In need of some console-ation.
It occured to me the other day, when I realized I couldn't play Eternal Sonata for lack of an XBox360, that I haven't bought any new video game consoles in the last 5 years! The last thing I bought was a GameCube and that was in Christmas of 2002 when I still lived with my mother!
For the last 5 years I've been relying on my rapidly detiorating PS2 to play FFXI and almost nothing else! I'm not kidding when I say it's deterioating, it's lost the ability to play DVDs and I've already had to perform unorthodox surgery on it twice to keep it alive. Not to mention that the fan is distressingly loud at times and it's begun to crash mid-game now & then... For awhile there I was using it to play PSU, but we all know how that worked out ¬_¬... The only other noteworthy games I've played in the meantime, Zelda: Twilight Princess & Castlevania:Curse of Darkness, I didn't even buy for myself, playing both of them on borrowed copies!
I really need to bite the bullet and buy a current system, let's take a look at our choices:
Nintendo DS
This Game&Watch on crack has an incredibly long list of games at this point that I'd love to play, including, but not limited to, Castlevania:Portrait of Ruin, Kirby's something or other, and the entire Phoenix Wright series. The only problem is... it's a portable system, wtf!? If the layer of dust on my GBA is any indication, I simply never find time to play on portables. I'm not Japanese, so I don't spend 25% of my time riding trains, it's not like I can play at work, and I don't enjoy sitting hunched over tinyscreen curling my spine into a knot and cramping up my hands playing a portable at home when I could be playing something that uses my actual TV screen and a controller that fits in my adult-sized hands.
PS3
It's hard to take this system seriously after all the horrible horrible decisions Sony has made. The pricetag is still off-the-wall, and they continue to reveal themselves as LIARS everytime they contradict themselves, making it hard to want to give them any money at all. I just keep being thankful that there isn't a single game for their system yet that could possibly compel me to buy one.
XBox360
Now unlike Sony, Microsoft still remembers that people buy a console not for the name printed on the box, but for the library of games that you can play on it. There's actually enough stuff available for 360 that I almost considered betraying my deeply ingrained hatred of Microsoft, brought on by decades of Mac ownership, in order to buy one. Hell, I could even buy FFXI for it and not have to worry about playing on a system that could burst into flames any second... or could I? Oh yeah that's right, whereas my PS2 has taken 6-7 years to nearly bite the dust, 360 has gained a reputation for meeting a similar fate in 6-7 days. Also, $300 is still a lot of money, forcing me to chose between buying one of these or...
Nintendo Wii
You can laugh at the stupid name all you want, but Nintendo still builds a solid product. In this case, they just didn't build enough of them! This system is going to be an inevitable purchase anyway before Decemebr 3rd (Smash Bros. Brawl's release date), I've just been putting off the hunt because (1) it really would be a "hunt", it'd be exagerrating to say there are zero Wiis out there, but you really do have to make an effort to find one, and (2) there are no really enticing games out for it right now. I already played Twilight Princess on GC, I have no desire to play it on "hard mode" using the nunchuks, Smash Bros. is still months away, and Dragon Quest Swords (assuming the NA release doesn't get canned) is even farther off! If I were to buy a Wii today, I'm not sure what game(s) I'd buy for it! Cooking Mama!? I don't think the RE4 remake is even out yet...
So there you have it, the Wii wins by default, but even then I don't think I'll try finding one until November. In the mean time, if you'll excuse me, I think I smell smoke coming from my PS2...
For the last 5 years I've been relying on my rapidly detiorating PS2 to play FFXI and almost nothing else! I'm not kidding when I say it's deterioating, it's lost the ability to play DVDs and I've already had to perform unorthodox surgery on it twice to keep it alive. Not to mention that the fan is distressingly loud at times and it's begun to crash mid-game now & then... For awhile there I was using it to play PSU, but we all know how that worked out ¬_¬... The only other noteworthy games I've played in the meantime, Zelda: Twilight Princess & Castlevania:Curse of Darkness, I didn't even buy for myself, playing both of them on borrowed copies!
I really need to bite the bullet and buy a current system, let's take a look at our choices:
Nintendo DS
This Game&Watch on crack has an incredibly long list of games at this point that I'd love to play, including, but not limited to, Castlevania:Portrait of Ruin, Kirby's something or other, and the entire Phoenix Wright series. The only problem is... it's a portable system, wtf!? If the layer of dust on my GBA is any indication, I simply never find time to play on portables. I'm not Japanese, so I don't spend 25% of my time riding trains, it's not like I can play at work, and I don't enjoy sitting hunched over tinyscreen curling my spine into a knot and cramping up my hands playing a portable at home when I could be playing something that uses my actual TV screen and a controller that fits in my adult-sized hands.
PS3
It's hard to take this system seriously after all the horrible horrible decisions Sony has made. The pricetag is still off-the-wall, and they continue to reveal themselves as LIARS everytime they contradict themselves, making it hard to want to give them any money at all. I just keep being thankful that there isn't a single game for their system yet that could possibly compel me to buy one.
XBox360
Now unlike Sony, Microsoft still remembers that people buy a console not for the name printed on the box, but for the library of games that you can play on it. There's actually enough stuff available for 360 that I almost considered betraying my deeply ingrained hatred of Microsoft, brought on by decades of Mac ownership, in order to buy one. Hell, I could even buy FFXI for it and not have to worry about playing on a system that could burst into flames any second... or could I? Oh yeah that's right, whereas my PS2 has taken 6-7 years to nearly bite the dust, 360 has gained a reputation for meeting a similar fate in 6-7 days. Also, $300 is still a lot of money, forcing me to chose between buying one of these or...
Nintendo Wii
You can laugh at the stupid name all you want, but Nintendo still builds a solid product. In this case, they just didn't build enough of them! This system is going to be an inevitable purchase anyway before Decemebr 3rd (Smash Bros. Brawl's release date), I've just been putting off the hunt because (1) it really would be a "hunt", it'd be exagerrating to say there are zero Wiis out there, but you really do have to make an effort to find one, and (2) there are no really enticing games out for it right now. I already played Twilight Princess on GC, I have no desire to play it on "hard mode" using the nunchuks, Smash Bros. is still months away, and Dragon Quest Swords (assuming the NA release doesn't get canned) is even farther off! If I were to buy a Wii today, I'm not sure what game(s) I'd buy for it! Cooking Mama!? I don't think the RE4 remake is even out yet...
So there you have it, the Wii wins by default, but even then I don't think I'll try finding one until November. In the mean time, if you'll excuse me, I think I smell smoke coming from my PS2...