Why I love Console gaming :)

First of all, I’m a gamer.
I don’t play a machine, I play games, all of them, regardless of the platform. Sure I have favourite genres and titles and I don’t play everything (how’s that possible), but the point is, being a gamer is about GAMES, not being a fanboy (fangirl?) of a platform.
I have a good gaming PC, I have a PS3, I have an XBOX360, I have a PSVita, I have a 3DS, I have a PSP, I have a DSi: whatever it takes to play the games I want to experience. All platforms have games that are exclusive to them, so, unless you just play one game or game genre (like COD or MMORPGs), you really need to have a few different platforms for their exclusives.

Since the PS4 unveiling, debate has ravaged about how much better PC are compared to Playstation specs and so on.
Honestly, the debate is pretty sterile. Your PC can be a ninja machine, but it still can’t run Uncharted, Killzone 3, Resistance, Little Big Planet, Journey, no matter how hard you try ^_^.

But exclusives aren’t the only reason why some of us prefer playing a console instead of on a PC, sometimes comfort is more important than power and there may be economics involved too, read on:

-- Couch
I’m not really a couch potato but most of the time when I play I want to relax. With a pad in my hand I can comfortably sit in my couch or armchair and enjoy the experience.
After spending many hours at a desk, and in front of a computer is nice to pass downtime in a more comfortable and different position. As much as your PC gaming station can be ergonomic, you can’t compare the relax of having to use a mouse and keyboard to using just a pad.

-- Economics.
Let’s be honest, buying a console is cheap. For a few hundred dollars (how much did you pay your smartphone?) you get a gaming machine that will last several years.
I bought my PS3 in 2007 spending around 400€/$ and she gloriously served me for 4 years and a half (playing with it basically every day). When she died in April 2012 I purchased a White PS3 for 250€/$. So it’s around 650€/$ in 6 years.
My current PC rig is a good gaming machine, I spent around 1,500€/$ on it in 1 year and a half ago. Since 2007 this is probably my third machine, all in all I have likely spent around 4,000€/$ on Pc parts, although likely it’s even more.
Granted console games are usually more expensive than PC ones, but on the other hand how much Power does a console use compared to a PC? Also, you don’t usually leave your console on while it’s likely for my pc to keep running even when I’m away to eat, take a shower and so on.

-- Cheaters.
Basically cheaters are losers that think to be smartasses.
Consoles aren’t cheaters free, but the scale of the phenomenon is definitely much smaller than on PCs. So thanks but no thanks, I’ll play my Battlefields, CODs and Crysis on a console. And yes, seeing your enemies through walls or using macros in mmorpgs pvp games IS cheating, otherwise they would be allowed in tournaments, and they aren’t. Just as much as athletes aren’t allowed to take drugs, you know.

-- Noise.
Well, ok, the first models of 360 were noisy, that’s why I only grabbed an Elite after you could install the games on the HD, but I never heard a noise from my PS3. One can easily build a silent PC rig, it just takes a little more money for a great case, fans and maybe some insulating panels but with a console, you don’t even have to care.

-- Drivers woes.
Ok, so I’ve been playing GuildWars 2 for a few hundred hours in the last few months… Everything went smooth for the first couple of months and then after an update my videocard started acting up: VGA drivers crashes, hard resets, freezes… I never had a single issue with my GTX 570, but by searching around I found many people having trouble with it and different games.
For me it was only GW2 (I played Diablo III, Warhammer 40.000 and a few more games without any trouble) but as long as I played GW2, I was plagued and I tried anything. No old or new driver would work. I also got a completely new HD, made a fresh Windows install and the problems where still there. Only way out? Spending a few hundred dollars to upgrade to a GTX 670 (shelling out more money that what you need to buy a new console)…
And I still remember my happy boyfriend install his brand new F12010 on his PC… and then (after a few hours) I remember my angry boyfriend throwing the disc away, swearing to not buy a PC game anymore.

So play whatever you like or want, but play, is much better than spending your time trying to convince people PCs are more powerful than consoles. Even if they were (and this is another can of worms) there may still be other factors to the equation ;).