How to Game

AN INTRO TO GAMING SETUPS AND PC'S

     If you are a beginning hardcorecore gamer, looking for a new rig (slang for gaming computer) or just need a little reminder or reference about gaming, that's what this post will be about. Now this may not seem like a blog right now, but I'm just filling you in so you wont be clueless of my nerd language when I really do blog.
     

     In this post, I'll tell of all the things you'll need for hardcore gaming. This includes monitors, mice, and other peripherals. peripherals are other components. To start gaming, you'll at least one of two things: a gaming rig, or a console (preferably not the Wii, as its not aimed towards hardcore gaming) Other things you need are (if you're using a PC) a mouse, speakers, and a monitor.
    
Consoles
      
      Choosing the right console can be quite a challenge, although its almost completely personal preference. Right now, there are only two consoles aimed at hardcore gamers, the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. And if you wanna go handheld, I strongly recomend the PS Vita, there are many action filled, awesome games released for it. (Madden 13, AC:3, and CoD MW3 are being released in October) now, the argument between PS3 and 360... I'll just give you a sort of pros and cons list. Specifications wise, they are both the same exact thing, but the games and operating systems provide completely different experiences.

   Xbox 360

      Xbox 360 (as you may have noticed) was originally aimed at shooters and acions, which is made more obvious with the controllers trigger design. Many Xbox exclusives are shooters, and much of the fanbase are Cod, Battlefeild, and Halo players. The Xbox provides many other great games also, like the Fable Series,  Gran Turismo, and more countless varieties of games. Now let's talk about interactivity. The Xbox offers Xbox Live, in two forms, Silver and Gold. Silver lets you download, message friends,  watch movies from xbox marketplace, (no streaming from Netflix/Hulu) and download dlc's for games. Xbox Live Gold let's you do all that plus play games online , Netflix and Hulu streaming, watch sports, download music, and video chat with kinect... avatar style. The controllers fore the Xbox are also much heavier than the PS3, and have a different button layout. Kinect is also quite a technology. Its a little motion sensing camera, much like a remote-less Wii, that integrates your movements into games that are: "Better With Kinect." Those are most of the things that set Xbox 360 away from PS3.

      PS3

       PS3 is the other leading console in the ever-so-heated (the funny thing is, Xbox's actually have major heating problems) console wars. It has a slightly smaller form factor than the Xbox, but its barely noticeable. The PS3 appears as more of a family+hardcore system, as it offers lots of fun games for the family, just as Xbox does wit kinect, but there appears to be more not motion control optimized. But this forum isn't for family centric games, now is it? And as for exclusives, the PS3 offers many action packed, casual, and hardcore titles. Some hardcore/action titles inculde: inFamous series, DC Universe Online, Sorcery (which is very fun) and the Shadow of Collosuss Series. Casual titles include: Little Big Planet Series, Digsnea, PS Move Heroes, Ni No Nuki, PixelJunk Shooters Series, and Journey. As for online play, the Playstation 3 offers free online play, but you csnt chat with selective members, or get free exclusives, without paying $60 (same price as xbox live) a year for PSN Plus. So chatting limits you to multiplayer games, where you interact online. Playstation 3 also has a motion sensor device, the move, but it's nowhere near as reknowned as he Kinect, and not as polished.

      Pc Gaming will be coming in a post later today. Hapi gaming!

     PC Gaming

       PC gaming, by far, is the most popular market in my opinion. This being is because of the capabilities of them. We will get into that later, for now, I'll explain the basics if a computer. Computer, is, at its simplest form (I bet ya can't guess this one) a computing machine. What this means is that it sends insane amounts of commands every second to the CPU, or central processing unit. These commands are submitted in a language called binary code, where a series of ones and zeros stands for a command or letter. Now, If you know nothing at all about computers, you may think programmers type in binary code, but they don't. And thats off topic, lets get back to business. The amount of commands you can complete on your computer in any amount of seconds depends on your CPU's speed. Both of these are determined by clock speed and the number of cores. The number of cores is what determines how fast you can multitask, or how intensive your programs can be. Most people have ether quad-core or dual core. You can commercially buy up to 24 cores,(more than that, you may need to link them together) and they also make tri-core and single core processors.  But for gaming, you'll most likely never need more than six cores. (I recommend quad core for gaming) THe other contributer to speed is clock speed, or hertz. The amount of hertz a processor has les you know how fast things can be done, and how powerful it can be. For gaming, 2.6 Ghz (giga as in 1 thousand mega, as in one thousand kila, as in one thousnad bytes) should suffice, although most quad cores are usually made somewhere 'round 2.8 or 3.  The speed of your computer will also depend how much random access memory, or RAM your computer has available. RAM determones how much can be completed in so much time. It is similar to clock speed, but not quite.  A good amount for gaming would be about 6-8 Gb. Now, if you just wanna use this knowledge to  buy a gaming pc, and not build one, then head over to newegg or tigerdirect, and buy a computer under the gaming section, using the knowledge I've given ya. I will talk about peripherals in a later post.