5 Reasons to be a Gaming PC Owner

Games Cost Less

As great as gaming is, it isn’t always the cheapest hobby to have. Hardware can be costly and then you’ve got additional peripherals and a huge amount of great games that are worth your money and time. Gaming PC owners tend to get the best deal here. For whatever reason, PC versions of games are sometimes a little bit cheaper than their console counterparts. Though it may not seem like a huge amount at the time, add that up over a few purchases and you’ve almost paid for another game in the savings you’ve made.

This is even before you take Steam Sales, GOG, Humble Bundles, and more stupidly cheap offers into account, too. Steam Sales are well known for slashing over 75% off recent titles, and allowing PC gamers to stock up on games for the coming months. Humble Bundles provide a similar service too, and all money raised goes to charity so you know it’s going to a good place. PC players may not always get some of the big exclusives that console players get, but they sure get better value for money.

Superior Graphical Performance and Options

Not only do games tend to cost a little cheaper on PC in comparison to consoles, but dependent on what specs you’re running, you’re also likely to have a far prettier experience on PC than you are on the Xbox One and PS4. Increased frame rates, smoother textures, and more detailed worlds are all parts of the benefits of running some of the most powerful graphics cards on the market at the moment, and they’ll provide a vastly prettier looking game than the current consoles can.

Whatever kind of hardware you’re running in your PC, you’re also given a bunch of in-depth graphics options in games to get an optimal experience that your machine can handle. This means that even if you’re not running the most powerful and expensive hardware, you can still get a smooth and visually pretty experiences, which even then is often on par with or prettier than anything the consoles could offer.

The Best VR Experience

While Sony is releasing its PlayStation VR in October, and Xbox is planning to have some sort of VR headset when the Scorpio releases, the very best virtual reality experiences at the moment can only be really experienced by hooking yourself up to an HTC Vive and a high-powered gaming PC. The Vive offers the best resolution and it really shows, with the image looking much cleaner and clearer to its competition. Its room tracking is also a neat feature that helps separate itself from the rest of the VR headsets on the market and makes for more immersive VR experiences as your movement is replicated in game.

With the sheer horsepower of gaming PC’s outpacing that of consoles, it’s likely that most of the cutting edge VR experiences will continue to come to PC first. If you’re interested in virtual reality, you’ll have to cough up a pretty penny and be running a pretty powerful gaming PC, but it’s completely worth it when you find yourself immersed in your favorite game worlds.

Choice of Controller

While console owners will have to pick a console and then will be stuck with that controller, PC players get the option of a huge variety of ways to play their games. The traditional mouse and keyboard is a favorite with FPS players and offers a greater level of accuracy, but others will tend to reach for a controller for other kinds of experiences. In fact, some games even advise that they should be played with some form of controller.

The good news here is that both the Xbox One and PS4 controllers can be used on your gaming PC. You may need to download a driver or two, but once that’s all done and dusted you’re good to enjoy your games with whichever controller you prefer. The Xbox One Elite controller can also be used by attaching it with the braided cable that it came with. If you’d rather go old school, you can also use the PS3 and 360 controllers. There’s also more peripherals that can be used to control your games, from Razer’s Orbweaver, to flight sticks for those keen on airplane simulation games.

Xbox One Games

Back at Microsoft’s E3 conference in June, Xbox Play Anywhere was announced. This initiative basically means that if you purchase a digital Xbox One or PC title, you’ll get it on the other platform for free. Your progress will be saved in the cloud so that you can continue where you left off with ease. All of your achievements and game add-ons will be available on both, too, meaning that regardless of what platform you’re on, you can keep progressing and playing without any hitches.

This all comes part of Microsoft’s decisions to push ahead with the Universal Windows Platform which involves bringing a lot, if not all, of the huge exclusive titles from the Xbox One to the PC. With Gears of War 4, Forza Horizon 3, Scalebound, and Crackdown 3 all confirmed to be a part of the Play Anywhere scheme, PC players aren’t only getting a bunch of formerly Xbox-exclusive titles to play, but are also getting to perfectly sync up with their Xbox One gaming experience should they have one. All in all, it’s a good time to own a gaming PC.