The Fightstick is most likely acceptable but seriously, you've been waiting for 10 years for this sequel so spend the extra money - upgrade to the Tournament Edition or the HRAP EX. We should be happy we even get Sanwa sticks and Japanese-quality parts this time. I'm a fighting game newb, big newb. I own the Tekken 5 Hori arcade stick that came with the bundle (worth around $50-ish) and the PS2 HRAP (version 2 - $100-ish). Even I could not play with the T5 stick once I got used to the HRAP. You will notice the difference in the stick almost right away.
@Alexadecimal That is very true. Interesting fact: Gears of War used "realistic" lighting but for Gears 2, Epic decided to use "movie" lighting. Natural lighting is technically superior because it mimics our real world but considering we are playing a game, I'll take eye candy artificial lighting any day. Oddly enough, the same goes for graphics. Realistic styles like Gears, MGS and the countless racing games are technically superior to "cartoony" styles. However, I find Crackdown's artistic style to be more imposing.
Uh, turning up the brightness only makes the black turn gray, making shadows and shading look washed out, which makes it worse altogether. It does nothing to enhance the actual depth of shadows and darkness, which goes PC>360>PS3. Those PS3 shadow lines on Dead Space are not mistakes or GameSpot's Photoshop job. The PS3 has always had bad shadows.
Wow. Some of your PC gamers are swell. Instead of trying to get more people involved in PC gaming, you make fun of our "weak" consoles and controllers. Yup, that really hits the spot and makes me want to play PC games! Halo 3 breaks \$140,000,000 overnight. Crysis sold 80,000 in its first month. Gears 2 probably sold 80,000 in less than 15 minutes after midnight. Seriously, why would you keep talking smack and make more people dislike PC gaming community? This would be like Mercedes and BMW posting up a sign outside of their stores saying "If you drive a Toyota or Chevy, don't ever change your mind and bring your business here because we don't need you." Your PC has Intel Inside but your brain has Cotton Inside. No wonder you can't beat the Koreans at your own strategy game. Still mad that you never received a proper sequel to Ghost Recon: Island Thunder, because we conquered that franchise from you, eh? Don't be a sore loser. How about instead of upgrading your memory, you upgrade your personality from time to time so you won't be a douche bag.
General strengths and weaknesses of each system: 360 (+) cleaner and sharper texture (+) shadows (dark atmosphere like Dead Space really shows) (-) lighting not as pronounced (-) smoke and fog effects are candy compared to PS3 PS3 (+) best lighting, smoke and fog to grace consoles (view Force Unleashed pics and pay attention to the fog in the background, also view the smokes of CoD) (+) better draw distance (good lighting also enhances this) (-) textures not as sharp (Madden jersey numbers, fine details like cracks in stones) (-) shadows (refer to Dead Space; those lines are not a mistake. All PS3 games have had trouble with shadows) These differences are not imaginary, they are very real. Tech analysts have noticed these differences a long time ago. Contrary to belief, there will never be a day when 360 can produce lighting like PS3 or vice versa, PS3 can produce sharp textures as good as 360. It's like a car engine; you can use good oil and performance tires but unless you actually change out engine parts, your performance is still the same. PS3 lighting - GT5 sunsets - makes me drool but I go where the games are (360). 360 owners have always been aware that the PS3 is superior by the specs. It is the PS3 crowd that keeps going "See, look! Good graphics! Look what I can do! Seriously, look!"
And why do we still look at Japan as the apostle of video gaming? Their video game market is not even half the size of our's (USA), their economy and politics have been on a landslide downwards compared to pre-2000, and for such an industrialized and modern nation, they didn't even come close to top 5 Olympic medal count (they were #8, I believe, right below S. Korea). USA video gaming culture is more populous, lucrative, and stable compared to Japan and all European nations. USA deserves to be the apostle. Without us, gaming would still be a niche hobby and industry, right next to the accordian club.
Let's look at the specs. GameCube: "Gekko" 486mhz CPU, 24MB of RAM. "Flipper" GPU has 3MB total texture memory and frame buffer. Wii: "Broadway" 729mhz CPU, 88MB of RAM. ATI "Hollywood" GPU has 3MB total texture memory and frame buffer. Conclusion: With the slight increase in processing/RAM power, the Wii obviously is able to make things more sharp (texture) and shinier (lighting and shading) and thus, looks more smooth in motion. However, if you think that these still photos are the results of GameSpot's bias or some conspiracy to degrade the Wii, my friend, it is time you make an appointment to go see your eye doctor. The Wii has no noticeable jump in texture memory, video processing, pixel, shader, or polygon performance. You can tell me that I'm lying but please don't lie to yourself because that's just sad.
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