Now that all big three gaming consoles are out and available it time to start thinking about getting them. Last time around the decision was easy – Xbox was underdog, GameCube was for kids and PS2 was clearly most popular.
But then things got serious. Consoles now have their own strengths and the tables have turned. Which one would suite me best?
- Xbox 360 is out for 12 months, there are plenty of games and it runs PES6. Microsoft just released XNA that will allow me to write my own Xbox games and programs. With limitations, but it is a start and it has never happened before. I heard that new Live will allow downloads of popular TV shows for couple of bucks.
- Wii looks like fun. Get couple of friends over and instead of talking about same old stuff, just play ball. I think this could even turn certain girls into moderate gamers. :-)
- PS3 is a beast. Far more powerful than Wii or Xbox and will definitely get most hi-tech games with insane full HD resolution and so on. But it is also expensive – you can get Xbox and Wii for a price of PS3.
The answer: probably none of them. I’m just a occasional gamer.
To really grab my attention few more things should happen:
- prices should fall by 30–50% (let’s wait some 12 months)
- prices of games should fall (never) or mod chips need to be available (not and time soon). I’m not willing to spend 50+ EUR on a game I’m not sure I want to play.
- I want to use my console as media player – native DivX and connectivity to Windows network are a must (I don’t see this coming. It will ruin possible downloadable TV and movie deals)