If you're serious about knowing, I suggest you read the following:

http://forums.gametrailers.com/showthread.php?t=68776&page=1 (a good general discussion about the Wii's capabilities with very little idiocy)

http://journal.pcvsconsole.com/?thread=16433 (interesting read on the technical aspects of the Gamecube in comparison to the Xbox)

http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=38689 (more Wii technical information/discussion than you can shake a stick at)

Here is what they are doing:

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20070313005397&newsLang=en (official press release)

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--GameSpy, a unit of Fox Interactive Media, announced today that it will provide multiplayer technology to game publishers developing titles for Nintendo's Wii video game system. As part of an ongoing partnership with Nintendo, GameSpy has developed middleware technology to enable Wii titles to offer community features, such as friend rosters, advanced matchmaking capabilities and comprehensive rankings data.

"This partnership will expand our wireless community of players on Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection," said Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. "Millions of Nintendo DS users have already logged on using GameSpy's technology, and now Wii owners will be able to do the same in a fun and easy-to-use environment."

"Nintendo has been an invaluable partner and we look forward to expanding our relationship with them in the future," said Jamie Berger, Senior Vice President of Consumer Products and Technology for IGN Entertainment. "Our goal is to extend our ground-breaking work on the Nintendo DS to provide Wii users with the social, community and multiplayer tools that we believe will expand the online gaming experience to the mass market."

Pokemon Battle Revolution, the first Wii game to utilize the technology, launches on June 25, with multiplayer features similar to those leveraging GameSpy technology in several Nintendo DS titles.

Prior to this development agreement for Wii, GameSpy and Nintendo brought gamers wireless community options for Nintendo DS. The service provided an innovative network for portable video games, allowing people around the world to link easily and wirelessly to play games. The partnership represented GameSpy's first foray into portable games.

Will this make it as good as, if not better than, XBL? I don't really know, but it's something anyway. :) 

Well right now, things are pretty equal. The 360 even has a slight advantage in multiplats and has more big name titles. However, I really don't believe this is because of hardware but more a result of development tools.

The PS3 hardware is not so much better than the 360 hardware, as more specialized. The 360 processor and GPU are basically general purpose cores, which means they are very flexable, developers can get things done quicker and easier, because it can handle just about anything. You program a game for the 360 CPU and want it to handle AI, it's basically the same action as wanting it to handle physics. It's way more compilcated than that, but you get the idea. The 360 is also designed around Direct X, more or less. So anyone with experience in programming PC games, can jump right in, as most PC games are directX.

The Playstation brand has always been less developer friendly, however, the nature of their hardware, including the Cell and RSX, allows for amazing results if fully utilized. The cell utilizes SPEs, which are dedicated use, which means they can only do the specific action they are told to execute. So you want the cell to handle AI, you have to approach it differently than if you want it to handle the physics. This makes it hard for the developers in the beginning, but once they understand it, they can get more out of it.

When developers start getting the hang of things, I think the PS3 will start generating some truly amazing games, that even 360 developers will be intimidated by. Motorstorm is just the tip of the iceberg. Both are excellent systems, but when you're talking about hardware, they are not really even an apples to apple comparision.

Buy a PS3 if you like the games it has/ will have. Buy a 360 for the same reason. Basically in less that two years time, they will have all the same features, and the same graphical quality.

michaelareb0001

This is about the best, most honest, least fanboy response you're going to get. Bless you, sir/madam! :)

But seriously... Get a console because you like the games, not because of the hardware. The nature of hardware is that it is constantly changing. The only gaming platform that will have the best hardware is the PC (due to its ability to be constantly upgraded with a faster processor/memory/video card), but that doesn't mean anything if it doesn't have the games you enjoy playing.

I've read a lot of interesting things lately, like:

GameSpy partners with Nintendo for enhanced online gameplay (official press release): http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20070313005397&newsLang=en

Summary of Takeshi Shimada's GDC 2007 Presentation (although I only linked the last page, the whole thing is very interesting):
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/specialArt.cfm?artid=13103

To quote:

"He also briefly touched on some Wiidevelopment tools in the works that will be made available to both first and third parties. He highlighted a development tool called NintendoWare, developed by Nintendo and HAL, that emulates Wii hardware on the PC so that artists can view an accurate representation of their special effects without loading their code onto a Wii development kit. He also noted that his group is working on easy-to-incorporate fur-shading middleware and predictive input (so the game can guess what you're about to do based on prior motion). NCL is also looking into the utility of text-to-speech for Wii."

It wouldn't be surprising if we see some really awesome things from the Nintendo camp this year, besides games. :)

New York Times knows absolutely nothing about video games. Tey think that just by finding the oldest possible games that somehow makes them important.KeyWii

Not to burst your bubble, or anyone who agreed with you, but the New York Times didn't come up with this list. It was Mr. Lowood, Warren Spector, Steve Meretzky, Matteo Bittani, and Christopher Grant who came up with it at the GDC. The Times merely reported their findings.

Seriously people... Do you even know how to read?

As for the list, if you read the article, the reason why those games were chosen was, "Almost all of the games on the Lowood list represent the beginning of a genre still vital in the video game industry." From that aspect, I have to agree with pretty much everything on the list.

What I'm wondering is if the controls are really "tacked on" or if the people who played it suck at golf. Think about it... If you suck in real life, why would be any better with a game that tries to get as close to the real thing as possible? I mean, anyone can hit the A button, but I would think actually swinging would be a lot different. I also imagine this game has a higher degree of difficulty than the Wii Sports golf (which I am terrible at). Myself, I think I'll demo it first before I pass judgement. And since I suck at the real thing, I'm pretty sure I'll suck just as much on the Wii version. :wink:

First system:

Got it in 1981. I was 4 at the time.

First game played:

K.C. Munchkin

[QUOTE="superboyjoe"]Wow, a new controller and more sequals. How many mario games have there been? 20? more?samusarmada

What some people may forget is that Mario, as a franchise, has been around since 1983, at least as we know him (he was called Jumpman in 1981). If something is popular, you can expect there to be sequels. Why don't we start picking on MegaMan, Final Fantasy, Castlevania, Sonic, Metal Gear Solid, Virtua Fighter, Soul Calibur, Halo, Doom, Quake, Unreal, Grand Theft Auto, Dead or Alive, Tekken, Gran Tourismo, Jak & Daxter, Rachet & Clank, Need for Speed, any sports games, Tetris, Dance Dance Revolution, and any other franchise that has had more that one game in the series while we're at it. I could keep going.

Mario just happens to be the father of modern video games.