Hey All,

I know I know, where is this huge update that you promised us! I swear it is in the works…I just have been working on a few things to get all my things in order first. I promise you that I have been writing like crazy every second I get, I even have a few pages down already! Ask Tess, she knows haha
Anywho, I thought since I have had my mind wrapped around console gaming lately more than anything else I would touch base on a few things going on in that space and how I feel about them. As of today, well really about a month ago, I am the proud user of all 3 current generation consoles. That includes the Xbox 360 by Microsoft, the Wii by Nintendo, and the Playstation 3 by Sony.
Any gamer will tell you, the heat between hardcore backers of any of these consoles is just as bad as the heat between an Apple and a Windows user. It is an odd thing really, but people who buy and support a product usually tend to feel they must defend it for one reason or another. It happens in many parts of our lives..not just our consumer products:)

As I am sure almost no standard consumer would know, the battle waging between the 3 consoles today is going strong and the 3 are fighting for a portion of the market so that they can get as many software titles into peoples hands as possible. As was the case with all past generations, the majority of money made by a gaming console does not come from the hardware of the system itself but from the software sales (games) afterwards. The exception some would say is the Wii which makes a profit on its console hardware at the moment.

Without going into a great deal of detail, the current situation is that the Wii is selling extremely well. Being sold out for the majority of its life so far (speculation on why that is continues) the Wii has sold nearly as many units as the Xbox 360 in half the time. The Xbox 360 has been out nearly a year more than either of the other 2 systems and by far contains the largest library of games for its users. The Playstation 3 has possibly had the most clouded start. Unlike the friendly price tag of $250 that the Wii started with the PS3 came to our store shelves at a whopping $600 before taxes. What most people don’t realize is that inside the PS3 is a system far more complicated than the Wii and a HD player in the Blu-ray drive it contains. Unfortunately I believe Sony has not done a good enough job promoting certain things, especially the fact that it can play Blu-ray movies as well as go online. In any case, the PS3 has struggled with sales only selling about 40-45% the amount of the other 2 so far. Whether or not these numbers will sway is still a question.

So now that you are at least slightly in the know about these things let me touch on these systems quickly in my own words trying to have as little bias as I can.

Microsoft XBOX360 - A powerful system, with a great online network for gaming. Microsoft pushed these out fast, maybe a little to fast. With reported 40%-50% failure rates across the board and Billions lost in repairs MS obviously did a horrible job designing the cooling in the 360 the first time around which sucks for everyone. It would seem that recently they are trying to make good and the 360 has a great library of fantastic games. Far from its original XBOX the 360 could easily be the winner this generation.

Nintendo Wii - My thoughts on the Wii are all over the place. The console is obviously selling well so you can’t harp on it there. Its got a great list of first party games that should be great, most of which the Mario series of games which everyone always loves. Above all else, the Wii has its Innovative controller which was the divine child of the industry. The ability to wave your arms around instead of pressing buttons seemed to fancy everyone’s heart. I was not swayed so much. The lackluster implementation, and continued horde of gimmick games has left as nasty taste in my mouth. That is not to say the Wii doesn’t have or will have good titles. Despite its incredible sales, in my book I place the Wii far down at the bottom for this generation. The new controller simply does not impress me nor make games any more fun. The lack of power leaves much to the imagination and the games quite simply, suck. There are a few diamonds in there definitely and maybe a great library to come. But I personally am tired of playing Tennis or bowling or ping pong or puzzle games or fishing or whatever other gimmicky 30 minute game they can come up with.
I won’t to have a lot of fun with my Wii…but as of yet this simply is not the case.

Sony Playstation 3 - First off, The Sony PS3 was priced far to high from the start. Sony hugely overestimated the amount people who are buying its console were willing to spend. The, not unlike the Wii, wanted to reach out beyond its core gaming audience and reach audio and video junkies as well with its stated superior video and audio system. And there is no doubt that the PS3 is a power house, especially with its built in Blu-ray player being one of the best on the market. The flaw was simply the number. If they had come out even $100 less at $499 their system IMO would have sold much faster and for a much longer time. So Sony has since had to pay for its fault and overly expensive system.
Beyond that point, the system itself is amazing. I won’t touch on Blu-ray playback much as it has little to do with gaming but it is great! The power of the system is easily seen in its first party titles. The graphics are stunning and the games are very well put together. Unfortunately the downfall in games comes when companies have had time to learn the Xbox 360 very well, and therefore are creating games for the X360 first and then porting them. Because these systems are so different internally, this cause almost all games created first for the X360 and then brought to the PS3 to take a hit…making many wonder why they shouldn’t just get the X360 since its so much cheaper. One can hope that developers start making games first for the PS3 or at the very least put more effort into their PS3 ports so that there is minimal change in games performance. (One huge example of this is the horrible version of Madden 2008 EA created for the PS3 compared to the X360)
On the outside the PS3 feels the most next generation of the 3…easily. I don’t take this only from my opinion but from every single person I have brought over who is not am everyday gamer. On that same note, most of them don’t realize the PS3 has HD playback for movies nor that it can go online. But they do know the Wii has a fun controller….

In closing, I suppose I wrote most about the flaws of the 3 systems. I tried to pick out the positives but at this point in their lives I feel I must touch on what needs to be fixed before we can really see the potential of the systems. Even the X360 is just improving because it had no competition before. Now that all 3 are out we should see them all improve in many areas.

Should be a lot of fun, and I am glad I have all 3 systems to experience it in.

Man that was long…..hahaha.

Sorry I ramble a lot.

-Ed (boo)