RedWolf9000:
Serious question Is there any reason at all to use a console instead of PC other then maybe not being able to wait for exsclusvies to come to PC or exclusvies that don't come to PC.
dtgreene: The way I see it, in the present, not really.
Historically, however, there were some good reasons to use consoles.
* In ancient times, computer games tended to be distributed on floppy disks; this meant long load times and having to switch disks (because the capacity of a floppy disk is very limited). Consoles, however, stored their games on cartridges, which had very fast load times, and, unlike floppies, would increase in capacity over time.
* Then came hard drives, which took away some of the advantages that consoles had. However, a PC game would still need to be installed to take advantage of them, and hard drives, while much faster for loading, were still slower than cartridges.
* Then came CD-ROMs, giving PC games access to much more storage space, and in theory, fewer disc changes. Consoles still had the advantage of faster load times.
* Then, some consoles threw away their load time advantage by switching to CD-ROMs. At this point, the only real advantage that consoles had was that you didn't have to worry about installing or configuring games before you could play them. Some console games even started to require disc changes.
* Then came internet connections. PCs got them first, and then they came to consoles. With internet, combined with console hard drives, consoles lost their zero configuration advantage, and therefore no longer have a real advantage over PCs for gaming, except for things like exclusives.
Edit: Since the thread seems to be in need of a new question, here's one:
Suppose you have a game that can either play in 640x480 resolution with 16 colors, or in 320x200 resolution with 256 colors. Between those modes, which video mode would you choose? (Historically, there was a time when these were the top-of-the-line video resolutions; hence why one would have had to make this choice in the past.)
Wow. what a well thought out answer. I see you really put some work into that, bullet points and everything. I actually learned something. Im really curious about your question. Could you give examples please?