GameDaily rates the consoles
GameDaily has a great article up rating the last-gen and current-gen consoles to help you get “the most bang for your buck.” Here’s a summary.
PS2: B+ If you or your kids are new to the gaming scene and don’t want to fork out big bucks for the new systems, you can’t go wrong with a PS2. It’s $129 brand new, and it’s got a huge game library behind it, with plenty of titles for kids and adults alike. Plus, there are still big titles coming out for it, like Final Fantasy XII and Guitar Hero II.
Xbox: D Whoa, why such a bad grade? Well, first, it still costs a steep $180, even though there are practically no new games coming out for it. In most cases, the few that are coming out for it will have a better version on the 360 at the same time.
GameCube: C Wow, the GameCube got a better grade than the Xbox. Well, it *is* only $99 now, but for that price I’d rather add a few more bucks and get a PS2, myself. Anyways, with that $99 you should be getting a few games in a bundle deal. GameDaily recommends saving up for a Wii if you want a steady supply of games, since the GC won’t be getting many more, and the Wii will play GC games as well.
Nintendo DS Lite: A Do yourself a favor and spring for the DS Lite – even though the DS may initially seem bright, you won’t be playing it in sunlight – trust me. At $129 it’s the same price as a PS2, but it’s still well worth it. There really are games for everyone on the DS – I don’t see how anyone could not enjoy Clubhouse Games. And I can’t tell you how many laughs I’ve gotten playing ad-hoc with my neighbor, and playing over the internet is fun too.
Sony PSP: B The PSP is $199 right now, and games on it look great. Don’t buy this one for movies, though, since UMD movies are dying out. Soon, you’ll also be able to buy PS1 games via either your PC or PS3 to play on the PSP.
Xbox 360: A Well, it’s expensive, at $300 to $400 depending on the features you want, but it’s worth it. Xbox Live is awesome and it remains to be seen if Sony can equal it. The game library continues to grow, including exclusives like Viva Pinata, and the Arcade means there’s always more games to download too.
Nintendo Wii: A- Everyone’s looking forward to the classic Nintendo titles, like The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Super Mario Galaxy, a new Metroid Prime game, and Wario Ware: Smooth Moves. The Virtual Console holds the promise of downloading our favorite games from Nintendo consoles past, and the motion-sensitive controllers promise to bring a new twist to gaming. For families on a budget, the $250 price tag will make the purchasing the Wii a no-brainer over the PS3 or 360.
PS3: B+ The most expensive console, at $500 to $600, holds high definition gaming and movies as a strong point, with its Blu-Ray player. While a standalone Blu-Ray player costs $800-$1000, Sony’s being stingy and not throwing in the proper cables with the PS3, meaning you’ll have to cough up some extra cash if you do want the hi-def. Hopefully the PS3′s backwards compatibility will be better than the 360′s, and it will play both PS2 and PS1 titles. Sony also has an online service launching to rival Xbox Live, but Sony’s will be free. Expect the console to be hard to find for a while.
That wraps it up. Total credit for this article goes to GameDaily.
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I can agree with most of those grades. Microsoft doesn’t really care about the original xbox right now, they’re focusing on the 360, which they are doing an excellent job with. I really agree with the DS, its also doing a great job.
Seems fair enough. Personally, I think the PSP grade may be a bit high. Also, its tough to accurately rate consoles that aren’t out yet.
Other than that. Pretty good advice for any prospective buyers who have no idea about the systems.
X-box Live Arcade is great, but there is still little on disk for the 360 I’m interested in. Dead Rising would be nice I guess, and it is possible that Oblivion could –COULD– be fun, if I didn’t know that roguelikes were ten times better.
I’d rate Wii higher than the 360 on disk game strength, but its download game component might be worse than Live Arcade — for once there is a sense that Nintendo is following instead of leading in an area, and it’s head-scratching why there’s so many fewer games available at launch for the North American market than the Japanese — it is essentially an emulator that runs these, right? Nintendo owns the rights to their first-party games at least, they should all be available to play from day one. If they did that then Virtual Console would beat XBLA hands down, but they haven’t, so it’s still up in the air.
It’s hard to imagine giving the Wii an A- but somehow the PS3 pulls a B+. Especially with the price disparity along with the amount of Wii launch titles.
These grades for the Wii and PS3 systems are far too premature. You might as well call them Media Buzz Scores intead of grades.
What I find unique is that people are rating consoles based on the console itself. Me, I rate them based on what’s in it for me.
No doubt is the XBox 360 powerful and has decent games for it, but I for one don’t care at all for first person shooters. Where does that leave me? Obviously out of the huge fan following that Halo and Gears of War generated. Not really a racing fan either, so the appeal of the XBox goes down.
The Wii, backwards compatible with the GC, so I can always trade that in and get a few bucks back for that without losing much money, not to mention it has games that are more up my alley with Mario.
PS3 is the same story as the others; the games make the console, not the hardware, although that BlueRay player is quite appealing. Yeah, I know the pros and cons of it, but that’s not my argument.
What I’m saying is, don’t rate the console based on how good it is. Rate it based on your own opinion. There are some people who will swear by the XBox due to the Halo series and the same could be said about the PS3 for Metal Gear Solid.
Although a good analysis, do yourselves a favor and make sure the system you get has games you want to play before spending a chunk of your paycheck on it. And if you honestly can’t wait… Well, impulse buying never really gets you far. Just my $.02.