Disorganized Chaos

I just thought I’d comment on the state of the console wars as I see them, from a gamer’s perspective. First off, I don’t own a PS3… I just can’t afford one, even at their now competitive $300-ish price point. Besides that, there are only a few games out for it that I really would like to get my hands on that are  not available on the xbox.

In my eyes, the best console is the xbox 360. Why? The games and the online play. The PS3 may have the power and the Blu-Ray player, but their online community is minuscule and as I mentioned earlier, there aren’t a ton of must have games for it. I might pick one up in five to ten years when they’re selling for $50.

I own a Wii, but it gets little love in my house. Once again, it comes down to the games. I thought that the Wiimote would be awesome for FPS games. Sadly, that is not the case. Not only is the controller overly sensitive, but the system lacks a wide selection of awesome titles. I played through metroid, but couldn’t be bothered to finish Super Mario Galaxy. There are a few titles I’d like to try, but I get the feeling that I’ll just be disappointed, as most of the games on it have kinda let me down.

Then we have the Xbox 360. Call me a fanboy if you must, but the simple fact is that this system has been more fun than any console I’ve been able to get my hands on. There are tons of games available for it and the online community is very active, even if a lot of them are jerks. It may not be the most powerful, or the cheapest, or the most accessible (I tried to get my 50 year old roommate to play once and he didn’t know what to do with the controller), but at the end of the day, the xbox has the best selection of games available, and the strongest online community available in a console.

This brings me to the thing that people seemed to have forgot: in the end, it’s all about the games. Sure, this console may be more powerful, and that console may have an innovative controller, but if there aren’t enough good games for the system, it quickly becomes a very expensive dust collector.

Pillage the Village might possibly take a few hours out of your life. Despite its simple gameplay mechanics, the depths that this game can reach are quite significant for a flash game. As you play the game, new characters are introduced, each and each one must be dealt with in a different way. Between rounds you can buy all sorts of upgrades, choosing between ‘good’ and ‘evil’ power-ups. I suspect that the ‘good’ and ‘evil’ upgrades basically provide the same effects, only with different graphics. I ended up at level 38 before I decided to call it quits- you can expect to waste a ton of time playing this game if you let it suck you in.

Open Doors is a puzzle game. Maybe this is what draftsmen do when they are bored? Anyway, your goal is to move your square, opening doors, until you reach the ‘X’. Like many games, this one starts out easy and gets progressively harder. It’s a fun little diversion!