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C3 CHRISTMAS maltatoday | SUNDAY • 9 DECEMBER 2018 The MSI GS65 gaming laptop PC/Gaming Laptop LAPTOPS and PCs do much more than just gaming and are therefore not exclusively a con- sole. This explains their price, with the best gaming laptop in the world according to PC Gamer and Tech Radar, the MSI GS65, priced at €1,579.99. Compare this to the slim €300 Playstation 4 and your choice will likely become much easier. But another top gaming lap- top, also an MSI, the GF63 8RC, is priced at €550 and guarantees you can play mil- lions of games available on PC – including the best-selling games of all time, one of which is the already-mentioned Play- er Unknown's Battlegrounds, selling 24 million copies in 2017 alone and the always fa- vourite Minecraft, selling 29 million copies in total. When it comes to Virtual Re- ality, which while still tenta- tive is a popular newness in the gaming world, many PC games offer this option. So do con- soles, but statistics once again show that PC games with VR potential sold more than con- sole games with the same pos- sibility, possibly because the PC offers much more variety. It's good to note that most gaming trends are influenced by 'Let's Players' on YouTube, gaming personalities that play and stream their gaming expe- riences online. Undertale, for example, is a game made by a single per- son called Toby Fox – from the soundtrack to the story to the animations – and sold 3.5 million copies in total, more than a big-budget, blockbuster franchise game lately released on PS4: God of War. For a truly powerful gaming laptop to render the most de- manding current games, how- ever, you'd need more than just the €550 MSI. It really depends on what you're aiming to play. Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Switch THERE is no question that Nintendo takes the crown for handheld console, for quality games you can play on the road. The cheapest Nintendo 3DS kit is priced at €219, while the more modern Switch is priced at €334. For something that is yet to offer a catalogue of online games similar to the PS4's, the Nintendo may seem over- priced especially with games averaging at €40 per title. But with 73.1 million units of Nintendo 3DS sold (and 21.8 million for Switch), almost twice the figure for that of Xbox One units, the Nintendo is still a popular console, the closest in terms of popularity to the PS4. The Nintendo offers thou- sands of games for purchase and the Switch now has the op- tion to connect to the TV. It's the only console you can plug out of the dock and play while on the road with four hours of gaming on a single charge. Most would argue that the mobile phone could accom- plish as much and while the mobile phone sales revenue for games is the highest amongst all the other gaming platforms (at $50.4 billion when com- pared to the console games sales of $33.3 billion) the Nin- tendo offers the most popular games for a cheap price: Zelda, Super Mario, FIFA, even Fort- nite and Undertale, and mas- sive blockbuster games like Skyrim. The verdict IF your child wants a VR head- set and wants to delve into the world of virtual reality gaming, the PS4 offers this possibil- ity, but with limitations. There are hundreds of PC games and downloadable games on the in- ternet that can be used in con- junction with a VR headset and most of these games do not require powerful systems so a medium or low-range gaming laptop would suffice. If you want a reliable games consoles that would run the latest games and story-orient- ed epics like Detroit: Become Human and God of War, the PS4 would trump the Xbox One both in terms of graphics and in terms of choice, even if a Playstation 5 is likely to make an appearance next year. If your child would like to play online with his peers, a gaming laptop and a games console can do the trick but a games console is a cheaper and more reliable option and here, again, the PS4 would come out top. If your child's friends all use the Xbox, however, he won't be able to play with them if he has a different console. If you're looking for some- thing to carry around, the Nintendo Switch is the best gaming console with that ca- pability. You can plug it in, play online, play epic narrative games and do it outside the house. It's cheaper than the most powerful PS4 but more expensive than the slim ver- sion of the Playstation. It is most likely that gamers have already made their mind up before reading this article. And it also depends on what the child likes. Every child needs to develop a relation- ship with his gaming system as it evolves with him. He's likely to pick one for life. For myself, it was the Playstation but my greatest gaming experiences have always been on a PC.