I think it really depends on where your gaming priorities are, given that you want to make a choice between one of the three. Owning all three, I can definitely say that each has it's strengths. If online is your priority then as of this writing, the 360 is definitely the way to go (and will probably remain so for quite some time). It has the best in-game accessibility for online play and the online community of xbox live is vastly superior to anything that the PS3 can offer. That's not to say that the PS3 doesn't have an online community or that improvements haven't or can't be made (who knows what the PS3 will be like once Home goes live), but it's a lot easier to find a game quickly on XBox Live. If you don't mind running an ethernet cable to your 360 then you can save yourself the $80 for the wireless, making your gaming costs $5 a month. Xbox live is well worth the cost of admission (despite the recent outage). In addition, the libarary for the 360 is currently the best out of any of the three systems.
The PS3's strengths are in the hardware itself. It runs quiet, it's never crashed on me and many of the bells and whistles that cost $100's extra for the 360 come built in standard on the PS3. Built in wi-fi, battery in controllers have an extremely long life (I rarely have to charge them), high definition mass storage media with the blu-ray drive. Perhaps the most odd thing about the PS3 is the fact that almost everything that isn't built in to the playstation isn't proprietary sony hardware. You can drop any laptop hard drive into the PS3 if you're looking to up your storage space and it has a multiple memory card reader for portable transfer of game files, video & music. As a piece of hardware the PS3 is fascinating and you get the most bang for your buck. To get my 360 to be on par with my PS3, I had to spend a considerable amount (wireless transmitter, controller battery packs, etc). The exception is the headset Xbox includes one where as the PS3 does not. While the PS3 game library started out a little thin it's steadily improved since September, although it still can't rival the 360's just yet. It's getting there however.
As far as the WII goes, it's different and whether you like it or not will depend on your personal preference. A lot of the games for the WII are just crappy ports of pc/ps3/360 games. The WII's lack of horsepower usually makes these really substandard. Where the WII truly shines is in it's exclusive titles. Games that have been designed with the WII in mind from the ground up. It can be a little gimmicky but when it's done right, games for the WII are just plain fun The WII multiplaye 'family room multiplayer' over online. A bunch of friends sitting around on the couch (or in most places, jumping around in front of it) as opposed to online play. What I have played has been great, but I've never played WII online so I can't vouch for it in that regard. What I can say about the WII is that my girlfriend loves it and it's the one system that she'll pick up a controller for and spend some serious time playing. She's got no issue with kicking my butt at WII Bowling for hours on end. That's something that neither of other two systems will be able to make a claim to.
Anyhow, that's my take on each of the three systems. My personal preference right now is the PS3 but based on your original post, the 360 might be the way to go for you given the 360's focus on online play. It's middle of the road as far as cost goes, currently has the best game library and if you don't mind forgoing the wireless in favour of a cable for your online connection, the only thing I'd recommend picking up is a charge station for controller batteries (or regular rechargables if that's more to your liking) and the $5 a month get's you into a considerably larger online community.
Jeez. I didn't mean for this to turn into such a novel. Hahaha! Best of luck with your decision. You can't really go wrong with any of the three, but hopefully you pick up the one that's right for you!
Log in to comment