After years of alternating between misjudging and flat-out ignoring the personal computing gaming space, I can now officially state that I am a PC gamer. I have Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony to thank. And the Xbox 720, Wii U, and PS4 won’t coax me back.

Thanksgiving weekend I dropped some cash on a refurbished Asus laptop that houses a mid-range ATI-powered GPU. My intentions, honestly, weren’t to procure a rig capable of playing games; I simply desired an extremely lightweight portal computer that I could use to edit video shot during the team’s trek to events such as E3 and PAX. My old school Mac Mini, which features a three-year old Intel GPU, processes HD video at a snail’s pace. So, as I went about installing my most vital and cherished programs–Dropbox, Chrome, Jarte, Skype, and a handful of others–it sank in: my laptop has a real GPU that will let me play games more complex than Plants vs. Zombies.

Now, I haven’t hardcore PC gamed since City of Heroes debuted. That prospect of running around a virtual world in a cape and tights so enticed my inner Comic Book Guy that I purchased a Nvidia card and plopped it into my Dell desktop. That was 2004. The reason why I hadn’t gone PC before that (or after) was all about comfort and familiarity, really. I love controllers and joysticks, fighters and action games. The thought of a mouse and keyboard, RTS and dungeon crawlers did not appeal to me on any level. PC gaming was for the Starcraft-obsessed–you didn’t have any real fun on the platform. Right?

But I’m experiencing increased frustrations with console gaming. The walled gardens disgust me, as does the idea that you pretty much have to keep a stockpile of retro systems in your closet should you have the longing to fire up a game from an older generation. The latter gripe stings more than the former as this console generation proved that you can’t rely on manufacturers to keep their backward compatibility promises or developers to drop 100-percent accurate emulated ports in virtual marketplaces. Freedom of choice beckoned, and PC gaming answered the call.

My first order of action was to ownload Steam. My PC gaming comrades lavished it with much praise. I immediately saw why! The sales, community, sales, achievements, and sales immediately impressed. Humble Indie Bundle 4 debuted in the same time frame, which included the likes of Shank, Super Meat Boy, and Bit.Trip Runner, and other excellent, lightweight 2D games. On the surface, they don’t showcase PC gaming’s graphical prowess, but do demonstrate that you can snatch up several excellent titles for dirt cheap without a middleman serving up a hefty dose of shenanigans. It also proved that I could have a console-like gameplay experience as I popped in my Xbox 360 controller, downloaded the appropriate driver, and went to town.

I also found AAA titles a-plenty ranging from strategy games to hack-and-slash action-RPGs. But I returned to my superhero MMO roots by recreating one of my old City of Heroes characters in Champions Online–a MMO that recently went the free-to-play route. My first adventure saw my creation, Dr. Twilight, BAM!ing and POW!ing his way through an alien-infested metropolis. I had to reacquaint myself with the decidedly clunky keyboard-based control scheme, but I had fun. Lots of it. There are certain limitations in place for free-to-play users when it comes to archetypes and powers, but you can still have a wonderful MMO experience without reaching for the wallet–and there are tons of other quality games using that “pay-for-extras-and-premium-content” business model. How many console games do that?

Plus, PC gaming gives me the opportunity to move onto better hardware at my own pace–with consoles I’m shackled to console manufacturers’ release schedules. Granted, my laptop isn’t as upgrade-friendly as a desktop, but I did add more RAM, replaced the operating system, and added a speedy solid-state drive. That’s far more flexibility than any console has presented to the gaming public. Have you seen Battlefield 3 on PC? Good, god!

Source:http://www.2d-x.com/sony-nintendo-and-microsoft-made-me-a-pc-gamer/