Where's everyone gone?

[Mr. Tweedy]

Blu-Ray is silly. You need at least a 50-inch screen to even notice the difference, and then it isn't a big difference.

[StalinSays]

I got a 38 inch samsung, and I notice. A bunch. HD TV gets you used to HD, hut the differences comparing DVD to Blue Ray straight up are easily noticed. Try watching an old DVD on a fancy TV - the blacks become this tetris game of compression. Newer DVDs, up-res'd on the PS3 look ok, but put Dark Knight against an old DVD of Batman, no contest.

But yeh, in standard def, who cares. In standard def a Wii looks like a next generation console (Wii burn).

[Mr. Tweedy]

Depends on the game. The tiny handful of good Wii games look current-gen in SD (see Dead Space: Extraction), but the average Wii game looks like a Dreamcast holdover.

[StalinSays]

Or just Gamecube games. They were originally going to release the wiimote as a peripheral for that system - kinda' wish they had. The Wii is barely an upgrade, its a strong as last generations XBOX, with a couple nicer shaders (that no one but nintendo seems to know how to use).

I need to play Extraction - reviews are through the roof.

[ROU Killing Time]

Well, the one thing you have to give the Wii is credit for some actual innovation regarding game input devices.
<RANT>
What really gets my panties in a wad, regarding xBox, PS, OR Wii is the refusal to allow standard keyboard and mice to be used. WTF, they all have USB ports. Only reason is purely economic. Keyboards and Mice are cheap, and they want you to suffer with their proprietary game controllers...

Unleash My Mouse, or Phere My Wrathz0rz...
</RANT>

[StalinSays]

PS3 and XBOX have their own keyboards... you just can't use them for anything like ever. Just text chat really. I had a mouse for my SNES once.

Here's the thing with consoles - they don't want things cheap. Even Mad Catz and their junky knock offs make the big 3 money via licenses and permissions. I spent 80 bucks so that I could have 3 dual shocks, and probably 180 in Gamecube controllers over the years (Smash Brothers: the great destroyer).

Price you pay to be where the games are - its an expensive hobby. Could use a cheaper PC and just play free Flash games all day, but that doesn't save the world from the Locust or Covenant or King Koopa now does it?

[Mr. Tweedy]

Wii is compatible with a regular USB keyboard. Just plug it in.

Games are actually not a very expensive activity when compared to, say, a softball league, or quilting. Games are and average, or, if you're like me and buy all your stuff used, a relatively cheap hobby.

The Wii. The Wii! It started with great innovation, but dropped the ball hard, dropped it heavy, right on my foot. Make the best system ever and then actively discourage any developer from making good games on it? I just don't get Nintendo.

[tastycakes]

Yeah, even I, Nintendo fanboy since birth, am starting to ponder a 360.

[Mr. Tweedy]

DON'T!! The PS3 blows the 360 about 75 feet out of the water. I recently sold my 360 to upgrade to a PS3, and I am shocked by how much better it is.

[Talia]

I bought my very first gaming system recently. A PS2 at a tag sale for $20.

Can't figure out how to get it to work with my tv. *sad face*

It still had a DVD of 'Coming to America' in it when I bought it, though, as I discovered when I got it home, so it seems likely its functional, I'm just a tech moron.