ChickenExpress wroteIn terms of development, consoles take the cake. SDKs provided by MS and Sony, testing simplified since there's only one spec to test on compared to the multiple hardware that requires testing and optimization on a PC.
Consoles have a better online experience. Services such as PSN & Live help maintain a global friendlist, provide game invites, voice/text messaging without 3rd party software, etc., the list goes on. Everything is provided in one service. On the PC side of things, you have multiple services such as Steam, GfWL, Battle.net, xfire, etc. that do not synchronize and leave you with a disconnected experience. A lot of games require 3rd party anti-cheat tools and install annoying DRM software.
Friendliness and easy of use is also a plus for consoles where all you need is the console and the game. Everything else works itself out. On a PC, you need the right hardware, the right software (Operating System) and a lot of patience.
There's a lot of hand holding on consoles and that's why the mass market prefers them. That's the advantage of having a closed platform with guidelines and requirements for games to get published.
Nemesis-301 wrotelet me remind you that games sometimes have expansions that cannot be added to the consoles like fallout 3 had 5 expansions(operation anchorage, broken steel, mothership zeta...) you can simply add these expansion to your pc but you cant put expansions in the consoles, and lets not forget the mods that you can add, with so many mods the game turns into something completely different and you can multitask on the pc =D
I don't mean to derail the discussion, but expansions/addons exist on consoles as downloadable content (DLC). Fallout 3 has all DLC available on both the PSN store and the XBOX's Marketplace. Also, the GotY edition of Fallout 3 includes all the extra content on one disk.
here are some reasons why pc's are better in gameing than concoles:
1-RTS games have never been done well on the console and FPS are barely passable on consoles
2-PC exclusive games like supreme commander, Flight Sim X, indie games from manifesto, open source games like flight gear, DirectX 10, directX 11...
3-multi monitors
4-Free online play!
5-PC Free ware wheres the consoles free ware? no where thats where
6-PC/Console Emulation a PC can play console games with help of complicated emulators but a console most definitely 100% will never play a PC game
7-ever try to replace a fried or defective component of a console like the CD drive ? or even a simple fan perhaps? nope, you can't do it...
8-Full scale modding, which is one of the best arguments in favor of PC gaming. While console gamers are pretty much stuck with what they buy, PC games continue to live long past their shelf life. Take for example any of F1 simulators to come out, or how about Morrowind, or Oblivion?
Morrowind had over a hundred must have mods that provided massive improvements to the game. Same goes for Oblivion.
The maps, interface, character skins, environmental sound effects, visuals can all be easily overhauled in Oblivion for the better. In fact my evil friend -- evil because he played Oblivion solely on his 360 -- came over and was shocked to see the difference modding had made. Simply put, it was like night and day.
Even something as popular as Counter-Strike is just a mod, and free to use for owners of Half-Life.
Mods and map editors, oohh and custom skins, those are always fun to create.
9-Being able to play TF2 with more than 16 players
10-you can have mouse+keyboard+joystick+gamepad+driving wheel at the same time...I've never tried it b4 I'm sure its awesome
11-Tweaking PC is always fun, actually it's a game on its own
12-bigger hard drive than most consoles
13-On consule you cannot control cheaters and hackers to keep games fair. On PC you can warn, kick, or ban smacktards.
14-being able to play a game and watch tv
15-"THE MOUSE."
16-multi-tasking
17-lets say your playing, crysis or call of duty and your walking and killing enemies and someone jumps up behind you, now if your on PC you could easily rotate your character 180 degrees but if your on console you have to turn the analog stick and wait for the character to turn 180 degrees ---> which btw you would be dead...
18- better hardware and always new, cuz everyday the game engine is getting better and better graphics. while consoles...well u still stick with 2 years old tech.