What Would Be Better.
Since I destroyed all of my finals today, I got to thinking about what I am going to do over Christmas break. I am going to get a new next gen console, but which one is the best? I am torn between the Nintendo Wii and the Xbox 360 since the Playstation 3 is going to be out of my range for some time.
The 360 has a lot going for it. You can play all older Xbox games on it, and it has been out for a year so the price isn't that bad. In addition, I can trade in my Original Xbox for some more money taken off of it. Xbox also has the rights to Gears of War, which would be a really good reason to buy the 360. Microsoft made a really good product, and hopefully I can get one some time before Spring semester kicks in.
The Nintendo Wii also has a lot of options to offer. I don't care that it doesn't have a DVD player, I can use the Playstation 2 or go get one for like $50 at Walmart. The games look alright, but they are nothing too special. Zelda looks promising as a great game and the price for the console and Zelda still isn't that expensive. The part I love the most: Nintendo letting you purchase all the nostalgic games FOREVER. If I get a Wii, there will be maybe one game for it that I buy (Zelda) and the rest would be Nintendo and Super Nintendo games. Let's face it, those games were the best, and there won't be ANYTHING that was as great as the Super Nintendo for quite some time.
The 360 has a lot going for it. You can play all older Xbox games on it, and it has been out for a year so the price isn't that bad. In addition, I can trade in my Original Xbox for some more money taken off of it. Xbox also has the rights to Gears of War, which would be a really good reason to buy the 360. Microsoft made a really good product, and hopefully I can get one some time before Spring semester kicks in.
The Nintendo Wii also has a lot of options to offer. I don't care that it doesn't have a DVD player, I can use the Playstation 2 or go get one for like $50 at Walmart. The games look alright, but they are nothing too special. Zelda looks promising as a great game and the price for the console and Zelda still isn't that expensive. The part I love the most: Nintendo letting you purchase all the nostalgic games FOREVER. If I get a Wii, there will be maybe one game for it that I buy (Zelda) and the rest would be Nintendo and Super Nintendo games. Let's face it, those games were the best, and there won't be ANYTHING that was as great as the Super Nintendo for quite some time.
posted by Brian at 2:55 PM
4 Comments:
Woah, woah, gotta clear one thing up before you go and make a decision-
The 360 CANNOT play all Xbox games on it. In fact, it has the worst backwards compatibility program of any of the three by a long shot. There are only a select number of original Xbox games that function on the 360 (you can find the list online), and even THEN, they don't work immediately. You need a broadband connection so you can hook up to the XBL Marketplace and download the necessary patches for each game to run. Worst of all, there's no guarantee the emulation will be perfect; I tried playing Baldurs Gate: Dark Alliance II on the 360 with a friend (one of the few titles that's currently on the b/c list), and it slowed down to an interminable crawl. It was virtually unplayable. Halo 2, on the other hand, was fine.
And even though Microsoft has supposedly fixed the launch problems that plagued the console (worst defective:sold ratio in history), I still think it's the least reliable of the three...right now, at least. But you are right about Gears of War, and there are several others to think about: Dead Rising, Saints Row, and even better, the upcoming Blue Dragon, Lost Planet, and Halo 3.
For the record, the PS3 has by far the best in-place backwards compatibility. It can play any of thousands of PS1 and PS2 games right out of the box, and transferring old data from memory card to PS3 hard drive only requires a $14.99 adapter. You can also create more internal memory cards for PS1 and PS2 on the machine so you can save any new progress. There are some small visual and sound issues in some obscure titles (Sony should fix them with a firmware update in 2007), but it still works really well. I'm playing FF XII on the PS3 right now, for example, and of my 40 PS1 and 53 PS2 games, I haven't yet encountered a problem with any.
As for the Wii, the b/c costs money if it's not a GameCube title. But at least they're cheap, and you do get them forever. The Wii is also quite unique and will offer a completely fresh way of experiencing videogames, and for a very reasonable price. At only $250, it seems much easier to deal with than the $400 Premium 360 and the $600 60GB PS3. It also has Zelda, and even though it's the only title really worth playing right now, it's pretty amazing (just like Resistance: Fall of Man with the PS3).
I can't tell you what to buy; that's totally up to you. Just wanted to make sure you were away of the 360 b/c truth before spending a lot of money. :) Personally, I already have the PS3 and want the 360 more than the Wii, but that's just because there are more games on the 360 I really want. Nintendo just doesn't produce enough games for my umm...age group. Not that I don't like younger-oriented games, but it just wouldn't take up a lot of my time.
I want all three next-gen consoles, anyway. :)
Thanks for the info. I really wish Microsoft would have thought of all of this before they even launched the console. I really was going to sell my Xbox, keep the games and just run them all on the 360. I knew some of the games didn't work; I tried playing blitz: the league and it said I had to download a patch. Sadly, the computing system here at western doesn't allow Xbox or Playstation 2 to go online. That was almost a year ago; I thought they would have improved since then. Guess not.
I know with the Wii there aren't a lot of games for an older audience besides Red Steel, but I would pay for some old school titles that go for a lot more online.
Playstation 3 would be awesome, but there is no telling when they are going to actually be available to a person who doesn't sit in line for 3 days.
Thanks for the info, it's going to help a lot in the challenge of looking for my first next gen console. If only they could combine all three...then that would be something.
No problem. And yeah, you need to download a patch for the Xbox game to work on the 360, but that's ONLY if the game is on the backwards compatibility list.
They just updated the list with 37 more Xbox games in December, by the way. So the longer you wait, the more Xbox games will work on the 360...but you'll always have to download those patches, unfortunately.
Well, you just got the PS2, anyway, didn't you? There are dozens upon dozens of GREAT games to play for that, so you certainly won't run out of games while you're making your next-gen decision. :)
Yeah, It seems like I might be waiting for a while so it's nice to have a Ps2 and play some great titles that are also cheap. A few of the guys I live with are getting Wii's so I just might have to break down and get one until I can sell my Xbox and upgrade to the 360.
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