Another Year, Another Chance for my PS3

Seeing the great debate beginning to brew over this next gen console subject, I can’t just sit on the sidelines and let this one go. If my opinion matters one bit I would say that next gen consoles overall have been a failure, but don’t take that out of context though. There are great games, enhanced graphics, and better game control; but if we look at the hardware associated with the Wii, PS3, and 360, we can see that there have been letdowns with all three systems.

Like Brian T. said the Wii is nothing more than a glorified GameCube. It is a GameCube with motion control. For a long time now I have felt that the Wii was nothing more than a test; a test to see how the public would accept a new form of gameplay. Unfortunately it is widely accepted by all demographics from young to old, to people who really don’t even play video games; therefore causing Nintendo to continue pushing this console. There also is a serious lack of quality software support for this system but yet I can guarantee that Nintendo is raking in the cash, and because of that there is no need on Nintendo’s part to change a thing at the moment.

Then we have the 360. Overall we are looking at a pretty good system. They have support through other social networking communities such as Facebook and Twitter, along with a great library of games. There online service is above average and you can see that paying for the service definitely makes it worth the $50 per year. What the system lacks is the dependent hardware to run the console. System hardware failures plague the console with the Red Rings of Death and the E74 error code. Like Brian T. said too, it is ridiculous to spend $300 - $400 on the system then have to go spend another $100 on a wireless network adapter to get online. You would think since networking technology is not advanced rocket science; it would be built in the system or made affordable at least, but once again the system makes money even with its flaws, so why change what in terms of profits is not broken.

Finally there is the PS3. Let me say I have been let down by this system from the time I got mine and more so then the latter two. One of the biggest disappointments for this system is the lack of software that is available for the system. If you need someone to blame for this you can thank Sony for not providing the training and information that was needed for these developers to program the games. I can see how these game developers did not want to spend the money to train programmers to write for this system when they could just release it on a more popular, easier to work with system like the 360. To this day I still do not own a PS3 game. There hasn’t been a game yet exclusive to the system that I feel I need to have, and if there is a game that is multi-platform I always get it for the 360. But before you can complain about the software I think it is only fair to look at the system itself. We are in the 4th generation with the PS3. If you go here you can see a chart of all the different PS3’s and what hardware they contained.

It’s seems to me the PS3 has taken steps back instead of moving forward to try and provide a better product to their consumers. Look at the 360 for example. They have increased their hard drive space, replaced their original processors with better ones, and added more services to system. The PS3 has removed the flash card reader, removed backwards compatibility, reduce the number of USB slots, and taken away the removable hard drive. So how do they justify the price of the system? Sure they increased the hard drive space, but they removed everything else. No wonder we have seen a price drop in recent months.

That is not all that lets me down with the PS3. The PS Network; now there is a joke if I’ve ever seen one. Sure it is free, but what do you gain by having a free service: lag, poor support, and limited connectivity. If I was partial solely to the PS3 I would be more than happy to pay for my online service to ensure excellent service. Also I need to mention Home. What a waste of time and effort there. If I wanted to participate in something of that nature I would go and play The Sims. At least that way I wouldn’t be subjected to endless advertising. Plus it is completely annoying trying to have a conversation because it is a pain in the ass to type everything when 95% of the people don’t have headsets. Tell me why is there no Bluetooth headset included with the system? This is similar to Microsoft not having Wi-Fi built in to the system. Why not include something that probably costs them pennies to make compared to the $100 it costs us to buy it. When is enough, enough?

Where are we left as gamers when the companies that we support seem to not really care to support their consumers? And it is not only Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony; it is the software companies that support the consoles too. If you read my earlier blog “Diamonds Last Forever” you can see how I talked about there being a lack of games on next gen consoles that take gaming to the next level. There are no revolutionary or breakthrough games on any of the 3 major consoles today. Gaming has reached a standstill in some respects. Hopefully with the introduction of Natal we will see a shift in gaming. We will see what next gen gaming should be and hopefully get everything we should be getting out of these consoles. I know though that a magic wand shaped like an ice cream cone will not be the answer to this. It will be yet another let down from Sony. Maybe they finally realized this and that is why the date has been pushed back so that way they can try and save some face. Let me know what you think and how you feel about today’s gaming companies.

-Brian R.