PS3:

Resistance: It's an okay shooter, but Gears of War makes this game look like Pong. That's not entirely fair to the developers of Resistance, since the developers at Epic have had a year head start. But if Sony didn't want these comparisons, it should have made its initial Spring 2006 launch.

Genji: Maybe this generic button-masher is the reason my SIXAXIS controller is feeling so mushy. Nah, I don't think I played Genji long enough to have any lasting impact on the controller.

Wii:
Wii Sports: Well, that was a fun five minutes. Actually, the golf game is pretty good, and while the baseball game is totally neutered (no fielding), the batting is cool. Your on-screen bat moves almost in perfect tandem with the Wiimote. Suddenly, bunting is a lot of fun.

Zelda: One of the best GameCube games ever made. On the Wii. Seriously, Nintendo has no right to call this is a next-gen game. The graphics are pure GameCube, and while they did a good job of melding the Wiimote controls into the game, it's obvious that this was a Cube game that got transplanted onto the Wii to make the Wii's launch lineup look stronger than it really is. If you're a GameCube owner, and this is the only Wii game you're interested in, just wait until the GameCube version ships on Dec. 13.

ExciteTruck: I've got nothing against ExciteTruck. Using the Wiimote as a steering wheel takes some getting used to, but overall a completely playable racing game.

Bottom line: These are launch titles. Don't expect to be wowed. Just be happy you got your PS3 and/or Wii.

But that's just my take. Marc? Doug? Your impressions?

Doug's impressions:
The PS3 is so underwhelming that I'm kind of sad (sniff, must hold back tears). 'Resistance' just looks plain. I was hoping for 'Gears of War' level stuff, but it's not even close. It's just blah.

I trudged through a few levels of Genji and while the characters looked cool and the fire effects were neat, there's nothing to this game. No camera control, no intelligent level design and no fun.

As for the SIXAXIS controller... it's as cheap and fragile feeling as was reported. It's 'blah' like the rest of the system.

Oh... I almost forgot, Marc's updating of the system software took forever!

I'm really sad.

At least I had fun with Wii.

Marc's Impressions: Sorry it took so long to post. I have been trying to get as much playtime in as possible for this week's Texas Gamer.

PS3: Wasn't crazy about having to update, not once, but twice, right out of the box! I'm onboard with Victor. The console itself is a hulking unit, but with a stylish design that will definitely draw gazes at your entertainment unit. Staring at it sitting there with the rotatable PS logo, the system just looks like a monster of a gaming machine. However I wish I could say that the initial line up of launch titles are blowing me away, but they are not. I wanted them to and I think in time they will, but for now we are seeing a quality I would compare to titles akin to the 360 launch. Remember how impressed we were with COD3 when it launched along side the 360? To me that's the level we are seeing on the BLACK MONSTER right now. While Resistance is a very competent and entertaining shooter, especially further into the game, it just does not have the same level of polish as Gears. I'm not hating though, as Victor said, these are the first crop of titles for the system. To be fair let's see what happens after the developers have had some more time to work under the hood. Genji is a true showcase of the graphical power of the system, but the gameplay is another exercise in repetitive button mashing with absolutely no control of the camera! I did fire up some third party titles like EA's NFS: Carbon. Again, looks really good, but I'm not seeing anything that I have not already seen on the 360. Very unimpressed by the 2K Sports titles NBA and NHL. Further proof that the developers still need some time working out the kinks of developing on this new hardware. As far as this SIXAXIS controller, I have yet to play any game that has really taken advantage of it and I do truly miss the force feedback.

Wii: Frankly, I am tired of everyone complaing about the quality of the graphics or lack there of. We all knew that from a processing standpoint the Wii was not going to compete with the other two. So to hold the Wii to such high graphical expectations is ridiculous. What Nintendo has delivered on is their promise to bring entertaining, accessible games to the masses. I have never been able to get my wife to join me in a deatmatch let alone even watch me play, but when I fired up Wii Sports and she saw my 6 year old bowling strikes, she couldn't resist! I am impressed with the accuracy of the WiiMote as well as the internal speaker and vibration features. Zelda lives up to the hype. Yes, Victor, the graphics don't ooze "Next-Gen" but honestly they do look a little better than a GC title. Granted, not leaps and bounds better, but an improvement none the less. I even fired up UbiSoft's Red Steel yesterday. Again, not very high expectations for the graphics, but great use of the WiiMote and Nunchuk. Took some getting used to, but when I turned my WiiMote to the side and watched my onscreen hand tilt my pistol horizontally, I felt like I was inside a John Woo flick. There are great possibilites with the Wii and I hope third party developers find ways to take advantage of this unique control scheme without making it too much of a gimmick.

Back to the edit bay. I'll post this week's Texas Gamer so you can see the games in action.