by Scott C. Smith

Created on: December 16, 2010

In 2007 I built a gaming rig, and spent about $1000 on the components, operating systems and peripherals.  While it wasn't a top-of-the-line machine, it was powerful enough to play just about anything at high settings and a resolution of 1920x1048.  The most graphically intensive game at the time was "Crysis" and my computer could run it at reasonably high settings.

In 2009, my home-built rig stopped working, and I could never figure out why.  I'm a computer technician, and spent several hours troubleshooting.  The computer was dead.

In a box was my unused $299 Xbox 360.  Because of my gaming rig I really didn't have any use for the Xbox 360.  Now that the rig was dead, I hooked up the Xbox to resume my gaming.  And while I did experience the dreaded Red Ring of Death, Microsoft repaired my Xbox and sent it back to me within about four weeks.

So, for under $300 I have a gaming machine that is always capable of playing the latest and greatest video games.  I never need to upgrade the hardware.  I don't have to uninstall and reinstall video card drivers every time Nvidia released an updated driver.  I don't have to worry about DRM software that makes PC gaming at times a frustrating experience.  And while games cost $10 more than a PC game, as a subscriber to Gamefly I can rent games and play them for as long as I'd like for $15 a month.

And while I don't currently have a high-definition television to experience games in all their high-resolution glory, they look fine on my aging analog television.  Sure, PC gamers have the advantage of precise controls with a mouse and keyboard, but I find games play just fine with my Xbox 360 controller.  Which means I don't have to spend $100 on a high-end gaming mouse, or $75 on a high-end gaming keyboard. 

If I wanted to play "Call of Duty: Black Ops" today on a PC, I'd have to worry about whether or not my graphics card was up to snuff.  I'd have to make sure I had the most current version of Direct X installed.  I'd have to make sure my video card and sound card drivers were current.  I'd have to download and install all released patches for the game.  And then, once all of this was done, I could play the game.  On my Xbox 360, I can pop the game into the drive and be playing in about 30 seconds.

Video game consoles are not too expensive.  They're cheaper than a PC, more reliable (for the most part) than a PC, and do not require major hardware upgrades every year.

Soon, I'll be able to play "Crysis 2" on my Xbox 360; my PC gaming brethren will be pondering if their gaming machines are up to the task of running this game.  And while they might end up shelling out several hundred dollars on upgrades, I will not have to spend a cent.

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