Curious About PC Gaming

BothBarsOn

Hello all,

I've recently started playing games again after a long absence (yes; I'm old). I've got a PS3, which I love, but I've read a lot about the superiority of PC gaming and I'm curious about it. Thing is, I've been a Mac user my whole life and have never even owned a PC, much less a high-powered one. None of my friends are remotely interested in games either, so the upshot is that I've never seen first-hand what all the fuss is about. Is there anywhere in Dublin that might help me put this right? I dunno, a gaming cafe (are there such things?!), an expo of some kind, a plain old shop ... ?

Every time I get close to pulling the trigger on a PC, I remind myself that I'd be spending a lot of money on a completely unknown entity and I shy away.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

petes

To be honest I'd stick with your PS3. To get the most out of PC gaming you would need to upgrde, upgrade, upgrade.

That being said I was in love will my Dell XPS laptop, no upgrading there though.

Are you talking about the superiority in actual gaming or about how well it looks?
.

BothBarsOn

Yeah, that does concern me. I just wonder - if I saw a high-end PC doing its thang, would I be so blown away that I could put up with anything? Or would I say, "It's nice and all but not worth the hassle." I am very happy with my MacBook for computing/PS 3 for gaming set-up, don't get me wrong.

It's just an itch I would like to scratch!

Spear

Try the building and upgrading forum for guides on building decent machines for decent prices.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=842

The comments about the need to upgrade certainly apply to the cutting edge, showcase games like Crysis and whatever ID's latest and greatest is. There are genres where this is much less of an issue, such as MMO's. World of Warcraft us much less demanding for example. If you can give some examples of what you're looking to play we can advise more.

KilOit

Depends what types of games you love
for Role playing games, first person shooters stratagy games and massively multiplayer games i feel the Pc wins,
Ps3/Xbox are good for all games except fps's and mmo's

Don't own a console but they seem to get a much better selection of games than the pc does. Pc market is kinda dying and shifting to mmo games thats where all the money is it seems.

L31mr0d

KilOit wrote: »

Pc market is kinda dying

BopNiblets

Insurgent wrote: »

To be honest I'd stick with your PS3. To get the most out of PC gaming you would need to upgrde, upgrade, upgrade.

Until the PS4 comes out... upgrade upgrade

Neither PC nor console gaming is dying, don't be redonkulous, the games industry is massive and will continue to be so.

Dcully

To be honest I'd stick with your PS3. To get the most out of PC gaming you would need to upgrde, upgrade, upgrade.

Simply nowhere near the truth.
I have 2 gaming PCs, one is 3 years old this month and has never ever seen an upgrade.
It playes every first person shooter mmo, rts etc flawlessly in higher resolution and detail than any console plus being a pc it has superior controls,unlimited options from game mods etc.
I also have a newer machine which is 2 years old and only ever saw a new graphics card which was a couple of months ago, no it wasnt neccessary but i like to run my games at very high resolutions.

Retr0gamer

Upgarding isn't a concern. You will be able to get by on a medium spec PC for practicially all games since they are far more powerful than the consoles and most games are made with the console specs in mind. It will be like this for a while and most PC exclusives are made nowadays to cater to the medium spec PC users, they'll look better on a high spec machine but will be still good looking on a medium spec machine. Also PC parts are dirt cheap nowadays, your can easily build a decent machine for little more than a console.

petes

Dcully wrote: »

Simply nowhere near the truth.
I have 2 gaming PCs, one is 3 years old this month and has never ever seen an upgrade.
It playes every first person shooter mmo, rts etc flawlessly in higher resolution and detail than any console plus being a pc it has superior controls,unlimited options from game mods etc.
I also have a newer machine which is 2 years old and only ever saw a new graphics card which was a couple of months ago, no it wasnt neccessary but i like to run my games at very high resolutions.

I agree with you. I prefer PC gaming to console gaming. From the opening post I got the impression the the poster wanted to play the higher end of games with all the bells and whistles.

BothBarsOn

Don't want to start a row about consoles vs PCs! Just wondering: are there any shops in Dublin where I could judge a decent gaming PC for myself?

cherryghost

theres one blind fact that people always avoid.

pc games are between 15-20 euro cheaper than the console counterparts. buy 20 games and you've got 400 euro to mess around with whatever you want with upgrading, hookers etc etc.

upgrading a pc is also a no goer. a pc can be built and not upgraded for about 4 years if you invest wisely.

at the end of the day yeah, pcs are more expensive than consoles, but not by as much as you think, and you see the balance books even out after a few games bought :P

Shiminay

BothBarsOn wrote: »

Hello all,

I've recently started playing games again after a long absence (yes; I'm old). I've got a PS3, which I love, but I've read a lot about the superiority of PC gaming and I'm curious about it. Thing is, I've been a Mac user my whole life and have never even owned a PC, much less a high-powered one. None of my friends are remotely interested in games either, so the upshot is that I've never seen first-hand what all the fuss is about. Is there anywhere in Dublin that might help me put this right? I dunno, a gaming cafe (are there such things?!), an expo of some kind, a plain old shop ... ?

Every time I get close to pulling the trigger on a PC, I remind myself that I'd be spending a lot of money on a completely unknown entity and I shy away.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

You know what, we're hosting a LAN in 2 weeks (details here) - if you're interested, come on out and introduce yourself (I'm one of the organisers) and we can give you a quick run down of why the PC is king when it comes to gaming There'll be a whole range of people and PCs there from bleeding edge to a couple of years old (my own is 2.5 years old and by no means a monster, but is rarely troubled by the demands of a game).

L31mr0d

A great side of PC gaming also that is overlooked is the aspects of building, overclocking, modding your PC... etc.

I frankly get as much enjoyment out of that as I do actually playing the games. It's also a lot simpler than some would have you believe, don't listen to console gamers who tell you it is a hassle, the feeling of achievement getting a PC built to your needs that gives you 40%+ more performance than the manufacturer intended can't be beaten.

That being said, about mid 2008 I built myself a PC and I haven't upgraded it since. I really can't justify the expense as it plays everything fine and there's still some headroom for more overclocking should I need it. Graphically, PC gaming has stagnated since Crysis set the bar.

On the flip side to this it means you can build yourself a top end PC now for cheaper than ever before.

Coriolanus

BothBarsOn wrote: »

Don't want to start a row about consoles vs PCs! Just wondering: are there any shops in Dublin where I could judge a decent gaming PC for myself?

Honestly, get one built. I know PCWorld sells some gaming rigs and Dell has a gaming series, but honestly, you'll get more bang from your bucks getting a custom build. There's several good places in the city centre that will do it. I got mine from Clone Ireland on the quays.
What you want to do is this. Go to PCWorld or whatever, find a decent specced pc at a price your comfortable with, take down price and specs and see who can beat by how much.
Basically, like any consumer product where there's a large amount of choice, shop around to make sure.

BothBarsOn

Kharn wrote: »

You know what, we're hosting a LAN in 2 weeks (details here) - if you're interested, come on out and introduce yourself (I'm one of the organisers) and we can give you a quick run down of why the PC is king when it comes to gaming There'll be a whole range of people and PCs there from bleeding edge to a couple of years old (my own is 2.5 years old and by no means a monster, but is rarely troubled by the demands of a game).

That's a great offer, thank you. We have a new baby so I can't predict my schedule from hour to hour, let alone weeks in advance, but I'll certainly try to take you up on that. Thanks again!

BopNiblets

Bring the baby along? Plenty of Red Bull and snacks at LANs

As some guys have said, maybe an internet café might have some games on some machines.

jonny72

Go to a LAN if you want the full nerd experience, but by god don't bring any normal people along, go alone.

On a console you generally fire up a driving game or a football game, play a few times, then head to the pub.

On a PC, you don't go to the pub, because a Dutch guy is yelling at you to get your weapon loadout finished and join the decoy fleet which will just be used to bait the Russians in while you stab their allies in the back, all the while you are stuffing pizza in and barking orders at some Scottish dimwit who has warped ahead and is engaging the main fleet.. and so on and so forth..

Console for fun, PC for fetish.

Venom

Dcully wrote: »

Simply nowhere near the truth.
I have 2 gaming PCs, one is 3 years old this month and has never ever seen an upgrade.
It playes every first person shooter mmo, rts etc flawlessly in higher resolution and detail than any console plus being a pc it has superior controls,unlimited options from game mods etc.
I also have a newer machine which is 2 years old and only ever saw a new graphics card which was a couple of months ago, no it wasnt neccessary but i like to run my games at very high resolutions.

Gotta agree with Dcully here as the cost of building a good gaming pc is just not that expensive these days. Yeah if you want to chase crazy benchmark numbers its going to hurt your wallet but gaming is completely different.

Coriolanus

jonny72 wrote: »

Go to a LAN if you want the full nerd experience, but by god don't bring any normal people along, go alone.

On a console you generally fire up a driving game or a football game, play a few times, then head to the pub.

On a PC, you don't go to the pub, because a Dutch guy is yelling at you to get your weapon loadout finished and join the decoy fleet which will just be used to bait the Russians in while you stab their allies in the back, all the while you are stuffing pizza in and barking orders at some Scottish dimwit who has warped ahead and is engaging the main fleet.. and so on and so forth..

Console for fun, PC for fetish.

I wish I could still play EVE.

Overheal

L31mr0d wrote: »

A great side of PC gaming also that is overlooked is the aspects of building, overclocking, modding your PC... etc.

I frankly get as much enjoyment out of that as I do actually playing the games. It's also a lot simpler than some would have you believe, don't listen to console gamers who tell you it is a hassle, the feeling of achievement getting a PC built to your needs that gives you 40%+ more performance than the manufacturer intended can't be beaten.

That being said, about mid 2008 I built myself a PC and I haven't upgraded it since. I really can't justify the expense as it plays everything fine and there's still some headroom for more overclocking should I need it. Graphically, PC gaming has stagnated since Crysis set the bar.

On the flip side to this it means you can build yourself a top end PC now for cheaper than ever before.

Mmmm yes.

Also regarding cost, You have to deduct about $500 from the price of any PC. These are the basics. Youre sitting on them right now to type here, bragging your console up. Doing your homework on. Filing your taxes. Downloading porn and watching movies. Now go add 300-400 bucks of hardware to whatever you own right now, and watch it kick console game's ass. Thats probably what, PSU, some ram, and a new GPU on any machine? My dads office machine plays FSX and Crysis now and it only cost him 200 bucks that i conned him into. 400 if you count the x52 HOTAS

Now for arguments sake take that same 800-900 units of preferred currency and build a brand new machine. Feel free to salvage old parts. You can bone out an old PSU and a Case, that saves 200 bucks. Get a good motherboard, fair ram, good GPU and CPU and youre rocking crysis fullspec in no time. And browsing the web. And doing all your other boring computer crap. 2 in 1! its like a camera phone only much cooler.

0ubliette

Insurgent wrote: »

To be honest I'd stick with your PS3. To get the most out of PC gaming you would need to upgrde, upgrade, upgrade.

That being said I was in love will my Dell XPS laptop, no upgrading there though.

Are you talking about the superiority in actual gaming or about how well it looks?
.

If you build it properly and with decent components the first time, you wont need to upgrade for years. A PC built 2 years ago with a quad core and an 8800GT will still run anything a PS3 or 360 can handle today, and with higher FPS

Matt Simis

There is a use for very fast GFX cards if you have big monitor setups.

I played Wolverine on a PC with an XBOX360 controller. Unlike the Console version, I played the PC version spanned across 3 monitors:



Resolution is 5040x1050, which a single GTX280 handles quite well (not for Crysis though!). It cost me $300 a year ago, cheap IMO.

Youtube "triplehead2go" to see more.

ScumLord

I'm surprised no one in the know has directed you to a pc gaming place OP. They are around, I don't know where they are as I live in the country but I'm sure there's at least one in Dublin, I think the ones in Galway shut down, they're not really as necessary as they used to be now that broadband is more available.

The big benefits of pc gaming are the price of games, you can scale the game to suit your pc and personal preferences. You can plug xbox controllers into it and new games act just like an xbox when you do.

If you start out with a good spec (just get the guys in building & upgrading to pick out parts for you they know their stuff) and build yourself that pc will last you years. I got mine over 4 years ago and it's still going strong, I upgrade a part every year or two. Which would set me back €100 - €200 but it's completely up to you what you spend. I didn't really need to upgrade my pc I just got an itch to do it. The best thing is even after upgrading it's still essentially the same machine and everything that worked on it before will still work.

Upgrading is fun in the same way defusing a boom is fun, it can be nerve racking and you get a big rush when your computer boots without blowing up, but maybe that's just me as I don't upgrade that often.

Going to that lan party would probably be the best introduction, you'll get to see good spec pcs, try out the keyboard mouse combination and see what a tricked out pimp pc looks like.

cashville

I have an Xbox 360, to be honest it barely gets touched except when FIFA/Pro Evolution soccer time comes around every year. Xbox live is a good feature, but it doesn't compare to online PC gaming. The online community of PC gamers is great, countless mods,add-ons,updates extend the life of so many titles (e.g Arma 2 - armaholic.com - the A.C.E mod).

Another reason I love PC gaming - the games! Games like The Witcher, Arma 2,Crysis,Civilisation 4....there are plenty of games that actually challenge you, plus you cant beat the keyboard & mouse for an FPS game.
I remember when I got really fed up with console gaming, I paid around 60 quid for Assassin's Creed. Biggest load of cack I've ever played, it basically holds your hand and walks you through everything.

You should definitely invest in a PC if you feel you will get a good bit of use out of it.

petes

0ubliette wrote: »

If you build it properly and with decent components the first time, you wont need to upgrade for years. A PC built 2 years ago with a quad core and an 8800GT will still run anything a PS3 or 360 can handle today, and with higher FPS

Did you read my second post on the subject?

Agricola

Yeah apart from this time of year when the new Pro Evo comes out, my PS3 rarely gets a run out.
Gaming on a large monitor with a massive resolution just makes console gaming pale into insignificance. You just cant beat the image clarity. Its also great to tinker with games and add content where you can. Something you cant do on console. Alot of top PC games have loyal communities that make tons of mods and extras which really prolong the life of a game. You can also tweak pc games very precisely to suit your hardware, so you can eek out the last bit of performance if need be.

Companion Cube

Im with the pc gaming crowd on this one, lots of really awsome games you cant play anywhere else, and the best versions of the ones you can.

AlmightyCushion

Companion Cube wrote: »

Im with the pc gaming crowd on this one, lots of really awsome games you cant play anywhere else, and the best versions of the ones you can.

Even GTA 4 is better on the pc but only just barely being the **** port that it is.

Burning Eclipse

Go for it OP. At the moment I do a grand total of none of my gaming on PC, but 2 of my greatest gaming experiences have been PC ones. Deus Ex, which to this day I think is one of the greatest games ever made, and Grim Fandango, again, the pinnacle of the genre! I spent countless hours playing Guild Wars online, and with the trailers for 2 I know I'll want to play that too. Not to mention APB. Crackdown (Real-time Worlds last game) is the definition of fun, and APB looks fantastic. I find myself wishing it would come to the Xbox 360, purely for the convenience.

Oh, another thing... I love my xbox 360... perhaps too much, but as good as live is, I've never been in a match with more than 24 players, regardless of game. I rememeber playing Battlefield 2 with more players than that 4 years ago on PC! I know for something like Left4Dead it's perfect because you only need 4 on 4, but some games could do with a boost to the player count. Never an issue on PC!

My laptop still works perfectly, but not for gaming sadly. 1 Gb of RAM, and on board graphics. Hell, Civ IV won't even work, but that's probably because of Vista. Anyways, I'll be getting a new system next year, gonna go all out I think!

OP, go to that LAN that Kharn mentioned, you will not be disappointed!

AlmightyCushion

Burning Eclipse wrote: »

Anyways, I'll be getting a new system next year, gonna go all out I think!

Just on this point. Don't throw €2000 at a laptop for gaming. I've done it, believe me it's not worth it. Spend €1300 on a class gaming pc and spend the rest on a decent laptop. Much better way to spend your money.

ScumLord

Ya laptops are useless for gaming, they really are a dead end street.

indough

agree with the last two posts, laptops are crap for gaming imo

humanji

One point that would make me say that you should stick with your consoles, is that you're used to a mac. PC's and macs are very different animals and considering that you may need to do a lot of tinkering to get some games working at their best (or for some, to get them working at all), it's going to be a huge learning curve. If you're willing to put in the time and effort though, PC gaming is fantastic. Much more versatile than console gaming, IMO.

Overheal

^ yeah but playing a console or playing a PC: its the same thing as taking the bus or owning a car.

indough

i prefer walking

Overheal

indough wrote: »

i prefer walking

youll need these:

indough

nah i think thats cycling, this is walking:

BopNiblets

You can have your RPG and strategy, FPS FTW!

ScumLord

humanji wrote: »

One point that would make me say that you should stick with your consoles, is that you're used to a mac. PC's and macs are very different animals and considering that you may need to do a lot of tinkering to get some games working at their best (or for some, to get them working at all), it's going to be a huge learning curve. If you're willing to put in the time and effort though, PC gaming is fantastic. Much more versatile than console gaming, IMO.

The only time I've had real issues with a pc game was with Half life 2 which I still can't play due to the security they put on the game and the way they don't answer any of my emails.

Windows 7 is much more stable again, even some mac users are saying it's a decent OS and that's saying allot! If you get an xbox controller for the PC you've more or less got the xbox experience only better.

humanji

Personally, I've never really had any trouble running games either, but some people have an awful time getting certain things to work. That's the main problem: it all depends on what you buy. I got Lost Planet with my grpahics card and it refused to work simply because it didn't like my monitor. You'll always get bizarre errors like that with a PC. Sometimes they can be ignored, and sometimes they can't. Where as with a mac, things are more standardised, so you know what to expect.

oceanclub

Insurgent wrote: »

To be honest I'd stick with your PS3. To get the most out of PC gaming you would need to upgrde, upgrade, upgrade

But you really don't... my PC is now 2 years ago and it wasn't incredibly high-end when I put it together. Am playing Batman: Arkham Asylum on it right now, 1650 x 1080, all settings on high, 60 fps, smooth as melted butter. At this point in the console cycle, with most games being multi-platform, PCs are rarely stressed at all, only by the big PC-only hardcore shooters.

I have a gaming PC, laptop, Wii, XBox 360, and DS (well, the latter is my wife's but I, er, borrow it sometimes). Of all these, I do 90% of my gaming on the gaming PC. It's a matter of taste but I would consider PC gaming if some of the following apply to you:

(a) Genre preference: Most of the games I prefer are more suited to a mouse/keyboard combo to a controller - FPSs and RPGs. (I cannot stand playing FPSs with a game controller)

(c) Controller preference: I can only think of arcade games, platform games being and driving games being genres where a gamepad is preferable to a mouse/keyboard. And since I hardly ever play driving games, it's not a big deal. (I did buy Braid on the XBox 360 for that reason).

(d) Comfort: I prefer sitting up in a comfy chair in front of a monitor rather than slouching on the couch when playing - if I'm slouched I'm too comfy, and just crap when I'm playing.

(e) Mods/tweaking/community: Console gaming is primary a consumerist activity - you buy and use a product. PC gaming is a lot more interactive, I find. Even I, a non-coder, have gotten involved in gaming mods and patches (in my case, the Vampire Bloodlines patches). I like that aspect of PC gaming.

Not to mention the fact that it allows you to game on the cheap (buy a copy of the Half-Life 2 pack on Steam for €15, and there's enough mods to keep you going for a year).

(f) Game price difference: Games tend to be cheaper, a _lot_ cheaper. Even first-release games; I got Batman: AA for £16 new! That's ignoring the decent sales you get on online distribution systems such as GOG.com and Steam.

(g) Enhanced older games: It's great not just being able to go back and replay a classic such as the Oblivion prequel Morrowind, but being able to patch/enhance it so it looks relatively modern.

P.

oceanclub

L31mr0d wrote: »

That being said, about mid 2008 I built myself a PC and I haven't upgraded it since. I really can't justify the expense as it plays everything fine and there's still some headroom for more overclocking should I need it.

Yep, it's funny when I hear people complaining that PC gaming means having to constantly upgrade. I've been trying to justify getting new components to myself for the past six months and I can't, since my PC pretty much plays everything at full whack. I WANT to upgrade, dammit.

P.

Overheal

BopNiblets wrote: »

You can have your RPG and strategy, FPS FTW!

If youre going to go to the trouble, I like Warhammer (That's Cycling)

ScumLord

oceanclub wrote: »

Yep, it's funny when I hear people complaining that PC gaming means having to constantly upgrade. I've been trying to justify getting new components to myself for the past six months and I can't, since my PC pretty much plays everything at full whack. I WANT to upgrade, dammit.

P.

Lol, I went ahead and upgraded recently even though I didn't really need to. I had the cash and planed to do some overclocking so that's how I justified it, I also managed to convince myself that my motherboards old and if I don't put in a new cpu now they might stop making them meaning I won't be able to upgrade it.

superfly

my pc is 3 years old and would have normally upgraded by now but since i bought a new graphics card earlier in the year it is still doing the business
So it looks like it will be next year before i'd consider upgrading again, on those results it looks like you can get away with high end gaming for 4 years with 1 gpu upgrade in the middle
Places like Komplett, Ankermann and computerplanet can make you some great high end gaming machines for not too much money

BothBarsOn

Hi all,

OP here again. Thanks everyone for the replies (I'm new on boards.ie and I'm impressed!).

I think I'll take the coward's way out and get a MacBook Pro with a 9600m. That way I can at least get a taste of PC gaming (and more importantly, Windows 7) via Bootcamp. I'll be missing out on the high-end, obviously, but I'll learn enough from older games to know if I fancy taking the plunge with a proper gaming PC next time I'm in the market for a 'pooter. And I know, I know, I could get a kick-ass PC for much less money, but it's too much of a risk.

Thanks again.

leninbenjamin

Christ no not a macbook! You could buy yourself a decent specced laptop and build yourself a mid range gaming machine for the price of a decent macbook!

Best thing for me about PC gaming anyway is the mouse. It's not that I don't like the Xbox or PS3 controllers, it's just that a mouse gives so much more freedom and comfort imo.

Manic Moran

PC, PC, PC...

Granted, I play games which aren't suited for consoles to begin with. If I'm playing Steel Beasts Professional or Falcon 4, which uses every key on the keyboard to include Shift, Alt and Ctrl combinations, there's not much a console can do to keep up. Upgrading the games with the latest patches and mods is something which, I believe, most console games cannot do either.

I did buy a laptop for gaming, but mainly because I do a lot of long-term travelling. Can't really drag the desktop out with me to a war zone. That said, my old desktop at home served me well for about four years, with only minimal upgrading if any. (New DVD drive for burning, and I upped the graphics card a bit).

NTM

hooradiation

As if in reaction to this very topic, my PC has decided it doesn't like doing what it's supposed to anymore and has simply stopped working. Now begins the long process of finding out what the hell is on it's period so i can replace it.

Thankfully i have a DS and Wii, so I have something to do while I play hunt this down.

PC gaming, it's fantastic, no really.

(and I'm posting this from my netbook, before anyone gets shirty)

jonny72

BothBarsOn wrote: »

Hi all,

OP here again. Thanks everyone for the replies (I'm new on boards.ie and I'm impressed!).

I think I'll take the coward's way out and get a MacBook Pro with a 9600m. That way I can at least get a taste of PC gaming (and more importantly, Windows 7) via Bootcamp. I'll be missing out on the high-end, obviously, but I'll learn enough from older games to know if I fancy taking the plunge with a proper gaming PC next time I'm in the market for a 'pooter. And I know, I know, I could get a kick-ass PC for much less money, but it's too much of a risk.

Thanks again.

Oh god don't get a macbook! you can get a PC laptop that does everything the macbook does and then have enough left over for a budget gaming PC!