The Evolution of Video Game Consoles #8 The Continuation, and hardware malfunctions

Today's episode is basically a continuation of the three consoles from before, but of course one company called it quits from the marketing consoles. Now we see how things shaped up from this long defining gen that doesn't feel that old yet well to me.

Xbox 360
Released: 2005
Discontinued: 2016
Generation: 7th
Units Sold: 84 Million (6th)
Initial Price: $300
IGN Rank: 6th

Our first of the three will be from Microsoft, and seeing their success of the Original Xbox they went in a different direction with a design of 360 with a white scheme color everything looked intriguing, but like before what flaws can we find with 360 looking back? Well at the time you needed to purchase batteries in order to play any game which i'll admit got annoying. Than there's the red ring of death which yeah that went crazy outrage at the time broke from outta nowhere that was a disaster. Luckily the black elite look had much better life source than the original model. It was the first Microsoft console to introduce new, and innovative indie games, and or entertainment value on Xbox Live one example of that was 1 Vs 100 online is one of the biggest downloaded free games next to of Course Fortnite which out beat that beyond millions downloaded. Eventually the exclusive gameshow ran its course, but those who experience the game know how awesome it was.

Move aside from exclusive indie titles which I can go on and on in Hidden gems however let's go back from the beginning where it really began with new innovative franchise titles like Gears of War. The one probably real true new franchise that is one of the main reasons to have any hope in its successor which will get to. I mean the whole idea, and plot is incredible definitely a solid series that hasn't gone down south Like Halo and Fable would go down towards the end of that span the console would run. Don't get wrong Halo 3 is amazing, and probably should of ended there, but nope we get Halo 4 which was a massive disappointment looking back. Fable 3 is not nearly as good as the second game there was a changing of the tide for the worst that backtrack to 2010 since the addition of the Kinect which is to Rival's Nintendo's console that same period was decent, but not great however it would be the ultimate decline of the system as time indicates. I still like the 360, but there are flaws with the system, like limited backwards compatibility some games worked, and the ones that didn't you had to play it on the original system to revisit. and how people can love, or hate it fine, but for me it's the best of the Microsoft systems 8.75/10

Nintendo Wii
Released: 2006
Discontinued: 2013
Generation: 7th
Units Sold: 101.63 Million (5th)
Initial Price: $250
IGN Rank: 10th

After the not very satisfying sales of the Gamecube, Nintendo goes on with a system that would become the best selling Nintendo console to this day. The Wii (codenamed Revolution) managed to market their system in the way families would all come together like everybody can play it, and it worked to perfection. It is the first to ever feature motion controls. While there not entirely accurate for its time it was fun, but gets old real fast with the gimmick being very un-Nintendo like. There are a mix of good and bad games that do show the innovation of not only the compatible good controls, but also those franchises can still be solid aside from a flaw not everybody is a fan of. Sure i'm not very high on Mario Kart Wii which is always considered a favorite, but personally I fought the steering wheel was a pain to use.

It is also the small, and lightest console in history yeah a skinny white stand that I did have some problems with playing when I was younger was so well received that it easily toppled the two other brand that gen after taking a step back the previous gen. The online was okay at best nothing really there, but you can try to get old classic, but what cost is your controller good enough to play some of those? Some say the hacked version is pretty cool looking, but I don't know again I like its historical presence I can respect, but just seeing, and demonstrating it now is kinda okay, at first it was confusing when the backwards compatibility did work on this system, but I never realized there were secret plugs on the top of the system than i'm like okay that's a pro. I mean i'm not denying it deserves its fame, but I think it is overrated to a certain extant looking back at it. 7.5/10

PlayStation 3
Released: 2007
Discontinued: 2016
Generation: 7th
Units Sold: 83.8 Million (7th)
Initial Price: $500
IGN Rank: 15th

The last of these here three is the Sony's PlayStation 3 which at the time was very expansive to afford. The lineup was okay not super great for starters Resistance was one of the first games I played on this system that was very good, and from there on the first 2-3 years I played it I enjoyed it for a bit, but I was very unimpressed with its online adaption even though it was free I never really liked the Bluetooth concept that it had to speak I fought that sucked. What doesn't suck the original model which I still had to this day would play every single game I had onto the PS3 which was great seeing the other two had some sort of strange problem with that area, but Sony did it to perfection like the last console which revolutionized the world with its backwards compatibility.

Again the PlayStation Network was free I can't totally knock them for doing this, but the online service in my view was lifeless it seemed like. The two most memorable cons though is that this system had an online hacking issue that's still exposed today, and the yellow ring of death the counteractive to what the 360 had with its launch lineup. Is it possible these had similar hardware, and basically did the same type of setup only different looks? Sadly just this year I have experienced the Yellow ring of death this year R.I.P PS3. Unlike the 360 where there' no fixing the bugs the PS3 you can blow dry the console in a way where it can work, but I lost the motivation to do that honestly. Seeing that its my least favorite of the Sony console proves to be the case, but the original PlayStation also has this type of problem after playing it excessive it would crap out overtime. The PS2 never had that issue, and I have yet to see it on the latest Sony console. Was it worth the $500 dollars? It is, but than again its pretty much an upgraded PS2, but with exclusives that didn't come though big until the end of its run. All of these include The Last of Us, Journey, & Heavy Rain among others. Not to say it is the best its a solid console sure, but compared to its predecessor massive disappointment for me. 7/10

So there we are while the Wii outsold both PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, its not necessarily a favorite of mine. each system has an easy flaw it comes down to personal preference. Next time we will look at the latest consoles gen, and seeing if we are at the tail end of it, or are we still advanced enough to realize the fat lady hasn't stopped singing yet next time on the history of video game consoles.

Comments

Thumbs up - Skullkid755 (7/9/2018)

Two big thumbs up - TwilightKitsune (7/9/2018)

What a waste of potential the 360 was. I gave up on that thing after a couple weeks due to getting 3 red ringed ones during that time. Only had 2 games for the thing anyways (Halo 3 and Sonic), neither of which I managed to beat (not that Sonic was all that great anyways, but still.

And since the PS3 was way too expensive for a poor sap like me, you can probably guess which console I went with. - visitor (7/10/2018)

This was the golden age of video games. It is also the generation I got into video games with my trusty wii - TealBoyxx (7/19/2018)

I agree 100% - Frodomar49 (12/25/2018)

Leave tyLer - visitor (2/27/2019)