Console or PC?
No I haven't run out of ideas for articles to the extent where I turn to this age-old argument. It just coincides with the Watch Dogs release so I can poke at that a bit.
I think I'll split this up into several aspects for easier reading and analysis.
The hardware:
If you have good hardware then the PC is faster, if not it is slower. With PCs you have to think about upgrades whereas with consoles it's just, here is a console and in 5 years there'll be another one which is faster.
If you buy a gaming PC from Currys or Argos you WILL be conned out of your money and this may be where PCs get a lot of their 'they're expensive and not even that great' hate from.
If you build your own PC (and make a decent go of it) then you can match console specs at the same price point. But you won't have a system as small as a console.
However if you added in the price of a cheapish laptop or desktop onto the cost of a console you'd end up with over £700, with which you could make a small, quiet Pc that would destroy console performance. But of course as laptop is oprtable and a desktop is not. And if you get a gaming laptop you'll be spending more than £700 to beat consoles and gaming on a laptop I'd argue is worse than playing on a console. It' a tricky one. Everyone needs to decide individually. In my case though it's PC all the way.
The software:
Sadly there are a lot of shitty console ports that don't show the Pc in it's best light (Crysis 1 looks good today and that came out 7 years ago!) Watch Dogs looked awesome at E3 but now looks like a console game. This is because console games sell for more (Pc is cheaper in this respect) and more people own consoles so why would anyone bother developing primarily for consoles.
Console games have a lot of 'assistance' to them too. I hate this.
PCs need another Crysis to push the envelope again. I want a game that you need to drop £3000 on GPUs to run maxed out, because at the moment PCs do look better than consoles, but only just, and that's a software limit.
The Gaming Experience:
PCs hands down win this. FPS gaming is best with mouse and keyboard, you can buy controllers and games pads and steering wheels and everything under the sun for PC. PCs can play at 1080p (and 2.5k and 4k if you spend enough). Consoles, even next gen ones struggle with 30fps at less than 1080p. And 30fps is worse than 60fps, having moved back to my 75hz monitor (from a 30hz TV) games are so much smoother.
However there are stuttering issues with Xfire and Sli (multiple GPUs) so it's not all rosy, but this is a very small problem. With nVidia and supported games you can play in 3D too.
The community:
On-line play with PCs is generally better due to the lack of 12 year-olds with PCs capable of playing games. However PC gamers seem to have some superiority complex whereby they have much larger penises than console gamers as well as greater IQ, physical fitness and are better in every way to everyone.
Basically, if you game on consoles you have to put up with whiny twats and 'teh Pc master race' whereas if you're on Pc you have to put up with 'those console peasants and their ignorance/ lower IQ / smaller penises etc...
On consoles there are the 10 year olds who are mad (bro) that you killed them but on league of legends there are league of legends players, who are arguably worse.
To sum up, both groups are dicks to each other, but in different ways. Neither is better than the other. Consoles have lots of idiots because they are bought by normal people, PCs have lots of people who are very far up their own arse.
Other things:
So what else can you do on the console apart from game?
Listen to music, watch films from discs or the internet, browse the web.
What else can you do on the PC?
Everything the consoles can do plus everything else ever (with the right hardware). CAD, video, music and photo editing, use office software, do science and stuff (F@H for example).
and apart from maybe hardcore CAD you can do all of this on a gaming PC.
So to conclude:
Ideally everyone would be on PC as it is more versatile, faster, and at a similar price.
However that similar price is still more expensive, you need to learn about all the components and what ones perform well to et your money's worth and PCs need maintenance (dusting, reinstall the OS every so often, drivers etc...).
If you can be bothered to learn about computers or want the absolute best experience then get a PC (and build it yourself), if not get a console. That's it. Simple.