As we close in on the final days of the wait for the rest of the next generation to arrive I find myself growing more and more excited. I could do like many others on here are trying to do and sell you on my system, well my title does that so now its time to talk facts as objectively as possible.
Sony is trying to launch a system at over 600 dollars in a few days without a killer app. Don't get me wrong Resistance: Fall of Man looks incredible but Gears of War seems to be comprable and its a new franchise so it doesn't carry much weight. With Final Fantasy 12 freshly out on the PS2 and God of War 2 coming along shortly is there a good reason to upgrade right now?
Have no doubt that Sony will be successful in this generation, after all they still hold all the cards they did last generation. A powerful system (the most powerful this time rather than the weakest of the big three) and strong third party support. Sure nobody made the launch (which might be a sign of coldfeet and possible abandonment of the PS3) but when Dante comes through with Devil May Cry 4 I'm going to be in tears over its beauty. When the beauty that is Final Fantasy 13 hits shelves I'm going to start counting my dollars and gathering them for my eventual surrender to temptatioin. Tekken 6 and Soul Caliber 3 are probably going to break my resolve. My only hope is that I can get a good solid fighter on my WiiBox 360. If that doesn't break me though there is one man who I know will destroy my resolve. Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear Solid 4. Third party support? Do you have it mother fucker? If you do it doesn't matter how much your system costs people will buy it.
Wii on the other hand is standing poised to literaly revolutionize the gaming industry. In addition to their brand new controller that offers a completely new way to control everything on the system they have created a user friendly developement kit which should be encouraging to devolopers. They are launching with Legend of Zelda the Twilight Princess. Easily one of the most anticipated games in recent history and they have other high profile titles with Red Steel, Dragonball Z Tenkaichi 2 and Marvel Ultimate Alliance. Coming up shortly as well are Smash Bros and Mario Galaxy which is a hard line up to beat. The question long term is wether anybody else will develope for the Wii or if like the 64 and Cube it will have many if not most of the best games of that generations but every one of them will come directly from Nintendo with little to know third party support. Only time will tell.
360. What is there to say about the 360 its a year old and still barely made an impression on the average man. It has 2 must have games Gears of War and Dead Rising. Soon it will be sharing GTA4 with the PS3. Once againt it looks like Microsoft is lacking in third party support, with Ninja Gaiden moving systems which could be a hint about the future of Tecmo and Team Ninja (the creators of Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden or to paraphrase the only real alternative to Devil May Cry and Tekken/Soul Caliber) moving away from Microsoft. We are still waiting on Halo 3 or anything else to really stand out on this system. The price is still far to high for a casual purchase in most people's opinion so I don't know what to say about this system. X-Box Live is fucking sweet though and if handled properly could be a major force in gaming for years go both with microtransactions and with online guilds and leagues.
In the end I'm planning on buying a Wii first an X-Box when I'm ready and a PS3 if they ever become free!
Dear Sony: Wii wish you a merry X-Mas!!!
