PC Gamers vs. Console Gamers in FPS games- Is there a clear winner?

How do you think you would do against a PC player vs. an Xbox player?

So yesterday I posted a link to a story that brought to light a Microsoft project that would have brought PC and Xbox 360 players together for some cross-platform gaming. The project was canned by MS because PC gamers absolutely crushed the console gamers every time they went head-to-head. According to the story, the test put mediocre PC gamers up against top-notch console gamers with the aforementioned results. I have some ideas on why this was a terrible attempt and how it could have been a great thing.

I have played many a FPS game on both PC and consoles. For years, consoles couldn't come close to reproducing the FPS experience that PCs delivered regularly. I have used a trackball for years and when ever I played Rainbow Six, Unreal Tournament, or Quake I had an extreme amount of precision at my fingertips. Couple that with some nimble fingers on the AWSD keys and on a good day I was near the top of the leader board at the end of matches. I use to go up against some friends of mine online and via LAN that would just pwn me repeatedly and vice versa.

I gradually started playing my Playstation 2 more often than my PC when Grand Theft Auto started becoming more popular and to me games like that just seemed better suited to a PS2 controller than a keyboard and mouse. The same goes for racing games. It wasn't until I saw Halo and then Gears of War that I started thinking of FPS gaming on a console as a real competitor to traditional FPS gaming on a PC. First and foremost the gameplay just felt slower, but after 10 or 15 matches I adjusted. Secondly, the controls obviously were not as precise and as responsive as my PC setup particularly compared to my mouse. I really had to adjust to using an analog stick for both movement and aiming. It didn't take long for me to start adjusting my reflexes and coordination to this different scheme of control. That leads me to my first point.

 The BIGGEST hurdle to overcome for cross-platform gaming? Making the platform type not matter. Microsoft was dumb for thinking it could just link the two platforms via Live and all live in harmony. Yeah it could work for racing or adventure games, but not for the money making FPS genre. No way. Let's face it, shooter games are the bread and butter for multi-player gaming which makes it the cash cow that it is. So how   could MS level the playing field and put console and PC gamers on par with each other? Good question.

I honestly don't know what the best answer would be. Obviously it would revolve around the control input. My initial thought would be to hook an Xbox 360 controller into those PCs and voila! Problem solved. I just know that PC fanboys would bitch about being handicapped and if we flip it around and give console players a mouse and keyboard to plug in, well that just defeats the purpose of having a console in the first place and while the hardcore would jump in, the serious recreational and casual gamers would not. So where does that leave us? Simple. Leave the options up to the gamer. Come out with an Xbox controller with a trackball built in to it (that would be sweet)! Make matches customizable so that only certain control methods are allowed. This could have been the best of both worlds had MS given it more thought. If they pressed on, opened up the control methods on both platforms and left it up to the gamer it would have caught fire! I would gladly buy a controller specifically designed for FPS with highly precise analog and/or trackball controls built in. That's the only sticking point people! Controls!

Bottom line....PC gamers are equipped to battle against foes with near-identical equipment as are console gamers. Would you go into a gunfight with a bb gun? Probably not. It doesn't mean console gamers are inferior in skill compared to PC gamers. It just means that while your replica Glock 17 air-soft gun might shoot my eye out, my .45 Colt 1911 with hollow-points will make your head into a canoe. Right after a I cry in agony and then aim with my one good eye.