Slo said:
$400 per year will keep you in a very adequate gaming PC.
lol
Lets see....
In 1997 I bought a new PC that cost me around $1100 so my wife and I could play games together on a LAN or online at the same time.
In 1999 I upgraded it to 512mb RAM to help play an online game smoother. That cost me $54.
That same year my video card died due to a power surge and I bought a 32mb (lol) TNT card for $114.
Since then I have played every game that has come out that I can think of and only ONCE did I consider upgrading...but I "tweaked" a little and my problem went away.
In 2002 Morrowind brought my video card to it's knees so I spent $94 on a card that had better 3D support.
In 2003 I ran into the first game that would not run at all on my system and ONLY because I didn't have DX9 support (Deux Ex II). So that is when I decided to buy myself a new computer and let my wife have the current one (She had been using one we bought in 1994). So I built my new system for $900 including a 19" flat screen and my wife is using my old one and we shelved her old one for now until I set it up in our daughter's room.
Since my run in with Deux Ex II I have not had any other issues with the old one. It has run Far Cry, Thief III, and UT2K4 more recently but also a lot of other games in the last year.
So lets total this up.
Not counting initial computer cost, I spent $262 upgrading my system over the course of almost 7 years.
So YES...computers are more expensive than consoles (DUH)
YES you will have to upgrade stuff on occasion (memory & vid card being teh top ones)
NO you don't need a completely new computer every few years (I have been averaging one every 6-7 years) usually small upgrades are enough to last a while.
NO a good gaming system that will last you 5+ years will NOT cost you thousands (unless for some reason you buy stuff that is just released and therefore pricey).
YES you will be able to enjoy free updates, free patches, free online play (95% of the games), thriving Mod communities, built in broadband support, full customization, emulation of consoles (had to say that ;P) and games that are much cheaper.
YES consoles play a lot of the same games, and a ton more unique ones that you will never see on your PC.
NO you can't expect your PC game to look and run just like your friends does on his computer as is the case with consoles.
NO you won't have to pay an average of 25% to 35% more for your games AND have to pay for any updates to them (HD downloads for Xbox excluded of course
)
You either like PC gaming, or you don't.