Yet another saga in computer games history is about to commence. The next generation consoles, will have Unprecedented power and graphical ability unseen on today's consoles.

It is amazing how computer games consoles have increased in power over the years. When this website was first uploaded, the PS1 and N64 were the dominating consoles. It didn't seem to long ago when i was writing the next generation consoles page for the PS2 and Xbox. But Here we are again.

All of the specifications of the consoles, images and in-game images have been shown below, including my own review on each console.

Menu

Playstation 3 Xbox 360 Nintendo Wii Power summary

 

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The Playstation 3

Release date (Europe) (estimated): First half of 2006

The Playstation 3 was revealed at the 2005 E3 games show in Los Angeles. It features an amazing array of graphical power and looks to be almost twice the speed of the Xbox 360. Like the PS2, the PS3 will be backwards compatible with:

>> Playsation 1 games

>> Playstation 2 games (both CD and DVD)

As well as being able to play the latest PS3 blu-ray media.

The PlayStation 3 boasts an engine 35 times more powerful than the PlayStation 2, according to Sony. It will support up to seven wireless controllers (bluetooth) and has outputs for two high-definition televisions (HDTVs) at an amazing 1080p. Additionally, PSP owners will be able to use their handheld gaming device as either a controller or an additional screen, perhaps viewing tactical or statistical information that ties in with the game on your television.

The PS3 will ship with a detachable 2.5-inch hard drive and will include slots for a number of electronical digital storage devices, such as SD memory cards, sony memory cards, and compact flash cards. In addition to playing games, it will allow users to access digital video and audio files, view digital pictures, offer video chat and allow users to access the Internet similar to the Xbox's 360's media centre like functions. Along with all of the other features the PS3 contains a built in gigabit ethernet port supporting 1000mbps, 100mbps and 10mbps transfer and wireless 802.11b/g.

The PS3 is not a games machine, but a "home entertainment system"

Launch games

The following games are currently planned for the launch of the PS3:

>> Vision Gran Turismo

>> Tekken 6

>> Metal Gear Solid 4

>> Devil May Cry 4

>> Killzone 2

Technical specification

Hardware type	Specification
CPU (Central processing unit)	Cell Processor PowerPC-base Core @3.2GHz 1 VMX vector unit per core 512KB L2 cache 7 x SPE @3.2GHz 7 x 128b 128 SIMD GPRs 7 x 256KB SRAM for SPE * 1 of 8 SPEs reserved for redundancy total floating point performance : 218 GFLOPS
GPU (Graphics processing unit)	RSX @550MHz 1.8 TFLOPS floating point performance Full HD (up to 1080p) x 2 channels
Sound	Dolby Digital 5.1channel, DTS, LPCM, etc. (Cell- base processing)
Memory (internal)	256MB XDR Main RAM @3.2GHz 256MB GDDR3 VRAM @700MHz
Avalible Bandwidth	Main RAM 25.6GB/s VRAM 22.4GB/s RSX 20GB/s (write) + 15GB/s (read) SB< 2.5GB/s (write) + 2.5GB/s (read)
Floating Point Performance	2 TFLOPS (teraflops)
Storage (i.e. hard drive)	Detachable 2.5" HDD slot x 1
I/O (input/output)	USB Front x 4, Rear x 2 (USB2.0) Memory Stick standard/Duo, PRO x 1 SD standard/mini x 1 CompactFlash (Type I, II) x 1
Networking/communication	Ethernet (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T) x 3 (input x 1 + output x 2) Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 b/g Bluetooth 2.0 (EDR)
Controller	Bluetooth (up to 7) USB 2.0 (wired) Wi-Fi (PSP) Network (over IP)
AV Output (audio/video)	Screen size: 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p HDMI: HDMI out x 2 Analogue: AV MULTI OUT x 1 Digital Audio: DIGITAL OUT (OPTICAL) x 1
Game media	CD Based: >> 650-700mb PlayStation CD-ROM, PlayStation 2 CD-ROM, CD-DA, CD-DA (ROM), CD-R, CD-RW, SACD, SACD Hybrid (CD layer), SACD HD, DualDisc, DualDisc (audio side), DualDisc (DVD side) DVD: >> 4.7Gb standard- 9gb DVD9 PlayStation 2 DVD-ROM, PlayStation 3 DVD-ROM, DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW Blu-ray Disc: >> 25Gb single layer, 50Gb dual layer PlayStation 3 BD-ROM, BD-Video, BD-ROM, BD-R, BD-RE

Controller

Sony have now changed the controller for the PS3 to one that looks more like the PS2 controller. LIke the Nintendo Wii, the new controller with feature motion sensors, which enable the controller to be pointed up, down, left or right, without using any of the other controlls. This will enable game developors to produce more user involved games untilising this new feature. As before the controllers are totally wireless using bluetooth technology.

New controller

 

 

Orignal Prototype (old design)

 

More images

Like the oringal PS2, the PS3 will also be avalible in black:

 

 

Other design with no silver edge:

 

Please click on the images below for a larger image:

Screen grabs

Gran turismo 5

F1 2006

Metal Gear Solid 4

Virtual fighter 4

 

 

Review

After looking at the inital specification, i am impressed with the amount of processing power available. It is almost like a super computer in a box, but the PC will eventually catch up like with the PS2. Good design available in a variety of colours. The main thing about this console is the graphical power, almost twice the power of the xbox 360, which should make it very competitive. Not to sure about the controller as it varies substantially from the PS1 and PS2 controller. The best feature on the controllers this time is the fact they are wireless via bluetooth. The built in gigabit ethernet and wireless 802.11g allows the PS3 to go online, download game demos, patches and link the PSP to the PS3 for use as an in-game screen or another controller. The true potential of the console cannot be revealed until it is actually played, but for now it looks promising and will defiantly give the other consoles (xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii) a run for there money.

My rating

10/10

Due to graphical power, good lineup of games and I/O features.

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TheXbox 360

 

Release date (Europe):OUT NOW !

The Xbox 360 was announced to an MTV audience before the E3 show 2005. The Xbox 360 is one of the most important products for Microsoft this year. The software giant has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into becoming a leading player in the world of video games. With the new xbox gone is the bulky look of the original xbox and in comes a nice clean white design. The front panel houses a disc drawer, two memory card slots, an infra-red receiver for an optional remote control, the power button and two covered USB ports.

The Xbox 360 is also very customisable. The front cover can be replaced to suite your only style etc. The specification is similar to the PS3, but not as fast, although due to the money invested and the good sales achieved from the xbox, it should be able to compete with the PS3 very well.

Similar to the PS3, the Xbox 360 will be backwards compatible with all current Xbox games:

Games in development

The following games are currently in development:

>> Call of Duty 2
>> Quake 4
>> Tony Hawk's American Wasteland
>> Madden NFL 06
>> Need For Speed: Most Wanted
>> Ghost Recon 3 (shown)
>> Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06
>> The Darkness
>> NBA 2K6
>> Perfect Dark Zero
>> Kameo: Elements of Power
>> Project Gotham Racing 3
>> Gears of War
>> Saint's Row

Technical specification

Hardware type	Specification
CPU	IBM PowerPC-based CPU Three symmetrical cores running at 3.2 GHz each Two hardware threads per core; six hardware threads total VMX-128 vector unit per core; three total 128 VMX-128 registers per hardware thread 1 MB L2 cache
CPU Game Math Performance	9 billion dot product operations per second
GPU	Custom ATI Graphics Processor 10 MB of embedded DRAM 48-way parallel floating-point dynamically scheduled shader pipelines Unified shader architecture
Polygon Performance	500 million triangles per second
Pixel Fill Rate	16 gigasamples per second fill rate using 4x MSAA
Shader Performance	48 billion shader operations per second
Memory	512 MB of 700 MHz GDDR3 RAM Unified memory architecture
Memory Bandwidth	22.4 GB/s memory interface bus bandwidth 256 GB/s memory bandwidth to EDRAM 21.6 GB/s front-side bus
Overall System Floating-Point Performance	1 teraflop
Storage	Detachable and upgradeable 20GB hard drive 12x dual-layer DVD-ROM Memory Unit support starting at 64 MB
I/O	Support for up to four wireless game controllers Three USB 2.0 ports Two memory unit slots
Optimised for Online	Instant, out-of-the-box access to Xbox Live features with broadband service, including Xbox Live Marketplace for downloadable content, gamer profile for digital identity, and voice chat to talk to friends while playing games, watching movies, or listening to music Built-in Ethernet port Wi-Fi ready: 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g Video camera ready
Game media/media supported	Support for DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, CD-DA, CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, WMA CD, MP3 CD, JPEG Photo CD Ability to stream media from portable music devices, digital cameras and Windows XP-based PCs Ability to rip music to the Xbox 360 hard drive Custom playlists in every game Built-in Media Center Extender for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Interactive, full-screen 3-D visualizers
High-Definition Game Support	All games supported at 16:9, 720p, and 1080i, anti-aliasing Standard-definition and high-definition video output supported
Audio	Multi-channel surround sound output Supports 48KHz 16-bit audio 320 independent decompression channels 32-bit audio processing Over 256 audio channels
System Orientation	Stands vertically or horizontally
Customizable Face Plates	Interchangeable to personalize the console

More images

Please click on the images below for a larger image:

Screen grabs

These screen grabs aim to give an idea on the level of graphics acheived:

Review

After looking at the initial specification, it looks to be a very high powered console.Altough not as powerful as the PS3, it contains x3 3.2 processors and good graphical performance. The Xbox 360 looks better than the previous xbox, the bulky black design has been replaces by a sleek white design. The covers can also be customised to suite everyone's taste. Rather than opt for new media, microsoft have chosen to use the current DVD and DVD dual layer media and make it compatible with all current xbox games. The controls are also wireless like the PS3, which allows for greater freedom without wires. Like the PS3, it contains built in wireless 802.11b/g and a firewire and optical port, it also has the ability to be connected to HD ready TV's at 1080i. The true potential of the console cannot be revealed until it is actually played, but for now it looks promising and will defiantly give the other consoles (PS3 and Nintendo Wii) a run for there money.

My rating

9/10

Not as powerful as the PS3, but a fantastic console neverless, with a whole host of features and a sleek customisable design.

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The Nintendo Wii

Release date (Europe) (estimated): 2006/2007

Unlike the other consoles "Playstation 3" and "Xbox 360", nintendo did not choose to reveal there new console at the E3 games exhibition. So little is know on the specification. Only some basic feature have been revealed:

> It is confirmed that IBM will be making the processor for the new machine and ATI will be making the graphics GPU.

> The new machine will be smaller than the PS3 and Xbox 360, but is unlikely to contain the same processing power. Nintendo want to develop a console that is cheap to produce and cheap to develop games on.

> There will be no screens on the controller or the console unlike the nintendo ds.

> The Nintendo Wii will contain no hard drive.

> Disks are loaded automatically via the front loading slot. Supports game disks 12cm and normal dvd disks.

Controller

The controller is packed with cutting edge technology which makes gaming possible not just through button presses but your movements as well.

The controller can be used in several other ways, like a standard controller, and can be augmented by add-ons, such as a "Nunchuck-style" extension comprising an analogue stick and two triggers, destined to become, according to Nintendo, the "new standard of play for first-person shooter games".

Nintendo is promising that although the controller has been designed to allow novice gamers to pick up and play without confusion, the sheer variety of different ways the controller can be used, will allow for gaming experiences which are even deeper and more complex than they are today.

The controller can also be used wirelessly or corded.

 

Closup view of controller ^ UPto 4 controllers can be used via the wireless function

Other colours

The nintendo Wii will also be avalible in white:

 

Specification

• WiFi internet capability out of the box and access to online gaming.
• WiFi 802.11b and 802.11g
• Access to download a huge catalogue of NES, SNES and N64 games.
• Backwards compatibility with GameCube titles.
• DVD movie capability.
• 2x USB 2.0 ports
• 12cm Disks like gamecube storing 9Gb of Data Dual layer
• DVD playback *Special dongle required
• High Definition 720p, 1080i and 1080p
• Normal definition 480p Progressive scan
• Supports 12cm and normal dvd disks fed into the front disk feeder.
• Games are saved on 512mb flash

Estimated release price: $200

CHIP NAMES

IBM Processor: Broadway

ATI GPU: Hollywood

Thank You for looking at this page. some more updates will be coming soon