How dare they gimp the PC version! Don't they know that PC video hardware advances every couple of months?

It turns out that, as a matter of fact, they do. Oh. Very well. Carry on, then.

So much for that bucket of righteous indignation (Warning: Four-letter words are used by posters on that link; SRS butt-hurt is in evidence). I think I seared my editor's eyebrows off with the initial email I sent when he told me about the story. Uh, sorry about that, Steve. They'll grow back. In the interim... have you ever noticed that Whoopi Goldberg doesn't have any, either?

However, it brings up an interesting point -- the folks who shell out top dollar for a killer gaming rig expect to have the best gaming experience, and when it's documented and demonstrated that this isn't true 100% of the time, they're apt to be a little bit miffed. Except, that is, for one rather curious assertion that "1-3%" of PC gamers will, in fact, have an equivalent or superior experience -- I don't know where Phenom pulled this figure from, but I hope it doesn't smell funny. My best guess as to its provenance would be some market figure or member feedback metric that shows this is the segment of the community currently running dual, triple, or quad-core systems, but, lacking any sort of citation, this "fact" is certainly fair game. The burden of proof, how about you show it to us?

I can't and won't fault developers for optimizing their code for the hardware upon which it's to be run. Having the guarantee of multiple cores available in the current console market, it would be foolish not to take advantage of them for those releases; by the same token, PC graphics hardware is going to have it all over any given console in fairly short order. If you have a car that's dynamite on a straightaway but sucks in the turns, it makes sense to look for (or host) races that play to your strengths and avoid your weaknesses.

The question then becomes... which one, if either, delivers the superior gaming experience?

Note: BI doesn't have any sort of vested interest in either camp "winning" this argument. I personally play on both platforms (PC and Xbox 360), though the bulk of my game time takes place on a PC. I haven't played the same title on both platforms since taking the demo for Bio-Shock out for a spin -- and, truth be told, I was too busy keeping my girlfriend from being creeped out by it to note much variation in any of the subtle variations or nuances of graphics or AI. I personally find the difference in interface mechanic between KB/mouse vs controller to be far more influential to my interactions with a particular title. YMMV.


Rafe Brox spends his days wielding a phone in one hand and a screwdriver in the other. When not causing friends and enemies alike to /facepalm electronically, he can be found extolling the virtues of the weird peripherals in his life, from kettlebells to the Trackman Marble. If you also share an unhealthy passion for PC hardware or know a good place he can get help for this addiction, the target coordinates are rafe.brox AT weblogsinc DOT com.