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The Online Mom provides internet technology advice and information to help parents protect their kids, encourage responsible behavior and safely harness the power of technology in the new digital world. Social networking, photo sharing, video games, IM & texting, internet security, cyberbullying, educational resources, the latest on tech hardware, gadgets and software for kids 3-8, tweens and teens, and more.
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PC Gaming
Have a PC? Then you already have a game machine. After all, when you get right
down to it, that's what dedicated game consoles really are: computers.
So, let's ask the question: is your PC the only gaming machine your family needs?
There's a pretty large collection of games available for Windows PCs (far
fewer for Macs). But when it comes to new games, more are being published for consoles than for PCs, as you can see by a quick visit to the games department
of your local retailer. (In 2007, roughly 14% of the games sold at retail were PC games,
though that doesn't include sales made by download.)
Some games, like the highly popular Call
of Duty 4, are available for both PCs and
consoles. But it's possible that the games your kids want only come in
a console version.
(Of course, even if you have a console, the game they want might only be available
for a
different console. Halo 3 is only
available for Xbox 360; the 'Mario'
games are only
available for Nintendo machines. Sometimes you just can't win!) What's
more, some
games - such as massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) - are actually
more
widely available on PCs.
If you do want to play games on your PC, a variety of add-ons are available:
for instance,
steering wheels that bring powerful realism to racing games. But another hardware
issue
is even more important: your video card. Some of today's PC games -
especially fast-moving shooter games - push your computer's video to the absolute
limits. The built-in
video that comes with many consumer PCs isn't up to the job. The solution?
Install a new
video card. (Prices range widely, based on features, from $50 to $300 and up.
Make sure
you buy a video card that matches the interface inside your computer. Most newer
PCs
and newer video cards come with 'PCI Express x16' interfaces, but
your computer might
have an older interface, such as AGP.)
The discussion of video cards raises a broader point. When you're buying
a PC video
game, check its system requirements carefully. Ideally, if you can, it's
best to exceed
those requirements with a little to spare - a better video card, more
memory, a faster
computer processor than what the game publisher requires. All this makes buying
video
games a little more complicated than buying console games: don't hesitate
to ask a
salesperson or explore online to make sure a game will actually run well on
the computer
you own. For some folks, the complexity is half the fun, maybe more: tweaking
and
upgrading a computer to deliver the absolute maximum performance on today's
most
demanding game can be more rewarding than playing the darned thing!
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