Console Wars - The Next Generation
Playstation 2 and XBox are the names that have ruled the console gaming industry for the past few years. It's personal preference, naturally. Some like me prefer the solid name and true console styled gameplay of the Playstation 2, a machine which was launched many moons ago and yet still pumps out the most up to date games which never fail to amaze. XBox is the choice of those who like the ultimate power from their machines, from a technology standpoint it is the Ferrari of the gaming world and is backed up by the fact that it's parent is one of the biggest names in the world of computing technology. Then there are those few who enjoy having both machines which is somewhat perplexing when you consider that over the last few years almost exactly the same games have been released on both consoles simultaneously. I haven't double checked this statement, which is why I said 'almost', however each week when I scan Play.com for any new releases you can almost guarantee that one game will be listed twice with slightly different box labelling.
Tomorrow in the US and more importantly for me, a week Friday for the UK will see the release of the new generation of games consoles. You have to remember that aside from the handheld consoles such as the GameBoy Advance and PSP it has been almost six years now since the Playstation 2 arrived on the scene, and almost that long since the XBox turned up to challenge it. This alone is reason enough for the intense hype that has gripped the gaming industry, hype enough that both consoles have recieved coverage across even the major news services.
So on the 22nd of November and 2nd of December the Xbox 360 is making it's appearance. Despite being 'just a games console', it contains more processing power than I've seen in even the most modern of high performance desktop PCs (three 3.2GHz cores? My computer doesn't even have one...) and if history is anything to go by, the Xbox has always been the choice of the performance nut. The only problem Microsoft may now face? They decided to get a jump on the market and release their console a full year before the Playstation 3 is expected to launch, which naturally makes good financial sense, cornering an eager market and having free reign on the field for a full year. It also gives Sony another year to go quickly back to the drawing board, and take the position of 'most powerful console' from the Xbox without breaking a sweat.
Time will tell.
Tomorrow in the US and more importantly for me, a week Friday for the UK will see the release of the new generation of games consoles. You have to remember that aside from the handheld consoles such as the GameBoy Advance and PSP it has been almost six years now since the Playstation 2 arrived on the scene, and almost that long since the XBox turned up to challenge it. This alone is reason enough for the intense hype that has gripped the gaming industry, hype enough that both consoles have recieved coverage across even the major news services.
So on the 22nd of November and 2nd of December the Xbox 360 is making it's appearance. Despite being 'just a games console', it contains more processing power than I've seen in even the most modern of high performance desktop PCs (three 3.2GHz cores? My computer doesn't even have one...) and if history is anything to go by, the Xbox has always been the choice of the performance nut. The only problem Microsoft may now face? They decided to get a jump on the market and release their console a full year before the Playstation 3 is expected to launch, which naturally makes good financial sense, cornering an eager market and having free reign on the field for a full year. It also gives Sony another year to go quickly back to the drawing board, and take the position of 'most powerful console' from the Xbox without breaking a sweat.
Time will tell.