There's a bitter war taking place right now as you read this nonsense. Out there in the homes of ordinary folk like me and maybe you. A long running battle that has seen many casualties, many names called and even a stick, a really big stick. For years now there has been absolutely no room to sit on the fence and if there was it would only result in a case of splintered arse.
Its either PS3 or Xbox 360. (and I bet even now there are readers who are saying Xbox should come first). The two gaming giants have been going head to head since the infant years of the original Xbox and Playstation. I started with the big old white Playstation (1) mainly on the back of the then amazing Destruction Derby. This was a huge step in home gaming, and the price showed it, but we bit the bullet and emptied our piggy banks to bask in the new gen' greatness. This was worlds apart from the likes of the SNES or Megadrive or even the amazing Atari 2600 (baby) which I still have minus the power and TV connection. From that point I set up tent in the Playstation camp.
In those early days a Playstation could be 'cracked' or 'chipped' very easy and most just involved the comical 'hot swap'. If you did this you could get games for about £5, but I never partook in this non-parrot boat-less piracy, and still managed to build a good library. For many years I went through the Playstation's. The 1st (big white), 2nd (little white), Playstation 2 (big black) and finally Playstation 2 (little black). I loved the Playstation 2 and had tons of games, some good, some bad, and some that carried the label 'what the hell was I thinking' and a few carrying the label 'what the hell was the game maker thinking.' (Backyard wrestling I'm looking at you).
Change was coming and time was not on the side of my old friend the Playstation 2. New Tech' was being built and suddenly on the horizon like the monolith in 2001 a space odyssey stood the mighty PS3 it sounded too good to be true. But the line in the sand had been drawn and Microsoft rushed out their next gen machine the Xbox 360 and boy did it make an impact. Wireless controllers, eye watering graphics and online play that had never been seen before.
After many years of Sony I gave in to the Xbox and brought a bog standard 360 telling the women in the shop, who I thought was a little bit pushy (I never did get on with the staff in Game) 'that I wouldn't go online'. Not a long time after I was talked into buying a used copy of Call of Duty: Modern warfare and 'jacking in' and from then on my Thursday day off from work became game day. Armed with my headset and a few friends on list, it was shouting, laughing and shooting fun and the DucK clan was born (worst game clan ever created and proud of it). But as with everything like that it was going to end ...and it did with the horrible red ring of death. A fault with over heating and some screw thing, I don’t know the technical side and don’t care, as far as I was concerned 'game box no play no more!' I sent my 360 off to get it fixed in Germany, but my eyes had strayed to the new 'slim' version PS3 which had just had a big price drop. So still 'burned' by my red ring encounter (that sounds so wrong) I packed up my 360 games and plastic bits and bobs and headed off to my local Gamestation.
£183 that's how much I got for the little stash, I was over the moon and out the door with my shiny new PS3 with a couple of games.
So what about the fixed 360, well I've still got it but its in the box it came back in. I haven't wanted to buy the new 'slim' 360, I'm happy with my PS3 and have already built a nice collection of games.
So where do I sit (apart from the sofa) well at the mo' PS3. So whine about all the plus points of your Xbox, or just shout 'Xbox rules' over and over again. All I will say is I have been there and done that.
