I’ve never been a huge fan of game consoles. As soon as I found my way from the Atari 2600 & 5200 to my first computer (the Atari 800XL – a 5200 with a keyboard), it’s pretty much been a computer world for me (and therefore, a computer gaming world). While working at EA, it was pretty much required to have a game console. A PS2 found itself sitting beside my TV. While briefly entertaining, the PS2 generally collected dust compared to the relative time spent gaming on the computers. That stated, one title made the investment worthwhile and gave the computer a run a for it’s money. The title? Gran Turismo 3. Never have I found a game outside of RPGs and MMOs as captivating. From tweaking my Honda S2000 to my 1000hp Viper, I was addicted.
Time is limited in life. I already have too many distractions as it is — generally all things computer-related and the massive time sink known as the MMO. I gave up the MMO habit recently (let’s see how long it lasts *this* time). Even so, I still haven’t found game consoles compelling enough to fork over the bucks, and more importantly, spend my limited free-time budget. I always feel like I should be reading more, playing with Davis more, coding more, etc.
My brother has a Wii – I played it for a short amount of time – it was a blast. It would be a great social / party game system. Everyone in the family can have fun. I just don’t think the limited game selection, the sorely underpowered hardware, or the fun but gimmicky controllers would make it worth it for me. The Xbox 360, which one of my co-workers has been encouraging me to purchase for quite some time, has always seemed like a solid box. Strong hardware, good game selection. I just haven’t had anything to push me over the edge to commit to purchasing. The PS3, while obviously enclosing some powerful goods inside it’s plastic case, has had it’s own share of shortcomings – high price and a dearth of strong games. My boss enjoys his, playing the computer-like RPG Oblivion. As often is the case, games that are released on multiple consoles end up with least-common-denominator graphics and console support. So, however cool the PS3 hardware is, it’s unlikely that anything that is multi-platform is going to be much different between the PS3 and the Xbox. Worse, the report that the recent Madden actually performs better on the 360 isn’t promising (likely due to the complexity of the PS3 hardware and the better and/or better known development tools for the Xbox).
If there was one thing that might convince me to buy another game console, it would have to be a new generation of my all-time favorite console game. One of the biggest weaknesses of GT3 was the lack of visible car damage. Hit a wall at a 100mph, bounce off, keep going. The only real noticeable issue was the loss of speed. It was recently revealed that the newest installment of GT (and the first true release of GT for the PS3) will include visible car damage. Supposedly, in the past, the licensing of the cars for use in the game didn’t allow them to show them damaged. Guess BMW didn’t want to see its’ cars all banged up.
Unfortunately, as Sony has always done with the GT franchise, they are jurasically slow in releasing Gran Turismo to the masses. GT5 should have been the headliner game for the release of the PS3. Instead, we’re now being told 2008. No wonder the PS3 has seen such sluggish sales.
Good thing anyway… I’ve got some coding to do…