As someone who mainly grew up playing on consoles, whenever I wondered about getting a PC for gaming, this was a question that kept bothering me. Mostly because I believed that I needed a small fortune to play decently on a computer, which is something I later found to be wrong, and because I was comfortable in my little space.
It is easy to grow accustomed to doing the same things throughout your life and never question if you should do anything different. It wasn’t until a couple of years back that I decided to make the switch and have seen the best and the worst of what both sides have to offer. So for once, let’s put all the “PC master race” memes to the side and explore the advantages and shortcomings of gaming on PC compared to consoles.
Gaming on a PC is worth it for anyone who enjoys to play the latest games; considers gaming as their main form of entertainment, or has work related to it, such as designing, editing, streaming, or programming. It is liberating to have complete control over your set up, a perk that only gaming on a PC has to offer.
Where To Start With PC Gaming?
The first step to dive into the world of PC gaming is to figure out your budget and your needs. If your work will be benefited from having a high-end PC, or if you want to play the newest triple-A games, then going a little up the budget will benefit you. If you’re just focused on having a good time casually and willing to make a few compromises, then a medium or low end should suffice.
When looking to buy a PC, you have one of two options. One is to buy a pre-built, and the second one is to buy the parts separately and build it yourself. Most PC purists would tell you that the best option is to buy the parts and build it yourself, mainly because that’s what’s going to give you more bang for your buck in the long run.
Many pre-built PCs either charge you extra for the service of building it for you or have had to compromise certain aspects of the build to make it cheaper to mass-produce. Either way, my recommendation is to do your homework and figure out what best fits your budget and gaming needs.
Once you realize this, it is easy then to fall into the wrong assumption that you need a lot of technical knowledge to build a PC or that you have to be some sort savant. That’s just not the case; you can easily find very comprehensive guides that explain in detail and in very simple terms what each part does and which ones you need. You can then figure out which ones are best for what you have in mind.
Should I Buy Or Build My PC?
It is intimidating, not only on the technical aspect, as I mentioned before, but also on the monetary aspect. And that’s another fallacy that a lot of people, including me, have fallen into. And that is to think that you need a fat wallet in order to get a decent gaming PC.
This is an exaggeration. While it is best to spend more in the beginning in order to stay ahead of the upgrading curve for a few years, you’re in no way obligated to, especially if the games you’re looking to play are not too demanding to begin with.
In fact, a lot of people on YouTube and Google have gone out of their way to build some really good PCs with the same money they would spend on a console, around $500, and have them perform better than those consoles.
Of course, that comes with a bit of effort and ingenuity, but it is possible to have a good gaming experience without going bankrupt.
There’s More Freedom
No matter how many times I say it, I can’t stress this point enough. There’s so much customizability when it comes to gaming on a PC. Not only in building the PC itself and its performance but also in the games.
Most games will allow you to change their graphical settings and gameplay options in order to tailor the experience to what better suits you. Do you want to sacrifice a bit of graphical fidelity for a smoother experience? Or do you prefer to enjoy the beautiful views the game has to offer since you don’t really care about frames-per-seconds? The choice is yours.
The equipment is also up entirely up to you. You don’t like playing on a keyboard and mouse? Fine, go for a controller, or a joystick, or a goddamned guitar, you’re free to do whatever you want.
Even the games themselves can be customized beyond what the developers intended with the use of mods. With a PC, every option is on the table.
There Are More Games
There’s a whole other side of the gaming world that a huge percentage of gamers won’t get to experience. And that is the indie market of games. So many diamonds in the rough have been uncovered and so many more that are only available to play on PC that is ridiculous to think that so many people are missing out on that.
I think most of us have heard at least once that PC doesn’t have exclusive games, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
There’s an entire market for creative minds to put their efforts in display for PC gamers to take advantage of and enjoy. There are a bunch of free-to-play games that are as varied as they are fun, along with indie gems that slip under the radar, and mods you can use to enhance the experience of some of your favorite games.
The modding community itself could be enough to dedicate an article on and offer as solely reason to get a PC. It is so diverse with so many opportunities for players and modders alike. Just mentioning Skyrim brings to mind a library of ways to change the experience to the point where you’ll feel like you’re playing a completely different game each time.
One last benefit on this topic is that you can keep your older games forever instead of buying it for several different platforms every time you want to play it. Just take a look at Skyrim, you could have bought it on PS3 when it released, the Special Edition on the PS4, and the Switch if you want portability, whereas if you bought it on PC, then you could’ve kept it for PC since the beginning.
Is Gaming On PC Cheaper Than Console?
It is more expensive to buy a PC upfront. However, you have complete control over how much you want to spend since you have the option to set a budget for a low, medium, or high-end PC.
Another thing a lot of people in the PC world don’t often talk about is second-hand hardware. You can get the pieces you need for your PC from eBay for a lot cheaper than if you were to buy new ones, and you’ll find that they’ll work just as fine, mostly because PC gamers are usually upgrading their rigs, some of them might want to sell their own parts even if they’re working perfectly fine just so they can upgrade and make some money back.
That’s without mentioning that it’s way easier to find discounted games for PC. Not that the consoles don’t have their own seasonal sales, but it’s a lot trickier to find games, especially triple-A games, that go as low as some of the ones on Steam have gone.
Add to this the fact that if you’re smart about your build, then your PC should last longer than a console would, removing the need to buy a new console every few years for new games.
No Subscription Fees To Play Online
Let’s consider again the fact that playing online and multiplayer is completely free on a PC. If you’re the kind to gravitate towards this kind of games, then you may want to consider making the switch.
While a console is cheaper at first glance, having to pay $60 a year to be able to play online will add up pretty quickly. So, in a few years, you might have found that you spent around the same as if you would’ve bought a PC only without the perks that come with PC gaming.
This might not seem like a big deal at first glance, especially when you consider that some services, like PS Plus, offer free games monthly for you to keep and the fact that $60 really doesn’t sound like much a year considering that’s the industry standard full-price for a game.
The thing is, though, coming back to PS Plus as an example, it may still not be worth it. Hear me out. While PS Plus has increased the quality of the monthly games available for free in the service in the last couple of years, new releases are rarely featured there.
Making you download 3-4 of those free games in order to make up for the price. And that’s if you manage to download games you actually like and that you don’t already have in your library. Most of the time, the games featured there are exclusives of the console that you probably already own or are games that have been discounted for so long that they might as well change the base price.
Not only that, but the free games are not exactly yours since they’ll be removed from your library if you stop paying for PS Plus, which is fair enough, but not that enticing now knowing that you won’t actually keep them.
And considering the fact that the industry is becoming more and more social with each year and that most of the top best-selling games of all time have a heavily dedicated online community, it’s good to ask yourself if you’re really willing to pay that much for the benefit of playing online, especially considering that a lot of games rely on their multiplayer aspect alone.
This money could be better spent on a new part for your PC that could improve your gameplay experience or easily buy dozens of games on a bundle or promotion in a platform like Steam.
Which is a good segway for my next point.
Store Sales And Discounts
You have Steam, Origin, Green Man Gaming, Epic Games Store. And those are only a few to choose from. The number of online stores to get keys and games at amazing deals is so vast that, if you’re smart and patient, you could potentially have all of your favorite games for only a fraction of their original price, saving hundreds or even thousands of dollars in games just by having the option to buy your games from so many different sources.
Steam is the king at this, as you may already know, with their infamous summer sales discounting as much as 90% on triple-A games, it is truly the place of dreams for gamers that love to have variety in their library.
In PC, it’s very easy to find bundles of games where each game will go as low as $1 for each, and I’m not talking about a Filling Taxes Simulator or anything like that, but big games from a wide array of developers. And if you are into the indie marketplace, then there’s nothing better than Steam, where they’ve provided a platform for small teams and developers to experiment and have their creations presented to the world.
In consoles, you’re pretty much limited to the console’s respective online stores or second-hand games off eBay. In these cases, most big-name games won’t usually go under $15 each, whereas in other platforms can go under $5 or even for free.
Improved Gameplay
Let’s address the elephant in the room and point out that gameplay in PC is overall better. If you’ve ever played Dark Souls and gone through Blightown, you’ve probably experienced what is called a drop in frames-per-second.
Consoles are only able to bring about 30-40ish FPS on average in most games. That’s about to change in the newer generation, but to say that it’s going to hold up to PCs is reaching a bit. You see, PC gaming has taken for granted 60 FPS for a while.
Even a low-budget build should allow you to have a smoother experience in a lot of popular games. Now this depends on a lot of factors, but even medium to low budgets should be able to reach the 60 FPS benchmark
A lot of benchmark videos make a point of presenting games in Ultra settings and with high FPS to entice their viewers. But the truth is that most games will look amazing at High or even Medium settings. You don’t really need top-of-the-line gear for your PC if all you want is to have fun.
If you’re playing competitively or streaming, then something on the higher end might be beneficial to you, though not necessarily essential.
So what does this all mean? That you don’t really need the latest, newest, and more expensive parts for your computer to have a better gameplay experience than what you would have on a console.
Is Console Better Than PC?
Ok, so it’s not all unicorns and rainbows when it comes to gaming on a PC. There are three main reasons why you’d want to go for a console.
The first one is the practicality factor. You don’t need to know jack about your PlayStation or Xbox in order to play and have games running on it. It’s as easy as connect, turn on, and play.
For this reason alone, a lot of casual players might be inclined to have a console that they can simply have in their living room, sit back after a long day, and play for a few hours. If this is the case for you, then it’s understandable that you’d think twice before getting a PC.
The second one is the technical aspect of it. This goes hand-to-hand with practicality. Your console won’t turn on or play a certain game; you can simply contact your chosen console’s customer support and have them figure it out for you.
Something goes wrong with your PC? It’s a bit trickier. Is the problem the GPU? The graphics card? Maybe it’s the power supply. All of which might have different customer support options and warranty policies.
In most cases, you should be able to find out what’s wrong with your PC, either by yourself or with strangers’ help on an Internet forum, and the sense of accomplishment, once you figure out and fix the problem, is a feeling like no other. However, for some people, the headache might not be worth it.
And the third, and, in my personal opinion, the most alluring reason why you’d want to stay with a console is the exclusivity.
Let’s face it; there are a lot of amazing games that are only available on certain platforms. You want to play the award-winning and record-breaking game Zelda: Breath of the Wild? Well, you better have a Wii U or a Switch.
Of course, you could resort to, uh, alternative methods to play the game in your PC, but that’s not something I condone. On the same note, games like Need For Speed, Crash Bandicoot, EA Sports UFC, and basically anything Nintendo are only available to play on their respective consoles. So it really comes down to what games you prefer to play.
Another perk of a console is that you don’t have to upgrade it. This was originally intended as a downside since if all you needed was one part of your PC in order to stay up to date, you could just go ahead and get it. But let’s be honest, if that part is a graphics card, then it’s going to be a bit costly.
You can keep the same console bought the moment it came out throughout all of its lifetime without having to worry if it’ll be able to run the latest games, and that is a huge plus for the more casual demographic.
Conclusion
If you’re thinking of stepping into this side of gaming, I can guarantee that you won’t regret it. All the headaches, the learning curve and the seemingly high initial cost will be worth it for a peace of mind, a better gameplay experience, along with even more options for your enjoyment.
Having the personal freedom to choose your budget, the games you play, the ones you keep, and an overall better gameplay experience is more than enough to sell most on switching to the world of PC gaming.
While there are several enticing reasons as to why you would want to opt for a console instead, the benefits of gaming on a PC outweigh the ones on console by a landslide. But, at the end of the day, it all comes down to preference. I could ramble on about all the reasons why a PC is amazing, but if you love Nintendo games, then you’re definitively going to be happier with a Switch.
The one piece of advice I can give you, and that every PC gamer would, is that you do your homework. Find out what’s best for you and stick to that, if you later learn that there’s something you can do differently, there’s always room for improvement, and the satisfaction you’ll get out of your rig will be unmatched by any console on the market.
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