I'm a PC gamer at heart. Always have been, always will be. I've had dalliances with other platforms, spending time with Halo, Wii Fit and others, but I keep coming back to the big beige box (Mine isn't, actually, but I'm an alliteration aficionado). I'm a bit of a traditionalist, and out of all the gaming platforms the PC is probably the only one capable of really speaking to that side of my personality. What do I mean? The consoles are all about the promise of the future - the ever shortening generational cycles, the emphasis on integration, the Hollywood levels of hype for each new triple-A title. Everything is getting bigger, better, faster and shinier. This is also, admittedly, the case with the PC, but the difference is in how as a platform it relates to its past. Sony, who used to trumpet the built in backwards compatibility between the PS2 and PS1, quietly sidelined such a feature over various iterations of the new PS3. Microsoft never even seemed to consider the idea of hardware compatibility, preferring instead to opt for an imperfect emulation system to accommodate older titles. (The Wii, somewhat annoyingly, doesn't exactly fit my generalisation with built in support for Gamecube titles and its Virtual Console, but for the sake of argument let's move on.) Older titles for legacy consoles might be available digitally via XBLA or the PSN, but when it comes to the preservation of and accessibility to its back catalogue the PC beats all comers.

Not only is it easier to get hold of and play older titles on PC, but there's still solid communities re-playing, re-working and generally tinkering with their beloved titles of yesteryear. Today, when we have Far Cry 2 causing our jaws to drop with its graphical chops and Spore shocking us with its execution of the "Sim Everything" concept, there's still a hardcore out there who would rather beaver away on a texture pack for Deus Ex or spend another evening stranded on a ship with Shodan. That says a lot not only about the quality and appeal of these older games, but about the relative ease with which one can revisit them. And it's getting easier. Valve are making older titles available through their Steam distribution service at minimal cost. As I write this CD Projekt are gearing up to launch the open beta of Good Old Games, an online store that will allow people to download cheap digital copies of some older classic titles, given the relevant tweaks to work on modern operating systems. But even without these services, thanks to the existence of eBay and the gaming communities at large, it's still possible to pick up and play these older titles easily.