Wii vs XBox 360 vs Playstation- argh!!!

[rentayenta]

I am hoping I can gain some insights on the game systems.

My kids currently have the original PS1 that was given to them last year because a friend of ours got a new system. It has been fine but because it's so old, they don't sell games for it anymore. We have not had any other systems except for a V-Smile, which is more educational then gamey.

I am looking for opinions that you all can provide. Also any pros or cons about having a game system in general.

 

[Stephres]

I can tell you one thing: since one of my son's friends got the Wii, he does not come over to our house anymore. He and my son would rather go to his house and play on the Wii than do anything else!

Good luck deciding. We have the old xbox and my son does not play it much. He only plays with my husband.

 

[rentayenta]

I can tell you one thing: since one of my son's friends got the Wii, he does not come over to our house anymore. He and my son would rather go to his house and play on the Wii than do anything else!

Good luck deciding. We have the old xbox and my son does not play it much. He only plays with my husband.

So is it a downfall that they would rather do that than play? I ask because my son and the neighbor are the same way. I really have to limit Joshua's time over there because all he wants to do is play the Wii. I am thinking that I could better control it over here.

 

[kronklover]

My husband works for Game Stop, so I am pretty familiar with the systems.

A Wii is great for families. Yes, it's playing video games and not running outsitde, BUT you do have to get up and move to play it. Most of the games are rated E and are very kid friendly. I dislike video games, but love using this system.

360 - good for older and true gamers. It is best used for online video game play. It does have some games for younger players, but they can be found for the other systems.

PS3- We just got one of these. It has a TON of games and you can play the PS2 games on the system. Also, it has a BluRay DVD player built into it. I think the system price went down to $500 and a BluRay player on its own is in the $1000 price range. It is a little more delicate than the other system. If my 15 month old daughter goes near the PS3 my husband kinda freaks. This system will last you a long time, with kids getting older and everything. Just BUY the WARRANTY.

 

[rentayenta]

My husband works for Game Stop, so I am pretty familiar with the systems.

A Wii is great for families. Yes, it's playing video games and not running outsitde, BUT you do have to get up and move to play it. Most of the games are rated E and are very kid friendly. I dislike video games, but love using this system.

360 - good for older and true gamers. It is best used for online video game play. It does have some games for younger players, but they can be found for the other systems.

PS3- We just got one of these. It has a TON of games and you can play the PS2 games on the system. Also, it has a BluRay DVD player built into it. I think the system price went down to $500 and a BluRay player on its own is in the $1000 price range. It is a little more delicate than the other system. If my 15 month old daughter goes near the PS3 my husband kinda freaks. This system will last you a long time, with kids getting older and everything. Just BUY the WARRANTY.

Thanks, this helps a lot! Our kids are 10, 8, and 6 not gamers, at all. My addiction is the DIS and DH could take it or leave it all.

So then it looks like either the Wii or PS3 for my family would be best.



Anyone know of any good sites to shop on or if there are any discounts anywhere? I briefly checked Toys R Us and fell over.

 

[mjantz]

We have a PS2, a GameCube & we're giving a Wii as a family gift for Christmas. Of the 2 currently in rotation at our house, the PS2 gets the most play. With the PS2 (& I'm assuming the PS3, but check) you can get the EyeToy which makes you move when you play. You have to grab rings & move while you surf & such. We also have a dance mat but it hasn't seen as much action as I would have thought. Maybe now that the kids are a bit older.
If you're looking for a system that adults can play as well as kids, I'd recommend the PS2. Most of the games DH has are for the PS2.

All that said, I'm very excited about the Wii. The kids played it a bit at a friends house & DS has asked for nothing else since then. You will probably need to buy extra controllers & sleeves but it does come with Wii Sports & you can download 'Old School' Nintendo games onto the system. I figure the Sports will tide us over until their summer birthdays when we can invest in a game or two if they want.

ETA Just saw your last post. You're probably not going to find a discount on the Wii. In fact, you should consider yourself lucky if you find a Wii at retail price & don't have to turn to eBay to get one. I got one by being a ToysRUs on a Sunday morning & being one of the 1st in line. Double check the store opening time & be there early.

 

[MSSANDRA]

DS has the PSlll and loves it . It is pricey but top notch. There are three different one and he has the high end one for now 500.00. it can play the old PS ll games, has internal memory and amazing graphics. You are going to have to set rules with any system to regulate play time so that might not be a huge issue.

DN has Wii and also loves it but DS has played both and says PSlll is better.

 

[stacy6552]

My 13 yr old recommends the Xbox 360, no hesitation.

 

[tinkandpan]

I was pretty anti having a game system in the house, but we bought my ds6 the Wii. I am very happy with it. We play it a lot as a family, the games are interactive and he likes the sportstype games. Like someone said, I dont think you are going to find anything discounted, you are just going to be lucky to find one in stock. It does get pricey- by the time i did the box, extra controller, extra numchuck and a memory card i was up over 400.

 

[rentayenta]

We have a PS2, a GameCube & we're giving a Wii as a family gift for Christmas. Of the 2 currently in rotation at our house, the PS2 gets the most play. With the PS2 (& I'm assuming the PS3, but check) you can get the EyeToy which makes you move when you play. You have to grab rings & move while you surf & such. We also have a dance mat but it hasn't seen as much action as I would have thought. Maybe now that the kids are a bit older.
If you're looking for a system that adults can play as well as kids, I'd recommend the PS2. Most of the games DH has are for the PS2.

So PS2 not PS3? I feel like I am trying to learn a new language.

All that said, I'm very excited about the Wii. The kids played it a bit at a friends house & DS has asked for nothing else since then. You will probably need to buy extra controllers & sleeves but it does come with Wii Sports & you can download 'Old School' Nintendo games onto the system. I figure the Sports will tide us over until their summer birthdays when we can invest in a game or two if they want.

That's what I was thinking too. I saw some on ebay with like 5 sports games and figure those will have to last until their birthdays or if someone gives them cash for the holidays.

ETA Just saw your last post. You're probably not going to find a discount on the Wii. In fact, you should consider yourself lucky if you find a Wii at retail price & don't have to turn to eBay to get one. I got one by being a ToysRUs on a Sunday morning & being one of the 1st in line. Double check the store opening time & be there early.

The Wiis are that popular? I am SO out of the video game loop.

DS has the PSlll and loves it . It is pricey but top notch. There are three different one and he has the high end one for now 500.00. it can play the old PS ll games, has internal memory and amazing graphics. You are going to have to set rules with any system to regulate play time so that might not be a huge issue.

DN has Wii and also loves it but DS has played both and says PSlll is better.

So a vote for PS3? I am so confused.

My 13 yr old recommends the Xbox 360, no hesitation.

Xbox 360! Are the majority of the games family friendly? DH won't allow any shoot 'em up type of games.

I was pretty anti having a game system in the house, but we bought my ds6 the Wii. I am very happy with it. We play it a lot as a family, the games are interactive and he likes the sportstype games. Like someone said, I dont think you are going to find anything discounted, you are just going to be lucky to find one in stock. It does get pricey- by the time i did the box, extra controller, extra numchuck and a memory card i was up over 400.

That's about where I stand on it, a little anti but not totally against it. Over $400? Does that seem like a lot to anyone but me?


These responses are great and just what I am in search of. Keep them coming please!

 

[tjl1388]

Pretty much what kronk said. I love our Wii. It is the only gaming system that the whole family can play together and we do just that. Some of the games will actually make you break a sweat.

 

[romac]

I'm an avid gamer myself, and have been since the original Nintendo (I'm 22 now) so I can provide you some insight on this, as I('ve) own(ed) them all.

I think that for kids, the Wii is a hands down winner. It's a reliable system, innovative, and VERY family friendly. Nintendo also has excellent tech support were anything to go wrong (which I'm 99.9% sure it wouldn't). It also happens to be the cheapest at $250. It comes with the Wii Sports game packaged in, and it's very easy for anyone to pick up and play. It also plays the last generation Gamecube games. The only downside to the Wii is that they are so popular, they're still hard to find in some places.

The Playstation 3 is excellent, but at the moment there isn't a big selection of games on it. And especially not family-friendly ones. It's also the most expensive, but has a built in Blu-Ray player which is the wave of the future as far as movies go, built in Wi-Fi, 60-80gig hard drive, DVD upscaling, photo storage, mp3 storage, reads MPGs, JPEGs to slideshows, and on the current models backwards compatibility so it plays all PS1/PS2 games as well. It's pretty much the complete package as a home-entertainment system. $450-500 starting price though, with no game.

The XBox 360 I cannot reccomend. There are a ton of excellent games on the console, but the Xbox 360 is EXTREMELY unreliable. I can not stress enough that you avoid this system. I had 3 of them, and they all 3 failed before I gave up on it and picked up a PS3 to compliment my Wii. While the games are great, the system itself is extremely flawed internally and has major overheating issues. It has been acknowledged that the 360 has a 33-40% FAILURE rate. Microsoft also confirmed they are losing BILLIONS in repair costs and warranty extensions. I (or most others) just simply cannot justify spending $400 on a machine thats a roll of the dice. You shouldn't spend that kind of money on something that has a 1 in 3 chance of going bad, and quickly at that. While Microsoft has owned up and extended their warranty to 3 years, it is a royal pain dealing with them. Sitting on hold, getting non-english speaking tech support, refusal of claims etc etc. I can't force a decision, and I'm not trying to hate on them because there are good games for it and theres a lot who are happy with the 360, but do yourself a favor and avoid this one. From seekingalpha.com:

Microsoft (MSFT) said Thursday that it will write off $1.15 billion to extend the XBox 360 warranty to three years and reimburse owners for repairs.

Some have estimated that as many as one third of XBox 360's sold to date have failed. And the amount of money being allocated -- $100 per XBox 360 sold -- would allow Microsoft to replace every third XBox with a new base one at retail prices, so that estimate may well be accurate.

But that said, all is not well in XBox 360 land. If you look at the graph below Q2 2007 now is the second quarter in a row where XBox 360 sales have declined year over year, and Microsoft admitted in its statement Thursday evening that it fell short of its sales goals. And Microsoft was losing money hand over fist with XBox 360 before taking another billion dollars in warranty expenses.

So in closing, get yourself a Wii. You and your kids will be MUCH happier in the long run with it in my opinion. Extra controllers etc are an additional cost for all systems so don't let that be a deciding factor.

 

[Stephres]

So is it a downfall that they would rather do that than play? I ask because my son and the neighbor are the same way. I really have to limit Joshua's time over there because all he wants to do is play the Wii. I am thinking that I could better control it over here.

No, they do have a lot of fun playing, I just kind of miss having him over at our house. I guess we will just have to get a Wii to get him back over here!

Thanks for the info about the Xbox 360; I didn't know that.

I have heard the closer it is to Christmas the harder it will be to find the Wii, so I wouldn't expect to find any discounts. Good luck!

 

[rentayenta]

Pretty much what kronk said. I love our Wii. It is the only gaming system that the whole family can play together and we do just that. Some of the games will actually make you break a sweat.

Thank you. I like the idea of us all playing together.

I'm an avid gamer myself, and have been since the original Nintendo (I'm 22 now) so I can provide you some insight on this, as I('ve) own(ed) them all.

I think that for kids, the Wii is a hands down winner. It's a reliable system, innovative, and VERY family friendly. Nintendo also has excellent tech support were anything to go wrong (which I'm 99.9% sure it wouldn't). It also happens to be the cheapest at $250. It comes with the Wii Sports game packaged in, and it's very easy for anyone to pick up and play. It also plays the last generation Gamecube games. The only downside to the Wii is that they are so popular, they're still hard to find in some places.

The Playstation 3 is excellent, but at the moment there isn't a big selection of games on it. And especially not family-friendly ones. It's also the most expensive, but has a built in Blu-Ray player which is the wave of the future as far as movies go, built in Wi-Fi, 60-80gig hard drive, DVD upscaling, photo storage, mp3 storage, reads MPGs, JPEGs to slideshows, and on the current models backwards compatibility so it plays all PS1/PS2 games as well. It's pretty much the complete package as a home-entertainment system. $450-500 starting price though, with no game.

The XBox 360 I cannot reccomend. There are a ton of excellent games on the console, but the Xbox 360 is EXTREMELY unreliable. I can not stress enough that you avoid this system. I had 3 of them, and they all 3 failed before I gave up on it and picked up a PS3 to compliment my Wii. While the games are great, the system itself is extremely flawed internally and has major overheating issues. It has been acknowledged that the 360 has a 33-40% FAILURE rate. Microsoft also confirmed they are losing BILLIONS in repair costs and warranty extensions. I (or most others) just simply cannot justify spending $400 on a machine thats a roll of the dice. You shouldn't spend that kind of money on something that has a 1 in 3 chance of going bad, and quickly at that. While Microsoft has owned up and extended their warranty to 3 years, it is a royal pain dealing with them. Sitting on hold, getting non-english speaking tech support, refusal of claims etc etc. I can't force a decision, and I'm not trying to hate on them because there are good games for it and theres a lot who are happy with the 360, but do yourself a favor and avoid this one. From seekingalpha.com:

So in closing, get yourself a Wii. You and your kids will be MUCH happier in the long run with it in my opinion. Extra controllers etc are an additional cost for all systems so don't let that be a deciding factor.

WOW! This just kind of info I was looking for. They are $250? Then what else do I need to get other than additional games, which might have to wait until after the holidays? What does the system come with? Will I need extra controllers and stuff and do you know he approximate cost?

No, they do have a lot of fun playing, I just kind of miss having him over at our house. I guess we will just have to get a Wii to get him back over here!

Thanks for the info about the Xbox 360; I didn't know that.

I have heard the closer it is to Christmas the harder it will be to find the Wii, so I wouldn't expect to find any discounts. Good luck!

That truly is one of my motivators. DH is very against getting a game system but I'd rather have Joshua and his friends here than away. Looks like the Xbox is out and the Wii is the way to go.



Is $350 realistic for the start up cost? I am hoping that would include the initial bundle and then the extra controllers? The kids were also asking for those hand held Nintendo Gameboy things but the ones the girls want are $130 each I would rather spend the money on something we can all enjoy.

I really miss the days when they were younger and their interests were cheaper!



Does anyone know of any good links I could check out for education and purchase?

 

[dman11]

We have a Wii and everyone in our family loves to play it. Our family is myself, DW, DS13, DD12 and DD4. Everyone including our 4 year old loves to play it. My wife and both daughters NEVER played video games before and they love to play on the Wii. My father and mother even enjoy playing with DD4.

I would highly recommend the Wii for anyone. If we would have bought the Xbox 360 or PS3 it would never be used as often nor enjoyed by everyone the way the Wii is. You cannot go wrong with this system and the range of games it has is great for everyone.

Now if I could only beat DD4 just once in bowling!!!!

 

[mjantz]

So PS2 not PS3? I feel like I am trying to learn a new language.

If you're looking for a slightly cheaper game system before you invest in a more expensive one, I'd get a used PS2. The PS3 is the new version & is more expensive.

The Wiis are that popular? I am SO out of the video game loop

The Wiis are incredibly popular & difficult to find. I was able to get mine by a fluke of asking the worker at ToysRUs if they had any in stock & she told me they would be getting some on Sunday & they had just started opening an hour earlier so there probably wouldn't be a line. She was right.

Is $350 realistic for the start up cost? I am hoping that would include the initial bundle and then the extra controllers? The kids were also asking for those hand held Nintendo Gameboy things but the ones the girls want are $130 each I would rather spend the money on something we can all enjoy.

I really miss the days when they were younger and their interests were cheaper!

I paid just over $300 for the Wii system with 1 controller (I also bought a 2-year protection plan). I am looking at buying 3 more double controllers (remote & nunchuk) & sleeves which I believe will probably cost me another $100 total. So, I will have spent over $400 for our Wii. However, it is a family gift so it ends up being about what we spend on each other at Christmas anyway.

AFA the handheld games (I'm assuming they want the Nintendo DS or DS Lite) $120 is not too bad. My DD wants one but she's currently happy with her brothers hand-me-down Gameboy SP so I think she can wait until her birthday. Again, sometimes you can find them on eBay for fairly inexpensive (under $100 used)
And, unfortunately, from your sig line, your kids appear to be at the age where their wants get more expensive.

 

[teentoddlermom]

Can't believe we own them all, and play them all! Wii is everyone's current favorite.

 

[dburg30]

I really like the WII.. I've never been really good at getting my fingers to work with all the buttons on the other controllers. The WII is just plain fun once you get used to it.
The set is $250. That's one controller with nunchuk, wii sports and wireless internet.

Extra controllers are about $50-60 each (30-40 for the controller and 20 for nunchuk). If you dont use wireless internet, adapter to connect is about 30 IIRC.

I also bought rechargeable docks for my controllers.


I have a PS2 and 360. I dont play them a lot, and play the wii more then either (except for guitar hero for the ps2 and 360), but that's coming out for the WII so I can see the WII being my big time main soon.

I know a few people with the 360 and none of us have had ANY problems with them. Maybe it is an issue like a PP said, but I've heard more stories about the PS3 then anything. IMO from seeing the games for it, a lot of them are average looking at best. The nascar one looked like a low detail PC game when I saw it. Not impressed at all yet. The blu-ray player is nice, but I've read reviews where it's not exactly bulletproof either.

For a family, I HIGHLY suggest the WII. It's cheaper to start out and the games seem to be about $10 less then others also. Right now the selection of games for the WII isnt the best, but there are TONS of games coming out for the holiday season it appears..

 

[DISMOMOF4]

We LOVE our Wii!!! My entire family plays it, along w/ most of our neighborhood. On any given day, I can have upwards of 10 kids (4 of which belong to me) in my living room playing with the Wii. But, like the previous poster said, I would rather have them here than somewhere else where I wasn't sure what is going on. My dad even plays Tiger Woods Golf w/ DH and he is definitely not a gamer. The games are very active and diverse enough so there is something for everyone to enjoy. Just make sure they use the wrist band. Our first go almost had a controller go through our brand new big screen tv.

Also, you get to make your own Miis- the on screen player to look just like you. My kids have so much fun changing their looks.

I can't remember how old your kids are, but my youngest was 3 when we got ours last Christmas and he was able to play with it on most games.

We did have to stand in line to get it, though. And we just bought 1 extra controller and nunchuck - which makes 2 total. This worked for a while until we were able to find/ get 2 more. The sleeves are not "must- haves" to play the games. They just distinguish one remote from the others.

Hope this helps!

 

[romac]

:

WOW! This just kind of info I was looking for. They are $250? Then what else do I need to get other than additional games, which might have to wait until after the holidays? What does the system come with? Will I need extra controllers and stuff and do you know he approximate cost?


Is $350 realistic for the start up cost? I am hoping that would include the initial bundle and then the extra controllers? The kids were also asking for those hand held Nintendo Gameboy things but the ones the girls want are $130 each I would rather spend the money on something we can all enjoy.

Does anyone know of any good links I could check out for education and purchase?

Edit- it says my post count is too low to post links, so I'm going to delete the w w w. stuff, just add that in

The Original MSRP on the Wii is $249.99. That includes: Nintendo Wii system (system, Wii remote controller, nunchuck, stand, sensor and Wii Sports game, WiFi, Gamecube game backwards compatible). Most Wii games support up to 4-players at once. Nintendo products usually come with a 1 year warranty from them, but the system is so reliable I don't think it's necessary for any extended warranty plans that the stores sell. However that does give some people peace of mind. The system has 512MB of built in memory to save games to. That isn't as much as the competition but trust me, the game saves are so small that it would be a considerable amount of time before an SD memory card would be needed, so do yourself a favor and skip that for a while (probably a couple years, if ever lol). The Wii also has a "Virtual Console", that you can buy Wii Points cards at any old Walmart, and spend the points online on the Virtual Console to download oldschool Nintendo, Super Nintendo, N64 etc games. Downloading content like this is how most people fill up the systems memory, not from actual game saves.

An additional Wii Remote Control (Wiimote ) is $39.99 gamestop.com/product.asp?product%5Fid=802561

An additional Nunchuck is $19.99 gamestop.com/product.asp?product%5Fid=802562

A great deal that I reccomend is WiiPlay. It's a game bundled with a Wiimote for $49.99 gamestop.com/product.asp?product%5Fid=230004

So if you can find one, you can get the system bundle at $249.99 + Say the Wii Play bundle at $49.99 + A nunchuck for $19.99 = $320 + tax and you have yourself a Wii with two games and two controls.

Sites to check out:
thewiire.com/
thetanooki.com/
nintendo.com/home
wii.ign.com/

There's an enormous amount of games out for the Wii already. And some are already on budget lists at under $25. Theres an extremely healthy selection in the $25-$50 range.

Feel free to ask or PM me any more questions and I'll do my best to get you steered in the right direction.