reading03 — PC gaming

How is gaming on a personal computer different from gaming on a video console? What are the advantages and disadvantages of either platform? What sort of games are better suited for either type of system?

Today, there are so many different types of video games, it makes sense that some are better with a controller on a console, and some are better on a mouse and keyboard with a computer. People everywhere build their own computers or buy cool gaming ones and spend hours on hours playing. Personally, I grew up as a kid playing mostly games on a computer because I didn’t have a console, but today I spend almost 100% of my gaming on my Xbox.

As a kid, it was better to play on a computer because of why kids loves iPads. I could go to addictinggames.com or pop in one of 100 disks my older brothers had and try out just tons of games. It didn’t cost me $60 to try out a new one and I could stop playing if I ever grew bored. This is quite different than reasons people used to play on a computer and why people play on computers now, but it did let me explore a ton to try and find the best games for me. Eventually, I also got into N64, GameBoys, and a Wii, but it all started on a computer.

Today, one of the biggest factors for gaming on console is just numbers. All of my friends have an Xbox, why would I think about getting a Play Station or a gaming computer? I mostly want to play with them, so my preference on how to game is not that important. That being said, if I were more serious about video gaming, I would most certainly use a PC. For example, I love the game Fortnite right now. It is tons of fun to play on my Xbox, but the controller layout is so inferior to what it would be on mouse & keyboard. It is a shooter and can get very quick, so hot keys are valuable; it is just better to play it on a console if your goal is to be the best.

For my video game exploring, I chose to play Space Invaders. I actually recreated this game as a Sophomore for my Fund Comp I project, so it was nice to see how the emulator compared to what I made a couple years ago. This game is extremely simple and I don’t see how it would necessarily be better on a PC or a console which speaks to why PC gaming started. It was just more accessible and you could put more on there in the beginning when everything was simple, just how I got into gaming when I was a kid.