Could someone help me choose a console?

[Parokki]

This thread is going to end up with the Wii people saying you should get a Wii, the PS3 people saying you should get a PS3, and 360 people saying you should get a 360. The amount of supporters for each on this site is pretty much in the order I gave them, so if that's the only criteria you can stop reading now. Just in case it isn't, I'll give some more tips. =P

I suppose the biggest decision is wether you want the Wii or one of the HD consoles. The Wii is much cheaper than the other two, doesn't support HDTVs, and is the most different from PC gaming. The price is clearly a good thing, but the other two depend on what you're looking for.

HD support is tricky. If you do have a HDTV and buy a Wii, then you'd have paid for a feature you wouldn't be using, but if you don't have a HDTV and buy a HD console, then you'd be doing pretty much the same thing. I would say playing the Wii on a HDTV is not as bad as playing HD games on a SDTV, but I'm probably a bit biased here, owning a Wii and SDTV myself.

The difference to PC gaming is due to the radically different controller, and the fact that Nintendo games very rarely jump to other platforms, while the HD consoles have lots and lots of multiplats. This might be a good or bad thing, totally depending on what you want.

If you go for the HD consoles, then I recommend the 360 over the PS3, due to a stronger selection of games now and in the foreseeable future. The PS3 has zero exclusives with a score of 90+ on Metacritic, while the 360 has six. This contains the slight problem that you can play a good chunk of the 360's exclusives on the PC as well, so you should take that into account.

You also have to pay for the 360's online service, but all my friends who've played both tell me it's better than on the PS3. I haven't tried either, and recommend you find more information about this if you think it's important.