Comment by w0utert | Hacker News Reader

Comment by w0utert | Hacker News Reader

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>> Consoles once represented predictability, stability and ease of use. Do they have much left beyond the set top form factor, 10 ft UI and a bit more flexibility on how often you're required to be online?

I'd say console still have all of these properties. Also, some of these things like set-top form-factor should not be underestimated. Other important advantages are that the buying experience is much nicer (only 1 online store, or a disc), you can expect any game that runs to at least run well enough for a decent experience, every game is optimized for the control scheme that comes with the console, and initial cost of buying a console is a lower than a capable PC.

Really, the only downside is lower graphical fidelity, and lack of games that are not well suited for controller input.

I have a PS4 and a PC with Steam BPM hooked up to my TV, and while I enjoy both I still can't cease to be amazed by the abysmal experience playing some PC games, it really is hit & miss. Even though my PC far exceeds the system requirements of some games they still run like crap (screen tearing, framerate spikes/drops, crashes), they have poor to no controller support, tiny fonts that are unreadable from the couch, they like to pop up mouse-only launchers, popups, updaters, whatever.

PC gaming can be great but let's not pretend any of the advantages of consoles are suddenly lost because they will have mid-cycle HW upgrades (which I personally think are a great thing, if executed well).

Try a monitor with GSync or Freesync. They sync the refresh rate of the monitor to the framerate the GPU can actually deliver, so you don't get tearing and judder as the FPS drops below refresh rate. Dropping into the 40s or high-30 FPS range is no longer a big deal. It's a game changer, I can't wait for it to make its way into TVs.

Right now GSync is more expensive (custom electronics) and has a better experience (consistent, often wider sync ranges) but long-term FreeSync is going to win because it's a VESA standard (VESA Adaptive Sync) and cheaper. You can often get a FreeSync model for the same price as an old plain monitor, GSync is usually a $200 increase in price.

The points you raise are all true though, the PC experience is not optimized for a 10 ft UI, and the performance tuning is often not as good (although PC is usually pushing a lot more pixels - many consoles render at 720p and upscale, whereas 1080p is standard and 1440p/4K or supersampling are common on PC). The other thing that bothers me is that every PC game is tied to an account somehow, so you can't buy/sell used games.

i stopped buying digital ps4 games because of steam family sharing.

I game on my flatscreen TV so GSync is not (yet) an option ;-)

> you can expect any game that runs to at least run well enough for a decent experience

not really. Even ignoring that decent at this point should be minimum 1080p60. A great many games don't even try for that, and they still experience stutter.

Still I'm going to go home and play WiiU. Although I am upset at Nintendo for messing up the WiiU so badly. Basically a generation with no new Zelda. >:( It doesn't count when it's getting released for the NX at the same time.

I don't want to buy a new console.

>> not really. Even ignoring that decent at this point should be minimum 1080p60. A great many games don't even try for that, and they still experience stutter.

I don't agree about that. Yes 1080p60 is always better, but if a game runs at stable 720p30 I will enjoy it just as much. My experience with PS3 and PS4 games are that with rare exceptions, they all at least provide an acceptable baseline that does not ruin the experience.

The problems I experience with some PC games are of a completely different kind, it's not that I think they should be prettier or run at higher framerates, but that they have glaring technical problems that completely ruin the experience. My last example would be Darksiders 2, a relatively old game that has visuals and game mechanics that don't warrant high system requirements at all, yet even though my PC is far above the recommended specs, has framerate spikes or (with VSync off) screen tearing that gives me headaches basically makes it impossible to play. This game also has a PS4 remake that (arguably) performs below what the hardware should be ablt to pull off (it runs at 30fps instead of 60fps), but at least it's consistent.

Usually you can tweak your way around problems like this, but that's the whole point of a console: not having to do these things...

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