B. Mann Consulting

I've been recently going down the path of re-shuffling my home media environment. Since I'm also still kicking the tires on various PC games (the new Steam community site is very interesting (link is my userid, you may need to be logged in) -- for the record, all the other games I mentioned I'm no longer playing.

Anyway, I've been thinking about a game console at home. The choice is really between the Xbox 360 and the PS3: the Nintendo Wii is a great supplementary machine with its very different interface options and social nature, but not such a great media center. I'm more likely to buy my own Wii controller and go over to friends that already have one.

Both the Xbox 360 and PS3 seem to have solutions in place to easily share media from your Mac. There is Nullriver's Connect360 and there is the open source MediaTomb which can let you run an open source UPnP server to share to both platforms (older how-to).

The Xbox LIVE and Xbox Live Arcade is compelling. Easily download small mini games. Get an account, earn achievements. Even playing "simple" games, you can compete with other people at home anywhere else online with you, and "invest" in an identity.

But...

...it's Microsoft. I acknowledge they've built a very interesting machine. It's much more of a market win than the PS3 by a long shot (at this stage of the game...). But it's optimized to work with Windows Media Center, and it's not really that hackable.

The PS3 on the other, I love for its open-ness. It actually has "install other operating system" as a *menu item*. That's fantastic, and totally appeals to me wanting to tinker.

But...

...for the price of a PS3, I could buy both an Xbox 360 *and* a Wii. It's pricey. Am I buying into tomorrow's technology, today? Also...it does come down to the games. And to the social network. My social network mainly has Xbox 360s (aside from Mark Yuasa who has a PS3 in addition), and some of the upcoming games that I'm interested in (e.g. Mass Effect) are Xbox only.

Hmmm...it seems like in writing this, I've convinced myself. My heart says I should get a PS3, but my head says Xbox 360.

What would you get? Why? Do you have one already? What do you use it for?

I went over to Travis and Susie's yesterday evening to play with a Wii for the first time. Overall verdict: fun! My arms and back are actually sore today...

I spent a bunch of time exploring the user interface and all the various options that the Wii has. If people can actually buy it and get it into the home, entire families are going to get hooked on this thing. From Internet access to "Miis" (virtual avatars for each user) to email in and out of the system...lots of different ways to use this system that *aren't* traditional gaming.

I started by building my Mii. There's enough variability that you can build a pretty good clone of yourself. Apparently, the Wii Remotes can actually carry your Wii around. I can see people customizing their Wii Remotes and carrying them around. 

The Internet access is based on the Opera browser: one thing I was surprised was how long it took to "boot up" the Internet browsing app. The system does have Flash support...so this means it's a YouTube browsing front end. I navigated over to Rathergood.com to show off some of the funny songs/movies there, and the Flash videos only loaded intermittently...might be an issue just with that site. The Internet channel is in "preview" mode, and Nintendo isn't sure if they are going to charge for it or not. I think charging for the Internet would be insane...there are SO many other ways they could make money by allowing this for everyone.

As well as this full browser, there is also the News channel: it sucks in news from AP and displays it on top of a virtual globe that you can rotate, zoom in on, and click on news stories in the locations they are happening. Is this what we mean by hyperlocal? The Everybody Votes channel is even going to allow people to fill out polls and various questions. Hmmm...I'm *really* hoping that Nintendo continues to open this up: I can't wait until a local news organization integrates with this...

When we finally started playing actual games, we started with the Wii Sports games that are bundled with the system. Tennis, Baseball, Golf, Bowling, Boxing. Yes, you do have to play these games standing up, and yes, they do make you sweat. Not much else to say here...lots of fun to play with multiple people, and even the training and fitness items are "fun".

The only other game we played was Rayman Raving Rabbids. It reminds me a bit of Conker's Bad Fur Day, although less "adult" humour, but just as many bathroom jokes. There are many different puzzles / mini games which you have to complete in story mode, but then can play vs. another player. Shooting rabbits with a plunger gun, throwing a cow that you spin around your head, or the uber strenuous pumping carrot juice game. Actually, one of the most fun is having to drop rabbits in time to the beat from different songs.

My previous favourite party game was Super Monkey Ball for the GameCube. It's available for the Wii as well, so I'm looking forward to seeing what they've done with it. The Wii controller is going to open up a lot of different options, obviously. 

So, the Wii is going to continue to be a big hit. Rather than an XBox 360, I'm now thinking that I'd rather like to get a Wii. I've currently got a desktop machine hooked up to my screen here at home: the Wii could perform a bunch of the things I currently use the computer for, although I would be looking for a DVD player and a keyboard. It's going to be interesting to see how Nintendo continues to evolve this platform.