First off I’d like to say I do actually like Stuff magazine. So much so that for the past two years I have given a 12 month subscription of it to a friend who enjoys it just as much as I do, but I have to say I was very annoyed to find, whilst flicking through the November 2007 edition, the front cover screaming about a feature inside called “Superconsole Smackdown - PS3 (in very big letters) vs Wii (in smaller letters) - (You probably get the picture already.)

Now I’d like to add that I probably will get a Wii in the near future - the so-called “pick-up-ability” is phenomenal. My 6 year old daughter picked up the controller to play Bowling on Wii sports during the Christmas period and without any training other than that offered by the game initially she managed to beat me completely. This phenomenon is something no other console can compete with. Yet.

Anyhow, back to main topic, that being Stuff mag’s over-apparent PS3 fanboy-ism.

In the feature itself the PS3 gets an amazing 8 advantages and only 3 disadvantages. Of the eight advantages one of them is the free on-line gaming. Free, yes. I can’t disagree with that. Supported and looked-after, with a continuous feed of cash to keep it going, I think not. Another advantage is that it is backwards compatible with PS2 games. Worth remembering that one. Of the cons, they mention the lack of rumble feature and the cost. Just a little mention though. £425 isn’t too expensive is it? In the list of the nine most wonderful games for the PS3 is apparently Sonic the Hedgehog. Ummmm, a games mag this is not. Then they have a lovely page on Blu-Ray movies. Unfortunately Blu-Ray is slowly dying if the Amazon Christmas hi-def movie sales figures are anything going by.

The next console on the list is the Wii. A snip at only £180, though it’s more recently been found on sale at £169. This console has seven advantages and just four dis-advantages. One of the pro’s is its backwards compatibility with Gamecube games. Another is WiiConnect 24 which means the console updates over the net whilst it’s switched off - nice! This also has a rumble pack oh, and the mag also makes a little mention of the completely innovative control method which for me IS the Wii. Oh, and it also plays DVD’s. For the cons we get the fact that it’s not the most powerful console going and also if you’re a hardcore gamer you might not like swapping control methods again and again. Us human-folk obviously aren’t that intelligent then. Darn it.

Last, and apparently least as far as Stuff is concerned is the Xbox 360.

It has just three advantages - one of which is the sublime gaming experience as the hi-def graphics through the component output is very good. Apparently there are also a wealth of games and xbox live is a superb online experience. For the cons there is no HDMI output - true, until the Elite came along. The fan is a little loud and the power brick is a little large. Yes, I agree with both of these.

The mag thankfully bothers to list six HD-DVD movies that you can get and a staggering THREE games (from the wealth of games the 360 has - see advantages) that you must own. HALO isn’t even mentioned, nor is Bioshock (Didn’t that win some silly little award like Game Of The Year?). COD4, PGR4 (or 3) don’t get a mention either - in fact the games mentioned are Dead Rising, Oblivion and ruddy Table Tennis. Come on Stuff, you’re not even trying here.

One big advantage not even thought of is that it’s just a little more than half the price of the 360. With the cash saved you could get yourself five more full-price games. There is a little mention of the Xbox Live service - the fact you have to pay for it over the PS3’s free service - isn’t even mentioned. They forget to mention the console is also backwards compatible with almost the entire Xbox catalogue and with Xbox Live’s continued updates (because it’s paid for) you can download movies, TV shows and previous Xbox games, via the ‘net.

Unfortunately from the start it was plainly clear which console was going to get Stuff’s “Hot Pick” of the three and it was little surprise that the PS3 won the battle. The 360 is in fact marked with just four out of five stars. The Wii get’s the full five and the PS3 gets five plus the magical ‘Hot Pick’.

In the summing up the 360 gets little praise. Its apparent ‘old-fashioned tactics’ and ‘lack of innovation’ leave the Wii and PS3 to battle it out. The Wii gets a knock for being low-tech. Again the 360 takes a punch from the summing of the Wii as ‘un-inventive’ and apparently could only stand and watch as the Wii’s wireless controllers took on the PS3. (Have they mentioned the PS3 enough?)

The PS3 gets high-praise for being last into the field with its weaponry perfected apparently (lack of rumble feature anyone?) They claim in their summing up that the motion sensitive controller beats the innovative Wii controller hands down as it ‘pitches to the side in an evasive manoeuvre) However they have saved the best to last as the PS3’s blu-ray capabilities ‘cut through the air and the invisible Wi-Fi streams command its media hordes.’ And with that Stuff claim they have their winner.

I doubt anyone can call the PS3 perfect - the only console in my mind to come close is possibly the Wii and only if we’re ready to leave the ‘best graphics = best game’ equation out. The Wii is a next-gen console only because of its controller (which is fantastic) - the claims that the PS3’s controller whilst motion sensitive beats that of the Wii is just preposterous and stupid. It’s almost as good as saying the because the Blackberry 8820 comes with GPS built in it’s better than having a TomTom on your car dashboard. Then we move onto the blu-ray stuff, I think I’ve covered that one. It may be a re-run of Betamax and VHS but I’m afraid the HD-DVD format is winning, the fact that the PS3 is titled as the cheapest Blu-Ray player going should have given the game away really. It’s not bloody rocket science is it?

Then we come to the very last statement. The built in Wi-Fi. I must have been dreaming when the Wii effortlessly connected to the wireless network, seamlessly updating itself overnight. The 360 was a little more tricky and required an adapter, but once connected it works and can also stream movies, images, etc. using the Media Extender, software built into Windows Media Player. (Windows? Isn’t that the OS that most people use? Why yes, it is. Strange that.)

Whilst I’m certainly not paid to be an electronics, gadget or gaming journalist I do like to keep an open mind and believe that the PS3 does have some advantages over the other two consoles but by no means is it as clear a winner as they make out. In my mind the 360 and the Wii bring up the front of the battle with the PS3 following closely behind.

As I said earlier it was plainly apparent from the start which console had already won. The initial paragraph stated that the Stuff magazine crew had been caught up in the PS3 hype and they ‘know just how good it is’. I hope I never see another piece of so blatantly biased journalism again. Unfortunately I know I will. I just hope no-one reads it and takes it as fact. Don’t believe everything you read. Please. (Unless it’s on this blog!)

Two stories caught my eye on Digg today. I thought I’d share them with you.

Halo 3 Beta - nine unanswered questions
With the Halo 3 Beta on constant play in the GamesRadar office, we’ve compiled a list of the questions we’ve been hearing people ask as they’re watching or playing. Some are funny but point out odd things, others are a little more worrying…

Sony Caught Using PGR3 Again?
Earlier this year Sony was caught using a screenshot of Microsoft’s Project Gotham Racing 3 to promote Gran Turismo 4…

I am now the proud owner of a Playstation 3! Eeek!

As you may have read in an erlier post, my second Xbox 360 decided to show me the dreaded 3 red lights of death. I was not a happy person, I can tell you! Obviously, that meant that I actually had to talk to my wife during the evenings, due to the absolute lack of anything worth watching on TV! We even managed to get away for a couple of days and do some indoor skydiving (I’ll let you know how that went in a later post)!

So after finding out that we have nothing at all to talk about, we went wandering around Blackburn town centre and made our usual trip to the local Gamestation. The first thing I noticed was that the price of the console itself had been dropped to £425. Nice! Then I noticed the deals that they were doing. You know the ones, buy this and pick 2 games from a specific batch of titles. After trying to swap one of the games for Formula 1, and failing miserably, we left and went to the local Game.

They also had a deal of a PS3 and 2 games, but again, you had to choose from a specific batch of titles. So the Manager smells a sales coming on (I think it was me crapping myself on account of spending nearly £500 on a console) and pounces over like a child in a free sweet shop.

“Can I help you sir?” *bowing, grovelling*
“Certainly my good man. I would like one of your PS3s. But I don’t want any of thoses games on the list. I want Formula 1 and Resistance: Fall of Man. Can you do that for me? Huh? Eh? Can ya?”

[At this point, I may have well have dropped my pants and actually let him lick my bum hole. He must have been that desperate to actually sell one of these things!]

“Yes I can sir.” *slurp*
“Wow, that was easy. I’ll take it!” *pulls pants back up* “Yuck. Damp”.

And that was pretty much it really! I am now a fully fledges member of the Playststion 3 club. And you know what? I’m actually enjoying it! It’s taking me a little while to play an FPS with the PS3 pad, as I’m so used to the 360 one, but I’ll get their eventually!

I’m going to sign off for now, but I will be back soon with a closer look at the console, how it works and what the games are like. I may even tell you about the Blu-ray film that Gem also bought for it!

Now all I need is a High Definition telly…

It’s been going a bit funny for a couple of days now. Locking up here and there, but still managed to let me play a few games before doing it again. But this evening I got the dreaded 3 red lights of death. Again. On my second 360. Which was a replacement for the first one that I got on launch day. Shit.

So what do you do in this situation? You ring up Microsoft customer support! The heroes that supplied me with a new replacement console the last time this happened! Yay! I spoke to a lovely American lady, made her laugh and explained the situation. She took my details, saw on the system that I have indeed had a second console from them. Brilliant! The system works!

She also told me that the new console was 2 months out of its warranty and that I’ll have to pay £80 to get it fixed! Eighty bloody quid! 2 months out of warranty! Bollocks to that! I said to her that I may as well get rid of the whole lot and get a bloody PS3! “Sorry sir,there’s nothing I can do about it”.

That got me a little riled, I can tell you! So I explained a little harsher that this is the EXACTLY the same problem I had with the launch machine. Maybe Microsoft should sort out their QC department as it is TOTALLY unacceptable , and I absolutly refuse to pay £80 to have the bloody thing fixed. So then she puts me on hold. They really need to do something about the music they play while you’re waiting. It sounds something akin to what you would here on a 70’s porn film. Not that I’d know about that kind of thing.

*ahem*

Anyway, she comes back and tells me that she’s spoken to her supervisor, and extended the warranty, and that I can now have the console fixed for free! Woohoo! Yay! w00t! and so on! So now have to wait upto 48 hours for MS to send over a UPS label so I can send the console back to them. Then they’ll send me a replacement console. Last time it took them 2 bloody weeks to get a new one to me. *sigh*

Anyway, the moral of this story is, Microsoft may make great consoles. When they work. If you moan and whinge at them enough, they will eventually cave in and waive the £80 charge. This has been a Public Service Announcement from the GBS Consortium.

Beware Microsoft; this is the last straw. If this EVER happens again, I WILL be switching sides to the Sony camp and purchase a PS3. Roll on Xbox 360 number 3

OK, so I’m not actually bothered to be honest.

The price is too much, I don’t really want a Blu-ray player and I don’t have a HD telly (yet). But if I did get one, it will probably get used a bit more than the Wii!

Now then. I know that there will be a few of you out there who will have gotten one by now. All I want to know is, is it actually any good? How does it compare to the Xbox 360? And lastly, were you one of the lucky bastards who received a free 46″ HD telly?

Leave your comments below and I shall read with glee!

Oh, and while you’re at it, if you’ve read this here blog, but never posted a comment before now (and we know there’s a few of you!), let us know where you found out about us!