Gaming has slowly worked its way over the years to becoming one of the most sought after activities for entertainment whiles doubling as a great time passer. Research show that gamers are quicker to making decisions in real life situations due to the immersive work their brain does when they play video games. Trust me, there’s a lot more going on in the heads of two players clashing in a game of EA SPORTS FIFA than you see in their finger movements. Yeah! So gaming uses as much of your brain as would studying. With every new innovation, comes business ventures. There are lots and I mean lots of game industries out there than you can possibly imagine. And the gaming consoles? We’ve got lots of them. From hand held to desktop gaming devices, and to our beloved multitasking PCs, there’s definitely a lot to choose from. And without proper guidance, a new gamer may just not get the right console or device. And he’s gonna have a very bad history of video games recorded in his books. Well, as a gamer, I don’t want that for myself, and I don’t want that for anyone either. So whether you’re looking to join the LOG (League of Gamers), or looking to gift your kids or a friend with a gaming console or a PC, this post is for you. Read on, and make the right choice based on a variety of factors. I’m a gamer myself to start with. I have played tons of games over the years as I grew. That still does not make me the King of Games. Forgive me for little bits of info I may get wrong or miscommunicate; this is meant to be a guide, especially for the African. You can share your concerns or important points I might have missed in the comments too. I’m but human and choosing what to spend your money on really comes down to personal preference. Anyways, I do hope this will be for the greater good. Cheers!! Let’s begin!!
NB: This post is meant for the average African consumer or anyone wishing to gift your African pal with a gaming console. The points are based on the African market and society.

AVAILABILITY AND POPULARITY

First of the many, you can’t get that which is you can’t get. Lol. This just means that, choosing a gaming console depends a lot on the availability of the product and its peripherals in the locale you find yourself. To avoid unnecessary shipping charges and technical issues specifically in Africa, its best to choose a gaming console which is quite popular in your country or area. Game menus and OS differ a lot from each other. What’s even so bad is you might end up purchasing a console that has everything, from manual to gameplay, written in a foreign language you just can make sense out of! This happened to a friend of mine who bought a console online and when it finally arrived after what seemed like ages, it was in Chinese! And there was no Jackie Chan around to translate for him. LOL. That was so bad and I honestly do not wish that to happen to anyone else. With advancements in technology and the internet, game makers have incorporated online gaming options for almost every latest title out there. While this is a big win for most people in well advanced countries, this kind of technology is not so popular in our beloved continent. We’re faced with slow internet speeds and attempting to play games online would be the most terrible headache of your life. You may love to play alone, but there will come a time you may want to play with a friend. While some are strictly online, there a lot of games out there you can play with a friend who is physically in the same place as you (2 player games). So being familiar with the console and the games come in handy. Say, you invite friends for a gaming night, they come and are like “Whoa!! What kind of console is that man? This is a really weird controller. I can’t use it. The graphics suck…” and a whole lot. You’ll be left with a really bad gaming experience and no one may ever want to play with you, plus, online competitions are not an option. And what’s more to this is when there’s a fault with your console and your trusted repair man does not even know how to diagnose the fault in the beast you spent a lot of money on. Dude, you’re doomed. More to this availability of a gaming console, getting access to physical game CDs and cartridges will leave your gaming shelve apologetically empty, narrowing your gaming exposure to just a couple of games. And you may not get to play world acclaimed games like FIFA or PES. Choose wisely!! My advice to people from own country, Ghana, for that matter, is to go for an Xbox or PlayStation if you’re looking to join the LOG. The Wii and Nintendo consoles are not so popular here and you’ll face the difficulties I mentioned earlier if you decide to get one. MOST DERSIREBLE CHOICE STILL REMAINS MICROSOFTS XBOX AND SONYS PLAYSTATION CONSOLES AND THE REST OF THE ARTICLE IS GOING TO BE ABOUT THESE TWO

HARDWARE BATTLE

Before I set the dice rolling, I’m not really a hardware guy. I have owned a couple of consoles over the years but I use an average gaming PC for all my gaming now. I have a lot of friends who own the latest products from console giants in the industry now. So from my personal use of these consoles (Xbox One and PlayStation) and some information I gathered online, this section deals with the hardware that comes packed in the beasts of our current age (for the hardware enthusiasts). As I’m dealing with the consoles which are most economical to obtain for the average African, I’ll use the original Xbox and original PS4 for this battle. There are higher upgrades of the two however; These being the Xbox One X and the PS4 Pro respectively. These two are rather really expensive than the normal siblings. Both consoles are very close when it comes to hardware in featuring an AMD 8-Core “Jaguar” CPU (×86 Bit×64) clocked at 1.6GHz. Boasting of RAM, these beasts each come power packed with 8GBDDR3 and 8GDDR5 for the Xbox One and PS4 respectively. The Xbox beats the PS4 at having a 3 USB 3.0 ports, and HDMI IN A/V and Wi-Fi Direct which are not found in its rival, the PS4. The PS4 however also beats the Xbox in having an upgradable and replaceable 500GB hard drive, Bluetooth, smaller dimensions and a more powerful GPU. These features make choosing any one of these consoles over the other as tough as the decision made by Paris on which Goddess should own the Apple of Discord. So that’s it. As a gamer who has interacted with many other gamers in my country, choosing based on hardware has never been the basis for the purchase of any one console. Usually, other factors which I’ll soon delve into are what most of us consider. On gaming PCs, laptops are much more common than desktops. Depending on the kind of games you would like to play and at what graphics quality you would like, for latest games such as FIFA !8, minimum specs are a Core I5 processor clocked at 2.5GHz or more, 8GB RAM and at least 60GB free space alongside a Video Card with a dedicated graphics memory of 2GB or more should give you the best gaming experience visually and performance based (no lags and highest graphics setting). One could always settle for lower, but that would mean not the best experience for you

EXCLUSIVES, EXTRA FEATURES AND PERIPHERALS

Each of these consoles (Xbox and PlayStation), have a lot of games in their collection. There are just so many that choosing what to play can sometimes get you thinking for more than 30mins! These consoles have many games which play across both platforms, but Microsoft and Sony have some games made specially for their console which cannot be played on any other console other than its native console, despite the closeness of their hardware capabilities. These games are known as “Exclusives”. While Sony is just Sony, many personal computers run on Microsoft Windows, so Xbox exclusives are usually released for PC as well. That brings up the question whether getting an Xbox is really necessary, since its exclusives, well, are not really exclusives. Among the internationally acclaimed Xbox One exclusives are: Quantum Break, Forza Horizon 3, Halo 5, Gears of War 4 and Forza Motorsport 7. The PS4 also features a rich library of exclusives such as Uncharted 4(the entire Uncharted series has always been PlayStation based), God of War 4(my favorite game series of all time), Bloodborne, Street Fighter 5 etc. This is an important factor gamers of my caliber look at before obtaining a console. And since Sony’s PS4 features more exclusives than its rival, we usually opt for the PS4 on these stands. On extra features and peripherals, it’s a win-win for both consoles. I say this because the Xbox One has a lot of extra features including backwards compatibility for almost all Xbox 360 and its predecessor's games. The PS4 also offers such capabilities for the PS3 but is limited to just a few games at a higher fee.

I didn't really want to judge the controllers because this usually comes down to personal preference. I personally am a fan of the PlayStation 4 controller. I have always loved PS controllers for their simplicity (My friend calls the Xbox controller an Alien gun). I use it most for soccer games like FIFA and PES. I always opt for the Xbox controller however when it comes to FPS(First Person Shooter), adventure and racing games, because of the position of the left stick on the Xbox One controller. Well, that’s me. You may choose differently. And as I said, it all comes down to personal preference. One huge win of the Xbox controller over the PS4 controller is the fact that the former holds more charge for longer than the latter. The Xbox one also features removable AA batteries which means you can swap for already charged AA batteries on the go. But for the PS4, you just have to get out your charging cord to put some power back into the controller to complete that stage you spent so many hours to play. Any other advantages of the removable Xbox One controller batteries over the PS4 inbuilt battery? Well, you add them. When it comes to toys, and I mean, peripherals, the PS4 is obvious winner. Although both consoles have headphone jacks on the controllers, the PS4 features a VR headset (Virtual Reality) for use with some games. I have not personally used it before, but from reviews I’ve watched on YouTube and from experiences relayed to me from others who have, I bet it’ll be a really awesome experience. For our beloved gaming PCs, the Xbox controllers support it on the go. To play with a PS4 controller however, one will need some software to be able to do so. A very good example which is what I use personally is SCP-Toolkit. Has some bugs though, but I must say it does a really good job. Since most PC games are also on the Xbox, I can say PCs don’t really have exclusives either as most are also on either console. Playing PS4 games on PC is not yet possible at the moment (even the PS3). Programs called emulators have been made by certain gaming and programming enthusiasts to port the system of the consoles into a computer, thereby tricking the game into thinking its being played on a console when strangely enough, it’s been played on a PC. Success was achieved with the PS2 and PS1 with emulators made for both consoles which are able to run the games at near perfect performance provided you have the required hardware. EPSXE and PCSX2 are examples of PS1 and PS2 emulators respectively with PPSSPP being the emulator for the all-time popular handheld console PSP(PlayStation Portable) also by Sony.

PRICE TAG

Finally, the post gets to an end as I wrap up the whole show with the most important factor of all; price!! The Xbox one price ranges between GHS 1000.00 to GHS 1200.00 in Ghana on online stores which is roughly 230USD. The PS4 sells at GHS 1400.00 to GHS 1600.00 as well, which is also roughly 240USD to 340USD. Gaming PCs usually sell at a price of GHS 2000.00 to prices of over GHS4000.00. This makes them very much expensive substitutes because they double as great multi-tasking tools; powerful ones for that matter. Not forgetting the fact that a quality TV goes well with any of the consoles. As they have gained popularity in the African market, LCD TVs are much more common in homes now than they were 5 years ago. They’re are quite cheap as well. A 32-inch flat-screen TV can be obtained at close to GHS700.00(149USD). So yeah, they’re quite cheap.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Well, that was a lot of writing and pictures and comparisons. Well, as I’ve been saying all through this post, everything comes down to personal preference. But I do hope that this would be the perfect guide for anyone who hopes to purchase a gaming console to make the right choice and get the most out of the console or PC, should you decide to get one instead. My most important points are:
GET THE MOST POPULAR CONSOLE IN YOUR LOCALE
CHOOSE THAT WHICH IS MOST ECONOMICALLY FRIENDLY
CHOOSE BASED ON YOUR FAVOURITE EXCLUSIVES
Happy gaming folks. Hope to see you in my next post
images taken from google and pixabay
Peace. And @steempoet signing out…
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