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Looking for gaming help from gamers (Console vs PC)

66Mustang
66Mustang Community member Posts: 13,368 Disability Gamechanger
edited March 2021 in Coffee lounge
I am looking at getting back into very very casual gaming on a console or PC (currently I only have a Mac) and am wondering if anyone has any advice or recommendations as to which hardware to go for.

I intend to play games like Call of Duty - just the single player content like the missions and the zombies - I won’t be playing online with other people.

I used to be quite handy with a PC but haven’t had one for 10 years now and may be well out of date. I’m guessing a console is much easier in that respect - just “plug in and play” so to speak, no messing about?

In favour of a PC though I do have a Steam account with some games on it and would look to play some games from my childhood in the late 90s and early 2000s which aren’t available on console. Would these games still work?

Finally just looking for any other advice you want to share.

Many thanks for reading and thanks in advance for any help!
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Comments

  • Ami2301
    Ami2301 Community member Posts: 7,942 Disability Gamechanger
    I really miss playing The Sims and I was intending to buy a gaming laptop... until I saw how much they can cost. I'd definitely recommend a console as, like you say, it's more straightforward. 

    I think it will also depend on your preference with controllers too, you can get separate devices to plug into your PC/laptop or the use of a console controller, you would have the ability to do various actions (button combinations) with one or two hands.
    Disability Gamechanger - 2019
  • Garza
    Garza Community member Posts: 149 Pioneering
    In terms of consoles if you are looking for single player story driven titles I would have to say Playstation, even though I am an Xbox user myself! I play a wide variety of genres and also play online with friends who also have Xboxes, I am thinking about getting a new Xbox series X when they are available and maybe the diskless Playstation 5 at some point too, just to play their exclusives on
  • Geoark
    Geoark Community member Posts: 1,463 Disability Gamechanger
    @66Mustang

    If all you intend to do is play games, or mainly play games I would recommend console. 

    Older games can have serious issues with modern computers, plus you can pay a lot more money for a computer which can actually play modern games, and some older ones, without either overheating or stuttering.

    Consoles already have established set ups and games are adapted to make the most out of them. 

    To give an example, I paid around £450 for a new laptop two years ago, last year I paid £750 for a bottom line gaming laptop to play City Skylines, which is 5 years old. I couldn't play Far Cry 5 or Far Cry New Dawn, on the old one, but can have a decent game on the new one. Far Cry 5 has mini user games made by other players and enjoyable to play when I want a quicker game and a couple of DLCs that give me some variation. 

    My daughter currently own playstation 4 and she has some fantastic games, but admit I would not even try some even on my current laptop. I am seriously thinking of upgrading to a PC for around £2000 - £2500, but at the end of the day probably won't as I found it difficult to justify the cost of the new laptop to myself. So will depend if my head or heart wins. I do more or less treat my laptop like a pc, the lid only opens when I need to turn it on. 

    As an individual I stood alone.
    As a member of a group I did things.
    As part of a community I helped to create change!

  • OverlyAnxious
    OverlyAnxious Community member Posts: 2,586 Disability Gamechanger
    edited March 2021
    I don't play Zombies myself so not sure what that's like but the campaign on CoD is so short nowadays.  I do up to 3 playthroughs, first one to just 'play', second in Veteran mode for the achievement, and then replay individual missions to get any achievements I've missed.  All that was done within a month playing for an hour or less per day.  That said, the graphics are amazing so it's easy to see why they can't make them too long within the 2 years development period.  Graphics on something like Assassins Creed are noticeably inferior!

    I do play online but without a mic on and I don't have any 'friends' on there.  It makes the CoD games much better value as they last a whole year, I wouldn't buy them just for the campaign.

    Regarding consoles, my Xbox One is now well over 6 years old and has had almost daily use for most of that.  The controllers are weak though, I'm on my 3rd or 4th genuine one now!  As Ami says, you can also use an Xbox controller for PC games if preferred.

    The downside with next gen consoles is all the updates...even with 50Mb broadband it takes hours to download and update every few weeks which is annoying as you can't play another game at the same time.  However you can use it to stream iPlayer or things like Amazon Prime if you don't have a Smart TV.
  • Ross_Alumni
    Ross_Alumni Scope alumni Posts: 7,652 Disability Gamechanger
    Hi @66Mustang

    For consoles I will always champion PlayStation, especially if you are only looking to play single player, the titles on PS are much better than Xbox in my opinion. Not sure of your budget, but you could probably get a PS4 for a decent price these days, although keep in mind the hardware is slightly outdated now, but should still run well enough.

    PC gaming isn't an area I'm very knowledgeable of, but I'd say as long as you have 8GB of RAM and an i7 processor, with a decent graphics card, you should be able to play most games out there.
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  • NotReally
    NotReally Community member Posts: 59 Pioneering

    I'm solidly on the PC side of the fence.  I'll give some general pros and cons for both and try to not let my bias come through too much!

    Console

    + Fixed up front cost, if something is developed for that console - it'll run
    - Games are more expensive
    - Controller input is ... just horrible compared to keyboard & mouse
    + Easy online play
    + Same room multiplayer is much easier than PC
    + "Plug and play" => get it set up, and you're ready to play

    PC

    - Generally higher up front cost
    = Up front cost can be quite variable, from similar to a console, to as much as you want to spend
    + You (somewhat) will need to become familar with PC hardware => this is an excellent learning opportunity (building your own rig will lower your costs considerably)
    + Games are cheaper => Steam is awesome, Humble Bundle is awesome
    + A PC can be used for much, much more than a console
    + Upgrading components can keep your hardware up to date for a very long time - my last PC was 10 years old and still perfectly usable - and I transfered over the graphics card and all of the drives

    I feel that over time the PC is the cheaper option, especially as you need something in the house that you can do general computing and internet tasks on as well.

    I have:
    • AMD Ryzen 5 3600 6 core
    • 32GB ram (I put high demands on my system memory - nearly 1000 tabs open in my browser currently)
    • 1TB SSD
    • Radeon RX580
    It's top of the line, but it's enough to play pretty much any game, and handle development tasks just fine ... and have a browser with almost 1000 tabs open running. 
    You can go cheaper and still have a good game playing rig however.  If you decide to go the PC route, drop me a line and I'll point you towards all sorts of resources and communities that can help.

  • 66Mustang
    66Mustang Community member Posts: 13,368 Disability Gamechanger
    Many thanks for all the comprehensive replies. Some really interesting stuff to think over.

    If it makes a difference most of the games I play are 2012 and earlier. I also have some from around the year 2000 which are only available on PC. For this reason I’m leaning toward the PC. I do quite like the idea of building my own PC - I’ve never done that before and it sounds like it could be very rewarding - I’ve taken computers apart and changed single things like RAM and graphics cards, but never built one from scratch.

    All that said I can see the appeal of a plug and play console.

    My budget is flexible depending on what I could get for the money but I would say over £500 but well under £1000. However, I also have an iMac to sell to make way for the new device and this should raise £600ish. So, I guess £1,500 at a push is my budget but preferably closer to the £1000 mark. This would have to pay for a monitor/TV as well as the console/PC tower, though.
  • Ross_Alumni
    Ross_Alumni Scope alumni Posts: 7,652 Disability Gamechanger
    66Mustang said:
    Many thanks for all the comprehensive replies. Some really interesting stuff to think over.

    If it makes a difference most of the games I play are 2012 and earlier. I also have some from around the year 2000 which are only available on PC. For this reason I’m leaning toward the PC. I do quite like the idea of building my own PC - I’ve never done that before and it sounds like it could be very rewarding - I’ve taken computers apart and changed single things like RAM and graphics cards, but never built one from scratch.

    What pre-2000s games do you have? I'm super curious and nostalgic at the thought of games from that time :) 
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  • NotReally
    NotReally Community member Posts: 59 Pioneering
    NotReally said:
    It's top of the line,
    No!  It's NOT top of the line!  Idjut!

  • NotReally
    NotReally Community member Posts: 59 Pioneering
    66Mustang said:
    My budget is flexible depending on what I could get for the money but I would say over £500 but well under £1000. However, I also have an iMac to sell to make way for the new device and this should raise £600ish. So, I guess £1,500 at a push is my budget but preferably closer to the £1000 mark. This would have to pay for a monitor/TV as well as the console/PC tower, though.
    Reckon you can get something pretty solid for that.
  • Dragonslayer
    Dragonslayer Community member Posts: 2,165 Pioneering
    I have been playing games for years now, I've had many consoles from the very earliest to now trying to get the latest PS5, I now have a PS4 and have to say it will take some beating. Unless you have a gaming computer with all the drives it needs then consoles are as you say plug and play and the quality  it superb. There is also no need to use a keyboard and therefore response is faster with a controller.
  • Ross_Alumni
    Ross_Alumni Scope alumni Posts: 7,652 Disability Gamechanger
    I think another positive about consoles is the cost when compared to PCs. 

    For a PS5 you are looking at £400 - £500, whereas for a decent gaming laptop, you could be looking at upwards of double just for something with an i7 and 8GB of RAM.
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  • 66Mustang
    66Mustang Community member Posts: 13,368 Disability Gamechanger
    66Mustang said:
    Many thanks for all the comprehensive replies. Some really interesting stuff to think over.

    If it makes a difference most of the games I play are 2012 and earlier. I also have some from around the year 2000 which are only available on PC. For this reason I’m leaning toward the PC. I do quite like the idea of building my own PC - I’ve never done that before and it sounds like it could be very rewarding - I’ve taken computers apart and changed single things like RAM and graphics cards, but never built one from scratch.

    What pre-2000s games do you have? I'm super curious and nostalgic at the thought of games from that time :) 
    Some of my favourites are from a company called Novalogic

    Tachyon: the Fringe - spaceship flight simulator shooting type game
    Delta Force - early FPS
    F22 Lightning - flight simulator
    Comanche - helicopter flying

    Also

    Army Men
    World War III: Black Gold
    Half-Life (and all the associated spin-offs)

    I am sure there are lots more that I’ve forgotten :smiley:

    Also I liked the Super Mario games but that was on GameBoy (showing my age as I wonder if that would be considered offensive these days? Would it now be called a GamePerson?)

    What games from that time do you remember? :)

  • 66Mustang
    66Mustang Community member Posts: 13,368 Disability Gamechanger
    Also how could I forget the Mech Commander series but that may be from a bit after 2000 :smiley:
  • OverlyAnxious
    OverlyAnxious Community member Posts: 2,586 Disability Gamechanger
    66Mustang said:

    Also I liked the Super Mario games but that was on GameBoy (showing my age as I wonder if that would be considered offensive these days? Would it now be called a GamePerson?)

    What games from that time do you remember? :)

    I also had one of the original black and white Gameboys but can't remember any other games except Super Mario ones weirdly!  :#

    I do remember a few of the Gameboy Color games from around 2001 though...Whacky Races, Inspector Gadget & Looney Tunes stick out...  Oh, and not forgetting Worms Armageddon!  :D
  • 66Mustang
    66Mustang Community member Posts: 13,368 Disability Gamechanger
    Update

    I managed to make a partition on my Mac’s drive and install Windows on it, so now I can boot up into Windows or Mac OS. I’ve been playing some Call of Duty and it works well so looks like I might not need to spend any money after all! Let’s see how it goes over the next few days and weeks...
  • Ross_Alumni
    Ross_Alumni Scope alumni Posts: 7,652 Disability Gamechanger
    66Mustang said:
    Update

    I managed to make a partition on my Mac’s drive and install Windows on it, so now I can boot up into Windows or Mac OS. I’ve been playing some Call of Duty and it works well so looks like I might not need to spend any money after all! Let’s see how it goes over the next few days and weeks...
    That's good then! Could always spend the money on another treat for yourself :) 
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  • 66Mustang
    66Mustang Community member Posts: 13,368 Disability Gamechanger
    edited March 2021
    66Mustang said:
    Update

    I managed to make a partition on my Mac’s drive and install Windows on it, so now I can boot up into Windows or Mac OS. I’ve been playing some Call of Duty and it works well so looks like I might not need to spend any money after all! Let’s see how it goes over the next few days and weeks...
    That's good then! Could always spend the money on another treat for yourself :) 
    Hehehe

    Or more games :smiley:
  • NotReally
    NotReally Community member Posts: 59 Pioneering
    66Mustang said:
    Update

    I managed to make a partition on my Mac’s drive and install Windows on it, so now I can boot up into Windows or Mac OS. I’ve been playing some Call of Duty and it works well so looks like I might not need to spend any money after all! Let’s see how it goes over the next few days and weeks...

    Excellent!  You know, I feel a bit foolish for not thinking of / suggesting that!

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