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As much as I love gaming on my Xbox 360, I am going to have to say that PC gaming is better. This is due to the fact that consoles get old and get replaced and costs a lot of money, where as you can just constantly upgrade a computer.

Another reason is that console games are so expensive. 50 recommended retail price? No thanks. I don't see why console gamers have to pay more to play the same game as a PC gamer...On the most part televisions cost more than computer monitors, which is another expense for console gamers. PC games generally tend to look better than on a console, however this depends on the computer that is being used at the time. Xbox gamers also have to pay Microsoft Points for expansion packs or add ons, whereas for most games PC gamers get them for free.

I own an Xbox 360, and yes Xbox Live is the main reason that I brought one - to play with my friends, however why do Microsoft charge us to play online? PC gamers don't pay to play online - neither do Playstation 3 users, so why just the Xbox? This is yet another cost that we have to pay in order to maintain an Xbox, the same as if your Xbox breaks you can't just go and buy a certain piece to have it repaired, you have to buy a whole new Xbox, whereas a PC is much cheaper to repair and maintain because you can get the parts for cheap and just repair what you need.

In the ten or so years that I have owned a PC I rarely ever had a serious problem or error, where as in the two years I have had an Xbox I have been through six. I even upgraded to an Elite because they were supposed to have less chance of breaking...but nope, it still scratched my discs and red ringed on me. Typical. Not what you expect from a 280 console.

With a PC you are also not just limited to gaming, you can check the internet, send emails, complete coursework, and using many different programs. On the Xbox you can only really watch films and play games, and the Xbox is a bit loud when you are trying to watch a film, whereas a computer can have the fan speed and so on changed to make it quieter.

PC's can also be upgraded for the future, with more hard drive space, or external hard drives, blue ray drives and many other features, where as consoles are limited and in order to upgrade the specifications you have to spend another 300+ on a new console every few years.

People say that PC's take more effort to look after, however aslong as you don't download illegal programs (because of viruses) then a PC generally will run fine. My computer was hit by lightening and it lasted another year even with the components melting, by the end of the year it was a bit slower but it still worked! Consoles (mainly the Xbox 360) will break on you even if you constantly keep it clean and take care of it; I brought my Xbox and I cleaned the dust from it everyday, made sure it was well ventilated, lay it down so it didn't scratch discs, however none of this mattered because it still broke within the first few months.

I constantly hear that consoles have better graphics than PC's - whilst this may be true for some PC's, mid range or high specification PC's really run rings around the consoles graphics. There is also much more custom content for PC users, such as maps for games like Quake which have been made by other users. You can also mod games on a PC - such as Fallout 3 - there are many ways to customize that game to add much more replay value, however this isn't there on the Xbox.

Overall, even though I do love my Xbox 360, PC gaming is much cheaper and more reliable in the long run. A PC can be upgraded, it's useful for many other applications, it can stream video to your TV, it's quieter and there are many more advantages to owning a computer.

Learn more about this author, Natalie M. Wolverson.
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