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Xbox 360 or Wii?

theloveyturtle:

I’m getting my brother one or the other for Christmas and I have  no idea which one to buy him. The last thing I played was Super Nintendo. So yeah, if you have any suggestions…leave a comment, email, anything. Please.

(via Peter W. Knox)

I have both. I’ve had the Wii since its release (Nov. 2006) and the Xbox 360 since April. I have many games and controllers for both. I mostly play alone, but occasionally with friends.

The Wii is more popular with friends who have never seen it before. It’s good for a few days of enjoyment. But its games are mostly shallow, quick novelties — like trade-show tech demos. After a few weeks, the novelty wears off. The game library is very weak, and the number of good games is very small.

The Wii has almost no online play, and the vast majority of its games have terrible single-player value, so it’s really only useful when friends are over. The 360 has excellent online play, yet most games also have great single-player modes.

The Wii’s graphics look awful on my 42” HDTV. The 360’s look excellent.

The 360 can play DVDs, so that’s one less thing you need plugged into your TV. The Wii can’t. The 360 can also stream video files over the network from your computer and play them on your TV. The Wii can’t.

Games that come out for multiple systems, such as Rock Band or the annual sports franchises, usually have very bad Wii versions. The 360 versions are usually the best, and usually come out first.

The roadmap for high-profile, likely-to-be-good Wii games coming out in the near future is pretty weak. The 360, while it’s often dominated by sequels, always has a great roadmap of promising upcoming releases.

I haven’t turned on the Wii in months. I use the 360 almost every day, at least for the video playback, and often for games.

To me, the choice is obvious.