whats the best platform?
whats the best platform?
Author
Discussion

nick francis

Original Poster:

858 posts

284 months

Sunday 29th April 2007
quotequote all
for racegaming, PS3, Xbox or specced up PC?
Nick

DevilYellowCV8

745 posts

246 months

Sunday 29th April 2007
quotequote all
Nick,

From my experience to date, the Xbox 360. PS3 games like GT5 are still on the horizon and Microsoft will up the stakes further next year with racing games like Project Gotham 4 and possibly (praying hard here) Toca Race Driver, amongst others, which was brilliant on both PS2 & Xbox.

To date, Microsoft's online 'Live' gameplay for racing games has been excellent and worth the subscription but I think Sony's online service may be free?

Also, the official force feedback wheel on the 360 is the best I've used on a console it's improved my gaming performance alot.

That's my biased view - hope it helps.....

Digby

8,338 posts

269 months

Sunday 29th April 2007
quotequote all
No easy answer these days depending on your demands.

Overall however, the PC currently offers more realistic racing options and throws shed loads of
free addons into the mix too.

Consoles offer all kinds of racing experiences with the "sim" side of things catching up.
Plus they tend to look nicer on your 42" LCD/plasma than a PC will.They can also be used
on monitors too though, so you don't have to sit with a steering wheel on your lap.

Also, there are games in development that will allow you to use your Xbox 360 and play online
against the PC version of the game too, so i would imagine that could end up being true with
racing games too.

I prefer simulator type racers over arcade based games, and the truth is, if titles do remain exclusive to one machine, i will always own a decent PC and consoles to satisfy those racing needs though.
GTR, GTR2, GTL, rfactor, GPL and a few others to boot are currently the cream of the
crop racing wise, and the PC is the way forward to play those.
Things like Forza 2, project Gotham 4 and GT5 however will always make me want to own consoles though.

Like i say, no easy answer these days, but if i had a gun at my head and had to choose, rfactor alone with the hundreds of free addons would be enough for me to take the pc route.

marvelharvey

1,869 posts

273 months

Sunday 29th April 2007
quotequote all
I'll have to choose the 360 as well, it already has plenty of quality games and Forza2 is out in just over a month. The PS3 has 'potential', but that's all for the moment and up until around xmas time and the beginning of next year.

Mr Beckerman

5,330 posts

250 months

Sunday 29th April 2007
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I think Digby has hit the nail on the head.

For race simulators it has to be a PC (and for a Mac-ist to say that.....) whereas for a racing game, take your pick from either of the new consoles (I'm afraid I don't class the PS GT series or Forza simulators).

SS HSV

9,646 posts

281 months

Monday 30th April 2007
quotequote all
If you want to turn it on and play it now, console it the only way to go. £3-500 gets you the best.

If you want to play your game on the pinnacle of technology with the best graphics and sound, and an adjustment or 'fiddle factor' for everything then a PC is no compromise. A high end games PC will leave you no change from £3-4k, Bear in mind that one graphics card can cost the same as an entire console and will be obsolete in around 3 months. Also it will require constant fettling to get the best out of it, and there will be a lot of research to do about products and technical support. Also a true games PC is set up to do just that, no Office or other applications installed, just games!

You pays your money and you makes your choice

ajg31

1,455 posts

230 months

Monday 30th April 2007
quotequote all
personally i think game developers are now leaving the pc behind in favour of consoles. cant think of one game that is optomised for latest sli'd 8800gtx monster with quad core i onw a higher than average pc rig, but it doesnt do alot more than a good console costing the same as a single GPU (as mentioned above). IF PS3 game developers add keyboard and mouse support into all new games i would prob sell my rig and put 1k back into my account and have a shoney new console to boot

alexpez

161 posts

251 months

Thursday 3rd May 2007
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Devs leaving PCs behind? www.iracing.com/

Founded by the guy who has just bought half of one of NASCARs largest teams (Roush Racing, now Roush Fenway Racing) and the co founder of Papyrus (Indy500, Indycar Racing, ICR2, NASCAR, N2, Grand Prix Legends, N3, N4, N2002, N2003), im expecting something very very big from these guys this year.

eyebeebe

3,641 posts

256 months

Saturday 5th May 2007
quotequote all
SS HSV said:
If you want to turn it on and play it now, console it the only way to go. £3-500 gets you the best.

If you want to play your game on the pinnacle of technology with the best graphics and sound, and an adjustment or 'fiddle factor' for everything then a PC is no compromise. A high end games PC will leave you no change from £3-4k, Bear in mind that one graphics card can cost the same as an entire console and will be obsolete in around 3 months. Also it will require constant fettling to get the best out of it, and there will be a lot of research to do about products and technical support. Also a true games PC is set up to do just that, no Office or other applications installed, just games!

You pays your money and you makes your choice



Paying 3-4k for a PC is just madness! The core of a top spec system can be built for not much over a grand.

I upgraded my system in November keeping only old hard drives, dvd drives etc. It cost £1,300 for a E6600 processor, a nforce 680i M/B, 2GB of the fastest Corsair memory I could buy, a Soundblaster Fatality Pro with breakout box, a 8800GTX, a silverstone PSU powerful enough to run it all and leave plenty left over and new aluminium case to put it in.

If you add on the price of the bits I didn't upgrade: a 20" TFT the various drives and a diNovo bluetooth keyboard mouse combo and the G25 wheel I doubt you would break the 2k barrier. Yes I could have got a faster processor, more memory and a second 8800GTX, but I don't do 3D rendering or video editing so no need for the memory, every game I've got is running flawlessly at maxed out detail at 1680x1050 so why bother with an SLI setup. Yes more CPU power is always good but I'm happy with the speed of everything and couldn't justify paying double or more of the price for a better processor and it will quite happily overclock 25% if I want it to.

NugentS

699 posts

270 months

Sunday 6th May 2007
quotequote all
eyebeebe said:
SS HSV said:
If you want to turn it on and play it now, console it the only way to go. £3-500 gets you the best.

If you want to play your game on the pinnacle of technology with the best graphics and sound, and an adjustment or 'fiddle factor' for everything then a PC is no compromise. A high end games PC will leave you no change from £3-4k, Bear in mind that one graphics card can cost the same as an entire console and will be obsolete in around 3 months. Also it will require constant fettling to get the best out of it, and there will be a lot of research to do about products and technical support. Also a true games PC is set up to do just that, no Office or other applications installed, just games!

You pays your money and you makes your choice



Paying 3-4k for a PC is just madness! The core of a top spec system can be built for not much over a grand.

I upgraded my system in November keeping only old hard drives, dvd drives etc. It cost £1,300 for a E6600 processor, a nforce 680i M/B, 2GB of the fastest Corsair memory I could buy, a Soundblaster Fatality Pro with breakout box, a 8800GTX, a silverstone PSU powerful enough to run it all and leave plenty left over and new aluminium case to put it in.

If you add on the price of the bits I didn't upgrade: a 20" TFT the various drives and a diNovo bluetooth keyboard mouse combo and the G25 wheel I doubt you would break the 2k barrier. Yes I could have got a faster processor, more memory and a second 8800GTX, but I don't do 3D rendering or video editing so no need for the memory, every game I've got is running flawlessly at maxed out detail at 1680x1050 so why bother with an SLI setup. Yes more CPU power is always good but I'm happy with the speed of everything and couldn't justify paying double or more of the price for a better processor and it will quite happily overclock 25% if I want it to.


Seconded

Sean

chris watton

22,547 posts

283 months

Monday 7th May 2007
quotequote all
NugentS said:
eyebeebe said:
SS HSV said:
If you want to turn it on and play it now, console it the only way to go. £3-500 gets you the best.

If you want to play your game on the pinnacle of technology with the best graphics and sound, and an adjustment or 'fiddle factor' for everything then a PC is no compromise. A high end games PC will leave you no change from £3-4k, Bear in mind that one graphics card can cost the same as an entire console and will be obsolete in around 3 months. Also it will require constant fettling to get the best out of it, and there will be a lot of research to do about products and technical support. Also a true games PC is set up to do just that, no Office or other applications installed, just games!

You pays your money and you makes your choice



Paying 3-4k for a PC is just madness! The core of a top spec system can be built for not much over a grand.

I upgraded my system in November keeping only old hard drives, dvd drives etc. It cost £1,300 for a E6600 processor, a nforce 680i M/B, 2GB of the fastest Corsair memory I could buy, a Soundblaster Fatality Pro with breakout box, a 8800GTX, a silverstone PSU powerful enough to run it all and leave plenty left over and new aluminium case to put it in.

If you add on the price of the bits I didn't upgrade: a 20" TFT the various drives and a diNovo bluetooth keyboard mouse combo and the G25 wheel I doubt you would break the 2k barrier. Yes I could have got a faster processor, more memory and a second 8800GTX, but I don't do 3D rendering or video editing so no need for the memory, every game I've got is running flawlessly at maxed out detail at 1680x1050 so why bother with an SLI setup. Yes more CPU power is always good but I'm happy with the speed of everything and couldn't justify paying double or more of the price for a better processor and it will quite happily overclock 25% if I want it to.


Seconded

Sean


Yep, as mentioned, you don't have to buy a whole new PC to upgrade it, due to its modular nature.
I myself could not justify paying £3-400 for a console, which probably has around two games I 'may' be interested in, and at around £50 per game, from a PC perspective, that's one hell of a rip off! (Seen Far Cry for XBox for £49.99, and £9.99 for PC - Oblivion the same....!)
It also depends on what you use your PC for, if it's just for games, then you may as well buy a console, but if its for gaming, online gaming (which is free at the moment), a home theatre system and work PC all in one, then even £3K is a bargain, especially if it pays for itself in less than a month, from the work you have been able to do on it.

Anyway, please, where are the likes of Rome, Company of Heroes, Silent Hunter 4, IL2 1946 etc for the console markets?
Having said that, I very nearly bought a console just so I could play Resident Evil 4, but came to my senses and realised spending a few hundred ££ just to play one game would be a tad OTT - but spending £2-2.5K on a PC which is used well over 14 hours a day isn't, horses for courses....