Comparing PC with Console games

[jfrost]

Well do comparisons based on the recommended settings then.

Well, as I said, this seems to give an edge to PC games (after all, they're the *recommended* settings, not the settings gamers are most likely to have, though they might happen to be the same eventually).

[MrPopo]

Most people buy PC games based on the recommended settings, as the jump between the graphical fidelity of required vs. recommended is usually pretty big. Also even a PC that meets the required specs generally don't run the game well even with all the sliders turned down, as there's usually other things running on the machine that slow things down further.

[J T]

Sometimes I think the comparisons should be made using the most prevalent PC settings among the consumer base, but how could one acquire such data I have no idea.

When each user has to use a client (like Steam) to play the games, then you can also collect data about computer configurations:

Here's info about what computer specs Steam users have:
http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey

[RyaNtheSlayA]

Sometimes I think the comparisons should be made using the most prevalent PC settings among the consumer base, but how could one acquire such data I have no idea.

When each user has to use a client (like Steam) to play the games, then you can also collect data about computer configurations:

Here's info about what computer specs Steam users have:
http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey

Looking at that it seems that the recommended settings of late follow this trend. All my new PC games reccomend:

2.0ghz Dual Core
2gb of RAM
nVidia 8800

[neilencio]

not trying to contradict any opinion, since this is semi off tangent. Would just like to add (rant?) that some sysreqs for the pc are very misleading.

A lot of reqs only provide cpu specs in *HZ format even though it doesn't represent speed consistently amongst various models even from the same manufacturer (i.e. I have seen sysreqs that ask for a "1 ghz dual core processor or higher" even though the game would run weakly on a pentium D 3 ghz (which is roughly only equal to the performance of a 1.8 ghz c2d).

Videocard reqs are also confusing, but mostly the fault of manufacturers' naming scheme (nvidia *cough*)

[GSZX1337]

I think that graphical comparisons should be made according to more prevalent settings available among the consumer base because that's what most users would use. To me it doesn't make sense to crank up all the settings and see what happens because that's not what most users would see when playing.

By that logic when comparing an X360/PS3 game to a Wii game, the X360/PS3 game should be run at 480i because it would't be fair to the Wii.

[jfrost]

No, by that logic we take a Wii game running at 480i and a PS3/360 game running in HD, because those are the most prevalent settings among the users.

[Ramatut4001]

No, by that logic we take a Wii game running at 480i and a PS3/360 game running in HD, because those are the most prevalent settings among the users.

I bet there's a lot of PS3/360s out there still running at 480i on CRTs.

[GSZX1337]

No, by that logic we take a Wii game running at 480i and a PS3/360 game running in HD, because those are the most prevalent settings among the users.

I bet there's a lot of PS3/360s out there still running at 480i on CRTs.

Yarp.

[miked]

I work at a computer repair shop during the day, and when i want to play some games the last thing I want to do is stare at a computer screen for more than my obligatory 8 hours a day.

Its nice to lay on my couch with a controller in my hands and just play. If I game on the CPU then it seems to feel like work all over again. I also HATE tweaking settings to get the best graphics/performance ratio. Funny thing is, I don't even care about graphics, but when on a computer I get all OCD and I must max everything out, and find out the best settings. I don't even know why......