Comments on: Tell Me About Your Mother

By: Craig

Craig — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 21:08:07 +0000

“They play on the TV, so everyone can easily watch.”

I fail to see this as an advantage. Watching someone else play most games is about like watching paint dry. Meanwhile, no one can watch the interesting TV program that is on.

P.S. No tags allowed in comments at all? Cheapskate.

By: Josh

Josh — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 23:32:31 +0000

I still like the games I have for the pc better than the console. Of course, I was born on console games and I will never be without one, but just after I got my first PC and Half Life the SNES and N64 collected dust until I had the urge to experience FF7.

The controller and the streamlined (simplified) interface gives consoles big benifits. There is a few other things I’m forgetting about the benifits of consoles, but the feeling of sitting on a couch doesn’t draw me away from the PC.

By: Spudly

Spudly — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 21:21:07 +0000

I use a cordless trackball and bought a projector. I game on it with my media center PC,sitting in my LazyBoy. 6′ wide Diablo,uh oh I’m gonna burn for sure.

By: Finster

Finster — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 18:38:04 +0000

Actually, Microsoft has a deal with indie game developers Pom Pom Games to have content for the Xbox 360. I think technically, that means that they are no longer indie… but whatever. If an open-source console ever became popular (or at least open-SDK) then true indie games WOULD have that chance to flourish on consoles.

By: DSD

DSD — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 17:21:30 +0000

I buy multiplayer games (racing, sports) for XBox and single player games (FPS, RPG) for PC. When I play a single player game, I don’t want to take over the TV for anyone else who wants to use it. Also, I don’t want my colleagues who share the duplex with me to see how much time I spend playing solitary video games.

By: A.W. of Freespeech.com

A.W. of Freespeech.com — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 16:15:54 +0000

I am a former PC-mad gamers who has converted to consoles. This is what i like about them, besides what you list.

1) no headaches. Every time i want to buy a PC game, i have to ask myself “what kind of CPU, etc. do i have again? how much ram, etc.?” Its a giant headache and very often i discover that games that are supposed to be compatable with my computer are not really. And i find old games from less advanced computers don’t work right. with my playstation 2, all i have to do is make sure it is for the playstation 2. that is it.

2) no more of the obselescence game. Right now i am writing this post on a computer old enough to have Windows 98 on it. Its horribly, horribly obselete, but it does all i need it to do, word processing, web crap, etc. Buying my playstation 2 was a nice cheap way to be able to play the latest games without plunking down a few thousand dollars. Of course eventually i will have to decide whether i want the PS3 coming soon, or the X-box equivalent. But that took years to happen. PCs start to have obselete in about 6 months.

3) no more control headaches. Every single game on the playstation 2, from Spiderman 2, to Need for Speed Underground, to NBA Live, to Grand Theft Auto, to Hitman 2, to Final Fantasy X, all use the same damn controller, which btw is an ergonomic wonder.

4) No more program crashes. For instance, i can’t get the sims on my computer to work right. it crashes every time. So finally me and my wife said screw it and go “The Sims: Bustin’ Out” for PS 2. Its more primative in some ways, but its also zero headaches. I mean am i the only one who notices that with each new iteration of windows, the system becomes less stable, not more stable? Of course once in a bloodly blue moon the Playstation freezes, crashes, etc. We are talking about once a month, at most. at most! see if anyone can go that long on the PC without a crash?

By: Adam Rixey

Adam Rixey — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 00:01:22 +0000

I have my computer hooked up to my tv, and use a wireless keyboard and mouse. I still prefer the xbox or ps2 because their controllers are much more comfortable for an extended period of time. Plus after hours at work, the last thing I really want to deal with in my free time is a mouse and keyboard. Plus, as has been mentioned here before, I don’t have to deal with configuration issues or outdated drivers or stupid copy protection. And the surround sound is better on xbox.

PC games are kinda fun on the big screen, though admittedly my machine is out of date enough that I’m mostly limited to indie games. Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing; I just wish more PC titles supported widescreen resolutions (1280×720) or don’t just automatically assume everyone’s running with a height of 768.

By: Jason

Jason — Tue, 02 Aug 2005 13:44:26 +0000

I used to play World of Warcraft on my laptop on the couch, which actually works remarkably well, but it’s still a vastly different experience than console games. Your focus is on a screen about 12 inches in front of you, instead of across the room. My girlfriend feels like she’s being ignored when I play on my laptop, while she’s still part of my world (ie, in my field of focus) when I’m playing on a console. One day, when I’m independently wealthy, I might try using the TV as a monitor, with a wireless keyboard and mouse, but I suspect that’s a better idea in my head than it will be in reality.

By: Troy Goodfellow

Troy Goodfellow — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 14:34:16 +0000

The whole “game on the couch” thing is likely the one thing that might pull me into the console audience. My wife and I used to game together – well, at least in the same room. We sat back-to-back and could talk while we each played our own game.

But a console would allow us to play together in our living room from the sofa. The return of the “gaming loveseat” as my wife likes to say.