[Lynk Former]

I've been thinking about this a lot, spurred by the release of Grand Theft Auto IV and the subsequent slew of perfect reviews the game has garnered in its wake. I've never wanted an XBOX 360 nor a PS3, yet hearing about a game that is supposedly *this good* is making me wonder about what I'm missing.

I think if you do stick with a single console, you really are missing out on a good variety of games out there which are worth playing. I've never had to buy a Sega, Sony or Microsoft console in my time because my friends would have them and we'd just play each others consoles and hire games.

As for GTA4 itself and gaming reviews. I really think that the review system for videogames is broken so I don't care what score is given to a game in any review, in fact, I ignore it. I don't even care if Ocarina of Time has gotten perfect scores because a lot about that game is flawed, even back in its time when it was the hottest thing around.

From what I've been reading about GTA4... at least, from what I've been reading from between the lines about GTA4. It is very much worth buying, it's a game that delivers in terms of pushing the realism factor in a videogame and allowing people feel like they're really in New York... Liberty City, whatever One of the best things about the game are the online modes which are great and very well done from what I've seen. However, what you are getting other than some brilliant additions, is more of the same which you got from Vice City and San Andreas... and before anyone starts calling me a biased Nintendo fanboy. I feel the same way about Twilight Princess, it's just the second coming of Ocarina of Time. Both games have new and brilliant features that weren't there before, but both games are still the same old thing we've known before for the last... for a long time.

But that's the point isn't it. If GTA's formula were to change too much then it'd lose a lot of its brilliance, the same applies for the formula of current Zelda games before Phantom Hourglass. You can't simply add something into a successful franchise like this until you can PROVE it works in other games... and if you notice, all of the new elements that makes GTA4 fucking wow has already been field tested in other games.

The question is: Can a game really be so good that is worth the purchase price of a console during its current generation?

Yes. Many people bought a Wii just because it had Wii Sports in it, and many people have bought a Wii just because it has Wii Fit on it. Same applies for Halo 2 for the Xbox in the last generation and Halo 3 for the 360 for this generation... also, the same thing is going to happen for Metal Gear Solid 4 on the PS3 and Monster Hunter 3 for Wii. One of the most successful games to make people buy a system was Nintendogs. Millions of people around bought a DS just for that one game... and let's not forget Super Smash Bros. Brawl...

I strongly dislike both Microsoft and Sony; I see them as being opportunists that displaced the traditional Japanese gaming companies I grew up with and left only Nintendo from the original generation. In this sense, it's not so much that I'm a Nintendo fanboy (although I am; that's just not the relevant point here), it's more that I dislike their competitors enough to be unwilling to support them financially.

I dunno, I don't like Sony and Microsoft as companies either, but I think Microsoft has done a good job at evening the field by allowing non-Japanese developers to get their games out there. As much as I love Japanese made games, we can't have the industry ruled by them. Also, Sony and Microsoft have both played an important part in gaming since they joined the ranks...

Microsoft created and perfected the first stable and well thought out online network for a videogame console and for the first time we got REAL online gaming on a videogame console. All of the attempts before it were by Nintendo who only tried to dip their toes in but who never embraced the concept... and still don't to be perfectly honest.

Sony introduced something very interesting... but what makes it even better is that those who call themselves "hardcore gamers" choose to blame Nintendo for this! Sony were the ones who expanded the market and introduced the field of gamers we call casual gamers... AND they were the ones who laid the foundation for non-gamers to play videogames. It's amazing how many people try to credit and discredit Nintendo for expanding the market in this way when it was Sony all along!! LOL

However.

Though I hate the parent company that produced it, I can't reasonably deny that the PS2 is a great platform. I see it in a way as being the Sega Genesis of its generation: tons of games, some great ones, mostly just good ones, but a library so vast and varied that it's most certainly worth it's current bottom-of-the-barrel price tag. (I was actually torn momentarily between spending that money on a DS or a PS2. The DS won, to my credit ) The PS3, however, at both its initial and current price points, is an obviously overrated system with an excruciatingly limited library with disgustingly high price tags. The reasoning behind both of these things seems relatively clear to me: keep the PS2 around and very cheap, because they will continue to sell to gamers like me who have yet to purchase one, and keep the PS3 at a premium price for hardcore gamers who are desperate for the newest/fastest/best/most powerful machine despite the pricetag or any other limitations. It's an extremely prudent move and pretty much standard operating procedure for Sony--see the PSX for more details.

I agree that it's a very smart move by Sony. If you look at weekly hardware and software sales, you'll find that while Nintendo is leading in all regions thanks to the huge success of the Wii and DS, Sony is in a comfortable second because it has the combined efforts of the PS3, PS2 and PSP. Microsoft on the other hand just has the Xbox360, not only that but 360 sales in terms of hardware and software are slowing down compared to a rise in the people buying PS3 hardware and software...

IMO, the XBOX 360 is the PS2 of its own generation; most games that see release on other platforms also get ported to the 360 (including PC games, since in a way it's simply a gaming PC in its own box) and its pricing is competitive enough to make it far more attractive than the PS3, at least currently.

As I said before, there's been a trend that I've noticed where the 360 is slowing down and the PS3 is speeding up. I think by the end of this generation, the PS3 will come out on top of the 360. Also, from what I hear, more people bought GTA4 on the PS3 than they did on the 360... a sign of things to come?

Then there's Wii. The tiny, nothing-fancy Wii that doesn't really do anything but play games (I still haven't beaten that damned News Channel yet) with an affordable pricetag, innovative control schemes, and hopefully a bright future. Nintendo is breaking a lot of rules here--if they'd charged even $25USD their profits would have been even further through the roof. But their goal was to get as many consoles in the hands of people as possible (even if the supply chain management has proven mostly faulty--I question whether that was intentional or not). Note that I said "people" and not "gamers." It's already proven its ability to host legendary titles in a whole new way, but more important its simplicity and elegance draw a lot of people to games and gaming who never would have touched a controller otherwise.

My firm belief is that Wii is taking off from where the infrastructure the PS2 built in the last generation.

Let's valuate entertainment expenses. Let's say that we prorate all forms of entertainment by dollars-per-hour (USD, sorry). A $20 DVD with a two-hour movie clocks in at $10 per hour. If you include the special features, the cost could drop a little bit. Going to the movies costs about the same. A CD can cost up to $18 with only as much as 77 minutes of entertainment--an expensive proposition. Sporting events are ridiculously expensive--a night at the baseball park here costs at least $28 per ticket, which doesn't include parking, food, or drinks--and it's $7 for a beer, $4 for a soda and $5 for a hot dog. Not a cheap meal.

Games? I spent $44 on Metroid Prime 3. I played it for well over 50 hours. Super Mario Galaxy? $49, 75 hours. No More Heroes? $44, so far around 60 hours. Within a month of owning my Wii, using the figure of $1 per hour of entertainment as my guideline, I got my money's worth out of it...it's amazing how quickly 250 hours of gaming can rack up. If you jack up the figure, it took even less time. (I've now owned my Wii for 9 months and I cannot begin to count all the accumulated playing time) Final Fantasy III DS? $40, over 250 hours. (haha, yes, I know I'm crazy) In this context, video games are a hell of a bargain. Granted, DVDs and CDs do have a great deal of "replay value," but there is only so much "real" value to music and movies--they're passive entertainment that is easily supplanted by other media of the same type, and chances are if you watched your brand new DVD today it won't find it's way back into your player for weeks or even months, whereas after finishing a game it's not at all uncommon to start the whole thing over for the pure joy of replaying it.

It kind of depends where you come from actually... down here in Australia a Wii game costs 100AUD, but some places you can get them for 75AUD, while PS3 and 360 games cost 110AUD ...with the current exchange rates, I think we pay almost twice as much for our games in Australia than folks in the US do. I can't remember how much DS games cost, I think around 50-70AUD each.

In the context of this discussion, then, can Grand Theft Auto IV really be worth $350+$60?

Ah... there's an extra cost you need to add onto that. Do you have a HDTV? If not, you'll have to add the cost of a good HDTV onto that pricetag. IMHO the PS3 and 360 aren't worth it if you're playing it on an SDTV. Also, it's also important to have a decent sound system for these consoles too... to really take advantage of it all, a HDMI ready HDTV and sound system is the only way to play these consoles to really get the full worth out of them. For me, it's a requirement.

[Sorry this was long and rambling; I hope it is at least somewhat coherent and can spawn some real discussion for Lynk's sake ]

XD Yay, now if only we could get OTHER people to take part *points @ everyone else*