2006, what will it be rememberd as?Every year can be remembered for something, whether good or bad. For example, 2001 will always stay in peoples minds as the year of terrorism.
2002, for me was the year of the Bali Bombings, 2003, again for me, was being the leaders of the school, 2004, the year of the Tsunami attacks and the Olympics, and as for 2005, well who knows?
But what about 2006? Call me mad, but this, I believe, will be the year of the consoles!
Take a look, You have both XBOX 360, PS3, and most likely the Nintendo Revolution being released and all starting their climb to the top in 2006. Whilst 360 does come out in late 2005, we will get an indication of where it is going in early 2006.
Anyway, this time, it seems the consoles seem to all be going down their own paths. PS3 seems to be going for all our power, XBOX 360 for customization, and the Nintendo mainly focussing on backwards compatability which seems to appeal to many of the gamers who loved the old Nintendos.
Now to look into each console with more detail. Firstly the Nintendo Revolution, this console seems to have developed a sense of mystery, Nintendo have kept most if all of the details under wraps for a while and the unveiling at E3 was the first official news on this new piece of hardware. But still, they didn't let too much out. This generation of consoles all seem to be going for a certain distinguishable look, and the Nintendo is no exception, the sheer size of the console is one thing, but the thinness of it is another, in a way, they have stuck to what they did with the Gamecube, portability, it has a glossy look and it just has a certain awe of mystery about it, as for graphics this time around, who knows? What tricks do Nintendo have up their sleeves? The backwards compatability will hopefully work wonders if they make it easy to use and not complicated for the average gamer, and you must keep in mind, gamecube a lot of the time is a console you buy for the younger version of gamers. Will they be able to pull themselves out of the ditch that Gamecube dug them into? Time will tell.
Now to the PS3, upon first looking at the console all i thought was WOW! The guys at Sony have clearly given this console a lot of thought because quite frankly, it looks great, it has a great shiny finish and I think that the idea of different colours is a nice move. But I think they have let themselves down in one area, and I think most will agree with me. The controller. Who knows what they were thinking? Most people loved the original PS2 control and I think the only thing that would have made it better would be trigger buttons, but whilst these have been included I think Sony have really let themselves down in this aspect. But, who knows, the ocntrol may end up feeling great and may shock many people, or like with the XBOX 1 they may bring out another form of control, modified. WHilst the killzone trailer was declared "not in real time" it is still a view of what developers believe the PS2 can do, this, in itself just shows how much 5 years can make when comparing it with the PS2 version. BUt, for me, the main question for the PS3 is, what will it be able to do with it's online system this generation, whilst the PS2 did have online capabilities, not too many people used it and not too many games supported it. If Sony can nail a good online mode then the XBOX and revolution certainly have their work cut out for them.
And now to the XBOX 360, customization seems to be the 360's main feature, and Jay Allard says the aim is to "put the gamer in the centre of the experience." The idea of removable face plates and customizable dashboards (what you get when you turn on the XBOX without a disc in it) sounds very appealing. Probably the main feature of the XBOX 1 was the 8Gb hard drive, users sited this as the number one reason they love their XBOX because of the availability to make custom playlists, but it wasn't in every game, so MS have gone to developers and made sure that custom playlists are available in all games. The hard drive, this time however isn't a measly 8GB, it is a whopping 20 GB, it is removable, is will be included in the XBOX release package (what you get when you buty an XBOX) along with the conolse, a wireless controller with a USB plug and play cord and 2 AA non rechargable batteries and most likely a Launch title game.
The XBOX 360 webpage has been launched which allows people to trial customized face plates, to have a full view of the control and console and it also contains a few pictures that may lead to something later, a la ourcolony.net. Speaking of ourcolony.net, incase you haven't heard it was a site where people could either join a team or make their own, they would then have to solve puzzles and were rewarded with pictures etc. It has now ended and whilst it was a fantastic scheme, MS have struggled to back it up with any good public relations, for example at E3. ON a forum I frequently visit that is solely dedicated to XBOX there is an independent journalist for XBOX and he was saying that if MS actually wants to take Sony down a peg or two thent hey need to hire some good Pr people because quite frankly, these guys suck. XBOX Live has also been given a make over, with a free Silver service which lets you download content such as dashboards and to get your gamer ranking published and to be able to buy stuff for your characters on an online market place aswell as being able to chat with friends by talk, text and video. The specs of the 360 are less than of the PS3 and whilst the PS3 will be more powerful, experts say that you won't really be able to notice the difference graphics wise. But the best thing about the 360 would have to be the new UI (User Interface) all you do is press the sivler button in the middle of the controller and instantly you are whisked away to a new world, here you can customize playlists, see if you have invites to any online matches, if you have messages, go to the online marketplace, it is endless what you can do.
What do I think? Well personally I think we will see Sony win the race once aagin but I have a feeling that XBOX and Nintendo will be able to hack away at their lead int he market. Why? Because what most of us dedicated gamers don't realise is that the general public who can't interpret stats very well would most likely be willing to buy whichever console hits the market first, regardless of it's power, this is where XBOX may be able to make up some ground. The rest of us dedicated gamers will wait to stick by our respective consoles but the general public may be responsible for a heavy swing in the market.
In conclusion, the year 2006 will be one of the most amazing years ever in terms of technology, and personally it couldn't come sooner. Will the Revolution and 360 be able to hack away at Sony, or will they once again prevail as the kings of home entertainment? Only time will tell.
Please note, I only have more info on the 360 because that is what I have been following the most, and also because Sony haven't released as much information apart from their specs. 
