What Gaming Console Should I buy? Xbox 360,Wii or PS3?

There's a good reason that I don't own a game system right now. When I own a game system, all that I do is play video games. It's just too easy to stop off at the television and play a game "for just a minute". And since I work from home, that's not really most productive situation for my life. So, I don't have a game system. But I constantly think about buying one and since I don't have video games to distract me from work, I spend way too much time doing research into the existing game systems. After having done so extensively, I've made my decision about which of the game systems I would go with. But they all have their pros and cons and different people have good reasons for preferring each of them.

Let's take a look at the three major game systems competing with each other right now (the Wii, the PS3 and the Xbox 360) to help you decide which of these you might want to buy:

The Wii

The first time that I heard about the Wii from a user, it was when a friend called me up and told me that his body was exhausted from playing video games all day. Naturally, I laughed at him. A few weeks later, I had a chance to play a bowling game on the Wii and although I didn't end up with sore muscles, I did take back my laughter from earlier. This is the main new feature that the Nintendo Wii offers over the other game system; instead of just sitting still and moving your fingers, you often move part or all of the rest of your body to play these games. This makes the action more interactive and the activity more involved.

In addition to the unique remote that makes the Wii so interactive, the game system's other main feature is the Virtual Console. The Wii channel has WiFi capability and offers a number of channels including news, Internet, photos, and shopping. As for the specs, the Wii console is considerably smaller in size than the other two game systems. It has 512 MB built-in flash memory and it support video up to 480 pixels.

The Wii was released late last year and runs about $250 in cost.

The PS3

It took me a long time to get used to the number of buttons that there are on the Playstation games, but I did eventually adjust. The PS3 has a remote reminiscent of earlier Sony game systems which means that if you know them, it's easy enough to learn. Unlike Nintendo, Sony had a strong game system behind them (Nintendo's Wii was preceded by the GameCube which didn't fare so well in the market). So, the PS3 doesn't deviate as much from the previous game systems as the Wii does from its predecessors. But, if it ain't broke, right?

The PS3 was released with two different systems; a 20GB system and a 60GB system. The difference between them is that the latter has built in Wi-Fi and a memory card reader. This makes the larger system somewhat comparable to the Wii in that regard. It is Bluetooth enabled and has a 256 MB memory.

The PS3 was released late last year to a tune of approximately $500. (It's $100 more for the larger, WiFi-enabled system.

The Xbox 360

Admittedly, my familiarity with the Xbox 360 is limited so if anyone wants to add comments to this article to fill me in, that would be terrific. But here's what I do know from the research that I've done and the people I've spoken with:

The Xbox 360 connects to the Internet via a cable modem. Depending upon your ability to play around with your tech toys, you may not be able to access the Internet with your computer at the same time that you're accessing it with your Xbox 360. A home network can provide the solution to this if it's a problem. It has 512 MB of memory.

The Xbox 360 was released earlier than the Wii and the PS3, in November of 2005. It currently costs approximately $300. A Premium Pack is available for about $100; it give you the ability to play online and download online content.

Summary

So, it doesn't really matter which of the 3 game system I think is the best, especially since (in the interest of my own productivity) I'm not going to buy one any time soon. And I do think that they are basically comparable system, with variations in price and certain features. If you have a history of preferring one brand of game system over another, you might want to go with that one. That's what's made the most sense to me!