I was just in a video game store today. I was talking with the sales dude he said he thinks the PS3 will drop around Christmas time for around 500 with tax, The nintendo "Wii"(i guess the japanese people can't say revolution)(i know it sounds gay) he thinks it will drop around christmas doesn't know prices. the X-box 360 I think he said he had 3 or 4 in they were 400 a crack. didn't say much about them.

 

The Wii will be released "before thanksgiving", so figure thanksgiving week. It will probably be priced around $200. I will be buying this for sure. Since it wil have all the backwards compatibility with gamecube, and have the "virtual console" which will allow downloads of all the old school games that I love.

The xbox360 is ok. hella expensive, and if you don't already have an HDTV you won't be getting much more out of it than a regular xbox. Honestly I'll probabbly pick one up, but once they lower the price, stop overheating, and actually get some good games out that have some decent replay value. Sure the games look great now and they will probably look better, but $60 for a fucking game that is almost exactly the same as other games I have but looks better? fuck that. If you can afford it go for it.

The PS3? Honestly I think it's a joke. Unless you are a major sony fanboy, don't even bother.

 

As of right now, I'd put my $$$ on the Wii...

Being the gearhead that I am, I'll likely get the PS3...but, I would not recommend it unless you are ready to drop some serious dough.

 

Each console, has really different goals. The Wii is more for casual gaming even Nintendo's CEO stated graphical power isn't their emphasis they want to gain more market share by making more casual/consumer friendly games that are much less intense than those like Halo, SOCOM, etc. (Although they will have a few of these) Something with easy learning curves. The system is also much cheaper that xbox360 and Ps3. PS3... is a beast I won't deny that but the differences for now are very marginal from xbox360. Both are very graphically potent and they have limitless possibilities with regards to programming and as programmers become more accustomed the games will just get better. It's tough to say which is better, it's personal preference.

 

The overheating issues have been fixed, the little foil was removed and even with the heat foil those systems overheated because people for some apparent reason had no common sense and covered ventilation on the power unit. XBL has some really great games (PGR3, Halo2 in HD, G.R.A.W., etc.) that just keep people coming for more so I don't know if replay value will be a problem. In addition on half.com you can get games at a substantially lower price. So it's all up to you

 

it's teh fact that the power unit itself requires ventilation that sways me from getting it. If for that price it cannot be consistently reliable, then I don't think it's ready for consumers.

I mean honestly, microsoft was talking about how much smaller this system is compared to the original xbox, but if you add in teh power supply its even bigger.

Microsoft just threw this out as fast as they could while trying to keep failure rates as low as possible just to makea few extra bucks. The fact that they didn't do some proper testing before getting it out is what bugs me.

My girlfriends xbox is currently failing on me, and it was one from the first year the xbox came out. My gamecube on the other hand still works FLAWLESSLY, and I got it the DAY it was released. There is probably 3 or 4 times as much playtime on the gamecube than the xbox.

The xbox and xbox360 are just microsoft's way of trying to get more money from a different market, whereas nintendo is strictly games and they deliver quality, not just what will get them profit.


As for the games you mentioned. I cannot comment on GRAW as I haven't experienced that first hand yet, but I can comment on the other two. I've played Halo2 in HD and honetly it didn't really look that great. My friend and I took some time to test the xbox and the 360 "side by side" so to speak, and the results were pretty disappointing.

We got an xbox and a 360 both hooked up to the same tv on different inputs. put halo 2 in both and booted up. the 360 was in HD and the xbox was in SDTV (s-video). when switching between the two they looked identical with slightly (VERY slightly) crisper graphics on the 360 in HDTV. This was on a 52" LCD @ 1080i.

ok great, so that game wasn't meant fot the system. so we got PGR2 in teh xbox and PGR3 in the 360. We first tried it out with both of them in SDTV on a regular 32" SDTV. Honestly, both looked almost identical. Again, a slight advnatage to PGR3, but honestly I'm pretty sure you could have pulled off damn near the same thing on teh regular xbox.

Switch PGR3 to HDTV, and HOLY SHIT. Damn it does look pretty!!!

My point is that as of yet, the games aren't relaly taking full advantage of the 360 hardware, and any benefits you get will really only be clearly noticeable on an HDTV. So expect to spend $400 on the xbox360 system (the lesser unit is a wast of money, might as well go all out), $50-60 x number of games you want, and if you don't already have an HDTV add on $1100+ if you want a REAL HDTV, and not some cheapo $800 walmart special.

like I sad before, if you have the money, GO FOR IT!

 

The 360 overheating is blown way out of proportion. Latest analyst statistics put it at less than a 2% failure rate which is about even for any newly released consumer electronics product. The PS2 and PSP for example have had even higher failure rates when they were initially released.

It seems like a big issue because we are in the age of message boards. One person's fails, and you see it spread like wildfire across all gaming forums, and it seems like it is happening to everyone. Reading this message board, you would think that every Acura's transmission has failed.

Yes, you need to use common sense when you set it up - put it in a well ventilated area and you will be fine.

There are plenty of games that are excellent and take great advantage of the system. Try Oblivion, GRAW, FN:R3, PGR3 and you can see a HUGE leap over the prior gen. In addition, there will be some great games shown this Tuesday at E3 which should be a nice improvement as they are 2nd gen 360 games: Halo 3, Forza 2, Fable 2, Too Human, Mass Effect, Gears of War, etc...

I do agree that you should use a HDTV to take full advantage of the 360 (as well as the PS3 when it comes out next year).

In regards to the PS3, I wouldn't bank on getting one this year - rumors are that the yields on the components are low (much like the 360 had the issue last year) and since Sony is also doing a multi-region simultaneous launch, they will be hard to find at first.

In regards to the Nintendo, the Wii sounds interesting, but to me it is just not a leap "next-gen" systems should have. Playing a system with graphics little better than the GC does not appeal to me, but the BC with old games and the remote do seem interesting.

 

oh come on, it's not blown way out of proportion at all. the friend that I spoke of that tested out the xbox and 360 side by side had his 360 fail TWICE. first time he just had stuff plugged in and set them down next to the TV, second time he thought "ok, maybe I will keep them well ventilated the whole time, so he hung the power suppy by a string, and had a fan blowing over both the system and the power supply whenever he played. guess what? it failed two weeks after he got it back from micrsoft.

And so far, the graphics aren't that big of a leaop over the last gen, I'ds say they are a few steps forward so far. Sure they look better, but they are jsut cleaner versions of what we've already seen. I think people might be expecting a little bit too much out of the 360 and might be disappointed, or they will just dillude themselves into thinking it looks great because they spend $400+ on the system.

 

Doesn't matter though, I guess it's really a matter of opinion so I don't even know why I'm talking about the graphics. Just doesnt' seem worth the price YET.

 

I don't know... I've had 3 xbox360's and all work fine. 3 of my cosuins each have one and theirs have worked fine. (mind you I got all of these on launch day). PGR3 on SDTV is MUCH better than PGR2. I don't know what your criteria is, but it is a lot better. The differences on HALO 2 are noted much more until your picture size increases. The power supply is big because it has fans in it also, but oh well to everybody his own. I am also curious as to what resolution were you running this on, and were both TV's properly calibrated?

and also you said "Microsoft just threw this out as fast as they could while trying to keep failure rates as low as possible just to makea few extra bucks. The fact that they didn't do some proper testing before getting it out is what bugs me."

-They lost a lot of bucks

 

AS far as I know the TV's were properly calibrated. both delivered and installed by soundtrack (my friend was an employee there).

yeah they lost money right now, but the plan was to get it out asap to get a bigger userbase and get the money back plus more down the road.

nintendo is known for delaying things all teh time. they do this because they feel that whatever it is is not ready for consumers, and they fix whatever is wrong before they release it. They don't just throw a shoddy poduct out to get a jump on the competition.

I guess the 360's are hit or miss with the failure rate. The friend I speak of, his brother got one on launch and hasn't had a problem yet, so I have no idea what the deal is, but I'd say the figures that say 2% failure rate is utter and complete bullshit... unless they are counting all the 360's in asia that didn't sell.

 

With the current status of E3... Price seem imminent for one company: Microsoft. They have pumped out a lot of 360's... and constantly minimize costs. PS3... as we all know will be 599 for the top tier model. Wii is a good option because it's cheap and innovative. Saw some videos of it in action for a first person game, it really creates a arcade like experience. That sales person is a nut if he predicts sony will drop the prices within 2 months of release. PS3 right now as I have repeated looks only marginally better than 360 at this point. Especially after trailers at E3 where you can see how Programmers are really getting much better with XNA programming. It's all up to you man