sorry, I was busy. to satisfy the thread title, I'm currently playing FTL. but since PCG felt like extending the discussion for some reason, that's cool too.
staying ahead of the curve is actually pretty easy. graphics performance actually doesn't scale disproportionately to system requirements. yeah, to play everything at maximum settings, you'd have to break the bank periodically. but that's well in excess of what you'd need to go toe-to-toe with either console. you forget I more or less build computers for a living. I can tell you exactly what you need to meet a particular spec, and to be honest you can scratch-build a machine that thoroughly outclasses either current-gen console for as little as $550.
or upgrade an existing one (provided it's less than six years old) to beat either platform for $250. it doesn't take much, honestly. we carry a desktop-socketed iteration of the exact APU used in both consoles, and you can buy it for sixty bucks, which is fucking chump change to pc builders. yeah, you're paying more this way, but to do what? gaming platform? home entertainment center? office machine? media server? all of those at once? anything a console can do, even a midmarket scratch-build can do better.
oh, and when I'm not playing games? (which is most of the time since I fucking live at work and when I'm home I have a two-year-old I prefer to spend my time with.) I can edit audio, edit video, upload either, work on music shit, prep for my podcast, talk shit on here, and about a dozen other things - four or five at a time if I want - that no current console can competently do. and I didn't have to buy another machine to do it. so please, resident expert pcg, tell me more about what a bad investment pc gaming is compared to consoles.
