Tuesday, January 15, 2013

PC Games vs. PlayStation Games

I feel like my opinion that PlayStation games are better than PC games is validated because I have played both and have come to the conclusion that, yes, PlayStation games are better. This statement may be contrary to popular opinion, BUT it is my opinion. And perhaps my opinion is a little bias because I have played PlayStation games since I was a kid and only recently did I start playing computer games. I played Call of Duty on the computer and I did not understand it at all. I was told what buttons to use and how to shoot people, then the game started and I'm in a war zone. I start running around and I get shot a few times so I start shooting back and I completely miss. Then I'm dead. In the short space of 5 minutes that I have played I don't know what my mission is, I don't know the point of the game, and I haven't done anything but run away and get shot a dozen times. So I play again and this time I see someone and shoot away and they're dead! Yay me. I've finally shot someone and I'm pretty impressed, only to find out that I've killed my own team member. Now I'm really frustrated and confused and angry and that is probably a good combination of feelings to have when you're about to play a game which requires you to shoot people. So I use my mixed emotions to motivate me and by now I am ready to go in and attack. I get out there and hide behind a few walls, through a few bombs, shoot a few people, but as soon as I run out into the open there's a helicopter above me that kills me in an instant. I play this for a while - longer than I would usually spend playing games. At the end of my playing I have found neither enjoyment nor pleasure and figure that I have just wasted my time. What was it that didn't work for me in this game? I didn't know the point of it. Was I shooting people just for the sake of it? What was the character supposed to achieve? I just didn't get it. The game wasn't explained to me and it seems to me that PC games assume that the players know what they are supposed to do and the skills that they need.
I began playing the PlayStation when I was a kid. We had the PlayStation One, the PS2, and then the xBox 360. However, as technology has advanced it has become more complicated and so I definitely prefer to play the PlayStation. I played Ratchet and Clank yesterday for the first time in a while. But it was simple. The game was familiar to me and the instructions were made clear from the beginning. Before the game started we had to watch a short animated clip telling us the story and what our mission was and the things we had to do to accomplish it. Further instructions were given throughout the game and the environment seemed a lot more relaxed and I actually found it fun!
Now I'm sure people will read this and think "well your judgment isn't quite valid because you are comparing an R-16 war game to an animated children's PlayStation game." Well that is a valid statement to make and I probably can't argue with that. But even with other PC games (casual games more than anything else) that I have played I have found PlayStation games to be more enjoyable. I went to the Internet Cafe with my boyfriend and his friends. They spent about 4 hours playing Black Ops 2. Wow. That was a pretty intense environment. I could see most, if not all, of those who were playing were on the verge of diegetic immersion. It was crazy. They were yelling at each other and banging on the keyboard and I was going mental just watching them. I suppose people playing PlayStation games get into this element as well. 
But PC games, to me, definitely have a different feeling to them compared to PlayStation games and I wouldn't want to offend anyone by carrying on, because it is only my opinion.

1 comment:

  1. I have to agree with most of the points you've made here. I feel like the PS is a lot more straightforward about it's gameplay. It's not elitist, and it's also not absurdly easy. I kind of had a similar experience as a kid, except I started on the Sega, moved to the N64, and only from that point did I move on to PS. Maybe it's a symptom of the fact that I didn't play PC games until my uni years (my teenage years were spent in a country with very limited electricity and internet), but they just don't feel as natural or instinctive to me. Sure, I can get immersed into the story line and gameplay, but the actual interface seems a little more obvious to me. Most of the time, it does depend on the actual game for me, though.

    Also of extreme relevance:
    http://imgur.com/4h9bv

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