Gaming Consoles
Although early gamers may remember the days of Atari and the Magnavox Oddyssey, times have changed and the advances in technology have brought state of the art Gaming Consoles to the masses. Gone are the days when a player was represented by only a flashing cursor. Today’s gamers benefit from the best possible graphics imaginable and smooth gameplay using the dedicated devices. In today’s competitive Gaming Consoles atmosphere, there are three clear winners in the race: the PlayStation 3, the Nintendo Wii, and the Xbox 360.
Many experts consider the PlayStation 3 to be the world leader for Gaming Consoles. Released in 2006, the machine was an instant hit and was the first of the Gaming Consoles to use the high quality HDMI output for the best level of video quality. The PlayStation 3 comes with a hard drive, which removed the necessity of having memory cards or other ways to save game and player information. In addition, being able to move the games to a hard drive allows the PlayStation 3 Gaming Consoles to benefit from extra processing power and faster load times. The PlayStation 3 controllers were also seen as a breakthrough as they had tilt-sensing abilities that allowed them to be used in new ways never before seen on Gaming Consoles.
The Xbox 3 is also considered to be one of the best for gamers around the world. Of the three main modern Gaming Consoles, the Xbox 360 has the best integration with the internet, allowing players to compete against each other in real time using internet connections. This has created a massive world of online gaming and has led the rise of the Xbox 360 to the top of sales charts. Introduced in 2005, the Xbox 360 was the first of what is considered the seventh generation of gaming machines. One of the major advantages of this machine is the addition of the Kinect gaming system. With the Kinect, players can participate in a gaming experience that no longer uses traditional controllers. The Xbox 360 Kinect works by verbal commands as well as hand and body gestures. It is thought that this absence of controllers will eventually become normal for gaming machines.
The last main console used for gaming is the Nintendo Wii. While Nintendo enjoyed early success as the leader in the gaming industry with the NES, the developers of the Nintendo Wii decided to move in a different direction rather than challenge the PlayStation and Xbox franchises. The graphics on the Nintendo Wii are inferior to both of these models and it does not come with an included hard drive. However, the advantage is that nearly all of the games use controllers combined with motion from the players. Sensors detect how the controllers are being moved and this translates to action on the screen. The Nintendo Wii has enjoyed a large popularity among young and female gamers.