PLEASE NOTE: This is not an effort to advocate or criticize any particular game system but rather thoughts on how two very different systems can produce very different but possibly equally satisfying gaming experiences.

Call of Duty World at War is an excellent opportunity to make such a comparison because it was released over all three consoles and the PC with virtually identical scores (Metacritic): PC (84), PS3 (85), Xbox360 (85), Wii (83). It was also released on the DS (75) but I’m not enough of a handheld gamer to judge.

My graphic whore credentials are in good order. I LOVE fantastic images. Besides the fact that high resolution graphic imaging is how I put bread on the table professionally, I just like creating them. People come by my office just to see my latest wallpaper. If I choose to stay after hours and game at work I have a Dell Ultrasharp 30” with a native resolution of 2560 x 1900 and enough CPU & GPU underneath to make it happen. At home my choice of weapons is more modest but still quite good. Even my notebook is capable of running any current game at top settings in HD.

Although not much inclined for other violent games, urban crime, zombie massacres and the like I am a history buff and I have always loved and spent many hours on Call of Duty, United Offensive, CofD 2, CofDuty4 was too modern. By the time World at War came out I had largely abandoned PC gaming for the Wii so …. Which way to go? Super sharp graphics and precise mouse and keyboard control, or in my case mouse and Belkin Nostromo SpeedPad n52.  Or go for the physicality of motion control and an even larger screen but greatly reduced resolution and more restrictive online play.

In the end I decided I really wanted to try them both and being Christmas I could keep the one I chose and give the other as a gift, having several eager recipients available. I’ve tried them both and they were both great games, and great experiences but I have made a choice. It’s now 11:00 PM EST. I’ll post my choice at midnight after giving anyone that wants to a chance to speculate, or explain their choice first. Negative posts will be ignorned, I want to know why you chose the one you did, not why that makes everybody else an idiot.

I tried it on PC, it looks good there theres no question there.

I thought an interesting game mechanic would be to turn the crosshairs off and play "realistically" rather than shooting from the hip. It was fantastically fun but it was lacking, the mouse really doesn't work for me without the visual referrence of a crosshair BUT the Wii works extremely well for that so im keen to rent it for the Wii if I can disable the crosshair to see how it goes.

Haven't played either, but I'll bet that you chose the Wii version.

I played it on my friends PC, but I'm not a fan of squad based shooters so I shant buy either version (unless I see it ridiculously cheap)

Would you elaborate why you think I would. If your answer is because I'm a Wii Fanboy you'll be wrong. Unless Nintendo starts cutting me a check I'm not compromising my fun to score points for them. They don't even seem to particularly need them.

I chose strictly on the basis of the one that felt most immersive and realistic to me.

I bet you chose the Wii version as well, and the immersion is the reason I believe that. I like playing on a PC, but the IR feels more immersive to me personally. I am betting you feel the same way.

CoD put me in a pickle. On the Wii hand I really prefer the controls. On the PS3 hand the graphics would look much better on my HD tv, and the trophies are a nice bonus. Online isn't a factor since I rarely go online.

In the end I couldn't decide so I skipped the game altogether. If I had to pick, I'd probably get the Wii version since it's $10 cheaper.

I remember you saying you stopped playing one of the Call of Duty's because of how overly competitve it got on with kids that have razor sharp reflexes. I'd imagine that's less of a problem on the Wii version. For the same reason I'd imagine the added precision from a mouse isn't much of a bonus for you.

You're a self-proclaimed graphic whore, but for high-end PC's, so I'd wager you've seen things much more impressive graphically then Call of Duty: World of War, and from everything I read the graphics haven't changed much from Call of Duty 4, so that probably takes some of the excitement out of it.

Lastly, you said it's based on what feels more realistic and immersive, and that seems to favor the Wii Remote since holding it is closer to holding a gun then dragging a mouse around. Assuming the motion controls aren't completely bonked like they were in Call of Duty 3, I'd imagine you'd pick the Wii.

Just a minor nitpick - the mouse is not more precise than the Wii remote. Both have enough accuracy to point at a single pixel on the screen.