I‘ve not had a gaming system since I had to pawn off my Super Nintendo to pay the light bill back in college. Now that I want one again, I‘m clueless as to which to go with. I want to play games like Grand Theft Auto and TCoR: Escape from Butcher Bay (think that one is only available for XBox), mostly action, shootemup, fast cars kinda games. I have no real clue about what‘s the difference between XBox, PS2, Wii. I don‘t even know if there‘s anything else out there.So, all you gaming junkies, help me out here. If you were starting from nothing, and liked off the hook action games, what system would you go with, and why?
The games you are looking for sound like Xbox genre. The Xbox 360 is the next gen console from Microsoft. It will play all of your xbox games as well as the new games coming out. The graphics on the new games are excellent. PS3 graphics are slightly better as it is a new console. The Wii is a great console with many fun games on it. The thing that seems to put it ahead of the other two brands is the price ($250), and the remote, which makes the gamer more active. I have all three and so far have been impressed with the Wii most, Xbox 360, and then the PS3 least. Judging from what you said, I would go with the 360. The extra $200 dollars over a regular Xbox will be worth it over the next five years.
Looking at the types of games you like, I would say a PS3 would be the best new system for you. It's not got a lot of games yet, but it has the most advanced hardware, so over time, it will be better than the Xbox 360. But don't spend thousands of dollars on that new stuff. Get an old Xbox (not a 360, the old xBox), then get it modded. Yeah, the graphics won't be as good as the new stuff, but you haven't gamed in a long time so you aren't going to miss that. You can buy an xBox for less than a third of the price that you will pay for a new system, and the games cost next to nothing. Then, for $200 get your box modded. There are hundreds of sites where you can look to get that done. Once that happens, you'll have emulators for all kinds of different old systems. NES, Sega Genesis, Atari 2600, your old Super Nintendo, name it, and you'll also have a whole lot of other media functions too. Do yourself a favor and look into what a modded xbox can do before you drop $185,000 on a PS3. I wouldn't trade my xbox, even up, for any of the new systems. *edit* The Xbox 360 is the descendant of the original xbox. It's a new system entirely. It's a more advanced system than the xbox but it isn't as flexible.
Okay, here's the rough lowdown: Wii is for the kiddies mostly. Nintendo used the exact same graphics and processors from Gamecube without any upgrades in performance, but developed a fun new controller to get more kids engaged. Based on what you said, I wouldn't recommend that. That leaves Sony and Microsoft. Sony's PS3 was a bit of a disappointment, but is an improvement and has the best graphics available. However, they still aim for a wide variety of interests in games, lacking several shootemups that are for mature audiences. MS's Xbox and Xbox 360 are definitely the grownup gaming consoles with a focus on mature audience games. Also, many games are exclusive to Xbox, like Halo and TCoR. GTA is available on both. Xbox 360 was rushed through development to beat PS3 to the marketplace, and isn't that much of an improvement. However, some games like Halo 3 is only available for Xbox 360. Overall, if I were buying 1 console right now, I'd go with Xbox 360 because I really loved the first two Halo games and know I'll enjoy Halo 3.
