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Gaming Consoles

Chances are that if you have children or teenagers at home you will have some sort of gaming console in your house. Many of you will have at least seen or played on one recently, maybe at a friend's house.

So what is a gaming console?

A gaming console is any devices that is used mainly or purely to play video games. Unlike a computer, a console is designed to make video games easy and enjoyable to play and is generally cheaper than a computer that is designed for a 'gamer' because they mainly only include hardware & software necessary to play video games.

The main brands of gaming console you might be familiar with are Sony Playstation, Xbox and Nintendo

Why would you want a gaming console?

There are many reasons to buy a console. You may want to play a specific new game that is only available on one 'platform' i.e. it cannot be played on your computer, but only on a specific console.
Gaming consoles are also much more of a group activity. It is hard to imagine a bunch of people sitting down together in one room to play a computer game but most console games are designed for multiple players and many are much more enjoyable with 2, 3 or 4 players

What console is right for me?

The Sony Playstation & Xbox consoles are more of a serious gamer's thing. The current models are the Playstation 3 & Xbox 360. Both offer high-end graphics and a wide variety of games. They also include online play for most games and other extra features like the ability to download game demos, play DVD movies and surf the internet. If you are looking for a serious gaming experience, you'd look at buying one of these.

The main difference between the two brands is the games available on each. The both have very similar performance and features, but vastly different games available.
If you are look at purchasing one, we'd recommend check out the games that are available and find some that suit your tastes from the wide range of real-time strategies, RPGs (role playing games), sports, racing and FPS (first person shooters).

In contrast, the Nintendo Wii is a much more sedate gaming experience. Almost all of the Wii's games are aimed at group play, including sports events, trivia and even fitness regimes and exercises you can do at home to get fit. The Wii is primarily a gaming machine, and doesn't allow you to watch DVD's as well (which was done to reduce its cost).

Playstation also offers a limited number of group play games, the Playstation 3 'Buzz' trivia series is an excellent series of games for 2 or more players where you compete against each other in a trivia contest.

What else do I need?

To use the console you will also need a TV with either RCA connectors (the red, white & yellow plugs) or a newer LCD or plasma TV with DVI or HDMI connectors. The latest games will look much better with a larger TV.

We'd also recommend having broadband internet to download game demos, play online and surf the web from your console. If you have wireless internet then you can connect most consoles wirelessly as well.