GAME CONSOLE BUYING GUIDE
Throughout this guide dashed links will take you to filtered product lists.
There are three major brands competing in the game console market: Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. All have released major new products in the past year, products that offer significant improvements in features and power over previous models, and all at different price points.
How to choose a Game Console?
Your strategy depends on why you're buying a game console.
Gift To Family Member
The easy way to choose a game console for your son, daughter, grandkid, niece or nephew is to ask them which model they want. Users of these products tend to have strong opinions about which is best, coolest, and will impress their friends most, and you will save yourself a lot of fretting by just asking them. If this is supposed to be a surprise, however, then ask someone close to them which model they've been talking about. Trust us, if they don't already own one of the latest consoles, they will be talking (endlessly!) about which one they wished they had.
No luck there? The only bet then is to get them the new version of whatever game console they have the previous model of. One benefit here is that the new consoles play the games that work on the old consoles.
If this is the first game console they've owned, then read the descriptions below, and the pros and cons we list, and then throw a dart. Or buy the most expensive of the three, which will ensure you make a good impression
Upgrade for Yourself
If you already own a game console, you probably already have a very good idea of which new console you wish you owned. You've probably been reading all the gaming and electronics-gadget magazines for a couple of years, and the Web sites that argue over the merits of each. You probably aren't reading this Buyer's Guide, in fact.
If you are, then that's because this is just a hobby for you, not an all-consuming passion. There are two paths for you then: First, buy the new model of what you now own – most of your game cartridges will work in the new box, which is nice, though you'll have to buy new versions to get the full effect of the new features and capabilities. Or read the pros and cons listed below and decide from that.
Your First Game Console for Yourself
Assuming you aren't a teenager who will ask his or her peers rather than consult a shopping Web site, you'll want the game console that will give you hours of enjoyment, won't require a PhD in computer gear, and won't become obsolete a few moments after you've bought it.
You're lucky. All three of the major consoles are good products, from major makers who have been making predecessors for decades, won't go out of the business, and don't have obsolescence built in. All have earned high praise from industry watchers (and young people) for fun, playability, and capability. Really, you'll get lots of enjoyable hours out of any one of them. Just review the pros and cons listed below and pick one that seems to have the right tradeoffs for you. Or again, throw that dart.
The Consoles, Their Pros and Cons
Nintendo has long been one of the dominant players in the game console market, with the Nintendo, Super Nintendo, and GameCube systems. Their newest product, the Wii (pronounced "We"), is an innovative departure from the norm for several reasons. One breakthrough is its wireless controller, which instead of pressing various buttons furiously to control the action on the screen, has a motion detector inside that lets you wave the controller around in the air.
Huh? No, really: The Wii comes with a bowling game, for instance, and when you make a "bowling" motion as if the controller were a bowling ball, the bowling ball on the screen goes rolling down the alley and into the pins. Once you get the hang of it, it's almost exactly like you're bowling – except without hefting that heavy bowling ball.
A tennis game lets you swing the controller as if it were a tennis racket; and in a baseball game, you grip the controller like a baseball bat, and swing – and knock the screen ball out of the park. In boxing (included), you "punch" with the controller to send an uppercut at your opponent. This novel system makes the Nintendo Wii the easiest game console system to get the hang of, and people say whole families, down to little kids, can play together far more easily than with other consoles, thanks to this amazing controller system.
The Wii is also the least expensive of the three major consoles, at well under $300. It comes with the wireless motion-sensor controller, and a joystick-style controller (called a Nunchuk) that is used together with the other controller for some types of games. You can also buy a traditional controller for older games that don't take advantage of the new controller system.
The Wii has a disc slot for games, and can accept the small discs from the Nintendo GameCube, but it can't play DVD movies like the rivals can (there are rumors that Nintendo will upgrade the disc player to handle movies too, but with DVD players so cheap, this isn't as important an issue).
There's an SD card slot; you can put in the memory card from your digital camera to show photos on your TV. Built-in Wi-Fi wireless lets you access pictures and music from your wireless PC (and Nintendo sells wireless accessories for this if you need them). Nintendo has an online service where you can get updates, news, and copies of older games. The Nintendo will play games from each prior generation of Nintendo. It's easy to set up and easy to learn. It's highly addictive and lots of fun. It's also very quiet.
Nintendo Wii – Cons
The quality of the Wii's graphics isn't nearly as high as the Sony PlayStation 3 or the Microsoft Xbox 360, but it's entirely adequate. It sometimes seems even more crude because the bundled games of tennis and boxing use cute but cartoonish characters, but with regular games the graphics are fine, if not leading-edge. The Wii isn't the best system for hard-core gamers.
Nintendo doesn't offer a High-Definition DVD like its rivals. The unit itself is small, but the separate power brick is large, and there's a bar-like thing that takes the signals from the wireless controller, and it has to be placed on top or in front of the TV, which might be awkward for some people's setups.
The earlier version, PlayStation 2, was for a time the bestselling game console in the country, having ousted Nintendo from its long-held throne. The PlayStation 3 (PS3) isn't selling as well, partly because it is so expensive compared to its rivals – as a consequence, Sony has been cutting the price and offering new cheaper models.
PlayStation 3 offers a long list of features and capabilities, especially killer graphics and outstanding gaming performance, as well as advanced multimedia features, starting with a built-in Blu-ray DVD player that produces stunning graphics on your 720i or even 1080p TV. In fact, though at $500 the PS3 is more expensive than the Xbox and especially the Wii, for that price you get a high-definition DVD player that would otherwise cost you even more than the PS3 – so you can see this as buying a Blu-ray DVD player and getting an advanced game console system for free – or the other way around, if you like!
The high-def output of the PS3 also has a great impact when you play games on a high-def TV, not just movies. Games are slick, intense, and realistic. The PS3 offers an HDMI output port, for the best possible results on a 1080p hi-def television. This DVD player also plays regular DVD movies, as well as PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2 games. The system is also capable of playing back photos, MPEG-4 video, and even YouTube videos on your TV, as well as music.
The PS3 has an updated wireless controller – Sony lost its "force feedback" controller in a dispute with a technology partner, but does offer a "six-way" motion-sensitive wireless controller that you can turn and tilt to drive a car or fly a plane. It's not as dramatic as the Wii's controller, but it's pretty doggone cool in its own right. The system can connect up to seven game controllers at once, although there is only one controller in the box when you buy it.
The PS3 is easy to set up and easy to use (though individual games vary in ease depending on what they are). It comes in several models, which mainly differ by how large the hard drive is. It has slots for SD and CF memory cards
Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3) – Cons
The PlayStation unit is enormous, compared to the other two game consoles. It's pricey, twice as expensive as the Nintendo Wii and a hundred dollars or so more expensive than the Xbox. Despite this, and despite the slower sales of the PS3 compared to its rivals, the unit has been in short supply recently, and hard to find in the stores. (Which is why Krillion offers an In-Stock checking feature so you can find out which stores actually have the units on hand.)
Microsoft waded into the game-console market a few years ago and surprised everyone by coming up with a solid unit, the Xbox, that did a great job for gamers and took off like a rocket. Microsoft refreshed the system with the Xbox 360, and currently offers two models: the Premium, and the slightly more expensive but upgraded Elite. Both have powerful 3D graphics engines, extensive multimedia capabilities, good wireless controllers (even if they don't have the swoopy motion-sensitive capabilities of the Wii and the PS3), and what is currently the best online gaming community, Xbox Live, which Microsoft claims has signed up more than half of all Xbox owners
The Xbox 360 can output its game graphics to a high-def TV in 1080i, using HDMI, like its rivals. Microsoft offers an added-cost ($200) external HD-DVD player, a different technology than Blu-ray. Adding the $200 high-def DVD player brings the Xbox 360 up to a price comparable to the PS3 with its high-def DVD player.
The Xbox can run most of its deep library of existing Xbox titles from its earlier models
The Xbox 360 comes with a gigantic 120GB hard drive, much larger than the drives in the other two systems. It accepts memory sticks and like its competitors has USB ports for adding peripherals like flash thumb drives and digital cameras, and even the Apple iPod. The hard drive is in a detachable unit.
The Elite version includes Ethernet, component, and HDMI connectors (though not the cables themselves), a wireless headset, and a free subscription to Xbox Live Silver, an online system that lets you engage in "buddy chat" while playing against someone else, and also offers downloadable movie trailers and games. You also get a free month of the full Xbox Live Gold, Microsoft community for head-to-head online game play. You can download and buy games, and download to the unit's hard drive TV shows and movies in both standard-def and high-def
Both models act as Media Center extenders, streaming video from your Windows Media Center or Vista PC, if you have one in the house. It's tricky to set that up, but the Xbox is easy to use once set up
Microsoft Xbox 360 – Cons
The two main complaints about the Xbox 360 is that it can be noisy and hot, and a lot of the best features are extra-cost add-ons, from the $200 HD DVD to the $100 Wi-Fi, to the $60 HDMI cables on the Premium model (free with the Elite model). The external power supply brick is large and heavy.
Recommendations
The Nintendo Wii is most appealing to the casual gamer, to the first-time gamer, to families, and to those who already own an earlier Nintendo, especially a GameCube. It's also great for those who want to play games beyond the standard shoot-'em-ups. It's less interesting to hard-core gamers who value super-realistic, complex graphics.
The Sony PlayStation 3 is expensive (though prices seem to be dropping) and hard to find on store shelves even though it's U.S. sales aren't as strong as rival Xbox's are. But for the high price you get a built-in Blu-ray high-definition DVD player that has to be the bargain of the year – if you want to commit to a high-def DVD standard, this is your chance. The PS3's game graphics are knockout , its game play legendary, and its game titles strong. This is a system strongly aimed at the hard-core gamers, especially previous PlayStation gamers since it can play all their old games too.
The Microsoft Xbox 360 Elite offers outstanding, advanced graphics capabilities, excellent game play, and some superb game titles. Although it costs extra, the HD-DVD high-def player brings it up to the level of the PS3 for the high-def TV owner. The Xbox is a highly popular hard-core gamer's machine that is currently outselling the Sony PS3 (the Nintendo Wii is outselling them both, but it's really aimed at a different market in many ways). And it's an obvious choice if you already have an earlier model Xbox since it will play all your existing titles too.
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