So, picked up a couple of games: Star Wars Battlefront, Alien Hominid. I’ve not played the latter, but I can happily say the former is a very enjoyable time-waster. I actually discovered it thanks to the demo disc Sony sent me back in December that I recently revisited (to replay the Prince of Persia 2 demo). But anyway, I like it. Speaking of Prince of Persia, I’ve finished POP: Sands of Time on both the PS2 and the mobile, and I really, really enjoyed them both. I love the acrobatics in Prince of Persia and I’m halfway debating picking up Warrior Within. But Prince of Persia 3 is coming out this winter too, so that’ll be good. Also coming this winter is Sly 3 (yes!).

So yeah, I also took the leap and reserved an Xbox 360. I’ve not really had to debate much about it, since it’s backwards compatible and that’s what really matters to me. It’s more worth it for me to wait and pick up one of those instead of buying an Xbox now. So that will be fun – I’m looking forward to Halo and Half-Life 2. The sad thing is that all the games I’m looking forward to are not next-gen games, but it will be nice to have the option to play them.

The big debate is not whether to get a PS3, so much as when. Unlike the Xbox, I don’t feel the need to buy one at launch, and I may be able to hold off until Rockstar delivers a new GTA (which I am hoping will happen). Vision Gran Turismo is a great launch title, but not something that will make me need the system. Who even knows if the GTA franchise will continue to launch on the Playstation? I mean, I assume it will and now it makes even more sense because of the sheer power the PS3 vs the Xbox (it seems the tables are turned).

What I’m happy about is that now all the new consoles are actually fairly nice looking. The original Xbox was always an eyesore and the PS2 isn’t that great either, but it’s OK. With the new ones it seems like they are intent on removing the "toy" perception. The Revolution looks like a nice little package but I don’t have much interest in it since most of the Nintendo franchises seem to have lost their luster for me. I’ll take Sly Cooper over Mario any day, and I think it’s because they don’t attach his name to random games to sell more, and I hope it stays that way. That’s kind of where Crash and Sonic got derailed also. Originally they were both these really cool and unique games, and once the companies saw they were getting name recognition, they started just slapping the name on everything.

I’ve realized that I haven’t been paying much attention to the portable gaming hardware that’s rapidly becoming more and more amazing. I think the PSP is an awesome little machine, and I’m toying with the idea of getting one. I really can’t make myself spend that much money on it, though, and I know I won’t use it very much because a) I really enjoy console gaming and b) I just don’t have a lot of opportunities to play games when I’m not at home. Again, it’s something I’m considering, but it’s just not a definite like some things are.

I am impressed by the packaging of the Game Boy Micro in the same way I was impressed by the iPod shuffle and the Mac mini. It is cool because it is so small and remains totally functional. I see it doing well if they hit the magical and mythical $49.99 price point, and with the hardware involved, that doesn’t seem unreasonable. At that point it becomes an impulse buy / stocking stuffer type thing, and I think that’s great. At the same time, I don’t see myself replacing my GBASP with it, but then again, I didn’t forsee buying an iPod shuffle either. One word, I’ll repeat it: IMPULSE.

So that was some kind of ramble, I guess, but that’s really the stuff that’s been grabbing my attention lately. I’m excited to see what then next generation of consoles brings us (wireless, for one – that’s pretty cool), and excited to finally have an Xbox , even if it is 6 months away.

Oh yes – shoes.