It's such a pretty sight isn’t it? Full blown HD in 1080i 1080p ,1327z ,3245x! I love it. I don’t really know which is worse, the trend to push everyone into HD or the trend to push everyone into HD.

I believe it was on March 1st, that the US government (and what a wonderful government we have) mandates that all brand new TV’s are digital and that all TV’s sold as of March 1st are digital as well. So, if you go to Mom’s and Pop’s or hell even Best Buy; you can certainly and most likely sue them if you don’t get a digital TV. Why wouldn’t you be buying a HDTV at this point anyway? If you’re here on this website you shouldn’t even be questioning buying a HDTV. If you’re Uncle Lenny and Aunt Gina in BFE you shouldn’t be questioning it. If you’re the King of Malta you shouldn’t question it. HDTV is where it’s at.

Yes it is. HDTV is amazing. I still can’t get over it and I’ve had my set for two years. I would say the big drawback is lack of channels. I have something in the realm of 20, as opposed to 150+ on standard def. I also have my 360 which is entirely Hi-Def. The movies I can download are HD the movies I can watch on my HD-DVD are HD. The games I can play are all in HD.

The games I play are all in HD. Is it good? Yes. Is it bad? Yes. I don’t know, maybe Nintendo has a point with making games fun again and blah blah blah. Although, I just saw some footage of Super Mario Galaxy and quite frankly, I wasn’t impressed. I played Gears of War and I was impressed. I’ve played Motostorm for the PS3 and I was impressed. The point here is graphics do sell systems. Nintendo will always be kid-centric. The Xbox and PS brands will always be centered on adults, with the Xbox getting hardcore fans and the PS getting casual fans, although with the pricing issues, it’s about to turn upside down.

HD gaming to me has been more focused on the buzz of being a HD game than being truly revolutionary. The issue among these next-gen or now-gen systems is; there hasn’t been anything revolutionary about the games that have been released. They have all stuck to the same tried and true formula, aside from the Wii.

I've never been a Nintendo fan; I have to admit that, I will admit though that the controller is top notch. That’s it, that’s all I have to say about the Wii. It is a Gamecube that’s been tweaked a bit and has a fancy new controller. People predict this whole crazy revolution with the system, but just like every Nintendo system since the SNES it will go down in flames. Simply because, third parties will abandon it once they realize only eight year old children are playing. Nintendo isn’t a viable contender anymore, Nintendo even realizes that. No matter what people say, they are predicting terrific things for the Wii. I don’t see it happening. It’s a great idea horrible hardware.

You can’t even watch DVD’s on the thing. That should be a pre-requisite! You’re also required to enter separate friend’s codes for each game! Yeeouch!!! My god man, that’s torture in and upon itself. It’s like memorizing credit card numbers for every single game you own. So chalk that up as another negative for the Wii. Lousy online. Graphics? Nope. HD? Nope. DVD? Nope. So, aside from flailing my arms around and acting like an all around moron, what does the Wii offer me? I’m a couch potato gamer who shies away from exercise like vampires do sunshine. I’m going to go with not much.

In the case of the PS3, there is a ton at stake for Sony. They have been truly “F’ing” up though. The company is banking on the PS3 for the future of the company; it’s a very scary situation for them. I love the idea behind the system, I really do. I love the leaps and bounds that they supposedly took to bring the system to market. I don’t love the price though. I’ve been a gamer my entire life, (I don’t want to get started on a diatribe here), but for crying out loud it is $600!!! I make a good living; I can even go as far to say I do well for myself. I can’t for the life of me justify spending the money on the PS3 though.

Do I really give a shit about Blu-Ray? No. Do I really give a shit about “The Cell”? No. Do I really give a shit about…well…Playstation Home? No. I do care about the wireless though, that’s pretty neat, I also like the 60 gig HD, that’s about to be upstaged by the 120 for the 360 though. So why in the hell would I want a PS3, the games? Umm no. The PS3 is losing exclusives left and right. Ohh wait I see…I want to spend $600 on a machine that is requiring me to buy into an optical format that isn’t proven yet. You want to me to spend $600 on a system that really isn’t much better than a system $300-$200 less. Hmm…Oh wait a second…I see for Playstation Home!! It’s the answer to all my online prayers. That’s why I need a PS3 so I can play “Second ‘Freakin’ Life” on my TV. Wow, let me tell you, I am going to line up for that one.

Then you have the Xbox 360. It’s the “Damien” of the console world, the spawn of Satan himself if you will. I’m pretty certain it’s not, but for my rants sake let’s say it is. Here you have this behemoth of a software company wanting to take over your living room. That’s it, end of story. Microsoft has succeeded in releasing a sub $500 set-top box that Mr. Gates himself said he wanted to see in everyone’s house way back in 1996 or 1997, maybe it was 1998. At any rate, he said it and the 360 is what we’re getting.

I am going to cast my bias aside here for a bit. Is the machine perfect? I would have to say no. The 360 has had tons and tons of hardware issues, although I can’t believe them all. The forums aren’t known for truthfulness. What it does, it does very well though. Microsoft has created a near perfect media hub for your living room. If you’re looking for HD content this is the place for it. You can “rent’ HD movies, you can play HD games, you can watch HD-DVD or if that fails you can probably soon watch BR-DVD. The 360 is seriously future proofed. I also love the media center features, with it you can stream HD movies. The system also has some good games and more coming down the pipe, with the 360 gaining more and more exclusives…the PS3 is going to go the way of the 3DO.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a gamer I’ve always been a gamer, and I love the HD aspect of it all. I love HD. The games themselves need to take less advantage of the fancy things the “Now Generation” machines can do graphically, and come up with something a little more mind blowing mechanics wise. Make games more innovative, more creative, and more engrossing. Don’t just slap some pretty graphics on it and call it “new”. :choke: :cough: :choke: :cough: Madden…EA….and now even UBI…yikes! The Madden series has been a FU**ING joke the past two seasons the same with NCAA!!!! The same goes for Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell, come on UBI get into it more, stop dropping garbage on us!!!!

Gears of War is a prime example of what you can do with time and effort. The game is freaking amazing. Let’s hope Halo 3 can hold its own. I’m not even thinking about Killzone 2, the first one was a dud. I don’t understand the hype of that one. Ohh wait a second…I remember…Sony blew smoke up everyone’s arses a few years ago at E3. GTA IV, I am very excited for that one. The trailer looks top notch, let’s hope it innovates more than it renovates.

It's a funny thing the HD Age, it’s very new and very exciting. I do realize two of these systems are the pioneer of the HD-Age, there really needs to be more exciting software. The machines are out that can do it (360 and PS3) developers just need to take advantage of it. I love Madden I always have. I grew up on it, (it shot a bolt of lightning down my spine). Why can’t EA grow with the times and innovate? I’m personally tired of playing the same sorry crap, Long bomb touchdown…etc…etc… Sam Fisher, he needs to be shelved for a couple of years. I love the Splinter Cell series, but it’s getting ridiculous. I’m sure I could go on and on, (but this is a short list for space and time sake.)

So don’t worry buy your HDTV, you’re going to love it, buy a 360 or a PS3 you’re going to love it as well. Just do some homework on what system you want to spend your hard earned moolah on. If you want a wonderfully priced all-in-one entertainment hub, the Xbox 360 could never steer you wrong. If you want a Blu-Ray Trojan Horse and don’t care about money, the PS3 is for you. I didn’t include the Wii, I don’t feel it’s worthy of comparison to the other two systems.

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"An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools."

Good stuff there. Gotta pretty much agree with everything said. Funny thing about it as new games come out you're always hoping that something "new" will be implemented so as to say this IS next-gen gaming. Let's hope that APF 2K8 can innovate. Can't wait to see that.

Maybe Mass Effect...that seems like it's going to redifne the RPG era, also (I can't really talk about it) Shadowrun...is very very cool. There are a couple titles on the horizon that perhaps can swing things around. I suppose we have to remember that these "now-gen" systems are still very new, the new pictures of PGR4 and Burnout look amazing, these are racers though, I love the genre, but let's see it in a platformer or something that hasn't been done before. Maybe Virtua Fighter: 5 with it's Live play will innovate the fighting genre.

I really want to like the PS3, I just can't wrap my head around the price. I think Sony has gone banannas thinking people will pay that much for a videogame system. Or maybe I have, because people have actually paid that much for a videogame system.

I love HD I just don't see a need to force a format upon people, (BR-DVD) even 1080p. There isn't a network out there that is supporting it yet. All the stuff they are buying is 1080i because that is the mainstream consumer. HD is still a fringe technology. BR-DVD and HD-DVD I love them both but I'm into it, the average consumer doesn't care at all about it. They want to watch American Idol and Grey's Anatomy, they don't care about HD. So maybe it's a conundrum. Who knows?

I do know that for early adopters like us, we're golden. The people that come on board later in the game, will be floored more than I was when I watched my first "Sunrise Earth" episode on Discovery HD.

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"An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools."

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