How many of you own every modern console? (and your perspective on modern gaming)

[DOAsaturn]

I guess this is kind of a two part question or thought. I'm a gamer true and true and fortunate to be able to support my hobby by my own means enough to own every console that is currently out and viable at retail (Right now the Wii, 360, PS3, 3DS/DS, Vita - heck even toss in the PS2 and PSP or iOS if you want). I realize many others aren't able to do that and generally have to stick to one or two consoles and be a little more selective with their cash.

It's quite a different story when your on this side of the fence looking at all the fanboy-laden controversies that go on. I'm certainly grateful to have my pick of any great game for any platform, in fact, I'm platform-blind really at this point (though I do love my 3DS). I do remember struggling through my teen years trying to support the dying Saturn and Dreamcast and hating the fact that Sony was cruising - so I've been there too.

What saddens me though is all the hate that's been spewed first towards the 3DS and now the Vita. I got my hands on the Vita a few weeks ago and the freshness of it still hasn't worn off. It's just so darn cool and the fact that it's capturing near current-gen console style gaming is a greater leap for gaming than I've seen in traditional consoles recently. If the Vita dies an early death I fear it'll be awhile, if we ever, get an experience like it again on a handheld.

I don't know, that's just my two cents. I felt like grumbling a little bit. I think the rumors of the Vita's early demise are quite premature (though a little more believable than they were with the 3DS). I guess I'm just saying as a gamer it's really not worth wishing demise on any console. Constructive criticism is fine, but blatant negativity is just pointless and kinda sad for our hobby.

Anyway - feel free to take this wherever, it doesn't have to be centered on Vita. I'm curious to hear opinions from people like me ('console blind' as I said) on the general state of modern gaming.

[Dangerboy]

I own all 3.

PlayStation 3 and Wii are both unhooked and dust covered. A Laseractive took the PS3 spot. It's gotten more play in the last 2 weeks then the PS3 in 3 years.

The Wii's spot remains empty.

My 360 is currently hosting play-through #4 of Mass Effect 3. It will host playthroughs 5 and of the entire trilogy in the months to come.

Unless Wii-U Announces a Mass Effect Trilogy, I have no need for any game system that comes out in the next 5 years.

[StealthLurker]

Haters gonna hate.

I've been "console blind" since the 8bit days. I had an NES, SMS, 7800, etc and even a japanese famicom in the 80s. Same with the 90s, 2000s... all sides of the camp. Also do that with computers. The platform wars/arguments always made me laugh. Sure not everyone has the space, resources, etc to do that... or they "sincerely" don't like certain platforms. However in general I like to experience/try out new technologies/electronics, so it's not just limited to gaming gear.

Right now I've got everything minus the Vita. Even have gone so far as to have 3 PS3s (US 60GB, JPN 60GB, US Slim 250) and 3 Xbox360s (US Elite, JPN Elite, US Slim) all hooked up and ready to go. However I do plan to pick up a Vita, but I've been distracted by other things (work, school, other toys, etc).

.

[Nebagram]

I own all 3, they're all hooked up. The 360 and the PS3 are played roughly equally with the Wii lagging far behind, only getting pulled out for special games (it's recently seen a lot of use with bit.trip complete). My PS2, Dreamcast and Mega Drive are also still hooked up though see less use, the Dreamcast and PS2 roughly equalling the Wii and the Mega Drive lagging behind (largely as my Mega CD and a lot of my carts- including TJ&E2- seem to have died).

I'll be getting the Wii U when it comes out and that'll replace my Wii. Assuming I can transfer my VC purchases across.

[WCP]

I currently own: 360, PS3, Wii and a decent gaming PC. I also own a Vita and PSP, when it comes to the portables. My son owns a 3DS, and my other son has a DS and a Ipod Touch. Pretty much the only thing we don't have is an Ipad (we do have an HP TouchPad), DSi XL and PSP Go.


Anyways, here is my take on the Vita:


I think the Vita is an absolutely outstanding piece of hardware. The price however, is too high for the general gaming public. The crazy thing is, when the price was first announced at last years e3 (before the 3DS price drop), I thought it was an amazing price. However, once the 3DS dropped it's price to $169.99, the Vita started to seem MUCH more expensive. Then, when we found out about the whole memory card thing, it became even MORE expensive. It's amazing how the perspective on something can change so quickly. What once seemed almost like a bargain, now seems very much overpriced. I don't blame people for not being interested in the Vita, when you pretty much have to spend about 3 big ones, to walk away with a brand new Vita, memory card, and a game or two. 300 clams is a lot to ask for a portable device that isn't an Ipad. (Don't get me started on the whole Apple thing)

I didn't pay retail for my Vita, and I admit that is part of the reason why I love it so much. I was bumping around on Craigslist one day, and noticed a bunch of Vita systems for sale. I decided to shoot a lowball offer to one guy on Craigslist, and was shocked that the dude accepted my lowball offer. Thus, I'm now a Vita owner. The thing is, I paid less than $200 for the hardware, and I've only paid about $18 or so per game that I have (currently have 6 Vita games). I got an amazing travel case for only $10, and I've been able to get memory cards for about half their retail price.

I absolutely love the Vita, but a big part of it, is the fact that I've been able to get all my Vita stuff at a pretty hefty discount. It's hard for me to blame the general public for not supporting the Vita, when most of the general public is not going on craigslist lowballing people for deals, lol. Most of the general public just wants to go into Best Buy or GameStop, and just pick up a Vita, but they start looking at the wall of Vita games, and notice that 99 percent of the games have a $39.99 price tag on them. So, they walk out of the store without a Vita. Not surprising, because I would behave in the exact same manner. It's truly a shame though, because the Vita is really an absolutely amazing handheld. Every time I'm playing Fifa Soccer or MLB 12 The Show, I have to pinch myself to convince myself that I'm not playing some magically shrunken portable PS3 system. I mean, seriously, Fifa Soccer and MLB Baseball are so close to the PS3 versions in visual fidelity that it's a bit scary. Same thing with Uncharted and Wipeout and Hot Shots golf. All of these games have absolutely blown me away with their quality. That 5 inch OLED screen is truly breathtaking. The amount of detail that you're able to see in a game like Hot Shots Golf is truly extraordinary.


My only complaint with the Vita at this point, is the pricing of the PSP games for download on Vita. I guess I must have been out of my mind to think that I would find a plethora of PSP games for about 5 bucks that I could download to the Vita. To my amazment, I couldn't find a single PSP game for 5 bucks. I did find some TG-16 and Neo-Geo games for $5.99. Now, if those TG-16 and Neo-Geo games were $1.99 or maybe even $2.99, I might actually consider a few of them, but no way on God's green Earth am I paying 6 bucks for those games. I would have loved to buy Daxter for PSP for like 5 bucks, or maybe even 6 or 7 bucks, but for 15 bucks? Are you kidding me? That's my biggest beef with the Vita at the moment. Other than that, I'm in absolute 7th heaven with my Vita. I can't wait for May 29th and the release of Resistance on the Vita.

[Genjackson]

I have all three.

I had the Wii first which I got dirt cheap working at rent a center. I actually put some money into getting a backwards compatible PS3. I just had an xbox 360 given to me because it was collecting dust. I said it might as well collect dust at my house and he gave it to me. I don't know if i'll ever play it though. I actully enjoy the wii, but I need to do some remodding on it before I can play it again and have been too busy playing PS3 to fix it.

[Trebuken]

Yeah, have them all but the iPad. They all have top tier games that a gamer needs to play. The VITA has yet to get started, but Uncharted was a fantastic launch title. Not Super Mario 64, but great.

The Wii is obviously losing support. Developers are holding back releases for the Wii-U. We see this everytime a new console or handheld is announced. There might be a game or two left in the pipeline, but it's done, as is the DS and PSP.

Many of the PS3 and 360 games we see now are getting a PC release as well....so I wait for the PC release, even if it is delayed a few months after the console launch.

[Crystalian]

The PS3 does my Netflix duty, plays Blu-Rays, lets my son play Need for Speed: The Run, downloads demos for the whole family, plays my Child of Eden and Heavy Rain in beautiful high def, and most recently needed an upgrade because I had filled up 59 and 3/4 gigs out of the stock 60. So one 320gb hard drive and 9 hours later, i'm right back in business with the one console that dominates most of my gaming time.
That being said, the Wii is currently burning up some Mario Party 9 and Twilight Princess like it's going out of style. The 360 Elite is the upstairs console to play things I would rather not have my son exposed to just yet, like Catherine and Otomedius Excellent. Whenever a mature title needs to be bought, it's probably going to be a 360 game in my house, and the controller just feels so good anyway...
Wife has a 3ds and is loving it with the street pass feature causing her to keep that sucker on hibernate in her purse all the time. She likes the built in adventure game, earning coins and puzzle pieces, and throwing down on some Harvest Moon 3d. I got myself a copy of the Kid Icarus: Uprising for $30 at Target, and after waiting for 20 years I don't give a damn what score Game Informer feels like giving it ( a 7, by the way ), I'm going to enjoy the hell out of it.
Lastly, I've got a PSP. I don't need a Vita. That is all.

[Dangerboy]

Haters gonna hate.

Wii was the first next-generation console I bought, day 1. Excitetruck and Zelda almost made me fail college. I have 100% perfect saves on both. I was even on my way to collecting a complete Wii set.

At least, I *had* perfect saves until all three of my original consoles were stolen in a home burglary.

And then the shovelware started, and I watched the Wii go from being a great little party machine to a "dump and paste" machine. There's only so many Imagine games and mini-game compilations before you just want to blow something up in HD.

360 I bought an original Elite Model with Burnout Revenge, a week or two before Halo 3. Mass Effect (at the time, 1), Halo, Gears of War, and a whole lot of other Microsoft exclusive games kept me coming back for more. It also helped that it had the best online service brought over from Xbox 1. It was replaced with a Halo Reach deck after the burglary.

PS3 I bought a 60g when they were on the way out, and as hard as a I tried, very little ever went my way. Metal Geat Solid 4 (and I am a MGS *whore*) was an absolute snooze fest and ti this day I can not make it past the half-way point out of boredom. I tried to like Resistance - gave up half-through #2. Eye of Judgement was a complete waste of plastic and time (and I had a LOT of cards), while other exclusives like Heavy Rain were just not worth the time and frustration it restart after the burglary. If it weren't for Uncharted series, I'd have not even bothered buying another one. It also didn't help when early on a lot of exclusives all jumped ship to the 360.

It also didn't help that Sony kept removing features from it like all their other systems. Oh, and that PSN sucks, every game needs an update every other day, and other fun little 'aspects' of the system that have irked me over the years.

There's a difference between 'hate' and 'justifiable animosity towards poor decisions".

I can't be a Sony hater. Have you seen my PSOne collection?

[kedawa]

There are no modern consoles.

[heybtbm]

I have all three. All were bought within a month or two of their respective launches.

I enjoy each one for their exclusives, but 90% of my gaming time is spent on the 360. I hate motion control crap, so the Wii is the least played out of all of them. Oddly enough, I'm deep into Xenoblade Chronicles at the moment (and loving it), but I'm going the Classic Controller route...I don't have time for Wii-mote/nun-chuck nonsense.

My take on modern gaming? The 360 and PS3 are essentially the same thing. I give the advantage to the 360, but that's just for personal reasons (better controller, family/friends all on XBL). Can't go wrong with either one. The Wii? Fun at times, but mostly a disappointment for 5 1/2 years running.

[Tron 2.0]

Wii
PS3
DS:got from a friends years ago but i hardly use it.

For the current gen that's all i have and that's all i need.Sure i don't have a (360) but i don't see myself missing out by not having one.In a way though i wouldn't mind having a 360 mostly becuase it has shoot'em ups.Currently though my money is tied up on what i have and beside 'buying games retro as well for the older consoles.If i could sum up this current gen of consoles.It has it's share of good and crappy titles just like any other generation.

[JSoup]

Got a Wii not long after it's release at a convention price for a decent price. Didn't get much use out of the thing until I modded it. I use it mostly as an emulator for old stuff and Japanese Wii games.

Picked up a used PS3 a few years ago. It's currently my most used system.

My partner owns a 360, so I have access to it when I like. I haven't really attempted to use it until just recently. I have hang ups with this system, I've always found it a bear to use compared to the other two.

[kupomogli]

Console I own a PS3, used to own a 360, and no Wii. For portable, I own a PSP, Vita, DS, and 3DS.

The PS3 and 360 are, like heybtbm has already mentioned, pretty much the same, just a different controller and online service. Both consoles are great, with most of the best games being multiconsole, but PS3 more exclusive titles that I'm interested in as well as I dislike the 360 controller. I'm picking up a 360 slim when I can get it for cheap, along with the exclusive titles I'm interested in and games that may as well be exclusive(Skyrim.)

The Wii just sucks. I own a few games for it as not all the games are bad, but it's the reason why I still don't own the console. I've played it a decent amount, just haven't seen a reason to purchase it.

The PSP and DS are both amazing systems and my two favorite game systems this gen because of the amount of quality titles released for them. The Vita and 3DS are obviously shadows of their predecessors. Out of the Vita and the 3DS, I like the Vita much better, as with the year lead and the games I've purchased, I enjoy the Vita titles much more.

There is one problem with the Vita and it's from a business perspective that I think Sony screwed up on. Sure the Vita has one of the biggest launch line ups, but then after release there's a huge dry spell because there's no first party nor third party titles really coming out. I don't know whether Sony pulled a Sega Saturn and developers weren't given the development tools until the system was officially announced or what(in the Saturn's case, the developers weren't given the correct release date and Sega was like "surprise bitches!!!!,") but there's no software coming out after the original release other than a few. It also doesn't help the amount of first party titles that Sony released along with the console. I think Uncharted would have been enough. I think they should have held back games more games than they did and released them in the following months or every few weeks.

As for modern gaming? I like it. I think it's the worst gen when it comes to the amount of quality, but a lot of the best games have came out this gen.

[starchildskiss78]

I'm going to sound like a grumpy old man...I just know it....


I currently have the Wii and the PS3. I never jumped on the PS2 bandwagon, finding nothing that really caught my eye and forced me into buy territory (I did have an Xbox several years after it was dead, but even that didn't keep my interest....I donated it and my 8 games to Goodwill.) I haven't been into handheld gaming since the days of the Game Gear (I did have at one point a few game boy games to play on my girlfriend's Game Boy Advance just so it wasn't relegated to island duties for Animal Crossing for the GameCube, but even that didn't last.) I don't consider things like the iPad and mobile phones as game devices. I know they are popular ways to play games these days, but I just love the feel of a traditional controller in my hands. Most of the games I have seen so far are either puzzle games (a la Angry Birds) or (in my opinion) inferior installments of games made popular on the consoles (while Madden 12 looks nice on the iPad, I feel like I would be playing an oversized handheld console and I'm sorry...I love playing on the big screen with friends huddled around!)

A little side note on the WIi and the PS3...I'm practically a generation behind. I bought the Wii in mid 2008 in anticipation of the new Animal Crossing game in November and some Mario games that looked pretty awesome (like Mario Kart Wii, which had just been released) and I probably won't buy the Wii U until at least a year or two into its cycle, if at all. I just scaled back my collection by a large margin (you can just imagine how frustrated the guy at Game Stop was when I traded in a bunch of Wii and some PS3 games and could not convince me of a single game to preorder), not that I had a lot of games compared to some people! I just got the PS3 a little over a month ago. The only reason I got it was because a friend gave me a spare that needed a new hard drive to function. I have a measly total of 6 games for it and do not have many plans to buy more. Most of the popular games (sports, FPS, racing) do not catch my interest. The PS3 is mostly on PS1 duty, replacing the PSOne that occupied space under my television. I give SEGA some credit this generation, though. They actually released a compilation of Genesis games that seems to function like the originals should and in a much higher resolution. I usually prefer to play a game in its original media, but the HDTV makes some games look like ass! I just don't have the room for an "old school" tv either....so no Duck Hunt for me!

The Xbox 360 doesn't make me want to run out and buy one, either. The early problems spooked me quite a bit, and the realization that it would probably collect dust while I was going through Super Mario Bros. 2 for the umpteenth time convinced me to skip it. I do admit the R2-D2 edition with Kinect is pretty awesome looking, though. It just isn't worth my hard earned cash. I'm sure it has plenty to offer other gamers who do not have such a limited view on modern gaming. I couldn't get Marvel vs Capcom 3 or Super Street Fighter IV on PS3 to stir my excitement and they looked AWESOME! (I did opt to keep Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit and GTA IV, however.)

Anyway, that's my take on modern gaming. It may be scewed by nostalgia in which "everything was better when I was a kid" takes precedence, but we all have our preferences. Others may rather leave those old blocky games to history and pick up Super Ultra Tiger Madden '13 and be happy playing in on their wristwatch. Me? I'm off to play Mike Tyson's Punch Out!

[duffmanth]

The only modern consoles I have are the PS3 and PSP. Sony systems simply have the games I wanna play, nothing more, nothing less. I gave up on Nintendo in the mid 90's, but if they have the games you wanna play, more power to ya! The 360 has some great games, it just doesn't have enough that I wanna play to make me go out and spend a few hundred dollars on it. I've always been about buying the console(s) that has the games that I wanna play. I will get a Vita eventually when the price comes down.

As far as my opinion on modern gaming goes...I don't believe for one second that tablet/smartphone games will replace console games, there's simply no comparison. Touch controls are fine for simple games like Angry Birds, but I much prefer a controller for my gaming. The gaming market is big enough so that both can co-exist. I don't like the industry's attempts to destroy the used game market and retailers with these online passes and releasing games digitally. I don't buy many used games, but trying to kill off the used game market is going to hurt the industry as a whole. Digital downloading of cheap, retro games is fine by me, but downloading a full retail version of a game like Uncharted 3 is a joke. The files are too big, they take too long to download, they take up too much room on your disc drive, a lot of people like me prefer going to a retailer and picking up the physical copy of a game, and not everyone has high speed broadband access. Among the current consoles, like some people have already mentioned, the PS3 and 360 are almost the same, but I would give Sony the edge for better exclusives. The Wii isn't even worth talking about. I'm not huge into handheld gaming, but the PSP was an up and down thing for me. It has a great library of games, but they took too long to come out and the lack of dual thumb sticks made most games very awkward to play. The Vita looks promising, it just needs a good price drop and it'll start selling more.

[Nophix]

All but the Vita. PS3 is in the living room, mostly played by the kids and wife, and used for Netflix. When we can pry my son from Skylanders, that is. Wii is also there, wife's favorite system.

My 3ds gets regular play, I love it. The 360 is in the man cave, hooked to the big TV. Usually has Netflix on, buts sees plenty of game time from me. The 3ds and 360 are my current favorite systems.

I also have a PSP, modded for emulation. Sees some play, not much. That's part of the reason for not buying the Vital yet. Thar, and rediculously overpriced memory cards.

[Genjackson]

A little side note on the WIi and the PS3...I'm practically a generation behind. I bought the Wii in mid 2008 in anticipation of the new Animal Crossing game in November and some Mario games that looked pretty awesome (like Mario Kart Wii, which had just been released) and I probably won't buy the Wii U until at least a year or two into its cycle, if at all. I just scaled back my collection by a large margin (you can just imagine how frustrated the guy at Game Stop was when I traded in a bunch of Wii and some PS3 games and could not convince me of a single game to preorder), not that I had a lot of games compared to some people! I just got the PS3 a little over a month ago. The only reason I got it was because a friend gave me a spare that needed a new hard drive to function. I have a measly total of 6 games for it and do not have many plans to buy more. Most of the popular games (sports, FPS, racing) do not catch my interest. The PS3 is mostly on PS1 duty, replacing the PSOne that occupied space under my television. I give SEGA some credit this generation, though. They actually released a compilation of Genesis games that seems to function like the originals should and in a much higher resolution. I usually prefer to play a game in its original media, but the HDTV makes some games look like ass! I just don't have the room for an "old school" tv either....so no Duck Hunt for me!

Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection. . . My first Platinum trophy. As for Duck Hunt, there are ways to play it in High Def. There a gun now you can get from playasia.com I think that works on LCD tv's. The rest is up to emulation. It's worth the trouble though.

[Gamevet]

I picked up my 60 gig PS3 in August of 2007, right before the 80 gig models came out. It had its moments with Heavenly Sword, Resistance, Modern Warfare, Killzone 2 and All-Pro football, but the moment I'd heard about Bioshock and the upcoming Mass Effect for the 360, I picked up an Elite in November of that year.

When the Wii launched, I really didn't have any interest in the console. The game lineup wasn't meant for me, the enthusiast gamer, and the controller gimmick didn't interest me one bit. The Wii launch reminded me of the N64 launch, just that the Wii didn't have anything worth playing, while the N64 had a nice launch lineup, but not alot more for the first year. I still don't own a Wii, even though the software has become respectable, and I probably won't get one until it can be had for $50.

On the handheld side, I still had a lot of GBA games to play, but I usually don't play handhelds unless I'm on the road, so I didn't pick up a DS. I had an interest in the PSP though, since it was offering a significant graphics upgrade and it could play media files. I eventually picked up a PSP a couple of years ago, and it's been my go to handheld while out of town. I may eventually pick up a DSi XL, but I have no immediate plans to pick up the 3DS. I'm still on the fence about the Vita, but I do like the hardware alot.


My PS3 and 360 get equal playing time. I like the software selection for both systems, and often find that I don't have enough time to play everything that I'd want to for those systems. I also spend about 20% of my gaming time on my PC, so the likelyhood of finding time to play games on a Wii, 3DS, Vita and DS just isn't there, especially when I like to play a few classics from time to time.

[chilimac]

Interactive movies and war simulators, kid's games and exercise simulators. I own them all (except the Vita) and I regret buying them all. I will not be buying the next generation of "game" systems, because I prefer to play video games.