Growing up I was an only child for the first 14 years of my life, and that gave me a bit of benefits. Such as not having to share attention, or time on consoles. I would eventually do that completely willingly once my sibling(s) came into my life.
My point is that I ended up collecting a handful of consoles over the course of my life, either as gifts or hand me downs.
Over the course of my first 20 years I'd play on a variety of systems:
N64, GameCube, Wii, Xbox, Xbox 360, PS1/2/3, and of course on computers first and foremost.
I got used to both worlds, and back then they were much more of a stark difference.
The Console Wars
I grew up on team green, which means Xbox for the win. However I played Nintendo extensively, as well as much PlayStation as I could.
These were the years where people would choose to play with you or not based on your console. Now we have crossplay, as well as it doesn't really matter much anymore which system you're on. Most consoles are like PC's anyways... cough cough catch up Nintendo cough.
Part of why I went with Xbox is because my uncles had used them a lot. I ended up getting one from one of my uncles when he was done with it. I spent a lot of time playing Fallout3 and Oblivion on it, so I wanted to buy those games myself. I bought the console off of him, and immediately went to the mall to get those games.
Ironically they are better on PC as you can mod them, but I found the simplicity of hopping on the couch to play to be too hard to beat.
The Freedom of Personal Computing
Well I mean look I am typing this out on my computer right now, while listening to music, and switching windows/tabs on the fly.
There is this usability to computers you can't get from console. Even though Xbox in particular has been making strides on that front. I.e. Discord, recording devices like mic and camera support, mouse and keyboard support, and more.
Just like I mentioned earlier too, there is modding support on PC's. I don't mean that tiny list of Bethesda approved mods either on consoles. As the collection on Nexus Mods alone times that little bit on console by 10X... maybe even 100X.
The various retro games, or romhacks, I can play on emulators. Since the original console is no longer supported, and no way to officially buy digital versions of them (Cough, Nintendo).
To the plethora of PC only games as well. There are a handful of stores you can only access via PC like GoG or Steam (mentioning cause of greenlight program).
All of these come together to put forth a good argument towards PC gaming in particular.
My Gamer Life on Xbox
Despite all of that I find myself gravitating towards console gaming more often than not. The only PC game I've played in ages is Apex, and that is filled with toxic dudes trying to drop Fragment 24/7. I actually deleted the game, and even the EA app this week because I was just so done with that culture.
I'll probably redownload it in the future, but now that leaves me with a hole to fill. Octopath 2 is coming out, and probably not on gamepass, which means I'll have to buy it. I might as well do that on PC so I can play on my laptop too, as the streaming still isn't quite there all the time. Although I do have some good experience streaming to my phone with a Razer Kishi.
Even after this I'm probably going to hop my Xbox Series X, and play some State of Decay 2. I just finished recording my first season with that game, and I am itching to play it again.
I'm going to hop on my couch, and not even have to think about settings/configuration/stability/etc.
Cheers to both console and pc gamers!
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