As a PC gamer, I am realizing the benefits of consoles.

[Kashis]

@Kashis:
Aside from the jam analogy just not working:
Thanks to people who think consoles are innovative, we still have games with savepoints in 2014.

Innovation ought to be the last argument for consoles ever. Cover based shooting? Quick time events? That isn't innovation, that is just the result of controllers being inadequate for doing anything that requires the least amount of dexterity.

The only innovative thing that comes to my mind when I think about consoles is Guitar Hero. That only happened, because controller input is so limiting, that console devs permanently struggle to find a desperate way to fix it. Well, that worked; Exactly once.

Save points are intentional, designed to be checkpoints. Not every game has em and plenty of console games utilize auto/instant/menu saving or none at all.

No innovation from console gaming other than Guitar Hero? Wow, okay.

PC master race 1, Console Peasants 0.

(...not really)

[hian]

One factor that I think has a large impact on why people choose to game on consoles, is simplicity.
Consoles are cheap, and simple. Cheap computers don't usually allow you to play current-gen games optimally anyway, and computers come with heaps of technical issues due to the vast amount of variables that go into the functioning of said computer in relation to all the software that is running on it.

Case in point, not a single computer I have ever owned lasted even close to as long as the PS2 without technical issues of one kind or another - actually, I never had technical issues with that machine even once.
An oh-so-expensive gaming computer that optimally runs all the current-gen games can still get bogged down by whatever else you happen to have on it, get viruses, crash due to errors caused by the interplay between various components, and/or incompatible software/hardware components. And, that's likely to happen, because you're probably going to use it for more than just gaming.
Now, granted that you have "teh l33t" and thus aren't bothered by issues like these, chances are you're spending quite some time and effort making sure those things don't happen. Something which many people probably can't be bothered to do, if all they really want is just to play the latest FIFA.

With a console, all you have to do is plug it in, turn it on, and play your games. The rest is self-explanatory, and requires absolutely no maintenance except for not throwing it out the window, or stomping on it in anger once you lose a round of COD online.

As far as I am concerned that's a major plus right there.

All that being said, I prefer handhelds.
I have a computer, and a console that I could game on. I don't however. All my gaming is now confined to my PS Vita, or my Xperia Play, because they're 100% hassle-free, and can be used anywhere without any concern for anything except battery-life(which is still only an issue if I'm far away from an electrical outlet, or don't have my portable charger with me).

And before anyone goes "omg what abuut da graphics" - I don't give two shits about graphics and never have. I still think Metal Gear Solid 1 is the best game in the entire MGS saga, and get more willies from the art direction in games like FF7-9, Suikoden 2, Breath of Fire 3-4 then I could ever get from games like the Last of Us, or GTA5, because I'm not stupid and is therefore capable of seeing the visual merits of art beyond how many pixels they comprise of.
People who have an issue with that kind of thinking should be oblivious to why people still read books, or old cartoons. Usually they're not, which is why I'm forced to conclude that their capacity for making informed opinions on the nature of reality is severely dysfunctional.

[Xenonight2]

my mac is pretty sick at gaming.

for games that are support mac, anyway

[hian]

as i said before, i like the pc mostly because it can run more games than all of the consoles ever made, put together. and with emulation, you can run most console exclusives as well.

like you, i don't really care about incredible levels of graphical fidelity or whatever. i'd take the beautiful environments in ff7's midgar over the shitty looking (but probably technically impressive) blandness of ff13 any day. it's a good thing then, that i can play ff7 on pc.

as for the rest, like you, i never had any problems with any consoles ps2 or earlier, but i've had two 360s, one of which had to be replaced and the other one doesn't work all that great anymore. i'm pretty sure both problems were caused by overheating. on pc, you can fairly easily observe and control heating issues, ensuring yr system will last longer.

i don't think you can really compare handhelds and pcs. handhelds are fine if yr extremely busy and on the go, and just want something reasonably simple to chill out with for a little while, but you can't play baldur's gate 2 or shogun 2 total war on em.

edit: well, you can actually play bg2 on ipad now ;P , but it's an inferior experience

I agree, that if you're willing to take a PC with all it's potential issues, know how to maintenance properly, and know how to use emulators, hook up controllers etc. then PC is by far the best tool for general gaming.
PC elitist tend to forget that there is a large portion of gamers(and PC users as well) who're not actually capable of doing all that. I mean, people are still clicking stupid banners and installing spyware, getting infected by viruses etc. to this day. I know plenty of people who're capable of turning the PC on, surfing the net, and watching movies, but don't know how torrent works, or how to patch a video-game.

I agree that technical issues have increases with newer consoles, but I suspect that is because producers are insisting on turning consoles more and more into dumbed down computers.

As for handhelds -
The only reason handhelds can't play Shogun 2 at this moment, is because of limited hardware, and lack of interest.
The fact of the matter though, is that Vita offers several console game ports from earlier generations, which clearly shows that there is nothing inherent about the handhelds as a format that limits them from offering console-type pacing and console-type narratives.
That kind of backwards thinking is what is bogging down handheld productions to this day.
I'm pretty sure the PS Vita hardware could support earlier titles of Total Ware, so this argument really just boils down to time constraints. A couple of more years, and a handheld capable of running Shogun 2 might very well exist - if not with the same graphical fidelity as a computer, at least with the same game-play.

The problem is that the PSP logic still reigns, and producers still seem to think that they need handheld games to be short, episodic and so forth.
This is flawed when you consider that the Vita can be paused at any time, put into standby mode, and because it's a handheld, you don't need to fret over interruptions of game-play, as you can essentially carry on at any time, or any place.
FF10/10-2 HD, and MGS2/3 suffer non of this logic, yet new titles are consistently dumbed down for the sake of a player demographic that only exists because of the limitations of the PSP, and the DS, to begin with.

Another argument I've seen against handheld-gaming is screen-size, but this is really messed up. Firstly, "screen size" essentially boils down to how much space a foreign object takes up on the field of vision of the human eye. Since you'll usually hold the handheld very close to your face, the screen will most likely cover just as much space of your field of vision as a TV would, if you were sitting on your couch 1-2 meters away. As long as the hardware is good enough(OLED screens, high resolution support), then there really is no difference.
In either case, this argument too, will become even more irrelevant when streamlined versions of the gaming goggles become mass-produced and the norm on the market, and can be hooked up to the handhelds.