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Over the past week, I've done something I've never done before: played a new video game earlier it'southward released to the general public on a console, rather than a PC. And part of me hopes I never take to exercise it again.

Don't go me incorrect: That has nothing to exercise with the game itself: id Software's Rage, which was released on Tuesday to mixed-to-positive reviews. True, I wasn't enormously enamored of it, simply beingness paid to play games is fun in any event, and existence able to practice and then before there's a ton of information (both the regular and the mis- kind) floating around out there is thrilling. That I'd practice once again in a heartbeat. (You hear me, Bethesda? Skyrim is coming upward…)

Information technology's the "play it on a console" role I'm not so jazzed virtually repeating.

Though my focus has always been on PC gaming, I'thousand no stranger to dedicated home video game consoles. I owned an Atari 2600 mumblemumble years agone, and eventually graduated to playing others, including the original NES, the SNES, the Sega Saturn and the Sega Dreamcast (I've had good luck picking them, don't I?), and the more recent Nintendo Wii. But this time I was settling down with an Xbox 360, which I'd previously used simply on isolated occasions (though I do have a controller for utilise on my habitation Windows box), and never earlier with a borderline looming.

RageI discovered correct abroad the frustration in having to install all three discs to the Xbox's hard drive, just to get the strongest performance. Bethesda recommended this, then I felt I had to oblige, but it was a time-consuming process; one time upon a fourth dimension, not having to flip discs or install games were things that fabricated consoles more attractive than PCs for gaming purposes. When I finally got into the game itself, I was shocked at the quality of the graphics. Not the design, mind you lot — the ramshackle Firefly scientific discipline fiction-meets-Former West-meets scrapheap look was, for the nigh part, shrewdly implemented. But the sharper lines and more divers colors I'k used to weren't there. (And don't go me started on the anti-aliasing — or the relative lack thereof.) Then there were the scrunched-together controls and oddly long saving and loading times…

Take hold of that hunk of plastic

People are really able to put upwardly with this? Yes, apparently they are. In August, the International Data Corporation reported that the already robust sales of game panel hardware and software will reach $39.7 billion worldwide by 2015, at which point there will exist approximately 257 million active consoles. Practically every time I accept a coming together with AMD or Nvidia reps about a new video bill of fare or another computer-oriented graphics technology, they always evidence me border-busting charts proving that PC gaming isn't just alive and well, but that information technology's the side by side big Next Big thing. Maybe it is, but ane thing's for sure: Consoles aren't going away anytime soon.

I call back the reason for this boils down to two letters: Television receiver. Aside from the event of screen size (which I won't discount, though it matters more to other people than it does to me), having easy, instant admission to cable — and being able to switch between information technology and the game you're playing with just the printing of a push button — is a huge benefit and convenience. Beyond that, the console experience seems a natural extension of television watching, with the sitting positions, the admission to snacks and drinks, and even the remote command-game controller relationship all very much the same.

Bed sores

On the PC, things aren't quite so simple. If you lot want the biggest visuals you can become and generally the highest frame rates, you have to go full screen, and that means neglecting any else you may be doing. And so in that location's the matter of comfort: Unless your living room is laid out very efficiently, and you have the right kind of controllers, or you're playing on a laptop (which introduces a whole new drove of headaches), you lot're not going to exist able to game from the sofa. And I've yet to find a reckoner chair anywhere near as comfortable every bit one of those. (Do you know of one? Get out a comment below — please!)

Otherwise, PC gaming is much sleeker and more satisfying, in means that wouldn't take been thought possible even 10 or xv years ago. PC graphics applied science has gotten a lot improve and consoles' improvement has normalized. Now, all it takes is a solid gaming video card to surpass consoles in terms of graphic detail — we're not talking an AMD Radeon Hd 6990 or an Nvidia GTX 590 here, though those are mighty nice — and you can tweak countless little settings to find your perfect blend of quality and operation. (This is a weak bespeak for Rage right now, past the way, only things are reportedly improving.)

The keyboard-mouse combo offers dozens more interaction possibilities than a unmarried cramped controller, fifty-fifty one the console manufacturer has packed with buttons, and you tin customize your peripherals and preferences more hands than you tin can with a panel. Chances are, your computer is too already connected to the Cyberspace, something that is still far from a given in terms of TVs, and that instantly improves and simplifies a game's multiplayer and DLC aspects.

Rage car drivingThen at that place'southward the matter of game purchase and download services like Steam and Origin that offering quicker and more sensible access to your full library of games — on a reckoner difficult drive that will take more trouble running out of infinite than the one on your Xbox or PlayStation 3. Get stuck along the mode? Momentarily Alt-Tabbing to Windows and hitting GameFAQs.com — or whatever your favorite site is — is a snap. (Uh, not that I'd e'er exercise this.)

Was there anything I preferred about the panel version of Rage? Sure. The driving sections — and there many of them — were much less misreckoning with the Xbox'due south dual control sticks than with the PC's WASD movement keys. But in every other way Rage on the PC was a better-looking, faster-loading, more connected game. I have no regrets virtually the time I spent with consoles in my youth. Only thanks, Bethesda, for helping me learn once and for all that if the choice is between a panel and a PC version of the same game, the latter is probable to be the ameliorate bet.