Today, Gears of War for PC comes/came out. It’s no small secret that I have been thoroughly convinced of this game’s stellar design and playability (since I’ve been caught ranting on about “curbstomping” and “chainsawing” something or other ever since I played Gears for myself at a gettogether with “the Guys” a few months back). No, I am not downloading GoW (not to be confused with God of War for PS2/PSP) illegally, nor am I going to go out and buy a legal copy soon. Simply put, I don’t have the hardware necessary to play the damned thing.
You see, Bioshock, Gears, and Unreal III all run off the UT3 engin, which is unfortunate because that engine demands a pretty serious upgrade in terms of video card performance. Now, I’m not particularly affluent at the moment and don’t really have a spare $200 to toss out for a compatible upgrade (i.e. > nVidia 6600) to a new card; even if I did, I don’t have the extra $200 for a new motherboard with an Express PCI slot to house the thing, so I really don’t see how I’ll be getting my GoW on anytime soon. For that amount of money, I might as well sell my soul and just buy a haXbox 360.
As much as I hate to admit it, the 360 is the only console within my current range of possibilities. Given that I don’t have any HDMI-ready television sets just lying around waiting for a black shiny playmate, and that I, like few others before me, simply snore at the thought of waving around a remote to “play” games, the haXbox isn’t really such a bad choice. It’s compatible with RCA input (which is great for my RCA tubes) and could come with HD support (if we’re talking about the non-handicap models) so that could be good if my parents decide to buy a new set sometime later on.
Related hardware aside, the haXbox, well, it doesn’t have a great library of games, but it does have a great selection of gems out of the library of crap. Bioshock, Team Fortress 2 (fresh!), Gears of War, and, from what I’ve heard from Raf, Halo 3. I’ve never played and incarnation of the Halo series, but Raf knows his games, so I would venture to say that H3 might just be decent. Bioshock and GoW you’ve all already heard about (how much I like them, that is) and Team Fortress I’ve played as a kid and now wouldn’t mind to try out the cell shaded goodness of the second. Of course, I doubt I’d actually fork over good money for a haXbox, but if I had to pick one not based on fanboyism, it’d probably be the box.
360 aside, I am actually most excited for the 40 GB PS3. It’s been a year since it came out and I think I’ve waited long enough to get in on the goods. I would never use the PS3 as a media center for my place, so I don’t really need the extra HDD space. I also don’t need the space for downloaded/illegal games since I actually pay for my PS games (ever since I got the PS2). If the price of the PS3 continues to slowly go down (it’s now cheaper to get a 40 GB PS3 than a PS2 when it first came out, which is when I got it, and that’s not even factoring inflation) then I don’t see why I might not end up getting one (with accompanying BFTV) sooner or later. I know my dad probably wants one but hasn’t been able to convince my nervous mother… the Final Boss!