Sports Video Games

I think we all have our favorite types of video games and a lot of that depends on environment. I used to play a lot of arcade-style games when I was young but then didn't get back into games until I had kids of my own. One Christmas I got the family a Nintendo 64 and we spent all of our Christmas break playing Diddy Kong Racing. After that, my preference was racing games.

Eventually we all got tired of playing with the Nintendo 64 and it sat next to the TV for years. Then my brother sent me a PlayStation 2 for my birthday along with a copy of SOCOM II and I spent a year or so playing the online first person shooter with my extended family. We eventually got SOCOM III but didn't like it as much and our weekly night game eventually came to a stop. As you can imagine, my game genre of choice became first person shooters.

Last Christmas I borrowed a couple of Move controllers from work. The Move controller was created by Sony PlayStation and competes with both the Kinect from Microsoft and the motion controller for the Nintendo Wii. The kids had so much fun at Christmas that I went and bought a set so they could continue to play even after I had to return the borrowed equipment. I have never considered myself to be much of a sports game person but I can see myself getting into them now. My son challenged me to 9 holes of virtual golf. We were just playing the game that came with Sports Champions 2 and I have to say it was a lot of fun. My yard is covered in snow, yet I was able to play a quick round of golf. Even more amazing was the fact that the Move figured out I have a wicked hook in real life. I plan to play a lot more golf and see if it doesn't help me correct my bad habits. I'll try to remember to let you know this summer.

PS3 vs XBox 360

A couple of weeks before Christmas I found myself teaching the Snow Sports Merit Badge to a bunch of young scouts. These Scouts all know that I work for a video game company and so one of them asked which was better: PlayStation 3 or XBox 360. I am a PS3 fan simply because my brother used to work for Sony Computer Entertainment America (PlayStation) and got me hooked on their hardware. I have thought about picking up an XBox 360 but have a huge investment in PS3 games already. While I can get most video games at a significant discount, there is nothing available only on the XBox 360 that I want to play. Besides, I have enough toys and would rather spend money on other things.

My response to the scout was that I preferred the PlayStation 3. Naturally a lively argument ensued amongst the boys as there were one or two that were XBox fans. I did my best to stop the conversation and point out that the PlayStation 3 is technically more advanced than the XBox 360 and as an engineer, I prefer things that are technically superior. We then continued with the merit badge and tried to put the game console conversation to bed.

A couple of days later I was talking with the scout who started the PS3/XBox conversation. He said that he went to one of the video game stores and asked which was better. The store clerk claimed to have both machines and said that online play is better on the XBox than on the PS3. My first reaction was to defend the PS3 online game play but realized I was talking to a 12 year-old kid. It did get me thinking though. So I did a little research only to discover that the Internet is the worst possible medium for finding the truth. You have the XBox fans blasting the PS3 and PlayStation fans doing the same to the 360.

If you look at pure numbers, PS3 and XBox 360 are in a relative tie for 2nd place with regards to the Nintendo Wii. Furthermore, the best selling game this week is Just Dance 4 on the Wii. To an engineer, this doesn't make any sense. But then again, when is the real world rational.