Remember Kingston’s Guide to Great Console Gaming

01/12/2009

We’ve shown some love to the PC gamer, so now it’s time to deliver on our promise of top tips for the console gamer.

Depending on which way you look at it, life is either better or worse for console gamers. There’s no need to worry about drivers, processing power and so on, but sometimes PC gamers have a little more choice, or game features that console gamers don’t get to use.

But we’re not here to decide which is better. We just want to make your console experience the best it can be.

Charge!

No, we’re not playing a war game, we’re trying to highlight the need to keep on top of your wireless controllers’ battery needs. If you’re a frequent lone-gamer, then swapping controllers will do, but if you play with your mates, we recommend having some spare battery packs, or at least making sure everything is fully charged in advance of a gaming marathon. Trouble is, who plans these things? Gaming marathons just… sort of… happen!

TV to die for

The best console in the world is wasted on a crummy little TV screen. Don’t invest money in a console without considering what you’re going to spend all of your time staring (and shouting) at.

Consoles like the PS3 and Xbox 360 support up to 1080p High Definition (HD) output and to make use of all those pixels you need an HDTV. Whether it’s plasma, LCD or LED, an HDTV with 1080 support guarantees high detail levels in games designed for HD. And the bigger the better – within reason, just don’t buy a TV so big that you need to find a bigger house.

Boom! Rumble rumble…

For sound, the same rules apply as in our PC gaming guide. With a top notch screen setup things will sure look impressive, but you need immersive sound to back that up. If there’s one thing games do well, it’s surround sound. The PS3 and Xbox both have digital audio outputs, so if you equip yourself with a speaker system that has the appropriate connections, you’ll be able to enjoy rolling around in the rumblings of a digital surround sound game world.

Alas, Nintendo’s Wii doesn’t have surround sound support, so a good stereo setup might be better, although some surround sound systems support sending stereo to the back speakers as well as the front – something worth looking into especially if you already have a lovely 5.1 setup.

Case closed

Some people buy a console and only ever play one game on it… ever. These people are either loyal, or very sad. The rest of us have something that resembles a game collection. And however big that collection is, we beg of you, to keep your discs in the right cases.

In the excitement of unboxing a new game it’s all too easy to take the old disc out of the drive and place it to one side, or worse still… in the wrong box. Take this lazy action more than a couple of times and you’ll quickly find yourself digging through your entire collection because things aren’t where they’re meant to be. Remember, things are always in the last place you look – so stay organised and make sure the last place you look is the first place you look (wow, that’s a mind blowing philosophy).

The Darkness

Nature is beautiful, but that’s irrelevant when you’re in the depths of a far away dungeon. Keep the curtains and blinds closed to avoid sudden sun-shock that’ll leave you squinting, bewildered and one life down.

And the usual gamers rules apply to “other people”. Make sure children, parents, and relatives stay away from the gaming room, unless you’re a “social” (scoff) gamer.

Cool runnings

In the midst of an all night gaming sesh, the last thing you need is your console deciding it no longer wants to cooperate. Respect the console and, usually, it’ll respect you back. Look after your discs – scratches can slow down loading times or lead to errors. Most importantly, make sure your console is well ventilated.

Modern consoles are so powerful that governments and academics use them as supercomputers. But with serious power comes heat – they can kick out quite a bit and if poorly ventilated, that heat’s going to build up and lead to crashes or even system failure. Make sure the console’s got room to breathe – the same goes for the power brick.

That concludes our collection of console gaming tips. If it doesn’t make you a better gamer, well perhaps you’re just not very good!