Consoles
Or my obsession with console gaming.
In the late 1970s my generation moved from pinball to electronic games. At first two flippers with a highly dubious black and white paddle game and then onto Space Invaders and Frogger. All this stopping off to type in lines of basic into a ZX81 to do simple block graphics.
Of course I also liked PC games too. They developed really quickly but the problem for me was that before you bought a PC game you had to check whether your graphics card worked, whether you had the right amount of memory or disk space and even then the game seemed sensitive to the environment. Thus the Playstation 2 arrived. Great graphics and sound, plugs into the TV and all the games worked out of the box.
I eventually outgrew the Playstation 2 and anxious to get to High Definition gaming I bought an Xbox 360. This worked well but I always had a soft spot for Playstation so I bought a next generation Playstation 3.
Xbox 360 Gaming
It should have been simple. I had a Playstation 2 for years I just had to wait for the Playstation 3. Unfortunately things didn't work out that way. Sony managed to lose me somewhere in the debate. I enjoyed the PS2, I played a lot of games on it. However as I read more about the Playstation 3 I realised Sony were building a monster.
Sony may have built the PS3 as a games machine but they have also built a trojan horse. Sony are really trying to sell their next generation of DVD player called Blu-Ray. You dont need a Blu-Ray player to play games. Most games will still be on DVD two years from now. The reason for most games being on DVD is that most games will remain multi-platform and only the code will change not the components of the game. Yes Sony may have "exclusives" but these will be relatively small because games companies need to be multi-platform to recoup their costs.
All consoles are based on a business model that sells the console at a loss and then gains royalties for the games. Sony is no different. However adding Blu-Ray is probably costing an extra $200 per console and making the PS3 one of the most expensive consoles on the market ever. The question for me is do I want to pay a premium for technology that is un-necessary and motivated by marketing rather than an improved gaming experience. I came to the conclusion that the customer should get the best value for money and today that means the Xbox 360 in my opinion.
The next generation consoles all boast their ability to use Hi-Definition tv graphics. The in-store demos of the Xbox 360 is normally on a Samsung 23 inch Hi-Def TV. To buy a TV like this you would have to pay about ?500. If money is no obstacle then a new TV will go well with your new gaming console.
The eagle-eyed amongst you will already have spotted that my screen in the photograph is not a whizz-bang Hi-Def TV. It's actually a widescreen 19" VGA monitor. What the publicity about Hi-Def
keeps quiet about is the fact that computer monitors have been "hi-def" for years. For around 20 pounds you can buy some VGA cables for an Xbox 360 and with a 17" or 19" monitor you can get the equivilent of720p resolution without the expense of a 500 pound TV. In my case I bought a flat screen 19" monitor on sale at the local electronics superstore. All this worked out at about half the cost of an HDTV in the shops. You can get an even cheaper solution using an old VGA monitor bought at a computer fair.
UPDATE DEC 2008: Subsequently I did by a 27" HD TV. This wiped out the space on the desktop. The revolution has also moved on by me trading up to the Xbox 360 Elite Edition.
Networking
Perhaps one of the most talked about features of both the original Xbox and the Xbox 360 is the abilty to play network games with other users through Xbox Live. One of the nice things about the Sony Playstation was that it's networking was free. However free had it's limitations. Each game had a different method ofnetworking and, from my perspective, there were a lot of people who took winning so seriously that they would disconnect and sulk if you were winning. In Xbox live the reporting system cuts a lot of that out plus there are links between the website and the online experience to match opponents better. It isn't free but it seems to work very well.
I always recommend a router for cheap home networking. Better is a wireless router. If you do go wireless remember to secure your router otherwise other people will steal your bandwidth.
If you have a long enough cable the Xbox 360 comes with a standard ethernet port - like it's Xbox predecessor. If you want wireless networking you will have to spend around 60.00 quid on Microsoft's official connector. Inevitably wireless is less reliable. If neighbours have a wireless router and you have a wireless telephone then there is plenty of interference. If you are getting a lot of disconnections on the wireless then change the wireless channel. Wireless can also be low powered. Help the aerial by putting your Xbox 360 on a table and make sure the aerial isnt covered.
Microsoft categorise the suitabilty of a router by three terms: Open, Moderate or Strict. If a router is open then this is the best condition for gaming. A moderate rating means drop-outs and a strict rating means it might not be able to communicate with Xbox live at all. To make your router "open" and give it the best chance online you need to program the router to have port 88 open using the UDP protocol and port 3074 open using TCP and UDP.
Every router will have a different method of identifying the network address of the Xbox 360 and opening ports. Some will refer to creating a virtual server and others to "port mapping". If you dont know what you are doing I would call the router manufacturers' helpline and ask them to talk you through the process.
Playstation 3 Gaming
On paper the Playstation 3 is great. Almost everything is included. As well as wireless networking built in the box will read almost any popular memory card. You can plug in loads of usb gadgets and practical matters such as a bulky power supply are included in the chassis taking away the Xbox 360’s famous “brick” PSU.