and switch to a desktop for games.

mayordenis

overall for a game like COD4 it may take a little time but you will find it the best and most enjoyable way to play - I would however be a little worried about the idea if you still wanna play games like fifa and driving game - like me - this is where pc gaming falls down - especially when it comes to sitting around with a few mates playing some local multiplayer - if there's anyway you can keep maybe one of your consoles then go for it

4Xcut

Well, there's no doubt that it is a different experience. I personally wouldn't mind having a nice gaming rig as there's a few games out there that i would love to play.

As regards the controls for FPS games and the like: I was also skeptical when i started pc gaming and i was completely unjustified in it. It is the way to control a game, not the best way, THE way. It works amazingly.

Personally i wouldn't advise selling all your consoles as the pc will leave no or extremely limited scope for multiplayer with people there. Over the net, there is obviously lots but with people in the room, there is none, unless you are talking about worms or what-not.

johnk123

Yeah, that's my worry you see. i feel that adjusting to the keyboard and mouse will just take time, but for just thrashing the city in GTA IV, or playign some fifa with a few friends or my brother i might get stuck.

What does anyone else wish to add??? I apprecriate any response

EDIT, also, which console to keep would be a biggy. HOw much roughly would i get if we sold all three?? (all are perfect, with a few games each, and the original boxes)

monument

Try before you switch - maybe at an internet/gaming cafe?

And remember there can be quite a different experience playing from a desktop or laptop compared to using a TV and a controller.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

you can play fifa and racing games on the pc, no bother at all.. you just need to get a second controller. looks far better on pc as well,well most games.

monument

But I'd say it's quite diffrent then playing it with a load of lads in somebodys living room on a big screen.

johnk123

Yeah, fifa on a big screen is class. BUt lots of friends of mine have consoles, so i doubt i'll be losing out too much. One of the big factors too i cost over the time.

Take example the current console collection we have. If you add up the money we've spent over the times, its just crazy. We're not even hardcore gamers, Like is say, its COD4 online that i like really. And thats only on occasion.

When say a new "something" comes out for gaming rigs. Just rip out your old one, and but in a new one. Cheaper than buying a whole knew console.

I'm still undecided! ARGH!

Conar

You can get a USB Wireless dongle which allows you to use your 360 joypad on the PC. Handy for the games like Fifa etc.

I play both PC and consoles quite regularly and find I swing from one to the other.
Online play is never as well organised between friends on the PC as is with XBOX Live but then the graphics are better on the PC and its easier to play FPS's with a mouse.

johnk123

Your not making this easier! lol

I never knew about that conar. A 360 controller would be great for the likes of fifa with my brother or a friend.

As for online with friends, i dont use xboxLIVE. Just, like i'v said, cod4 online with some randomers, or if someone organises a party thingy.

On a side note to people, how much do you think i could get total for the 3 consoles??

Conar

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/x/xbox360wirelessgamingreceiver/

I picked one up in Game (or whoever bought out Electronics Boutique in Liffey Valley) for €14.99 IIRC.

johnk123

Conar wrote: »

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/x/xbox360wirelessgamingreceiver/

I picked one up in Game (or whoever bought out Electronics Boutique in Liffey Valley) for €14.99 IIRC.

It may sound stupid, but that 14.99 add on is making the whole thing seem alot easier. I'm checking adverts now on rough prices so i'll have an idea on how much i'll make.

Should i sell to the nice folk on adverts, or try ebay. I think i'll try adverts if i decide to go this way. I wonder would anyone consider buying all three off me???? HMMM??? Post it with the title "gaming Bundle" lol

S.I.R

Depends on the game you play imho... COD4... anyone can play and win, Counter strike.. .a fair bit of practice is required...

Benzino

I am mainly a pc gamer myself, but I do have a PS3 and 360. For me, pc gaming is the best. No doubt about it. You will get used to playing games with the mouse and keyboard. In fact you will realize what you have been missing out on all these years playing FPS's without them!!

In fact, I believe (but don't qoute me on this), the ps3 version of UT3 has mouse and keyboard support. So if you are really worried about it, it might be won't renting ut3 out and playing it with a mouse and keyboard to get the general feel of it (it will be more fluid on a pc/laptop though).

Just like every one else, I would suggest you keep one console though for games like GTA.

You mention cost of console gaming. Yes, pc games are cheaper, but most of (if not all) new pc games require pretty fast machines to run on. And a pc that can play a new game on high settings today, might not be able to do so in 6 months, let along a year from now.

Azza

I don't agree with Benzino. A decent balanced rig bought today will last 18 months to 2 years. At least thats what I have found with my last few upgrades.

johnk123

But say, when that two years comes around, can i not just take out say, the graphics card, and put in a new one??? Therefore making my rig future proof...... well, for a while anyway.

ANYWAY, and update, i'v been playing cod4 on a friend of mines laptop for the last while(Its an alienware) and i have to say, even though it was just playing through the levels, i really liked it. I'm gona meet up with him again 2moro and play online. Its a bit fiddly using the keyboard, but the time that it takes to use the keyboard, is made up for by the quickness of the point and click mouse interface.


Thanks for everyones reply's btw

MooseJam

and people were saying pc gaming was dying pfft

ironictoaster

MooseJam wrote: »

and people were saying pc gaming was dying pfft

Who???

johnk123

OK, My friend left me his laptop for the night! Yeah!! And left me crysis, WoW, and cod4..... And got me online on cod4. So far, i'm loving it. he showed me WoW for like 10 mins, and like, wtf??? I presume it takes a while to get the hang of it. Not really my thing though. This laptop is only playing crysis on a mix of medium and high settings and its running beautifully........ the realness of everything is great.

My mouse is a bit crappy though, so its a little jumpy if i move really faast to shoot something. Is this the start of my PC Gaming??

Stev_o

Has anyone else experienced friends saying the most stupid sentence ever "Keyboard and mouse is so easy all you got to do is point at head and click and your done" =/ stupid console gamers

johnk123

Stev_o wrote: »

Has anyone else experienced friends saying the most stupid sentence ever "Keyboard and mouse is so easy all you got to do is point at head and click and your done" =/ stupid console gamers

EH??? I never said it was easy, i just said that i like the point and click thing....... works very well IMO. Much easier that using an analog stick

Stev_o

johnk123 wrote: »

EH??? I never said it was easy, i just said that i like the point and click thing....... works very well IMO. Much easier that using an analog stick

I wasnt saying that directly to you :P i was saying in general alot of console gamers think its the easiest thing ever since you just point at head and shoot with the mouse =/

grimm2005

damn! you've made me really wanna start building a new rig as my current one is useless for new games and my XPS laptop is getting older by the minute.

I'm playing primarily xbox atm as a stop gap until i'm in a position where i can afford to splash out on a new good rig.

I'd say deffo go for it. its just so much nicer having everything in one place. like the internet, games, work etc etc (inlcuding all your classic old favourite consoles on your desktop ). also as has been mentioned mouse and keyboard setup is far better in most games i would say rather than just FPS's. the places where it would fall down are racing and sports (the driving in GTA being a notable exception to this) but all you need to do is hook up a pad for those rare few games.

Also, the back catalogue of games is ridiculously large, spanning a few decades. being able to play crysis, monkey island, super mario world and sonic 3 and knuckles on one machine is awesome :P

johnk123

Yeah, i never thought about the back catalogue of games available. I think i'm gona go for it actually. I'll hold my consoles till the end of the summer, then let them all go on adverts.ie. And i think i'm gona start looking at gaming rigs prices etc etc

Thanks for the reply's everyone

conzy

You can get a gaming PC for 400 euro that will kick the crap out of any current multiplayer game and any multiplayer game on its way in the next 2 years or so...

The beastly 8600M GT in my laptop even churns out 100+ fps in COD4

L31mr0d

it really is a balancing act. I wouldn't recommend fully making the switch to PC gaming as there are still a lot of great titles coming out that are exclusive to consoles.

Pick the 2 consoles you play on the least and sell them, then use that money to buy a mid range PC. Keep an eye on adverts and you coull build a killer pc for a shoestring. An 8800GTX, a E8400 and 4GB of PC2-8000 RAM could be picked up for next to nothing.

johnk123

Another dilema now. The two consoles i play the least are the wii and xbox, but i dunno how much cash i'll actually get for the two of them. You see, i wasn't planning on adding to much cash towards a gaming computer, but thought that if i sell all three i could get near the 1000 euro mark.

I need a monitor aswell you see

4Xcut

Unless you are selling a good few games with them, you will not get near the thousand mark with only giving the two away. Your best bet is to look at adverts for components as others above have said.

The only thing is that when you build your own pc, you'll end up in a much better psoition to fix things that go wrong and also to upgrade without getting ripped off as time goes by. This is worth a good bit of cash in itself.

LegacyUser

You will also lose money putting them on adverts.ie I reckon, they seem a bit cheap over there...

If i were you, i'd sell them in the buy and sell or even ebay.

MooseJam

you can pick up a decent pc on adverts for 6-700 yoyos

johnk123

I wouldn't get a second hand pc. I'd prefer just to have the peace of mind with a new one.

Anyway, OS X is my primary OS so i'll either get a decent pc for dedicated gaming only, or, buy a license for windows and bootcamp my games on a powerful mac. I'll see.

Ivan

mayordenis wrote: »

overall for a game like COD4 it may take a little time but you will find it the best and most enjoyable way to play - I would however be a little worried about the idea if you still wanna play games like fifa and driving game - like me - this is where pc gaming falls down - especially when it comes to sitting around with a few mates playing some local multiplayer - if there's anyway you can keep maybe one of your consoles then go for it

Thats not entirely true... you can get Fifa/Pro Evo for the pc and use xbox controllers. Its actually the prefered setup in my opinion. But OP he makes a good point. You are probably better off holding onto at least one of your consoles and getting a good budget gaming PC to compliment it.

grimm2005

johnk123 wrote: »

Anyway, OS X is my primary OS so i'll either get a decent pc for dedicated gaming only, or, buy a license for windows and bootcamp my games on a powerful mac. I'll see.

Not tryin to be anti-mac or anything (horses for courses and all that) but that sounds like a slightly messy setup and while i'm not exactly sure, i doubt macs have many options for upgrading as opposed to say a custom built PC with all your own parts

Maximilian

It sounds to me like the OP's favorite genre is FPS games. That being the case, the PC is the best platform going for those.

If it were me I'd try to keep at least one console though.

stevenmu

Gaming PCs can be very cheap if you keep an eye out, I picked up one of the sub-€200 dell pcs that were on the bargain alerts forum a few weeks ago, spent less than €200 again putting another 2gb of ram and a 9600GT graphics card into it. It makes for a very decent gaming pc for about €350 Keep an eye on the dell threads on bargain alerts, and for components on adverts and you can build a decent gaming pc for the price of a new console.

Kinetic^

I think an important part of what the OP should be looking at is the type of screen he wants to play on. No point in having a good PC if his screen is going to have a 20ms delay on it (if he buys LCD that is).

johnk123

Yeah, you see, i need a monitor anyway.

@stevenmu, thanks, i'm taking a look at that right now

Kinetic^

johnk123 wrote: »

Yeah, you see, i need a monitor anyway.

When picking a monitor, you need to check for response time and refresh rate (Hertz/Hz). There's also no point in getting a large widescreen monitor if your graphics card is not up to much as you won't get decent FPS in game.

gamer

if you want to play games like ut 3,crisis buy a pc ,bootcamp wont run games at full speed ,pcs are cheaper ,mac s are expensive to upgrade, a pc with dual cpu ,2gig ram 8800 card will be ideal for games, unless you really need to run mac software ,and you can use an xbox controller on winxp pc,s.IT might run older games ok,circa 2004 eg ut 2004.

johnk123

Thanks for the input guys...... most of my questions from now on will be about components etc. And they'll go in the "Building & Upgrading" forum.

Thanks again.