What to do now

With the Xbox dead, I have been thinking about going back to PC gaming. I don’t really know why. I spent a lot of time on the PC before I switched over to the console.

So why did I switch to the console for gaming? I was really happy with my current gaming experience on the PC. I was able to apply mobs, hacks and other things that I’m unable to do on the console.

I remember when I bought my first Xbox. I was selling my truck so I took the radio out of it and took it back to Wal-mart. There I was able to get a full refund, about $200, and I bought an Xbox with it.

I played with my brother and some other people on Halo2 for the longest amount of time. Then when Halo3 was about to come out, I wanted the Xbox 360. Mainly because I wasn’t going to be able to play with my friends any longer.

My brother, soon to be sister-in-law, his boss and his girlfriend(at the time) all pitched in and got me one on the release date of Halo3. I was shocked behold words. It was a great gift.

I gamed on the 360 for more hours than I can count. I know that I clocked in way more hours in a year of PC gaming that I did in a year of Xbox gaming, but I still clocked in a lot of hours. Last I checked I had over 5 days straight of CoD4 time, maybe even more.

People have always said that console gaming was cheaper. I don’t see that. If every 2 years I have to buy a new $500 console, I can keep a PC almost bleeding edge for that amount of money.

Last year I blogged about the PC I built around this time. I bought almost everything latest and greatest that AMD had put out. Phenom CPU, RadeonHD video card, 4 gigs of ram, and a MB with the 790fx chipset. I know that computer is old now. So is the Xbox, but my computer is still running. Plus I can take it apart, clean it up, all with out voiding my warranty. You try doing that with an Xbox, bye-bye warranty.

I know why people like console gaming. It is a level playing field, more or less. The controls are mostly the same, the core box is the same, and everyone’s experience is just about the same. You do not have to put up with to much hacking, though I saw more of it on the Xbox than I did any other game system.

In the PC world you have to deal more with someone having a better mouse, keyboard, connection, better CPU, faster memory, better load times, and the list goes on. To compete on the PC level, you might want to think about dropping some serious cash at a system every 3 to 5 years. I’m talking around $1,500+. I know that seems like a lot, but when you get into over clocking, cooling, and other factors that will help to make a PC scream and beg you to turn it off, then you are talking about some change. Consoles just are not like that. You just toss them and go buy another one.

I know I’m going back to PC. I don’t know yet if I will give up on console gaming. I know I couldn’t afford the console almost 2 years ago, and I currently can’t just go out and get another one. I have things that need to be done first, like my teeth, and bills, and stressing over a very shaky economy.

So for now, I’m going back to my roots as a PC gamer. I might not ever return to the console world at all. It almost doesn’t bother me. the only factor that does bother me is that I will miss gaming with my friends more than I already am.