This topic desperately needs a new thread.
I’m quite biased because I think consoles are for fags but here we go, some PROs and CONs.
CONSOLES CAN:
-Never have to worry about “omg will this game run on my system plzzzzz answr!!1”
-Good for actual human interaction via playing with 4 or whatever people who actually exist in the same room at the same time.
-Quite a large development industry ensuring lots of new game releases. Hell they’re still making games for the PS2 ffs. When was the last time you heard of a reputable PC game developer making a game that could run on a Pentium III with 64mb of RAM?
-Geared for fast-paced arcade games.
-Are cheap as shit compared to good gaming PCs.
-Are somewhat mobile as you can bring your little console to other peoples’ houses and plug it into any TV and play from there.
-Console games SOMETIMES provide for quite indepth singleplayer games moreso than PCs because even today multiplayer aspects of consoles are quite limited. This is unlike PC games where development focus is overwhelmingly steering towards multiplayer because of the idea that the masses want multiplayer and also because its easier to produce a multiplayer game with absolutely no story, AI mechanic or event scripting and the like where you don’t have to worry about making a “deep” story-driven game, because all anyone cares about is teabagging other human players.
-No WoW.
COMPUTERS CAN:
-Be upgraded. This means that PC game developers are constantly working to improve games in all areas whereas console games are generally confined to making games that can run optimized on specific consoles and will never be able to break that threshold.
-More detailed games with more detailed controls. 112 possible buttons on the keyboard (not even counting combinations) allow for much more detailed gaming environments and controls.
-These days most games can be modded to hell and back which has spawned an entire population of amateur game developers who will become the next generation of commercial game developers. Moddability can also greatly increase a game’s replayability. Many mods are also of such a quality that rivals commercial titles and are available for free. Free console games are limited to fucking tetris remakes and Bubble Bobble.
-Non-game related, computers are useful for a wide variety of different activities, from being /b/fags to downloading terrabytes of porn to “making spreadsheets” and what the shit ever.
-PCs allow developers much more freedom to develop content, although they are still somewhat limited by the need for publisher approval and compatibility with Windows and/or Mac. However this is far better than the state of console development; development on consoles is strictly regulated by Sony/Nintendo/et al who impose draconian rules on every-fucking-thing. I used to be a Certification Standards Compliance blah blah for Nintendo and Sony and Microsoft, it was basically my job to make sure every game that came across my desk complied with literally thousands of individual criteria, the failure of ANY of them would result in a complete shutdown of development until that issue was fixed. And I’m talking about sometimes stupid shit like "EVERY INSTANCE OF INGAME REFERENCE TO CONTROLS MUST BE EXACTLY COMPLIANT TO OUR RULES, ie Xbox controls always had to be referred to as “A Button” and “B Button” etc, if you missed even a single capitalization, comma, dash or period Microsoft would visit you and rape you in the night.
In the end the console is in my opinion horrifically inferior because it is a controlled, limited technology that impedes technological advancement and confines all games developed for it to strict archaic principles and regulations, and offers only the most shallow of button-mashing arcade gameplay. I still do appreciate older console titles from the NES and that era as while they were graphically limited they often had really cool and addictive gameplay, good stories and blah blah while today it’s all about pizzaz and shiny graphics and millions upon millions of Halo players fagging up the planet. However in console’s defense, World of Warcraft is a PC game and it has eclipsed all other games in terms of the rotten plague festering at the heart of humanity consuming everything great and good in the world that it has created.
That said, I’d like to see a lot of flaming and irrational anger here and hopefully start what history will write down as the “Great Gaming Civil War” in which PC and Console gamers devastate the internet world.