Hello again people, sorry for the delay in getting the next posting out I have been pretty busy with a lot of things so got sidetracked away from this for a while, and have also got sidetracked away from the development of SpikedEffect.com so nothing to report on there yet.

This week, with the E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) show having just elapsed, talk and hype about the latest and greatest to come from the world of electronic entertainment is at the forefront of any mind that has any inclination toward consumer electronic entertainment. With the “next-gen” console wars having started with the release of the XBox 360 late 2005, the highly anticipated competitors, Playstation 3 (PS3) & Nintendo Wii (Codename Revolution), which are both due out in the 4th Quarter of this year were on display showing what can be expected from the machines when they are released.

Reports from E3 suggest that the Wii stole the show and showed the most promise to succeed as the leading next-gen console. However, I’m not totally convinced, having watched all 3 Company’s conferences (Sony, Nintendo & Microsoft’s Respectively) & seeing the demo material, I can’t say I am totally convinced of this apparent dominance of Nintendo’s Wii…

In this post I will go over each console, and my thoughts and views on each respectively…

XBox 360

With Microsoft releasing the XBox 360 (now on called the 360) in the later stages of 2005, their main aim was to gain an advantage on Sony & Nintendo by being the first to bring out the next generation of gaming and to use the hype to their advantage and grab the stranglehold on the gaming market, but did it work?

I don’t think it worked out any better for them actually, the 360 lacks most obviously the built in capability of HD-DVD (The format it seems Microsoft is choosing to utilise), which it has now been announced to be released as an add-on (External USB Drive – Price TBC), due to what can be seemed as a rushed release. Why does that matter? Well, consider the imminent releases of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray to the market, what is a next generation console without the next gen media compatibility? Because now days, it seems an expectation that the console shouldn’t only be a gaming beast, but also multimedia friendly…

But on top of that a lot of gamers decided to hold out for more information from Sony & Nintendo on their consoles. Don’t get me wrong the XBox 360 is selling but just not as well as Microsoft would originally hope.

Was it because gamers weren’t ready for the “next-gen” console generation? Some people would argue to that end, others would just say that people are being sensible and seeing all that’s available before splashing out for a console. This means Sony & Nintendo can develop their consoles further to make the XBox 360 seem incomplete and not as “next-gen” as it claims to be. But hold up, can Halo do for the 360 what it did for the XBox? Halo 3 is due some time this year, and being a favourite among gamers it is sometimes seen as the reason why people buy an XBox in the first place.

However, with SquareEnix making little to no mention about development for Microsoft consoles could it also be that developers are choosing to concentrate on the other “next-gen” consoles?

In addition to the imminent Halo release & this apparent set back from SquareEnix, Microsoft have another trick up their sleeve having announced “Microsoft Live Anywhere“, a service which will allow Vista users to play games against XBox 360 Users, seeming to imply that Microsoft are aiming to break the console barriers and allow cross-system play… Will it work? Will it succeed? I guess we’ll have to wait until January 2007 (Vista’s expected Consumer release date) to find out…

Playstation 3

So we’ve finally got the answers to the questions we have been asking since Sony unveiled the PS3 to us last year at E3 2005, and the biggest point brought up by editors and reviewers was the price tag that is labelled on the PS3. Due out November 17th this year in the USA and Europe (November 11th in Japan) the PS3 will have 2 versions a 20GB version & 60GB version (that’s right the PS3 WILL come as standard with a Hard Disk Drive). The 20GB version will cost 499 EUR (340 GBP) & the 60GB version will cost 599 EUR (405 GBP) which immediately sounded alarm bells at E3 with editors and reviewers, bringing questions about whether or not people would be prepared to part with that money to get hold of one of these.

My Guess… it wont make a slight difference, because of the PS3′s specs (especially the Cell Processor), multimedia, communication & resolution abilities I truly believe people will be ready to part with the cash to get hold of one of these. The PS3 has playable demos this year, that seemed to put rest to the speculation last year that what you saw was all just fancy CGI and that the games wouldn’t actually like that during game play, and the demos in my eyes were extremely impressive, especially SquareEnix’s Final Fantasy XIII and the Gran Turismo HD Demo.

It also seems that Sony are looking to build on the success of the eye toy with the development of a battle card type game that really does bring ordinary cards to life. On a similar line, they seem to also be extending their singing star game (a karaoke type game) to use PS3′s network capabilities to obtain new content getting the songs you love on demand. They also showed just how your PSP (if you have one) can be paired up with your PS3 to aid you in your game playing, the example they demoed was the use of the PSP as a wing mirror in a F1 Game, which shows that the PS3 and the PSP are aimed to work in harmony.

Now onto the controller… Good news, the boomerang is gone, and the much loved dual shock design in back… bar the rumbling mechanism (Judge upholds suit against Sony over “haptic” technology) yet a surprise was unveiled at the same time, the controller now has “Six Degrees of Freedom” e.g. it has motion sensing… This immediately shouted cries of plagiarism from under the breaths of Nintendo fans, even if Sony are adamant they always had the idea in their locker, but none the less it does show that Sony at least have something to go up against Nintendo’s Wii controller, and there is no way to prove or disprove Sony’s claim. There was only one game on show that actually showed the use of this motion sensing and that was Warhawk but it did show what the controller could be used for.

Along side all this, the Playstation as announced last year will feature WiFi, Bluetooth and Ethernet connections which shows Sony’s aim to make this a connectible console, but at this current point and time not too much info has been released, but talk of Browser, IM, VoIP, Messenger, Account management has been rumoured.

So it seems the Playstation 3 seems well on its way to impress…

Nintendo Wii (Codename: Revolution)

No doubt you have already heard of Nintendo’s Revolutionary Controller, which understandably is Nintendo’s main Selling Point for it’s new console… Having watched the conferences and the game demos, I have to say it is impressive the way they have created these sport simulation games which take full advantage of the Wii controller’s motion sensing capabilities. But what I am not convinced about is how effective this system will be for other games, sure certain games can take advantage of it, but what about games like the FIFA Soccer Series? how will that work? Also it looks too much like a DVD remote for my liking, I can just picture my dad picking it up and trying to change the channel on the TV with it and then screaming obscenities at it because he can’t find the button for channel 9 LOL

You have to give credit to Nintendo though, they really have pushed the borders to bring you something that is unique and never been tried in the same manner before, but it does beg the question, maybe it hasn’t been used before for a reason? But you never know, the minds at Nintendo are extremely creative, so maybe they’ve come up with effective ways to overcome this.

But move away from the controller for a minute and just look at the console itself, the games they had on show at the conference seemed to be rendered in a really cartoony manner, and even though that is expected for games like Mario & Zelda, it seems out of place for FPS games, and Final Fantasy as a cartoony looking game rather than the realistic look we are use to, I really wasn’t a fan of. I guess for me I am more a fan of realism in games, the effect of looking as though its actually real, and the Wii just didn’t seem to meet that. However, ignoring that, the next-gen Mario game does look equally as entertaining as its ancestors, and does look to implement some new and exciting gameplay ideas, so I’m sure that will be one of the main games people would buy the Wii for, as well as Zelda of course, both huge Nintendo franchises.

Even though the Nintendo’s spec and price have not been released to the public, it is expected that the spec of the Wii will not be as powerful as the 360 or the PS3, but that will apparently be compensated for by the Wii’s Price. But since no official information has been released, we can only speculate.

In fact Nintendo haven’t really revealed that much new in terms of the actual console itself, apart from the fact it will be using Opera’s browser for Internet capabilities and will be using the same wireless system as its handheld sister the DS, it also features an “always on” capability where the Nintendo Wii can remain “on” to download game updates etc. overnight whilst only consuming the power equivalent of a small light bulb.

Conclusion

Whilst I could have gone on at length about each console, I didn’t want to bore you to death, but fundamentally it seems to me that Microsoft may have made a mistake by releasing its “Next-Gen” console before people were really ready for it, and that if they had waited then the use of a HD-DVD drive as standard could have strengthened its standing as a standalone media player and not just a console beast. Not only that but it has allowed Sony and Nintendo to know what to aim at to make its own console seem more superior

My overall winner at this E3 show though however, was not the Wii, but the PS3, why? because I like photo realism, I like multimedia, and I like the fact that the PS3 can play Blu-Ray, DVD & CD, I like the PS3′s network capabilities. On top of this the PS3 also has motion sensing, not to the level the Wii has I admit, but I think Sony have the best of both worlds to suit the hardcore gamer who is use to what he/she has already got, but has the room now to get use to bringing an extra dimension to gaming. There is just so much more it seems a PS3 can do over a Wii and without HD-DVD coming as standard on an XBox 360 and it not being as powerful as the PS3, the PS3 seems to win me over.

Don’t get me wrong I would like to play on the new Mario, and I would like to try these sport games on the Wii, but if I had to choose one or the other the PS3 is the one for me, if I could have both, I would.

I think really Nintendo have taken the phrase “next-gen” in a different manner to Sony and XBox who have aimed to bring cinematic & photo realism to games to define next generation, whereas Nintendo is trying to change the way you are involved in the game, so is next generation in its own sense. So who takes the gold? who takes the silver and who takes the bronze? This is my judgement:

Gold: PS3
Silver: Nintendo Wii
Bronze: Microsoft XBox 360