I love retro video-games. This should come as no surprise to anyone - I have, afterall, written three articles focusing on my worryingly large collection of old consoles and cartridges, and I've even gone as far as purchasing and reviewing the steaming turd that is Dark Castle. There comes a time, however, when you have to realise your limits - there is afterall only so long I can keep talking about the 'good old days' of video-gaming given 16-bit gaming is dead, the Nintendo VS Sega battle is over (Sega now make games for Nintendo so guess who won that one) and controllers don't even need wires anymore. So where does this leave Questionable Films in terms of games-related articles? Well...

To properly compare these three mighty consoles it would only be fair if I'd played on all three for a suitably long time, and if I had a good setup to play them with. It's a good thing then that the lounge in my uni house is awesome, complete with Microsoft's 360, the Nintendo Wii, and Sony's PlayStation 3. What do we watch this all on? Why, a Sony Bravia HDTV of course!

In other words we have a great setup and I have open access to the three consoles. For those who like to know everything, my Wii was purchased on launch day in 2006, the 360 was purchased by my housemate Tom during our second semester last year, and the PS3 was introduced to the house at the start of this month (October).

Without much further ado, let's take a closer look at the consoles in turn. But wait a minute, what's this?...

"You can't start this article yet!", I hear you cry. "You're a massive Nintendo fanboy and you love the Wii, but you can't stand the PS3!".

Let's get this clear before I start - I don't hate the PS3, in fact I've been surprisingly entertained while playing games such as F.E.A.R and Resistance: Fall of Man. However, I do have some justified grievances with the system, so allow me to elaborate in a section I like to call:

Let's talk Consoles!

On paper, the PlayStation 3 is perhaps the best console ever made - it's ridiculously powerful (Sony keep going on about the Cell Processor), it has a massive hard-drive, and can do pretty much everything (play Blu-Ray disks, connect wirelessly to the internet, make you a sandwich etc). Now, you may have heard some arguments that claim the PS3 is stupid and unoriginal simply because Sony have just made it more powerful and all that means is better graphics. You'd probably expect me to agree with this, right? Wrong! More power means better artificial intelligence, longer games, more options, quicker loading times etc. So why is the console selling badly, and why don't I particularly like it?

The answer is simple - it doesn't live up to any of the 'power advantages' I've listed above. Thusfar we've seen a bunch of games that either don't utilise the power of the PS3, or which do but then have embarrassing problems such as laughable framerates or wonky controls (I'll talk about the controller later). Take F.E.A.R for example - it's still a fantastic game on the PS3 (it is in fact one of my favourite games ever, on the PC anyway) but the graphics are worse than on the 360, the framerate gets downright nasty at some points, and the load times are the worst load times I've ever seen. I am being dead serious here - some segments of the game take around two minutes to load, and on a console that is supposed to be faster and more powerful than any other console, this is just unacceptable. Furthermore, why does the same game run faster and look better on a console that is a year older and less-powerful than the PS3? Either the console isn't actually that powerful (this is doubtful), or the developers simply don't know how to utilise the PS3 properly yet. As it's most likely the latter, Sony have big problems - nearly all of their big-name exclusives are now coming out on the 360 (Assassin's Creed, GTA 4 etc.) as it's easier and cheaper to develop for Microsoft. Afterall, what's the point in spending more money producing a game for the PS3 when it most likely won't sell as many copies as on the 360?

I could talk about the PS3 failing to even be a games console (its massive price-tag, questionable use of Blu-Ray and all sorts of unwanted media abilities spring to mind) but I don't totally want to dump all over Sony's entry in the next-gen console war. I guess my problem with the PS3 is that of potential, as in it could be so much more but it's just currently too expensive, too clunky and failing to live up to what was promised by Sony. Afterall, why would you buy a PS3 when you can get a 360 (with its huge library of awesome games) for nearly half the price? Sony fanboys can rant and whine all they want about the PS3 getting some good games 'in the future' and having a sales spurt 'some time next year', but the fact is people buy stuff because they want it to be fun right now. This leads me nicely on to the...

I'll be honest here - I never really got into the original XBOX (I think the fact it looked like a suitcase and had controllers that resembled bricks kinda put me off) and so when the 360 came out I really wasn't bothered. Skip forward nearly two years, however, and I now love this thing. Sure, it weighs as much as your house and whenever it's turned on it sounds like someone is using a vacuum cleaner, but the 360 gets so many things right it's hard not to love it - the games are awesome (and there are a lot of them), it's affordable, and it's powerful. In regard to the latter, I know the PS3 is technically a more powerful system, but have you seen Gears of War? It looks astounding and is easily a better technical showcase for the system than any game on the PS3. There are also some great features on the 360 that benefit gamers, the most obvious being the excellent online features and the ability to download game content. I know the PS3 can also download things like game demos and and trailers, but the 360 also has Live Arcade, where you can download awesome games such as Street Fighter 2 and Bomberman and then play them online - badass!

There are some minor problems with the 360 however, and while they're not particularly important I guess I should mention them here. First, the 360 is the only next-gen console that doesn't have wireless straight out of the box, and this has proved particularly problematic when trying to get it online in our new house (the router is upstairs and we have wooden floors, so good luck trying to run a cable downstairs into the lounge without someone tripping over it). With this said, you can buy a wireless adaptor for the 360 so it's not really a problem. Second, while I mentioned it earlier as a joke, the 360 does make a hell of a lot of noise and uses a ridiculous amount of power. I doubt this'll be a much of problem for most people, but it's still something to be aware of. Finally and perhaps most significantly, there have been frequent reports of the 360 simply breaking for no reason and refusing to work. In the 360's defence, my mate Tom has had his console for a year and had absolutely no problems with it, but it's still a worrying problem.

I don't really have much else to say about the 360, because apart from the minor issues above it is pure awesome. It already has a plethora of great games - Gears, Halo 3, Dead Rising, The Orange Box, BioShock etc. - and with some great new games coming out for it during both the remainder of 2007 and well into next year, the 360's future looks pretty solid.

But look out Microsoft - HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER!

The Wii is great, simple as that - there are some fantastic games you can get for it right now, and there are some fantastic ones coming out during next year. The control scheme is one of the most original ideas in the video-game industry in the last ten years, and the whole system - with its sleek design, intuitive menu system, and astoundingly low price - is sheer genius. While there have been some games that completely fail to utilise the power of the Wii's controller (think Red Steel) there have been plenty that nail it perfectly (think Metroid Prime 3, Wii Sports and the new Wario Ware title), and this is what the system should be about - games that work well with this revolutionary control system.

However, there's a big reason I've put 'should' in the last sentence, and herein lies the Wii's biggest problem - it's not being used right. Unlike the PS3 which has developers attempting but failing to utilise the PS3's abilities, developers are fully aware of what the Wii can do but they simply don't care. Indeed, in the first 6 months of the Wii's lifetime it has had more terrible PlayStation 2 and PSP ports than you can shake a stick at, and while some of these games have been done fairly acceptably (Heatseeker was pretty ok) the vast majority of them have been cheap, nasty, and an obvious ploy to make money from old or unacceptable games. There is some hope, largely in the form of games such as Metroid Prime 3, Smash Bros Brawl, Wii Fit and Mario Galaxy, but what ties these games together? That's right, they're mainly Nintendo games, and until other developers start making games that aren't either a) ports or b) rubbish party games, the Wii has some serious issues.

With this said, the Wii is in an exceptionally strong position - it has smashed all expectations by outselling absolutely everything (a few months ago the Wii actually managed to outsell the 360 in world-wide sales, despite coming out 12 months later) and more and more decent developers are jumping on the Wii bandwagon by the day. Furthermore, the system has some brilliant features, such as an extremely good web-browser, the ability to e-mail other Wii owners, and the hilarious Mii feature. For those who don't know, Miis are basically cartoon representations of real people, which you can customise and create on the Wii and then play as in certain games (such as Wii Sports and Wii Play). While at first I saw the Mii system as being rather basic, it's actually the simplicity of it that makes it so good - it's always awesome when you manage to create an accurate Mii with relatively simple alterations, as opposed to having the ability to make photo-realistic characters.

One other very significant feature of the Wii is backwards-compatibility. While most consoles simply let you play games from the previous generation, the Wii allows you not only to play all your GameCube games but also to purchase and download games from the NES, SNES, N64, MegaDrive and Neo-Geo, and even the TurboGrafx-16 which never actually came out in Britain. To have a single console that can play games such as Ocarina of Time, Super Metroid, Sonic the Hedgehog, Bomberman '93, Resident Evil 4, Super Street Fighter II Turbo, the Metroid Prime series and Twilight Princess is frankly phenomenal. Furthermore, for that added bit of authenticity you can play GameCube games with the original GameCube controller - that's right, the Wii actually has hidden ports for both GC controllers and GC memory cards, and you can even use GC controllers in conjunction with Wii controllers if you're playing 5-player games such as Bomberman '93. Eight-player compatibility and the chance to play nearly every single Nintendo games since the 80s, right out of the box? Hot dog, I think we have a wiener!

So there you go, that's the three consoles for you. Let's briefly move on to another section, one I like to call:

Let's talk Controllers!

Every good console comes with a good controller, and for the most part the PS3, Wii and 360 all have decent ways of controlling your games. Let's take a closer look at the good and bad points for each system's controller:

The good: Not only does the controller weigh next to nothing, but it also maintains the classic design we all know (and some of us love) from the PS1 and 2. The d-pad is pretty nice, L2 and R2 now have this trigger design that is pretty sweet, and the controller is wireless (which is always good). You can also charge the controllers by plugging them into the PS3, so that's good.

The bad: If I were a man of few words, I'd simply write 'six-axis' and wait for a horde of Sony fanboys to break into my house and kill me. However, I like to elaborate, so here goes: for those who don't know, Sony basically saw the Wii's motion-sensing abilities at a press conference in 2005, thought 'that looks awesome, let's steal it', and by next year they had designed a new controller with - amazingly! - some motion-sensing abilities. The problem? It simply doesn't work and never amounts to more than 'tilt the controller to steer'. I've only actually heard of one game (Lair) that makes you use the six-axis controls over the regular controls and apparently it's a complete load of balls. Furthermore (and this is somewhat amusing) when Sony made the new controller they said they simply had to remove the rumble feature to make way for the six-axis. However, last month Sony actually announced they're making a new controller that has both six-axis and rumble, but they won't be bundling it with the console. That's right, not only is it now obvious that Sony rushed the controller in an attempt to copy Nintendo, but now that they've actually fixed it they're forcing new customers to go out and buy it separately from the system. There's a word for this, and that word is extortion.

The good: It fits in your hands well, the weight is perfect, the analog sticks are excellent, and its wireless. Overall, it's a pretty awesome controller.

The bad: The d-pad could be a little better, plus the controller uses AA batteries which run out pretty quickly. You can however buy a charger for the pad, but this should really come as standard.

The good: The design is superb and it's extremely original, and fortunately it's also highly responsive so you never feel like it's the controller's fault if you're not aiming right or whatever. The controller also feels very good in your hand (it is, afterall, designed like a remote control) and it has a billion features, including rumble, motion sensing, an accelerometer (it can sense acceleration), memory, a port at the bottom for extra attachments (at the moment this is just used for the nunchuck attachment you see above) and a speaker.

The bad: Three big problems - first, the controller requires normal AA batteries and they run out pretty quickly. Second, the controller requires the sensor bar to work properly and I've heard people say that the cable that connects the bar to the Wii is too short for their TV setup. Finally, the controller is obviously not everyone's cup of tea. While the first two problems can be remedied quite easily by third-party equipment such as charging stations for the controllers, and wireless sensor bars, the last problem is simply one of those 'love it or hate it' things. I'm very pleased to report that everyone who has had a go with the wiimote on my Wii has loved it (even my dad) but this obviously isn't an accurate representation of the general public, so who knows. Basically I'd give it a try first before you go out and get a Wii, although I personally love the control system and think it's genuinely an innovative and original way to play games.

Finally, let's take a look at a few games.

Buying a new computer game is often a scary prospect - should I buy it now for £40 or wait a few months for the price to drop? The reviews are good, but will I personally enjoy the game? If I buy Barbie's Adventures in Pony Land, how will I manage to play it without my friends finding out? These are all big questions and so to help you, I've decided to end the article with something nice - looking at one great game from each system and telling you why it's so good.

Get these games!

No matter what system it's on, F.E.A.R is an amazing game. For those who don't know, the game is basically a first-person shooter with some scary elements in it, but what makes it so good is that shooting parts are insanely intense and the scary bits are terrifying. I am not joking here - I've seen a plethora of scary movies before, but nothing has made me jump as much as F.E.A.R. Whether it's things suddenly jumping into your face or much more subtle horrors like seeing something in the corner of your eye or just catching a flicker of something unpleasant in the background, F.E.A.R ramps up the scare-factor considerably as the game goes on. Inbetween making you poo in your pants, the game also delivers some brilliant AI, an engrossing story and all the slow-motion, hardcore gun fights you could ever want. It may run slowly in some areas and the load times are ridiculous, but it's still F.E.A.R, and it's still awesome.

This is currently one of my absolute favourite next-gen games. Not only does it look spectacular (it's easily the best-looking game on any console right now) but the game is just so polished, so well-constructed and just so much fun that if you own a 360 but don't have Gears of War you really need to go to the shops and pick it up right now. While the game is effectively another 'run and gun' third-person shooter, the execution is anything but ordinary, featuring an amazing cover system, excellent AI, and some great voice-acting from the hilariously macho Alpha Team. It also features one of the best weapons in video-game history, which is your basic assault rifle - sure, it's not hugely powerful and on the surface it seems pretty ordinary, but what puts it in a class of its own is the chainsaw bayonet attachment. Let's not beat about the bush with this one - if you get close enough to an enemy you can rev up the chainsaw and cut them in half. The game doesn't have a big 18-rating plastered over the front-cover for no reason - there's all sorts of hilariously violent sequences (when you chainsaw someone bits of blood and flesh actually spray across the screen) and all the main characters swear profusely. You need to get this game.

Twilight Princess may seem like an obvious choice but this needs to be emphasised - this game is brilliant. It is just classic Zelda through and through, with all the dungeons, sword-fighting and ridiculously complex side-quests you could ever want. There are some awesome new weapons, a massive game world (Hyrule Field alone is about 6 times the size of the one in Ocarina of Time) and not only is the story engrossing, but the dialogue is often witty, thought-provoking and sometimes surprisingly emotional - but then again, what else would you expect from the best developer in the world? If you're a long-time fan of the Zelda series but for whatever reason haven't really connected with the series since the N64 games, this feels like a proper sequel to Ocarine of Time. There's isn't really much else I can say about Twilight Princess - if you want a game that seems to incorporate nearly every genre, including RPG, action and adventure elements, FPS-like sequences, racing bits and even snowboarding (I'm being serious!) then this is the one for you.

The Bottom Line:

The Playstation 3 is a potentially brilliant system but the games aren't utilising its abilities properly and right now it's just too damn expensive. Ultimately if you're looking for an affordable system with loads of great games you can buy right now then this isn't what you're looking for. However, if you can wait for about 6 months I am almost certain the PS3 will be cheaper and have a far more impressive library of A-list titles, including the next installments in the Metal Gear Solid and Grand Theft Auto series.

The XBOX360 is fantastic - it's affordable, has some great features (such as Live Arcade) and has a massive library of great games. Not only that, but there are some great games coming out in 2008 - if you're a hardcore gamer and aren't interested with the Wii's motion-sensing charms, this is the one for you.

The Wii is a very unique and highly original system, with some really fun games and some excellent features (web browser, Miis, the Virtual Console). However, some developers simply refuse to release anything other than ports on the system and this is obviously dragging down the overall quality of games. Still, with loads of decent developers onboard and some great games coming out soon, things are looking up for the Wii being more than just a party system.

So there you go!