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FASTER, SHARPER, PRICIER: A Side-By-Side Look at Sony's PS3, Nintendo's Wii and Microsoft's Xbox 360

Posted on: Thursday, 11 May 2006, 06:07 CDT

By Heather Newman, Detroit Free Press

May 11--LOS ANGELES -- Sony and Nintendo showed off their newest video game consoles at the Electronic Entertainment Expo this week, letting the world finally see the PlayStation 3 and Wii, respectively.

Microsoft, which has had a six-month jump on its competitors, introduced additions for its Xbox 360.

I played all three consoles at E3. Here's the rundown:

SONY PLAYSTATION 3

Price: $499 and $599

Release date: early November

Sony has the clear No. 1 position in current video game consoles with its PlayStation 2, and it's hoping that customer loyalty, arguably the best hardware specs of the three new machines and the ability to play PS2 and PSOne titles will make the PS3 console a best-seller despite the astronomical price.

The graphics on the games shown so far are stellar. The controller is almost identical on the outside to the current PS2 gamepad, with a couple of unseen key differences: It includes a motion sensor, so moving the controller around moves things on screen in some games, and it drops the rumble feedback that got all the console makers in trouble recently from patent infringement suits. (Xbox and Nintendo both include rumble feedback in their new machines.)

Controllers are available in wired or wireless versions. The PS3 itself has a 20-gigabyte or 60-gigabyte hard drive (one of the differences between the lower- and higher-priced models) and the ability to connect to the Internet via wired or wireless hookup.

It's also Bluetooth compatible for local wireless gadgets.

For the video connoisseur, the PS3 includes HDMI hookups to your television or amp, which provide the industry-standard best picture, and its high-definition capabilities are at the industry maximum: 1080p, which isn't available even on high-definition television channels at the moment.

It includes a Blu-Ray high-definition DVD drive to hold those hi-res games.

NINTENDO WII

Price: not yet released, but likely less than $200

Release date: Between September and December

A few nagging details about the Wii, formerly code-named Revolution, are still undisclosed by Nintendo, including the release date and the price.

But based on the hardware inside, analysts estimate that it could cost less than $200.

The Wii's major distinguishing characteristic is its controller, a two-piece wireless device that looks like a remote control attached to a small ball by a short cord. The remote has all the buttons for the controller and a single trigger; the ball, which Nintendo calls a "nunchaku," has the analog stick for direction. Both pieces have separate motion sensors, and you'll wave both in the air to control some games.

The Wii controller feels surprisingly natural for some games -- swinging the two pieces to control two swords in Ubisoft's "Red Steel," for example, or waving the remote to hit the ball in a tennis game.

In others, it's a bit of a stretch; driving a truck with the remote held like a handlebar just doesn't feel right.

What still has to be determined is how the controllers feel over the long haul. Are you going to get tired of waving your hands around every time you want to make something happen on-screen?

The Wii's hardware is decidedly last-gen compared to the other two manufacturers, though Nintendo has finally gotten with the program and promises the Wii will go online. Graphics appear to be current-generation Xbox quality or slightly higher. The console has good launch support from game makers, who have all but abandoned the current generation GameCube.

MICROSOFT XBOX 360

Price: $299 and $399

Release date: available now

The 360 has a lead on the other two machines, and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said at a press conference here this week that he expects the company to have sold 10 million 360s before the other consoles even hit the market.

That's an advantage, especially considering the price, which looks downright reasonable compared to the PS3. Don't be surprised to see the 360 marked down even further during the PS3 launch.

Microsoft will enhance its Xbox Live feature, allowing gamers to play on PCs, cell phones and their 360 at the same time through the Xbox Live Anywhere feature.

The company also announced some enhancements: By the holidays, Xbox 360 will have an HD DVD drive, wireless headset, wireless force-feedback wheel and camera.

As a console, the 360's hardware is on par or slightly below that of the PS3, and it does not ship with a high-definition DVD drive, though one will be available (in the competing HD DVD format) about the time the PS3 goes on sale.

Graphics for existing games and for those to be released in the fall are nearly identical to the PS3's, though it has slightly less capacity to show those bleeding-edge high definition pictures (1080i versus the PS3's even-crisper 1080p).

The 360 can play fewer games than the PS3, a result of extremely limited backwards compatibility with past games (the PS3 plays all previous generation PS games, the 360 only a selected number of titles from the original Xbox).

The selection of new games will improve; Microsoft says the 360 will have 160 games on the market by the holidays.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Detroit Free Press

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Source: Detroit Free Press

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