Saying that the Xbox 360 has a larger library of games without mentioning the hardware failure rate is like saying you'd rather spend a day with a person with homicidal tendencies because they tell better stories. "Sure," you say, "he may stab me (or my $60 game discs) in the face, but I have health insurance! I'll be out of the hospital in 4-6 weeks and the insurance company covers the cost." But who in their right mind wants to get stabbed in the face? Most people just happily assume their homicidal story-telling friend has taken their medication today. I make no such assumptions.
I want to like the 360. I do. But I still haven't read an independently verified report that the hardware failure has significantly decreased, with numbers and multiple sources to prove the claim. A few Xbox 360 owners have told me, "The hardware failure rate has gone down," but please excuse me if that isn't sufficient reason to drop hundreds of dollars on a console (which is just the initial investment in a gaming platform; games, controllers, and peripherals build on that investment).
I don't want to like the PS3. I don't. Sony's hubris led to a terrible console launch and rightfully so. Just because the PS2 sold tens of millions of units worldwide doesn't mean Sony could assume gamers would remain loyal to the company into the next generation. It didn't work for Nintendo with the N64 (see: Playstation 1) and it didn't work for Sony. Yet with a significant price drop and a redesign that
doesn't look like a George Foreman grill, it seems Sony has digested their humble pie and is getting back to work. And some of the PS3 exclusives (especially Little Big Plant) look like a whole lot of fun.
This is Microsoft and Sony we're talking about here. Both companies have earned their reputations for evil. I don't really want to defend either of them. But I have to admit that the PS3 is looking more and more appealing as time goes by.
Still, I understand why the Xbox 360 appeals to people. I was even tempted to buy one after the last price drop. If an independent source did verify that Microsoft resolved the issues responsible for the hardware failure rate and if I had the disposable income, I'd be hard-pressed to find a reason not to buy one. I have no interest in most Xbox 360 exclusives, but Xbox Live does look rather spiffy.
(though I'd love to see Nintendo make a better system and blow everyone out of the water... how it used to be
)
According to the sales reports, Nintendo did exactly that--both with the Wii and the DS.
I have a backlog of games to play on the Wii rather than too few. True, the Wii falls short in the online department, but I have a computer for playing online games.
Oh, and Wii Sports Resort + MotionPlus is awesome. I'm hoping third-party developers actually get with the program, realize that the games industry has changed and they can't keep churning out the same mess with a fresh coat of paint and expect to survive long-term (unless they're EA, of course), and start creating innovative titles that make use of MotionPlus controls. I know I'll probably be disappointed, but the raw materials are there to make a great game.
