Console Wars: Reset Game

We are on the cusp of a new stage in the console wars. I don't think we've quite yet entered it, as Microsoft is working out its issues of getting units to gather at least a day or two's worth of dust in stores, and you can't really have a war until a second party joins in anyway.

Microsoft is certainly getting some kind of advantage by getting to the theater of battle first to position its troops and get a foothold, but it's unclear just how much that advantage will be worth, because Sony has been the Napoleon in all previous wars, building an empire that Gates & Co. have their hands full trying to overthrow. Sony's got a lot of leader tape on this one, but it's also looking like they are eating through quite a bit of it getting soldiers equipped, much less out of the tent. They aren't doing themselves any favors.

I happen to be a Sony fan. Some people will prefer to employ the derogatory term "fan-boy", but I refuse to accept that label because it intentionally implies a blindness and irrationality of loyalty, and I make my stand only after looking at a lot of evidence. I decide to be a Playstation fan.

And because my decision is based on earnestly considered evidence, every new generation of console is a new game, so to speak. I may be pulling for Sony, but like any self-respecting capitalist consumer, I'll change allegiance if the 360 can pull a 180 and perform a feat similar to that of WETA to ILM.

Before "Fellowship of the Ring" came out, ILM was really the biggest dog in town. There were other good effects houses, to be sure, but no one had really made a good challenge to claim ILM's crown. Then WETA came along. "Fellowship" was evidence that there were some five-star cooks Down Under.

Xbox hasn't done that yet. On the surface, it looked like they had with the first console, and far too many thought they did, but they didn't. It's impossible to deny that the hardware was there. The PS2 wasn't even really in the same league as far as what was under the hood. But it's just like putting me in an F1 McLaren and Rusty Wallace in a Ford Mustang. I've got the car, Rusty's got the drive. Guess who's gonna be bakin' smoky black donuts across the finish line.

The PS2 was the better system of the two (and the best console, period) for some key reasons which I'll get into later. But the reset button has been pressed, and so far, Sony's still hunting down a controller while Microsoft is tooling through the Options settings.

"To be continued." - John Travolta, Pulp Fiction.