Battlefield Tri-hard

[Pooky]

PC's die of old age too.

[Warsaw]

To be fair, it's usually an inexpensive component that dies, so it's easier to get working again.

[Phopojijo]

PC's die of old age too.

And who will service your console? One person who can charge what they like and you need to wait for the cardboard coffin.

For a PC: You can do it. If you don't have the skills? Your friend could do it... or your local small business computer store. If they gouge, go to a different one.

Not to mention if a company is ridiculously bad with fail rates you can change companies *without* losing access to your art.

[Pooky]

And who will service your console? One person who can charge what they like and you need to wait for the cardboard coffin.

For a PC: You can do it. If you don't have the skills? Your friend could do it... or your local small business computer store. If they gouge, go to a different one.

Not to mention if a company is ridiculously bad with fail rates you can change companies *without* losing access to your art.

I'm sorry, but after all this I still don't understand your grudge against consoles. They're here, they aren't going anywhere, and some of the best games ever have been developed for them.

[Warsaw]

I know that comment isn't directed at me, but I must respond.

Consoles are fine. Consoles holding back technical prowess is not. As much as I do enjoy games because they are fun, I also get tired of seeing the same blasé graphics every time. BF3 gets me semi-excited, but it's not the graphical leap I know we can make.

I own both Xboxes and I play them both. However, I have duplicate games on PC whenever I can because I know I can support the games longer on PC; my Halo Edition Xbox will break eventually, and at that point I will have a sad because I can no longer play Brute Force, one of my favourite Xbox Original titles because I can't get the Xbox fixed. Playing it on the 360 is not an option for the same reason that playing KotOR on 360 is not an option; it just sucks. My favourite game of all time, Battlezone, came out 13 years ago. It is only now just starting to not work in Windows. However, that problem is solved because Ken Miller, the lead programmer for the game, has taken it upon himself to make it work in DX9 natively on his own time. PC support for the win? PC support for the win. That is a kind of dedication you will not find in consoles. Console has reached EoL? Too bad. Sucks for your collection of games because we won't support them properly (looking at you, SONY).

tl;dr: consoles basically make everyone forget how to push the envelope of what the system can do. They also make it too easy to develop garbage and release it with all these SDKs for each console and lack of hardware variety. There are gems, but these days a good game is an exception rather than the norm. I remember when most games were fun and only a few were trash. Why is it that we are only now getting someone to try pushing it on the current generation (thank you DICE, thank you Crytek, and thank you Bungie)?

[Phopojijo]

I'm sorry, but after all this I still don't understand your grudge against consoles. They're here, they aren't going anywhere, and some of the best games ever have been developed for them.

Consoles are in every way except marketing inferior to PCs. They turn art into a consumable industry. I have nothing against console players, but the platform itself is in every way inferior except for marketing and has no trouble slaughtering art in the name of revenue... revenue which they promptly waste throwing at their competitors.

[Mr Buckshot]

For racing games, I'd much rather have split screen over high resolutions and settings, plus I prefer gamepads for that genre, so I tend to get the console versions for that too, unless of course the console version has no split screen. For shooters, I borrow a console version if I just want to experience SP once and be done with it (i.e. MW2), but if I plan to play it continuously, PC version it is. If the PC version is genuinely riddled with annoying shit then I get a console version (i.e. Conviction, the next Batman game).

But Battlefield 3? Console version connects exclusively to EA-run servers, has only 24 players, and can't push my monitor's full resolution. I'd much rather run the PC version at low settings, and if my PC couldn't even push that, I'd really save up to upgrade.

but before this becomes a system debate, can the OP add a poll about who has preordered for what system? Just curious. I have preordered a disc version for PC.

[Phopojijo]

For racing games, I'd much rather have split screen over high resolutions and settings, plus I prefer gamepads for that genre, so I tend to get the console versions for that too, unless of course the console version has no split screen.

Ask developers and ye can receive... maybe more than you asked for.

[ThePlague]

Dirt 3 has Splitscreen :3

On Topic (for the first time in # pages!):
I heard the US is the only one getting an October 25th release date.

[Amit]

Crossfire the two fastest dual-GPU AMD graphics cards available, use eyefinity 6, plug in 5 gamepads, do the multiple instance fix for COD4, configure each gamepad to a specific profile for each game instance, run 6 player local splitscreen MP matches. Win.

Keep the rest of the console vs. PC war out.