Lucas Gardner
ljgarnder@lc.edu
Q: I’m a new gamer, and was wondering about your opinion on if I should get a PC or a console for gaming? Y’know, asking for a gamer.
A: Ahh yes, the age-old question amongst the gaming community, PC or console? Well, I’ll do my best to answer that question from personal experience. But first, ask yourself, “What do I want in a gaming system? Do I want to have top of the line frame rate, or graphics?” Maybe it’s not about that at all. Perhaps you just want to become a part of a specific community that is only on a PC platform. Ultimately, the choice is yours!
I was a console gamer for the majority of my life, much like many of us gamers. When I got my first job, I wasn’t looking online for the hottest new PC build to blow all my paychecks on. I was spending my money on a new PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 games. Granted PC gaming wasn’t that popular at the time (at least to my knowledge), and everyone was buying capture cards. Does anybody else remember capture cards? Like I was saying, I was primarily buying console games.
I’ve since moved on from buying console games, and now I’m buying games on steam and looking at OBS or Twitch for recording and streaming instead of capture cards. The PC community has increased greatly over the past few years, and now streaming is more popular among not only gamers but for everyone. I’ve seen streams about everything from everyday life to people streaming art and much more. Most of these people use a PC for these kinds of things, but I digress.
Personally, I like using a PC much more than a console. You have a variety of things you can do with a PC that you can’t do on a console. For example, you can do what’s called “modding” which is easier on a PC than on PlayStation or Xbox. What is modding? Modding basically allows you to download content that isn’t in the original game released by the company. The modding community all work on ideas and format it so you can add it to your game. On a console, you can’t easily decide one day, “Oh I want to change the textures of this game to a more HD version,” because that style of mod may not be compatible with the console, but on a PC you can. Perhaps you want to add some non-legitimate downloadable content such as changing the colors of certain outfits for your character or you want characters to play different roles than they do in the original story. On a console that freedom is greatly restricted and not really “allowed”. It’s still possible on PlayStation and Xbox but limited greatly.
Another big thing PC has over console is frame rate and processing power. What is the frame rate? It’s best described as frames in which the game transitions from screen to screen. All consoles are locked at 60 frames per second or FPS. PCs, however, don’t have this restriction. Therefore, often game cameras feel and look much smoother in transition. What is processing power? Well, it’s basically the way the system processes micro-processes. The more processing power the better. A minor point but worth mentioning is RAM or random access memory which allows for the system to store more information and has a large influence on performance.
Overall why do I think that PC is better than console? You have much more you can do with a PC when it comes to modding. If something breaks you can spend less money fixing it (depending on what tier of computer you have.) If a console breaks you can’t just by a part you have to buy a whole new system or ship it off and have it restored or fixed. You can upgrade a computer by only buying one piece at a time. With a console, you have to wait for years at a time for something new. With a PC you would have better processing power, ram and often framerate.
Ultimately it’s the best gaming experience! Thank you, dear readers, this has been “Asking for a Gamer.” If you have a “Gamer,” you’d like to ask a question for, please email me! You are able to submit your questions to my email at ljgarnder@lc.edu!
