Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Wii console reviews

[Tim1]

The Wii was the first console I bought since the N64: as somebody who grew up in the 8/16-bit era I felt that I was growing out of consoles as I used to love the whole pick up and play aspect of old school games, and never liked the idea of putting an afternoon aside just to boot up a PS3 game or what have you.  But the Wii re-kindled that old school gratification, and despite it obviously aiming for the family market there have been some great games - Mario Kart, New Super Mario Bros., the two main Zelda games and the Mario Galaxy games to name a few.  Unfortunately its range was swamped with the largest quantity of third-party crap to grace any console since the 2600.  It's also painfully clear that its technical inadequacies led to 'lite' versions of games, such as Ghostbusters and CoD, that were vastly superior on the PS3 and 360.  The initial novelty of the Wii-mote has long been out-shadowed and it fell behind in the console race some time ago now - unless I'm at a house party the Wii never really gets played now.  But there's something to say about a console that my Dad will happily play Wii Sports on, given the uncompromising contempt he's given to any console since their invention.  I think the VGC's reviews are great and very accurate.  I look forward to playing on the Wii U, but am worried about Nintendo's future, as I'm not convinced it'll fair well against the new Sony and MS consoles.

[a1]

I may be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure the PS3 launched with 2 revisions. A $500 and a $600; with the $500 version having a smaller hard drive.

[Marriott_Guy1]

[QUOTE=a]I may be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure the PS3 launched with 2 revisions. A $500 and a $600; with the $500 version having a smaller hard drive.[/QUOTE]
This is correct.

[michaeld1]

Love the new console reviews, though you should probably mention that only some versions of the PS3 have backwards compatibility for PS2 games and that all PS3s are backwards compatible with PS1 games.  Also, the PS3 came out in 2006, not 2005.  And finally, regarding the 360, I know you've had to buy a couple of new ones, and I think I remember you saying that you got one of the new slim models.  Are you planning to discuss that a bit more in the 360 system review, like you've done with other systems like the Sega CD and PS1?

[Orion1]

Overall good reviews.  That second sentence of the 360 review bothers me though since it seems to suggest that the 360 and PS3 were released around the same time.  The PS3 came out one entire year after the 360.  This made a huge difference in the system wars, since it gave Microsoft a head start.

Also, you might want to mention in one of the reviews how tight the race is between the PS3 and 360 (as far as number of consoles sold). The PS3 has actually passed up the 360 (barely) according to the Wikipedia link below.  It's rare for two systems in the same generation to be so close in sales.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_game_consoles


On to the next generation ...

[Rev1]

[QUOTE] They were excellent reviews. I'm glad to see someone expose the Wii for the piece of garbage that it is. [/QUOTE]
I really don't think he ever said that. He mentioned that it was a dumping ground for bad games but there are quite a few titles that are worth owning on the Wii... His overall score did show that the system had several merits and was a collectible console worth owning... It was no CDi.

[soporj1]

[QUOTE=Jon]I'm glad to see someone expose the Wii for the piece of garbage that it is.[/QUOTE]

Talk about putting words in The Critic's mouth!

[Jon1]

The Wii sucks, and most gamers know this. They marketed towards people that weren't even into video games. And the software and controllers were trash. The graphics were absurdly plain and barely distinguishable from the Gamecube (which had way better games, it's not even close). The whole concept was trash. I don't see many gamers on this forum saying how much they love the Wii. I'm speaking for at least 80% of gamers in saying it was a bad product. Maybe I distorted the VGC's words but I don't see hordes of people talking about how fantastic the Wii is. I feel pathetic owning the thing.

[VideoGameCritic]

Thanks for the corrections guys.  Here are some of the things I just changed:

- PS3 was released in 2006, not 2005.
- PS3 had a $499 configuration option at launch
- Changed wording in 360 review so it doesn't appear that it launched just before the PS3.

Let me know if there are any other big errors I need to correct.

[snakeboy1]

[QUOTE=Jon]The Wii sucks, and most gamers know this. They marketed towards people that weren't even into video games. And the software and controllers were trash. The graphics were absurdly plain and barely distinguishable from the Gamecube (which had way better games, it's not even close). The whole concept was trash. I don't see many gamers on this forum saying how much they love the Wii. I'm speaking for at least 80% of gamers in saying it was a bad product. Maybe I distorted the VGC's words but I don't see hordes of people talking about how fantastic the Wii is. I feel pathetic owning the thing.[/QUOTE]

Boo hoo. Then sell it if you are so ashamed of it.  I always get a kick out of comments like this, as if you are somehow required to own it even though you hate it and are supposedly embarrassed of it.

I own a Wii and PS3, and while I don't dislike the PS3, the Wii has easily been the most played over the years.  It's the most fun I've had with a system since the Sega Genesis days.  I have it hooked up in the living room, and for some reason, I feel no shame in that.


[QUOTE=Weekend_Warrior]Nintendo did absolutely NOTHING to help their third-party developers market and sell their games. [/QUOTE]

That's a bit of an exaggeration.  What about Nintendo allowing Sega to use the Mario name and their lineup of characters in the Mario & Sonic Olympic games?  That alone probably guaranteed those games would be multi-million sellers.  There were also cases where Nintendo allowed 3rd parties to bundle accessories with their games like the Classic Controller with Monster Hunter and Goldeneye.

I imagine you can come back with evidence of Sony and Microsoft doing more for 3rd parties, but to say that Nintendo has done absolutely nothing is certainly overstating things.