By Luke Kirby
As I sat here and look at my current setup I have my Wii U, PS4 and beneath both of them is the beast that is my gaming PC. Honestly, it’s my favourite platform to game on. I’m going to list my reasons why I believe it trumps the console counterparts. I also promise to try and avoid a “PC Master Race” standpoint.
So let's take a look at the glorious world of PC gaming!
As I sat here and look at my current setup I have my Wii U, PS4 and beneath both of them is the beast that is my gaming PC. Honestly, it’s my favourite platform to game on. I’m going to list my reasons why I believe it trumps the console counterparts. I also promise to try and avoid a “PC Master Race” standpoint.
So let's take a look at the glorious world of PC gaming!
Of course it’s only natural to start with games, seeing as we’re talking about gaming on the PC. Now I don’t think it’s a lie when I say the PC, by far, holds the largest and most diverse catalogue of games, spanning numerous generations of consoles including an array of exclusive titles, big AAA games/franchises and a vast amount of indie titles to boot.
Particularly with the bigger titles, especially those that were only available on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Playing on the PC is the only way to get the true graphical capabilities to do them justice (if your system, particularly GPU, is beefy enough). Now I’m aware that graphics aren’t everything but when you play Bioshock Infinite and view the floating city of Columbia on the highest settings in 1920x1080, it’s very difficult to imagine it in any lower quality. Honestly I’m yet to experience any game at a lower resolution. While graphical superiority is a given with higher end systems, by far one of the greatest benefits of PC games are the prices (and subsequent sales). At the time of writing, the 2K Humble Bundle is live for the lean price of jusy $20.00, around £12.00 for us Brits. For this you get the Bioshock trilogy, The Bureau: XCOM Declassified, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Spec Ops: The Line, Mafia II and The Darkness II, with more games yet to be announced. On consoles, altogether this bundle would cost you maybe in excess of £50.00. There are also Steam daily deals. Steam sales can admittedly bleed your wallet a bit, but it’s worth every penny and offers much better value for money than the sales available on consoles. Even new games or those yet to be released can be found for a much more satisfying price than their console rivals.
But money is one thing. Personalisation of a virtual world is another!
Let's take a look at PC Mods.
They can range from anything such as patches fixing bugs in the game, texture packs making the game look even better with regards to lighting, environment, characters and so on. Items that individuals have created can be included, a better UI (User Interface), new characters, new environments with most notable being a mod (created by Alexander J. Velicky) of his own land called 'Falskaar' for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim which took him a massive 2000 hours to create and added an extra twenty-five hours’ worth of adventuring.
Particularly with the bigger titles, especially those that were only available on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Playing on the PC is the only way to get the true graphical capabilities to do them justice (if your system, particularly GPU, is beefy enough). Now I’m aware that graphics aren’t everything but when you play Bioshock Infinite and view the floating city of Columbia on the highest settings in 1920x1080, it’s very difficult to imagine it in any lower quality. Honestly I’m yet to experience any game at a lower resolution. While graphical superiority is a given with higher end systems, by far one of the greatest benefits of PC games are the prices (and subsequent sales). At the time of writing, the 2K Humble Bundle is live for the lean price of jusy $20.00, around £12.00 for us Brits. For this you get the Bioshock trilogy, The Bureau: XCOM Declassified, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Spec Ops: The Line, Mafia II and The Darkness II, with more games yet to be announced. On consoles, altogether this bundle would cost you maybe in excess of £50.00. There are also Steam daily deals. Steam sales can admittedly bleed your wallet a bit, but it’s worth every penny and offers much better value for money than the sales available on consoles. Even new games or those yet to be released can be found for a much more satisfying price than their console rivals.
But money is one thing. Personalisation of a virtual world is another!
Let's take a look at PC Mods.
They can range from anything such as patches fixing bugs in the game, texture packs making the game look even better with regards to lighting, environment, characters and so on. Items that individuals have created can be included, a better UI (User Interface), new characters, new environments with most notable being a mod (created by Alexander J. Velicky) of his own land called 'Falskaar' for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim which took him a massive 2000 hours to create and added an extra twenty-five hours’ worth of adventuring.
While there are many games that include the use of mods, my favourite is without a doubt Skyrim. I had already owned the game on the PlayStation 3 but when I got my new PC I had to own it again. I was able to download various mods which made the game all the more enchanting and addictive as it was when I first played. For starters, I had installed a different UI which allowed better in game menus allowing neater inventory arrangement (which spoke much more to my slight OCD nature). Better lighting and textures were a must for me once I knew the game could look even better than its Ultra settings which made the large open lands even more exciting to explore. Then of course I had to find mods for my 'Jon Snow' character, so naturally I found mods for Nights Watch armour/clothing, his sword 'Longclaw' but I was unable to find a mod to have his loyal Dire Wolf Ghost as a companion. I settled for the next best thing though and had Amaterasu from Ōkami for an equal substitute. Oh and my character also has a home in a Hobbit Hole because… well because I can and that’s the beauty of mods.
Now sometimes I feel a bit nostalgic, or there’s a game I know I’ve missed out on and have no way of playing on the console it was intended for. So what do I do?
Quite simple.
I’ll give an example. Once, I attempted to hook up my Pikachu-themed Nintendo 64 (which is also my favourite console design ever) to my TV, but alas it was not meant to be. It worked for but an hour, I turned it off then came back to it to find a blank screen with the “no signal detected” flash up after a while. I honestly came close to crying but fortunately for me I remembered I could simply play them on my PC and the emulators can range from an Atari 2600 to a Wii. Of course you can configure it so your keyboard and mouse are the controls in use, which can be bested by no controller with regards to First-Person Shooter games, but you can just as easily hook up any controller you want. You can use an Xbox 360 controller if you wish, Wii remote configuration (which is a must for Wii games), even the Dualshock 4 or the Xbox One controller which only requires you to have the correct drivers installed to use. It may take some slight work and time to set up configurations but believe me it is worth it.
Quite simple.
I’ll give an example. Once, I attempted to hook up my Pikachu-themed Nintendo 64 (which is also my favourite console design ever) to my TV, but alas it was not meant to be. It worked for but an hour, I turned it off then came back to it to find a blank screen with the “no signal detected” flash up after a while. I honestly came close to crying but fortunately for me I remembered I could simply play them on my PC and the emulators can range from an Atari 2600 to a Wii. Of course you can configure it so your keyboard and mouse are the controls in use, which can be bested by no controller with regards to First-Person Shooter games, but you can just as easily hook up any controller you want. You can use an Xbox 360 controller if you wish, Wii remote configuration (which is a must for Wii games), even the Dualshock 4 or the Xbox One controller which only requires you to have the correct drivers installed to use. It may take some slight work and time to set up configurations but believe me it is worth it.
Finally, another aspect I love about PC gaming is the ability to upgrade your system to suit your needs and give extra power to your gaming experience. I’ll use the example of my system.
I still have slots for extra RAM should I ever need it, however I find 8GB is more than enough for my gaming experiences to run perfectly. If I ever run out of storage on my current hard drive (which still has over 400GB memory despite having roughly 50 games currently installed on it) I can simply add another. Actually I can put three more if I ever feel the need to do so, arranging the entire system to my needs. I will strongly suggest that if you own a PC and don’t have an SSD (Solid State Drive) for your operating system, get one and marvel at the loading times (or lack thereof). Currently I have one GPU and a XFX brand AMD Radeon HD 7870, and pretty much every game runs on “high” or “ultra” settings in full HD (1902x1080). Again, should I feel the need to I can add up to another two graphics cards or just upgrade my current one. While next-gen consoles have problems with running games at a native resolution of 1920x1080 on the PC gaming front, 4K gaming (that’s a resolution of 3840x2160 with four times as much detail as 1080p) is a playable option. Dishonored (pictured) looks magnificent like this, and this game is two-years-old now.
Even though in no way will 8K gaming be a playable concept anytime soon, it is a thing. Look at these 8K resolution screenshots for Crysis 3 from 'K putt' and try not to weep at all the glorious pixels.
I still have slots for extra RAM should I ever need it, however I find 8GB is more than enough for my gaming experiences to run perfectly. If I ever run out of storage on my current hard drive (which still has over 400GB memory despite having roughly 50 games currently installed on it) I can simply add another. Actually I can put three more if I ever feel the need to do so, arranging the entire system to my needs. I will strongly suggest that if you own a PC and don’t have an SSD (Solid State Drive) for your operating system, get one and marvel at the loading times (or lack thereof). Currently I have one GPU and a XFX brand AMD Radeon HD 7870, and pretty much every game runs on “high” or “ultra” settings in full HD (1902x1080). Again, should I feel the need to I can add up to another two graphics cards or just upgrade my current one. While next-gen consoles have problems with running games at a native resolution of 1920x1080 on the PC gaming front, 4K gaming (that’s a resolution of 3840x2160 with four times as much detail as 1080p) is a playable option. Dishonored (pictured) looks magnificent like this, and this game is two-years-old now.
Even though in no way will 8K gaming be a playable concept anytime soon, it is a thing. Look at these 8K resolution screenshots for Crysis 3 from 'K putt' and try not to weep at all the glorious pixels.
Glorious PC Master Race strikes again!
The fantastic thing about PC gaming is that it gives you so many options that are otherwise closed off on consoles. You’re more than welcome have a ridiculous system that plays the latest game on maxed settings with a 4K resolution which will of course be pricey. Or a more modest build to begin with that you can upgrade as time goes on which is what I plan to do.
Are you a PC gamer or do you stick to consoles only? What are your thoughts on PC gaming?
Are you a PC gamer or do you stick to consoles only? What are your thoughts on PC gaming?
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