I’m married to my high school sweetheart going on nearly 18 years now, and am almost forty with no kids (sadly). Personally I am of a mind that gaming is good for you. It keeps the reflexes and hand-eye coordination excellent, and the puzzle solving helps with keeping the mind sharp, all very important factors the older one gets. More people should be doing it, though you’re probably right in that one has far less time to dedicate to it as they leave their college years, and it does indeed become harder to keep up as the years pass. Despite owning an Xbox 360 and wanting both the Wii and a PS3, there are still a number of titles I have yet to play from the Gamecube and Playstation 2 for instance. The later sequels for Zelda, Mario, Ratchet & Clank, Sly Cooper, Spyro, and just about any good racing game you could name, the list goes on. Right now I’m playing Assassins Creed (mentioned by someone in an earlier post), which the wife rented for me while she is away visiting her sister. For the life of me I cannot figure out why it got such good reviews. Sure, the engine is beautiful, but the gameplay is insanely repetitive and far too easy. It doesn’t help that it’s a third person view and I’m constantly having to fight the camera. So much promise wasted, and it’s not like Ubi doesn’t know how to make a good stealth based title, just look at some of the Tom Clancy based titles for instance. Hmm, I’m getting a bit side tracked. Sorry.

Looking back, as much as I like it I wish I would have bought a PS3 instead of the Xbox 360, especially in lieu of Blu-Ray winning the format wars. Overall the PS3 has the better overall value (user replaceable hard drive, more DRM-less media options, built in wi-fi, etc). Too bad it was so expensive and had such a weak launch, though clearly it is doing better nowadays. There is really only one thing I wouldn’t want to lose from the Xbox 360 and that is the games store. I’ve purchased quite a few good titles from there, including quite a few for both the wife and I to play together (yep, I’m a lucky guy as she’s a gamer too). The thing that really irks me is the DRM though. My first Xbox 360 broke down a little after one year of use (it was the optical drive if anyone wants to know). Being out of warranty, the choices were to either send it in and pay for repairs, likely getting a completely different refurbished model, fix it myself (no guarantee with my bad luck), or go and buy a new one. I had money saved up for a PS3 at the time, and used that to buy a new Elite. Needed a bigger hard drive and HDMI anyways. Unfortunately anything bought via Xbox Live is tied via DRM to the machine it is purchased on. The end result of this is that my wife can no longer play any of the games we paid for and downloaded unless I am logged in to Xbox Live.

As for the Wii, I think it is an ok machine as well. My primary reason for wanting one is to play Zelda and Mario (especially Kart) and like past Nintendo machines it makes a good platform for the party type games when friends come over, something the PS3 and Xbox 360 tends to lack. I do wonder if it will end up being just a short fad though, which commenter #79 (Basketcase57) hypothesized. If it is being purchased primarily by the casual gamers out there, indeed more than likely for fitness purposes, then it could end up sharing the fate of so many an exercise bike, collecting dust in the back corner of some basement.

You hit the nail right on the head. The 360 has really maximized its potential. Hence the need for MS to develop the next generation of xbox already.

Im a fan of both consoles, don’t get me wrong. After the release of the PS3, I hated what I saw, but its come a long way since. To the point where I made the choice to abandon my promises to buddies of mine that one day I would own a 360, and I bought a PS3. It was a no brainer.

Ive tossed in a 200gb hdd, for around $70, that has a 5 year warranty. Free online, blu ray, no lag bluetooth, built in wifi, HDMI 1.3, true hi def gaming, MGS4 in 1080p…the sky is the limit. If it isn’t a no brainer to everyone already, then what Sony is planning in the very near future should make it a no brainer, even to the most stubborn of fanboys.

The 360 has support for MPEG-4 playback from the hard drive/flash media. If you’re watching files across a network (files streaming to the 360 from the PC) then the PC is doing the converting of the file and not the 360. As long as the PC can decode it, it is playable on both consoles. People were able to do this using applications like TVersity since the PS3 was released although it didn’t officially support DivX until late last year.

I’m also loving HD playback from the PS3’s HDD. I currently have 24 HD films on it taking up 124GB of space (ranging from 4GB to 11GB). This could never be done to such an extent on a 360 and in a few moths time, the PS3 will have PlayTV which will allow you to record and watch Live TV from anywhere in the world with the aid of a PSP. Soon after you will be able to record and play games at the same time (thanks to a firmware update).

The 360 has done a good job (apart from M$’s failure to fix their hardware issues) for the gaming community but I really don’t see it going much further now, especially when people want more than just a games console. The 360 will NEVER get Blu-ray (you can quote me on that) and legal digital media (HD films not music) is many years away from replacing optical media, especially with many ISP’s imposing monthly bandwidth restrictions on their customers.

Also the problem with the XBL online movie service is that you can only rent – not buy, but then again the 360 is limited to it’s storage capacity and I doubt you can transfer these rented films to an external HDD/flash drive.

Kinda tired of topics like this.
Buy whatever system you like and live happy

“hardcore gamer” is the key to my point – people with Wii’s ain’t hardcore ga(y)mers – they have lives, and enjoy the fun that the system has to offer. Wii Fit for example, is one of the biggest selling titles, and it ain’t aimed at children.

i don’t know anyone with a PS3 or XBox, but then i’m not a kid and don’t hang around with kids.”

no, seriously, thats funny cuz Nintendo is a child’s system and any real hardcore gamer that wants quality will go with the PS3 or 360 if they don’t already keep up with the high end PC’s.

I still think the Wii is a fad/novelty and there are alot of ppl that are casual gamers that want to “exercise” so thats why they have one. Most ppl i know that have a wii and another system, mostly play the other system.

PS3 = is for children aged 16-18
XBox = is for children aged 16-18
Wii = is for all ages 3-100

i don’t know anyone with a PS3 or XBox, but then i’m not a kid and don’t hang around with kids.

@75 Yeah, if you have a gaming PC getting a 360 might not be worthwhile. But I was mainly talking about console gamers and people who choose between the big 3. If Metal Gear is preferable to a smorgasbord of other 360 or Wii exclusives for you, particularly when some of those you can play on your PC, that’s fine. It’s all down to opinion.

Like @70 I’ve been a PC gamer since Apple ][e days and a console gamer since the Atari 2600 days. Of the three systems, I only own a Wii along with a mid-end gaming PC.

I think it’s funny how all the fanboi’s are all trying to trump one another into which system is better. No one fraking cares…and my guess is most of you are still probably living with your parents. Wake up smell the coffee, as hardcore gaming becomes harder and harder to do once you pass the college years.

While the Wii is underpowered and doesn’t have the biggest catalog of blockbuster games, it fills the role of quick pick up and play. I’ll admit it is sort of gimmicky, but perhaps it will pave the way for more interactive gaming. Think VR gaming from the 90’s on steroids.

The other thing the Wii is doing is trying to bring gaming out of the nerdy stereotype it once was in. Hopefully it will also help paint gaming in a better light. I’m tired of the Jack Thompson’s of the world and other babyboomers who think games are inherently EVIL.

While I’d love to have a 360 and PS3 to play the AAA games on my HDTV, I simply don’t have the time. So to all the whiners…stop bickering and enjoy your gaming goodness as it will only last for so long.

@55 Chickenmilk

I think the PS3 is supposed to have better media capabilities then the 360. It’s also a DiVX Certified product unlike the 360 which only has MPEG-4 support. It will not playback all DivX Certified media.

Here is a re-review of the PS3 to see how it has changed since its launch in Nov 2006:

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/playstation-3-blu-ray.ars