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The Water Cooler Title: Picking Sides in the Console War This weekend, the gloves come off and the controllers turn on. Microsoft's Xbox 360 has enjoyed an entire year all to itself in the war for gaming supremacy. But on Friday, Sony's hotly anticipated PlayStation 3 finally debuts in the United States. Two days later, Nintendo launches its Wii gaming platform. The stakes have never been higher in the struggle for your entertainment dollars. Sony and Microsoft have each invested billions of dollars to craft the most powerful game players the world has ever seen. To recoup those costs, they've got to outsell the other guy -- which only one of them can do. Sony launched on Nov. 11 In Japan with a tiny allotment of 80,000 units, which they sold through instantly. Microsoft has only moved around 150,000 Xbox 360 units in the region, but has moved 5 million of the new consoles elsewhere in the world, getting a healthy leap on Sony. Because of the inherent risks, perennial also-ran Nintendo has decided to bow out of the technological race, ditching high-def graphics for innovative game control. Wii's motion-sensing controller allows you to swing a virtual tennis racket as if it were the real thing. All sides are aggressively courting gamers, and the competition is great. Every console has a slate of impressive new game titles and a bevy of additional features, from web browsing to video chat. So, which one is right for you? Here's the rundown. PlayStation 3 Videophiles on a budget will prize PlayStation 3 simply for the fact that, at $500 to $600, it is the cheapest option for playback of the new Blu-Ray high-def movie format (Sony's standalone player retails for $1000). And with so many consumers clamoring for a few PS3s -- Sony says 2 million units will be available worldwide in 2006, and rumors of shortages abound -- it's likely that eBay entrepreneurs will snap up much of the initial shipment and turn it around for three times the MSRP. The PlayStation platform is where most of the game industry's major franchises call home, though that isn't quite reflected in the launch lineup. In the years to come, new entries in the Final Fantasy RPG series and Gran Turismo racing series will be exclusive to Sony's box. Brand-loyal gamers who need their fix don't really have much of a choice. By the numbers: Sony's system is by far the most expensive of the three. The majority of the units available on Nov. 17 will be in a $600 configuration which includes a 60-GB hard drive, built-in wireless networking and slots for various storage media. A $500 version has a 20-GB hard drive and lacks the features listed above. Distinguishing characteristics: All PlayStation 3 units sport a Blu-Ray drive, which gives game developers 25 gigabytes of space to work with (Xbox and Wii discs are only 9 GB). An HDMI jack allows for pure digital video and audio output, although the cable must be purchased separately. The best games: Wired's bloggers are split on the merits of Sony's first-person shooter Resistance: Fall of Man, but agree that the online multiplayer mode, which supports up to 40 simultaneous players, is excellent. We loved Electronic Arts' Fight Night, which adds a first-person perspective that lets you look the opposing boxer dead-on as you rearrange his face. Wii Nintendo's game plan hinges on whether they can attract consumers outside the traditional "gamer" demographic. They're hoping the easy-to-pick-up design and unique realism of games like Wii Sports will appeal to those who would ordinarily never pick up a game controller. It's the game system for your mom. The game variations included in Wii Sports allow the motion-sensing remote to be swung like a tennis racket, bowling ball or golf club. The graphics -- which feature tiny little characters that look like plastic toys -- are a far cry from the ultra-realism of the competition. But the gameplay feels just like the real thing. Wii is also the game system for Nintendo brand loyalists. They are some of the world's most faithful consumers, whose love for characters like Super Mario have kept them coming back to Nintendo hardware year after year. By the numbers: Nintendo's pricing structure is the cheapest, not to mention simplest: the single $250 configuration includes the console, one controller and the Wii Sports game. It will launch on Nov. 19, and Nintendo plans to ship 4 million consoles worldwide by year's end. Distinguishing characteristics: First and foremost is Wii's game controller, which looks more like a TV remote. It's meant to be held in one hand and detects both motion and position. To do this, you'll have to place a small "sensor bar" near your television set, but the setup requires minimal effort. Size is another advantage of Wii. PS3 and Xbox are gigantic pieces of hardware that weigh close to 20 pounds each, but Wii is a diminutive, unobtrusive white box about the size of a stack of three DVD cases. The slot-loading drive saves even more space Nintendo promises an online service that will let Wii owners browse the web, check news and weather updates and download retro video games. Our test units weren't yet set up to try the service. The best games: Hardcore Nintendo fans will thrill to The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. In the works for about three years, the latest installment of the well-known adventure-game series packs gorgeous graphics, an epic save-the-princess story, and just enough motion control to keep things interesting. Swinging the controller swings your sword, and you can get pinpoint precision with your bow and arrow by pointing at the screen to aim. Fans of first-person shooters should also check out Red Steel, which we covered in depth last month. Besides the packed-in Wii Sports, players looking for lighter fare might try Excite Truck, an offroad racing game in which you tilt the Wii controller to steer your 4X4. Xbox 360 Much like its predecessor, Xbox 360 should strongly appeal to fans of first-person shooters. The big daddy of them all, Halo 3, will be exclusive to the box when it ships next year. For now, there's the just-as-impressive Gears of War. Budget-minded gamers who don't want to pay a premium for high-def video playback will like Xbox 360's pick-and-choose configurations. If you buy the core Xbox 360 platform at $300, you can enjoy the same Xbox games as your friends with the fully tricked-out system. By the numbers: Hoping to get a leg up on Sony, Microsoft launched its sophomore game console last November. A $400 configuration includes a 20-GB hard drive; a $300 version has no hard drive at all. The drive can be purchased separately for $100. Out of the box, the Xbox only plays regular DVD movies. A $200 external add-on drive released this month adds the ability to read HD-DVD films, although it lacks HDMI output. Distinguishing characteristics: Add all the component parts together and Xbox 360 is as expensive as PlayStation 3. But you can get the core Xbox system for a reasonable $300, then add in the extra bells and whistles later. It's too early to tell -- Sony's online service isn't available on our test units yet -- but early reports indicate that Microsoft's Xbox Live will be the more robust online service. PlayStation 3 won't feature the sort of unified matchmaking and integrated "friends list" systems that Microsoft boasts, instead leaving it to individual game developers to create customized online functionality for each of their games. The best games: Gears of War, crafted by Epic, the developer behind legendary shooters like Unreal, is by all accounts a masterpiece of the shooter genre. Microsoft's celebrated Xbox Live Arcade service lets you download a wide variety of smaller games -- mostly retro classics like Doom and Street Fighter II.
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