XBox vs Playstation vs Wii

Each year my husband and I each get our own gifts, but we also decide on one large combined gift that we share.  Either something we want for the house, an activity we’d like to try or something we really need that both of us will use and enjoy.  This year we have been undecided and Christmas passed us by without anything being settled.  Strange for us as we always seem to have something we want.

Recently I asked friends on Facebook whether they preferred the Xbox 360 or the Playstation 3 because my father wanted a good, realistic console for racing and flight simulation games.  I passed on the info and he ended up buying himself the PS3, and appears to be enjoying it.

My husband and I have often tossed around the idea of getting a console, but the same thing happens every time.  Lack of knowledge turns into information overload when we ask people, and we can’t decide and give up.  It’s a lot of money for us to spend on something we don’t know a lot about or are not sure we’ll enjoy.  I think it goes back to the day when we bought a Nintendo Game Cube on a whim.  We enjoyed it for a short while, and then it collected dust in a drawer until I sold it on Marktplaats.   It was a lesson learned in not doing our research before buying a console.

When you ask people who are into gaming about these consoles, you often get quite heavy opinions which are based on their own personal experience and what they enjoy rather than them taking themselves out of it and helping to advise based on what we are looking for.

So I’m here to try and get that from you, dear readers!   I know that a lot of the people who read this blog are gamers, as that’s probably how we met.  I also know many of you play games on each of these consoles or have friends, children or spouses who do.  So please weigh in!

Here is what we are interested in and are looking for in a console, our choices are the PS3, Xbox 360 and the Wii:

1. FUN!  We are both gamers, having played various MMORPG’s in the past.  More myself than Xander, but I’ve played World of Warcraft, Star Wars Galaxies, Lord of the Rings Online, Dark Age of Camelot… all the way back to the good old days of Ultima Online.   We enjoy games and although we have gotten away from playing MMORPG’s seriously due to their addictive nature and demand on personal time, we do still want to have fun games to play.

2. The ability to play together.  As geeks we spend our fair share of time doing our own thing behind our separate computers.  While we will probably still play on our own from time to time, the main goal for getting a console is to spend time together playing the games and having fun.  We don’t want it to be a situation where one sits playing games loads while the other sits in frustration, bored and alone.  Multi player games is a must, and I’m not sure if one console is better than the others in regards to this.

3. I’d be lying if I said we weren’t people who were impressed by graphics.  If I was interested in just game play rather than how a game looks, I’d still be playing Ultima Online over any of the newer more impressive looking MMORPG’s.  It is not a deal breaker though.  I know the Wii lacks seriously in this department in comparison with the other two, but if the Wii fits more of our other criteria, we are willing to overlook the graphics issue.

4. Availability of games.  I know games are expensive, and we won’t be out buying every new game that comes out.  While we would never buy a console second hand, we probably would buy used games, just to save a bit of money on them.  I don’t know what console, if any, have more games out there that are available second hand here in the Netherlands, but if one has far more out there than another, perhaps that would make a slight difference.

5. Wireless.  One thing that drove me absolutely bananas with the Game Cube was all the wires.  When you have 2 dogs and a cat roaming and running around the house, it always ends in disaster when you have lines crossing the livingroom.  I’ve not done a lot of research into the different consoles and their controllers but if one has wireless controllers and the others don’t, this would be another big point in their favor.

6. Online stuff.  Yeah I know, very technical!  I know some of the games can be played online with other people, or that it’s possible to connect to the internet with some of the gaming consoles, but beyond that I don’t know exactly how it all works.  It would be fun to at least compare with other players or be able to join some sort of community with them.   I don’t need to sit with a headset on playing some FPS while screaming how I just PWNED some loser, if we want that we can play WoW.

7. Entertainment value.  If we have friends over I’d like to have something that we can get out and enjoy with them.  Not games that are so incredibly complicated that it would take me so long to explain that by the time we pressed play they’d have to go home in 10 minutes.  Something with games that are easy and fun to play with friends and family of all ages.

8. Price.  While this isn’t a dealbreaker either, if they are all relatively even in regards to our other requirements but one is outrageously more expensive than the other, then we’d probably count that one out, or on the other hand if they were all stacking up the same and one was quite a lot cheaper… perhaps we’d consider that as well.  Obviously, the less you spend on the console itself the more you have to get the extra bits and bobs… and we love our bits and bobs!!

9. The best future.  That stupid Game Cube seemed like a great idea when we bought it, little did we know that before long Nintendo would go “oh screw that” and scrap it.  We hardly had time to enjoy it before it became a thing of the past, without a future.  I want something that if we get it, we can add to and use for a long time without it sort of being deemed too crap to bother doing anything more with.

That’s pretty much it, we aren’t totally fussy but these things are important to us.  We’re really interested in hearing people’s opinions but based on these things, not just some hardcore gamer telling us how much better some console is because of how it all all the things HE wants.  That’s not a lot of help to us, as great as it is for them.

So, what do you think?  Do you have experience with the different consoles and think one is better for us than the other?  If so, why?  We are new to these things and the more info we have in regards to what their advantages are for us, the better.  We can read up online all we want but nothing is better than hearing from people who have experience themselves and can take what will be fun for us into consideration.

Thanks and I’m looking forward to hearing what you all have to say!