PS3 wins the Console War (PS3 vs. 360. vs. Wii)

[frogbeastegg]

My PS2 was my favourite console of the previous generation. Quite probably my favourite console ever. I own more games that it than for anything else. Out of 14 years of gaming and countless platforms, it houses the greatest percentage of my favourite games. I expected the PS3 to carry this on.

There can be no disputing the fact that it's a wonderful bit of hardware. Well made, well designed, pleasant to use, quiet, and just shiny for lack of a better catch all happy word. It's a wonderful movie player and it's hands down the best version of the PS2 in existence. Upscaling, wireless controller, faster memory card access, quieter console - there's everything to love about a backwards compatible PS3. As a PS3 it gets little use from me - there's so little on it I want to play. The exclusives have been very disappointing so far; if you don't play shooters then there isn't much left over. The majority of the appealing ideas spoken of early in the PS3's life have not materialised or have failed to reach Europe - where is my huge selection of downloadable PS1 classics? Where's the rest of my software driven backwards compatibility? Where's the amazing wow-ness that the xbox couldn't handle without melting?

The 360 is the last console I brought out of this gen's trio, and it's the one I didn't expect to bother with. 18 months on and it's the one I own most games for this gen, the one I play the most, and the one which has the largest proportion of games I enjoyed on. The snag? As hardware it’s not very nice. It feels a bit cheap and flimsy; I particularly dislike the eject button for the disc tray. The disc drive is very noisy, the cooling fans are loud; installing games to the hard drive helps a lot but the problem is never entirely cured. I do prefer the controller to the PS3’s; the analogue stick has more resistance to it and is better located.

I brought my 360 because of a turn of events I never expected: it got the JRPGS. That's a niche that the Playstation family has dominated for 2 generations and is famous for. That kind of sums up the whole situation for me. The PS3 lost many of the things which the earlier machines had won, and in doing so it lost the appeal they had.

As for FFXIII, I shall do as I always do when it comes to multiplatform releases and get it for whichever console looks set to give the best experience. It would be nice if for once that were the PS3.

I remember when games routinely came on 4 or more discs. I think 6 was the largest number for a single game I owned. Often the data was divided up so you had to swap discs like a crazed DJ just to walk across a small town

IMO the DS is the winner. It has sold the most units, has the largest library of games, has the widest variety of game types, has loads of outstanding titles, makes its unique selling point work, and is good hardware. The only thing disqualifying it from the standard race is the fact it doesn’t connect to a TV. I love mine.

[Tratorix]

IMO the DS is the winner. It has sold the most units, has the largest library of games, has the widest variety of game types, has loads of outstanding titles, makes its unique selling point work, and is good hardware. The only thing disqualifying it from the standard race is the fact it doesn’t connect to a TV. I love mine.

If there's one thing Nintendo knows, its handheld games. They've pretty much dominated that market since they got into it.