Wii? Xbox360? Or just my PS2?

The Game Room
1

The shoppingvirus has caught me and I have to turn to the teeming millions for advice…

I’m considering buying a new console. Currently I have a PS2 on which I play predominately RPGs. Lately though I keep going back and forth between either Xbox360 or a Wii…

Which, if any, should I go for? Is the Wii purely gimmicky and more of a ‘party’ console? Is the Xbox360 more for the online FPS gamer? What’s the difference between a 360Premium and 360Elite? Is onlineplay required?

I love playing RPGs (DQ8, FFs, Kingdom Hearts) but also quirky games like katamari. Does the 360 have good RPGs? The Wii has Paper Mario, Mario galaxy and Zelda but is the Wii playable for 2 or 3 hours on end? I still have plenty of hours to log on the PS2 games I have - should I just stick with it?

Any advice/input will be greatly appreciated…

2

Xbox 360 all the way. You don’t HAVE to play online on it, but it’s great fun. Yes, there are some annoying kids out there, but send me a private message if you’re over 25 and I’ll send you a link to a website for older gamers so we don’t have to deal wth that crap. 260 Premium and Elite have little in difference. The Elite is black, the Premium is white. You get the HDMI outpot and the 120 gigabyte hard drive for the Elite and you get the 20 gigabyte hard drive for the Premium.

The 360 is where it’s at for RPGs now. The Wii has practically nothing of note and the Playstaion 3 has stuff waiting in the wings. Blue Dragon is great, even though I despise anime crap as a general rule.

The Wii isn’t purely gimmicky. It’s okay, but the girlfriend and I have a 360 and a Wii. The 360 gets played for hours every day. The Wii gets some play, but not nearly as good as the 360. If you do want to venture online, nobody does it better than Xbox Live.

Also, we have a Gamertag for the Xbox, so you can see fellow Dopers online and playing and see what games they’re playing (and send invites to play online if you centure that route). Xbox Live is 50 bucks a year, but I’d happily pay double if I had to.

3

Ah, also, if you get a Wii, you get Zelda, Mario, Mario Kart, and Metroid. If you get a 360, you get Halo, many RPGs, GTAIV, Gears of War, Call of Duty 4, Civilization…and the list keeps on going.

4

The absolute top end of the Wii library is better (for RPG type stuff, we’re talking Fire Emblem, Paper Mario, and kind of Zelda). Then the 360 has a good dozen games that would come before anything else from the Wii showed up on our imaginary RPG list, plus a much better list of games looking to the future.

Personally I am very happy with my Wii; I am a PC gamer first at this point, and I find that I have a very satisfying, if small, collection of games that I enjoy and make the system worth having. There is a definite argument for the 360 in terms of quantity of good games, though I think this is somewhat mitigated by the fact that you still have a bunch of PS2 games left to play.

5

Owning both…

Wii has more ‘fun’ games. 360 is more ‘competition’ games. Wii games are games you can play for a bit, stop, feel good about yourself.

Boom Blox, Smash… plenty of good stuff. And, of course, all that classic NES, Sega and TurboGraphix stuff.

Go for the Wii. You won’t regret it.

6

I don’t like online FPS games at all. (Just ask LOUNE! :stuck_out_tongue: ) But I love my Xbox. I’m an RPG fan too and have played through Oblivion, and Two Worlds for the 360. I’ve got Blue Dragon waiting in the wings. After that it will be Eternal Sonata, Mass Effect, and Lost Odyssey. There’s also a new Square RPG coming called Infinite Undiscovery that looks to be interesting. It’s going to be a 360 exclusive.

LOUNE covered the difference between the Elite and Premium so I won’t go into that. However, I will say that if you think you might be interested in downloading movies or additional content for games, you’ll want the Elite’s bigger HD. I have a Premium and really wish for more HD space but the upgrade is $180.

I also have a Wii and while I really do like it a lot, the proof is in the pudding. I play the Wii about once a week while the 360 gets a workout every day. On the Wii, the established series are all fun but once you get away from that, it’s pretty sparse. On the 360, there are tons of titles (some exclusives) worth a look.

The Wii is in a bit of a weird position with it’s control setup. Some companies have figured out how to make it fun. Others though seem to tack the motion controls on as an afterthought rather defining the game by them. I bought a Harry Potter game for the Wii. Perfect for the system, right? Nope, the controls were horrible. I traded it back for the 360 version and haven’t looked back.

In terms of online support, the 360 absolutely blows the Wii out of the water. And not just in online play. You get demos, trailers, friends list, voice chat, achievements, etc with the 360 that aren’t to be found at all on the Wii.

Actual online play is somewhat archaic on the Wii. To play with your friends, you usually have to swap a long “friend code” with them. With the 360, you just add their Gamertag to your friends list and select from there when you want to play. You can also see when they’re online and check up to see what games they’ve been playing recently. It’s great.

So uhm, yeah I’d recommend the 360. :smiley:

7

Hey, when you’re ready to play with the big boys…

8

Thanks for the clarification on the X360 Premium vs Elite…It appears that I should cast my eye upon the 360.

9

You have a PS2 and aren’t even considering a PS3? I would like to offer my $0.02, no hard feelings I hope.

I prefer the PS3 (obviously) to the 360 for a few reasons. All models come with HDMI output and a HDD (which is easily replaceable with any size SATA drive). The online service is free, and there are still downloadable games, demos, videos, game add-ons etc. It plays Blu-Ray and DVD’s great. You can help advance science with folding@home. There is an option to install a Linux OS which will allow you to use the PS3 as a secondary PC and/or media center in addition to still being a console.

There seem to be fewer console-exclusive titles now-a-days, but Metal Gear Solid 4 and Final Fantasy XIII are the two big ones coming up for the PS3.

I also have a Nintendo Wii, which we use mostly for the kids. I will admit that the Wii Fit is a fun addition to our exercise regimine, and many of the other games are pretty fun at parties. But it sees no where near as much time logged as my PS3.

10

Well, it depends. Does HDMI mean anything to you? Do you think you’d use the extra hard drive space?

11

[QUOTE=Madd Maxx]
You have a PS2 and aren’t even considering a PS3? I would like to offer my $0.02, no hard feelings I hope.QUOTE]

I am not considering the PS3 because I hardly qualify as a hardcore gamer and at the moment the PS3 is too expensive for me to consider getting. The cost of the Wii is one of my considerations as well - I wouldn’t feel too bad if after two weeks of daily play I don’t touch it for a few daysweeks…I would feel bad doing that after dropping £300 ($600) on a 40GB PS3

12

LOUNE, your inbox is in excess of it’s limits and I can’t get an IM through to you. (About the coven of mature 25+ gamers)

13

I’ll clean it up when I get home.

14

Actually, all models of 360 manufactured since about last August have HDMI-out. That even includes the Arcade, IIRC. Some of my less scrupulous friends have intentionally red-ringed their 360s so they could get a replacement with HDMI.

Also: it’s strange to hear that the 400 USD model of PS3 is so expensive in Europe. There’s always the GTA bundle, if you’re into that. If you’re interested at all in HD movies, the PS3 is actually a pretty solid investment, as it has auto-update and web-enabled features that most Blu-ray players at its price point completely lack.

That said: Lost Odyssey is pretty much the epitome of turn-based gaming, at this point.

Choose wisely! :wink:

15

This should answer your question.