It really sucks knowing really cool things that I am not even allowed to tell other people in this damn company, much less those outside it.
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[ucblockhead is] useless and subhuman

the tweenage girls I know much prefer the Wii over a PS2.

'cept the PS2 didn't have a hard drive.  Maybe you're thinking of the original Xbox?

The PS2 hard drive was an add on.  I don't recall what all it was used for, other than PS2Linux and Final Fantasy.

The Wii has won due to a lower sticker price and by marketting it as a fitness accessory to people who wouldn't otherwise buy a game console. 

This is true, but they haven't really released games that make use of those things.  There was a lot of potential when it first came out, but most of us that own a Wii have resigned ourselves to waiting for the next generation of consoles before we really see a lot of fun uses for that type of control.  There are some excellent games for the Wii, but they're all made by Nintendo.  If you haven't played them, try Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3, Excite Truck, and the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess to see some ways the Wii can be used.

Although the PS3 has very few exclusive games, the Xbox 360 has a significant number (especially if you count games available only on the Xbox 360 & PC).

There are more, but I don't think they really have any killer apps.  It's not like how the Playstation and PS2 were the only places you could go to play Final Fantasy games, and that no RPGs would come close.  Since I'm not a huge fan of FPS, I don't really see anything unique to the Xbox 360, since all three consoles have critically-acclaimed FPS games.  Halo is just about the only one at this point, isn't it?  Also, I admit that the new Katamari Damacy game on Xbox Live is tempting, but it's a small game that is very similar to the two I already own for the PS2.

The quality of the current generation games is a separate debate, but I will admit there are very few PS3/Wii titles on my Christmas list.

I was considering buying another console for Christmas so I could play a new game that interested me.  Unfortunately, nothing out there seems that interesting on any of the consoles.  Like I said, I'm not a fan of FPS games (they make me sick) and like RPGs, platform games, and fighting games primarily.  However, there haven't been any real advances in those genres over the past generation of games, and none of the consoles have decent RPGs out that I am aware of.  Despite having an HD television, more polygons and detail in a fighting game won't interest me as much as a new, novel thing like Mortal Kombat did with their fatalities when I was a kid.  I did like Super Smash Bros. Brawl because it was fun to have all those popular video game characters fighting each other, but had I played a previous Smash Bros. game it wouldn't have felt new to me.

Also, I don't feel that the quality of the games is all that seperate.  The NES hardware was a piece of shit, and we all knew it, but there were a lot of innovative games made for it (amid a sea of crap) that made it fun.  Without innovative, fresh games, we're just going to see yet another FPS with varied skins on the enemies and different cut scenes.  I doubt anyone can name a single extremely popular, truly innovative game (non first-party) that has come out in this generation for any of the three systems.  There are smaller ones that are available for download, and there are some interesting first party games, but nobody else is making anything great.  In fact, the boldest move I've seen is Mega Man 9.


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That's what I always say about you, boz, you have a good memory for random facts about pussy. -- joh3n

But as the default mass market option.  Certainly for music and movies, eventually for books.  (What percentage of music is already downloaded, if you include piracy?)

Games might be the best candidate for continuing to be big enough to outstrip download speeds.  Although for most games it ought to be possible to make them streamable enough that you aren't waiting too long to start playing level one while level two is downloading.

I've got no idea how console makers think about this - but I would have thought they'd be looking at network-only models at least alongside others.  They save a few dollars on the drive and more importantly lock up the retail (like Apple).

Optical is dead, even if stuff ships on it, that's something the PS3 has almost right, the copying it to the harddisk. Like your argument about the backup tapes with herbert: A harddrive full of games is better than a shelf full of discs. It doesn't matter how they get on the harddrive, or whether the hard drive is magnetic or flash, but that's where we'll be playing games from. Optical media don't have the bandwidth.
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This space reserved for whining like a little bitch and being sanctimonious.