Well as most of you know E3 has come and gone, and while it didn’t hold the same spectacle as previous years, it didn’t fall short in the “Look what’s coming out” factor that it’s well known for.
Many of you may have seen the Press Conferences from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo and have a fair idea about what each had to say. I myself caught the whole Nintendo conference, which while didn’t actually reveal anything I wasn’t really expecting, still did a great job in showing how the Industry is changing, and that Nintendo have some great ideas hidden up their sleeves.
It was after this conference I got into a chat with my friend, another gaming enthusiast about the current gen console war and what’s going to be around the corner when we look towards another generation of gaming consoles.
Let’s look at what we have before us now, with the Nintendo Wii, the Sony Playstation 3 and the Microsoft Xbox 360. Before you continue reading this, I want to state that I am not a “Fanboy” of any of these consoles, in fact I own all three! What I am stating here is my opinion of each console, at this point of time, and will not necessarily stay the same opinion in the future.
I remember on 360 launch night I was standing in line at EB games, counting down the seconds till Midnight struck and I could rush in, get my awesome new console, and go home and play till I couldn’t stay awake any longer. I had followed the 360′s progress for quite some time, and I was extremely excited at it’s potential. When I popped Ghost Recon into the machine I was blown away by what I was seeing! Then I thought, surely all the games can’t be this good, so I put on Condemmned and once again I was amazed at how great the games looked and played. Condemmned is my favourite Xbox 360 game to date, such a great story.
Then a few months later I found myself in a slum with no good games, and I was starting to lose faith in my Xbox. That was until Gears of War came out and showed me the real power of the 360. Gears of War is a fantastic game, but seeing visuals of that quality from a console was totally phenommenal.
Then I got my hands on a shiny new Playstation 3. I parted with $1110 for my new console along with a copy of Resistance Fall of Man and hurried home and plugged it in. First off, I was like….what the hell is this? The menu was very ugly to say the least, and the functionality wasn’t on par with the blade system of the 360′s interface. I just put it down to me not being used to it, and I quickly chucked in Resistance and loaded into a new game.
Within 15 minutes I found myself turning off the console, and almost crying at the fact I had just paid over $1000 for a peice of crap. The visuals of Resistance were horrible, and it felt to me like a PS2 game.
I decided to give it another go, and while not at all impressed with the game I did get through a fair portion of it, and the story was compelling. I downloaded some demos and hired some games, but time and time again I just put down the PS3 controller and picked up my Xbox…. or a book!
And don’t even start me on the PS3 controller! Basically I had bought myself a Blu Ray player. And I can hear the PS3 fans saying “it’s only the first gen of games, wait for some good games to come out”. The PS3 had a whole extra year in development than the 360 and the games are NOWHERE near the visual quality of the 360 launch titles. Even ports of 360 games such as Fight Night 3 come nowhere close!
Lack of games, lack of interest and lack of sales, Sony really need some consecutive wins if they want their console to survive much longer in this new generation of gaming consoles
But all in all what do these consoles really achieve? They are basically the same as their previous models, just better graphics, better games, and some nice features. Just beefed up, better versions of the last gen consoles.
What Nintendo have done is create something new. In a field where technology is always changing and evolving, we as consumers should expect these companies to push to new limits with a new console. The PS3 and Xbox 360 have done this in a degree, their visuals are fantastic, frame rates good and games are enjoyable, but it’s just the same old stuff, nothing revolutionary.
What the Wii does is create a new experience. To me it makes gaming exciting, and a new adventure, instead of me thinking wow another FPS let’s see what features it’s stolen from other games and check out the latest graphics engine. Wii has made gaming accessible for pretty much everyone, and the real minimalist approach to their controls really does pay off.
What doesn’t though is the lack of serious titles at the moment for the Wii. I love what Nintendo are trying to achieve, make everyone a gamer with fun, accessible games like Wii Sports, Cooking Mama and all these party games we are seeing as of late. I love all of these games, they are fun, but I’m a hardcore gamer. I want some great, serious, adult games to play also. Manhunt 2 was the first game I was seriously psyched about, and by the looks of it I won’t get to experience it on the Wii.
Thankfully games such as Resident Evil, Scarface and the Godfather are out, but I really do think Nintendo need to release some more of these style games to keep their hardcore fan basis there. Wii is great, but I am glad I do have the 360 as back up, and hopefully I will make use of my PS3 when some good games come out.
And the implementation of Wii Fit (a move I saw coming from the day I bought my Wii) is genious. Nintendo will expand their current audience, but will also create a lot of popularity while effectively trying to help fight the growing Childhood Obesity Epedemic
So basically I have no idea what to expect from the consoles that will come out in the future, but let’s hope Microsoft and Playstation take a note of Nintendo’s achievements, and take a step towards the future, in more than just Graphics
Posted by Hellerphant 
Let’s face it, Apple have been around a long time, and in the last 30 years have created some truly amazing products. I suppose most of you are reading this using a mouse, well Apple was the creator of the mouse Oh and let’s not forget the mammoth popularity of the i-Pod.
