Greetings to you, Khabrovites! So Friday crept up unnoticed. Today we will talk about the long-standing and ongoing war between PCs and console players. This confrontation has no equal. The battles within the console market are nothing like the battles between PCs and consoles. The same as the battles of PCs between themselves: which "video" is better and who has how many fps.
The material will be a continuation of my previous topic, where we talked exclusively about consoles.
Naturally, the article will be a mix of my personal experience and outside opinion.
How it all began
In the distant 80s-90s, there could be no talk of opposition. Game consoles, like the first PC games, were not at the stage to swear or compete with each other. It was cool there that something appeared and developed.
Closer to the mid-90s, Dendy and Sega began to appear on the expanses of the former CIS. Most people got PCs at home, and especially for games, in general in the early 2000s. The lucky ones who could check out the 1st Doom, I met more and more towards the end of the 90s. The first, standing games on the PC, such as: Doom, Wolfenstein, Prince of Persia, Warcraft - could afford to play only a few, especially in the outback. At a time when Dendy and its copies were in the hands of more people. Dendy and Sega's game library was just as huge compared to the PC. Therefore, everything is obvious here.
I immediately discard hi-tech personalities with financial capabilities that they could afford at that time much earlier, I broadcast on behalf of an ordinary teenager at that time.
Consoles are gaining momentum
And so, in the early 2000s, Sony entered the market tightly, strengthening its authority from previously released consoles. Microsoft is following them, vyalenko. But we will clearly remember the first impressions of the games of the same PS1. When she gave out the picture no worse than the games on the PC of that time. There is nothing to talk about about Dendy and Sega. Therefore, what kind of wars? Everything was just developing.
Since 2002-2005, PC games have made a noticeable graphical breakthrough. The consoles didn't look so convincing anymore. The people slowly began to be wary and make decisions: buy a console or build a PC.
In my memory, the first PC games that made my jaw drop were: DOOM III (2004), Far Cry (2004), Serious Sam 2 (2005), and where without Need for Speed: Underground 2 (2004 ), but there isn't as much graphics as the gameplay and soundtrack decided on. I still think Need for Speed: Underground 2 is the best game in the series on PC and Need for Speed: High Stakes (1999) is the best on consoles. These were truly revolutionary projects and made a lasting impression. Once every couple of years I play 1-2 games from the list so for sure.
All of the above games are my personal opinion, and I do not want to cancel other projects released at this time.
PC Strikes Back
In 2007, Crysis was released, in parallel on PC and consoles. Here the consoles have already faded into the background. What a shockingly beautiful graphics, gadgets and gameplay of this masterpiece and benchmark at the time. It seems to me that this is where the real confrontation began. This game was the first to show the full power of the PC platform and how graphically the console market lags behind. Yes, many will say: "what about the gameplay, casualness, etc."? Friends, major wars are still going on against the backdrop of graphics. "Graffiti", overclocking to achieve maximum fps - this is the main theme in the war between PCs and consoles.
Console people set their tails between their tails, and PC boyars who could build the top PC at the time, based on Nvidia 8800, were jubilant. I'll tell you more, Crysis still looks modern at ultra graphics settings.
I didn’t have the budget for a powerful PC at the time and built myself a PC based on AMD and Radeon X1950xtx and what do you think? At high settings at a resolution of 1680x1050, it slowed down. It's on a new PC. I didn't give up, this was my first "gaming" PC and I wanted graphics. I ran Crysis for the first time at high settings with a frequency of 15-17 fps, shooters will understand how painful it was. But, I was freaked out from the picture, the foaming waves and the palm trees falling from the shots. With every hardware improvement, I ran Crysis over and over again, and every time I was surprised by the beauty of this creation. Has carried me a little, sorry.
Since I got the PS3 in 2010, I could only see on YouTube what a difference in graphics between PC and consoles. Yes, I took the best graphics game of the time, but other projects lagged behind.
Console people switched to exclusives. God of War on Sony looked like the most worthy project of the mid-2000s in the console arena. The Xbox couldn't be remembered for anything like that, except for Alan Wake. The clay parts of Halo, which were either Xbox exclusive or not - don't count. Forza, as well as Gran Turismo, on the PlayStation, on the Xbox, began to "insert" far from the first parts.
What really impressed me with the T-shirts was Gears of War. I love this series of games, right up to Gears 5, but again, the exclusive has been roaming the PC from time to time.
In 2007 Sony rolled out Uncharted, one of its best projects. System seller, so to speak. The release of The Last of Us in 2013 finally drove the nail in "T-shirts" for exclusives that have not remained so over the years. And this I still superficially went through the libraries.
What do we see for 2020?
With the new console architecture starting with the PS4 and Xbox One generations, boundaries are blurring in terms of exclusivity. Yes, it is with the exclusives and the lack of problems with the upgrade that all these years the console has attracted new and current users. Now, if Sony is trying to keep its brand and does not port its main titles to other platforms, Microsoft duplicates many "exes" on Windows.
No matter how puffed up the console players, the PC confidently keeps its brand. The decrease in exclusives on consoles, graphic lag, non-versatility - all this changed the worldview. As a "bonus" we add the update of the console versions, ala the upgrade - this further reduces the interest.
It used to be better. I bought a box and forgot for 5 years, and now “S”, “Pro”, etc.
So what's the precedent?
It's simple. Every year and taking into account the above factors, each side began to realize its place in the market. PC owners are well aware that they have an ace up their sleeve of flexibility, power, and console players realize that with modern architecture they have fewer and fewer exclusives and with progress in graphics and frame rates they are constantly "heated".
Many people cannot "jump" on the PC due to the fact that they are used to it and they are comfortable. PCs, in turn, are not ready to watch "soap" in 30 frames at 4k (most often).
I periodically observe and visit gaming forums, communities. The degree of confrontation has dropped noticeably over the years. Either a new generation of gamers has been reborn, or there has been less aggression.
Outcome
And the ending is such that the ax of war was almost dug in. There is a choice and that's fine. What I see from my side: so this is personally my decline in interest in consoles due to the decrease in exclusives. I wanted to take a PS4 for myself, but there, besides GOW, The Last of Us 2 is nothing interesting for me. Everything is on the PC. At one time I thought about Xbox One because Killer Instinct impressed, but they take it and port it to Windows.
So it goes. Do you think everything has died out or is it the calm before the storm? Although what a storm there, everything is sad at these latest gaming exhibitions.
I would be glad to have a lively discussion, have a great weekend and good games everyone!
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