Wii vs Kinect

Juniper wrote:

This thread is slowing down, so hopefully nobody will mind if I hijack it:

I've got a Wii in my home, and it's rarely used. My big dilemma is that Batman: Arkham City is set for release in mid-October, and it won't run on a Wii. How insane would I be to buy a PS3 specifically so that I can play Arkham City? Does anybody else buy a console just to play one game?

My home computer is a Mac, so the PC version of Arkham City will be useless to me unless I Bootcamp it and install Windows. I don't really want to do that, though. At $300, a PS3 seems like a better value to me than the $130 I'd pay for a Windows license.

My choices seem to be: skip Arkham City entirely or buy a PS3 for the flimsy reason of playing exactly one game.

If your only playing Arkham City and that's it then it would make more sense to buy an Xbox arcade for 150$, especially since you won't need any on-line stuff as it's a solo game anyway.

But still I bet you'd find more games to play once you had it so I suspect that it would lead you down a dangerous path.

Juniper wrote:

This thread is slowing down, so hopefully nobody will mind if I hijack it:

I've got a Wii in my home, and it's rarely used. My big dilemma is that Batman: Arkham City is set for release in mid-October, and it won't run on a Wii. How insane would I be to buy a PS3 specifically so that I can play Arkham City? Does anybody else buy a console just to play one game?

My home computer is a Mac, so the PC version of Arkham City will be useless to me unless I Bootcamp it and install Windows. I don't really want to do that, though. At $300, a PS3 seems like a better value to me than the $130 I'd pay for a Windows license.

My choices seem to be: skip Arkham City entirely or buy a PS3 for the flimsy reason of playing exactly one game.

Should you do it for one game? No. Should you lay out what you're after with a console purchase and decide if it's worth it? I would argue, Yes, as ARKHAM CITY is a game changer for you.

Think about what you're after. Do you want a Blu-Ray player? Interested in online console gaming? Do you have a media center on the TV? What platform-exclusives interest you? What's the annual TCO? Bust out a spreadsheet. Think about it.

Juniper wrote:

This thread is slowing down, so hopefully nobody will mind if I hijack it:

I've got a Wii in my home, and it's rarely used. My big dilemma is that Batman: Arkham City is set for release in mid-October, and it won't run on a Wii. How insane would I be to buy a PS3 specifically so that I can play Arkham City? Does anybody else buy a console just to play one game?

My home computer is a Mac, so the PC version of Arkham City will be useless to me unless I Bootcamp it and install Windows. I don't really want to do that, though. At $300, a PS3 seems like a better value to me than the $130 I'd pay for a Windows license.

My choices seem to be: skip Arkham City entirely or buy a PS3 for the flimsy reason of playing exactly one game.

I'm assuming you can afford the purchase.

Add the price of the game to the console. You will get $X.
Work out how many hours you need to earn after tax to earn $X. This is hours Y.

Do you want to play Arkham City enough to put in Y hours at work?

If the answer is yes, then I say go for it. Even if you never use the PS3 again you will have gotten your personal $ value out of it.

BTW what ever happened to the Wii.
I haven't touched mine in years and it seems like I haven't missed out on anything.

Kinectimals killed the Wii.

Mr Skeletor wrote:

Juniper wrote:

This thread is slowing down, so hopefully nobody will mind if I hijack it:

I've got a Wii in my home, and it's rarely used. My big dilemma is that Batman: Arkham City is set for release in mid-October, and it won't run on a Wii. How insane would I be to buy a PS3 specifically so that I can play Arkham City? Does anybody else buy a console just to play one game?

My home computer is a Mac, so the PC version of Arkham City will be useless to me unless I Bootcamp it and install Windows. I don't really want to do that, though. At $300, a PS3 seems like a better value to me than the $130 I'd pay for a Windows license.

My choices seem to be: skip Arkham City entirely or buy a PS3 for the flimsy reason of playing exactly one game.

I'm assuming you can afford the purchase.

Add the price of the game to the console. You will get $X.
Work out how many hours you need to earn after tax to earn $X. This is hours Y.

Do you want to play Arkham City enough to put in Y hours at work?

If the answer is yes, then I say go for it. Even if you never use the PS3 again you will have gotten your personal $ value out of it.

Don't forget to include the expected resale value of your console and game. Once you are done with Arkham City, if you truly have no desire to continue owning a PS3, you can sell it and get some of your money back.

OK, so on the original topic:

I have two girls (11, 9), plus my girlfriend has a 10-year-old son. Between us we have a Wii and an Xbox 360+Kinect. My kids also have a Wii at their mom's house. There's no question that for my girlfriend's son, the Xbox 360 has completely obliterated desire to play the Wii. We got him Goldeneye for Wii last Christmas, and that was fairly hot till I got the 360. (Of course, he plays and wants to play games I personally wouldn't let him, but that's another story.)

My girls liked their DSs a lot more than the Wii. My younger daughter likes to play Kinect Sports and Kinect Adventures quite a bit. We adults like hauling out Sports particularly when company's around. I also have Dance Central, which is really quite cool and works well with the Kinect sensor, but for whatever reason the girls ended up being not that interested in it. Maybe it was seeing Dad dance to Lady Gaga? I won't discount the possibility of permanent eye and brain damage from that.

I also have gotten maybe the most use from Your Shape: Fitness Evolved for Kinect. The sensor lags a little and sometimes misses a correct move but seems far more often right than wrong, and its corrections seem pretty spot-on. I partly justified the expense--and it was one--to myself as "exercise equipment." So there. YS: FE has gym games that my kids kind of like, too.

You do need quite a bit of room. YS: FE probably itself requires 6' or 8' from the TV. Luckily, I have that, as well as good lighting, but I realize not everyone does.

I've always liked a lot of the Nintendo exclusives, but I much prefer the 360 because the Kinect is a secondary, not the primary, controller. I'm legally blind, so trying to sit far enough back with the Wiimote can be a hassle, sometimes an impossibility. It's true that I have some problems with Kinect in this vein (particularly the menus on Your Shape and following the icons that show the upcoming moves in Dance Central), but there's always the fact that I can use the standard controller for Mass Effect or Left 4 Dead or whatnot.

jpat wrote:

but for whatever reason the girls ended up being not that interested in it. Maybe it was seeing Dad dance to Lady Gaga? I won't discount the possibility of permanent eye and brain damage from that.

.

lol, this wins the thread

jpat wrote:

My girls liked their DSs a lot more than the Wii.

Indeed. This occurred to me when thinking about "who is this really for" .. I did wonder whether she'd actually prefer a DS herself to any kind of TV console, and it'd have the advantage of keeping her entertained in the car She hasn't asked about video games particularly, so I'm wondering if I might be best off satisfying my own wants with an Xbox/Kinect and if she gets some enjoyment out of that then we can think about a handheld of some sort when she's a bit older.

jpat wrote:

You do need quite a bit of room. YS: FE probably itself requires 6' or 8' from the TV. Luckily, I have that, as well as good lighting, but I realize not everyone does.

I've got about 7' space from the TV. Is that likely to be sufficient?

Don't ask us about the 7", check with the Kinect specs and ask the guys in the store.