In the past, online games have been strictly the domain of the PC gamer. This generation, with PlayStation 3, Xbox Live, and Nintendo Wii, is really making a dent in online gaming for console owners, but in the past, it wasn’t until the Dreamcast launched with games like Phantasy Star Online that we got started. to see online gaming take off on consoles, and even then those first steps into the multiplayer world were a bit clunky at best.
Simply put, the frame wasn’t there yet. The hardware, software and communication technology of major consumers had to catch up. If you had the money for cable internet in the late nineties, if you had the money for a top of the line gaming computer, then maybe you could play Quake or Unreal against friends all over the world, but if all you had was a console game and a little money to buy the game? Forget this.
Today, if you want to play online, you can choose. Both the PC and the console have their strengths and weaknesses, but both offer some form of online gaming.
With a PC, even a cheap Sony laptop can at least play the latest releases. In the past, you needed a real gaming laptop to play with it. Now, you can take any old, refurbished computer you use to work or at home and load Half Life 2 or Team Fortress on it. You may need to tweak the performance settings to get a decent frame rate, but today’s computers have made it so that, for the first time, high-speed PC gaming is available to the masses.
On PC, that a game comes with online features is essentially a given. On the console, online gameplay is often considered more of a “bonus.” So a game like Team Fortress 2 or Left 4 Dead, which are meant to be played online only rather than solo, is the kind of thing that definitely belongs on the PC gaming scene.
Multiplayer games released primarily for PC are usually much better designed in terms of their playability as competitive games. A game like, for example, Stranglehold, which is primarily single player, features multiplayer that is severely unbalanced, allowing the first player to get the most empowered divine abilities, regardless of ability. A game like Counter Strike, on the other hand, which is designed as a multiplayer PC game, is geared towards serious, fair, and competitive play. If you suck at Counter Strike, no power-up will save you.
Console games offer you an all-in-one package. No updates are needed. PC games, on the other hand, offer a much more robust and comprehensive approach to multiplayer.
