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!

consoles

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!

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24 comments

  1. I absolutely love the theme of your site! Did you get a blog theme creator to build this design and layout for you? It’s perfect for this kind of blog.

  2. I was going to suggest the Wii.

    I’ve tried all of them over the years (my man has every console and handheld system new and old) and I couldn’t get into any of it. Except the Wii. So much fun! Even my hardcore gamer loves it and to my eyes it seems as though he gets more REAL enjoyment out of it than the others. He’ll probably never touch Call of Duty again since he’s finished it, yet he jumps right in to play Metroid and old Mario games and never grows tired of them. Neither do I.

    Hope you enjoy it as much as I have!

  3. Well if you went for the Wii, do consider getting the balance board too. Personally I only ever play the balance board games these days if I do start the Wii up. Especially if it’s calorie burning you’re after, then you can play skateboarding and snowboarding games, which are a ton of fun because you move your whole body to keep balance etc versus just waving your arms around (which can get quite tiresome actually).

  4. Dont get the Wii, as gamers you will be disappointed by it … aaarrgh too late.

    Oh well, once you get into gaming on your hd television, you’ll want something cool. I would go for the xbox over the ps3 (I have a ps3) because of cost and availability of games, although I do like buzz and I play ps2 games like sing star.

    I’ve only ever watched one blue ray on my ps3 (HD dvd basically) and thats the one that came with it.

  5. We ended up getting the wii, we ordered this:
    http://www.consoleshop.nl/product/82183/category-762-consoles/nintendo-wii-sports-black-controller-pack.html

    It’s got the wii sports / sports resort, extra wii remote + motion plus, and an extra nunchuck… and it’s black. I like black better :)

    I think we’re going to pick up Mario Kart too, I love me some mario! Will report after we play it a while to tell what we think!

  6. Enjoying the conversation because we have exactly the same discussion happening (or occurring!) here at the moment. I thought the Wii might fit our needs better because I have an absolute dislike of games – I was always completely excluded when living with my ex and the Wii seems more social. The only games I liked from the PS2 were Singstar and Dancemat. Now I’m not so sure about the Wii. Let me know which you decide on!

  7. I have a wii and it is a lot of fun. It does not have HD graphics, and I certainly notice that, but it is something that yoou forget about after a minute of play. An advantage of the wii is that there are a lot of games that you don’t have to learn, so you can have friends over and play straight away, you don’t have to say “press right top trigger to deflect the red lightning bolts”. There are also a lot of games that you can play in little stages. This is good for me because I don’t have huge chunks of time to dedicate to gaming. Wii has wifi.

    The PS3 and XBox 360 can both be HD media players out of the box, without hacking them. You just need to setup a special server on your computer called fuppes.

    PS3 has blu-ray. This alone would make me want it.
    .-= Darryn´s last blog ..ready to play =-.

    • I don’t really get the blue ray thing. Is it way better than regular DVD’s or something? Maybe in the future it will be something we feel we need but it’s really not at the moment as I download most of what I watch anyway, and 8 times out of 10 I watch it on my laptop. I have a 20.5 inch screen which is right in front of me so it’s still quite nice hehe

      I was wondering about the graphics thing with the Wii, from what I can tell, like you said, people find it fun and forget about the graphics. Also, a big selling point for me is how easy it is. Most of our friends (especially some of my girlfriends) are really not ‘techie’, so I don’t want to spend a lot of time explaining shit… and to be honest the whole A-A-B-Twirl the thing-UP-B-B-Down thing, no thanks. I don’t want to have to remember all that. I’d rather just swing the wii thingy. haha

  8. Hey B

    Get a PS3.

    Firstly I am on there.

    Secondly it play’s Blu Rays.

    Thirdly it is quieter and smaller. The Xbox has an external powersupply and harddrive. (The PS3 hard-drive is easily upgradeable and can be replaced with almost any laptop hard-drive and is internal)

    Fourthly the Xbox controllers require batteries or a seperate charging pack whereas the PS3’s charge using a USB cable straight out of the console.

    Fifthly the xbox online play is subscription based which is an additional cost and quickly outweighs the money you save on the initial price compared with the PS3.

    Jon x

    • Lemo <3 You know I love playing with you but I think the PS3 is out. It seems a bit too expensive and after talking to a good friend here in NL, he said the market (2nd hand or sale) here in NL for PS3 games is really shit, whereas the xbox has tons available. To be honest, we are sort of 25 / 75 in favor of the wii at the moment. We're going to go look at them in the shop this morning and see what we think.

      Someday we will play something again though!! If you ever get into a great new MMORPG you better tell me about it, cuz all the ones out there atm are boring me senseless.

      • The wii is definitely going to have the shorted life, it is the only console not to have HD graphics in this HD age and will almost certainly be replaced the soonest out of the 3. Whilst it might be with a wii HD and be backwards compatible with the old games you would probably need a brand new console.

        Also in terms of price all three consoles are pretty equal if you actually add up the cost of all the controllers and accessories you will probably want on a wii you end up paying as much as a PS or Xbox in the end.

        As for second hand markets well I don’t know much about that, but I find the best thing is to go for a games rental service, they must have one in the Netherlands too. You pay about £10 a month and get 4 games 2 discs at a time posted to you. It’s a really cheap way of getting most of the good games that only really have one play through to them.

        I might play star trek online when it is out in Feb, but I haven’t decided if I can give up my life to a new mmporg yet :)

        xx

  9. We have had the PS3 for about a year now, what swayed us between the PS3 and Wii was the blu ray player. You can surf the internet, hook up to your computer from it (to watch movies and listen to music etc.) what I like it that when I am alone and I want someone to play with most of the games let you play with another player online ( talking mostly about rockband 1 and 2) I don’t like the graphics at all with the wii, I have seen it at a friends with Call of duty, what a difference between the 2 systems, we have call of duty as well for the ps3 and I must say the graphics are 10 times better.
    It’s a hard decision, but I hope what I wrote helped a little at least.

    • Yeah right now we are trying to weigh the whole family / social fun thing against the graphics issue. We think the Wii is probably more multi player friendly in regards to us playing together. We just want something lighthearted and fun. Not sure yet though, we’re still deciding :)

  10. I love the Wii (don’t have one, will get one when/if I get a video projector), but I’m not a gamy person at all, it’s great fun for family and friends.
    The PS3 seems nice, the one game I loved, and is great for after dinner when you have friends over, is BUZZ!! (I only know the PS2 version), it’s like a game show, and you can play with up to 8 players.. it’s a great social trivia game (so brilliant geek-value!).
    I think the 360 (but don’t know it enough) is v. much hardcore gamer orientated, maybe not what you want exactly.
    The PS3 also doubles as a blueray player.. but not really any use if you DL your stuff ;)

    Personally, I’d get the Wii for the entertainment, but I can imagine that for your needs a PS3 could be more suitable, and I think in the long run might last longer for “gaming people”

    M.

    • Omg I LOVE BUZZ!!! My friend Alan has it on his PS2 and he brings it around sometimes. He has the first general Buzz game that came out, then one that is just music, and the Hollywood one. I can’t get enough of it! I don’t think we are getting a PS3 though, even though I do love me some Buzz. Right now it appears to be between the xbox and the wii, with the wii out in front.

  11. ps3 is free online gaming retard. Its a bit more expensive than a xbox but show me where else you can get a blue ray player for that difference in price. Also the PS3 exclusive games that have come out and will be coming out in the future outweigh the xbox by miles. Wii is totally crap and more for kids.

  12. We have an XBox and a Wii.

    The Wii is geared toward family games. It’s hard to find anything adult. There are a lot of very fun 2 to 4 player games. Everyone loves the bowling. The graphics aren’t great but you can overlook that because most games are cartoony. The online stuff is free and very tame as you can’t really communicate with anyone. For us (2 adults in their 30s and 2 teens) it lost it’s charm in the first six months.

    The XBox 360 we have had for a year. Someone plays it nearly every day. There are so many types of games to choose from. Lots of 2 player games from family games to very mature stuff. My kids highly recommend L4D2 for a 2 player game. Killing zombies is fun. Online games can only be played with a monthly fee ($50 US for the year).

    Both have a lot of games available, are wireless and have a future. Though the Wii will probably have an upgrade soon. The 360 has more games that you can buy in the store, the Wii has the back catalogs of Nintendo and several older systems. Price-wise it should be Wii < XBox360 < PS3. Don't forget your extra controllers.

    I think the choice should really be between the PS3 and XBox 360. The PS3 is nice to look at for the driving games like your dad likes but it's a lot more expensive (console and games) and has less games to choose from. From what I do know about the PS3, I am sticking with my XBox. I think you guys will like it a lot.

    • I don’t think we’d pay yearly for an online subscription. One of the reasons we got away from online gaming (for now) in WoW and other games like that is that it’s so easy to get sucked into the whole community and almost live there. I’d like to compare scores with people or have little bits online but it’s that really important for me to have the online bits really. We have a ‘family’ back in WoW, so if we want to play online with people we’ll be returning there for sure.

      It’s a hard decision. For 2-3 years now we entertain this option off and on and can never make a decision.

      There are some deals here with the diff consoles where you can get extra controllers and 1-2 games with it. If we got one we’d probably go for something like that. For example the Wii with Sports Resort and the nunchucks thing and an extra motion controller. I assume there are deals like that out there for the other 2 as well.

      I don’t recognize your name, did you come here from my FOA request? :)

      • You don’t know me. I stumbled upon your husband’s blog years ago and when he stopped posting I switched to yours :) I was a lurker there, might have posted with various handles so he probably won’t know me either.

        I’m pretty sure the PS3 has a fee for the online stuff too. Some things on the XBox are free to do online (see here: http://www.xbox.com/NR/exeres/F925FE0C-E310-491A-82E0-7A604A353BFB.htm ) and but to play against other people online you have to pay up. I don’t because I just play with my kids or 1 player games (love Fallout 3). If you just want to play together the “gold membership” isn’t needed.

        Of course, all this may be very different for your country. Here they all have a good resale value so if you get a console and don’t like it you can sell it for nearly as much as you paid.

        Also with the Wii. Yes, it requires movement. It’s great if you have a roomy living room. Difficult, at best, if you don’t. You can play while sitting on your couch and just moving your wrist but that’s kind of cheating.

        I have the Wii fit too. It was fun for about a month. It takes too long to load each activity and makes some of the activities much more difficult to use with the balance board. Once I learned all the movements I stopped using the game and did it on my own in less than half the time. Rent this game or borrow it from a friend before buying.

        I don’t mean to sound so down on the Wii. It really is great for people who don’t play games (like the grandparents), little kids or want something to play at get-togethers but that’s doesn’t seem to be what you are asking for.

        Hope I’m helping y’all more than confusing!

  13. The best situation would be to have all 3 haha!

    The Wii for great physical gaming. We also have the balance board and there are some fun games out there for that (not just exercise games). However the graphics are pretty sucky on a full HD flatscreen.

    Then there’s the Xbox. The most social of the three. It has a great system for community in which you can see who is online, what they’re playing and join in, and you can send voice messages, chat etc. (of course you can also hide your online status). The graphics are pretty good on a full HD flatscreen.

    Then there’s the PS3. We only have PS2 but I’ve seen the PS3 in action at work. Playstation has a good variety of games and some which are exclusive to PS only. The graphics are mind blasting on a full HD flatscreen.

    So summarized: Wii for physical, Xbox for social and PS3 for visuals and full HD experience.

    Personally if I had to choose only one, I’d take the Xbox hands down.

    • When you say ‘pretty sucky’ do you mean non-realistic or just downright crap? In regards to the Wii graphics, I mean.

      You brought up a good point about the movement, which is something I totally forgot to add. One point for me with the Wii is that it can get you active, even in little ways to burn a few calories here and there. This makes a difference for me as I’m trying to lose weight and even if it helps just a little bit, it’s still something. As opposed to other consoles which, like the mmorpg’s, just give me a reason to sit on my butt and not do anything.

      It’s hard to say really, with them all having their good and bad points, how on earth does one decide?!

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