Well, a very picky topic indeed, but one non the less, an important one.
Well lets start with the Microsoft and the Xbox 360
- Microsoft have undoubtly made a good console. It supports the largest libary of games and argueably one of the best out of the "BIG THREE", not to mention perhaps the greatest online service ever made for a console, Xbox Live. It has made huge improvements over it's predeccosor the Xbox, and looks as if it is here to stay for a couple of more years. Great graphics, good controler, great online and an unparraled libary of games is what makes this console. However what breaks this console, well, it's the console it self. You know what im taking about, the Red Ring of Death. Over 30% of 360 owners have been hit with this deadly "plague" and it doesn't look to stop even with the newer models, even with the 3 year warrenty it just keeps coming back, all i have to say is, get your shit together Microsoft. If only they put the same passion into their hardware as their software, shame really. Another one of my concerns with the 360 is how much stuff you need to get the "full" experience. I mean Xbox Live ($50 dollars per year), 120 Gb hard drive ($180) and the Wi-Fi ($100). Yes some would argue you don't need a 120 Gb hard drive but as recent games have shown, such as Burnout (to play online), you need a big hard drive to keep your demos, music, videos, photos, movies etc. Yes, i have Wi-Fi, so i would need to buy it. Currently the 360, in terms of sales, really needs to shift some more consoles, yes America takes care of it, but the world isn't just America, it's Japan and Europe as well. So to conclude i personally feel that it will end up last this generation, again, and it will be the last of Microsofts console, as the last one sucked balls, and this one is too costly for Microsoft to keep spending money on RROD, and with Vista in a shit hole, their revenue isn't where they hoped to be.
- Sony have also made a brilliant console, the Playstation 3. I have one, it's great. It to is seeing it's fair share of games, although not as much as 360, but it is not as Shooter orientated though making it in my opinion the most rounded console of the 3. Although it has bunch of great exclusives, 2008 seems to be the Golden Year of the playstation, as we have already seen Sony's trojan horse, Blu Ray, is kicking ass and this has had an impact over the last two months, sales have picked up greatly, especially in America and is now even starting to give the 360 a run for it's money in the USA. It has all the optional extras that Microsoft offer you but staright out of the box, making it a great purchase, not to mention free online, but i admit, not better than Xbox Live. The controller on the other hand, is superb, Sony played it safe and in my opinion have made the best controller to date, vibration and motion sensing and a leight weight controller make this a great contoller. And now multi-platform games don't suck dick anymore, games like COD 4, Burnout, GTA IV are all supposedly to look the same, if not better on PS3, which is a vast improvement upon last year selections of crap ports, such as Rainbow Six Vegas, etc. So where do i think it will come this generation, well some of you may disagree but i say SONY are gonna win. Sure the Wii is kickin ass now, but thats cause it's cheap and when the price goes down and Blu Ray really kick off in a couple of years that is when we will see the PS3 fly past every one else. So ten years down the line from now, PS3 will have gone beyond the Wii and PS2 because SONY have been smart and tried to merge the MOVIE INDUSTRY AND GAMES INDUSTRY together and in my opinion when 70% of people have HD TV'S and want a blu-ray player, you got it, they'll turn to the PS3, because it is the cheapest and plays games and has online.
- Last but not least, the Nintendo Wii. In my opinion the Wii isn't all that (GONNA GET ALOT OF HATE) despite it's tremendous success so far. It is fun, intuative and is the perfect 8 year old's game machine. But for me it is not nex-gen at all. It doesn't have the superb visuals of the PS3 or 360, nor the great online capabilties, nor the normal standard controllers, but it does have a stronger "fun factor" than the PS3 and 360 to some people. Looking at it's games selection, it is far from brilliant with the exceptitions of Mario, Zelda, Sonic and Metriod, i think if you look at the Wii's game libary as a whole, it is full of crap, only first party is saving the Wii at the moment. The Wii won't see much 3rd party "love" this generation as we have seen so far because Nintendo is making a mini-ture monolpy on the Wii so devolpers will turn to the PS3 and 360 as their "cash cows", and once people have played Mario 200 they will reliase there is nothing left but the same games, so from ten years down the line don't be suprised to see Nintendo in second place.
Anyway feel free to disagree and please post your own thoughts.
