PS3 vs. 360 vs. Wiiiiiiiii

As an older gamer and a parent, I am leaning towards the Wii. The core titles (Mario, Zelda, Metroid) are not only abundant, but they are significantly more family friendly. Also, the integration of the innovations that Nintendo has made seems to be more fluid and accesible in the Wii. The commercial showing people playing tennis by waving the controller around looks like a bunch a fun, and easier to use than the motion sensing PS3 boomerang. And the price point ain't bad either (if the stated price ends up being accurate, if not, Nintendo generally seems to fall wel under the price of other consoles anyway).
 
I'm going to have to go with the 360. Its price isn't that bad and xbox games are ausome, so sign me up for the 360 side.
 
silent_storm said:
Hey Jonas, one question. What do you think are the pros and cons of the 360?
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The pros:
-I'll start from just turning it on. I can activate my wireless controller and the whole system comes on without me getting my lazy butt off the couch.
- then it automatically loads my profile and game settings
- after that, the interface is intuitive and easy to get from one menu to another instead of navigating backwards through the current menu (like music) just to get to games
- the easy way to link up on xbl rocks. Even though I don't have it, my brother does and I'm very impressed
- the fact that when I play a shooter or racing game, I don't have to go in and setup my preferences every stinking time is nice. Games read my defaults and go from there.
- I guess the hard-drive is a bonus, but that's becoming pretty standard
- the controller feels awesome (odd I know, but I feel like I'm breaking PS controllers).
- load time is shorter than xbox

The cons:
- I can't play some of the awesome PS and GC games I really like.
- the difference between the actual games for it and the xbox haven't really become apparent...yet
- I have to actually download things so that I can play a lot of the older games as well as some of the newer ones (I can't play Oblivion until I download)
- I don't have xbl, so all of the above aspects of having it are lost on me
- Bill Gates himself has made references that in the future, we won't be handling movies, games, or music in their physical state. He thinks we'll download or stream all of them. Again, I don't have xbl or internet, so that would really screw me over
- Microsoft has yet to really bust into the range and quality of games that Sony and the Big N have built their reputations on. Most of that isn't their fault, but I want FF too.
- the games designed for both xbox and 360 are typically designed for an older audience. Which means the simpler games, like a Mario or Tetris, aren't there. They should go after the younger market just as strongly.
 
Ok, let me rephrase. Nintendo tries very hard not to alienate anyone. They are very focused on accessible gaming. And another thing: adult appreciation for cartoony stuff seems to be higher in Japan than it is here. You have to think globally.

But I concede like, half of your point.
 
basilmunroe said:
Ok, let me rephrase. Nintendo tries very hard not to alienate anyone. They are very focused on accessible gaming. And another thing: adult appreciation for cartoony stuff seems to be higher in Japan than it is here. You have to think globally.

But I concede like, half of your point.
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Just let the pride go, Basil. You can say it "Jonas was right, I was wrong". Try it, you'll feel better.
 
Right and wrong, up and down, it's all a matter of perspective :)

No you're right, from a north American perspective, Nintendo caters largely to kids. Of course, that doesn't stop us from picking up Pikmin just to see what all the buzz is about, and then actually appreciating its simplicity and innovative style of play.
 
lol, I think the root of it is: who's designing the games and for what market?

Americans like Japanese games, but they don't go nuts for ours (or the West in general). Their sense of humor is "cheesy" (I know we don't need to bring up that old debate) so it tends to appeal to our younger crowd.
 
Spot on, sir. They're also much more able to suspend disbelief when it comes to fantasy worlds. Which is why MS' uber-realism doesn't appeal to them as much as, say, Mario, who can jump about 3 times his height, lives in a world where apparently gravity only applies to some objects, but not others, and, let's face it, talks to mushrooms.

I've always had a fascination with most aspects of Japanese culture. I love the food, I love the old ways and the old warfare, I love the tea ceremony, I love their take on honour, I love their crazy solutions to civic problems, I love anime (Miyazaki is as a god to me, even though I'm just now discovering him), I even love their novels. It stands to reason that I'd be more appreciative of their video games than I am of the ones that are developed over here.
 
Do you think we've lost our love for the super-fantastic (like your example of Mario) because of our dominating movie industry?

Maybe we've gotten so used to special effects and stunts, that it no longer impresses us and we need a sense of realism before we are impressed.
 
basilmunroe said:
Spot on, sir. They're also much more able to suspend disbelief when it comes to fantasy worlds. Which is why MS' uber-realism doesn't appeal to them as much as, say, Mario, who can jump about 3 times his height, lives in a world where apparently gravity only applies to some objects, but not others, and, let's face it, talks to mushrooms.

I've always had a fascination with most aspects of Japanese culture. I love the food, I love the old ways and the old warfare, I love the tea ceremony, I love their take on honour, I love their crazy solutions to civic problems, I love anime (Miyazaki is as a god to me, even though I'm just now discovering him), I even love their novels. It stands to reason that I'd be more appreciative of their video games than I am of the ones that are developed over here.
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Eh...Japanese history and my own family's history converges at some awful points in time, so I'm not overly thrilled with their culture...at the same time, I do respect them. As for Miyazaki-san, he had me at "Kaze no tani no Naushika" or Nausicaä of the Valley of the Winds.

Y'know, being numbered among a generation of people who grew up at the same time the video game did, I have to say that no matter the level of high-res graphics with ultra-realistic physics and emergent AI stuff video games get, there's still a tremendous joy in taking an Italian stereotype, blue-collar worker and controlling him to jump on a mushroom.

Besides, I'm not going to find a Zelda fix on the other two consoles, so 'nuff said.
 
Jonas: That's a very real possibility. Even our sci-fi movies have to fit into a certain framework of rules to keep them "real" enough.

I recently watched 2046, a Japanese/Korean sci-fi picture that made so little sense to me, I barely got through it. But underlying the confusion was a simplicity and artfulness that rung true and allowed me to enjoy it anyway. In the end, I began to understand it a little bit.

Scribe: Amen brutha. What's your heritage by the way? The Japanese pretty much crapped on everyone at some point, so I'm still guessing.
 
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I agree with you both. I love some of the parts of Japanese culture and especially art, but they were some real bastards to the Chinese and the world in general. Even to their own people, but then again, what culture hasn't had it's dark history?

I wonder if the pipes, mushrooms, fire-breathing plants, and attack turtles had underlying meaning? Hmmm. Is Mario like Pink Floyd's "The Wall", where you have to be high to understand its full meaning?

One of you crack-heads research this for me.
 
basilmunroe said:
Jonas: That's a very real possibility. Even our sci-fi movies have to fit into a certain framework of rules to keep them "real" enough.

I recently watched 2046, a Japanese/Korean sci-fi picture that made so little sense to me, I barely got through it. But underlying the confusion was a simplicity and artfulness that rung true and allowed me to enjoy it anyway. In the end, I began to understand it a little bit.

Scribe: Amen brutha. What's your heritage by the way? The Japanese pretty much crapped on everyone at some point, so I'm still guessing.
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I am of the people that play MMORPGs until they die of exhaustion, their hearts failing due to little physical activity coupled with massive amounts of caffeine and nicotine. That's right...my heritage is Korean, but to my everlasting shame I have rejected the concept of playing Lineage or StarCraft until I have bedsores and my limbs atrophy.
 
scribe999 said:
I have rejected the concept of playing Lineage or StarCraft until I have bedsores and my limbs atrophy.
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Umm. Good call.

I had a friend in grade school who was Korean. He was cool.

I'm afraid I know very little about Korean culture, despite having taken Tae Kwon Do for a year (our master didn't focus too much on culture and history).

I'm half Greek, half Anglo-mutt (I think it's mostly Scottish though).
 
Well, it could be a whole lot better. Our municipality seems to have an aversion to spending money on infrastructure. We like to band-aid our problems where really drastic surgery is needed.

And our homelessness rate has reached and maintained crisis status 4 or 5 years running now.
 
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