Mine's better, it's all I can afford.

In the mood for some light reading?  After this blog, may I suggest that you go to IGN and select an article on the PS3 or the Xbox 360, ignore the article then scroll down to the comments.  Chances are, the comments section is full of bile.  Pre, Post, and anything in-between pubescent boys go at each other like King Kong and Godzilla.  Actually, that's a terrible metaphor, because King Kong fighting Godzilla is at least cool.  Instead, these Pre, Post and anything in-between pubescent boys go at each other like whiny little bitches with an insecurity complex.

Of course, I am talking of the timeless argument of 'Your console is shit, mine is incredible'.  An act of nerdish discrimination and preposterous almost-but-nowhere-near gang violence that has plagued gaming for as long as I can remember .  As a child, I bore witness to the legendary feud between Nintendo and Sega, as they fought for generations!  I of course, like any nerdy, young hermit at the time took sides, my allegiance with Sega.  Sonic held far more appeal to me as an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who goes around beating the shit out of robots and fat, moustached men than Nintendo, where I got to play as a fat, moustached man.  But I, like any right minded child of the time looked on at Nintendo yearning to try Mario out.  The fact is Mario looked just as fun as Sonic, in his own fat, moustached way.  And coincidently, it was everything I expected.

Taken out of context, that last sentence implies many a things wrong with me.

Sadly, as present day proves, I was sided with the losing team.  After the Playstation asserted itself as Nintendo's biggest threat, and Sega released another (Perceived, I shan't have this argument now!) Turkey in the form of the Dreamcast; Sega's console fate was decided.  Well, that and the fact that every Sonic game in recent memory has been the equivilant of sticking your balls in a super-heated vice.  

Nintendo then lost some footing in the console war with the Gamecube, a good console that was only beaten because it's competition was better.  The PS2 was a beautiful machine, and one that looked as if it were to monopolise it's current generation of gaming.  Until a giant black and green behemoth emerged from the dark shadows of Bill Gates's wallet.  The Xbox.

The only thing the xbox had for it at the time was marketing, but with someone as ridiculously rich as Bill 'Oh I fancy living in Taiwan this week' Gates behind you, you can't go wrong in that regard.  Coupled with stellar Online capabilities, the Xbox cemented itself as one to watch.  And did it deliver; the 360 was the first console out of the newer generation gates; the first incite into the next gen.  Followed by the Wii, and then followed cumbersomely by Playstation 3.  All chasing the golden rabbit of success.  Why success is a golden rabbit, I can not say.

The fact is, this generation is the best yet.  And it harks back to the days of Sega versus Nintendo, when two really good consoles with really good games fought it out.  I own an Xbox 360, mainly for it's Online capabilities and some of the gaming franchises that were becoming available.  Also because I was sick of waiting for the PS3 to come out.  But the fact is, as an exclusive 360 owner, and as an avid gamer this isn't something to be proud of.

And here's why.

By backing yourself into a corner, hugging your console like it's the first woman that ever talked to you, all the while boarding up your house with 'Keep out Gaystation 3' and 'Nintendo is wee', you are stopping yourself from trying out varieties of different games, all of which offer different, and (for the most part) fun experiences.   You're basically some absolute nerd who honestly DOES believe Halo Reach is the best looking game ever, because you never took the effort to notice that the PS3 can make your eyes ORGASM.

And the reverse is true enough, PS3 owners like to go on and on how this will be the year that the Playstation kills the 360, which it never does.  Ever.  Why?  Because the 360 adapts a hell of a lot better than the Playstation, who often dismiss most hardware innovations as a gimmick.  And what's even more baffling is how the most successful console of the 3, the Nintendo Wii, is looked at with disgust and hypocritical elitism. The console that makes everything horribly casual and is ruining the games industry, and not say, attracting a lot of POSITIVE attention to the damn market.

Basically, it's a feud that's built off of shear narrow mindedness, and cheapness.  Instead of trying to justify the fact they can only afford one console, why not embrace the fact that theirs is good in it's own way, all the while acknowledging exactly the same about the others.  But then again, that requires too much thought, and considering that about 60% of the gaming market are people that go on shooting games, hide amongst a lot of rocks with a long range gun, I believe this lesson will be ignored and possibly spat on.  

Of course, I could have mentioned the PC and they'd all be fucked.