[citation][nom]danlw[/nom]Say what you want about graphics. The fact of the matter is that once again, Nintendo revolutionized console gaming with the Wiimote, and left the others playing catch-up.N64 - FIRST analog stick on a consoleN64 - FIRST force feedback controller (rumble pack)Gamecube - FIRST wireless controller (that actually worked - Wavebird)Wii - FIRST motion controls[/citation]
Commodore amiga had dozens of analogue sticks before consoles did. I used to play Geoff Crammond's F1GP, stunt car racer, Indy 500 all with my analogue konig speedking in 1990/1991. There was also a fantastic bike game which had mouse controlled steering (mouse is an analogue input device), it was called no second prize and was brilliant. It's not until the past few years that my logitech momo racing wheel has caught up with that level of control from 20 years ago and guys who race against me with an analogue pad are beaten everytime (I've held lap records at both nurburgring & Donington on grid pc).
I can remember force feedback controllers (steering wheels and joysticks) from the mid 90s, so around the same time as the N64 rumble pack.
I can also remember the pc and amiga had a 3D mouse, it was wireless and the equivelant of a wii remote. I also remember lightguns for grandstand pong, sports gaming consoles, early 80s, before the nes had a lightgun, it was a console with a wood veneer, ahh, the good old days.
I think the wii has it's place as a party games console, much more social than pc, ps3 or xbox. But for solo gaming the PC is still king for me. Mouse and keyboard for FPS, steering wheel & pedals for racing games. 3D glasses and surround screen gaming for that WOW factor. And as somoeone else has already said, the price for a perfectly good gaming PC can less than a PS3, and you can also do some word processing if you really have to.
The wii has the right price and the right games catalogue for party gaming. The ps3 has a bluray, which was an atractive extra early on but bluray player prices have fallen to annul that attraction. Ultimately the problem with cutting edge consoles is that they are 12 months out of date by the time they hit the shops and PC technology is just always moving. The fact that most games allow you to scale beyond what your pc is capable of now means, these games will still have playability if/when you upgrade your hardware.
Except for Crysis of course. Poor code, poor multi core CPU use, poor multi GPU use. My PC is at least 20 times more powerful than the PC I had when crysis was first released but my frame rates are still uninspiring.
Original PC intel P4 3ghz, ATI x1650 - crysis runs at 30FPS 1024x768 low detail.
Current PC - i5 750 OC to 3.6Ghz - GTX470 sli - crysis runs at 50FPS 1680x1050 high detail.
Everything else, 120 - 200fps.
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