The Rundown

When Jeff Gerstmann isn't poking his head out of a trash can to sing about counting, he's poking his head into trash cans in search of old Atari 2600 carts. E-mail him at jeff@gamespot.com to tell him how many copies of Combat you currently own.

I've been "platform agnostic" for years, and I've tried to focus my attention on games and the enjoyment that can be had from them. In my own small way, such as in my admittedly infrequent columns, I've tried to encourage others to try to do the same, rather than get caught up in the white noise of screaming hardcore fans (and creepy 35-year-old marketing guys disguised as screaming hardcore fans). To be honest, I've always wondered whether the game industry, and in a larger sense, the world might be better off without hardcore fans. You know...if more people could enjoy disposable entertainment for what it is and move on. Then again, considering how expensive the next generation of game console hardware will be, it'll be a lot harder for everyone to buy up all consoles. In fact, except for those of us who have lots of extra cash, it may become impossible to be platform agnostic, or to enjoy every single one of the best new games. We'll all have to make some tough decisions and eventually take sides. Right?

Here's the thing: right now, none of the sides have proven that they are the way and the light. Of course, it's still early going, but each system already seems to have a stereotypical set of ups and downs.

For the Xbox 360, my current gripe is the lineup. That's really just a personal taste sort of problem, sure, but it definitely doesn't come across as the "something for everyone" sort of launch that we'd ideally have. If you're a Project Gotham Racing fan, you're in there. If you're a fan of Rare's style of first-person shooting (you know, the kind where you can't jump?), you're probably losing your mind about Perfect Dark Zero. If you're a fan of Call of Duty 2...well, you probably already played the PC version of the game. I could go on and on, but you get the idea. Of course, this is something I'm hoping to be proved wrong on, because I can't help but find the rest of the console to be very attractive. The controller's great, the front end looks slick, and the new features for Xbox Live sound awesome. But if I'm left with Tony Hawk's American Wasteland (a game I've already finished on other platforms) and Midway's Xbox Live Arcade games, I'm probably going to end up disappointed this holiday season.

The PlayStation 3's lineup is obviously hazy and based mostly on announcements of games that probably don't actually exist yet. But what Sony's done is put itself in a position to confirm that some of the largest franchises in gaming will be on its system. That Metal Gear Solid 4 trailer, even though it's probably for a game that we won't be playing for another two or three years, goes a long way. It certainly helps that the trailer makes that game look completely insane. Acknowledging that the Grand Theft Auto series will continue on the PlayStation 3 helps, too. But really, that's just all smoke and mirrors at this point. And the increasing talk that the PlayStation 3 isn't the most developer-friendly machine in the world certainly doesn't help its case, since development costs are just going to keep getting higher and higher. That could lead some smaller third parties to bring their best games to different platforms. But since the PS3 seems to be the most popular name in gaming at the moment, third-party publishers seem to be willing to do anything and everything for the console so far. That's exciting. Now if they'd just let someone hold that controller so we would know if it feels right or not.

Then there's the Revolution. The mysterious member of the bunch. What games are coming out for the Revolution? Hell, I don't know. What sort of games will we be able to play with the default Revolution controller? Again, you've got me. Obviously, that level of mystery is very exciting. But the nonstandard controller is what makes me skeptical here. Is every single game going to make me wave around my controller like a magic wand? Will the sensors really work as well as they need to? Will it ship with a crazy controller shell that you'll use for more-standard games? Will third-party developers continue to be excited about that controller once they start making their second or third game for it?

Some of these questions can't be answered for years. It took a pretty long time for each of the current consoles to fall into their own categories. The PlayStation 2's the sales leader, but it's definitely not the most powerful system on the market. The Xbox is, but since the PS2 had so much more market share, most game developers put their focus on the PS2 version of the game, leading to the standard look of Xbox ports. The ports look better than the PS2 version of the game, but you always got the sense that they'd probably look better if they were made exclusively for the Xbox. And the GameCube is the system to get if you're bent on playing Nintendo's games. But, oftentimes, the third-party support is spotty, resulting in fewer games and also a slight, but generally lower quality when it comes to third-party ports, almost as if the developer just locked a guy or two away in a room and said "Make this run on the GameCube; you've got two weeks."

So right now, each of the new systems seems to have some positives and some negatives. But keep in mind that this is all based on prerelease knowledge, which means that all of this is still up in the air. Nothing's guaranteed, and there's no early "winner" in the next-generation console wars. But considering that there's already a precedent for more-expensive hardware and software, these next five years had better bring along some earth-shattering games. Or else...uh...or else I'll buy them all anyway because I'm out of my freaking mind!

Next Up: In The Year 2000 by Jason Ocampo