One of my coworkers found a promo Wii DVD today and we watched it. I totally want one. It looks so fun! I might get one next year, wait for some more stuff to come out for it and decide, but I think it will be cool.
I’m still waiting for the price on the 360 to drop, which it probably won’t for quite a while. That doean’t really bother me that much, since I didn’t have an Xbox and the only game I’m really regretting not having is Dead Rising.
The PS3…? Yeah. I have 600 reasons not to get that at launch. I’ll wait until Metal Gear Solid 4 comes out before cracking. Hopefully they’ll have worked all the kinks out of the hardware manufacturing process by then.
Now, the Wii: I’ll be at the worldwide launch in Universal City as a representative of my company, and I’ve got money down on one. So it’s pretty clear which side I’m in this argument. 
The last game console I owned was–I’m serious–the Sega Master System. I’ve done my share of PC gaming since then, but I haven’t had the time and/or money to get into a console since then. Every time I pick up a controller for the PS2 or the XBox, I think that it would be cool if I had the time or inclination to learn what each of the 97 buttons on the controller does.
My understanding is that the Wii was built with people like me in mind. And I’m hoping to get somewhere on Sunday to get one, though I wouldn’t mind all that much if I had to wait a few weeks.
I bought the Xbox360 after deciding I couldn’t wait for the PS3 and have been converted to the dark side.
I just lurve my Xbox360 and some of the games for it.
The Wii doesn’t interest me at all, as I really, really hated the Eyetoy games on the PS2.
I don’t think Nintendo has an interesting line-up of games as well.
As for the PS3 : I don’t mind the price that much as I am very interested in the Blue-Ray capabilities.
I don’t really understand why everybody has so much hate for Blue-Ray, as this is the best platform for HD content.
However the news that a lot of games will be sold with just the barebone structure and you have to buy the content online really pisses me off.
Both Gran Turismo and Grand Theft Auto will be going that way.
In conclusion I will just stick with my Xbox360 and wait for the format-war to be over.
I hope Blue-Ray wins and I will probably buy a PS3 at that time.
Fortunately for us Europeans, the PS3 launch has been delayed to spring next year, so that might give me some time to see if I really want it at all.
I got an Xbox 360 a couple of months ago and Oblivion.
XBox 360 + Oblivion = hours/days/months forever gone from my life.
I don’t have any great interest in the others.
You wouldn’t happen to have a Microcenter near you, wouldja?
I’ll be getting a Wii as soon as possible; the new Zelda is enough by itself for me to buy it. Also, they have really impressed me with the DS, and that’s increased my expectations for the Wii. I was fairly skeptical about this idea they have of getting non-gamers to play, but it really seems to be working. Yesterday my girlfriend and my mom were playing Elite Beat Agents and discussing Sk8er Boi. Never thought I’d see that 
The Wii looked intriguing to me but the more I see of it the more underwhelmed I am.
I mean these are supposed to be “next generation” machines and all Nintendo came up with was a different user interface. And pretty much a novelty interface.
Sure, it looks fun to be able to control the action by waving the remote around in the air but I think I would be bored within 20 minutes and want a standard controller back.
And I think they really missed the mark by not going “hi-def-widescreen”. See BestBuy, Circuit City, Target, etc. They are filled with hi-def widescreen TVs flying out the doors with prices falling. So Nintendo sticks with standard-def graphics that will be played on a 4:3 screen. How very disappointing to bigscreen owners everywhere.
Personally, I’ll end up waiting the couple extra weeks and get the new Zelda for the Gamecube. By the time I finish that I’ll check out the post-season pricing and breakdown and get an XBox360.
My feelings: The PS3 is the next-gen system with the games I want, but the price is a bit too steep right now. I won’t get the new Xbox or Wii for so few games I want to play, so I’ll be sticking with my PS2 and mayve getting a cheap old Xbox to play some of the games I missed. That should tide me over until the PS3 price drops.
I’m a new Hi Def TV owner and I don’t agree with Hampshire’s sentiments.
My Xbox now drives at 480p and it looks grand. HDTV right now consists of:
better hair
greasy complexion
seeing the grass on the football field.
We get about 20 channels that are HDTV, we have a progressive scan DVD player, and the rest is SD. HTDV is nice but it’s not like my life will end if I don’t get all hidef all the time.
The difference between an Atari 2600 and a Nintendo 64 was huge. The difference between the last gen consoles and the current gen consoles isn’t. Half Life 2, Doom 3, Halo 2, 007, Splinter Cell…they’re all the EXACT SAME GAME. Even if the dew looks moister.
I’ve played FPS games at 800x600 and 1440x900 with and without AA…and the more pixels pushed doesn’t really contribute to better gameplay.
But heck, there are folks out there that’ll drop more for a video_card than the would for a PS3, so there’s no pleasing everybody.
Except that it isn’t. Bluray might be a little better than HD-DVD (I’m not sure on this point, but I’ll take your word for it), but the thing to realize is that the two formats use entirely different technologies, and are not incompatible with each other. So in a couple of years, somebody is going to make an optical disk format which runs a blue laser on multiple layers. When that happens, it’s going to be as much better than the current HD formats as the current formats are better than DVD, and both Bluray and HD-DVD are going to go the way of the dodo. So it’s not a question of betting on which one will win the format war and which one will lose; they’ll both lose. Which means that investing a significant amount of money in either is a bad idea, at this point.
I expect to miss the HD-DVD/Bluray battle altogether. I view a LOT of content off the internet or stored on the fileserver. I predict the need for physical media to transfer movies is nearing an end.
I also figure the media storage will rapidly outstrip the needs of the media. A 75 Gb disk isn’t necessary when the higest def movie only consumes 10 Gb. Sure, you can have the whole 14 DVD Lord of the Rings Uber edition on one disk…but how many of those ARE there?
Heh, yeah, for all that I am indignant about the price of the PS3, I fully intend to spend 500-600 on video card(s) when I finally get around to building my new computer. I think it’s some sort of double standard in expectations… well that and all the other use I’ll get out of the computer
BraheSilver, don’t get a 360 just for Dead Rising. It’s a great game, but there are enough annoyances built in to not make it worth the cost.
If I get anything this year it’ll be a Wii. A year ago, I wouldn’t have been interested at all, but since then I have acquired and fell in love with my DS Lite, and now have complete confidence in Nintendo’s ability to build something fun and innovative around a new control scheme. That being said, the launch lineup isn’t terribly appealing to me aside from Zelda and Excite Truck, although the Virtual Console sounds fun. I’ll probably pick one up if I can spare the funds.
And I’ll eventually get a PS3 whether I’m happy about it or not. I don’t like the price, don’t care about Blu-Ray, etc, but I’ve recently remembered what I love about my PS2. Guitar Hero, Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, Okami, Ratchet and Clank, Amplitude, and so on and so forth. For whatever reason, the competition just can’t match Sony when it comes to games I want to play.
I have my brother’s Xbox360 in my house most of the time (he either plays World of Warcraft or weird Japanese PS2 games non stop), and haven’t seen any reason to buy one for my very own yet. In fact, the only games I’ve bought for the system have been Live Arcade games like Astropop and Geometry Wars.
Right. The size and shape of the buttons is a feature. I like being able to tell the buttons apart by touch. And having the main button be the big button makes a whole lot of sense.
Valid point about the Z button though.
I honestly believe that Sony may go out of business over the PS3, which is rapidly shaping up to be a mega-debacle for the ages. I’ve read several articles about how they’ve basically leveraged the company on the PS3’s success, but they seem to be doing everything possible to ensure that it’s a gigantic flop. I finally played a PS3 in Target this past weekend, and was shocked at the shoddy presentation; the two playable games were a boring basketball game that’s already been cancelled, and a motorcycle racer that looked decent and played like it was underwater or in slow-motion.
The price is an outrage, but more importantly, they’ve stated again and again that there will be no eventual price decrease, as people will view the PS3 as “a necessary item to own, like an appliance.” Such arrogance!
I think that PSP’s complete and utter lack of success is a preview for what’s going to happen with the PS3; can anyone even name a PSP-exclusive game that’s a killer app or a must-have? Nope. I think I’ve seen someone using a PSP in public once, while I’ve seen DS’s and GBA’s everwhere. The PSP is still about 100 bucks too expensive, and that’s with few desirable games and the UMD movies rapidly vanishing from shelves.
I’m a Sony fan, too - the PS2 was my platform of choice for this generation.
Dare I ask which company? 
My parents are just 15 minutes away from Universal City, so I could make the midnight launch if I really wanted to (and was ten years younger, and single, and…).
I’ll have to disagree here. The last home console I’ve owned was a Sega Saturn, after a line that started with the Atari 2600, and one of the reasons I didn’t get another one was because the games all started to feel like “same stuff, prettier graphics.” I mean, I’d play the demos in the stores and have fun, but couldn’t muster up the enthusiasm to actually spend money on one. It didn’t help that the games were getting more and more complicated, using every button and trigger and dual (dual?! :eek:) analog sticks.
I really like the approach that Nintendo is taking nowdays, about making games easier for non-die-hard-gamers to get into. And if motion-sensing means it’s easier for the rest of my family to join in, that’s a win-win situation. I have enough faith in Nintendo’s current leadership (Iwata and Miyamoto FTW! ;)) that the Wii’s controls isn’t just a gimmick, that they’ve spent thousands of man-hours developing the system until they know it can support a wide range of games. Even games I’d previously had no interest in playing (such as Madden) are starting to seem more appealing to me now on the Wii, just because it sounds like I can concentrate more on playing the game and less on memorizing which button does what.
The most comprehensive, spoiler-free, nitpicking Zelda review I’ve read to date.
Bottom line? “Twilight Princess is the new standard not only in The Legend of Zelda, but the standard in Nintendo’s franchises.”
God dammit. I’m 25. I can’t be spending all this money and time on video games…
…but I’m going to.
Zelda looks good and looks like a MASSIVE time sink.
Crap.
I played the Wii at E3, and based on that waited in line to preorder it the first day it came out. While the whole motion-sensor angle didn’t always work (wii Madden, where you flick the controller to throw a pass, looked decidedly unfun), the ones that did work looked phenominal. Zelda and Mario both looked fantastic, and both had completely unique look-and-feels from each other. I played the homerun derby and it was extremely satisfying. The bat totally responded to my movements such that I could even give it the Gary Sheffield wiggle before the pitch came. If they implemented a decent pitching interface for multiplayer (PLEASE don’t make me do a windup/throw with the controller to throw a pitch!) this could be the most fun baseball game i have ever played.
My roommate bought a 360, and it was good but not impressive. The graphics are nice, the downloads are well done (geometry wars is fantastic eyecandy), and the games are solid. I haven’t seen any app that makes my mouth water, although I got a glimpse of Gears of War yesterday and it looked great.
As for the PS3, well, I was so badly burned by the awful awful awful PS2 that I bought at launch. Within 2 days it couldn’t read either of the games I bought, plus it was just a badly designed system on a number of levels. Lets just say I’ll be waiting several months before I even consider buying one, which based on the shortages reported is probably what was going to happen anyways.
All I want is Super Smash Brothers Brawl, which won’t be coming out for another few months. Couple that with the current price (good comparatively, but I don’t have it), and I’m content to wait. Plus, of course, this is a bad time for me to slack off of schoolwork. I’m a senior, but not in college quite yet.