Playing Video Games: Pick Your System!
Ever since the release of Pong, video games have captured the attention of both children and adults alike. A source of entertainment and sometimes controversy in the case of violent video games, this form of entertainment has made its place in the world. If you’re looking to play video games in your own home, you need to consider what you’ll be using to play them. Just as many games compete for market share, so do the game systems you play them on. Let’s look at some of these:
The Hand-Held Systems
The smallest of the systems for video games sacrifice the ability to display the most detailed graphics in favor of increasing portability. In the past, Nintendo has dominated this market with their Game Boy system, with their DS making their latest offering in the world of hand-held video games, a system that has two screens, one of them touch sensitive, allowing games to be played by pressing buttons or with the use of a stylus, like a PDA.
In contrast, Sony’s Playstation Portable, or PSP, offers a system that plays small discs, a system that plays both video games and movies. The system makes use of Sony’s Memory Stick technology to allow the use of flash memory to store movies downloaded to your computer for play on your PSP as well.
The Consoles
For those who want to include video games as part of their home entertainment system, there are several different options to choose from. The Xbox 360 came first in the latest generation of systems for video games, and currently has the largest library of new games. The Nintendo Wii brings a unique variation on traditional video game controllers, using a controller that looks like a remote control and is motion sensitive. While its library is smaller, the Wii boasts of several games that are great for families and groups of people to play. And Sony’s Playstation 3 promises great graphics, but at a price, over $600 for a new console. All three games feature some sort of backward compatibility with games from the previous generation of each company’s consoles, allowing people to purchase and play older games.
Personal Computers
Finally, both Macintosh and Windows-based computer systems are gaming platforms in their own right. Windows tends to be the system of choice for most developers, though Mac users aren’t out of luck when playing video games any more, with major releases coming out for both systems. Video games on personal computers are usually played with the keyboard and mouse for control, though you can always plug in a USB joystick and enjoy games that way. With so many options for playing video games out there, though, you’ll never be without some way to enjoy this form of entertainment!
