I've been meaning to write this post for a long time - and now the time has come to for me to write and post it. In case you were wondering where in the world Part 1 was, here it is.
This isn't a true part 2 - being nearly 4 years (wow, it's been that long) since I last thought about it. Many years later, many console revisions on each side later, who is winning? Well, we all know Nintendo happened to win, in a manner of speaking. (I still really am struggling to find a use for my Wii besides gimmicks. Fun is seriously lacking for me on the Wii.)
Considering what I said then about the PS3 possibly having heat problems, lo and behold - Microsoft did it first. First, it had the burning AC adapter problem for a while (real short while, if I remember correctly). Then, it had what I would call the worst mistake Microsoft has made so far. The heat problem that caused - you guessed it - the 3RROD.
A friend of mine had his XBOX 360 die on him - and so he bought a PlayStation 3. This was a guy who was singing praise for the XBOX 360 and hoping for loads of PS3 exclusives to jump the boat (of which a lot did - which despite my sentiments, I know are for sound economic reasons). Of course, he is indeed planning to buy an XBOX 360 again eventually for those games he is going to miss. Although he tells me that day is probably some time around the XBOX 360's EOL. (Although, considering Microsoft's aggressive price cutting strategy on the arcade unit, coupled with the fact that he still has his hard drive unit - tells me it probably won't be all that long before he gives Microsoft a little money for the system he abandoned all too quickly for a brand-new PlayStation 3.)
Speaking of which, interesting fact: I know more people who own PlayStation 3 units than I do those who own XBOX 360 units. Of course, I don't know a lot of people who have anything beyond a PlayStation 2 to begin with. What's worse? I know more people who plan to buy a PlayStation 3 too (not counting those who plan to blow their money on a Nintendo Wii and leave it to gather dust after the first six months).
Are we any wiser in 2009 about how powerful the XBOX 360 and PlayStation 3 are? No, we aren't. We've established that both of them are having difficulty pushing the full 720p resolution and that games coming out are still (as with the PlayStation 2 previously) trumping those before them in just about every department. Just as Gears of War 2 is setting a new bar for the XBOX 360, Killzone 2 is setting the new bar for the PlayStation 3 - and something tells me that this is going to happen quite a bit until the end of their product lives.
As for the Wii, well, graphics don't seem to be getting any better - and it seems that going for the cel-shaded look is the 'in' thing now for Wii developers. And curiously enough, a few new games aren't going to be supporting 480p - seems suspicious to me. I haven't played a new Wii game in months - and it's hardly my fault for not liking the games: seen the last 9+ score games on IGN? Realise something? THEY ARE ALL OLD STUFF. Old classic stuff that's indeed good - but old stuff is old stuff. The ones I like, I've played, the ones I don't, I still pass on. It's looking amazingly like another console we know that happens to still be around. That's right - the PlayStation 2. It's around in abundance, currently has plenty of junk still being released for it (with a few exceptions), the newest iteration is small and comes with previously nonstandard accessories (when I was in Australia, it practically came with Singstar or Buzz - take your pick).
That may not seem scary to you, but would you venture to guess when the last IGN 9+ (and mind you, IGN is pretty generous in my opinion) came from? Rock Band 2 in December 2008. Before that? Okami. In APRIL 2008. No wonder my Wii hasn't been doing anything much! (Mind you Okami came out on the PS2 way earlier, if I wanted to be mean, I'd say something like Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which would've been in March. And yes, Mario Kart Wii is not a 9.) This from the company who claimed to still care about hardcore gamers sometime back.
I know, I know, there's always a good chance IGN will be biased and love new, shinier things - but I too love new, shinier things. The XBOX 360 has offered Halo Wars, Street Fighter IV, Prince of Persia, Left 4 Dead, Call of Duty: World at War, Gears of War 2 and Fallout 3. Oh wait, I missed out Grand Theft Auto IV. On the PS3, we've got a similar list, Killzone 2, Street Fighter IV, Prince of Persia, Call of Duty: World at War, Resistance 2, LittleBigPlanet, Fallout 3, Metal Gear Solid 4, Valkyria Chronicles and Grand Theft Auto IV. (If you can't tell, yes, the PS3 has a slightly longer list - to me, it did indeed win 2008 as far as games were concerned.
There are loads of games I play that aren't on this list - maybe not many that I finished (I don't have as much time as reviewers do, after all) - but certainly something interesting to note is how I liquidated most of my XBOX 360 games to fund PlayStation 3 games this year.
The verdict for 2008 to early 2009? I'd say the Sony PlayStation 3 is winning in my book, even if sales numbers don't agree. For 2009? We'll see about that. We've got Resident Evil 5 and Guitar Hero: Metallica to lead the rest of the way - although I'd say the behemoth this year is on the PC. I'm hoping. (Come on Blizzard, StarCraft II this year plz. :P)
