How do you choose which platform to play a game on?

Video Games
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I’m the proud new owner of a gaming PC for the first time since Pentiums were the hottest thing.

I have 2 main questions:

  1. How do others choose which platform to play a game on? I have a switch, XBox Series X, and now a 4070. I feel like Switch is the obvious one…Nintendo first party and games that I want to play on flights or while traveling (Slay the Spire, Balatro, Into the Breach). I am a bit of an achievements fan, so while I’d like to play a lot of games on my new PC, I have some FOMO about missing out on the XBOX achievements (Steam badges just aren’t as fun). Fortunately looks like Indiana Jones is trying out a new way to connect a steam game to a gamertag
  2. For PC games, how do you choose between gamepad and keyboard/mouse. Again, some things are obvious like RTS/Strategy, but other games like Indiana Jones or other character based games are less obvious and I don’t want to limit myself due to my comfort with gamepads.
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If you link your Steam account to your Xbox account, Xbox will pull in data from Steam. So I have achievements on the Xbox side for games I only played on Steam. But it only registered games that explicitly support the gamertag log-in, and that is pretty limited to Xbox Game Studio games. An example is Tell Me Why which I just started on PC and is showing up in my Xbox achievements. It’s definitely not all of them. For example, Quantum Break didn’t register Xbox achievements.

I’m curious, how are Steam achievements any different from Xbox?

I have a few ways to determine this:

  1. Platform exclusivity: this makes things simple because I just buy it for the requisite platform. So this means I buy something like Astrobot for PS5 or Tears of the Kingdom for Switch. The one exception is Xbox exclusives, which I’ll just play on PC because my system is more capable than the Series X.
  2. Performance: if a game performs wildly better on one platform I own than another, I’ll go with the one with best performance. This doesn’t always mean I’m playing on PC, because some console games have terrible PC ports.
  3. Where I want to play/portability: if it’s a game I want to play anywhere (in transit/when travelling/in bed) then I’ll likely buy it for it for PC so I can play it on Steam Deck and my home PC so that I have that flexibility.
  4. Collecting: if I’m buying a physical edition I’ll go with the corresponding console version.

To me this is a very gut decision: I just go with what feels right. A lot of the time that means a controller. Especially non-competitive or solo action-adventure, RPG, and games like that. KB/M is great for strategy, point-and-click, etc… Sometimes I use both depending on whether I’m on my couch or at my desk (I played BG3 with both schemes)

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Usually I’ll get whatever the better version is, but I also don’t buy digital games if I can help it. I would rather pay $20 more than support digital distribution… Though physical games are often cheaper for some reason, limited releases aside, which is so weird to me.

After that, I usually look for what version runs the best, but generally speaking, I find PS5 and Series X are basically even. Series X weirdly seems to have more saturated colours though, I find? :thinking: I am not sure if it’s HDR or what. But I notice this even in Digital Foundry videos pretty often.

I won’t buy a Switch game unless it’s exclusive or something that I’d prefer to play handheld - like I couldn’t see myself playing a TCG game on a TV. Visual novels are a great choice for Switch too. I find games run really poorly on Switch in general - like there are definitely some that run really well, but my living memory of the Switch includes lots of slowdown, dithering, low-res textures… Never really been impressed with this thing, honestly. Lots of great games in spite of bad performance, but alas.

PS5 is like… I dunno, man. If I have the choice, I generally prefer the Xbox ecosystem. The controller, the OS, all that stuff. But a lot of games don’t release physical on Xbox, if they release there at all. So the PS5 is kinda like the, “I couldn’t get the job I really wanted, but I’ll settle for this one” console.

But a wrinkle in that - I hate these “key on a disc” releases or “UlTiMaTe EdItIoN” releases that have all the DLC on a paper voucher. Xbox first party games are notorious for this crap, so I haven’t been buying them. But now that Game Pass is $30 a month after tax and all that… I don’t think that’s a particularly good value, either. But then you have something like Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate, where the Xbox version is two discs with the DLC on disc. The PS5 version is just the base game with a paper voucher. This half-assed physical release nonsense has made buying games such a confusing mess, and really for no good reason.

I used mouse and keyboard when I first built a PC, but the ergonomics of it are really shitty. Sometimes I wanna lay back in my recliner and hold the controller behind my head. Stupidly comfy. Can’t do that if I’m hunched over a desk like a goblin, in a stationary position. I legit don’t even understand how office workers exist, y’all must be in chronic pain 24/7. :sob: And generally speaking, if a game needs so many controls it needs a keyboard and mouse, it’s too complicated for me to begin with.

Oh! The other big question for me is real hardware versus emulation, and this is one I really grapple with. I think stuff like the Evercade or the Anbernic (once you get the damn thing working well) are great solutions for older games, but I actually have a whole-ass CRT solution. I thought I would love having a CRT setup, but thing is, having that loud fuzzy EEEEEEE sound from a CRT display kinda sucks, and even though I spent so much time getting a TV cart and doing the cables up all nice, it sits up too high and the geometry of the TV (the bottom-left corner pulls out) really bugs me. I love the no-bullshit convenience of real hardware, but older consoles look like shit on a modern TV. I think the next step for me has to be a proper upscaler with a CRT filter. Series X is great for emulation too, though I only have PS2 working properly on there. You just have to rip a disc to a portable drive… And it just works. It pulls the optimal settings for whatever game you’re playing automatically, and I wish every emulator was so bullshit-free.

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This question is similar to my dilemma. I haven’t upgraded to current-gen consoles and I’m conflicted about which console to pick up. I’ve considered building a gaming PC for the first time. I have more friends in the XBox community, but it’s clear Sony won this generation’s console wars. Is it even worth picking up an Xbox or should I pick up a PS5 and work on building a PC to use gamepass?

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I have a PS5, Series X and PC. I like the Series X, it’s a nice console, but a PC largely makes it redundant. A mid-range PC will outperform it easily and if your main usage is Game Pass games, you probably won’t use both. However if you don’t plan to buy a PC, a Series X is an excellent choice.

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As someone who’s done both, I would personally never build a gaming PC again. It’s just not worth it. In terms of raw power, you could maybe build a comparable PC to a console at a similar price point if you shop around, wait for sales and buy used components… But what kills it for me is the troubleshooting. The constant. Fucking. Troubleshooting.

“But I have never had problems :)” Yeah, I see you slamming on your keyboard, hypothetical PC defender. But that’s never been the case for me. Way, WAY too much of my life has been spent going into config files just to make a game fucking run, or fighting with a game not detecting the controller, or trying to figure out why the resolution is wrong, or some other stupid crap that isn’t me playing the damn game. Screen tearing for no reason. Lots of games receive bad PC ports and need mods to be equal to console.

Plus on PC, you don’t actually own your games. There’s GOG, I guess, but it’s still just digital. You can never get any money back for a digital game (unless you don’t like the first 2 hours on Steam, but you’re screwed if the game has an unfinished back half). If games were cheap, fair enough… But they’re not. Physical games are often still cheaper. Sales are often deeper. Because when there’s no limit on supply, there’s no additional pressures to cut the price. Steam sales aren’t anywhere near as good as they used to be either. You can use a key resellers like G2A, but many of these keys are generated with stolen credit card info and back charged to the devs.

As for PS5 and Series X? I have both. I like the Series X more, but the PS5 gets more games. I find a lot of Japanese games in particular just skip the Xbox completely. Both have a small handful of good exclusives, but nothing like previous gens. Xbox has Game Pass, which is a great value of you like the games on their roster. But by and large, they both get most of the same games, and you can’t go wrong with either. Unless you buy a digital-only console. That’s just a waste of money. Spend the extra hundo and get the benefit of cheap used games.

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If it’s on PlayStation, I’ll play on PlayStation (because it’s the console I have connected to the TV right now).

That’s it.

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I always try to play anything on my primary platform (switch). If it’s not possible, I will likely buy it on another platform I have available and never play it at all.

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I didn’t know you were primarily a Switch player. I don’t know that I have any reason to feel you either were or you weren’t, just that it’s not something I thought about before. I don’t know what my point is exactly. I don’t think I have one :joy:

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I used to always choose keyboard + mouse first. I’m angry when games are completely unplayable without controller. The worst sin of developers is not adding customization of keys. WTF

Some games like Super Meat Boy have warning on shop’s website “The developers recommend playing this game with a controller” - and I think it is an important thing to do.

But my brother bought me a gamepad, so I can play in a more relaxed position and farther from the screen. It’s probably more healthy style. :thinking:

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My only platform is PC, so I thought writing here would be useless because I don’t choose a platform to play on, but I definitely choose keyboard & mouse over controller and I hate it when a game has “controller support” on the shop page and then once you buy the game it says “best played with controller” on a splah screen ingame or even “only playable with controller”. And then there are games that are perfectly fine with kb&m and still ask you to use a controller because somewhere in the game they use a rumble effect twice, but otherwise it makes no difference, I am looking at you Alfred Hitchcock - Vertigo.

For certain genres, “controller only” is a no-go for me. In fact, most of the time it is a no-go.

Streaming XBOX games would be a thing, and therefore kind of “choosing a platform” for me if Microsoft would get Kb&m working on more of them. It could even be an incentive for getting Game Pass again, but so far the number of games that are availale for kb&m is small.

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I think It’s the only console I’ve owned since 2004, so I’m a primarily switch player basically because I have no other options at all. I do have a steam account but no pc to play anything on it.

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All of them have KB/M support if you go through GeForce Now, but that naturally requires two subscriptions :unamused:

That said, PC GamePass is about half the price of GamePass Ultimate, and since all you need to play Game Pass games in Geforce Now is PC GamePass, maybe it’s justifiable.

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Since they raised the prise of Geforce Now in Germany AND made the service worse plus me having a state of the art rig now and needing it not for the “shiny looks” anymore… it’s not worth it for me. I did the math what I would need to pay / year (GP & GFN) and then I looked at my backlog and freebies each week and my empty bank account after buying the PC and renovating aaaand it is not working for me. Doesn’t mean it won’t work for others though.

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Yes, I cancelled because of the changes. I had six months at half-price, however. I’m riding that out now which I think lapses in March. I also cancelled GamePass Ultimate which lapses in June. So I’ll continue to use them until they hit their end dates, and likely not beyond that. I was also locked in GamePass ultimate for several years at a fourth of the annual price, but that ends in June so I’m out. I play too few GamePass games to justify it. And if there is something big I really want to play, I’ll pay the $12 for a single month of PC GamePass. But I’m probably more likely to just wait for a sale on the game.

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It’s a good system to have as your only system. But I’ll be honest, I subscribe to the notion that the best system to play on is always the one you have.

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I am in the same boat. If I REALLY want the game then I want to own it and not be pressured to need to finish in one month (and after a second month I would wish I had bought it definitely because the price difference is so low now) and if not there is enough to play outside of GP so why bother.

Thats my logical thinking and then there is from time to time this little voice in my head that wants to convince me that I miss out on something if I don’t buy GP or Humble Choice or Fanatical Bundles … I need that voice to shut up but it sneaks up on me sometimes. :vampire:

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I’d only sub if I’m ready to play the game. Not a moment before then, that’s for certain.

I’ve been subbed for about 2.5 years with my current locked in price, and I don’t think there’s a single game on there that I would have felt I’d have missed. Games like Kunitsu-Gami and Flintlock are games I bought outright anyway, and everything else could just wait. Most of the time I played certain GamePass games simply because the opportunity was there, but I wouldn’t have felt like I missed anything if that opportunity wasn’t available. I think there’ only one game that I was hotly anticipating that I played on Game Pass, and that was Tunic. And the only reason I played it on Game Pass was because the physical edition I ordered wouldn’t arrive until long after launch. If i didn’t have Game Pass, I would have just bought it at launch, I was far too excited for that game not to.

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Completely valid. My big pet peeve with PC gaming is when they advertise, “Full controller support” and I literally cannot get the controller to work. So then I gotta spend time browsing the Steam forums to find a solution, if there is one. It’s a fucking nightmare. One one occasion, I left a post asking for support, and the devs responded saying “Controllers work fine, must be your system.” But controller works with everything else???

Ugh.

But I definitely agree that PC games should always support mouse and keyboard, if for no other reason than accessibility. So much easier to map accessibility devices to keybinds than to controller inputs using finicky drivers. More choices is always the best option.

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Steam handles all of this now, the worst that can happen is that you don’t have the right button glyphs in-game. The best solution any time a controller doesn’t work in a game is to enable Steam input for that game. It should immediately solve the problem. Also Windows is much better at supporting controllers than it used to be. Xbox and DualSense controllers work out of the box, and DS4 controllers largely work (when they don’t the Steam controller input takes over). Exceptions are things like Game Pass which actively ignore DualSense controllers even though Windows recognizes them. But any Xbox or third party controller works without issue there.