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Console gaming is something I've never really gotten into. Ever since I was a young boy, I've always had a computer of some sort around the house. I got as much satisfaction from tinkering around with the computer in general as I did with playing the games on them. Tellingly, my friends also preferred computers over consoles, and I'm sure that also influenced my preferences because, peer pressure aside, I could also swap games with friends.

When consoles like the Nintendo and the first Sega were introduced here in the U.K., I was still fiddling around with my Commodore 64 and dreaming of upgrading to an Amiga. That was nearly twenty years ago.

Even now, with my own spending power, I still prefer PC games over console games. There aren't many reasons why my preference is for PC gaming over console gaming, but they're strong enough to swing my point of view away from buying a console.

My genre of choice, the first person shooter, is the kind of game that doesn't tend to translate well to consoles. The traditional method of control of FPSs on the PC, the keyboard and mouse combination, is far more effective than using the joypad controller of the consoles. The ability to look around you in a pseudo 3D world can only be accomplished properly with a mouse. I've tried playing Halo on an Xbox, but it was much too fiddly to be able to use intuitively. When it comes to controls, Pc game writers tend to allow a certain amount of flexibility in defining your own key commands. There's also the fact that first person shooters are a lot more common on the PC than on any console.

Additionally, PC games tend to have more depth to them than console games (with a few exceptions, of course). You only have to look at Deus Ex, a PC game and its sequel Deus Ex 2, which was designed as a multi-platform game to see that the controls were "dumbed down" to help the game translate across to the consoles.

PCs have always had the edge with regards to internet play. I'm not huge on internet multi-player games, but I do dabble every now and again and the Pc has been doing this for many, many years now. Consoles have only embraced the internet fairly recently whereas I can remember playing Team Fortress Classic back in 1999, albeit on a dial-up connection.

The last main reason that I prefer PCs to consoles is that of cost. I already own a PC and have done since I bought one for university work. Upgrades are fairly cheap, but the small outlay every few years keeps my PC powerful enough to play the

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