I have recently converted to the dark side of gaming and purchased the PS3. For some reason I have been heavily criticised for this with many, many, many, many, many, many people calling me all kinds of words with a similar theme to “idiot”. But what has the PS3 done to deserve such a reaction?

To find these out we have to compare the consoles to each other, starting with the Wii. Now I like the Wii, its great fun, a fantastic party game, but I’d like to argue that it’s not a games console! I’d like to think of it more as a “family entertainment system”. It has replaced Monopoly and Cluedo as the big family game with its ‘easy to use’ motion sensitive remote, it can be used by anyone whether they are 5 or 90. I have no doubt the Wii will be played by more people after Christmas dinner this year than Charades. The Wii has faced harsh criticism being accused of aiming at a younger audience, but if that is true than Grandma wouldn’t be able to play.

The Wii’s motion sensitive remote is what makes it so easy, and with the use of imagination the player can be holding a baseball bat, bowling ball, or lightsaber just as their character does in the game. But for some the imagination is not good enough and so apart from the price of a remote, plus the nunchuck you need for a lot of games you can get a remote shaped more like a… steering wheel, fishing rod, lightsaber, maracas, gun, golf club… and there are more after this! I remember when my 2 favourite toys were a cardboard box and a stick, with these 2 things I had rocket ships, swords, castles and a racing car. Though some imaginations are stronger than others I used to play Gran turismo with an old PSone controller and thought that was close to driving for real. Of course I have to mention the Wii board. The balance board that was brought out with Wii fit to work the whole body and literally flew off the shelves. It was impossible to find in any store. Now game developers have to think of a way to incorporate this new controller some how in any way other than a skiing game so Nintendo can make this worthwhile and not something else that gathers dust in the loft like all the other exercise equipment after January.

Take the Wii out of its element and it struggles to keep up with the competition, the graphics aren’t as smooth as the 360 or PS3 and a lot of the games aren’t really up to the standard of those on the other consoles. Still it’s not the most expensive and arguable the most fun you can have, especially after a few drinks.

The next console, my former favourite the Xbox 360, This has to be the most popular among gamers at the moment and its not hard to see why, it has the largest catalogue of games out of the 3 seventh generation consoles. Mostly due to this console being the oldest, it was released over a full year ahead of the Wii and PS3 giving it an edge. The graphics on almost every game look great with full HD and it is currently the cheapest, at least in Britain, with prices starting at about £130.

The 360 is aimed at what many consider to be ‘average gamer’. Male, aged between 16 and 35 and has a fascination with guns. You only need to look at the biggest sellers to see this, Halo3, Call of Duty 4, Gears of War 1 and 2. The 360 is perfect for teenage boys that want to fire off a load, and middle aged guys that need to relax and their wife “has a headache”. The first problem with the 360, Xbox Live, The 360’s online community for all you multiplayer needs and game’s extra content. Its easy to use and has plenty of content. Films, Demos, Extra map packs, Extra Characters, Themes, and gamer pics. The problem with it is how you have to pay for it. While demos and some themes are free, most extra game content and themes you have to pay for with Microsoft Points which value depends really on the country you are in. In the UK 1000 points is roughly £8.50, but I for one feel that it would be better if a price was displayed in £ or even $ instead of points so you can get a true idea of how much you are spending. Also while all downloads can be got on an Xbox Live silver account, to play online multiplayer you have to have an Xbox Live gold account which is roughly £30 for a year. Not that much when you think about it but after paying for a 360, buying a game, modem, phone line, broadband, paying for online multiplayer feels like a bit of a con. It is worth it though, some games only really come alive online but I think Microsoft could have let us have this feature for free if they felt like being nice.

The second problem with the 360 has to be the biggest, the infamous “Red Rings of Death” when the circular lights on the front of the console light up red and indicate total hardware failure. While some have been lucky and have escaped this others have succumbed so many times in the 360’s lifetime that when asked to count they run out of fingers. This should have been sorted before the Xbox was launched really you wouldn’t release a car to the market and say “sometimes the brakes don’t work but if that happens no problem we’ll replace the car for you, even though the replacement has the same problem.”

Now the PS3, the black sheep of the family. Undeservedly despised by many this console… costs a fortune! When it was released prices were close to £500 and even after all this time you will be very lucky to find a new one for much less than £300. There were problems with the launch, the number of games is very short and it weighs about the same as a moderately sized tombstone. But Sony were smart and beat Microsoft on 3 major points. Firstly the hard drive size. While the Elite 360 beats the top PS3 on this the lowest range PS3 has a 20gb hard drive while the 360 has none. Also with the PS3 the hard drive can be replaced by a 2.5 inch drive of any size storage capacity. Secondly the PS3 has blu-ray which has beaten HD-DVD as the standard for the next line in disc media after DVD. The 360 lost this battle for supremacy despite releasing an external HD-DVD drive that can be attached. Blu-ray means better quality films but also bigger games with a dual-layered disc having a capacity of about 50gb, games with massive amounts of content can be released. The only game I know of that has currently used a 50gb disc is Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Finally the Playstation’s online community is free. Extra game content does cost but instead of points you see a £ price so you can see exactly how much you are spending. Demo’s and online multiplayer is free though which is how it should be.

The PS3 has wireless controllers as standard which have a decent battery life to them, and have brought back the rumble feature after a brief wait. They have a Sixaxis motion sensitive feature which to be honest feels like it was added on at the last minute to beat the Wii, I have only played a few games admittedly but I have never actually thought “This game is perfect with motion sensitivity” I feel like the game would have been just as good without it.

Everyone is going to have their favourite console, whether you love it because it’s great fun, or for the great games, or because it cost a lot of money and you don’t want to feel it was a waste. But whatever that is you have made a good choice, they all have their merits, and as long as you have fun that’s all that really matters.