My bro and I are trying to decide which of the new consoles to buy. PS3, XBox 360 or the Wii.
My concern is that none of them are cheap, and it's not really the kind of purchase you want to get wrong.
So what are the pros and cons between them?
If you've bought/played on one, or several, what were your opinions? Why did you like/hate it?
I'm personally tempted to go for the Wii, simply because it has something all the others don't (the Wiimote). The way I see it, the other two have very little capacity to generate new games, just prettier ones.
However, the Wii doesn't seem to do pretty anywhere near as well as the others, and I'm worried that it won't be as immersing. And that it might not attract the best games simply because of its image.
But I also know from experience that you very soon get used to good graphics, and if a racing game looks realistic, it's only a matter of time before you get used to the graphics and realise it's actually no more fun than the racing games you played on the Amstrad.
So it's a tricky one. I'd love to get the Zelda Twilight Princess game, but then again I'd love to get Halo 3. Short of mortgaging my body or selling my liver, I can't really do both...
I've got all, well. I sold my PS3 a couple of days ago. My little run down.
360- An excellent system. Theres a real quality feel to it all, the controller is excellent (though lacks motion sensing), the games are abundant and cover many genres and Live is, frankly my dear, the dogs bollocks. Though it bloody well should be for £40 a year.
All that said, I don't play mine much. There just isn't a killer game out for it yet. It's full of lacklustre FPS titles, GTA clones, and attempts at Nintendo-esque games that just don't get pulled off right (Viva Pinata, that other party game - name escapes me). HD video player is optional and the price reflects that, plus because it's been out a while you can get some very tempting deals. GAME will sell you a 360 + 2 AAA games and sometimes an extra controller for £270.
PS3- ONLY buy if you have a HDTV. Honestly. A huge chunk of what you spend goes bang towards that BluRay drive, and if you have *no* intentions of actually watching HD video then avoid like the plague. No interesting titles at all. Controller feels like we're still in the 90's.
I buy systems to play games. But with the PS3 it was more about waiting. And honestly I'd much rather have as much of the £400 I originaly spent on it back and funding systems with games.
I might say it's worth it a few years down the line. But the other machines would have been out that extra year too...
Wii- Jolly good fun. Never had as much fun with a video game than Wii Sports. It's a total cliche I know, but it's true. Still play it to this day. The game library is building up (though mostly with sports games), the system costs less, the games cost less, online is free, the VC is actually cheaper than buying from retro shops etc.
And there we go - the VC is a major selling feature. I've only spent £60 pf my own money on standard Wii games, and another £90 on VC. Mostly rebuilding my collection of systems I've sold off in the past.
In the end I'd get a Wii right now. For the same price as 1 PS3 you can get... *ahem*
-Wii + 8 games (add 1 for free Wii sports, or take 1 game and get another controller)
-360 + 4 games (add 2 if you include shop bundled games)
-PS3 (some shops will bundle Resistance (tepid FPS) or Motorstorm)
However, the Wii doesn't seem to do pretty anywhere near as well as the others, and I'm worried that it won't be as immersing. And that it might not attract the best games simply because of its image.
The Wii is the best selling of all three consoles. It's technically weak but it has potential for great games.
Just look at what YOU want.
Do you want realistic games and online multiplayer - buy a 360
Do you want unique and innovating controls - buy a Wii
Do you want a black console with Spiderman lettering on - buy a PS3
I say get either a Wii or 360 now, and then get the other later. They complement eachother well.
- Ok, you must admit that was the most creative cussing this site have ever seen -
I did write some stuff about each console, but there's no point me saying anything, really.
Most comments will point you towards buying a Wii Almost every great Nintendo game there ever was is available by Virtual Console, and Gamecube compatability is cool, too. Nowadays all I play is smash bros melee All my Wii games got stolen I'd like to play through Twilight Princess again - Damn Good Game.
I bought a chipped Wii and I've played the 360 at one of my friends house.
Wii: By far the most fun of them but compared to the 360 the gfx pretty much sucks. But Since I'm more of a gameplay guy and the Wii has the VC the choice was simple. Since my Wii has a Wiikey the games are cheap . Also it's great fun to play 4 people at the same time even though some games requires pretty much space in your living room.
A big plus is also that the online play is totally free.
360: Nice graphics but other than that nothing new. But I have to say that I was pretty impressed by the graphics at first, it really is smooth. I'd buy a 360 if I were in to FPS games, Realistic sports games.....since I'm not, I won't.
Haven't tried a PS3, none I know wants buy one, though they are getting a Wii after having played on mine .
I don't think buying a chipped Wii is illegal, atleast not in Sweden since it has alot of legal use as being able to play backed up games and imported games(NTSC vs PAL). I'm not entirely sure though. Pirating is still very much illegal though .
Buy a Wii; if you don't people will say, "You should have bought a Wii you idiot.".
(Take that and multiply it according to how many Wii games you could have had with the extra money you spent on the other system[s].)
thinking is like pong, it's easy, but you miss sometimes.
Wii has innovation, and possibly will have some good multiplayer games soon.
Ps3 is expensive. If you're going to get one I'd wait, instead of paying £230-£260 each (if you're doing 50-50). It may be the 'uber' console, but a lot of companies are moving away from sony exclusive, meaning you can probably get them for 360, and possibly some for the Wii.
If you have the money, I'd get both a 360 and a Wii.
If you don't, it all depends on the style of gameplay you want. If you want the standard style, with a large game list already established, I'd get 360. If you want a more fun-filled experience, get a Wii.
Alternatively, you could upgrade your PC and buy games for that.
Playstation 3: I don't have one, so I can't judge or compare it. What I would say though is to watch out for the price... £400 now seems to be the norm in the UK without a game. It's very expensive and at this current time doesn't really appear to do anything the Xbox360 doesn't. Also, it's a dust magnet. If Sony knocked off about £100 then only then would I start to consider buying one.
Wii: Great fun - to begin with. My Wii broke down a week after I first used it, and I returned it to Nintendo. It took a month for them to return it, and there was no contact from them whatsoever, and I could never get through to them to find out the progress of it. There seems to be an emphasis on mini-games with the Wii, and many of the main games appear to be under-developed tech-demo experiments (WarioWare, Excitetruck). There's also three "ball-rolling" games (Mercury Meltdown, Monkeyball and Korinopa - or however it's spelt). The virtual console is great, however, and you don't need to pay to be online or to play online games (Mario Striker). However, I also had initial reservations with the Nintendo DS, and, aside from the Xbox360, it's now my most favourite console that I've ever owned (thirdly followed by the N64). Maybe my opinion of the Wii will change over time, but at this current time I kinda wish I'd never purchased it... I haven't been on it for at least three months.
Xbox360: It's been out for ages and has lots of quality games at pretty cheap prices. To get you started, you could immediately start a small library of early 360 games without paying too much - if you're on a budget, and know where to look, you can get about 8-10 360 games for around £100. The controller is the most perfect controller I have ever used (although I prefer the wired controller as it's just that little bit lighter to hold) but the 360 itself is very noisy - far noisier than the average PC. I haven't bothered to try out the online services so I can't judge the console on that. Every single game that I own (30) I love, and the same cannot be said for any other console. Best games for it, IMO, are: Dead Rising, Test Drive Unlimited, Gears of War, Crackdown, Call of Duty 2 (and again, many of these can be found at a lower price). People have reported problems with their 360's - no problems with mine though, and I got mine on launch day.
My console of choice, and the one that I will always recommend - the 360. Hope that helps you.
Ps3 is expensive. If you're going to get one I'd wait, instead of paying £230-£260 each (if you're doing 50-50). It may be the 'uber' console, but a lot of companies are moving away from sony exclusive, meaning you can probably get them for 360, and possibly some for the Wii.
If enough people think like that then bye bye PS3
- Ok, you must admit that was the most creative cussing this site have ever seen -
Sounds like it'll be the Wii then, since I prefer intuitive games. My bro's played one at a friend's house and adores the Sports game. And I really wanna play Twilight Princess.
But I also wanna play Halo 3. However, it'll all be cheaper next year, so Wii now, Halo 3 and XBOX 360 in a year or two.
Pretty much the best thing you can do. Grab a Wii now and wait for 360 prices to drop (and Halo 3). A few weeks ago (back when Excite Truck was £19.99) my local Gamestation was bundling Twilight Princess free with a Wii. Might have been a one off, but it's definitely worth hunting for a good deal.
I agree, get a Wii now and have some stupid fun while you're waiting for the X360 to drop in price (Originally thought to be happening with the Elite model; but that's not the case. Expect it only to go down when Sony drops the price of the PS3; and try to get the elite model, it's not really wroth it now, but after a price drop it may very well be.)
I agree with Chris though, there are WAY too many friggin mini "Games" (Some of them even barely qualify as that) for the Wii. Wii Sports is fun, but some of these others out there take the 5-second gameplay of a micro-game and stretch it out to minutes which is absolutely mind numbing. Avoid the FPS's unless you're just following your curiosity, at which point I'd say that, sadly, Red Steel is still the best. Twilight is fun. Excite Truck is a surprising amount of fun (Epecially Multi). Trauma Center can get boring and is best suited for an hour of play each sitdown. Virtual Console can get quite expensive if you don't watch yourself, though the American and EU territories are getting screwed for good releases compared to the Japanese. Tread with your mind, not with your nostolgia. Super Paper Mario is fun, though short and pretty easy (Anyone remember when Mario was Hardcore?). No matter what anyone says, Elbits is very short on gameplay.
The Wii's success with the casual market is really starting to hurt it's appeal with the hardcore market. Devs are throwing any crap they can on it. At the same time, you've got a few hardcore devs who aren't going the trendy way and producing games such as Manhunt 2 and Umbrella Chronicles. But if those two plus Prime 3 fail, you can pretty much guarentee the Wii will go fully casual.
As a bonus though, you can use your Wii-motes on the computer and it's quite fun. Hell, I like playing FPS's on my computer with the Wii-mote more than I ever did with my Wii. People have written scripts that use new control styles with old games (Was playing Link to the Past last night with swinging the wii-mote to attack and such). Fully scriptable control emulation rules, and I love GlovePIE. http://carl.kenner.googlepages.com/glovepie_download
X360 is just a tad too expensive still, but it's clearly got the advantage in the sheer terms of games avaliable. Avoid most of the launch stuff like the plague though. Don't get the core system; you can bet that most games are going to require a harddrive here soon. Honestly it was friggin stupid of them not to put one in there to begin with, even if it was just for Swap space. Oh yeah, and BIOSHOCK. I WANT ME SOME BIOSHOCK!
Virtual Console can get quite expensive if you don't watch yourself, though the American and EU territories are getting screwed for good releases compared to the Japanese. Tread with your mind, not with your nostolgia.
*cough*XBOX*cough*
- Ok, you must admit that was the most creative cussing this site have ever seen -
Oh yea, and don't get a 360 until they fix the Red ring of death nonsense. And don't spend too much on the VC. I've forked over a good £60 on retro goodness. It's too easy to buy a points card and accidentally spend it all.
Shab, are-
Metroid Prime 3
Manhunt 2
Mario Galaxy (if it's as difficult as Sunshine, sheesh)
Alone in the Dark
Resident Evil 4 Wii
Batallion Wars 2
Blazing Angels
Call of Duty 3
Disaster: Day of Crisis
FF: Crystal Chronicles
Guilty Gear XX
Godfather
Medal of Honor
Metal Slug Anthology
Midnight
Mortal Kombat
Need for Speed(s)
Red Steel
Smash Bros Brawl
Super Paper Mario
Tomb Raider
casual "mini" games? And don't underestimate casual games either, Wii Sports and Guitar Hero fall under that category.
Folk like to throw around all this "Wii is for minigames" propaganda, and whilst there might be many minigames showcasing the system (anyone own a DS at the start too?) there are also longer and more serious games too. These minigames just get high ratings because they're actually very fun and longlasting in their own little minish ways.
Nah, not really. People on my uni course were amazing at that both GH 1 and 2 and only played it for a couple of songs, after a short while it really is a "game to play when bored" game, nothing really epic.
Gah- as for graphics, it's more the games themselves that have crap graphics so far on the Wii. Seriously, even Super Smash Bros. Meelee had graphics that could rival some new gen games. Think that times 3, and you've got some nice graphics. Look at the gameplay footage of SSBB; you can't look at it and say "These graphics suck". Also, define 'bad'. If bad == simple, then sure, Wii Sports == bad graphics. But you have to hand framerate to it. How many 'amazing graphics' games don't have a 3-5 frame frameskip? Not too many games actually run at 60fps. I'd pick simple, but still nice graphics, over amazing detail with choppy framerate.
Yup. The only "realistic" looking game I've seen that hasn't dropped a frame is Forza 2. Though it does seem to lack AA. I don't care though - it's an outstanding game.
because i already have a PC i'd get a Wii. PC covers RTS, FPS, online, and little 2d arcade games. If you also have a PC, i recomend a Wii, because games for the 360 are mostly FPS, and you already have that on the PC. Wii has a unique genre of games that the other systems don't have.
-
Deleted User
15th June, 2007 at 19:50:36 -
'If' you have a PC? You can only use this site properly through a PC or internet-capable console... Unless you meant up-to-date gaming-quality PC?
I have a Wii and have got plenty of fun from it, it is truly unique. It's funny though, if you're going for graphics, the best looking Wii games are from the Gamecube. Nobody seems to have taken advantage of the Wii's specs fully yet, but I wait for Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles, which graphically looks like the Resident Evil remake but in full 3D. Plus the Wii seems natural for lightgun games, if the WiiPlay shooting range thing is anything to go by.
whats the fuzz about the VC
the best game on Wii is Bomberman because I play that with friends all the time. well i also play red steel and far cry with friends but i think bomberman is still the best wii game- oh wait wario ware can be fun, too. same goes for wii sports
damn
but still i dont see a point in PAYING for ROMS which get EMULATED on the wii if i can get a decant emulator and free roms for pc
so why is everybody jerking off now to the VC like it was something great and new while emulators for pc are out there for years and are doing a great job.
whats the VC for 360 like again? You get a lot of shitty Atari games nobody wants or what?
Deleted User
21st June, 2007 at 08:55:32 -
Same with PS3 - they just put up Rampart and Joust last week... I hate those games. Mortal Kombat II online's alright, though.
but still i dont see a point in PAYING for ROMS which get EMULATED on the wii if i can get a decant emulator and free roms for pc
so why is everybody jerking off now to the VC like it was something great and new while emulators for pc are out there for years and are doing a great job.
Yeah, and except for N64 all systems on VC are perfectly emulated on the Xbox.
BTW, unlike VC, Xbox emulators will have no problems with component cables and can be played in full speed (unlike certain PAL VC titles)
Ironically the few games I would actually buy on VC won't ever be released on it, (Banjo-Tooie and some other Rare N64 games) because Microsoft bought the company that made them
Edited by the Author.
- Ok, you must admit that was the most creative cussing this site have ever seen -
Thing is, with the VC you can just sit down, turn the console on via the controller and jump into a game without any hassle using one of the best 2D controllers I've ever used. I also found emulating systems illegally made me care less for games in the same way pirating new ones does. Maybe that's just me.
Oh, and the N64 emulators on Xbox were cack. I had this one that contained 3 core emulators and you selected which one was best for certain games. None rendered F-Zero or Doom 64 properly. Least on the VC you pay your money and it works.
I didn't read that bit, and Doom 64 isn't out yet. Which works in giving me something to look forward to rather than be spoilt and emulate it on a computer
The blu-ray rots apparently only happened with specific batches of The Prestige and some other movie. Doesn't happen to the games, or there hasn't been any account of it happening anyway.
To balance my posting, I'm gonna post something actually good about Blu Ray.
From Digital Bits:
Also today, MGM Home Entertainment revealed that they'll have at least 10 to 12 Blu-ray Disc titles out in the next 12 months, including the complete Sergio Leone Anthology box set (A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Duck, You Sucker).
I can't honestly say I care much about Duck You sucker, but the dollars films are three of the most awesome movies ever.
- Ok, you must admit that was the most creative cussing this site have ever seen -
Sure, $60 may sound much for an arcade port to an 8 year old console. But considering there's only 2 or 3 games released a year, it's not that much money to spend anyway
- Ok, you must admit that was the most creative cussing this site have ever seen -
The ps3 is most likely powerful enough to emulate the dreamcast.
I don't think it's powerful enough to emulate it in "Other OS" mode. The graphics hardware is mostly shut out in that mode, so all graphics rendering has to be in software. In PS3 mode it's probably possible, but then you'd have to be a Sony licensed developer, so fat chance on that one...
Also, the DC uses its own GD-ROM format for games, so you wouldn't be able to run original discs on it.
- Ok, you must admit that was the most creative cussing this site have ever seen -
Advertisement
Post Reply
. Although the 360 is pretty cool too, and will have GTA4 and Halo 3.
Almost every great Nintendo game there ever was is available by Virtual Console, and Gamecube compatability is cool, too. Nowadays all I play is smash bros melee 
I'd like to play through Twilight Princess again - Damn Good Game.
. Also it's great fun to play 4 people at the same time even though some games requires pretty much space in your living room.
.
Edited by the Author.
