What game console to get?

[Prince of Spires]

I've sent you a friend request on Xbox live. I see you've only played Skyrim so far? Your first time playing the game or have you played it before? It is awesome isn't it? At the moment theres an update for PC that gives horse combat. Now i haven't tried it out yet but apparantly its glitchy as hell. Has the xbox version got Horse combat yet? If so is it glitchy?

I brought my HDMI for £1! Works perfect! Kinda makes you think what the difference of the £150 ones are compared? If theres no difference then surely who would buy the expensive ones? You'd have to be an idiot to buy one.

I've tried a few of the other games that came with the console. I've got Halo (the aniversary edition), Halo reach, Fable III, some kinect game and then Skyrim (which I bought).

My preference of these is definatly Skyrim at the moment. Generally speaking I like RPG games and Skyrim is one of the better ones. I love the gameplay so far. It's quite intuitive and fluent. And a lot has improved since the previous eldar scrolls game I've played (being Morrowind). The journal options for instance are much easier to navigate through. Now I can actually find stuff back, instead of hopelessly flipping through 100s of pages of notes to find what I was supposed to do with that one item I picked up somewhere.

The scenery is stunning. It's a joy to walk around in it. The weather effects are nice and I like that night time has an actual in game effect on people and shops.

So far, I find it's a great game. And I suspect that I'll be spending quite some time on it in the near future...

Rod

[Allerion]

Firstly Allerion is that i do not rate games due to graphics. I have recently just got the original XCOM enemy unknown on PC for some fun tactial gameplay with nostalgia as i remember it when watching my dad play it when i was very young (one of the first video game experiences). Also my favourite game is not Skyrim nor is it any 360 or PC game. Its Final Fantasy 7! That thing had good graphics for its time yes (at least the backgrounds) but todays standards its laughable. But i can't help but still have it sit on my number 1 top spot as the best game i have ever played. So no Graphics are not a selling point to me i was merely pointing out that if it was graphics he was after he would do better getting a PC.

Sorry I must have misinterpreted what you said

Why should you not trust free online gaming? Maybe its because i have alot of personal details on my computer like credit card details that i don't really want others getting hold of. Sure there are good free anti viruses my dad uses them on his own PC but for my own details i am just not prepared to take the risk. Good for you to be able to trust them really i mean that as i would love to not have to pay for security. But i just can't as my details are too important to me. Also again i was just noting it down for him to make his own mind. He could easily just take the risk with PS3 free online play and i couldn;t really care to be honest i was just pointing out that they have been hacked before and its something to consider.

As luna said, if someone really wanted to hack into YOUR computer, they could do it regardless of what programs you have running to prevent them. The benefit of anti-virus programs is that they generally block spyware, adware, ect., as in things that need to be downloaded to your computer to be effective. And free programs tend to do that just as well as the premium versions.

Subscription to play online isn't anything new. WOW does it and more or less all MMOs do. If you don't like paying for it don't play it. Thats fine. Or get yourself a PS3 and take the risk. Thats fine but i wont be as i don't want that risk. Which is fine also.

I'm sorry do you not pay for your phone or your internet to e-mail? If not please tell me what provider you use i will certainly sign up. Do you pay to play online? No? I do so i'm an idiot? No i'm just not taking teh risk and honestly i get my moneys worth with all sorts of online features.

No, it's not new, but that doesn't mean it is any less silly. Yes, I pay for phone and internet. But I don't pay anybody besides my carrier or ISP to be able to use them. Just like I won't pay anybody to be able to play my games after I've bought them.

Hopefully you see my point. I was and am not bashing PS3 i was merely pointing out the facts. Thank You.

Yes, I see your point, I guess I came off a bit... aggressive. Sorry.

Rubbish. 1) Graphic do not equal gameplay. 2) PC's are not always better. A number of console sequels have not been ported to the PC because the originals just didn't sell. 3) I think the cost to game improvement ratio for a PC is way off.

1)thats what I said
2)Typically things don't sell because they're not well liked. Console ports tend to be really clunky on PC anyway. I don't think arguing about whether xbox or PC has better games is really going to get anywhere, considering it's very subjective. It's just that a PC can do everything an Xbox can do, except better.
3)Cost to game improvement ratio? I've actually never heard that term and haven't the foggiest idea what you're talking about. Cost of developing the game? Cost of assembling a rig that can run Crysis on max settings at 60fps? I don't understand.

That's not the game developers fault, that's the company. You pay for the right to use their system to play your game, technically. Thats like saying I hate having to pay for games to play on my console...

Ok, so why would you support a company that decides to charge people just to utilize everything that comes with a game(excluding the cost of buying the game). If I buy a game, I expect to be able to play the game, I shouldn't have to pay again to play the game. Its not "like saying i hate having to pay for games to play for my console" at all. Its like saying I hate having to pay to use something I already bought. Its like saying I hate having to pay one company for a service I'm already paying another company for, just so I can use the first company's product, even though the service costs them nothing.

That's just wrong. Yes you need a subscription, but you don't need to pay online, you can buy a code in a high street store - Microsoft doesn't have any of my card details. Silver membership is standard and free, so it's usefulneess isn't really an issue.

Ok, so your money is still going to microsoft so they will allow you to play your games. So what is the difference between a gold and silver membership? I honestly don't know.

AVG is an excellent piece of kit. I work in the IT department of a fairly large company, and we use AVG business. Granted, it's not the free version, but we do recommend that for employees personal machines.

That was sarcasm, I hoped the whole "insinuating AVG/Avast's freeware was spyware" and something about corporate douchebags would have been a hint. I guess I just haven't figured out sarcasm over the internet yet.

Why, what's the best thing you've spent money on?

Me.

[The Silly Dragon]

@Allerion, Don't worry its sometimes hard to write and read the true meanings of these words on the internet.

I am not saying that there is not people out there who can hack your computer (think back to that Kid who hacked the Pentagon wow!). I am just saying how safe i feel with a paid anti virus. I know there are free ones out there as i said before my dad uses them. But i don't simply because i feel safer with it. I never said the paid anti viruses are better only that i prefer them. I sound like an idiot who pays for something thats free but i just don't trust the free ones, period. Its like what you are told about phishing "if its too good to be true it probably isn't true".

The hack on Xbox Live that Luna linked us is not really a hack more like an idiot who gave their passwords away and theres no antivirus in the world that can stop idiots. Not like the PS3 network which was hacked.

Theres games which i agree you shouldn't have to pay to play like all those FPS multiplayer games like COD, Battlefield, Halo. They were made with the multiplayer as their main target. So you are essentially paying some £40-£50 for a short and pretty stupid single player campaign and then have to pay to play the rest of the game (which for these games make up about 70% of your gameplay minimum). But these are games i rarely play (Operation Racoon City i don't play online as i prefer to do the campaign on my own at my own pace).

For games which are 70%+ for single player or even split screen (remember those games?) i don't mind paying as i can get my moneys worth out of the game by itself and its an option to play it online not compulsary like COD etc.

Anyways its not like £60 a year is alot of money and the enjoyment you get from it is enough to warrant the fee (for me at least). Would i prefer it be free? Of course i would but let me point out a problem with this. If i could play online for free i could have multiple accounts on my Xbox and then play online to troll people. Everytime i get banned i move to my next one until its unbanned (Halo kicks you temporarily for like 20 minutes if you get kicked from too many games, i know this, not like i do it often though... ). How many accounts can you have on a PS3 console?

Also it may just be my experience but when a friend did have the PS3 he said that COD, Battlefield etc was just full of 12 year old kids screaming in their mics. But he says Xbox Live sees alot less (still theres some i have seen myself). Is this because its free and kids have unlimited access where as with Xbox Live the parents can simply say no to their child (also makes them ask what they want the money for and if they say to play 18 rated games online it may make them think twice).

The cost of making games has gone up alot over the years but the cost of purchasing a game has not gone up as much if at all (i am told that very old games like Space Invaders etc were sold for like £35-£40, thats the same as today!) So the gaming industry needs to make money somewhere and i don't mind supporting it (as long as the games are good). Its like saying "why pay to watch a movie when you can download it for free off the illegal websites?" which i know they have as good quality as the DVD releases as i have seen some pirated films myself which are perfect picture and sound quality. So why pay then? Its illegal? Please the amount of people who have seen pirated films are too much for the law to punish them all.

[Prince of Spires]

The cost of making games has gone up alot over the years but the cost of purchasing a game has not gone up as much if at all (i am told that very old games like Space Invaders etc were sold for like £35-£40, thats the same as today!) So the gaming industry needs to make money somewhere and i don't mind supporting it (as long as the games are good). Its like saying "why pay to watch a movie when you can download it for free off the illegal websites?" which i know they have as good quality as the DVD releases as i have seen some pirated films myself which are perfect picture and sound quality. So why pay then? Its illegal? Please the amount of people who have seen pirated films are too much for the law to punish them all.

Technically speaking, in the Netherlands it's not illegal to download pirated films. It's just illegal to upload them. But that's a whole other discussion.

I agree that the cost of making a game has gone up somewhat and that the cost of purchase has stayed roughly the same. However, I think you're underestimating the effort it cost to make simple computer games 20 odd years ago. No such thing as easy, 3e generation programming languages, unlimited storage capacity (relatively speaking of course, compared to 1Mb floppy disks, a 30Gb blue ray disk is unlimited), improved hardware specs etc. Of course, it's all still relative. Doom cost about $200.000, which was much at the time (early 90s), while Grand theft auto 4 cost about $100 million.

However, what you have to keep in mind is that the reach of the games has become much bigger in those past 20 years. I would be surpised if in the early 90s more then 10% of households had computers capable of playing Doom. However, I think you will be hard pressed to find a house without at least a PC and many will have game consoles and multiple PCs. So higher price, yes. But also much higher sales...

Rod

[The Silly Dragon]

Thats some good points i didn't think of rod. It must have been hard to program games at that level.

[Musashi]

My prejudice says that Sony takes more effort to create their consoles and accompanying eco-system, my prediction is that Microsoft has enough cash to burn to bury them.