Well here's my personal rundown, as an owner of all three current-gen consoles. So I don't get too much redundancy here, I'm only going to list things that are a notable advantage or disadvantage (i.e.: I won't note built-in wifi as a pro for the PS3 and Wii because I'm listing it as a con for the 360).
XBox 360
Pros
- Superior controller: I like the offset thumbsticks and the triggers are fantastic.
- Superior versions of multiplatform titles: several titles (to name a couple: Assassin's Creed and Orange Box) shipped on the PS3 with game-ruining bugs that needed to be patched later. Granted, the 360 has had it's share of launch bugs that need to be patched later, but to a lesser extent.
- Superior exclusives: The 360 has the exclusives I want to play - Halo 3, Fable 2, and a few others that slip my mind right now.
- Superior online experience: Sure, you have to pay for it, but it's worth it. People who criticise an XBox LIVE gold subscription costing some eight cents a day can suck it.
- XBox Live Arcade: The range of titles available for download is excellent. There's really something for everyone.
Cons
- RROD: Thankfully I've only suffered this once in the two years I've been a 360 owner.
- Expensive to upgrade: Unfortunately if I want to swap out my 20gb HDD for the 120gb model, I have to buy the one Microsoft tells me to, no exceptions, and it's horribly overpriced.
- No wi-fi out of the box: If we want to connect to a wireless router, I have to buy the specific wifi adapter Microsoft tells me to. Yes, there's a handful of others that work, but not as reliably. And why isn't this feature just included?
Playstation 3
Pros
- Cheaper to upgrade: Use any compatible hard drive you like: As more and more media is distributed digitally, and given that even many disc-based games on the PS3 require hundreds if not thousands of megabytes of data to be copied to the hard drive, this is an important option to have.
- Blu-ray: I was pretty cynical about blu-ray as a media format until I put Casino Royale in my PS3 to watch it on my 32" LCD in 1080p. Do this, and your attitude will change.
- No region lock: Just as an example, Silent Hill: Homecoming has been refused classification in Australia and as a result cannot be sold here. Since I own a PS3, this no longer affects me. My import from Play-Asia should be arriving tomorrow. I don't disagree that Australia needs an R18+ classification - I'm very much in favour of it. But that's a whole other story.
- SixAxis: I don't like SixAxis as part of a regular control scheme, but for some uses (guided freefall in Ratchet & Clank, shaking off grappling enemies in Resistance) it adds an extra level to the gameplay. This isn't a LARGE pro for the PS3, but it's a worthwhile feature when implemented properly.
Cons
- Marketing: Sony still hasn't decided what exactly they want the PS3 to be and handed out a lot of misinformation in the leadup to the launch to convince people to part with their money again. Sony has a lot of power as a brand that sells games and they really did a lot of damage to themselves. This has left many gamers with a negative attitude towards the PS3 and hurt sales more than the price tag ever could.
- Exclusives: The PS3 haemorrhages them. They lost Final Fantasy this year. Final Fantasy. My wife, who hates RPGs, understands the significance of this. There are less and less reasons for gamers to invest in this product and majority of exclusives Sony are holding onto aren't outstandingly popular, or they're new IPs that are untested with their potential audience.
- Constant firmware revisions: Look, support is good and I respect that Sony wants to keep their users up to date. But it seems like they're patching and repatching shit every week. I'm not saying to scale it back to twice a year like the 360 does, but there's got to be an balance they can strike.
Wii
Pros
- Motion control: The Wiimote works surprisingly well and you can put as much into a game as you like - subdued twitch controls work well if that's what you prefer, but this isn't the objective of Nintendo.
- Great casual games: What the Wii has in spades is casual mini/party games. Great for pick up and play when friends are over.
- News/weather channels: Fun features. Not great, but nice inclusions. I can see these getting a lot of use from anyone who uses their Wii a lot.
Cons
- The games suck: Honestly, there's really hardly anything worth playing outside of the party games. A few standout exceptions such as Super Mario Galaxy and Zelda: Twilight Princess, I suppose. The port of Resident Evil 4 was pretty good. But for the most part, the selection of Wii titles is shit and my little white box is gathering dust.
- Limited internal memory: Hardly any hard drive space and no option to save to an SD card. No intention to release a hard drive addon. No the memory is fine for your savegames, but the virtual console will fill it up real fast, leaving you to delete to make space for new games, only to redownload them later when you feel like playing them again.
- Worst online experience: Friend codes are a nightmare. The virtual console is mostly either stuff we've already played to death, or games not worth paying for in the first place. I sometimes wonder how people do manage to fill up their hard drives.
Summary.
I think the 360 is the best option for gamers right now - best games, best support, best online. Some people might feel limited by the functionality of an unmodded console at times, but I think they're expecting it to be something other than a gaming console and that's not a fair way to judge something. It's not chalk's fault I want cheese.
The PS3 is a good product, but not the best product for gaming. It has the best range of features and the most potential to really dazzle us.
The Wii is a toy and nothing more than that. It has wide appeal, but only initially. Anyone will get bored with the Wii very quickly and I considering it strictly a purchase for casual gamers only. If you're serious about your gaming, and most people are these days, choose one of the other machines.
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