This article could be easier named “The Console War”. But if it would be as i wish, it would be a war with no winner. Actually, the winner would be the player, the daily gamer that could get the best out of all worlds. And we have in here the PC world, getting more and more expensive each 3-4 months, when a new GPU or CPU is released. Then we have the Playstation world, which Sony feeds on like a frenzy beast. PSx, PS2, PSP, PS3 are all shortcuts to a world that every gamer should know about. Then we have the new player, Microsoft. If it is an old player on PC world, on the consoles they’ve started recently with their Xbox console. And now they claim “world domination” with their Xbox 360 console. And finnally, we have the “oldest” player in the house: Nintendo. Who in the world doesn’t know what a NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube or Wii is? Who will win? Which one is now the recommended choice for a player? Which one is worth investing in? Well, read on and we shall see.

Personal Computer (PC) : Well, who doesn’t know these two letters combined? The PC is now in almost every house, doing dirty jobs, allowing you to browse the web, find informations or helping you to make money. But how about games? Well, who hasn’t played Doom or Warcraft, Half Life or Solitaire ? I guess all the “veterans” did. The PC opened a new world right on your desk, letting you explore something that is limited only by imagination and technology. About the imagination we could talk forever, so i’ll just stick to technology part. Technology that’s getting faster, better and more expensive each day. These days, if you’re pc is older than one year, then it’s too old to let you play next gen games. If you’re familiar with TNT, GeForce, FX, Radeon, Pentium 2, 3, 4, Core2, then you’re out of luck. It means you’re traped in a box that needs upgrades every 6 months or so. Let’s make a small sum for a “medium” equiped PC and then we shall compare with the consoles:

MONITOR: 24″ SAMSUNG TFT 244T wide,1920×1200
CPU: Intel Core2 Duo E6600  2,4 GHz, bus 1066, s.775, 4MB, BOX
MAINBOARD: Asus Commando INTEL P965
HDD: 500 GB Western Digital Caviar RE, Serial ATA2, 7200 rpm, 16MB
RAM: 2 * DDR II 1G PC6400 800 MHz
VIDEO: Nvidia GF8800GTS, PCIE*, 640MB DDR3-320bit
SOUND: X-FI MX XTREME GAMER-FATALITY PRO
DVDRW: DVD+/-RW LG H55NRBB
CASE: Antec NSK6580 EarthWatts EA-430 / 430W
KEYBOARD: Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 5000 Laser
SPEAKERS: Logitech Z-5500, 5.1, 505W RMS
PRICE: 3500 USD

XBOX 360: After not so succesfull Xbox experience (at least not compared with PS2), Microsoft decided to counter with the first next-gen console. Using a triple core IBM custom CPU and some fancy ATI GPU, Xbox 360 is trying to get back on track where the old Xbox failed. And that area was mainly into a better Live and a better gaming experience. So, they’ve took at least one year advantage before PS3 launch and started destroying Sony exclusivity, getting titles that were impossible to get in the past (like Devil May Cry and Final Fantasy). For the hardware part, the gamepads are beautifully crafted and ergonomical. The graphics are nice, upto 1080i at start and 1080p with latest builds that use HDMI ports. For those who hate the white colour, they even released a black Elite version. Well, all seems nice, but how about bad points? Here, we should start by pointing out the worst problem Xbox 360 has, and that’s RROD (red rings of death). It’s a problem caused by GPU overheating and bad manufacturing. Some manufacturers and resellers even pointed arround 33% of Xbox 360 units that were defective. The problem is, even after shrinking the CPU to 65nm and adding some small (insert joke in here) heatpipe on the GPU heatsink on the Halo 3 Xbox 360 edition, after only 3-4 days from launch we started see RROD again. So, it seems like Microsoft hasn’t learned any lesson in almost 2 years. Now, let’s see the price for a nice setup including Xbox 360.

CONSOLE: Xbox 360 Elite
ACCESORIES: Extra gamepad, headset, wireless network, webcam, racing wheel, hd-dvd player
LIVE: 1 year Live Gold
TV: 32″ LCD Samsung, FullHD
PRICE: 2500 USD

PLAYSTATION 3 (PS3): After over 100 million PS2 console sales, Sony is hoping for a comeback. After a delayed CELL processor release (a 3.2Ghz CPU with 8 SPE’s developed by Sony, Toshiba & IBM), Sony finnally managed to present a worthy succesor to PS2. The Playstation 3 console. Unfortunatelly, with a lot of drawbacks. First, the fact that it has more than one year behind Microsoft Xbox 360 console release. Seccond, the process between Immersion (the inventor of force-feedback) and Sony which resulted in a DualShock controller without vibrations. Third, a bigger price, mostly because of integrating BluRay player. But, it came in force, first with a nice backward compatibility for PSx, PS2 games. Then with an equivalent to Xbox Live that is completelly FREE! More than that, the PS3 included from start wireless controllers, wireless networking, card reader, blueray player (not like Xbox 360 HD-DVD who must be aquired separatelly), bluetooth and… the best features of all, it’s a super mega stable giant, the way a console should be. It doesn’t feature a RROD at all. In fact, ppl have tested PS3 running at over 60 and under 0 degrees Celsius, without beeing able to crash it. Now, let’s see an estimate for the costs (including the same TV LCD as the Xbox 360 has):

CONSOLE: Playstation 3 Premium
ACCESORIES: Extra gamepad, headset, webcam
TV: 32″ LCD Samsung, FullHD
PRICE: 2500 USD

WII (Nintendo Wii): Nintendo is a long term player on the console market. And while they never had the power of Sony or the money of Microsoft, they succeeded through innovation and gameplay. This time, they’ve hit the jackpot through a wireless controller called Wiimote. Using a combination of accelerometers and an infrared bar, the wiimote is detecting the movement, allowing the player to control using simple and fun gestures. Adding a Nunchack you can become a versatile ninja warrior (take care not to break your new plasma screen though). But while it wins by fun and innovation in game control, it loses in hardware power and graphics area. Beeing able to output to maximum 480p, it cannot be called a next-gen console. So, for those guys with over 50″ lcd’s or plasma screens, Wii would look annoying, almost like the PS2 was able to perform. But it had the price advantage, beeing cheaper. Let’s sum um the price for a Wii console, but this time we will include a cheaper LCD, only HDReady:

CONSOLE: Nintendo Wii
ACCESORIES: Extra gamepad, nunchack
TV: 32″ LCD Samsung, HDReady
PRICE: 2000 USD

WAR (wôr): If it would be as i like, i would get them all (hehe, actually i own them all, beside old gen like PS2, Xbox, Gamecube). But if your finnancially in pain, you have to make a decision. What to get, why, how much you can cut costs, what that will mean in long terms, and so on. But i will leave this for the seccond part, which i will continue tommorrow. I will try to explain and put head-to-head all the features, the good and the bad on each console and PC. Hopefully i will do it right, not as some fanboy would do usually. For now, take care and have fun on whatever sistem you own!