6 Reasons PC Gaming Is Better Than Console Gaming

Please, for the love of any deity that you may believe in, ignore the title of this Pop-Off. It is, admittedly, more than than a little clickbaity, only the SEO team says it's the type of hot content that a large swath of gamers Google on a regular ground. So, in a way, this commodity'south beingness is partially your fault. Looking into the mirror ain't always pretty, is it?

Though the title may not be something I can get behind (I know, I know, my name is attached to it, only hey, I gotta pay bills and this is only pocket-sized-league soul-selling), at that place is some truth in it. I recently penned a piece detailing how ditching consoles for a gaming PC improved my life, a far more nuanced arroyo to the aforementioned topic. Now, with a corporate gun to my head, I'm going to smash the metaphorical big, red button and launch this brutal take.

So, here are six ways PC gaming is better than panel gaming.

You Don't Demand to Pay to Play (With Others)

Imagine living in a nightmare age in which console gatekeepers demand that you pay an access fee on top of your already existing internet connection so you can play online games with friends. Unfortunately, you don't demand to sleep to feel the awfulness.

Microsoft (with its $9.99-per-month Xbox Live Gold) and Sony (with its $ix.99-per-month PlayStation Plus) are very happy to squeeze a few extra dollars out of their fan bases with paid multiplayer services. And Nintendo, with its "I learned it by watching yous" online outlook, plans to follow suit in September 2022 with a somewhat-mysterious paid multiplayer service that eliminates the visitor's electric current costless offering.

Sure, these companies toss a diverseness of bonuses your mode to mask the e-mugging, but the games vanish into the ether should you end subscribing.

PC gaming, on the other hand, has no such shenanigans. When my homies and I desire to mix information technology upward in Dragon Brawl FighterZ or Rocket League, we needn't worry virtually whether or not nosotros paid the multiplayer tax.

You lot Don't Demand to Look to Upgrade

Cryptocurrency-related graphics card shortages aside, at that place's cypher stopping PC gamers from updating their gaming desktops right at present. With a screwdriver, a steady hand, and a little gumption, PC gamers tin can supervene upon their computers' GPUs, CPUs, RAM, and storage at their conveniences.

This ability to exist on the curve, or far alee of it, is an attractive PC gaming element, equally it directly impacts your gameplay experience in terms of resolution and frame rates.

For instance, my Nvidia Geforce GTX 970 GPU lets my PC run Metallic Gear Solid Five: The Phantom Hurting at lx frames per second and 1080p resolution, with all the visual settings jacked to maximum. But if I wanted to experience Big Boss' final risk in 4K and without major performance shortcomings, I'd need to swap in a beefier bill of fare, such as the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Founder's Edition. And I could.

Unfortunately, console gamers cannot upgrade their systems' guts salve for their boxes' hard drives. Just Microsoft and Sony would happily sell you new systems—the Xbox One X and PlayStation Pro, respectively—that offer debatable improvements.

You Don't Need to Spend a Lot on Games

I of the biggest knocks against PC gaming is its upfront toll, just people who strive to exist honest in their PC/console comparisons must factor in the aforementioned free online multiplayer play AND super-cheap games.

Steam, GOG, Humble Bundle, and Amazon run gaming sales on a regular basis; sales that see fifty-fifty deeper price cuts during, say, the holiday season. Gamestop, Walmart, PlayStation Network, Xbox Alive, and Nintendo eShop have their sales, sure, but they don't oft match the ridiculous price slashes. In fact, I make the bulk of my game purchases during Steam sales, times when select titles hit the 66 percent or fourscore per centum discount mark.

You lot Go Excellent Astern Compatibility

This was one of the all-time things nearly the firing up my Steam business relationship on a then-new Windows ten PC gaming rig—all the games that I purchased on my old Windows vii laptop worked without a hitch. In fact, I simply have one game, a disc-based version of Outrun 2006: Declension two Coast, that simply refuses to play. And thanks to emulation, the PC is pretty damn expert in regards to games preservation.

Microsoft, I must admit, is making good strides in the console space. Cheers to the Xbox Backward Compatibility plan, you can play select Xbox and Xbox 360 games on the Xbox One, Xbox One S, or Xbox One Ten. In fact, if you ain a Xbox Ane Ten motorcar, the former games that yous have in either concrete or digital form receive functioning boosts. Microsoft also offers the $9.99-per-month Game Pass, an all-y'all-tin can-swallow, Netflix-manner service that includes Xbox 360 and original Xbox games.

Sony has fabricated some rather interesting moves to enable astern compatibility, such as letting yous stream PlayStation 3 to your PlayStation 4 (or, shockingly, to a PC!) via PlayStation At present for $19.99 per calendar month. I signed up to stream PlayStation 3 games to my gaming PC, and found the entire experience unworthy, with lag and artificating being the major issues.

Equally for Nintendo, you can expect retro games on the Nintendo Switch, but don't hold your breath for the return of the Wii's wonderful Virtual Console, a platform that emulated popular and somewhat obscure video game consoles.

It'due south the Dwelling to Large-Ticket Esport Games

If y'all have dreams of netting big bucks past playing video games, you better become a gaming PC. Esports-worthy games likewise exist on consoles, of class, but the real money is on the personal figurer.

Last year, Dota 2 and League of Legends, 2 of the near popular video games on the planet, dominated esports earnings. If you want difficult numbers, here yous go: The Dota 2 International'southward prize pool topped $24 million, while the League of Legends World Championship roughshod just shy of $5 meg. So, go those mice and keyboards ready, and prepare to grind.

Yous Can Live the Modern Life

A gaming PC is a full-fledged personal reckoner, different consoles that are kinda-sorta calculator-similar devices. Every bit a result, y'all can modify games to give them features that aren't a part of the intended feel.

Take you seen the late, great Manlike Man in Skyrim? Or, the boob tube-similar camera angles in Fire Pro Wrestling World? Those additions come via the wonderful modding community, a wizard-like collective that makes the magic happen.

It'southward PC Gaming or Bosom…Correct?

And that's why PC gaming is superior to console gaming, friends. That wasn't so bad, was it? I like to think that I took the inherently ghastly take and gave it a decent argument. Although I generally hold with the sentiment (the Switch is the first console I've purchased since the Xbox 360), I would never trash consoles; some of my favorite games of all time haven't (legally) made their means to PC.

Likewise, possibly one day I'll be called upon to list the ways in which console gaming is superior to PC gaming.