Oblivion on consoles is a crime , especially given the new release of the POOP modcomp, which makes the process feel a lot less like installing a Linux distro from raw source code and more like modding a game.
The appeal of the PC, much like all of Gaul, can be divided into three parts:
1) Best of breed multiplatform games-better resolutions, better performance, better controls, more features, free online play. For recent examples, look at COD4, Oblivion, Mass Effect PC, Asssasin's Creed PC, Quake Wars and so on. You get the 576/640p, janky 30fps experience on the console, and get the 1920x1200 60 fps experience on the PC. Most of the games that push the hardware the strongest nowadays are in this category (Crysis is the exception, not the rule).
2) Online gaming and games supported by virtual communities-it's not just the MMOs, from which there are like many decent choices on the PC, but it is the communities that surround all sorts of other games that make the PC somewhat unique. For example, I participate regularly in strategy gaming challenges and tournaments for older games like the Impressions' City Builders and Panzer General 2/3 (ten year old games!), and for newer games like Civilization IV. All of this is done mostly via communication through the web through message boards where the players of the game gather around, which is the very best virtual community organization tooling available. Message boards and communities are the reason why good, older PC games still have players and the good Xbox Live enabled game is empty three months after release. Diablo 2 has thousands of people playing it with an active virtual economy despite predating Xbox Live entirely, for example.
These communities also generate a ridiculous amount of usermade content for free for their games. Some of it being very, very good.
3) Games that have no home on consoles. These can range from spreadsheet wargames with their vast, loving expanses of hexes to real time strategy games that suck total donkey with a controller to flight and naval simulations-and a whole lot more! There's little appeal for these games from the console userbase so they don't get made, but they are very numerous on the PC and offer gaming experiences you can't get on the console.
I find myself attracted to 2) and 3) as the reason why I play on the PC. 1) is nice every once and awhile for when I want lighter fare, it is for me just an added bonus to the other factors.
