Ramblings on PlayStation 3, Wii, XBox 360

Published 2013-01-01 12:14 by Abscissa in Reviews

For this past console generation I've been a Wii user; largely because, personally, I find having a proper pointing device (the Wii's IR pointing) to be more compelling than upgrading graphical fidelity beyond the already great looking XBox 1, or even the GameCube. In other words, I'm not a graphics whore, and unlike my teenage days I'm no longer interested in blowing hundreds of dollars just for more pixels and polygons. The graphics on 360/PS3 are a very nice bonus, granted, but it's not a big selling point for me.

While I've been mostly disappointed with Nintendo's flagship franchises on the Wii (as compared to the GameCube, which was underrated IMO), there are a lot of fantastic games on the Wii: Such as the best version of Resident Evil 4 and Kirby's Epic Yarn. Yes, the latter is very kid-friendly, but it's also the most solid, original and enjoyable 2D platformer I've seen in years. Highly recommended.

Quite a few years after PS3's initial launch now, it too has a large number of great games and, more importantly, no longer has the price tag of a 3DO. So I've finally gotten one (thanks largely to a particularly good Christmas that made me feel like it was 1988 again). You'll probably now see me commenting on many things that are old, old news in the PS3 world.

Why'd I go with a PS3 instead of 360? Well, even though it was a gift (I don't usually spend my extra money on entertainment for myself), the holiday happiness conspirators knew my tastes: The PS3 definitely has it's problems, as does my beloved Wii and the Wii 2 (I refuse to call it "Weeyuu"). And I may add a 360 to my collection at some point. But these were, for me, the biggest factors:

• I don't like the 360's controller. I'm a relatively big guy and no longer have the tiny hands of a kid. As such, the 360's controller is far too small for me (The original "Duke" controller for XBox 1 was the perfect size for me.) Plus, I'm big on 2D and retro-style gaming and for much of that a good D-Pad is essential. Unfortunately, Microsoft has never been able to make a good D-Pad, even as far back as their pre-XBox Sidewinder days. Of course, PlayStaion D-Pads tend to be love-it-or-hate-it, but I'm on the "love it" side.

• I've been burned too many times by Microsoft hardware. They make good keyboards and mice, but I've had major technical problems with both the XBox 1 and the Zune (the Zune is a whooole other rant...). And the 360 has a notably worse reputation for reliability than either of those. Even though Microsoft has made big reliability improvements on the 360, I still don't trust it to keep working for more than a few years. Oh yea, and I'm not interested in dealing with a system that scratches my discs.

  Plus, to be honest, I did feel rather betrayed by how quickly Microsoft abandoned the XBox 1 (although that's admittedly a lesser issue). On a related note, some of my favorite XBox 1 games never did get full 360-compatibility, such as Chronicles of Riddick and Beyond Good & Evil.

• Free online multiplayer. I'm not usually much of a multiplayer gamer, so $50/year just wouldn't be worth it for me, no matter how good the service is. Which means that if I had a 360, I would skip the XBox Live subscription, and have no online multiplayer at all. With the PS3, I can still play online in the rare cases I do feel like it - which is very good considering my brother recently got me hooked on Counter Strike: Global Offensive. That's very strange though, since I never used to like Counter Strike. Of course, the irony here is that I did end up signing up for PlayStation Plus ;). (FWIW, my PSN/CS:GO name is NitrodePants. I use keyboard/mouse, but you'll probably still kick my sorry ass anyway.)

• Microsoft can't decide on a fucking dashboard. Seriously, how many more times is Microsoft going to completely redo the 360's system interface? Just pick a damn interface and stick with it! Ok, this isn't really one of the reasons I went with PS3, but it is a 360 annoyance.

• Less proprietary bullshit when upgrading the hard drive. It's a hackjob to use a non-Microsoft (read: non-overpriced and large variety to choose from) hard drive on older 360's. On newer ones it's not even possible.

• The exclusives. I absolutely detest the fact that platform exclusivity exists at all. Heck, Sony produces movies and music yet those play just fine on non-Sony players - and yet Sony still seems to be getting by just fine. The device used should be the user's choice, not the developer's choice. Nonetheless, exclusivity exists, and the exclusives on PS3 seem to be more to my taste. The 360's notable exclusives seem to be:

  • Halo: I very much enjoyed the original Halo (except for the sections of levels that were copy-paste repeated over and over. And over and over and over.), but it was enough for me, and I've never felt compelled to play the sequels, as good as they may be.
  • Anything from Epic: I was an Epic fan back in their "Megagames" days (yes, I've been around that long), and I'm pretty sure I was the one person who thoroughly enjoyed the original Unreal (I really do mean "Unreal", not "Unreal Tournament") But I haven't been particularly happy with Epic since then.
  • P.B. Winterbottom: Good game, but I already have it on PC.
  • Forza Motorsport: Fantastic series, I have the original on XBox 1. But Sony has Gran Turismo which is equally good now that Sony controllers have proper shoulder triggers for L2/R2 (EDIT: Unfortunately though, the way the PS3's L2/R2 are mounted and hinged makes them awkward to use since holding them down greatly alters and decreases your grip on the controller. At least Sony finally has shoulder triggers, but they weren't well designed.).
  • Fez: This is the one that I do actually want.

  But then the PS3 has me completely sold on these exclusives:

  • 3D Dot Game Heroes: Essentially a 2D Zelda, with a beautiful updated-retro style.
  • Disgaea
  • Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection: Finally get to play Colossus with a framerate that doesn't suck!
  • Echochrome

And Little Big Planet seems interesting too, although I do wish that chatterbox narrator would shut the hell up.

While I'm overall thrilled with my new PS3, I do have a number of minor gripes with it. But as this has gotten long, I'll save those for a separate post...