The Nintendo Wii and The Sony PlayStation 3

[size=+1]The Nintendo Wii and The Sony PlayStation 3[/size]

Have you ever seen a review for something where the research period was a number of years? I don't think I have. Maybe on Amazon, like people comparing the breed of dog they happen to have but consoles rarely get the review treatment when they've lived with said reviewer for a number of years.

I thought I'd try it. As a nice experiment. So see how these devices hold up over a longer period of time. Might be interesting, you know? Might be!

So, the consoles. Let me tell you about mine.

The PlayStation 3

I've only had it a couple of years but it seems to be an early build of it. I don't know if it has the fabled backwards capability. In fact, let me test this...

Nnnnnnope! Doesn't work! Never mind!

Still, it is one of the chubby things. It's just a standard PS3 otherwise.

The Wii

My Wii is beaten up, bruised and sports a Luna sticker on the side. Just because! It's also a hacked and modified Wii. Yes, it is soft-modded with The Homebrew Channel. I can put software on a card and just let it sit there and run it. Easy, sorted, done. I've also got some virtual console stuff as well as a few bit from the channel.

So, let's break this up into it's constituent parts, shall we? Make it simple.

Looks

Eh...They look fine. The Wii has suffered many hardships it seems as the discolouration it mainly me but as two devices I've had to live with, the PS3 is really obvious to see! There is no subtlety to this design. It's just massive and angled. Just look across the room and BAM! PS3, sitting there looking back at you like an elephant at a disco. It's not ugly, it just dominates any space you happen to put it in. The curves are nice and it's not badly designed, it's just blatant.

The Wii doesn't seem to do that as much. To my eyes, it blends in. It's just a white box but it's not as glaringly obvious to spot as the PS3. You can put it on a shelf and it'll melt into the scene along with your digibox or whatever. That's neat.

Wii wins simply because it doesn't demand to be seen just through being there.

Portability and TV Installation

Sometimes, you want to move your console somewhere else. Sometimes to a friend's house who doesn't have their own console so you can play together.

Sorry, Wii wins again.

Look, the PS3 isn't bad. Option for either HDMI or the same SCART port cable from the PS2? Excellent idea! Simple case of plugging in just two things for power and connection to the TV? Good! Bloody obvious where everything goes on the back of the machine? Yes it is.

But man, oh man! That weight! The PS3 is not a particularly light console. In fact, I'd say it's about the same as an ordinary desktop computer tower except more concentrated to fit in the smaller case. This is a console that you have to think twice about moving. It's something you have to keep in one place at all times. It's just too heavy.

The Wii is the complete opposite. Why? It's basically a suped-up Gamecube under the hood so there's not much inside that's particularly heavy. There's no internal hard drive the size of a brick to weigh anything down. It's just a white box you slip in a bag. The cables are not overly ideal as the power cable has a clunky box on it to downsize the power coming in (I think...) and the Wii Bar's wire seems to love tangling itself.

However, construction it's that bad. Despite one extra thing to plug in, it's still as straightforward as 'plug each shape into it's hole'. That is easy and intuitive. I would have liked the option to be able to use Gamecube bits but I suppose there has to be money made somewhere...

Controller

The Wii Remote...Oh, The Wii Remote...I really like it. As a controller, it's pretty good. It fits in the hand, the Nunchuk is comfortable and most of what your trying to do works but you'll need a little creativity, imagination and patience with it. Sometimes, it can mess up badly or just doesn't have the programmers behind it to really utilise it properly. You know, in a way that doesn't make you double take and go:

"Who the hell thought that wiggling the remote was something I should be doing for two minutes?!"

And so on. After a while, it's possible to utilise almost all Wii motions just by moving your wrist, eliminating most of the gimmick. There are a few games that use it really well, like Wario Ware Smooth Moves but I haven't found too many that could do anything with the motion controls. Using it as a light gun, essentially, or a strange mouse to click on things seems to gel well with what developers could handle but anything further than that was...hit and miss, is what I'll charitably say.

And you've heard all this. It's been said hundreds of times.

PS3? Barely ever used the accelerometer in the controller. Seriously! It's there but everything I ever played couldn't be bothered. The one game I played that used it was Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction. And you use it for avoiding rockets while freefalling, solving a marble puzzle to hack doors and controlling one gimmicky and annoying weapon.

The rocket thing worked fine but didn't blow my mind. It was a little awkward the first time I tried it. The marble puzzle was actually quite challenging. I did enjoy that and thought it was a good place for that sort of gameplay.

The Tornado Launcher was the most awkward piece of crap I've ever had to endure. This is essentially a 'gun' that fires a small disk onto the floor. It will hover in the air and summon a tornado above itself. Thankfully, this tornado is very powerful but it has the gimmick of being moved around by the accelerometer as you control Ratchet. Do you have any idea how awkward this is? I'm trying to hop and jump and flip out of the way of fire while tilting my controller all over the place to hopefully suck something up! The control isn't that tight on the weapon either. It just sluggishly floats around despite the fact that I might be turning the controller end over end just to get it to change direction.

Still, that's just one part of an otherwise good game. Which do I prefer?

Umm...I dunno. It's the fact that the PS3 played to it's strengths verses the brave attempt at pushing the envelope with the Wii. The Wii is easy to use in the right context but the PS3 just works all the time because most of the developers seemed to just ignore the accelerometers all together after a while. And even when they did that, there was a decent controller underneath. The Wii is comfortable but doesn't have the same number of buttons or precision for certain things. Games do exist that use the controller well but the technology isn't quite there yet to be perfect.

PS3 Wins.

Games

This is a big one....​