The Best Device For Gaming

As mobile technology improves and allows for mobile gaming to put up a genuine challenge to other gaming formats, we ask; what is the best device for playing video games?

To be honest, it’s clear that the there is no answer that will be true to everybody. If you sat a gamer from every community down into a debate, not only would it be a full scale geek riot, but all would push their preference with hard data and stone cold facts. Everyone has an opinion and all would be right.

Even the less well-off members of society, often have one from or all of a home computer, a smartphone and one or more consoles, all of which have merits.

On individual merit, the WiiU, hugely unsuccessful as it was, did attempt to capitalise and improve upon its predecessor, the Wii’s excellent focus on re-joining families in play. It even came with backwards compatibility for the Wii motion controllers (something the latest PS4 deliberately discarded), that, with the noticeable exception of a new touchscreen controller, eliminated the need to buy all new expensive equipment.

Also from the Nintendo stable, is the portable 3DS console but, in truth, little mobile consoles do seem a little outdated now. I mean, I would struggle to remember the last time I saw a child playing on a DS instead of his, hers, mum’s or dad’s smartphone.

Between the two console goliaths, the Playstation 4 or the Xbox One, there isn’t a great deal to choose from and one would expect that users tend to purchase one, either or both through brand loyalty or game exclusivity as much as anything else. Both offer fast play, live streaming capabilities, awesome next generation graphics and co-op play.

Then, of course, there are Android phones and tablets competing against iPhones and iPads respectively. This is where on the go gaming has really come to fruition as mobile technology and in particular touchscreens have changed the playing field.

Since the smartphone’s inception, they have proved that they are more than capable of rivalling the console, and the two are not even mutually exclusive. You can, after all, play your mobile games on the TV or even stream your console games to your phone.

The main thing really is that the display needs to be sharp, bright, and loud with enough power with machine, and its battery, being powerful enough to run high end games without lagging, even if the Xbox One and PS4 are leagues ahead in terms of power. Most smartphones will more than comfortably meet this requirement anyway.

Other gamers are quick to leap to make the case for PC gaming, with many arguing its merits far outweighing the attributes sported by the expensive, does one job, games console. While many PC users only ever use their machine for email, browsing and/or work, an ever growing number of players, play the games on the PC only. This is a shame as, while all of these different options are great, if we were to pick one, it would, more than likely, be the PC.

There are a number of reasons for this. Firstly, the idea for user generated upgrades and modifications, which are all the rage on console games, begun on PC machines. PC gamers have long since been designing and sharing their add-ons, upgrades, conversions and levels, which is a wonderfully collaborative feature of computer play. PCs are also quick, speedy, and powerful and boast much stronger resolutions and textures than before, so quite often look better than some console games anyway.

More often than not, the games are cheaper too. The publishing and licensing costs applied at source by Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo inevitably drive up the cost of games with even pre-owned games being more expensive than the PC equivalent.

There is a much, much wider variety of games available that are perfectly suited to the humble personal computer as well. While it provides more than a match for console games, there are games that are simply better on a computer. Like Minecraft, Doom or Football Manager which all sacrificed so much when transferring to the console format in the past.

Poker games too, work better online, in browser or with bespoke downloaded software although you do need to give consideration to a set number of features. You’ll need to be able to multi-table so give serious thought to screen size and resolution as well as portability because most online grinders need to travel.

Whatever your limit, online poker – whether you choose to play for real or play money – really excels as a PC and a mobile game. With a number of players online, the boom has been insane! You can get on your mobile and start playing instantly however finding the right site for you can be tricky. Sites like OnlineRoulette.ca are great ways to find which game suits you when playing on your device and with the best sites to choose from you won’t be playing on any unsafe casinos. 

Since the Moneymaker boom, poker online hasn’t looked back but instead has roared forward in popularity. While bank rolls differ, the game is a great leveller with people of both genders and all (legal) ages and backgrounds meeting up to play, discuss and debate on one of the PC’s best games.