It's an age old debate but it's one I've been wondering about over the last week or so. I say PC vs Console but really the main issue here is PC vs XBox 360. Unlike the PS3 and the Wii, internally the 360 basically just a PC with a custom operating system. This is good for users as it's a much simpler interface. This is also good for developer as it provides a single hardware configuration for them to work with as opposed to the hundreds of thousands of different combinations of PC hardware. However this is now causing issues for PC gamers. Because of the similarity between the PC and 360 platforms many games are developed to run on both systems. However the 360 is nearly five years old now and the hardware hasn't changed. This had led to a lack of innovation, especially in terms of graphics. It's been many years since I saw a new game and realised that I would have to upgrade my PC in order to play it and that's because all the games which are cross-platform developed are stuck at 360 level. Now that's not entirely bad. It's not like graphics these days are bad by any means and the 360 does help brings games more into the mainstream. You can also understand why publishers want to develop for it when games like Call of Duty: Black Ops sell 16 million copies in only 7 days.
What bugs me the most in this situation is when developers use the popularity of the Xbox to completely ignore the PC. Almost anything that can run on the 360 can be made to run on a PC without a lot of effort and yet some developers choose not to. The big recent example which got me thinking about this is LA Noire from Rockstar. After watching a couple of videos I decided I'd be interested in playing this but it's only available on XBox 360. Rockstar have done this before as well with Red Dead Redemption. Bioware almost did the same with Mass Effect but eventually that was ported to PC by a third party and they seem to have changed their stance since then, thankfully.
Still I do actually think about getting a 360 sometimes, then I guess it wouldn't be a problem. Although some games you really do need a mouse and keyboard to play properly but that's not always the case. The thing is after five years you've got to wonder how much life the system has left at the point. There's nothing but rumors about a successor for the Xbox 360 or the PS3 but this generation of consoles has already lasted longer than any of the previous ones. The Wii 2 has been announced but rumors are currently saying it could be as late as 2014 before there's a new XBox. So what's a gamer to do? I guess I should be patient for now, at least until after the big E3 conferences which are only two weeks away now. And it's not like I don't have plenty of other things to play.
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Mmm, very interesting summary, I had not realised the platforms were so similar now, but it does seem very mean of Rockstar not to produce PC versions of their games. I had always got the impression that the games available on PC were totally different to the Xbox ones, (and highly superior, like Daily Telegraph compared to tabloids) but there seems to be more overlap than I had thought, if the lack of a PC version of something is notable. It does sound like it might be worth hanging on for a brand new console when they release on - as you say, after five years, it is surely time soon for one. And also as you say, you have plenty to play in the meantime, and all those other things to focus on too!
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