Every few years, video gamers face a decision: Should they buy the newest console? Or should they opt for an up-to-date gaming PC? Here are the biggest advantages to both setups.

Round One: Consoles.

1. They're cheaper.

This is a huge reason to opt for consoles rather than PCs, and for a gamer on a budget, it's a one-hit knockdown. The current consoles are selling for $200-300, and they hook up to the TV you probably already have. Decent gaming rigs, meanwhile, run in the $1,000 range, and you may want a dedicated monitor, too.

Depending on how you buy and sell games, consoles may be even cheaper in the long run. Lately, PC publishers have been moving toward digital distribution, and there's a lot of DRM. PC games do fall in price over time, and there are good deals to be found, but the bottom line is that once you buy a PC game, you're often stuck with it. There's no way to transfer a Steam game or an MMO account legally, for example. If you do buy a hard copy, you'll find that most used-video-game stores don't even handle PC titles anymore. By contrast, if you buy a physical copy of a PlayStation game, you can get some of your money back by trading it in later.

2. They're standardized.

When developers make a game for the Xbox 360, they know exactly what kind of hardware will be interacting with the code, from the processor to the controller. This doesn't prevent all bugs from slipping in, but it's a significant advantage.

With PCs, by contrast, a game will have to accommodate all sorts of different processors, graphics cards, sound cards, and peripherals such as controllers and joysticks. Not surprisingly, if you look through PC forums online, you find countless posts in which some poor user is trying to figure out how to get his particular setup to work with his particular game. A good developer will release patches when these problems surface, but it's not always possible. As your PC ages, you'll experience more problems with new games -- and when you update, your new equipment might not work with some older games.

3. They have more local multiplayer.

With online gaming, this feature has become less valuable, but there's really no substitute for the experience of sitting next to a sibling or friend, committing brutal acts of violence against each other. Some PC games do include this, and consoles have been emphasizing it less in recent years, but there's really no question that if you want to bond with real humans in a video game, a console is your best bet.

4. They have motion controls.

The new breed of console controller hasn't yet reached its potential; they're fun for a while, but the novelty soon wears off. Most of the best motion-controlled games use the gimmick only sparingly, in combination with standard controls. Nonetheless, with the introduction of Kinect and Move, it's clear that the game industry has committed to making good games that are controlled with movement. Microsoft recently revealed plans to bring Kinect to the PC, but as of now, your only options for movement gaming are on consoles.

Round Two: PCs

1. Motion aside, they have more controller options -- and therefore, more game genres work well on them.

For a lover of strategy titles, this is the PC's number one advantage. While there have been noble attempts to make RTS games work on consoles (Halo Wars was a crowning achievement in this regard), a keyboard and mouse will forever be the best way to play a game with twenty or thirty different commands, so much so that most of these games don't even come out for consoles. It's also fun to bust out an old-school joystick for a flight simulator or space-combat game once in a while.

For FPS fans, PCs have the advantage of supporting the WASD/mouse configuration that many of the genre's diehards have fallen in love with. The dual-joystick setup on modern consoles provides just as much control, but you just can't get some people to switch.

And when it comes to games that work best with a standard controller -- say, action/adventure or sports titles -- PCs still work. Countless companies make USB controllers that are indistinguishable from console controllers, and Microsoft has even released an Xbox 360 controller that works on PCs.

2. They have better graphics.

1080p console output has helped to close this gap, but let's face the music: The more powerful processors found in top-notch PCs give this platform the edge. If you want the best visual experience that commercial technology can provide, and you're willing to pay for it, PCs are for you.

3. They're updatable.

When the next round of consoles come out, you're stuck buying a whole new setup. With PCs, however, you can often just swap in the new technology when it becomes available. This can be just as expensive as buying a new console, of course, but it helps you maintain some consistency in your gaming hardware.

So in the end, which wins? I'm primarily a console guy myself. It's awfully hard to justify the extra expense and hassle that comes with a PC, especially considering I'm only a casual fan of strategy games. Also, some of my best experiences with video games had to do with local multiplayer: slicing my brother in half vertically in Mortal Kombat II, mowing down my college roommates in Halo, watching my wife actually cry when she finally beat World 1 of Super Mario Bros. (a feat that had eluded her for twenty years). A PC, in addition to its high cost, just can't create those kinds of memories.

By Robert VerBruggen
CCC Freelance Writer

*The views expressed within this article are solely the opinion of the author and do not express the views held by Cheat Code Central.*