"Good if you have lots of money, but many of us don't."

PCs used for gaming are not the best platform in my opinion. I prefer consoles overall. However, PCs can be better if you have lots of money.

Graphics- 7/10

The graphics can vary. On some PCs its excellent, on others it is terrible. On the average modern PC, it is decent. It really depends when your computer was made and how much you paid for it. My PC runs graphics similar to Dreamcast, which is not very good by today's standards, but a good gaming PC can run games that are as good as the Xbox 360 and the PS3.

Audio- 10/10

The audio on PCs is great. You can listen to any music you want to on top of playing games too!

Controls- 8/10

In some ways, the controls are better than their console counterparts. However, in some ways they are worse. On one hand, the mouse is excellent for playing games. Using the mouse and keyboard, you can do things far better than you could with just a controller. However, some games make the controls too complicated where it is hard to come up with a workable control scheme.

Games- 14/20

There are plenty of games, including free ones. But on the other hand, many games may not work on your PC. You will need to have certain system requirements to run many of these games. Also, you miss many console exclusives.

Price/Value- 5/20

In order to get a good gaming PC to play all of the games you would want to play, you could buy an Xbox 360, a Wii, and a PS3. In order to keep playing new games, you have to keep shelling out more money for upgrades. To me it is not worth it. Compared to consoles, the PC has very poor value. The only redeeming quality is that there are many free games to download over the Internet and they have relatively low system requirements.

Compatibility- 0/20

When you buy a game for a console, you know it works. An Xbox 360 game will always work on an Xbox 360. However, PC games involve system requirements. You need to keep buying upgrades like More RAM, new video card, and more processing power in order to play new games. If you don't pay for these upgrades, you cannot play newer games and are stuck with games with worse graphics and much lower system requirements. Heck, some games say that they should work on my PC but don't. The compatibility is too twitchy. Sure, you can play all of the new games, but you need to keep buying more stuff. It isn't worth it.

Features- 10/10

It's a PC. You are using one right now. You can do all kinds of stuff on it like watching movies or listening to music or surfing the Internet.

Overall- 54/100

Overall, the PC is a good gaming device if you can afford it. However, many people cannot afford the newest video card and stuff like that so I believe that you are better off with a console if you want to play good games with good graphics. However, you can play older and not so graphically detailed games with easy, and many of them are fun.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 06/11/07