PS3 and Wii — Head To Head 269
1up has a piece looking at the Wii vs. the PS3, running down the particulars on graphical power, online capabilities, launch titles, and control scheme. For the most part, they're siding with the PS3: "Traditionally, Nintendo's never been much for online gaming (the GameCube had two online games&ever), but Wii appears poised to finally bring Mario and Co. into the multiplayer arena. Wii will use a modified version of the DS' Wi-Fi Connection software to facilitate online matchmaking. (Most likely, you'll only be able to play against players who give you 'friend codes' first, just like with the DS.) Like the PS3, the Wii will offer online gaming free of charge."
Technically, PS3 wins - Heart, Wii wins (Score:4, Insightful)
It's the games.
Re:Proofreading? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Proofreading and one sided article (Score:5, Insightful)
Am I the only one that feels this article is too biased or unfair to the Wii?
Most Promising Software Lineup (Score:5, Insightful)
I hope they trade their 360s in.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Proofreading and one sided article (Score:5, Insightful)
Nope. All it really says is: "We (the author(s)) are REALLY, REALLY, REALLY excited about the PS3. Here's some boilerplate stuff about the Wii. See how the PS3 is cool?"
I'm glad they're excited, but they should probably be more upfront about it rather than pretending to have journalistic objectivity. A better solution might be to pit a couple different authors (with two different opinions) against each other. It would make for a more interesting read, at least.
Multiplayer != online play (Score:5, Insightful)
That's strange, I remember playing Mario Kart in multiplayer mode, with friends, in the same living room. Oh, and I had Super-Smash-Brothers Melee too, multiplayer, same living room.
Heck, Nintendo has been making multiplayer games decades ago with Mario Bros.
Funny... that's not what I heard... [slashdot.org]This is kind of a stupid article. (Score:5, Insightful)
The PS3 takes the cake with graphics because that was their goal. The best graphics hardware was not Nintendo's goal.
The Wii takes the cake with controls because that's what Nintendo's goal was... Sony instead chose to remain somewhat conservative by continuing to use its tried-and-true PSX controller layout.
So of course each one is going to win in each of its given categories, because it's the opposite of what the other company wanted to do with their respective console.
NEWS FLASH: The Wii is capable of playing games from NES, SNES, N64, GameCube, TurboGrafix, Genesis, and probably more...
And the PS3 can play Blu-Ray movies? Woop-dee freakin' doo. I don't know about everybody else, but I'm going to buy a gaming console to play games. If I want to watch movies, I'll buy a movie player.
Re:Biased much? (Score:5, Insightful)
PS3 vs. Xbox 360 vs. Wii (Score:5, Insightful)
First, the people who buy a PS3 before Christmas are going to be hardcore Playstation fans. The PS3 is in such short supply and costs so much, it will not be a casual purchase. Even if you're rich, you will have to track one down or pre-order it. The Wii is half the price of the PS3 and there will be an ample supply of them because Nintendo doesn't have production problems.
A price sensitive gamer will ignore the PS3. The Xbox 360 will become more affordable once Microsoft cuts it's price. Even with a price cut, the Xbox 360 will be more expensive than the Wii. But it won't be twice the price. Meaning that someone who is willing to pay for a Wii doesn't have to pay that much more for an Xbox 360. It comes down to consumer choice.
A gamer looking for high definition graphics will be comparing the PS3 and the Xbox 360. The Wii is limited to 480p, so someone who wants HD will ignore it. A gamer must decide whether they want to pay $100 to $200 extra for the PS3. There are certainly Xbox 360 games with high quality graphics. We will have to wait and see how PS3 games look.
I think that Xbox 360 demand is pretty high in the US. I only say this because there are deals being offered in Canada that are not being offered in the US. Maybe Americans tend to spend more on Christmas than Canadians.
Re:This is kind of a stupid article. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:This is kind of a stupid article. (Score:3, Insightful)
Many times, having multiple tools to do the job of one tool is more efficient and more useful.
Re:Proofreading and one sided article (Score:5, Insightful)
I agree with you. However, this day an age, journalism, with the advent of the online medium, is shifting towards opinion pieces than objective journalism. One only has to look to traditional media to see biased reporting, on many levels.
I personally attribute this to the fact that I think people are drawn to news of scandal and such in much the same say they're drawn to 'negative' news. It's more enjoyable to talk about. Afterall, why else would 'reality TV' be popular, rarely see 'good news', the explosion of online journals (blogs), etc. Women have always known this. They've been watching Soap operas forever. =P It's all about the water cooler gossip. It's not fun to debate something if everyone agrees!
Cheers,
Fozzy
Re:"You'll never even think about the graphics whi (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Power Glove? (Score:4, Insightful)
The Wiimote is built into the console and is the foundation of Wii gameplay, is cheaper if you want extras, and is matched to a system capable of doing something useful with the nuanced input it is getting. I completely agree that it's appropriate to wait and see how it feels after using it a while before passing judgement good or bad. I just disagree that history gives me reason to doubt.
P.S. speaking of failed Nintendo add-on controllers, I don't hear many people mention whatever the hell they called that ridiculous light-bazooka for the SNES. Seriously, it was the size of a small shoulder-fired rocket launcher and was intended to be held the same way. I don't know what the hell that was about. A relative accidentally bought me a game that needed it, so I never played it, making it only a slightly better gift than Donkey Kong 3 was.
Re:Proofreading and one sided article (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I hope they trade their 360s in.. (Score:3, Insightful)
The problem is that not all of us are kids (Score:3, Insightful)
As we all know, though, that opens up a huge can of worms: griefers, immaturity, and predators. Obviously it's not an easy thing to solve. But I wouldn't say Friend Codes solves it either, since it basically eliminates the features many people want. It's like cutting off a finger, when a bandaid will do.
I think what a lot of us would like is a Friend Codes system for the kids, and then something else for the rest of us. That's what other systems do. Xbox Live does have a ton of features to protect Kids during on-line play, it's just that most of us don't know about it (I imagine most Slashdotters don't have kids yet). Worse yet, many parents may not know they exist. That's one thing Nintendo could do a lot better, but instead, it appears that they've chosen to treat everyone like a child.
Personally, I don't mind that too much, since I'm not a big fan of multiplayer in general. However, there are millions that do care
Re:I hope they trade their 360s in.. (Score:1, Insightful)
If I play with a stranger and eventually the person seems cool, I'll add them to the list.
Re:Most Promising Software Lineup (Score:3, Insightful)
On the other hand, a lot of casual gamers that I talk to don't seem too interested in the Wii. Most casual gamers haven't even been playing video games for longer than a generation or two, so nintendo isn't a major brand for them. They seem to think "wii is teh ghey" and be really focused on the PS3.
Of course, this still works out well for Nintendo and badly for Sony, since it's the hardcore gamers who will fork over merry bundles of cash for games - while casual gamers will be averse to the idea of spending more than a couple hundred to play the newest football game.
Why the illusion of a controversy? (Score:5, Insightful)
The PS3 and Wii are aimed at two different markets - the PS3 is definitely not aimed at the cost-conscious gamer (why buy an HD-ready system if you can't afford HDTV) and the Wii is never going to please the people who want high-end, graphic intensive games, so comparing them feature-for-feature is useless. People who can't afford a PS3 won't get one. People who aren't interested in a Nintendo won't get one. People who can afford a PS3 may also get a Wii. For most people, it isn't a binary decision, so why the illusion of controversy?
1Up Is Awful (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Technically, PS3 wins - Heart, Wii wins (Score:5, Insightful)
I freely admit that the PS3 is more powerful with better hardware. But... how does eye candy make a game more fun? If your character in a FPS now had individually-rendered arm hair, does that make the game somehow better? Would Daikatana be any better with greatly improved graphics? I think that we are approaching the point of diminishing returns in graphics.
The key here, though, is price. By definition, half of the US population makes average income or below. Those are the sorts of people who are MUCH more likely to pick up a Wii than a PS3. Sony has effectively alienated a full half of the population from purchasing their product. Nintendo, on the other hand, is the best bet for those whose pockets do not run over, and they are also cheap enough to be picked up as a 2nd system for people who have deep enough pockets to get a 360 or a PS3.
Overall winner: Nintendo.
Re:Wii and PS3 aren't competitors (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm getting sick of this "kid friendly" thing. Sure, there are some Nintendo games that are going to be for kids, as there will be on the 360, and PS3. There will also be some "hardcore" gorefest games on the Wii, though in a lower proportion than to the other consoles (RE4 on GC?). But then again the only games that make the PS2 worthwhile to me happen to be the more kid friendly ones, like katamari, where the emphasis is more on fun than how many polys you can render gibs in. Most violent games are not actually for adults, they are for the 16-30 crowd, mature players realize that they were drawn to gaming for fun, pure and simple, and not pure violence.
Canned chat is not good enough for many people (Score:3, Insightful)
I know you can still do random/skill-based matchmaking. But missing the actual communication functionality is crucial to a lot of people. As I said before, I personally am fine with a canned chat experience, since I'm not a big fan of multiplayer in general. That said, a lot of people do want that experience. While it's not a problem for me or you, it's still a problem.
The question is going to be how significant that really is. While there's 5 million (random guess) people that want full-featured communication in their multiplayer, there may be 20 million that actually prefer the canned chat model (or just don't care). In that case, then Nintendo will look like geniuses, in finding out what the users really want. Or they could be totally wrong.
I should point out, though, that there are many games where canned chat really degrades the communication. Team-based FPS and shooters come to mind. There's only so much you can communicate using canned messages, which is why voice over Xbox Live was such a huge hit when it first came out. There's also a reason why software such as TeamSpeak and Ventrilo are becoming so much popular in PC multiplayer games (most notably MMORPGs). Nintendo can simulate some of that, by making users just add more and more people as their friends, but you can tell that this is not their preferred model.
Re:Proofreading and one sided article (Score:2, Insightful)
and
Obviously, they don't want to have anything that is not the standard video game experience since the 2600. These authors blow off all of Nintendo's main points in producing this system, price, fun factor, new controller, going after the 99% of the population that isn't into "OMG! Boom Headshot!" FPS fragfest games.
Elsewhere on 1up, I read a story about the depth of the Zelda game. After ten hours the reviewer had a lot to more to go, and he didn't have carpal tunnel from using the remote. Every game isn't going to require you to be standing up, waving your arm all over the place, but smaller movements made sitting down comfortably.
Re:Canned chat is not good enough for many people (Score:2, Insightful)
However having a full fledged chatting experience in-game will open Nintendo up to attack from one of the most dangerous crowds of people out there... Dummies.
It is bound to happen. A parent buys a Wii (or DS) as a gift, the kid plays on it, meets some pervert, and the rest is on CNN, Fox News, ect... faster than you can say "Grandma got run over by a reindeer."
By refusing full chat services without friend codes, as well as the transfer of said codes in their forums, they cut off I'd say about 99.9% of their liability. Granted, some dipwad somewhere is going to try suing somehow, but with all the counter-measures in place Nintendo should have a good chance of defense.
Granted the X-Box Live system may have it's fill of protections, but these actually require parental intervention to fully utilize. Stupid parents (ones who shouldn't breed) will not touch 'em because they probably care less, or "don't know anything about this 'video game stuff.'"
Oh well... Friend Codes... you either like 'em, or you hate 'em.
Either way, I hope they're here to stay.
Re:Technically, PS3 wins - Heart, Wii wins (Score:3, Insightful)
Take a VERY fun game, and slash the polygon count in half. Is the game less fun? The answer is probably something like "a little bit less fun, but still pretty darned good." So, double the graphics horsepower does NOT double the fun. This is what I mean about the graphics power. A good game depends more on story line, controls, and the general game design. The eye candy certainly helps, but it takes a big difference in order to make or break a game.
And if I had to choose between a game with awesome eye candy, and one that is just fun to play and looks a little crude, guess which one I am going for...