The best games machine

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Just wondered who was a follower of what?

I'm quite lucky in that Rob goes and buys machines whenever a new game comes out that he really wants. It means that we now have a PC (of course), an xbox, a DS and a PS3.

The PC is great for all my RP stuff although Rob isn't much into it
The DS is a bit of fun on long car journeys but the games aren't to fab
The PS3 is great quality but new patches have meant that a lot of our old PS2 games can't be played
The xbox is good for 2 player stuff

So, what's your favourite?

 

The PC will always be the best machine for games so long as the owner knows how to properly use and maintain it.
When I was younger (pre 16 years old) it was all consoles, PC's were too expensive I waited years to have one, these days I build my own.

I have what I believe to be a powerful machine:

EVGA 780i Sli
Intel Core2 Quad Q9450 @ 3.4GHz
4gig XMS2 Dominator, PC2-8500
Nvidia 1792MB EVGA GTX 295
Creative SB X-Fi Fatality Titanium
Vista x64

The problem these days isnt the quality of the machines, its the quality of the games and the coding, the industry favouring the console market to make their quick bucks and leaving PC gamers out in the rain, take Batman Arkham Asylum for example, we had to wait 3 weeks more then console gamers to get it, why? the game was ready - because it was on average £10 more expensive for the console, they know alot of gamers wont wait and buy it at a higher price, add to that console games dont drop in price like PC games do, because the average PC gamer isnt a teenager with a tenuous hold on their parents wallets.
The industry is the problem, not the machines.

 

commodore 64.

 

I only have a pc. Not as high end as Shoshino but still good enough to max dragon age out.

Am3 790xt with a phenom2 810(4x2.6)
4870-512, xi-fi pci-e, 4 gig ddr3 1333.

I tried a controller once but just did not get the feeling with it. The game was GTA San Andreas and I played it on a old pc that just was not strong enough. Never tried since.

So my vote goes to pc by default.

 

I've only got a PC. I don't want nor need a console. Knowing myself, I'd probably never use it anyway, except in cases of extreme boredom. I only buy games when they've dropped in price a fair bit (10 to 15 euro is acceptable), so the PC is the better platform in that respect too.

My current PC is some 3 years old (AMD Athlon X2 4200+, 2GB RAM, GeForce 7600GT) and I'm looking around for what to get for a replacement. Not really because I need to (my newest game is The Witcher: almost two years old already), but more because I want a quieter PC. And some more disc space wouldn't hurt either.

 

I only use a PC for games, which I'm getting ready to upgrade to a P55/i5 core based system. Currently, it's a i965P/Core 2 based system.

But the girls each have their own PCs, DSs and a Wii console, which they seem to like pretty well. My 7 year-old has been playing MM6 on her PC (a P4/XP system); her first and only RPG, so far.

 

I own a Wii and a PS2, I use the PS2 when Im doing maintanence or installing games etc with the PC, normally playing PS1 games though like ff7/8/9, wing commander 4 and resident evil 2.

the Wii, thought that would be a brilliant party machine, barely used just turned it on to see when the last time it was used was... december 12th 2008

 

I didn't really comment on the games themselves in the previous post I made, but it is the point where consoles win out on the PC for the most part. The problem for PC games is that they're mostly being developed primarily for consoles nowadays, and the PC version ends up being a terrible port in the worst case, or, in the best case, it has made concessions in the gameplay, controls or looks.

Another thing that consoles have going in their favour, and has really kept me from buying any newer games, is the fact that they tend to incorporate obnoxious DRM in any good game I might want to play. I don't want to have some copy protection software installing rootkits on my system, and I don't want to have to connect to the internet before a game will allow me to install or even play it.

This won't persuade me to buy a console, though. I'll just not buy the game and replay one of the games I already have.

 

I have a PC, a Xbox 360, a Wii, a GameBoy SP, and a BlackBerry.

The PC is best for world-wide-multi-player. That, and the graphics at always better!
The Xbox is best for multi-player if the other players are on the couch with you...
The Wii is best for drunken parties!
The GameBoy is best for trips.
The CrackBerry is best for any time - anywhere!

 

I have a PC, an XBox 360, a DS Lite and a DSi.

The PC is great for classic games like BG2 and Diablo 2, as well as first person shooters and strategy games. Most roleplaying games would be better on the PC.

The XBox is great for racing and fighting games. I have Halo 3 and Gears of War 1 and 2 for XBox... but its just not the same playing an FPS on the console. I finished Halo 3 but.... its actually a fairly mediocre title, and the controls just arent that great.

What the XBox does have going for it is how easy it is to use, and how everything just "works". Its all integrated, you can browse for new games directly from the console (I've downloaded a few XBox Live Arcade titles). Its really no fuss gaming. No mandatory installing, nothing to configure, etc etc.

The DS is great for trips, and it has some really good games that just wouldnt make sense on any other platform. Notably platformers like Sonic, Megaman and Castlevania have a special place in my heart, and you just dont get those for any other platform. Well, you get some platformers for the console, but they are mostly ports of older games. The DS also has a few remakes of classic games such as the Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy series. Dragon Quest IV is quite good actually. It also has Pokemon, which has to be the most addictive game I've ever played. Diablo II and Baldurs Gate II are both incredibly addictive to me, but nothing compared to Pokemon. I've racked up I think over 120 hours on Pokemon Diamond, probably over 50 on Pokemon Platinum, and nearly 40 hours on each of Emerald and Fire Red. As I said, its addictive. Yes, I am 24 years old and I play Pokemon.

 

Pokemon is awesome!

 

The best gaming machine would be the machine that provides the best gaming experience. For me that is currently the PC and I do not see it losing the spot anytime soon. The runner-up is the PS3 which has a few interesting exclusive games and it can play PS2 games (if you have the old model). Although I use it mainly as a Blu-ray player.

 

@joacquin

Pokemon is indeed awesome, and a solid reason for owning a DS or GBA. I'm not sure whether I should buy Heart Gold when it comes out.

The funny thing about Pokemon for me is that, I'm either addicted to it or have almost no interest in it. Theres no inbetween. I either want to compulsively play the game during all waking hours until I get that elusive pokemon, beat that Gym Leader, evolve this Pokemon, and beat the Elite 4, or I dont really want to play it at all. I remember once thinking its probably similar to insanity. When I'm "in the zone", I just want to play Pokemon, even if I realize its not very healthy for me. When I'm out of it, I'm practically relieved to be back to normal and dont have any attraction for it.

 

My kids play it on their Wii console and they like it a lot.

 

I bought my GBA specifically to play Golden Sun 1 & 2 and FF4. Those are awesome games. Golden Sun is my all time favorite small-screen game.

 

I have seven consoles and a PC currently - all previous generation consoles and the handhelds of this generation.

Or - Dreamcast, GameCube, Playstation 2, Xbox, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS and the PSP.

Overall, of the handheld consoles - the GBA SP AGS-101 (or "backlight SP" as opposed to the more common frontlight one) is probably the best of the bunch - it's durable, easy to hold, lightweight and doesn't have stylus gimmicks.

The DS has a flood of shovelware and most of it's games switch between the stylus and controls, which makes using it in a car or bus nigh impossible - and you practically got to be sitting to use it.

The PSP replaces your fingers with hooks, and makes your hands really tired over time. It has awesome-looking games for a handheld, but good games are few and far between. On the upside, it's the superior console for media use.

The PC beats all of the previous (and this) generation consoles excepting one thing - local multiplayer, where the GameCube and Wii reign supreme. Multiplayer over the internet is so much better on the PC (except for select games, see L4D), but handing your friends spare controllers is so much easier than bringing in several systems for a lan party.

The Xbox and Xbox 360 have a lot of quality titles that have all been ported to the PC.

The Playstation 2 has a *huge* library of good games for a console. The Playstation 3 with backwards compatibility is a pretty good machine. Good Playstation 3 games are few and far between compared to everything but...

Gamecube and Wii. Where the quality titles for anything BUT multiplayer gaming are rare. Sure, there are a few - but every other system has more. Most of them are based around one or two waggle gimmicks, and the wiimote turned from "innovative" to "tedious" a long time ago. On the upside, both systems still have awesome titles to play as long as you have enough friends you can bring around.

 

@ Henkie. To lessen the noise replace the fan with an aftermarket cooler. example:http://www.alternate.nl/html/produc...-1046012/?tn=HARDWARE&l1=Koeling&l2=Processor

When you buy new replace it right away. Not only less noise, but lower temperature of the CPU.

 

I have to say, upgrading my CPU's cooling fan was probably the best upgrade I ever did for my computer. Its so much more usable when its quiet. I had the stock cooler for my AMD X2, which was somehow worse than it was supposed to be. It was a solid block of aluminium with fairly thick fins and no heatpipes. I upgraded to an Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro v2. Pretty cheap upgrade and well worth it.

Its also quite easy to do.

 

I'm a hardcore PC gamer. I'm not into and familiar with consoles. Probably for the better.

 

@ Merlanni & Proteus_za: Good advice, I'd forgotten about factoring that one in for the new setup.

It'd also help my current setup, but there's still a big problem with that one: I bought that one because my old one had died, so didn't have the time to investigate more deeply and couldn't wait until I had some more money. My motherboard therefore was quite cheap, and as such didn't come with the fancier heatpipes to distribute heat to various heatsinks, but came with a fan on the southbridge (you know the type, small and noisy). It bugged me then as well, but installing a passive cooler on it would've meant that I'd have to machine it to make it fit around my graphics card, which was just too much of a hassle for me to do it.

Anyway, I won't make the same mistake for the upcoming setup. Now if only there was an HD5850 with a quieter cooler...