My Lesson in Buying a Console System

[scrapser]

A couple weeks ago I bought the new Xbox 360. I have been keeping an eye on the console industry over the years but not really paying attention at a level one would if they owned a system. I wish I had.

Consoles (any console system) are years behind PC hardware and High Definition television in terms of graphics. This was my biggest shock.

You see lots of ads on TV for FPS games on consoles and yet the controllers they use suck for FPS compared to keyboard and mouse control. You would think they'd at least offer an optional controller tailored for FPS games using a thumb trackball. This was my second biggest shock.

Ninety-nine percent of all console games can only manage 720P screen resolution which makes them look like cartoons compared to widescreen monitors using 1920x1200. The new Xbox upconverts to 1080P but it still looks like crap.

And yet with all this, the market for console systems and games is huge. Retail stores barely support PC games.

The world is truly a strange place.