PC Gaming

Video Games – one of the best time wasters ever invented. We’re talking classics like Pong, DOOM, and Myst, to new age games like The Last of Us, Portal, and Bioshock. These games have come a long way in terms of technological and graphical advances, and storytelling. However, some people still argue on which is the best way to fully appreciate and enjoy these titles to the fullest potential.

As someone who has been playing video games nearly my entirely life, I also have my own preference and opinion as to how games should be played. I prefer the power and stability that my computer offers over a traditional console any day, as “…it depends on how powerful your PC is, but you don’t need a top-of-the-line $3000 gaming rig to run games at higher graphics then consoles can handle. A $400 computer can easily equal or outperform even the Xbox One or PS4.” (Villas-Boas, Nov.17,2015, Business Insider) I paid just over $1000 for my current computer nearly two years ago, and it could already run certain games a lot better then my PS4 at the time. Although over the two years I’ve had it, games have become much more graphically intensive and I’ve since put another $300 in terms of upgrades into it, with further upgrades planned to keep it cutting edge in terms of technology. I’m currently using an i7-4790 paired with a GTX 1050 with 16GB of RAM, and while it’s not the most powerful system one could build, I’m very proud of it. The thing about consoles is that you can’t upgrade what’s under the hood the same way you can with a PC.

Modding is another thing that computers can do. While some consoles are very slowly allowing such things, modding has always been a prevalent feature in PC Gaming. “”Modding” is just jargon for “modifying” – altering – video games. Savvy fans dive into the back-end of their favorite games to fix bugs, update graphics, or introduce new elements.” (Letzter, July 20, 2015, Business Insider) This is incredibly hard to achieve on consoles due to the nature of how the software runs, which is primarily caused by the data being encrypted, or coded, to run specifically on that console. In contrast, a computer has its data stored on local files that can be accessed.

But alas, a video game is a video game, and can be enjoyed on several different platforms. PCs are simply the most widespread, the most powerful, and perhaps the most expensive way to really enjoy these games to their fullest protentional.

References:
10 Reasons why playing games on PC is better than consoles,
Antonio Villas-Boas, November 17, 2015, Business Insider
http://www.businessinsider.com/reasons-why-pc-gamers-prefer-pc-2015-11

Online communites are changing video games to make them better, weirder, and much more wonderful
Rafi Letzter, July 20, 2015, Business Insider
http://www.businessinsider.com/video-game-modding-2015-7

For further reading: (seriously, people are proud of their machines, as am I)
PC Master Race Subreddit
www.reddit.comr/r/pcmasterrace