That girl is still on my mind every mother loving day!!!!!!!! Just thought I'd let you all know. And no, my situation with her has not improved.

Aiight, I'm gonna argue with myself about which next-gen system is the best.  Meet Shiggy (Nintendo), Jay (Microsoft), and Ken (Sony).

Shiggy:  All right, well lets get it started.  What's the best next-gen system and why?

Ken:  Without a doubt the PS3.  The Cell processor utilizes a whopping SEVEN cores, all running at 3.2GHz, delivering graphics you'd dare not dream about.

Jay:  I hear from IBM that any one of those cores can blow at any time...

Ken: This coming from the Xbox 360 guy?  Your disc eating system, which overheats and breaks for more than half of your user base, should worry about it's own hide.

Shiggy:  Well, at least the simplicity of my system avoids all these hardware problems...

Jay:  Have fun with your Pentium 3 - level cpu then.

Shiggy:  Actually, the GameCube's cpu was more like a Pentium3, the Wii's Broadway cpu is closer to a pentium4.

Ken:  In any case, my original point was that we provide a service that the competition cannot.

Jay:  I doubt that.  When your system launches, it's 1st gen games will have to compete with our 2nd gen games.  With our similiarly powerful machine, we may just kick your butt graphically.

Shiggy:  Let's not forget the Wii's controller, you can't have that on PS3.

Jay:  Nor can you get Xbox Live on the PS3.

Ken:  We will have something similar to Xbox Live, and our controller has...

Shiggy:  No rumble feature.

Jay:  LOL

Ken:  Hey, at least our system will be able to do normal mapping!

----

Shiggy:  Alrighty, what about price then?  This Wii60 idea is gaining momentum you know.

Jay:  Buy a Wii and a 360 for a combined price equal to the PS3.  You get the Wii experience plus the HD experience of the 360.

Ken:  You are forgetting that the PS3 has a built in Blue Ray player.  That, plus the Cell, plus a HDD, actually makes it a pretty good deal.

Shiggy:  But it's a rip off if you don't want those things!  I like my 512MB flash memory just as it is, and don't feel the need to jump into the next video format war.

----

Jay:  Shifting gears a bit, let's look at what really matters - games.  We have a years head start on the both of you, with great hits like Gears of War and Halo 3 on the way.

Ken:  MGS4, Killzone, and FFXIII are all on the way for the PS3, I'll have you know.  Recall the Dreamcast, and just how much its head start helped it!

Shiggy:  All your game titles are belong to us.  We got Red Steel, Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3, Smash Bros. Brawl, Zelda: Twilight Princess, all early on in the console's lifecycle.  And let's not forget that Mario Kart Wii is in the pipeline, not to mention our new boost in 3rd party support with games like Far Cry and all the EA sports games you could ever want.

Jay:  You underestimate the power of Halo, Shiggy.  And Ken, those games won't be out for quite awhile, and we all know that Killzone trailer was fake as hell.

Shiggy:  Let's take a break and discuss this more later.

Shiggy's notes - Wii will rock with price point, that's the PS3's main weakness.  Wii60 could be useful idea to gain larger piece of market.  Lack in processing power in Wii could be a disadvantage, particularly when the Cell becomes fully utilized.  Strength in Wii's launch games is excellent weapon against the competition.  Fear Halo, fear it alot.

Well, here's where I've gotten to:

Winners...
Games->GameCube
Power->Xbox
Features/Functionality->Xbox

I'd have to say that from a pure hardware perspective, I like the Xbox the best, but from a solely game-based software perspective, GameCube kicks butt (see blog post "Part 1"). The PS2 has some perks, such as the role playing games and shadow of the collosus, but just doesn't seem to deserve as much love from me as the other two do.

So who is the winner? Let's put it this way. I've had company over all week. We've played hours and hours on the GameCube (Tales of Symphonia, Smash Bros., Mario Kart, and the multi-platform Lego Star Wars), yet have barely touched the Xbox (Halo being the only attraction at the moment, and in extremely small doses). I think this is a good example of how "fun" and gameplay come before pure hardware capabilities. Hence, I declare GameCube the overall console winner.

Winner --> GameCube
Runner Up --> Xbox

Not that I care too much about high def just yet, but I think it's worth pointing out that the Wii is technically capable of it.  Think about it, the Xbox apparently ran a few games in 720p (which games were they?), and the Wii has almost twice as much memory as the Xbox, plus is overall more powerful.  The Wii also can use component cables, the bare minimum connection required for HD.  All in all, the Wii should be able to pull off HD, just not all the time.  Perhaps a few top notch developers similar to Factor 5 will come along and push the machine enough to make it run in HD, who knows.

This will be the my final comparison between the systems before my finale. I've done processing power and I've done the games, so the remaining area would be features, peripherals, functionality, firmware, capabilities, etc.

Today's topic --> Features

Let's break it down...

GC:
Has a basic menu system, 4 controllers, hooks up with GBA, kinda gimmicky connectivity, and has Lan capabilities for games like Mario Kart and 1080 SnowBoarding. Limited online capabilities exist, only phantasy star online games use that feature, online isn't as convenient to hook up as an Xbox (GC requires extra attachment to network).

PS2:
Ok, we got CD/DVD playback capabilities, hard drive expansion (which got screwed over on the new model), 2 controllers, and networking capabilities. It plays games online, but doesn't have a unified, organized network like Xbox Live.

Xbox:
A hard drive, DVD playback, and 4 controllers is just the beginning. Being able to play your CD's music in select games and the impressive Xbox Live, unrivaled by any other console, places Xbox ahead of the pack. Being able to participate in an online community through your console, adding friends, creating parties, sending messages, etc. is light years ahead of what GC and PS2 are doing.

Overall Winner: XBOX

http://www.gameklip.com/v/719/

Recall my earlier blog post about some GameSpot admin being a jerk to me.   Now, all of a sudden, I am missing one of my gamespot icons ("medals"? whatever they're called), namely, my oldschool one.  This seems just a little odd, which makes me ask the question: am I getting screwed over?

Alrighty, so I've covered the games, let's look at hardware now, in particular, the power.

It's worth noting that more often than one would think, a weaker system produces superior looking games.  If you took Shadow of the Colossus on the PS2 vs. Tony Hawk on the Xbox, you'd think the PS2 were more powerful.  Or if you took Resident Evil 4 on the GC vs. Kotor on the Xbox, you'd think the GC were more powerful.  Then again, take Halo 2 on the Xbox vs. Tales of Legendia on the PS2, and the Xbox would seem more powerful...you get the idea.  Here's how they actually stack up though.

Today's topic --> Power

Here's a rundown of the basic specs for each of the three consoles:

PS2
cpu-300MHz Emotion Engine
gpu-150MHz Graphics Synthesizer
memory-32MB

GC
cpu-485MHz IBM Gekko
gpu-162MHz Ati Flipper
memory-40MB

XBOX
cpu-733MHz Pentium 3
gpu-250MHz Nvidia XGPU
memory-64MB

Analysis time:
CPU
The Emotion Engine utilizes dual-core technology, and the director at Mad Dog says that properly used, it could rival the Gekko.  It's worth noting though, that with no headache of dual-core programming, the Gekko is already raring to go at full efficiency, and the director at Factor 5 insists it is far superior to the Emotion Engine.  The Pentium 3 has a faster clock speed than the Gekko, but, again the director from Factor 5, says that since the Gekko has superior caching to the Xbox's cpu, it's (the Gekko) at least as powerful as a 733MHz pentium 3, namely, the Xbox's cpu.
Winner: Tie between Xbox and GC?

GPU
The PS2 doesn't fair much better here either; not only does the Graphics Synthesizer have less computing power, but it also doesn't have built in functions for things like bump mapping, which the Flipper and XGPU do.  Although the Flipper is superior to the Synthesizer, it (I believe), doesn't have vertex shaders like the XGPU, a feature that Doom 3 uses like crazy.  The XGPU does have vertex shaders, however, and it's faster clockspeed manifests itself in a higher level of graphical performance in games.  Look at all the light blooming and bump/normal mapping in Halo 2.  These effects are used much more conservatively in GC games.
Winner: Xbox

Memory
This is easy -->  64MB>40MB>32MB.
Winner: Xbox

Overall
More power does not always equal better graphics, but it's hard to deny that overall the Xbox is the most powerful of these three systems, with the GameCube coming in a competitively close second, and the PS2 bringing up the rear.
Winner: Xbox

http://lexluthor.ytmnd.com/

To make it even funnier, Kevin Spacey looks like J.Allard in this clip too, lol.

Since this gen is wrapping up, I really wanna take one last look at this past battle, just as the dust settles.

Today's Topic --> Games

I always hear how the PS2 has the most games and is apparently the best system because of that, but last time I checked the GC had over 400 games, more than I could ever hope to play...so I'd say it's better to look at quality, not quantity, since large libraries is something all these consoles now have.

Racing Games
I'm not much for racing games, but here goes. The GC had some exclusives, like F-Zero and Mario Kart, but all the notable others on the GC, like Need For Speed, were available on the other systems as well. The Xbox did have the Project Gotham Racing, but I don't feel that's enough to compete with the ever popular, and exclusive, PS2 racing series, namely, Gran Turismo.
Winner: PS2
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First Person Shooters
GC and PS2 both had a bunch of generic 3rd party FPS's, like the 007 series and Timesplitters, but only Xbox had Halo, Doom, Half-Life 2, and Counter Strike. All in all, this one's a no brainer for me.
Winner: XBOX
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RPG's
This is a tough one. Sure the PS2 had the whole Final Fantasy series, not to mention some other noteworthy titles, but then again, the GC had some great Namco-made RPG's, Tales of Symphonia, Baten Kaitos, Baten Kaitos Origins (soon), and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles by Square-Enix as well. The Xbox may not have had a lot of RPG's, but it did have both Kotor and Kotor 2.
Winner: 3-way tie
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Various Exclusives
PS2 had God of War and such, but I don't think it had anything close to the Halo series on the Xbox, in terms of popularity. Now, the Halo series is great, but that's just one big hit franchise. Take the GC's must have exclusives: Metroid Prime 1, Metroid Prime 2, Zelda: Wind Waker, Zelda: Twilight Princess, Smash Bros. Melee, Rogue Leader, Mario Kart, and Resident Evil 4, and it's really no contest.
Winner: GameCube

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Overall
This really depends on what you like of course. If you only want FPS's, then the GameCube isn't all that great. If you love Final Fantasy, the Xbox isn't your first choice, and if you love Nintendo franchises like Zelda and Metroid, among others, then the PS2 isn't all that attractive.
My Personal Preference: GameCube, then Xbox, then PS2.