Re: CollegeWork: Personal Opinion? Which is better Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, Playstatio
Xbox 360. But you knew that already right?
Its just an all round, much better package than any of the other two consoles.
It has 3 different SKUs to choose from, to reflect the type of gamer you are, and your budget. And each one is better value for money than the last. Eg. Buying the Premium over the core is better than getting the core, then a hdd and headset etc. And getting an Elite is better than getting either the other two because you get HDMI as well.
The other consoles only have 1 SKU to choose from. Kinda limited. Especially when the PS3s only package is more than twice as expensive as either the Wii or the 360 Core. (UK price)
Then their is form factor. The 360 is a nice size. Its big and heavy enough so you know its powerful, but its small enough to fit in most set ups. And its slight double concavity makes it seem slim and lean as well.
On the other hand, the PS3 is notisably CONVEX. Mabye thats the wrong word, its MORBIDLY convex. There is no way you can stack anything on top of that. And I wouldn't want to put anything under it (besides a table) for fear of crushing it. You could put it vertical, but the bulk makes it difficult to visually sync with the rest of a home set up. And the ultra glossy surface is a ***** for fingerprints i've heard.
Wii, well, its a small, unassuming white box. It'll fit just about anywhere. But its not particularly iconic to look at. The name i suppose is: WII.
Speaking of size, comes the discussion of power. The Wii, is really just a marginally upgraded Gamecube and an entirely new controll scheme. Its never going to offer the sort of "WOW" visuals that 360 and PS3 can. Games on Wii look O.K. But if it weren't that you were waving a wand around to do stuff, you'd swear you were still stuck in the last gen.
360 has proven is visual might, more than once. And there have been numerous occasions where 360 games have been mistaken for, or actually used to promote, the theoretically more powerful PS3. Sony actually once put an image of PGR3 (a 360 launch title) on one of their websites and said it was Grand Tourismo 5. The 360 has the muscle to pull off amazing visuals, and a lot of cross-platform games look better on 360 at the minute. The Xenos GPU of 360 is also much more advanced than either the other two.
The PS3, while theoretically has loads of untapped power, tapping that power is much harder than either of the other two consoles. Wii is essentially the same hardware that devs have been working on for the last 6 years, and 360 has simetrical cores, and much better developer support from MS. PS3 has 1 main core and 6 SPEs. which have to be programmed differently for. And while its GPU is no slouch (its based on a PC Geforce 7900 card) its not as advanced as 360s. And there have been cases already of devs using the Cells SPEs to help out with graphics processing. Maybe thats a sign of the strength of cell, maybe a weakness in the GPU. you decide.
Now, no one is going to mention graphics, and PS3 without mentioning the Blu ray disc right? But its not really nessesary for next gen games. 25GB (or even 50GB!) of space is all well and good for more content, but that content costs money. Lots of money this gen. And a longer game doesn't nessesarily mean a better one. It just means, uh, a longer game.
You could make a 5 hour film, it could be great! but no one is going to sit down and watch a 5 four film. They'll loose interest.
And really, Sony is the only one that seems to think Blu ray is needed this gen. Both Microsoft and Nintendo think a standard DVD is fine. Ah, but you can fit loads of high-res textures on a blu ray right? Sure, but that doesn't mean the PS3 can display them all. its still limited by its RAM and GPU power. (of which, 360 has more of both). So compressing those textures (models, scripts etc) is a much better idea.
And if you REALLY need extra space, go multi-DVD. Films have for a while, no one seems to mind that much. Games went multi-CD years ago. Why not multi-dvd? Blue Dragon (360 game) did. But that was only for High-def cinematics. The entire gameworld was on each disc. so there was no need to install anything at all.
But then, yeah, HD Blu Ray movies. Thats really what the PS3 is for anyway isn't it? Most people don't have a HDTV yet anyway, myself included, so whats the point? PS3 doesn't even come with an HDMI cable.
You can just get an add-on for the 360 if you want HD DVD movies. And you can get HD trailers and soon you'll be able to get IPTV (possibly HD) over your 360 and broadband as well. Don't even need physical discs.
Wii, well thats not HD, so you can't even discuss that with it.
Speaking of IPTV, now what about online? Well, as you all know, Xbox revolutionised online console gaming last gen, and 360 did it again this gen. Its service is second to none. with online features being a requirement of being a 360 game, it has loads of support as well. Xbox Live has over 6Million members. Thats almost as many as there are Wiis.
PS3 doesn't come close, Wii has chosen a more cutsy style in keeping with is "channels" and competitive online gaming isn't really on the agenda at all it seems.
Lastly: games. Because they are what ultimately make or break a console. 360, being out first, has far more than either the other two. And has far more coming as well. and because of the requirements of Gamerscore, live awareness etc, they're all of a decent quality. Even Earth Defence Force 2017 sold quite well on 360, dispite not being stellar. So why wouldn't any Dev support 360?
Wii is quickly catching the 360 in terms of install base, but the hardware doesn't exactly let developers unleash their wildest dreams. PS3, on the other hand, is far out of reach for most people, and as a result, has a much lower installed base. So 360 is the best option for developers. As well as all the after-market potential that XBL has.
But wait, theres more. Want to develop your own game for consoles? 360 lets you do that. using XNA you can develop your games on PC and play them on 360 (for a yearly subscription). You can install Linux on PS3 sure, but they lock you out of the graphics capabilites.
So in short: I think 360 is the best. By a long shot.
Note: Do i get monster post of the year award now?
