As a lover of open world games and RPG's in general, I am very excited about the release of Skyrim. But my problem is that I am mainly a Xbox 360 gamer, with a PC only for RTS. I would prefer Skyrim on Xbox 360 for my ease with the console and the controls, not to mention achievements and communications with my friends on the console. My question is whether or not the advantages of the PC outweigh the console. I am aware that elder scroll games are often heavily modded, and that obviously cannot be done through the console, and also that graphics will obviously be superior on the PC, providing you have a powerful graphics card. So what do you think I should do? I am mainly asking PC gamers who are knowledgeable of the advantages, although people who play both systems would be very appreciated.

P.S.- I really don't want to start an argument on Xbox 360 vs PC.

I prefer console gaming because compooters confuse me. :wacko:

Cannot really help you much but perhaps you will find some answers in http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1230914-unofficial-will-my-pc-run-skyrim-discussion-25 thread?

It all depends on what you prefer, if you like your games on a console perhaps stick to that? Or you go for a more polished look and higher resolutions a PC can offer...

Generally speaking it will look better on PC, provided you have one capable of running it. Additionally the PC modding community really helps keep things interesting after the first few hundred hours of playing.

its hard to argue that you'll get a better experience on the 360, simply because of modding and graphics. That said I'm going to play on the 360 rather than upgrade my PC, one reason being that I tend to experience the narrative more fully without mods, and I can always come back and play it on my PC once I've upgraded it down the road.

In the short run, the console may be an easier experience to slide in to.

In the long run, months and years from now, you're going to wish you had bought the PC version, because all TES games have very long legs and strong modding communities. Playing Morrowind today with mods is like playing a different game. The same could be said of Oblivion.

If you think you're going to have any interest at all in modding Skyrim, go for the PC.

Controls wouldn't be a problem, because you can use your 360 controller on your PC (unless it's wireless, then you need a receiver and stuff ...).
Steam will provide achievements for PC players, and you have much more options for communcation on your PC as well.

Well, you still have to decide on your own. What I wanted to say is that you don't have to give up comfort when playing on the PC.

Well, I'll be getting it for PS3, but my reasoning is the same: If I'm going to be playing for hours at a stretch (which, let's be honest, I will...) I'd rather be on the couch with my feet up than sitting at a desk.

Regarding mods, that's one for you to decide. I very heavily modded Morrowind, and I felt it ruined the game for me by making it too easy. I especially remember a vendor that would buy anything, and had unlimited money. It made it too easy to afford things. I only ever played Oblivion in it's vanilla state, and had much more fun playing the way the game was intended. I plan to do the same for Skyrim. That combined with my couch-potatoness means console > PC for me.

My vote for you is Xbox 360.

Using the xbox as a baseline, I can't imagine skyrim running any worse than previous offerings that were on the xbox like fallout and nv on your PC, or oblivion for that matter. Its not like the xbox ever had an hardware upgrade.

Controls are not an issue, because you can hook up a 360 controller to your pc anyway. Performance can be tweaked via configuration files and mods if you need more speed, or don't care for certain details. etc.

I always play on the PS3 first and then later down the road get the PC version. I actually play the game when on my PS3 but when on the PC i'm more obessed on which mods to use and tweaking 90% of the time instead of playing the game. :wink_smile:

You could always compromise- buy the original game and enjoy it on your 360, then in a year or so if you're still enjoying it, pick up the Game of the Year edition for PC and check out the mods. Waiting will also give you time to upgrade your computer so it will give you the full experience

PC version will of course outperform , in any case, the 360 and playstation version ! a modest nvidia GTS450 or ATI 5750 outperform any console graphic hardware . with today CPU , the same assertion can be used for CPU. a tiny core i3/i5 will destroy console in most case. (except for good and rare multithreaded engine like GTA4. you need 3 "real" core MINIMUM so >core i5 or AMD X3) , at the end, we can let alone the RAM quantity . it's a disaster for large open world with rich detail

we don't know yet how the engine use multithreading, at least , for one i don't remember well how behave fallout3 engine,j but i remember it was fast as hell we can bet they will re-use it for skyrim. let's hope they improve it too

Bug fixes are also a factor, purchasing the game for a console will likely mean you'll have to wait for patches or fixes for game logic issues, Where modders on the PC usually provide fixes for that very quickly, and often beyond what official patches would put. Evidenced by comprehensiveness of morrowind/oblivion/fallout unofficial patches.

Buy whatever you like/can afford,as long as you get to play skyrim all is well.

Computers hold the upper hand in any type of comparison, but some people don't like them because they are complicated to use and build.

PC is better than console in pretty much every aspect. Mods = win for any TES game. and it will simply look better on pc.

as soon as you wrote the title this was inevitable...


if your PC is good enough to run it at 100% AND you can move your PC close enough to your TV easily AND if you can get a 360 controller hooked up to it

then go for PC

if you cant satisfy ALL THREE of those condidions...

get it for 360

This is not a difficult question to think on. PC is all you need.

You will have better graphics on PC. Notably though, you will have access to mods on PC, many of which will push both the graphics and the content exponentially further than the vanilla game. Personally I find vanilla TES games fine for me so I'm going to get it on 360 then pick it up in a couple years on PC when the price drops because there will be plenty of mods out