Have you played a console game lately, Chuckles?....

I cannot understand why consoles are as popular as they are because everything I have ever tried (and I give all the so called great ones a shot) have been completely uninteresting to me. Why they are so popular, I do not know. I think it is an indictment of the mentality of the masses.

Consoles have no soul. It really feels like PC games have lost their's, too, a direct result of consoles driving the PC gaming market (ports).

Maybe I am just getting older, wiser and less interested in games.

Because you can't break/delete/format anything and everything works. PC is for IT crowd IMO, where we have to buy and mantain upgrades, OS, drivers, software,... Certainly something not for dumb, spoiled masses who want everything NOW, without a hassle.

I don't thing there's anything wrong with the "it just works" angle on consoles. It's nice sometimes not having as many bugs, or to have to tweak performance. PC games are also inefficient as far as cost/power requirements for graphical and computational output, due to the underlying OS and Drivers creating a barrier to the hardware when writing code. This barrier is the necessarily evil that allows people with Intel/Nvidia and 6 gigs of ram to play the same tile as someone AMD/AMD with 8Gs of Ram.

Also, the masses aren't "spoiled" because they don't want to learn how to build a computer. For you (and myself, admittedly)its'a fun project. For others it's a nightmare, or at least boring, and for a more expensive yet less efficient machine. The DIY mantra of saving money by cutting out the middle man doesn't even apply under these circumstances, as consoles are now MUCH cheaper than a gaming grade PC. With these factors in mind, there's nothing "dumb" about playing consoles.

That said, the reason I built my own PC is because I love tinkering with such things, and it's the only option for sims, namely because of peripheral support.

If consoles supported real sims, simming control hardware, and the sim mods/after market, I'd happily play them there in a effort to save money.

Consoles simply do games better from a hardware standpoint:
-Homogeneous hardware user base means fewer things to account for in development,(lowered dev costs due to less testing/errors)
-Direct access to hardware layers means devs can find more creative ways to optimize performance; thus extending hardware life and driving down costs (the PC markets constant, bloated, expensive upgrade cycle it among the factors hurting it.)
-Straigt forward installation process, and the aforementioned hardware base means less tech-support issues, equaling less end-user tech-support overhead.

None of that explains why consoles to me feel so empty.

Business model.

Technically speaking consoles are more efficient than any PC. The problem with no simulation on consoles is not that it can not be done. It's simply money and target audience.

Consoles games are supposed to look like movies if not they are just boring.
As stated above, consoles work closer to firmware/hardware level so it means faster processing power and developers can squeeze performance.

Yes, I've played with the consoles since the beginnings,,,back to the Atari in the 80's,,,PS3 etc..
Eventually, maybe sooner than later,,computers and consoles will be one in the same,,,
I put a lot of the blame on the gaming community...People go out and buy all the new ipad releases and yet gripe about
having to pay 30 bucks for a sim...My son, who is 36,,raves about Skyrim, which he paid 60 dollars for,
and says it's worth every penny...so--- I would have to pay 200 bucks for a great sim,,,do you realize what
it costs do play a round of golf on a PGA course?? just one round?? hundreds!! If you get the invitation...
Me, I enjoy gaming, I'm 70, don't play golf, fish, etc...but I'll pay for a good sim,,,try getting a pilot's
license,,,10,000 if yer lucky...the developer's have no vision...well, just a few thoughts...cheers! I still
think MS Flight has an angle...not for consoles--so far they can't handle the intricacies the way a computer can...