SEVENTH GENERATION CONSOLE WARS POLL

girls vs. dorks vs. bluray enthusiasts: who will reign supreme?

btw this poll is to determine whatever you want it to determine so if you vote what you think is gayest or most innovative or least innovative or most unaffordable or ungayest then that's cool, whatever boats your goat

enmity 2008

really when I saw the advertisement for animal crossing city folks or whatever I realized that I am basically no longer the target market for any of these products

kind of like laptops and phones that play music videos or whatever. I feel like I should be retiring in the next year or so, just give me a book of tough crossword puzzles and leave me alone

PS3 is the only one I don't have so voted for that.

Wii - for children, girls and casual gamers
Xbox - console equivalent of a Mac; have to pay to play online (still wtf after all this time); notoriously prone to 'sploding
PS3 - you know it will win in the end

― Roberto Spiralli, Tuesday, May 20, 2008 1:41 PM (6 months ago)

always thought this guy was onto something

PS3 will be best ever once the fucking price comes down to a reasonable level.

hahaha ok

it's all so clear, the only problem with that console is the price

Netflix is the killer app.

yeah it's just like a cable package with the tivo except no cable and no tivo. WHO THOUGHT OF THIS THEY DESERVE A MEDAL

Tombot when you consider the 360 is plagued with faults and the Wii is a bit shit there's no choice.

i dont even have any of these bullshits, i voted xbox because who gives a fuck

EG's 360 vs. PS3 face-offs:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16.

i voted nintendo ds

you're fired!!

get off the stage!!

i voted xbox because who gives a fuck

i like that yr vote was inspired by the same can-do attitude MS took towards making the console

heyo!!!

i voted nintendo ds

― didactic katydid (Lamp), Tuesday, December 2, 2008 9:10 PM

PS3 will obviously win the console war. After the price comes down. And they stop hemorrhaging exclusives to the 360. And games stop looking better on the 360 than the PS3. And PS3 gets a single game that I have any interest in playing.

Oh, and when PS3 gets Catan.

When they work all that out, assuming this gen of consoles isn't over already, PS3 will obv. be the winner.

I'm kind of leaning towards the wii camp lately. It only has two major problems in my book 1. As I'm lucky enough to own a nice HDTV, I wish it could output higher quality graphics instead of slightly blurry 6th generation stuff and 2. No proper storage solution. The problem with the storage thing is that it slightly takes the shine off one of the wii's best features - its amazing library of downloadable virtual console games, which actually still may be the best reason to own a wii two years on (if you don't have those old consoles and don't want to steal the games off the net and emulate). While one wishes the virtual console releases were still coming at a more robust pace, what's on there already is a pretty amazingly endless selection. The actual library of good/great wii games is slowly growing too (I have 12, for what it's worth).

Sorry for a semi-serious answer.

Wii is fun. But doesn't have enough "serious" gamer gaming games for me.

port of catan to sony will inevitably look duller somehow
ditto worms and uno lol

the most exciting thing in the ps3 lineup to the largest number of gamers was and remains a side-scrolling platformer. however, as noted, the 360 breaks a lot, and the wii is a bit shit.

ps3 version of catan is supposedly coming out in late December, for whatever that's worth
http://www.andriasang.com/e/articles/2008/10/08/game_republic_releases_board_games

I wish the wii had more Serious Gamer Gaming Games (this is a good term btw I think it is v. descriptive without being overspecific or implying an aversion to hygiene) but as I said I'm starting to realize my time may be up for the 100+ hour fantasyland travelogues. What the Wii does best, apparently, is rule women's lives with an iron fist. Plus excite truck for when it's bro-o'clock.

Depending on your household, it seems like the Wii or the 360 probably get more time devoted to them, overall, than any other consoles in the industry's history - not heard anything like this about the PS3 and I'm really beginning to doubt I ever will.

http://www.ubergizmo.com/photos/2008/1/wii-fit-board.jpg

http://www.ubergizmo.com/photos/2008/8/ps3-kb.jpg

neither of those are my cup of tea generally but that juxtaposition kinda sums up why I think sony is standing there sucking air on this go-round

Okay I'm probably wrong about the PS3's superiority then. But I just bought fucking Sonic Unleashed for the Wii so nothing I say or think is worthwhile.

Things I don't like about the 360
1. Damn console has already died on me twice (once out of warranty (not RROD), which cost me $100.00 to fix, which I'm not sure why I bothered)
2. Pay to play online
3. LOUD
4. The library of downloadable games is better than actual releases three years on
5. Microsoft wheel is shit
6. xbots

Things I don't like about the ps3
1. Seems like every time you tun it on you have to spend 30 minutes downloading a firmware update (happened again this morning when I just wanted to play a few quick matches of Street Fighter before going to work)
2. The library of downloadable games is probably better than actual releases two years on
3. Don't give a shit about blu-ray / don't think format will last (see UMD)
4. Backwards compatibility fubar
5. Online play crapshoot due to lack of standard

Tombot otm re 100hr fantasyland travelogues. The whole reason I wanted a 360 was for Oblivion (having chucked ~300hrs into Morrowind) but five hrs in I just wanted to throw the controller at the game for being so boring.

7. Microsoft STILL can't design a D pad that works

I kinda think if it weren't for the wii being so meek and unobtrusive and iLooking there under the television I might have already gone in for a 360 by this year - but I've been spoiled by it and my tiny tiny silver ps2, I don't see why I have to settle for big gross noisy shit in my house anymore

^^ I know this makes me a big gay or whatever

The actual library of good/great wii games is slowly growing too (I have 12, for what it's worth)

i have exactly a dozen wii games as well. i have about twenty xbox games now. each system has a couple of games id like to own and each system has a number of major flaws all of which is actually pretty annoying. since the death of the dreamcast i havent had to think about which console to buy and now im caught in the consumerist dilemma - whichever console i dont have is going to seem like the one i need the most.

The noise coming from all Xboxes is inexcusable. Disc transport technology is 25 years old ffs.

i mean basically i still fuck with MY tiny silver PS2 and ive got eternal poison on tap and i still want to play 100+ hour games ft. martial 12 y.o.s and amorous witches so i feel cheated that i bought two next gen consoles and still have to buy games for my old console and DS games like why cant developers just pick one and go.

I heard that the best version of shaun white snowboarding is for the wii. and lucky me, my sister got wii fit for her birthday so I might just ask for this game for christmas.

yeah even I have to admit a vague interest in seeing what shaun wiite has to offer with the fit board

yeah it's just like a cable package with the tivo except no cable and no tivo. WHO THOUGHT OF THIS THEY DESERVE A MEDAL

Except that I have a DVR, and none of the shows I watch on it are available on Netflix, and vice versa. They don't cancel each other out at all. I love having a supply of lesser-known/older movies/TV that I can watch whenever I want.

The only games on Wii I can even imagine playing alone are Galaxy and Twilight Princess, and everything else is a party game, and I don't throw parties in my shithole apartment.

Little Big Planet is the only PS3 game I'd want to play on my own, and even that is a game I like less than the general consensus.

btw I mentioned it upthread but for those of you who haven't seen it the north american ad for wii animal crossing with the talkbox is exactly as follows:

two girls with long blonde hair sitting on their couches catching up on what they've been doing by talking to the television and deciding to go watch the fireworks together at night. their little animal crossing people go to a park and there is a fireworks animation over their heads. Animal Crossing: City Folks for the Wii by Nintendo.

yeah polyphonic my argument there is really reductive and I know it. the way I'm looking at it though is that all set-top on-demand technologies are in infancy right now and eventually I see it going towards one box handling multiple providers' content, and I have no stake (surprisingly!) in who gets there first (well, I don't want it to be sony or some wholly-owned disney sub/affiliate). If msft is smart they could turn the xbox into the evolving media platform that the "home theater pc" was never allowed to be. IF IF.

xpost

there's also one i saw tonite with a blond and brunette and they are like hey wat should we do and one is like fishing and the other is like blah and the brunette is like shopping? and they grin and u can tell that's fun and blond is intersted in a new boutique and then you see that its actually animal crossing: city folks they were talking about not their real lives at all.

they have an excellent house btw i really like the couch in that ad

4. The library of downloadable games is better than actual releases three years on

This is false. Fallout 3, Oblivion, Dead Space, Bioshock, Mass Effect, GTA IV, Fables 2, Farcry 2, Gears of War, Orange Box...

This machine is full of goodness.

yeah polyphonic my argument there is really reductive and I know it. the way I'm looking at it though is that all set-top on-demand technologies are in infancy right now and eventually I see it going towards one box handling multiple providers' content, and I have no stake (surprisingly!) in who gets there first (well, I don't want it to be sony or some wholly-owned disney sub/affiliate). If msft is smart they could turn the xbox into the evolving media platform that the "home theater pc" was never allowed to be. IF IF.

This makes total sense to me, but as someone who already has an XBOX and already has Netflix, I'm like "YAYYYYYYYYYYYY"

Xbox wins I think. Best game library, downloadable or otherwise. Netflix. A lot of the cross-platform games turn up better on the Xbox despite the PS3 having the better hardware. Apparently the PS3 is a bitch to make games for. XBL costs $, but it's superior to PSN by most accounts. The only thing that would sway me towards a PS3 would be whatever exclusives they have. I don't know what's down the line, but Little Big Planet and Metal Gear 4 aren't quite enough. The Blu-ray player is nice to have, but not much use to me at the moment.

Xbox Cons: Shit breaks pretty easily apparently BUT Microsoft does have a 3 year warranty for the red rings and the newer systems are more reliable. D-Pad does indeed suck BUT it's rarely used.

Wii's kinda cool I guess. Not enough Super Serious Gamer Games is OTM.

Never thought I'd be reppin' for a Microsoft machine, but damnit here I am.

nintendo's biggest challenge with both platforms right now is how in the hell to follow up and get all these casual ass babes and grandmas to upgrayedd - the way I see it is that you gotta make the DDS/Wiii into something more like a cell phone or clothes instead of like a computer, new one's out, gotta get the new one, throw out the old one! of course social apps like animal crossing or a really nice new treatment of sports/fit will probably do it*

*compare and contrast these titles with the graphics in galaxy or twilight princess and tell me these fools aren't totally pulling their punches so they can pull off the must-have renovation with relative ease

It seems like they figured out that their market doesn't care about graphics at all, and upgrading to better graphics will not be a major selling point for the grandmas and wii fitters.

Yeah, I'm just thinking how many families had an NES and even played the hell out of it and then never got the Super. It's going to be tricky.

some wii one-player games are worth playing besides Twilight Zelda and Mario Galaxy
super paper mario, resident evil 4, okami... that's about it though

I think all the systems are flawed. If Oblivion is supposed to be the best that 360 can do.. than there is no way that it could handle the Oblivion 2 game I want them to create... Not enough power/speed probably.

I don't think Oblivion is anywhere near the best the 360 can do. That was one of their first generation of games.

Also, Fallout 3 is kinda Oblivion 2.

If you've been keeping up with the Fallout thread, you know that I disagree with that statement.

But if they can keep it cheap and it's enough of an upgrade, picking up the next wii seems like a no-brainer, because like you say, the difference should be quite noticeable. On the other hand, the next ps360, the upgrade is going to be a lot harder sell, as they'll probably want to keep them cheaper and really, I'm not sure how much further they can go. The difference right now, from say Gears 2 on 360 and Crysis on the higher end PCs today (which obviously is going to set one back a couple of grand), isn't so noticeable to the average person's eyes. They're going to have to put together some kind of really interesting package.

Mordy - I do disaggree on your game quality statement, because most of those game you list I'm not interested in, but that's just my tastes, what can I say. The one's you list that are decent are on ps3 too or even better, have better PC versions (Orange Box / GTA IV), so I hardly see it as a selling point. I think the 360 does have a pretty good downloadable library though - I mean, that's about all I've used it for in the last year. Not sure it was worth paying 400 bucks for the privelige of playing a bunch of ten dollar games. Well, actaully Ikaruga is worth it.

The 2009 ps3 retail disc exclusives that we know about that look interesting (and will hopefully be good, but who knows?) are Killzone 2, Infamous and God of War 3
The 2009 360 retail disc exclusives that we know about that look interesting are??????

welp, I'm off to play Animal Crossing

It's not fair to compare the 360 to the PC. One costs over a grand for a gaming rig. The other costs about 300-400 dollars.

Mordy, I know the Oblivion/Fallout 3 comparison is a touchy thing, but the huge open world, do whatever you want RPG that I think Lorax is referring to can be found in Fallout 3. Obviously different mechanics, different universes, etc., but this is Bethesda's next big sandbox/open world game.

It's a better game than Oblivion in every way, so yeah Oblivion 2: The Future is kinda of shortchanging it.

It's not fair to compare the 360 to the PC. One costs over a grand for a gaming rig. The other costs about 300-400 dollars.

no, I think Jeff has a really good point. One is currently sold at a loss per unit AFAIK. The other is not - and comes with a lot of extra potential functionality, like filesharing and robust work/hobby tools. Looking at what the xbox currently offers, you've got to wonder how fast that gap could shrink (if I were msft, I would write up a plan to shirk "games for windows" right this minute and start trying to negotiate with blizzard however I needed to to get a fully functional WoW client on Live in the next three years - the pc is for work and a "second screen" at home, the xbox is in everyone's living room)

I'm just saying that - acknowledging that I'm not necessarily the average consumer - the idea of buying a gaming rig never crossed my mind. The 360 runs every game I might want to play (plus some that aren't on the PC), and I use my Macbook for my computer stuff. I had a question about whether to get a 360 or a PS3 (and to a lesser extent, a wii). The thought never crossed my mind to buy a PC to play Crysis on.

And I hear what you're saying Tom. We could reach a moment where PCs are cheap enough and consoles expensive enough that there actually is a debate. And presumably, when we reach that moment, console gaming will be over (unless they can compete with the variety of functions that a PC has). But for the time being, that's not the situation.

oh haha no that's not what I was saying at all! actually when I look at the UI on consoles and the functionality they're providing I think it's the desktop PC that needs to be worried for the future, not the console. If there were more than one good sandboxy MMORPG client for consoles, people would be all over the living room. The tower pc in the home office would be collecting dust.

Ah. Ok. That makes more sense, and I get the feeling from people who follow the industry that PC gaming is suffering in contrast to 360/PS3 gaming.

After all, didn't PC sales on Fallout 3 only account for around 20% of sales?

Yeah, MMOs, gambling and flash puzzles are basically it. you can get your deathmatch fixin's and all your single-player adventures on consoles, which as you pointed out, have a much lower barrier to entry (teevee not included)

seriously I can see a future where the replacement ratio household looks like this: mom and kid 1 in the living room raiding together with their linkshell/guild on some kind of tandem console and flatscreen arrangement, kid 2 interacting with some kind of flash-based whatever on station #3 upstairs, dad doing something vaguely IRL-related like buying toilet paper (soon he will join kid 2 for bonding experience while they both try solve protein-folding puzzles on the web). It's either really amazing or totally fucked.

anyway off topic sorry
nintendo rules

This is false. Fallout 3, Oblivion, Dead Space, Bioshock, Mass Effect, GTA IV, Fables 2, Farcry 2, Gears of War, Orange Box...

This machine is full of goodness.

So does Super Serious Gamer Games = first-person stuff that's better on my PC? Nah, I'm fine with Super Mario Galaxy, Okami, No More Heroes, Metroid Prime and other games that don't look like other games.

There's a version of that Animal Crossing ad in which the brunette says 'wait, I did all this last year on my DS'

and they throw down their controllers and get it on

Ah. Ok. That makes more sense, and I get the feeling from people who follow the industry that PC gaming is suffering in contrast to 360/PS3 gaming

I keep hearing this, and I keep hearing that it's down to WOW. I have no idea how true it is.

The ps3 so far has impressed me probably more than any other console I've bought in the past, the blu ray is really impressive and I've had no complaints with any of the games i've bought.

I wanted a Wii, only for Zelda as i hate girly games, but after playing it at a mates house and noticed how boring the gameplay was and how poor the graphics were I decided no.

Xbox has tempted me due to larger library although I'm not sure I would have bought any more games for this than I have on the ps3, and I'm still weary of the faulty box syndrome. Have they fixed this yet?

I guess 360 will win this due to more ilxors owning them, probably a justly win. hey ho.

I think if PC gaming is suffering, it's due to <a href="www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/11/14/world-of-goo-vs-piracy/">90% piracy rates</a>, rather than WoW. But I'm not clear on how much it's suffering (partly because piracy-proof Steam doesn't release sales figures).

PS3 does wifi out the box; I wish they all played PS2 games and cost £130.

PS3 also has

Mouse for FPS is still the decisive advantage for the PC.

Fairyland Rainbow Vision World:
Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo merge their gaming divisions into Unicorns, Inc.

I was going to elaborate a lot more on this, but I have work to do. Trust me though, it would have been cool.

I agree with almost everything Tombot is saying on this thread, except that I voted for 360. I'm a gamer with kids, and 360 still doesn't really suit the family gaming thing as well as it should; we're getting the kids DSs finally so that'll take care of that.

I refuse to touch WoW b/c I was a mudder in college and it drained so much of my time that I don't dare try this version. I'm in my 120th hour of Oblivion now and that's with about 2 hrs a day 4 days a week. Whereas with mud it was like 5 hours a day 7 days a week, and more like 15 hours on binge weekends. But I agree that WoW on console would be huge.

calstars - weirdly the ps3 supports mouse / keyboard controls too, but the only game to use it was the last Unreal Tournament. I don't know if it's too hard / too much effort to attempt to balance the controls or why more games don't offer it, especially since most PC games now offer joystick support for those who (freakishly) prefer it.

fucking about with a mouse and lack of peripheral vision have always been the barriers to my enjoyment of FPSs.

steam stats for today

Peak Uers Game

86,443 Counter-Strike: Source
70,207 Counter-Strike
22,641 Football Manager 2009
19,494 Left 4 Dead
9,726 Condition Zero
9,840 Team Fortress 2
7,062 Day of Defeat: Source
3,093 Garry's Mod
2,143 Half-Life 2: Deathmatch
2,269 Day of Defeat
1,879 Half-Life 2

??? why so many people playing condition zero?

as jeff says, better peripheral support also in PS3's favour (weirdly for a product by lolproprietaryformat-sony)

are those figures high or low? i have no idea.

voted 360 for the library, even tho it's egregious that the shit doesn't work very well.

wii games always feel really limited and gimmicky to me, tbh. oh, another game where you have to wave this thing around vaguely? great.

maybe i'll end up getting a ps3 five years after it's out and playing it deep into the 8th generation, like i did with the ps2

^I still haven't shilled out for a PS2 yet!

Wow, Counter-Strike is still kicking after all this time, and at multiple times the rate of more modern games. Football Manager 2009? Really?

I took this as a "which one do you own?" poll.

the 10000 condition zero players isn't surprising when you figure that 156,000 people play CS and 45,000 play anything else. who knows? maybe they like practicing their 1.6 in CZ.

i didn't because i own more than one, which is sort of a mixed emoticon. xpost

voted 360. wii is collecting dust right now, thinking about dumping it on ebay, which is sad.

the main thing going for the wii is design i think. xbox 360 is noisy and lol hueg, although not as bad as the hulking monstrosity that was the orig. xbox. the ps3 just looks like some bastard son of a krupps espresso maker and 1980s home furnishings. def the most uggo of the bunch to me.

unfortunately design doesn't mean shit when you only have a handful of games i dig, so the 360 wins basically for game library.

I will give you a stick of gum for your Wii.

Thank God I wrote that and didn't say it, ugh.

the nice thing about the ps3's design is that it is black and thus doesn't really stand out in my entertainment cabinet, which is also black, and features a bunch of black stereo components and stuff.

wii is worth it just for the virtual console and wiiware games. i play a lot more retro games than new ones though.

xxxxwhateverpost You know not all those games are first-person? Also, yes. Super Serious Gamer Games tend to be first-person/third-person very involved stuff. RPGs, actions, sci-fi horrors, etc. Stuff that last a few hours and tend to require some concentration. I love arcadey games too (god knows I spend way too much time playing them on my Mac and on Kongregate.com). But they just scratch that other gaming itch I've got.

truthfully, my ps3 gets more playtime than any other console I've ever had, especially now that trophies are starting to get implemented more widely. consider:

* w/ the latest firmware update, the PS3 natively supports full-screen flash 9 video (e.g. Hulu, BBC iPlayer, etc) and can stream Netflix movies from a media server. plus TVersity supports the PS3 right out of the gate too.

* not only are there an ass-ton of awesome PSN games (PixelJunk games, Super Stardust HD, The Last Man, etc), but since the PSN doesn't have size restrictions developers are free to publish utterly disc-worthy games like Wipeout HD (or offer full installs of BD-based games like Burnout or Warhawk). plus game-sharing lets you split the cost of PSN games with four other friends to save $$$$ - I paid $6 for Burnout and $3 for SF2HD! (I know, I know, lol @ buying a $8000000000 machine to save ten bucks every couple of months, but still.) PLUS you actually get to pay in real currency rather than asinine Sony Fun Bucks or whatever.

* WPA2 support! the other big perks of the PS3's network support were already mentioned (free & out-of-box wireless support), but as the one dumbass in America actually trying to run a local Wireless-N network, WPA2 was the big selling point for me. the wireless adapter for the 360 costs a hundred damn dollars, doesn't support WPA2 despite THE BOX SAYING OTHERWISE, and comes backed by a statement from MSFT which boils down to "WPA2 is for homosexuals and this is a MAN'S MAN'S MAN'S CONSOLE HERE BRAH". nuts to that.

* PSP remote play is kind of staggeringly superfluous; I don't play games while sitting on the toilet so the appeal is somewhat limited to me personally. having said that, it's an undeniably cool little gimmick which is at least as much fun to show off to your nerdy friends as Electroplankton.

* the PS3 - especially the latest hardware revisions - are whisper-quiet. I lucked into a used 60-gig at Gamestop somehow over the summer and I have to admit that it does make a little noise, but keep in mind that I'm comparing it to (a) the library-silent 40-gig I'd been playing on before trading it in towards the 60, and (b) the airport tarmac disc-drive motor in my former 360.

* also a backwards-compatible PS3 may well be the last console you ever need to buy. punching tigers in the face in Yakuza 2 is fun. punching gorgeously upscaled tigers in the face is a virtual Bacchanalia. and don't even get me started on how great Odin Sphere looks when upscaled.

* and speaking of buying used consoles, unlike the 360, the PS3 hardware is a fucking tank. each PS3 can be used to bludgeon eight hoboes to death before needing to be replaced; with the 360, you're lucky if you can even kill three.

* oh, and there are actually hell of great games out for the PS3 right now; get one Uncharted, LBP, MGS4, Buzz Quiz, and all the aforementioned PSN games. plus the PS3's 2009 exclusives look unbelievably promising: Infamous, White Knight Chronicles, God of War III, GT5, Fat Princess, Nobi Nobi Boy, new stuff from the PixelJunk and Ico ppl, etc. plus more and more multi-platform games are being lead-dev'd on PS3 these days (Mirror's Edge, Burnout Paradise, and the new Prince of Persia spring to mind); I doubt that'll make them BETTER than their 360 counterparts, but it's a pretty clear sign that the days of the PS3 getting turdly ports is drawing to a close.

for balance, here are the things I miss from my 360:

- widespread voice chat, which made casual games like Uno and Catan exponentially more enjoyable social experiences (especially if you enjoy ridiculing/provoking the mouth-breathing future leaders of tomorrow). I wish future PS3s would ship with headsets, although the official bluetooth one is so slick that it might not be cost-effective.
- it's mandatory to build achievements into yr game (although trophy support apparently becomes mandatory for PS3 starting in January)
- the controller, except for the d-pad (although I managed to snag a pair of those clip-on PS3 triggers a while back and MAN do they ever help out)
- apparently can be h@x0r3ed to play backups if you're 1337 enough (then again, my backlog is indefensibly long already)
- no stupid poopbutt Sixaxis controls ever

blah, blah, blah. I say all of this as someone who gleefully bashed the PS3 as an overpriced format-war boondoggle at every opportunity until I actually started thinking about buying one. I was wrong; against all odds, I seem to be getting way more than my money's worth (although as a game machine, it and everything else this generation still takes a backseat to the DS, of course).

seriousbusiness.gif, I guess

Hmmmmmm....

sold my 360, loving my ps3 more than ever

wait; how does that game sharing thing work?

also

* and speaking of buying used consoles, unlike the 360, the PS3 hardware is a fucking tank. each PS3 can be used to bludgeon eight hoboes to death before needing to be replaced; with the 360, you're lucky if you can even kill three.

glooooooool

ps3 game sharing

oh, one more - you can swap out a PS3 hard drive for any 2.5" notebook drive on the market, a feature of which I will most assuredly take advantage once I eventually fill up my HD with various and sundry blog house b@ng0rZ for use w/ Wipeout HD's custom soundtrack feature.

I wish someone would buy my wii so I could buy a ps3 : ////

jamescobo i like your style

I wanted a Wii, only for Zelda as i hate girly games, but after playing it at a mates house and noticed how boring the gameplay was and how poor the graphics were I decided no.

I was unbearably excited about Twilight Princess. Reckon I would have played about two thirds of it. Rubbish rubbish rubbish boring boring boring.

How many people actually care about Blu Ray? Show of hands.

I care about it, but not enough to buy a PS3.

But jamescobo has me reconsidering!

I love blu-ray! it's a completely pointless format, of course, but anything that lets me simultaneously indulge both my cineaste tendencies ("look at how sharp this picture is! man, I'm respecting the shit out of the director's vision over here!") and my all-consuming misanthropy ("see a movie? in the theater?! with all those COMMONERS?!??!") is a big win in my book.

also there's the issue of PS3 games being able to take advantage of all the extra space on a BR disc. MGS4 was something like ~20 gigs, wasn't it?

I don't care. The future is downloadable and streaming content. Not shiny discs.

I still think we're at least five years away from reliably streaming Blu-ray or similar picture quality over the Internet or etc., and by then we'll probably be up to PS4 and XBOX 720 and Wiiii.

i like blu-ray but... i am also a film writer so i guess i am a nerd about shit like that.

to the person who said fallout 3 is oblivion 2... that's not the oblivion 2 I want them to make for me, k thanks
mine will remain in the dungeons and dragons realm for one thing. but there are hundreds of improvements they could do to the original game and I hope the xbox 360 can handle it when they finally come around to elder scrolls 5

k np, person.

Mordy, I know they're not all first-person, I've played a lot of them, or demos of them, or precursors, and I've played a lot of SMG, and I know which one is more involved and requires more concentration (and sucks up more of my time). I will give you that there's more swearing in Gears of War.

PLUS you actually get to pay in real currency rather than asinine Sony Fun Bucks or whatever.

I'm not so bothered about retaining my dignity when downloading SF2HD (or Paper Mario in my case) to be honest. Plus, Wii points are outperforming other currencies! It's all an investment!

"WPA2 is for homosexuals and this is a MAN'S MAN'S MAN'S CONSOLE HERE BRAH". nuts to that.

This is in a nutshell why the 360 can bite me.

oh, it's not a matter of dignity, it's a matter of leftover points. I don't think I've had a zero-balance Wii Point account since I first took the damn thing online.

prolly not place for this but since has been mentioned above: Catan is coming to PSN soon - original version not port. i don't know anything about it, board game or video game, but folks seem to love it. is this worth my interest?

Do you like nerdy board games?

YES

It's worth your interest.

bump!

Dragon Quest X

http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/12/november-game-s.html#more

lookin good, sony

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/12/12/flame-on-ps3-a-sinking-ship-psp-too/

also

source so you don't need to read loltarded joystiq

http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/12/sonys-ps3-a-sinking-ship-sales-plummet-sne

also got a schadenrofl from tycho taking a huge shit on the beta for Home

Haha. I didn't realize the Wii actually DOUBLED in sales this year compared to last November - that's pretty crazy. My uneducated guess is that the demand is about the same level or less as it was last year, but the production capability over the last year has increased so there's a lot more system stock out there. I was shocked a month or so ago at actually being able to walk into a store and buy one if I wanted to! (I also never imagined there'd be a time when a Mario Kart title would be regularly out of stock for months a time, even now you have to buy it bundled with a second wheel on amazon)

Sony looks kind of stupid now for not dropping their prices in light of Microsoft's price slashing, eh? I wonder if they have anything to do with the ongoing 20% off Dell sales over the last three months? (of course they could be trying to get rid of the old crappier motherboard/RROD stock, too)

I kinda don't want the PS3 to fail, I just want it get affordable and have some good games. But it's fun to watch big corporations make dumb mistakes.

^^ What he said. I certainly don't have some kind of fanboy love for the 360. It is all about what has more games I want to play, and what I can afford.

i dont want the ps3 to fail for obvious reasons. even if it did, i would still be happy to use it as a media center/blu-ray player/occasional games, which is the reason i bought it; i would have never bought a stand-alone games machine that didn't do anything else.

mista smartaguy ova heah neva buy "justa teevee" "justa toasta" eitha I spose aha ha

no, that's why i bought a tvtoaster.

no for reals, the fact that it's a media player made it tax deductible which helped me to spin my web of rationalizations and confabulations when i decided to buy it

crafty. A+

that is fucking brilliant and I will now be doing the same thing

oh my I accidentally a b/c 60GB PS3

bought? found? threw?

lucked upon and bought; figured they're pretty rare now and will hold their value and it was going cheap help me rationalise this pls folx

yesterday you were a boy; today you are a man.

get one Odin Sphere and watch the purchase rationalize itself

cozwn - any specific games you're planning to pick up?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sega-Valkyria-Chronicles-PS3/dp/B00197U1G6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1229375175&sr=8-1

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2336932,00.asp

at the moment just valkyria chronicles, persona 3: FES, & whtever's hott and PSexclusive on the PSN store... beyond that, I dunno

oh and a cheap copy of MGS4

dude get little big planet

oh yeah there's LBP too and siren: blood curse gaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Uncharted is amazing; I can't remember the last time I actually beat a game twice. definitely get that.

also you need Wipeout HD excruciatingly badly.

i wouldnt quite go so far as amazing but uncharted is very very solid, good times and looks pretty nice... all-around A-

really? Uncharted is probably my favorite cover-shooter to date on any system (couldn't get into Gears, got bored w/ endless cinematics in MGS4, thought GTA's cover system was a fetid pile of dookie).

(not that MGS4 is a covershooter, obv.; I just played it like one. FUK U KOJIMA, I'M'A PLAY HOW I WANT.)

I wouldn't go quite so far as to rate Uncharted very solid. Looks (mostly) very nice, yes, but plays very average. Shooting was bad (loose) and there was far too much of it, ok story falls apart in the last third, quick time event final boss fight was aggravating. I know we've had this same discussion before :(

cozwn - did you ever own a ps2, or is this your first chance to play the library?

I like the Rainbow 6 cover system

I owned a PS2 for about 3/5ths of its lifetime but foolishly tried to clean the inside one day with a hoover and that was that; it was around the time of sotc so I've not played anything decent from thereon and there's lots of stuff I hadn't played up to then either. just thinking about all the great RPGs and shmups has my wallet simpering (even more)

here I come

oh - did you buy a japanese ps3?!? Because although there's no region coding yet on ps3 games, it still won't play ps2 or ps1 games from regions other than your own, as far as I know. Or is there a workaround?

no, sorry, I ws being flippant; like I'd ever buy tht game, it looks insane!

I've played through it once, it's really great. I wish I had a copy for myself. It only gets that insane on the hardest difficulty of the final level.

Dunno about the other systems but the 360 is plagued by those games in which American soldiers in chunky metal armour charge around being all hypermacho and yelling 'ay-sap' at one another.

http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/12/nintendo-pitche.html#more

The sorely misguided belief that the strategy of your game publishing company will determine the outcome of the console wars -- and not vice versa -- is what has Square Enix racing to play catch-up this generation. And to have Nintendo's president announce to the world that he will partner with your company to sell your games in the Western markets, where Reggie & Co. are currently -- there is no other way to put it -- kicking ass and taking names, well... that's a huge win for Square Enix.

msft take note?

The Wii needs SOMETHING.

if the 360 has a bunch of american macho shooters and the wii is a bit shit, what is it that the ps3 has?

fanboys

blu ray?

oh right, fanboy gear solid 4. the definitive game for definitely-non-ladies everywhere.

Yeah, the Wii can't rest on making money hand-over-fist (including let's not forget actual profit on the consoles) forever.

home? (lol)

The DQ article is a good read! Interesting, especially the note about how two years ago, Square talking at a press conference with Nintendo was a huge win for Nintendo, now it's almost become the other way around.

speaking of home, home is a giant pile of shit

http://img2.timeinc.net/ew/img/daily/606/jp_l.jpg

like, a pile that big

Despite horrible November sales and an absurdly expensive price, I read the ps3 has still outsold the 360 worldwide in 2008. Including November, Sony has sold 3,586,392 in the US and Japan and Microsoft has sold 3,559,224 xbox360s. NINTENDO HAS SOLD 10,261,666 WIIS (and 9,747,958 NDS). Amazingly, Sony has also sold 5,893,348 psps just in Japan and the US

home is hilariously bad

like dude, throw that money on getting us some exclusives or something... it's like purgatory

Yeah, the frothing on Penny Arcade seemed on point on that one: Dude you are importing scarcity into a place that had no need of it, there is no excuse for having to queue for something* in the virtual world.

*okay, except actual server resources, but you should be getting these right.

http://vgchartz.com/

are they ever going to come out with a slim ps3?

They really should - or at least make something that doesn't look like a knock-off George Foreman grill. Yes, I know, old internet joke, but it does! That said, having seen the machine in action it's still a good console. If I had to choose Xbox 360 or PS3 it would be harder than I used to think, especially when you factor RROD on the 360 - it's amazing that people put up with it, and keep buying replacement consoles!

well, to be fair, people did the same thing last generation with PS2s.

otm

it's the games library, stupid

I don't want to sound like I have something particular against the 360, I don't really, but it didn't nearly seem that bad with the PS2 when that came out. I remember there were problems but I didn't know anybody personally who had the DRE on PS2. I realize it could be more internet and media hype making the story bigger than it is, but Microsoft actually going so far as to extend the warranty by several years kind of cemented it, didn't it? Every mass produced console is going to have a few bad units, but I never walked into my local Best Buy and found a hastily printed sign apologizing to customers for their broken PS2s.

there were definitely plenty of lemony ps2s but I don't think remember hearing that it had anything like the kind of industry-laughable failure rates the 360 has had

It didn't. Nothing ever has.

Even

http://z.about.com/d/4wheeldrive/1/0/O/L/1/Alek_Ser_04LadaNiva_2RR.jpg

had a lower rrod incidence.

it's the games library, stupid

― when dont't you connect and im flying darkness (cozwn), Saturday, December 20, 2008 5:00 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

ok explain me the wii then haha

doesn't belong on this poll, is another thing by this point

its the waving your arms around, stupid

Things I don't like about the ps3
1. Seems like every time you tun it on you have to spend 30 minutes downloading a firmware update (happened again this morning when I just wanted to play a few quick matches of Street Fighter before going to work)
2. The library of downloadable games is probably better than actual releases two years on
3. Don't give a shit about blu-ray / don't think format will last (see UMD)
4. Backwards compatibility fubar
5. Online play crapshoot due to lack of standard

― Jeff LeVine, Tuesday, December 2, 2008 8:29 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark

I'd give you this is if it was 2006 but c'mon, man. Really? UMD failed because no one has PSPs. I think I've seen one in real life once. But people WILL buy Blu Ray players, especially since they still have DVD players. Either you have LPs and a bunch of VHS's you refuse ot give up, or you're just kind of behind the times.

I am not convinced that the VHS:DVD :: DVD:Blu Ray holds up in the slightest.

DVD provided an extremely significant upgrade from VHS. Blu-ray provides a marginal upgrade from DVD, but I don't think it's the future format for home movie viewing as digital downloads and streaming technology seem increasingly feasible / practical. Blu-ray is just unnecessary. UMD "failed" because it was unnecessary too. p.s. I'm sure Sony has sold plenty more PSPs so far than blu-ray players (I believe the worldwide PSP sales have topped 40,000,000?)

bluray is way better than streaming will be for a long time but im not convinced anyone is going to care :/

Basically, the worst time to launch a new format that is specifically for wealthy videophiles is (1) in the middle of a global recession, (2) competing against DVD's benefits of library/accessibility, (3) competing against the emergence of streamed media.

The benefits of DVD over 1/2 tape are obvious: no slow winding forward/back to another part of the programme, no caught tape, no tracking issues, acceptable colour reproduction, etc. All those issues made 1/2 inch tape a nightmare.

The only real benefits of Blu Ray over DVD are greater capacity and higher resolution, and very few people care about those.

i care ;_;

Either you have LPs and a bunch of VHS's you refuse ot give up, or you're just kind of behind the times.

I'm so behind the times I still go to the theater when I want to see a movie

i still go to see plays
plays about video games
http://www.playbill.com/news/article/123226.html

Most of the ppl I know who really really REALLY care about Blu-Ray have kids and can't get to the movies anymore.

bbbut blu-ray gives you way better picture than a projection does! it's a false grail maaaan!! /denby

srsly tho i feel like the consumer has just arrived at its mature-phase acceptance of dvd, it seems too early to ask everyone to switch again. penetrating market insight courtesy goole llc

It's not really about switching though, considering Blu-ray players will play DVDs.

it is about switching to a new player.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/199/481521401_c55a779258.jpg?v=0

xp yeah but your old DVDs will work on it. One day Blu-ray players will cost as much as DVD players do now.

http://www.google.com/search?q=blu-ray+player&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Shopping results for blu-ray player
Sony BDP-S300 Blu-Ray disc player $129 to $467 - 42 stores
Sony BDP-S350 Blu-Ray disc player $183 to $381 - 64 stores
Samsung BD-P1400 Blu-Ray disc player $170 to $566 - 21 stores

im with ya

just saying for a lot of ppl there's no really visible incentive to buy a whole new player if the old one works fine

i.e. we agree ^_^

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

TENSION
SUSPENSE

WHAT WILL IT BE!!!???

http://www.ananova.com/images/web/38127.jpg

it is a mystery

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Hardcore demographic SHOCKAH!

JUSTICE!

wow more ps3 votes than i expected!

No kidding!

more votes than i expected - that's like 20 more ppl than i thought i read this borad

it's a xmas miracle!!!!

I'm surprised the PS3 finished ahead of the Wii.

serious gamer gaming games players all up in this piece!

btw the 360/PS2 comparison re: ppl replacing the things over and over despite mad retarded lemon rates - I have realized that Apple products are actually a much better simile for the 360, although microsoft as usual does it the dumb and obvious way as opposed to factoring in hardware failure rates into your own in-house (and profitable) extended warranty program

no way apple stuff fails as much as 360s... what's the 360 failure rate, like 40% or something??

think it's 30%

it's disgraceful really

I thought it was closer to "only" 10%, which is still pathetic

failure rate on new models is supposed to be closer to 10-15% i think the 30% cited is from a couple of years ago

guys, i finally ordered a 60GB PS3. THANKGODANDGOODBYEYOUPIECEOFSHITXBOX360CRAPBOX

I was just making the point that if you know you're going to have a significant number of lemons, you should use it to get people to pay for extra vendor-supplied warranty coverage, so that your loyal customers get used to paying for the security blanket (which a simple spreadsheet will help you turn into $$$$$$)

Microsoft is (a) too arrogant to recognise the scale of the problem and (b) too stupid to capitalise on it.

1. RROD
2. ???
3. PROFIT

rrod sucks, no doubt; the fact that mine was sent off, repaired, and has been shipped back to me, in two weeks, makes it a little better: at least these jackasses are efficient.

clearly MSFT IS 4 THE PEOPLE, MAN

Hope Fades for PS3 as a Comeback Player

But early results from this holiday season aren't promising. U.S. sales of the PS3 fell 19% last month from a year earlier, while sales doubled for the Wii console and rose 8% for the Xbox 360, according to research firm NPD. Analysts say they expect PS3 sales for this month to be flat or lower than last year, while sales for its rivals are likely to rise. And Sony may not reach its goal of selling 10 million PS3 consoles in the fiscal year through March, analysts say.

Last month, four of the five best-selling U.S. games were exclusive to either the Wii or Xbox 360, according to NPD. Sony's best-selling game during the month was an action shooter game, Call of Duty: World at War from Activision Blizzard Inc. But twice as many people bought the Xbox 360 version.

murder was the case

ok so wii fit + mario cart + smash brothers? + ???? fable II?

probably gears?

yeah that makes sense. rock guitar hero band world tour II must have not made it because of the initial outlay cost (assuming they're looking at units sold, not $$$)

http://www.gamasutra.com/db_area/images/feature/3882/top10nov08fixeda.png

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3882/npd_behind_the_numbers_november_.php

xp and here is ytd U.S sales

http://adage.com/madisonandvine/article?article_id=133336

haha oops posted the wrong one :/

hahahahaha how did i possibly forget the endless reign of wii play.

which really amounts to including "bought a second controller" in the game rankings, but whatevr

Hey third parties, develop for our system, it has the largest install base by far! oh and we also plan to release some first party titles this year that aren't really games per se, sorry if that ruins your Christmas.

how long did it take before third parties started making reasonable stuff for the DS, though?

Wii Music is total crap.

"Activision Blizzard" is a mouthful.

Fallout 3 didn't make that list :(

It's bloody the price. If the PS3 weren't sodding $2389479328472982479 per unit it'd be doing all right now. Eeeediot Sony trying to ram too much tech into one box.

too much EXPENSIVE tech, specifically

http://www.sonydefenseforce.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/ps3.gif
http://www.sonydefenseforce.com/

hahahahahahaha no

hahahahahaha i love that site

omg ps3 wins!!!

sometime in 2009 researches discover owning a PS3 cures cancer

... and owning an xbox causes it

sometime in 2009 researches discover owning a PS3 cures cancer

― has μ answers (Lamp), Wednesday, December 31, 2008 4:54 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

it does dude!! folding@home!

wtf, why does that guy think the wii is going to double its sales next year?

ya he seems so reasonable otherwise

lol

http://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/pagead/imgad?id=COGpwPnCpLDMPxDYBRhPMgjY-zoYSRr5sg

this is the banner ad on that sdf site

yah but yr ignoring the text below it that says *product know to cause cancer

[12:51] me: http://www.sonydefenseforce.com/
[12:51] me: what banner ad do u get when u load this page
[12:51] me: cuz i'm seeing this http://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/pagead/imgad?id=COGpwPnCpLDMPxDYBRhPMgjY-zoYSRr5sg
[12:59] a dude: same thing
[13:00] a dude: how come
[13:00] me: seems kinda funny imo dont it
[13:01] a dude: not really, its a joke site created by an owner of an xbox360 fan site
[13:01] me: oh
[13:01] me: ;_;

haha poe's law for sony fanboys

http://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/NPD_2008_in_review

massive damage

tldr, is it saying the PS3 has done well?

yes, it is now clearly overtaking the PS2

Poor PSP ;_;

ps3 is pretty dope - my 15 year old brother copped it cuz you don't have to pay to play (<--hearing this in a cnn anchor voice) online. graphics are good and the controller works well. idk i only play sports games and i guess it's pretty cheap. i recommend

Pretty cheap is about the only complimeng you can't pay a PS3.

yeah i dont know why i said that acutally - isn't it like $250 or something right now?

fwiw i think $250 is cheap for a console still dk why i said it was cheap tho cuz i have no idea what it costs

wii is the lamest system ever. shit gets played in our house @ school but all we play is mario kart w/ game cube controllers. chix aren't even into lame games like wario ware and nu-duck hunt and shit

ill will now take my challops and go home

Dunno, it's still ~$700 here so almost certainly not.

xxp yes the Wii is arse and 99.4% of the games are complete rubbish, which is really bloody disappointing.

yeah best buy is selling ps3s for $400

Sony's all 'it's a bargain u get a blu ray player + wi-fi + free network games etc etc' and thinks that's enough to convince people to spend $700 on the bastard when a basic 360 is going for ~$300 atm. Luckily for Sony there's no global financial crisis.

don't get why ppl complain abt pay-to-play on 360 when the service u get is so much better and integrated

Ah.

thats weird, AA. the 80GB PS3 is $399 here which is still below $600AUD. if you could only find a way to plug it in. how much are new release games there? The 360 is $299 for the 60GB which i guess is still cheaper. its still a pain in the ass the set up (you have to buy a wireless adapter and it doesn't even scan for available wireless networks - you have to put that shit ijn from scratch) and even more a pain in the ass to play.

this blu-ray business is baffling though. is there anyone who doesnt know its going die in the next few years? did the vhs v beta battle of the 80s teach sony nothing?

oh yeah and fuck the psp. theres nothing quite like feeling carsick in your own living room.

don't get why ppl complain abt pay-to-play on 360 when the service u get is so much better and integrated

― cozwn, Friday, January 16, 2009 11:29 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

ps3 online seems fine to me, i don't really know what you mean by "more integrated"

plus free vs having to pay every month is obviously better

i mean, you might as well say, i dont know why people complain about the ps3's price when the system you get doesn't die on you and need to be sent in for servicing 40% of the time

you can pay once a year and it's like £30, its hardly ballbusting for a better service

I take yr second point however

more integrated I meant things like "widespread voice chat", party mode and isn't it a bitch to just invite ppl to play some games online on ps3?

think tht problem has maybe been eradicated w/universal in-game XMB?

ya its not so bad... maybe not as smooth

Bluray's already won the beta-vs-vhs battle, unless there's a secret army of HD-DVD players keeping quiet. It's main problem is that it's not really as much better as VHS->DVD.

^ There are numerous advantages of DVD over VHS (no tape jams, quick search times, smaller medium, no colour saturation, no tracking issues etc etc), but Blu Ray is just DVD with more dots. Loads of people don't care about more dots. I can see the difference but don't care.

ss: Electronics are usually more expensive here, but I don't think we cop it as badly as Europe. The 360 has a loads better interface now btw.

i relative improvement that blu-ray offers over DVD is smaller than DVD over VHS but i think most ppl still get what the format offers the big roadblock for uptake imo is (a) not enough ppl have upgraded television sets altho this changing pretty quickly and (b) cost of blu-ray discs is crazy high compared to DVDs

Most people get it but most people don't care enough. And yeah, monitors.

right that was my point - beta was better quality than vhs but vhs still won in the end. i mean, did you go to a video store in the 80s? it was 4/5s vhs 1/5 beta. i havent been in a video store for year but i imagine the dvd to blu ray ratio is about the same.

aa: i just got a ps3 after having a 360 for 18 months(?). i like the ps3 so much better that i cant imagine ever turning that ugly white box on again.

^^^ i felt the same way

xbox 360 is feels like a big bloated to compared to the slickness of the ps3

big bloated toy

fitness consoles

http://blog.wired.com/games/2009/01/december-sales.html

Good WTF points: Wow, Mario Kart DS? No Rock Band in the top 10 - one Guitar Hero title and it's the Wii version? (and PS3 continues to die)

We received a couple of DSs as Christmas presents this year for the kids, and a copy of Mario Kart DS; wouldn't be shocked if it came up high on the list of "what games to buy a kid new to gaming".

beta was better quality than vhs but vhs still won in the end.

Marginally. There's a whole beta > vhs movement but in reality the difference was always minimal and technology closed the gap.

i havent been in a video store for year

Nobody has. That's another reason Blu Ray is suffering.

i like the ps3 so much better that i cant imagine ever turning that ugly white box on again.

Woooooooooooooow. Once it drops to a reasonable price I'm all over it.

I thought the thing about BD is that it's actually selling right now since it's significantly more of a pain in the ass to pirate stuff in BD quality, at least for entry-level internet th13v3s. I mean, the cost of a Blu-ray disc is pretty much equivalent to that of a DVD on the consumer level (Criterion BDs even share price points with their DVD counterparts), and a lot of folks would probably find it easier to drop twenty bucks on a disc than to free up 11GB of space on their hard drive, wait eight years for the dl to finish, and then have to either watch it on your computer or somehow finagle it onto your TV (an enormous ass-ache in and of itself). and plus there's the whole PHYSICAL MEDIA 4 LYFE mindset which happens to be particularly strong among console video gamers (qed both the explosive proliferation of more-expensive, ecstatically-wasteful special editions of games this generation)

tl;dr: personally, I think the OMG BD = BETAMAX meme is kind of inaccurate. a better frame of reference would probably be minidiscs.

also, for sky-is-falling PS3 news, I think this is by far the funniest story in recent weeks.

were minidiscs considered better quality than cds?

Nah.

o rly? I thought they were. mostly I just meant that they're an example of consumer technology kept alive by the hardcore devotees well after technology had made the medium obsolete (in minidiscs' case, people who recorded & traded bands' live shows)

Definitely better in terms of editing, but as they all used compression right from the first models the quality was by definition worse than CD.

I think better sound formats exist in the newer models but nobody cares anymore.

I mean, the cost of a Blu-ray disc is pretty much equivalent to that of a DVD on the consumer level (Criterion BDs even share price points with their DVD counterparts)

yah the criterion discs are price equivalent but i'm pretty sure that for most films the gap is usually like $10. just checked amazon and the dark knight DVD is $15, the blu-ray is $24. thats what a 60% price difference?

obv $10 isnt that much but does add up quickly and that more than anything makes the real cost of owning blu-ray unpalatable

it pains me horribly to point this out again but it is ESPECIALLY uplalatalabalablah when your cable/satellite provider is showing Dark Knight at 720p/1080i for $5 on-demand

yes but that shit ain't ballin

you can always rent movies in any popular format for $5... that didn't stop people from buying regular dvds

Weren't DVDs also helped by the fact you could play them on your computer, meaning that most of America already had DVD-players setup?

i'm not sure, i thikn the two were adopted simultaneously

honestly, with the exception of maybe a tv series, i dont know why anyone would BUY a dvd. my point was more what the hell is happening at these sony meetings where i guess someone is saying "well, betamax and minidisc worked out SO well for us lets make blu-ray!" and everyone else thinks yeah thats just a great idea.

people bought dvds for the same reason they bought videotapes, so they could watch a favorite movie over and over whenever they wanted without leaving the house. dvds were to vhs what cds were to cassettes, so everybody went out and got the new thing.

sunny bikini otm

DVD 26
BLU RAY 17
VHS 14

DVDs were helped along by the novelty factor though. I remember buying about 30 of the bloody things because OMG EXTRAS and OMG COMMENTARIES and etc etc. Loads of people went overboard. That novelty has worn off for nearly everyone.

people bought dvds for the same reason they bought videotapes, so they could watch a favorite movie over and over whenever they wanted without leaving the house. dvds were to vhs what cds were to cassettes, so everybody went out and got the new thing.

sunny bikini otm

― TOMBOT, Saturday, January 17, 2009 5:25 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

ya but hte point is people bought like 1000x the amount of dvds than they did vhs tapes... it was a whole new huge market

Matter of time before I conduct a superbitch about how incredibly fucking horrible video tape was.

Yes, the leap from cassette to CD and VHS to DVD were huge, truly generational/technological leaps that the public really wanted - though in both cases, it probably took at least 3-5 years before the public really caught on. Both formats benefited from the lack of degradation - both cassettes and VHS inevitably lose quality the more you play it and just over time - digital media rarely have this problem. This also hurts future formats trying to compete (see Super Audio CD, DVD Audio, etc). Also, at this point, DVDs have gotten as cheap or cheaper than VHS ever has, which makes sense since it costs less to produce.

Not only is Blu-ray not an enormous leap in quality for most people, it's still pretty early in its market cycle - it's really only have one "real" year, since HDDVD tanked. Before that, virtually everybody just sat on the sidelines. Also, it's definitely too expensive right now , both for players and movies.

This thread has gotta a bit off topic - we're here for CONSOLE WAR, people! Take it to ILF.

yes one more on dvd/vhs please xpost

Regarding dvd/vhs, price was another big thing. It's so funny remembering when new vhs tapes cost like $80 each. I remember my dad buying cables and borrowing another vhs player so that we could copy tapes we'd rented...that we then watched once and forgot. Now it's a better value (wrt time and money) just to buy movies that you watch once and forget.

PC

When DVD first came out it was dead easy to justify spending $700 on a player that could do all that new cool techy stuff. Now people are a lot more tech-savvy and get that Blu Ray's just a disc, and charging loads for the hardware & discs is a rip when a DVD player can be had for $40. Sticking a PS3 in a Blu Ray player (UH OH BACK ON TOPIC) only sweetens the deal for people who want a PS3.

yes one more on dvd/vhs please xpost

Regarding dvd/vhs, price was another big thing. It's so funny remembering when new vhs tapes cost like $80 each. I remember my dad buying cables and borrowing another vhs player so that we could copy tapes we'd rented...that we then watched once and forgot. Now it's a better value (wrt time and money) just to buy movies that you watch once and forget.

― Euler, Saturday, January 17, 2009 9:46 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^^^ this.

dvds were consciously priced to own to open up this market

Also, there's the important fact the CDs and DVDs made navigation much easier (flipping through tracks - scenes, as opposed to fastforwarding/rewinding). At least for young grade schooler me that was the big sell in more from cassette to CD-ROM.

The PS2 came along in Europe at about the time that it was clear that everyone needed a DVD player, but they were in general a bit too expensive for a casual purchase, and now hey, here's one from the people who made the PlayStation! I think DVDs were a bit more entrenched in the states?

I am also completely agape at how that Wired article's comments turn into "What Nintendo needs to do to save itself"

It's almost as if hardcore gamers don't want to admit that MS and Sony's ridiculously expensive, narrow-audience-focused development of titles is a bad strategy!

I will take Braid or Geometry Wars 2 or Castle Crashers over every single game ever released for the Wii.

Congratulations on writing the dumbest thing I've read on the internet all year.

congratulations to whom?

To me I guess.

I haven't played a game on the Wii that has really engaged me much.

IMPORTANT QUESTION

do we need a what was the best controller ever poll?

so apparently it takes a dog day to apply ps3 title and firmware updates? that is a massive -neg

maybe you need a better internet connection? it was super swift for me

just what I heard

nice try xbox fanboy

Street Fighter IV* 360 446K
Street Fighter IV* PS3 403K

Interesting - I never would've thought it'd be that close, here in the US.

ps3 got a boost cos that's the tournament version

Why's that?

I think it's cos the ps2 versions of all other sfs were the tournament vns so people already have ps2 sticks and it's easy to get ps2 -> ps3 adaptors. I think.

^^^ xbox fanboy

wait a second here, are you actually saying people bought PS3s so they didn't have to shell out for a new joystick?

ja

crazy talk

if they are hardcore fighting dudes then it wouldn't surprise me. They are gonna have a controller that they are most comfortable sticking with and will probably be loathe to change.

ya for real. i understand PS3 version is the tournament version => ppl buy PS3 version of game but i thought the PS3 version was tournament standard because of a) sony $$$$ b) continuity c) jap nationalism not dudez refusing to buy new joysticks

The idea of getting a PS3 to avoid getting a new stick is still weird, but from what I hear PS3 is a lot more lax about the controller standard, and using regular USB inputs - for microsoft stuff they have to use MS's wireless standard so it's not as easy to get a converter. Most PS3 pads/sticks will work on PC right off the bat, I think...

yeah lamp's explanation makes sense

they just bought the ps3 version, not the ps3, to avoid getting a new stick

yeah, nhex is right, your best to get an xbox stick bcs sony are less lax about their pcbs or something

waht?

microsoft are precious about giving out the information about the pcbs in their controllers so if you want to dual-mod your joystick to work on ps3 and 360 your best bet is to get a 360 stick and mod in the ps3 psb

basically fighting game nerds make no sense

case in point?

oi

isn't it just that the sfiv audience are more likely to own a ps3 than the general audience? am i missing something?

probably that too

It's surprising because the install base is roughly 2:1 in favor of Xbox 360 vs. PS3. (Wii systems surpassed the 360 about 6 months ago, despite debuting a year behind it - the monthly sales numbers are still stomping the other two) Multiplatform titles usually reflect this - I never would have guessed that it would be roughly equal. (Also factoring in the 360's reputation for better online play, PS3 versions and ports have a slightly bad rep in general)

Re: the controllers, what I was trying to get at... (which I'm not sure I'm totally correct on) suppose you want to get a fighting stick and you want it to work on as many systems as possible - very reasonable considering the cost of these things. With previous generations it was much easier to just get an HK controller adapter for whatever system you wanted to convert to (I'm not even thinking of modding).

But from what I understand it's tougher to get a PS3 stick and get it working on 360, than it is to get a 360 stick work on PS3, since as said above PS3 is more lax about those controller standards, while MS (surprise!) uses some weird proprietary controller standard. That said this thing is coming out, so maybe it's not as issue anymore. I'm mostly concerned about this because I want to get a stick for the PC version, but also want it to be as compatible as possible if I'm going to bring it somewhere. Currently I'm considering this cheapo one.

So, as someone still sitting on the sidelines: now that 360 AND PS3 have gotten a nice price drop, what system is looking most exciting over the next 12 months?

It's a tough question. For 2010, we know the ps3 (for example) has The Last Guardian, Heavy Rain, and God of War 3, and we know xbox360 has Splinter Cell Conviction, Alan Wake and Fez for starters. In a way, I personally think the games for ps3 usually look more interesting, but at the same time, I find myself preferring the 360. It has a deeper library, a better selection of arcade games, a better selection of non-game things you can do with your console, better friend interface, and usually a better online experiences (in regards to connection quality and ease of use). Overall, I think it's really a 50/50 kind of thing, which is a drag as there are enough good reasons to own both. Pick one exclusive game you really have to play more than any other and go for that system.

does the 360 have wireless out of the box yet? do you still have to pay to play online?

wii doesn't have ethernet who knew

jeff forgot to mention tht 360 has the better versions of the multiplatform games and better DLC for them and a better online system albeit u do have to pay $30 for tht; PS3 plays blu ray and has the last guardian

apparently the new elites have wireless out of the box too

ps3 has the sexier hardware now tho; 360 cd do w/a hardware revision but I'm maybe just being greedy. internal wi-fi wd be nice, tho not essential, as wd blu ray (not gonna happen anytime soon), small form factor

u have to seriously consider whether having ur console rrod on u will annoy u cos it will happen

oops, my bad, still no wi fi out the box for xbox even on elites

pound for pound the ps3 is the cheaper console, by a long way, iirc

xbox hdd pricing is gross too, whereas u can swap out any 2.5" sata hdd u want into a PS3. I think you can even get 1TBs now right?

ps3 has valkyria chronicles and demon's souls too btw

It'll be interesting to see if these slim ps3s prove as reliable as the fatties.

I think the 360 is the better gaming console, but not by much, and the PS3 is the better multimedia hub, but not by much.

Does the new PS3 still have the 2.5" HDD bay?

Yes, you can still replace the HD yourself.

I didn't mean to exclude Wii from my question, btw - actually tbh I don't care all that much for the exclusives on PS3 or 360, the Wii has actually had all the ones I'm interested in (Galaxy, Punch-Out, TvC, NMH). But unfortunately it lacks all the killer non-exclusives that the other two have, like Rock Band, Batman, various downloadables, etc. PS3 has a couple I'm interested in (Heavy Rain, Valkyria), but Xbox has better DLC and online so it kind of cancels out.

I still use Netflix over my 360 more than I use it for any other single purpose.

there are a bunch of compelling reasons not to get any of these but irl having ur fukken xbox fail out on u is the most annoying thing of all + its like having a small outboard motor running in ur apt.

as to the specific revive qn def PS3 line up looken tight - level 5 rpg (white knight) cross edge looks pretty good too um quantum theory, demon's edge. is that yakuza game out i think thats 2009.

ps3 gives u aids

there I said it

owning one of these seems like a massive effort compared to 'plug it in and plug it into the tv'

changing hard drives? jesus

+ internet connections + subscriptions for internet + rrod + wii's stupid receiver

http://atariace.com/images/atariace.com/nintendo/images/nes_rf_adapter.jpg

admittedly less hassle than setting up wifi for your xbox tho

Splinter Cell Conviction, Alan Wake and Fez

What is this rubbish? Alan Wake? What else do we have to look forward to? Barry Davies? Arthur Frederickson? Maureen Jones?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKLPY9CZ-z8

Alright that might be pretty decent. Nice work with the puffy red jacket.

Though it pains me to jump back into this thread, another pro-point for the 360 is that it has managed to retain backwards compatibility with the vast majority of the original xbox library - some good/interesting titles there, like Panzer Dragoon Orta, Prince of Persia :SoT, Shenmue II, and Jet Set Radio Future. List is huge actually (and the game's online portions still work) http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/backwardcompatibilitygameslist.htm

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure the ability to play custom soundtracks is required across all 360 games, but up to the developer if they want to implement it on the ps3? Also, to use custom soundtracks on the ps3, you have to copy the tracks to your ps3s hard drive, while on the 360, you could just plug whatever portable music player you use right into the USB port and stream off that?

speaking of backwards compatability, be advised that some people have taken to acting very, very stupidly and trading "up" from their "older" models w/ BC to a Slim. not saying they're everywhere or anything but your chances of getting a 60 gig at Gamestop used prices will probably never be higher.

why is "older" in quotes? i get why "up" is in quotes, because you are on the internet and have opinions, but it is pretty difficult to dispute that the 60GB is older.

also, i would, and perhaps will, gladly trade my 60GB for a slim, for reasons stated elsewhere.

is that yakuza game out i think thats 2009.

it's out but Sega are being some nutsacks and not bringing any of the next-gen Yakuza games over :(

yakuza 3
yakuza kenzan
yakuza 4

none of which have been confirmed for a localisation tho u can hardly justifiably call sega nutsacks for this given how little the og yakuzas sold when westernised

why is "older" in quotes? i get why "up" is in quotes, because you are on the internet and have opinions, but it is pretty difficult to dispute that the 60GB is older.

because I am high and proofreading is obviously for suckers

also, i would, and perhaps will, gladly trade my 60GB for a slim, for reasons stated elsewhere.

well wait a few weeks until there's fewer than 423 on ebay. at the VERY least don't trade it into fkn Gamestop.

yeah, i was going to get a march on the competition but then i remembered i am pretty lazy

so hyped for this
http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/I/61h-a8nq4CL.jpg

I love my PS3 but looooooooooooooooool

As a cost cutting exercise the new PS3 units do not have handshaking hardware that previous models have, therefore Sony cannot guarantee that 1080p will be possible on other brands of tv, i.e. tv's that are not made by Sony, alarmingly he also said that there is no intention to re-introduce this as it doesn't effect all brands. Software updates will have to be rolled out over time for each of the known tv models effected to get them working again. He then went on to say "to get the best possible experience from your PS3 we recommend that you use it in conjunction with a SONY tv" a pre indoctrinated response no doubt.

He then went on to unofficially say "just go and get an 80gb PS3 because they still have the necessary hardware to use 1080p on all sets" he also murmured "Sony are having a few problems at the moment"

Basically; if you want a 160gb (or any future models for that fact) PS3 to display in 1080p on your set then go buy a Sony tv as apparently the bravia sets already have the necessary software to do without the handshaking. If this causes problems on other brands of tv's then the "to get the best possible experience" line is being force fed to their customers.

I like the wii. I could throw a Frisbee to my wii dog all day long.

cobo i have to say im a leeeeeetle skeptical of that semi-literate forum post

1080p gives u aids too

ffs

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2009/11/october-npd-wii-wins-uncharted-charts

Not THAT surprising, I guess, but I still found it so - Wii immediately goes back to the #1 console after the huge system price cut month of September. X360 sales remaining in third, PS3 in second, DS still a goddamn monster (it was actually #1 overall in Sept!).

I'm guessing that means, with NSMB coming out, Wii's going to stay on top this holiday season again. Will Xbox keep sliding?

Oh wait, it does make sense - the price cut to the Wii was at the end of Sept. Durr.

For a while there it looked like ps3 was doomed, but somewhat surprisingly they managed to turn it around, by finally getting the price down to somewhat reasonable and actually putting out some compelling looking exclusives. I think it's pretty clear nobody is going to "win" this generation at this point though. Wii offers a unique experience which is why it continues to sell best, I think - while the 360 and ps3 cancel each other out a bit. I do think ps3 is set to have a really fantastic 2010 with games like the new Final Fantasy and Gran Turismo driving ps2 holdouts to finally go next gen. A further price drop next summer also seems likely. The 360 has such a large install base that I think software-wise it will continue to do monster numbers, though I think they've dropped the ball a bit... their exclusives line-up this holiday season has been pretty weak (especially compared to the other two home consoles). If natal proves to be a dud they're going to need some serious price cuts to get back out of 3rd place (console sales-wise).