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PCs

94 (91.3%)

Consoles

7 (6.8%)

Hand-helds

2 (1.9%)

Total Members Voted: 103

[lumin]

The thing that a lot of people argue about in favor of Consoles, is that they are more stable and less buggy than PC games.  I actually disagree with this.  I think most Console games are just as buggy as PC games at release, it's just that we get used to it.  Whereas, on a PC, we set higher standards and expect patches to come.

[Zangi]

In the end, I encourage people to go PC because it teaches them to maneuver in a technological world with an iota of self-sufficiency. I've taught friends who were computer illiterate to do things like install their own drivers, understand their configuration settings and solve their own problems.

As I was reading this thread, firmly on the fence and with no intention to even go to the effort of voting, I saw this. I think it's a constructive way to look at it, and I agree.

And yeah, Dwarf fortress.

That is assuming that most of us Console players here don't double dip...

[Sir Pseudonymous]

There used to be more rigorous testing on consoles, since they couldn't be patched after release so if you fuck it up, you're fucked. Now that they can be, they just shovel them out the door.

[lumin]

There used to be more rigorous testing on consoles, since they couldn't be patched after release so if you fuck it up, you're fucked. Now that they can be, they just shovel them out the door.

I don't know if that is even necessarily true.  I was just playing some old NES roms the other day and noticed how many bugs there were like getting stuck in walls, freezes and other glitches.  I think back then, though, we just looked past the bugs and had fun anyway.

In fact, I would go so far to say that the bugs in the games were part of what made them so fun.  For example, the original EverQuest and Ultima Online was loaded with bugs and stupid design ideas.  No sane MMO developer would release a game in that kind of state today (unless you made Darkfall or Mortal Online , yet those of us who were around back then loved it and still love it today. 

I think bugs are probably a bit overrated (at least the non-game-breaking ones).  These days a developer only hears the squeeky wheel, IE people nit-picking about little bugs and therefore spends more time on polish.  When, in reality, the vast majority of players probably dont care that much.

[HideousBeing]

Bugs can be really fun. An easy example is QUAKE. If you play the QUAKE Live game online they teach you how to do many bugs that allow you to run faster and jump farther, but it adds a lot of the competitiveness and fun to the game.

I also love being able to beat Zelda: Majora's Mask in the first three days (not counting the ones to get your ocarina) using sequence skips and stuff... or at least get the hookshot before the forest temple.

[Grakelin]

I remember the shortcut through a certain part of Karnak where you could subvert an entire zone and avoid the mobs while travelling by sliding up a wall.

Iksars could not do it, though, because their tails would get stuck.

[Sir Pseudonymous]

That's not to say there weren't bugs, but that they generally devoted more resources to catching them before release. I also don't believe that really applies to when dev teams were three people and a variable number of squirrels or their equivalent, either...

[Giant Snowman]

What about mice? I hear the PS3 has one now. Does it work for RTS and FPS games?

[olemars]

You can connect any USB keyboard and mice to the PS3. I've yet to see a game that supports any other input method than the gamepad though.

[nenjin]

I remember the shortcut through a certain part of Karnak where you could subvert an entire zone and avoid the mobs while travelling by sliding up a wall.

Iksars could not do it, though, because their tails would get stuck.

EQ did coin the "it's not a bug, it's a feature!" meme, after all.

[GlyphGryph]

Point arguing for cheapness of console - I almost always buy my consoles used, and I generally only purchase 3 or 4 games for any given console. Which can often then be traded in for a 5th game if I don't have any friends willing to swap games (I usually do).

Even at 60 dollars a pop for games, that still means I'm paying less than 500 dollars for console entertainment.

As to the PC controllers - just because they look like a decent controller don't mean they are, and finding one that IS halfway decent is incredibly goddamn difficult (I know, I've tried). I mean, I haven't looked for like a year and a half, so maybe something impressive has happened since then, but the one's I've used were all terrible (and it was difficult to get some games to work with them properly).

[Sean Mirrsen]

I've had no problems whatsoever with my Thrustmaster Dual Trigger Wireless. Except the receiver's been dropped a little too often, so it needs to be slightly "fixed" every once in a while to make it work. The only problem I've encountered was that the creators of the N64 gamepad were out of their minds when designing the thing. I can't rightly imagine someone actually using that center stick and its trigger. I've had to map one of the two custom triggers to the second stick's "down", and map that to the Z-trigger in the emulator. I can't aim and shoot anywhere otherwise.

It's actually fairly easy to find good controllers if you know what you want. It's just that some games don't properly support the things.

[sluissa]

As to the PC controllers - just because they look like a decent controller don't mean they are, and finding one that IS halfway decent is incredibly goddamn difficult (I know, I've tried). I mean, I haven't looked for like a year and a half, so maybe something impressive has happened since then, but the one's I've used were all terrible (and it was difficult to get some games to work with them properly).

Buy a third party wired Xbox 360 controller. It just plugs into USB. Works almost flawlessly with a large number of games. Especially console ports.

[Heron TSG]

As to the PC controllers - just because they look like a decent controller don't mean they are, and finding one that IS halfway decent is incredibly goddamn difficult (I know, I've tried). I mean, I haven't looked for like a year and a half, so maybe something impressive has happened since then, but the one's I've used were all terrible (and it was difficult to get some games to work with them properly).

Buy a third party wired Xbox 360 controller. It just plugs into USB. Works almost flawlessly with a large number of games. Especially console ports.

Yeah, I've found that you can find USB-capable peripherals for most any game system.

[Akura]

What'll be really cool is when we have a PC emulating a console emulating a console.

If you get a SNES ROM of Super Mario All Stars NOT THAT I ENDORSE THIS ACTION you might actually have that. Or N64's Pokemon Colliseum, which most certainly had a GB Color emulator.

I also love being able to beat Zelda: Majora's Mask in the first three days (not counting the ones to get your ocarina) using sequence skips and stuff... or at least get the hookshot before the forest temple.

Err, isn't Ocarina of Time, not Majora's Mask?