There ROG Ally sells perfectly well and seems to open up to a market that was not necessarily intended for it, that of traditional consoles. At first glance, this may surprise, but the fact is there: of console gamers migrate to the proposedASUSwithout having the necessary background or understanding of the PC world. Let’s roll up our sleeves and let’s welcome them properly.
PC vs Console
Let’s go back in time to fully understand what differs between consoles and PC. The first were dedicated to one and the same function: video games, where the latter have always been considered as machines to do everything. Since always and still today, the “consoleux” and the “PCistes” are engaged in a good-natured war. Console players criticize the complexity of PCs and “PCists” gargle about the technological gap obtained by it, as well as access to a more extensive catalog and an alleged intellectual superiority.
Then the consoles turned over time into ersatz PCs:
Game developers no longer wanted to spend months or even years optimizing their games that run on development kits (PS2-PS3 in mind) far removed from a PC architecture. This change, made by the manufacturers, opened Pandora’s box. It’s only very recently in the history of video games that we have consoles that can connect to Deezer, Spotify, Youtube, netflix Or Disney +among others.
Nowadays, what is the difference?
The differences keep on blurringit is now possible on console to play with a keyboard and a mouse, and on the Internet of course. In the end, what really differentiates PC and console gamers? The productivity (Word, Excel, Photoshop….), THE mods (modified games) and always the sacrosanct optimization. A console is a closed, non-scalable and standardized product. A PC is a more or less exotic mixture of components which makes it more or less powerful, and modifiable at will. PCs and games can be fine-tuned, where consoles are content to display the inserted game, even if this is less and less true…
The transformation of consoles into PC brings problems that they did not have before
For several Christmases now, many players have been complaining about this phenomenon. Proof, it is now risky to propose a AAA to a child on December 24 at midnight. And for good reason, it will have to download updates of more than a hundred GB to take advantage of it, in other words that if you have a 2 MB ADSL, your dear blond head (brunette or redhead) will have to wait until the next morning to play it: a real emotional lift ! In addition, it is necessary to configure the consoles to the Internet, the parental control, to link the latter to his smartphone, to make the updates, to pay a subscription to play online, etc. Gone are the days of the NES where all you had to do was insert the cartridge and press the button power to enjoy.
The two worlds are about to merge
The thin film that opposed the two worlds is disappearing, and has been since 2015 with the first Windows portable PC console, the GPD Win. At the time, the promise was not to run PC games (until then considered incidental), but to emulate as many platforms as possible. The goal was to run console games on a computer architectureand of course incidentally playing PC productions.
Technology continues to evolve, so much so that it is now possible to play PC games on the go. The ROG Ally is positioned as a PC that can run all games, including console games. For €799.99 you get your desktop PC, a laptop gamer and a mobile console (via emulation). ASUS has understood this and wishes above all that its product be qualified as the ultimate portable console or of the future.
Console = simplified computer?
End of June 2023. The only difference between console and PC is the mods and the catalogeven with monsters based on RTX-4090 and D’i9 last-gen, the graphics gap between a PS5 (or Xbox Series X) versus a $1,500 or $2,000 gaming PC isn’t nearly as big as it was back then. At the house of sony Or Microsoftit is now possible to optimize your games on your own consolewith the famous profiles Performance Or Quality, inherited from the PC universe. Even better, Microsoft is the only console manufacturer to offer one that the player does not need to buy to enjoy it.
So, finally, the ROG Ally, is it a console yes or no?
The debate is over, PC games are coming out on consoles and vice versathere ROG Ally also has an overlay (Armory Crate) which displays a console interface, which is why gamers find it so difficult to clearly explain the product ofASUStoo used to the fact that the border, as fine as it is, remains.
Do not hesitate to go to the next page for the rest of the guide : what should you plan before receiving or offering yourself the ROG Ally ?