The XBOX 360 vs Playstation 3 vs Nintendo Revloution
Introduction
Welcome everyone to a once in a lifetime experience. I am going to take all three of this year's top Christmas game systems, throw them into one jam-packed article full of fun and frustration and show you the truth behind the rumors. Besides giving you the full throttle version of the story I will also tell you in my opinion which gaming system is better, and which one will end up being bought the most. Now, let's get this article started...
We will start this article off with the Xbox 360. The Xbox 360 is to be the number one gaming system in its' class. The Xbox 260 has stolen the Ps2's look, and brought it up quite a few notches on the scale. The system was originally designed to not be backwards compatible, but when Microsoft heard the up roar they decided to send their mice back to work, and have them fix that error for them. The Xbox 360 is to be released in America on November 22nd, in Europe on December 2nd, and in Japan on December 10th, and its price ranges from three hundred and fifty nine dollars all the way to an amazing five hundred and sixty nine dollars with added accessories. One of the newest features for the Xbox 360 is its' amazing wireless controllers. Every Xbox 360 will come with a brand new wireless controller. These wireless controllers look very similar to the Gamecube controllers, but in essence they are the same controllers used for the Xbox original.
Now lets get to this infamous Xbox Live that everyone seems to adore. It will remain exactly the same at this moment in time. Microsoft knew they would have a problem with having two different game systems using the same online wave, but some how they managed it. As long as you are playing the same game as someone using the Xbox original system you will both be using the same Xbox live. Microsoft has added one new feature to the system. This is the new Xbox MarketPlace. The Xbox MarketPlace will allow you to download games straight off of your system. These are mostly demos, but with some games you will find you can download cheat codes, and other neat assortments. This feature makes it so you no longer have to go rent a game to see if you want to buy it instead. You simply click a few buttons download the demo, and wallah you find out whether the game is worth buying without ever leaving that smelly bedroom you live in.
The final thing I will talk about the Xbox 360 is the hard drive unit. Yes we had this with the original Xbox but nothing to this extent. You now have the ability to download Xbox live games straight from your hard drive. The hard drive comes with Xbox games already on it. This is not just a hunk of junk that sits in your system any longer. Now it is alive with knowledge of its own. It is even possible to hook up your Xbox hard drive to teach you how to use the system. I mean most Xbox 360 owners will have owned an Xbox, but for those few who haven’t this new accessory really does help.
Below is listed the gaming specs of the Xbox 360... These specs have been taken from Gamespy and they hold the rights to them at this current point in time, but they have said that the specs were taken from xbox.com, but I currently can't find them on the website but here they are:
Custom IBM PowerPC-based CPU:
3 symmetrical cores running at 3.2 GHz each
2 hardware threads per core; 6 hardware threads total
1 VMX-128 vector unit per core; 3 total
128 VMX-128 registers per hardware thread
3 symmetrical cores running at 3.2 GHz each
1 MB L2 cache
CPU Game Math Performance:
9 billion dot product operations per second
Custom ATI Graphics Processor:
500 MHz
10 MB embedded DRAM
48-way parallel floating-point dynamically-scheduled shader pipelines
Unified shader architecture
Polygon Performance:
500 million triangles per second
Pixel Fill Rate:
16 gigasamples per second fillrate using 4X MSAA
Shader Performance:
48 billion shader operations per second
Memory:
512 MB GDDR3 RAM
700 MHz DDR
Unified memory architecture
Memory Bandwidth:
22.4 GB/s memory interface bus bandwidth
256 GB/s memory bandwidth to EDRAM
21.6 GB/s front-side bus
Overall System Floating-Point Performance:
1 TFLOP
Storage:
Detachable and upgradeable 20 GB hard drive
12X dual-layer DVD-ROM
Memory unit support starting at 64 MB
I/O:
Support for up to 4 wireless game controllers
3 USB 2.0 ports
2 memory unit slots
Optimized for Online:
Instant, out-of-the-box access to Xbox Live features, including Xbox Live Marketplace for downloadable content, Gamer Profile for digital identity and voice chat to talk to friends while playing games, watching movies or listening to music
Built in Ethernet Port
Wi-Fi Ready: 802.11 A, B and G
Video Camera Ready
Digital Media Support:
Support for DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, CD-DA, CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, WMA CD, MP3 CD, JPEG Photo CD
Stream media from portable music devices, digital cameras, Windows XP PCs
Rip music to Xbox 360 hard drive
Custom playlists in every game
Windows Media Center Extender built in
Interactive, full screen 3D visualizers
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Playstation 3
This system wont even be launched during the Yule time holidays. As a matter of fact it wont be launched until nearly six months after. The launch is scheduled for some time during the spring of 2006. The rumor is in March but the actual date is unsure.
I would describe the features of the Playstation three but most of them are unknown what is known is Sony has a large list of items which is placed below:
CPU
Cell Processor
PowerPC-base Core @3.2GHz
1 VMX vector unit per core
512KB L2 cache
7 x SPE @3.2GHz
7 x 128b 128 SIMD GPRs
7 x 256KB SRAM for SPE
* 1 of 8 SPEs reserved for redundancy
Total floating point performance: 218 GFLOPS
GPU
RSX @550MHz
1.8 TFLOPS floating point performance
Full HD (up to 1080p) x 2 channels
Multi-way programmable parallel floating point shader pipelines
Sound
Dolby 5.1ch, DTS, LPCM, etc. (Cell- base processing)
Memory
256MB XDR Main RAM @3.2GHz 256MB GDDR3 VRAM @700MHz
System Bandwidth
Main RAM 25.6GB/s
VRAM 22.4GB/s
RSX 20GB/s (write) + 15GB/s (read)
SB< 2.5GB/s (write) + 2.5GB/s (read)
System Floating Point Performance
2 TFLOPS
Storage
Detachable 2.5" HDD slot x 1
I/O
USB Front x 4, Rear x 2 (USB2.0)
Memory Stick standard/Duo, PRO x 1
SD standard/mini x 1
CompactFlash (Type I, II) x 1
Communication
Ethernet (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T) x 3 (input x 1 + output x 2)
Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 b/g
Bluetooth 2.0 (EDR)
Controller
Bluetooth (up to 7)
USB 2.0 (wired)
Wi-Fi (PSP)
Network (over IP)
AV Output
Screen size: 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p
HDMI: HDMI out x 2
Analog: AV MULTI OUT x 1
Digital audio: DIGITAL OUT (OPTICAL) x 1
Disc Media
CD PlayStation CD-ROM, PlayStation 2 CD-ROM, CD-DA, CD-DA (ROM), CD-R, CD-RW, SACD, SACD Hybrid (CD layer), SACD HD, DualDisc, DualDisc (audio side), DualDisc (DVD side)
DVD: PlayStation 2 DVD-ROM, PlayStation 3 DVD-ROM, DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW
Blu-ray Disc: PlayStation 3 BD-ROM, BD-Video, BD-ROM, BD-R, BD-RE
Now if you can understand any of that... well you are a bit better than I am. But basically it’s saying it can play music, DVDs, and all PS and PS2 compatible games. It also states there will be four different types of controllers. The sound will also be the same system used in the previous Sony systems. It also continues to say that this system also plans to have an online gaming experience. Other than that... I truly can tell you much about its accessories.
Sony also predicts that their system will run twice as fast as the Xbox 360, and fifteen times as fast as the Nintendo Revolution, but these are unconfirmed, because it is still on paper, and not yet being tested.
The expected starting price for the Playstation 3 ranges from the minimum of three hundred dollars all the way to four hundred and fifty dollars. In other words no one is truly sure...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Nintendo Revolution
This is the least talked about gaming system ever. Truthfully you will hear more people talking about the Atari than the Revolution, and that was because of Nintendo's fallout two years ago with the Nintendo gamecube. Sad Nintendo used to be the number one hit system until Microsoft came in and popped their bubble, but they hope to bring back their game with the new Nintendo Revolution. Unfortunately because of their low funds it is unlikely it will stand up against the 360 or the Ps3, but Nintendo has shocked the world many times before, so we shouldn’t start doubting them now. And they plan to do it again with the most unheard of type of gaming technology 3D.
When I Say Three Dimensional I do not mean three-dimensional graphics. I mean three-dimensional gaming. They have created a controller that will actually respond to where it is placed in front of the TV. It is shaped like a television remote, and has a sensor on the front of it. The controller is equipped with the standard D-pad (No analog stick). The controller itself has a power button on it so you no longer have to get up and go to your game system to turn it off. It also has both an A and a B button like all other Nintendo systems. But they are positioned differently then normal. Directly below the D-pad is the A button but the B button is on the underside of the controller much like the Z button on the N64. Below that are three buttons. Start Home and Select. Right now we are unsure of what the home button is for. At the very bottom of the controller are three more buttons two of them are labeled x and y. if you are to turn the controller sideways it now becomes the classic NES controller. Another new feature is that there is a port on the back end of the controller into which you can insert an Analog stick containing the L an R buttons.
Nintendo has also created the most advanced feature in gaming technology this is the ability to use both cartridge games and discs. The owners of the Revolution will be able to play all Nintendo brand games from the original Nintendo all the way to the Nintendo gamecube. This was finally confirmed at the E3 Conference. It was also stated that the Revolution would be able to play DVDs. This is a major upgrade from the Gamecube. Maybe this is why Nintendo took that plunge with Gamecube, because they knew this surprise was on the way?
The system is designed to download the data from an early game such as Donkey Kong 64 onto your Revolution, so that you can play it at any time, but they have stated they have gone through numerous security measures to make sure that their video games will still be uncopiable, and you will still have to purchase the game in order to download it onto your system. They have also redesigned the graphics of the Downloadable games. When the game is downloaded unto your Revolution it will most likely have better graphics, but this is not guaranteed for all games.
But here comes the biggest downfall for those of us who love games like Grand Theft Auto and our under the age of 17 your parents now can put a parental lock on your Revolution. It mores much the same way as a V-chip. They simply put in your age limit, and the system will now only allow you to play games in that rating or lower. So just don’t tell your parents about this feature haha.
Unlike the other two systems that plan on releasing 25 games on their release date. The revolution plans on releasing 51 games. Currently only 34 of them are finished, but they don’t plan on releasing until late April so they still have time.
---------------------------------------------------------------------- -----
~OpInIoN TiMe~
In my opinion the Revolution looks like it will be the next hit gaming system, but due to its late release date the Xbox 360 will end up getting the sales, but we must remember that the Xbox had the latest release date last time, and still ended up being the number one gaming system since its release. So go out and buy an Xbox, but just remember the Revolution will be a new version of Gaming altogether, so be warned Xbox fans... Nintendo is coming back, and this time they plan on striking that position of Number one Gaming System.
Written by: Since I Was Gone
Proofread by: dr henry
Coded by: HawaiiGopher