Well things are going nicely in the shadowy household and it has been a good few years since I invested in a games machine.

The whole PS3 and Xbox360, passed me by completely.

I was tempted to buy but I could not justify the expense and I always assumed for the last 4 years that the next generation was just around the corner so it seemed to be an investment that lacked any long term sense.

Well the PS4 has arrived and in the coming months finances may allow for an investment in one of these nice shiney new boxes.

But this is where I start to fall short. I've had a look at the prices and to be honest they are a little more expensive than I predicted. I've had a look at comparisons and people are fairly evenly split on the 2 machines. But given the price tag, I'm seriously wondering whether it would not be better to just stuff the two of them and go for a PC or gaming laptop.

Anyone got any opinions????

The trouble with gaming on PC's is that I am never sure what spec's I would need; were as with a PS4 or Xbox you know the game will run as they are made for the machine.

having been into gaming since i was gven a Grandstand SD 070 back in 1978, i have decided that the Xbox 360 shall be the last system i buy, i am sick of getting a collection of 50+ games only for them to becom obsolete when the new machine appears, Why won't they make the xbox backwards compatable ffs, i shall be buying one last 360 (new if i can find one) and stash it with my collection of others systems (Grandstand SD 070, Atari 2600, Colecovision, Sega Master System, SNES, Mega Drive, Nintendo 64, GameCube) in the cupboard, greedy barstewards

I never understood the need for backwards compatibility. If you have games for a previous console, surely you have the previous console too? Just leave that old console plugged into the TV along with the new one.

I used to be a PC gamer, but found getting stuff to run on them and keeping up with specs was too much bother. A console that will be current for 5+ years and sits nicely in the living room is a much easier solution. I had a PS3 and XBOX360, but used the PS3 far more. I have a PS4 now, but won't bother with an XBOX One unless it has some better exclusives. Besides, it isn't even available in South Africa yet.

A PC now that will run high end games, will still perform better than a PS4/Xbox1 in 5 years time. Ive always been a PC gamer, but have since switched to a PS4, purely for what you have highlighted in your post. SIts nicely in the living room and is easier

Regards

King James

GTA5 is a good reason not to buy a gaming PC, in my eyes i will always play games on consoles unless a modern day version of Sam Fox strip poker is released

If you want to play cutting edge games with cutting edge hardware and software you buy a PC. There's really no debate.
With the PC you get the added bonus of all the other features (for instance I use the Adobe Creative Suite extensively - including Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator etc. - all of which are truly remarkable pieces of software).

Best of all the games come cheaper through the various sales held on Steam, Origin etc.

If you aren't particularly bothered about performance and don't mind being bombarded with endless offers to sell you "content" - go with either of the consoles. They're basically PCs anyhow in architecture. If albeit modestly powerful next to the figures you can juice a PC up to.

Unfortunately you are entering into a real lull in the games market. A succession of mergers, criminally high production costs and a general lack of imagination have crippled the gaming industry over the last few years. More software houses have gone out of business recently than at any time in gaming history.

However, the impending arrival of VR technologies such as Oculus Rift will likely light the turbochargers on the industry. We really are at a nexus in the evolution of not just gaming - but the entire media community. The possibilities offered by devices such as Oculus Rift really are limitless. I fully expect there will be a concerted effort to somehow unify the games industry with the elements of the movie business over the next 10-20 years. It's been coming for a while now with TV making tentative steps to align some of its content with "same universe" game platforms. Once OR explodes onto the market I don't think it'll be long before movies themselves are piped directly into VR format.

A prime example for such a venture is the Star Wars universe. Given the petabytes of digital content formerly under the control of Lucasfilm and now Disney it should be simplicity itself to recreate some kind of facsimile of that universe within a VR game engine. Once that link is made it won't be long before "watching a Star Wars film" takes on an entirely new meaning.

If you want to be at the bleeding edge of this coming revolution my guess would be to stick with the PC for the time being. That is until greater "thickness" is hardwired into telecomms and they can be replaced by semi-"dumb" terminals.

PC is the best way. Unless you just want to play sports games in your living room.