10 Games That Are Blatantly Better On PC (And Not Just For Graphics!)

You’ve poured your blood, sweat and tears – not to mention money – into building the ultimate PC gaming rig only to have your mouth-breathing console friends laugh at your dedication to excellence. They’ll brag about how everything on the PC comes to consoles eventually and it’s just as good without all the driver updates and overclocking.

They’re wrong though, so very wrong. The next time one of those couch jockeys brings up the argument that console games are just as good as their PC equivalents, feel free to shove this list in their face.

Console Release: PlayStation 2

Why It Was Better: Only about 25,000 players on PS2, absolutely no updates

MMOs thrive when you’ve got millions of players, frequent content updates and a near endless amount of content to absorb yourself in.

Everquest Online Adventures for the Playstation 2 had none of these things. As one of the first trials in bringing a massively multiplayer game to consoles, Everquest for PS2 required hardware additions with the PS2 Network Adapter, a compatible keyboard set and a paid subscription. Naturally this reduced the number of players willing to dive in, creating one of the smallest MMO communities in history.

With no players came no updates and the game sat in limbo forever. It’s still up and running though, but unlike its PC equivalent it’s a virtual ghost town.

Console Release: Xbox 360

Why It Was Better: Level editor provided copious updates, way more unlockable characters

Despite being designed to be played with a controller, the PC version of Super Meat Boy saw updates that the console version could never dream of.

With a level editor recently released, as well as a slew of exclusive characters including one of Half-Life’s head crabs, the dude from Minecraft, and a blob from World of Goo, the PC version has a near infinite supply of extra content.

Sure, the 360 version had a few bonus levels added post-release, but it’s nothing in comparison to the amount readily available online. You can thank Microsoft’s stringent content guidelines for that, making it more difficult for Team Meat to offer the same thing to console gamers.

Console Release: Xbox 360, PSP, Nintendo DS

Why It Was Better: More than triple the playable races, online leagues and tournaments

For those who’ve never experienced the nerdy joys of building a Blood Bowl team, grooming them through a season of play and claiming the top slot in their league will have no idea why the Xbox 360 and handheld versions of the fantasy (and I mean fantasy) football sucked so bad.

Without the robust online features that let players set up their own drafts and tournaments, the whole game was kind of pointless. Really, who wants to go through the painstaking process of customizing and accessorizing their Skaven blitz team if they never get a chance to crush your friends with them?

Even with its hefty 1.5 GB texture pack (3.6 GB with the new Back to Karkand expansion), Battlefield 3 doesn’t look half as pretty on the consoles.

While its true graphics aren’t everything, this is a title that prides itself on creating photorealistic characters and warzones. Without the advanced DirectX 11 features or the uncompressed texture files, the game looks like any other bland modern shooter and not the drop-dead-gorgeous circus of realistic light occlusion and perfect polygonal tessellation that it is.

Okay, maybe that’s a lot of jargon to throw around, but trust me; the visual difference is night and day.

Console Release: Super Nintendo

Why It Was Better: Nintendo’s censorship removed every reference to Nazi soldiers

Nintendo has always been about producing family-friendly entertainment that everyone can enjoy. Through the 80’s and 90’s this meant truncating game designers’ visions to fit a Disney-like standard of sterility. When Wolfenstein 3D finally saw a SNES port the game was heavily modified to fit Nintendo’s draconian demands.

Blood was turned to sweat, Hitler was replaced with a non-mustachioed version of himself called Staatmeister, attack dogs were edited to look like rats and every swastika was removed for fear of corrupting innocent gamers. If there was ever an overzealous reaction to in-game content, this was definitely one of the most ridiculous.

Console Release: Xbox 360

Why It Was Better: Keyboard and mouse advantage in cross-platform multiplayer

Shadowrun was a really unique game and the first of its kind. Never before had a major publisher worked to release a cross-platform multiplayer game that allowed console and PC players to duke it out mano-a-mano online.

A lot of folks had trepidations about mixing console and PC gamers in one delicate ecosystem for fear of the PC players having an unfair advantage with the precision of a keyboard and mouse. Turns out those fears were right because PC players mopped the floor with their console counterparts, creating a huge disparity in the leaderboards.

This has been the only real instance of PC players being able to duke it out directly with console players, and now we can see why; it’s just not a fair fight.

Console Release: Nintendo 64

Why It Was Better: Controller should never be used for an RTS

If putting one of the most intense real time strategy games on a television screen and truncating your range of control to a single analog stick and a small handful of buttons seems like a good idea, then you’re the type of person who deserves to suffer through StarCraft 64.

With its even lower resolution graphics, lack of online multiplayer, and horrendous controls this port turned the 90’s definitive strategy game into a muddied and frustrating experience. Meanwhile the PC version continued to flourish right up until its sequel was released.

Console Release: Xbox 360, Playstation 3

Why It Was Better: Modding community improved the game in every regard

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a masterpiece in its own right, but every DaVinci or Van Gough could still use a few extra touch-ups and that’s where modders come in. Sure, some may see it as sacrilege to defile a work of art, but where would we be without our Andy Warhols and Banksy’s of the video game world?

Modders and hackers have taken Skyrim and Fus Ro Dah’d new life into it with mods ranging from the beautiful (enhanced sky and water textures), to the perverted (nude mods and killable children), to the just plain bizarre (all spiders are now werewolves). It may alter the original beyond recognition at times, but if it allows the player to have a more personal and customized experience then it’s for the better.

Console Release: Xbox

Why It Was Better: Robust online community and hardware to handle the precision shooting

If there’s one arena the consoles just can’t match the PC in, it’s the intensity of the hardcore tactical shooter. Requiring pixel-point accurate shooting, incredibly high frame rates, and lag-free multiplayer, you just can’t trust it to a console.

There’s no better example of this than the pitiful release of Counter-Strike on the Xbox. Without the hardware acceleration or proper online support, the first modern competitive video game floundered to disappointing results.

This is also before you factor in that the same $60 game was a free mod on the PC for anyone with Half-Life installed.

Console Release: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3

Why It Was Better: 4 years of incredible free DLC and updates that dramatically improved the game

When Valve released The Orange Box and Team Fortress 2 on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 it seemed like they were finally ready to let console gamers into their prestigious gaming country club. For a very long time the only way you could play any of Valve’s excellent titles was on the PC and this show of support gave poor console gamers who would have had to go without a small ray of hope; turns out it was just a passing gap in the clouds.

While the PC version flourished with month after month of updates, the console version stagnated and stayed the same. Over the next 4 years the PC version would see the addition of new weapons, maps, game modes, a switch to a free to play model, a massive inventory system, and of course thousands of hats.

Living in a time capsule, Team Fortress 2 on the console saw none of these updates and exists today as the exact same game that released back in 2007. Valve says you can thank Microsoft and Sony’s expensive and cumbersome update process, which just goes to show how the PC’s update flexibility can really make or break a game.