Take your Pick Is it the Xbox 360 or the PlayStation 3 for you?

Gaming has come a long way since Pong. Each Generation of consoles along with their games has brought something new which has captivated audiences’ world wide. The Nintendo entertainment system brought gaming to the living room from the arcades. Each generation of video games had some game unique to them; nostalgic moments include gunning down foes in Contra or winning a fight in Street Fighter when you have been pounded by your opponent throughout the round or cutting off your Opponents head in Counter Strike when he is blissfully sneaking around. Some moments have to be re-lived.

We are about to enter the 7th generation let’s take a closer look at The PlayStation 3 and Its competitor the Xbox 360.

First up The PlayStation 3 (Note this is strictly for tech geeks who love to drool over system configs).

Sony has come a long way since the launch of its original Playstation console. Till date it has always managed to grab the top position in the console wars with its huge library of games and enjoying exclusive Third party support from industry big wigs like Namco, Konami, Capcom, Rockstar.Sony promises to keep up its track record in its third outing as well.

Release date - 11th November 2006 (Japan), 17th November 2006 (United States).

The system comes in two models A “Premium” or a 60 GB version, which includes a 60 GB Hard drive, Wi-fi connectivity, HDMI output and a Memory card reader. This version will retail for $599 in the U.S. on launch, the other model is a basic with a 20 GB hard drive and does not support Wi-fi, HDMI or the Memory card reader, this version will retail for $499.

Specifications:- The PS3 is based on a powerful and versatile 3.2 Ghz Cell processor with 8 3.2 GHz synergistic processing elements.
Memory being 256 MB Rambus XDR DRAM and 256 MB GDDR3 VRAM clocked at 700 MHz. The GPU named RSX (REALITY SYNTHESIZER) developed by Nvidia and Sony clocks at 550 MHz and 1.8 tera flops performance

Media:- Blu ray rom, DVD rom and Cd rom

The controller looks the same as the original Dual-shock2 controller; the earlier “boomerang prototype” controller has been abandoned. They are wireless and also possess motion sensing capabilities like the “Wii”controller, this function allows the controller to be tilted roughly to 6 degrees. Some other changes include the absence of the rumble feature, which results in a lighter controller.

The L2 and R2 buttons have some what been enlarged to give them a more of a trigger function.

The Games “Yipeeeeeee”- Sony knows people like to play games and vola here are a few games under development for their baby.

The Infamous Metal Gear Solid Series makes a come back on the console, contrary to the rumors this will not be a launch title but will be released shortly after the Console launches, sub titled Guns Of the Patriots the game sees the return of the legendary Solid Snake in his final mission, this game also sees the return of all the stars of the previous games right from Liquid to Meryl. Mr. Kojima has been known to produce top notch games specially the Metal Gear Solid Series, this one has been on the top of wish lists across the globe and is a game worth waiting for.

Dante reprises his role as the Devil hunter in Devil May Cry 4. My fingers have been itching to send the scum of the earth back to where they came from.

Resistance: Fall Of Man(formerly known as I-8) by Insomniac games better known as the creators of the hit Ratchet And Clank series on the PS2 are hard at work on what is said to be the “best looking title” available on launch. The game a FPS, takes place in an alternate future where WWII never happened and humans were attacked by an alien species called Chimera who transform other life forms into more of their own kind. The plot may sound a lot familiar but the gameplay promises to be unique.

The lovable/speed demon Sonic the hedgehog makes his next gen debut on the arrival of the console.

Unreal Tournament 2007 “Fragging just got more beautiful” with the Spectacular Unreal 3.0 engine, new game modes and fast and furious gameplay we all have come to love about the series, makes its debut on the PS3.

Smackdown Vs Raw 2007 The ever popular series pumps up Extra Adrenaline when it shifts gears, with greater interactivity and Realism to the last Bead of sweat. You have “No chance In Hell” to put the controller down once the fight begins.

Tekken 6 Jin Kazama and his friends/enemies are back once again looking better than ever, with a worse attitude and new moves in their already deadly arsenal.

Warhawk This game by Incognitio Entertainment, well to say the least has already been released twice first on the Commodore 64 way back in 1986 then on the original Playstation in 1996. This time the game was used to showcase the new tilting capabilities of the controller on floor at E3 2006. The PS3 controller was used to dive, roll perform stunts during dogfights. The game looked stunning with bright skies and neat fog effects. The game should be available on launch of the console.

The Virtual Battlefield

The PlayStation 2 lost out to the X-box in the Online Arena, well to make up for this flaw Sony plans to release a service similar to Xbox live named the “PlayStation network Platform” or PNP in short. This online system is being developed with the help of Sony online entertainment and Sony Computer Entertainment.

THE XBOX 360

Microsoft has been trailing behind Sony for some time now. The Xbox only managed to sell only half of what PS2 sold in the worldwide market (50 million units of Xbox as compared to 100 million units of PS2). One of the major reasons was a year ahead start Sony had, as compared to Microsoft and its loyal developer base. Well all that might just change with the 360.

Release Date: The 360 was officially unveiled on May 12 2005 on MTV and was officially launched on 22nd November 2005 in the U.S., 2nd December in Europe and 10th December in Japan. Microsoft plans to release the console in India as well during the festival of Diwali.

The 360 initially code named Xenon is available in two models namely, the “360 Premium Package” which has a chrome finish, and is bundled with a detachable hard drive, wireless 2.4Ghz gamepad, an Ethernet and a HD cable and a live headset. It retails for $399.

On the other hand The Xbox 360 “Core” System is absent in the above mentioned features. It comes with a standard wired 3m/break away controller and standard AV cables and retails for $299. Both models come with a Silver Membership to Xbox Live Service.

The Tech facts (YAWN!!!)

Specifications: -The 360 has a 3.2 GHZ PPC Tri core processor developed by Microsoft and IBM. The main system RAM is 512 MB GDDR3 RAM (700 MHZ).The total RAM is shared with the GPU. The GPU or “Xenos” has been custom designed by ATI as opposed to the original which was designed by NVIDIA. It clocks 500 MHZ Parent GPU, 300 MhZ 10 MB Daughter embedded DRAM Framebuffer 1 tera flops performance.

Media HD DVD, DVD ROM, CD

The 360’s Controller is smoother than the original Xbox controller and features only two pressure sensitive buttons instead of four. The 360 can support 4 wireless controllers, The White and Black buttons have been abandoned. The controller feels a little heavier than the original but I personally think that the 360’s controller is better in terms of grip than the PS3’s controller although it doesn’t posses motion sensing abilities…but that a different story all together

I need “games”…I need games aaaaaaaaaa…

The biggest advantage the 360 has is the number of games it has and will have in the near future. Apart from graphically enhanced ports of current generation games it does have some games that might just blow you off your feet.

Call of Duty 2 Infinity ward’s game was the killer app Microsoft was looking for on its console. The game as in its previous outings is absent of a core storyline and the player plays through with different soldiers in the game. One mission may place you in the bitter cold mission in Russia as a part of the Russian division while another will be seen through the eyes of an American soldier at the bloodbath in Normandy,France.The game is packed with smooth visuals, solid gameplay both single player wise as well as on the multiplayer front.

Halo 3 Master Chief makes his comeback on the 360; Bill Gates once said that Halo 3 would be parrying PS3 launch party. Too bad that was just a publicity stunt, but at this year’s E3 Bungie finally released a trailer of Halo 3. It seems Earth has been invaded by The Deadly Covenant the video shows Master chief standing on the edge of a crater with a slew of Covenant ships hovering past him and Cortana whispers “This is the way the world ends”… Finish the fight 2007. The video sent waves across the gaming community and was one of the biggest reasons of Microsoft’s success during this year’s show.

Gears of War This 3rd person action title comes from Epic games. Earth has been torn apart by a savage race who calls themselves The Locusts and Marcus Fenix a military soldier seems to be the man to fight the war ensues. This game was shown playable this year at E3 2006 and was it amazing or what? The game is no run gun 3rd person shooter you are accustomed to, while it has a slick look because of the Unreal 3.0 engine powering it ,the gameplay is intense, both single player and specially multiplayer. The various multiplayer modes will keep you hooked onto your 360 for quite some days to come. The only negative aspect about the game is the release date is yet to be announced.

Saint’s Row How many of you guys have had dreams of seeing GTA on the next gen? Well to say the least this is it, although GTA IV was officially announced this year but the wait will end sometime in October next year. Much like the GTA series this game highlights gang activities and also has an online mode for gang warfare. Keep your fingers crossed for this on!!!

Finish Him!!!

The Xbox 360 continues its online success with its Updated Live Service. The entire interface has been made more user-friendly to include private accounts, keeping track of your friends online, exclusive downloadable content for games, playing retro games and of course the regular killing spree and goals scored against the guy who bullies you in class.

The Beginning or the End

Taking a practical view on all this I’ll say Microsoft is taking a page out of Sony’s diary to win this round, the PlayStation 3 might be more powerful than the 360 but it has been seen that power does not guarantee success in the battlefield as seen in the recent past. Most games now-a-days are multi platform. A greater half of PS3 Titles are slated to appear on the 360 as well, but exclusive games always matter a lot. At this year’s E3 Peter Moore dropped a shocker, GTA IV would be coming to the Xbox 360 first with exclusive downloadable content. The GTA series has been a vital game in selling the PS2 worldwide. It was a huge hit even in Japan which does not take violent games to heart too much

It is the quality of games released on a console that also decides its fate. Microsoft promises around 150 titles available on the 360 by next year around, out of which there are bound to be a few AAA Titles like Gears of war and Halo 3 that will entice gamers worldwide and propel Microsoft into the lead. In addition to this there is the price factor. The upper end of the 360 model is priced lower than Sony’s lower end version. The 360 is said to be having problems with backward compatibility but then again who would want to play a previous generation game when there is so much more to play. The 360’s direct support for devices such as the I-pod and PSP is another added advantage against the PS3. Sony however should not be written off with two Successful consoles in its pocket it knows the cards its dealing with.

Closing Comments

We have seen the tech specs and the plethora of games on the two of the most powerful consoles on the planet…at the end of the day it is simple games that make your day. After a tiring day at work who would like to sit down and play a game that requires constant use of your already worn out grey cells. Sitting through and trying to solve a puzzle in Half Life might just frustrate you, on the other hand a game of Tetris or a quick bout of Street fighter will bring an instant smile and a sense of gratification in that head of yours. Innovations in games is also a very important aspect as each generation of consoles progress, when was the last time you sat through a game which was one of a kind and did not have million of clones. No wonder games like Super Monkey ball, Animal Crossing have done so well in the recent past. The gaming scene has become more or less saturated, with originality reaching to ground zero. The time has come for developers to use this technology to device games that are not monotonous and repetitive but unique in their own right

Neelesh Mukherjee