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Long has this been a topic of extreme controversy and heated argument. Is it better to buy a console for the kind of experience you can only get with a controller? Or should you stick with a PC and your good old mouse and keyboard?

The reasons why this question tends to be such a heavily debated issue are numerous and they expand across a few different areas; the experience, the consistency, the price, the types of games, and the level of satisfaction offered.

Consoles are great; it doesn't really get much simpler. You buy a 300 dollar box of equipment, and with it you can enjoy a variety of games from shooters, to racing games, to problem solving, to fighting games. Whether your fancy is Halo or Super Smash Brothers Brawl, there is no doubt that you think you can't live without it. But how does it measure up to a PC?

Here's a somewhat more in depth analysis of console gaming. Every couple of years, a new console arrives on the market after new parts have been invented, and new ideas have been cooked up. The prices of these consoles range typically from $250 to extreme cases where they reach $600. After you buy the console, you have to spend another $30 to $50 or even $100 for some controllers, another $50 for just a single game, and then you might even have to buy special attachments for if you want to have a high definition experience. All told, you could be looking at spending anywhere from $400 dollars to $1000 depending on how many controllers, attachments, and games you buy.

As for a PC? Most people who want to buy a solid desktop gaming PC will spend about $800 to $900 dollars on the PC and then spend whatever else on a few games. Pricewise, if you include perhaps a new screen with the purchases, it can easily match the extremes of console prices and in some cases, surpass the prices entirely.

Now, experience-wise, consoles have the unique feel to them of using two joysticks and several buttons to control your character(s) and actions. Hardly anything can match up to playing God Hand on the PS2, or playing Super Smash Brothers on the Wii, or playing Halo on the Xbox. Some games are so unique that if you tried playing it on a PC, it just wouldn't ever be the same. For instance, my personal experience with the PS2 showed me that playing a game like Armored Core: Silent Line would never have worked on another platform. Controlling a large mech robot that rocket boosts through the air at incredible speed cannot be done using a mouse and keyboard.

However, when you're playing a shooter, there is no substitute for that mouse and keyboard. When you're in a first person environment, W A S D, and your left click become your best friends. It's simply too difficult to play a shooter using a joystick because with a mouse your reaction times are better, and your accuracy is vastly improved. You can't whip around 180 degrees and pull a headshot very easily on a console.

So far, PCs and consoles have been pretty fairly matched. Over the short term, they're both very enjoyable, can be very affordable, and both have similar games and different styles.

But what about the long term implications and the performance levels of the hardware? That's where we separate the men from the boys.

With a console, you're limited to whatever can fit inside a small box the size of, say, a shoe box. That means that only certain hardware can fit, and certain hardware means that there are limitations with how well the console can perform. With a game that's relatively easy on the graphics, it's not a big deal. But when a game like Bioshock or Crysis comes along, suddenly it's a different ball game. When Bioshock first came out, tons of people trying to play the Xbox 360 version had their console die because the consoles burned out trying to display the graphics. One man reportedly had to send in his console 12 times in a row because Bioshock kept frying his console's processor.

A PC can fit whatever hardware is currently available on the market. If you have the money to blow, you can buy 8 gigabytes of RAM, a 9800gtx or two, a quad-core processor, a beast of a power supply to handle it all, a nitrogen tank to cool it, and a 60 inch screen to watch it all on. This means that a PC can play any game as long as it is constructed wisely to accommodate the potential jobs it will be handling. Therefore, in terms of performance, a PC can handle virtually any game regardless of the graphical content. And for those that still can't handle the game on full, you have the option to edit the resolution, and the detail so the PC can handle it anyway.

In addition to that, over the long term, a PC may be a smarter choice. Consoles get outdated just as quickly as PCs do, but a PC has the option of getting upgrades. You can replace the processor, the video card, the RAM, or even the entire motherboard if you need to. A console doesn't have that luxury. Once the company has moved on to another platform, the old one is pretty much left for dead, and you will have to spend another $400 bucks on the new one and buy new games.

With that in mind, a console would last only maybe a few years. A PC constructed wisely and updated every once in a while can last 10 years before it becomes so outdated there aren't any parts for it anymore. It might even end up saving you a good bit of cash in the long run.

The question now becomes the following; do you care if the console only lasts a little while, and do you want to save a little money? If you don't really care, then there is no right answer to this question.

But personally, I'll stick with the PC and save a console for a more social occasion if I choose to buy one.