This article is part of the series What to Buy This Christmas. This series of articles goes over this season’s biggest items and their competitors. Helping you, the reader, make informed purchase decisions this holiday season.

In case you did not hear, read, or watch the news over the past month you might have missed the fact that there are two new gaming systems out. Now whether or not they are available for purchase is something that will be up for debate till at least the end of the year. The two new game systems are Sony’s Playstation 3 and Nintendo’s Wii. Both are each company’s attempt at next generation gaming where high definition rules the screen. Microsoft’s XBox 360 has been out for just over a year now and is the Playstation 3’s direct competition. What I plan to over today is now to pick the best system for you or your child’s overall needs. The basic premise is to give you a rundown on each system and the pros and cons of each. Every system is going to have its own set of plus and minuses and each system is going to work better with certain kinds of people. So lets get to it.

Let us begin with this season’s biggest item, the Playstation 3 from Sony. The Playstation 3 is the 4th device to have the Playstation name including the Playstation 2 and Playstation Portable. When the original Playstation console was released, it was the best of the bunch and the Playstation 2 held onto that title. There is some debate as to whether or not the Playstation 3 will be able to maintain the stop spot among gamers. Coming in two flavors, one with a 20 gigabyte hard drive and no wireless internet as well as a version with a 60 gigabyte hard drive with wireless internet, the Playstation 3 boasts a 3.2 Ghz cell processor with a Blu-Ray drive for high definition support. The Playstation 3 can be used to play games as well as play Blu-Ray discs, DVDs, and audio CDs. While the PS3 does utilize proprietary output cables, it does allow for component high definition connections as well as the newer HDMI cable. Supporting a variety of resolutions including the every popular 1080p you can watch your HD movies with the Playstation 3 as long as you use the Blu-Ray formated discs.

The Playstation 3 can in fact be used to view HD movies, but its primary function is a gaming system. While several games that were scheduled to launch with the PS3, there were several that did not make it in time. You can expect to see these in the coming months as the development companies work to finish up these next generation games. Some of the cool side of the Playstation 3 games is that they are all written with high definition in mind. Most, if not all, of the games for the Playstation 3 will support high definition resolutions natively. This means that there will be no upscaling to HD. Also Sony has made internet gaming a major focus of the Playstation with the Playstation Network. A major advantage that the Playstation Network has going for it, is its free online game play. The XBox Live subscriptions cost you around $50 a year but comes with a headset for voice chating. The Playstation Network is free at the moment. Another advantage to gaming with the Playstation 3 is the ability to connect your Playstation Portable (PSP) to the PS3 and use additional functionality in some games that is only available when you connect a PSP. You can also use the Playstation Portable as a remote to the PS3 as well as download content from the Playstation 3 to the Playstation Portable.

The current downside to the Playstation 3 is availability. Sony had originally planned to have somewhere around 400,000 units for the United States launch but was only able to meet a little more than half that goal with around 255,000 units. While more units are being shipped out, they are very sparce as well as sporadic. So while the item is a good purchase, it is going to be difficult to find one in a store. Your best bet right now in finding and buying a Playstation 3 is eBay.

The direct competitor for the Playstation 3 is the year old XBox 360 from Microsoft. This first to market next generation console is designed to be a gaming system first and a multimedia center second. While the XBox 360 does have the ability to play music, movies, and download multimedia content from the XBox Live Marketplace, it is designed with a “games first” mentality. Also coming in two different packagings, one with a hard drive and one without, the XBox 360 requires a separate purchase of a wireless lan adapter to be able to connect wirelessly to the internet. Note that you can not do anything online, including downloading software updates, without connecting the XBox 360 to the internet. Also, to get HD-DVD discs to play using the XBox 360 you will need to purchase the $200 HD-DVD drive attachment. So, as you can see to catch the XBox 360 up to the Playstation 3, you will need to spend some extra money. The total cost of getting a XBox 360 up to par with the abilities of the PS3 will put you right around $100 dollars more than a Playstation 3. However, with the Playstation 3 in such high demand with not enough units to meet that demand, the XBox 360 is the only one of the three systems discussed here today that you can walk into the store and buy off the shelf. Leaving the store with the product in hand.

While the XBox 360 requires some extra purchases to give it similar capabilities to that of the Playstation 3, this system should not be overlooked. The XBox 360 was built to game and game well. Its graphics are on par with that of the Playstation 3 and the library of games already available is currently unmatched by any next generation system. As well as its current biggest selling game title “Gears of War” is some of the most beautiful graphics I have seen for any video game ever. While an XBox Live subscription will cost you a little extra coin, Microsoft has had a nice head start on online console gaming and thus will have less bugs than the Sony or Nintendo counterparts. The XBox 360 has also been out for a whole year now and has worked through most of its “new system” bugs. Expect a lot of updates from Sony and Nintendo to get their systems in check. Microsoft had gaming in mind when they designed the XBox 360 but I would expect that the next version of XBox will be just as multimedia centered as the Playstation 3. The current downside to the XBox 360 is its inability to display full high definition content in 1080p. Though, both the Playstation 3 and XBox 360 are having issues right now displaying 1080p resolutions and both Sony as well as Microsoft have promised to release software updates that should fix this problem on their respective systems.

Last, but certainly not least, is Nintendo’s Wii gaming system. Let me say, first off, Nintendo has set out and publicly stated that they are not competing against Sony’s Playstation 3 or Microsoft’s XBox 360. Nintendo would like you to know that, they are all about the games. The Wii does not play movies and is not high definition. The Wii also does not have an online content store like XBox Live or Sony’s Playstation Network. No, it is about the games. If you want your gaming system to play movies and music, you probably want to look elsewhere. While the Wii does not sport next generation graphics, Nintendo believes that game play will be where it is at and believe me they are off to a good start. The thing that sets the Wii apart from the other two systems is the controller. Nintendo has taken a chance and decided that an almost completely motion sensor controller, as well as game play, is the key to having fun. I have played on a Wii and must say that the motion controlling on “ExciteTruck” is an excellent selling point. Your movements actually control the action on screen so you really are just that much more into the game.

If Nintendo has been good at anything, it is party games. Back when the first “Mario Kart” game came out, Nintendo sealed the deal on fun party games. Friends held mini-tournaments to see who was the best Mario Kart racer among them and so it all began. Nintendo has also been known for quality games. Sure several of them might seem geared towards children but they were fun and really kept the player interested in the game. With the Wii, Nintendo plans to keep that a major focus. They really do believe that having quality games as well as quality game play will ensure them repeat vistors. And Nintendo does not plan to stop at in store game purchases. They have released their Nintendo Virtual Console that will include games from every Nintendo system to date as well as games from Sega’s collection.

So with 3 really hard choices which system to do you pick? Well let me break this down easily for you:

If you want the best of both worlds and you also want to have your cake while eating it, then you will want to pick up the Playstation 3. If you want something more middle of the road, then the XBox 360 is for you. And for straight up gaming with no extra frills, look no further than the Nintendo Wii. Though it still looks like that for this holiday season at least your best bet for a system you can buy now is the XBox 360.

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