Console game

:This article is about games played on consoles. Computer and video games is about this form of gaming in general.

Limitations

Many people feel console games offer a more limited and simplistic gaming environment than their personal computer counterparts, primarily due to the limited nature of the console's controller. Personal computers, by contrast, usually offer a keyboard, and in the case of most modern computers, a mouse, allowing for a wider variety of player actions. Other factors resulting in percieved differences between console games and PC games include technological limitations within the hardware itself, such as low-resolution visual output. Game consoles are primarily played on televisions, where the image sharpness is quite low and the games are usually played from a distance. This means that the text, such as that for a scoreboard, must be considerably larger and take up more of the space. However, the new generation of consoles due out in 2005-2006 (Playstation 3 and Xbox 360) offer support for high-resolution HDTV output, which is equal or higher resolution than most Personal Computer monitors.

Related Topics:
Personal computer - Playstation 3 - Xbox 360 - HDTV

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Market demands also dictate the types of games that are available for a console. Consoles have historically been regarded as a "children's toy" with personal computers being "more adult". Thus, consoles have, in the past seen more simple games, such as platform games, shoot-em-ups and beat-em-ups, whereas computers have been dominated by the RPG, strategy and simulation genres. With the profileration of consoles among adults as well as technological advances in recent years, however, this line has blurred somewhat. Strategy games, role-playing games and, to a lesser extent, simulations, are now regularly found on consoles.

Related Topics:
Platform games - Shoot-em-ups - Beat-em-ups - RPG - Strategy - Simulation

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This evolution has popularized certain genres, most notably the "console RPG", to which titles such as Final Fantasy belong - RPGs more complex than the average console game.

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