The Midnight Hour

With the release of the Sony Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii, the next generation of gaming consoles is in full swing. Microsoft joined early with their release of the Xbox 360 in November of last year. Learning from their mistakes with the original Xbox, which lost the sheer numbers sold category to the Playstation 2 to the tune of about 3:1 because of its late entry into the race, Microsoft rushed their pet project to the masses early in order to gain valuable marketshare. However, both Nintendo and Sony have had a full year of development to pack new and improved features into their consoles, making Microsoft’s hasty attack risky business. Now all three major players are on store shelves (some of them harder to find than others) and vying for your dollar. What’s the best choice among the three? There is no clear answer. Each gamer must make his own decision and live with the consequences–and the resulting credit card statement. You can track the competition of the three consoles here at nexgenwars.com.

The budget gamer and loyal Zelda/Mario enthusiast will no doubt choose the Nintendo Wii. Those interested in a fun and affordable gadget to be the life of a party may also choose Nintendo’s tiny creation. The $249 Wii’s most notable feature is its new control scheme, utilizing a motion-sensing controller and attached “nunchuck.” Yes, as in “Michelangelo the Ninja Turtle” nunchucks. The gamer uses the controller to mimic the movement he desires on screen and his character performs accordingly. This is rumored to be a riot for the bundled game Wii Sports where you can turn your living room into a bowling alley or tennis court, complete with Moms accidentally backhanding their children to return serves. In the most popular launch title, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, you hack and slash your way to victory as Link carefully recreates your killer moves on screen.

In the graphics department, the Wii is anything but next-generation–and that is by design. In a bold move, Nintendo decided to forego the graphic performance race of triple-core, 3+ GHz, cell-based, Shaw-Fujikawa processors and focus on gameplay and the overall user experience. Accordingly, the Wii is essentially a Gamecube (Nintendo’s last generation offering that suffered pretty universal market failure) on steroids. This isn’t bothering Nintendo enthusiasts, however, or the scores of people who are finding the Wii to be a downright blast to play with. Nintendo proprietary software is also a major selling point for any Nintendo game console, as you won’t find Mario Brothers, Zelda, or other Nintendo proprietary game trademarks on any other system. For the Super Smash Brothers or Mario Kart fanatic, this sells the console on its own.

One of the biggest selling points for me is Nintendo’s rudimentary, but free, online service. While in the primitive stages right now, the company is promising that soon a mammoth library of Nintendo games from every previous console will be available for download. Imagine playing Excite Bike, Super Mario World, Mario Kart 64, and Metroid Prime all in the same sitting, on the same console, without screwing with emulators and ROMs. In order to keep costs down Nintendo also decided to forego high-definition gaming, which Sony and Microsoft are touting as major selling point. 480p will have to be enough to satisfy Wii owners, and even then only if you can find a set of the uber-rare Wii component cables. Nintendo’s position is that HDTVs have only penetrated less than 20% of the American consumer market, and the average gamer can’t exploit the full benefits of HD gaming. That’s a shrewd decision on their part, but I do love gaming in 720p.

What’s my verdict on the Wii? It’s a cool toy. I may buy one sometime in the future, simply because of its affordable price (I paid more than $250 for a PS2 five years ago!). However, Nintendo titles don’t interest me as much as some gamers, and it just isn’t a robust enough platform to satisfy my HD first person shooter cravings. It may supplement my primary console one day, but it will always be second-banana in my house.

The hottest (and rarest) console right now in terms of fanfare and publicity is undoubtedly the Playstation 3. Most of this was generated from the extreme demand and limited supply found on the PS3’s launch day, November 17, 2006. Because of a production snag for a critical component of the PS3’s Blu-Ray player, Sony’s number of PS3s delivered to North American retail stores fell well below predictions.

Nobody can be sure, but it appears as if Sony may have shuffled some of their top-level management as a response to the mishandling. Trying to piece together the unrealistically optimistic numbers (lies) Sony forecast in the months leading up to the console’s release is a difficult task, but I shall try. Much like keeping a string of lies alive, being careful not to contradict a previous lie, recreating such a falsehood is equally arduous.

Several months before launch: (Sony holds pinky to mouth) 1 million consoles on launch day and 4 million by Christmas!
A couple months before launch: Only 400,000 consoles on launch day…but (pinky maneuver) 1 million consoles before Christmas!
A couple days before launch day: OK, the 400,000 isn’t going to happen. We’re only shipping consoles to our biggest retailers, and they’re only getting about half of the pre-orders we promised them on launch day…but Resistance: Fall of Man Rocks!
Launch Day Eve: Sam’s Club has one freakin’ console?!? Target has only eight?!? Are you joking?
Launch Day: Somewhere between 125,000 and 200,000 consoles are delivered into the hands of only the most hardcore gamers and entrepreneurs. People are shot, mugged, and generally pissed off. However, a precious few procure a PS3 to enjoy for themselves.
Today: Sony struggles to meet their secondary goal (or is it tertiary, or post-tertiary) of 400,000 launch day consoles by Christmas 2006. Consoles trickle into stores by 2’s and 4’s about once a week.

For all the hate and discontent caused by Sony’s shortage of PS3s, the PS3 has many things going for it. First, it has an integrated Blu-Ray player. Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are competing formats for the next generation of DVDs that will be coded in high definition. For those that are new to this issue: it’s a big deal. The difference between DVD resolution (480p) and the resolutions offered by high definition formats (720p/1080i/1080p) is like the difference in quality between VHS and DVD. Sony’s new PS3 doubles as a stand-alone Blu-Ray player, which is both a large selling point for the consumer and a huge burden to Sony. The Blu-Ray player is part of what makes the PS3 so expensive ($599 for the “premium” version with a 60 GB harddrive), and the entire cause of Sony’s production delays. The first 500,000 PS3 consoles are being packaged with the Blu-Ray disc Talladega Nights to show off this new capability.

Next, the PS3’s raw computing power sets a new benchmark for consoles. In terms of sheer processing power and teraflops, no other console matches the PS3. Check out this geeky and detailed processor comparison. This has the potential to give the PS3 an edge over the Xbox 360 in the graphics and in-game physics department. However, to quote a friend, “There’s damn lies in statistics.” It doesn’t help the PS3 to have the beefiest computing engine if game developers can’t crack the nut on using it.

So far, that’s been a challenge, but it is a challenge for any new console. I remember the same complaint being levied against the PS2, and developers overcame that to create the largest software library in console history.

Speaking of software, software is what makes or breaks a system. Sony has some huge assets in the software department, and some proprietary games that rival even Microsoft’s Halo franchise. Gran Turismo is the game that prodded me to get back into gaming after a multi-year hiatus. Shortly thereafter Twisted Metal 4 hooked me like an ill-tempered seabass, and the two franchises remain my favorite video game series…after Halo. I went on to purchase GT3 A-Spec and Twisted Metal Black for the PS2. TMB remains one of my favorite games of all time. I have said many times that if Sony produces another Gran Turismo (the upcoming Gran Turismo HD) and another mature-rated Twisted Metal game, that alone would substantiate the purchase of a PS3 for me. Because of the PS2 Sony has some of the largest third-party developer support of any console manufacturer ever. It remains to be seen if that support will extend to the PS3.

Sony also launched its online service the same day as the PS3. While in the primitive stages right now, they are promising an online service as robust and functional as Microsoft’s Xbox Live for the low low price of absolutely free. That sounds great…but the devil is in the details. Xbox Live has five years of development and testing in an environment that exceeds one million users. If memory serves, it is in its sixth software generation since inception. Microsoft charges users $50 per year to pay for the Dell servers, Cisco networking equipment, and manpower that keep Xbox Live running. Is it a little presumptuous for Sony to think they can match that type of real-world experience for free, right off the bat? Yeah…but presumption isn’t a task Sony takes lightly. Their online service does promise to have a few improvements over the competing XBL, like offering downloads for sale in units of real currency instead of requiring the purchase of points as M$ does. After a few years Sony may develop an online system superior to XBL. However, right now I don’t think they are anywhere near the target.

Software for the PS3 is limited right now, with the World War II set alien shooter (yes, you read that correctly) Resistance: Fall of Man being the flagship title. Other popular titles include Call of Duty 3, Ridge Racer 7, and sports games like Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 and Madden NFL 07. Right now PS3 games look much like Xbox 360 games, despite a year spent in development. However, it is understandable given the concerns mentioned above about developing software for a new console. Microsoft is currently in its second generation of software for the Xbox 360, and developers are getting a handle on how to code games for the console. If PS3 and Xbox 360 games look identical now, then the PS3 should have the long-run edge in graphical performance. However, sheer graphical performance is not an indicator of success. Just ask Sega, who spent years turning out consoles with cutting edge graphics only to be a software developer entirely outside the console business in the year 2006.

My verdict on the PS3? It’s a cool toy, but man is it expensive. Right now there isn’t any software to motivate me to buy a PS3. That could change in six months. Also, if Blu-Ray starts to take the lead over HD-DVD, I could purchase a PS3 for its Blu-Ray player, and just consider the gaming an added boon. The bottom line is that I’m holding off–partly to save my pennies, and partly to see if I’m even interested.

Rounding out the tripod of next-generation gaming consoles is the Xbox 360. Microsoft released the 360 over a year ago, and while it did go through some growing pains with a faulty lot of launch day consoles and the usual developer friction, it is now a well-established gaming platform. Xbox Live services well over a million customers and grows in usage and features every day. At $399 for the “premium” system with a 20GB harddrive, the 360 is the median priced system of the bunch. It also offers a $199 accessory HD-DVD drive if you are interested in being an early adopter of HD-DVD technology. Microsoft chose a modular/optional approach for high-definition movie playback while Sony went with an integrated approach.

The 360 launched with a predictably mediocre lineup of titles, showcasing Call of Duty 2 as the one “must-have” title and Project Gotham Racing 3 showing off the 360’s new graphical capabilities in a good, but not spectacular, racer. Now in its second round of the development cycle, the 360’s software library is really starting to shine. Earlier this year Bethesda released the next installment of the Elder Scrolls series, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Oblivion is a truly fantastic role playing game that still captures the attention of both me and my wife. The bonus disc that comes with the Oblivion Collector’s Edition has a really cool documentary on the making of the game that puts into perspective exactly what developers go through to produce the software we so freely criticize. That’s not to say criticism is bad, and it is absolutely necessary to ensure quality in the future, but when you know how many hours of design and testing went into creating the Oblivion world, the issues of tiny bugs that are often blown out of proportion by gaming blogs expecting perfection fade to black. Oblivion was originally also a launch title for the PS3, but has been delayed and is due out soon for that system.

Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter and Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Double Agent are also notable games that have, no doubt, sold many a 360. However, the real next-generation gaming experience, in this gamer’s humble opinion, arrived this month with the release of Call of Duty 3, Gears of War, and Rainbow Six: Vegas. All shooters, two are rehashes of existing series, while Gears of War is a breathtaking new achievement. Call of Duty 3 expands the existing COD series to the WWII campaign to retake Paris. Upgrades from COD2 include improved graphics, new weapons, and a new system for massive class-based multiplayer matches. As always with the COD series, the campaign is worth the purchase price of the game. The multiplayer experience is just icing on the cake. Rainbow Six: Vegas sports an excellent campaign as well as a new and robust multiplayer system featuring fully customizable characters and even the ability to map your face to your multiplayer character using the Xbox Live vision camera. I recently tried this and was very pleased with the results. My character is just as ugly as I am. There are also literally thousands of combinations of armor, weapons, and accessories to outfit your player with. It will be difficult to get bored with the multiplayer portion of R6V.

Gears of War is Epic’s shining jewel that “redefines what console games should look like.” The graphical prowess of GOW cannot be overstated. Add to that an innovative “cover-based” style of peek-and-shoot gameplay and I’m ready to say that lead designer Clif Bleszinski has hit a grand slam. Recent rumors indicate that GOW will turn into a trilogy, or go even further. Quite simply: Bring it on!

Microsoft’s ace in the hole for the next-gen console war is Halo 3, the much anticipated conclusion to the Halo series started on launch day of the original Xbox, scheduled for release sometime in 2007. I could write 1,000 words on Halo 3 alone, but I’ll leave my comments to “It will be good. Really good.” It had better be. If Bungie and Microsoft screw up the final chapter of the most widely acclaimed series in console gaming there will be riots that will make the Rodney King riots look like a pillow fight at a slumber party. Halo 3 will be the reason to own an Xbox 360, as if GOW isn’t enough. Psst..it is!

My verdict on the 360? I like it. I own one. I have a lot of fun with it. At $400 + accessories, it wasn’t cheap, but I think it’s worth every penny. Microsoft and the 360 have their own set of issues. There are plenty of pissed off 360 owners that have been through multiple consoles with the “red ring of death” error code. Thankfully, Microsoft recently extended the warranty on all 360s purchased in 2005 to January 18th, 2007. Redeem it while you can. Xbox Live also costs a fee to use. However, $50 per year is affordable for anyone that can afford the initial purchase of the system, and I consider the service a bargain at that price. For my money, I chose Xbox 360.

What console should you choose? That’s like asking “Blonde or brunette?” The answer to both questions is “All of the above…if you can afford it.” No matter what console you choose you gain and give up something. All of them have substantial benefits, and you’re sure to have fun with any of them. The important take-away is that you should go out and experience next-gen gaming in some capacity. It is just too entertaining to pass up.