So here it is December 9th already and I haven’t done any Christmas shopping yet. Have you done yours? As any gamer worth his salt will tell you, this season is a real good time to be a gamer. You’ve got three major consoles vying for dominance and your hard earned cash: Microsoft’s Xbox 360
, Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Nintendo’s Wii. With major title releases and price drops the Holiday season is one of the best times to get on board with a new console.
All three have their selling points, Wii is the cheapest at about $250 and it has the motion-sensitivity controls that make it easy to pick up and play by a wider audience. The drawback is that it’s graphics just don’t hold up to the processing powerhouses of the 360 and PS3. Still, innovative gameplay mechanics and exclusive titles like Mario and Zelda you can’t go wrong with this one (if you can find one that is).
The PlayStation 3 is the beefiest of the three with a Cell Broadband Engine advanced microprocessor, a built-in Blu-Ray player and a 40GB hard drive. This console also supports Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1. However unlike the other models of the PlayStation 3, the 40GB does not offer backwards compatibility. But with a growing library of quality games on the horizon like GTA4 and MGS4, and a recently lowered price tag (about $400) the PS3 may just be the next big one, if Sony doesn’t eff it up that is.
Last but certainly not least is the Xbox 360 from Microsoft. First let’s just acknowledge that the 360 had a year lead on both of the other consoles so it’s only natural that the games on it are better. That said, let the praise begin! Let’s talk about the machine itself, great processor power, a removable hard drive, wireless controllers, customizable faceplates, and XboxLive online service. At about $400 bucks the price can be daunting, but the library of titles (Halo3, CoD4 and Mass Effect to name just a few) more than makes up for it.
In the final analysis I’d say the best buy of the season is the Xbox 360, the games are just better than the competition’s. That’s not to say that you should only get one, by all means get all three and don’t deprive yourself of any of the gaming goodness that this time of year always seems to deliver. They all have (or will have) exclusive games that you are going to want to play.
Trust me kiddies, save your pennies and suck up to Mom and Pop or this Christmas you’ll end up with more boring clothes and junk you don’t really want. If the ‘rents aren’t savvy enough to find what you want, and you know you can tell if they’re not, ask for gift cards to the game store near you. Oh, and if you’re the one shopping for the gamer in your family remember, gamers want games, not socks.
The best deals on consoles and games can be found at Amazon, Play-Asia (for those hard-to-find and rare games). A subscription to Gamefly is a great idea if your gamer giftee already has the console of his choice.
Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays or whatever you celebrate this time of year!
Here’s hoping you all get what you’re wishing for.
The Gamer Hero
