Graphics comparison: 2K23 vs 2K25 - Page 2 (2024)

Creating a setup to play games on PC can be a little intimidating when you've had nothing but consoles your whole life; I feel like PC is much less straightforward than "Connect console to TV, turn on console, play."

Honestly it doesn't have to be much more complicated than that. You don't really need to "create" a setup to play games. Just buy a gaming PC with good enough specs, and from there boot it up, make a Steam account, buy the game through Steam, and play it. XBox controllers work seamlessly on Windows (because Microsoft).

The part that's harder than console is that not every PC is identical, of course, so some consumer research is advisable before rushing into a purchase, but it's mostly standard computer-shopping stuff (hard drive space, RAM, graphics card, etc.) and the specs are clearly listed on Steam (see screenshot below).

(EDIT: Honestly, the simplest thing to do is to just Google "2024 best gaming pcs" and look at the articles that pop up in major publications, like PC Mag, Wired, IGN, whatever, and just buy something that's in your budget and seems be the right tier spec-wise. 2K isn't some super unique game that needs a really uniquely configured PC to run, and generally when you buy the sorts of computers you see in those articles, all of the specs are pretty well in line with each other. Like, if it has an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070, which is a tier above the recommended RTX 2070 you see in the specs below, I can almost guarantee you without even looking at the other specs that everything on that PC will be fine. It's not like major names are selling PCs with amazing graphics cards but are 1997-tier for everything else. Obviously be sure to look everything over, but the key is mostly just buying the right tier. I'd recommend as much storage as you can afford though. You can easily end up playing a game that is basically modded everything, which takes up a lot of space, and it's nice to not have to uninstall all of that when the next game comes out too. 1TB is good, 2TB is better.)

All that said, it can become way messier and more complicated, but that's only if—as you get more comfortable—you begin complicating your PC and mod setup in order to achieve some sort of goal you have. In that case, you're doing so because your understanding is growing, which is making you realize new ways you can improve your experience. Nobody starts from there, and plenty of people never stray very far from "Open Steam, turn on 2K, and play"... just with some mods dropped in their "Mods" folder that makes the game look and feel more polished.