by Lucas Paule
With the holidays arriving, Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft are once again competing to put out the best gaming experience on the market. However, 2006 brings along new updates to the existing gaming consoles including blue tooth technology, which allows for wireless controllers, forcing gamers to put away their Playstation 2, Xbox, and GameCube. Microsoft began the push for new game systems with its introduction of the Xbox 360 in November 2005, which gave Microsoft a year head start on its competitors.
The Xbox 360 is currently priced at $299.00 but the premium model is $399.00. It features a 3.2 GHz tri-core PowerPC based CPU and a 500 MHz GPU in addition to Xbox Live, which allows gamers to play against other people online or download games. Another notable feature is its wireless controller, which allows you to turn the console on and off. Sony and Nintendo are countering with the Playstation 3 and the Wii, which both came out in November of 2006. The Nintendo Wii is the least expensive system out of the three consoles at $249.00. It features both the regular controller (which looks like a TV remote) and the Nunchuk unit, which hooks up to the regular controller. What makes the Wii much different from the other competing consoles is its requirement for players to move in order to control the gameplay on the screen.
The Wii controllers feature a combination of accelerometers and infrared detection along with the sensor bar to detect its position in the game. The Wii has playback capability, which enables gamers to play games from previous Nintendo and Sega systems. Though the Wii may not appeal to all hardcore gamers, it still provides a new dimension of gameplay to a wider audience. The Sony Playstation 3 is an avid gamers’ dream. The PS3 offers a 3.2 GHz Cell Broadband Engine with a 256 MB video card, 256MB GDDR3 VRAM, a 20GB hard drive (expandable to 60GB), Ethernet, Bluetooth, and WiFi. Up to seven people can play at once. Additionally, the PS3 is able to send Playstation 1 games to the PSP, which uses a Playstatoin 1 Emulator to be released with the PS3. The PSP also connects to the PS3 for further game play, such as Formula One 06, which uses the PSP as a rear-view mirror. All three game systems will prove to be much more advanced than previous consoles, whether through game play, graphics, or both just in time for the holidays.
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