RIP 360 Number 4

Well, on Sunday 15th February, 2009, my fourth 360 gave me the three red lights of doom.

So I only have pointless minigames to play on the Wii - really need something with substance for that console, but I've noticed that the appeal of playing the Wii has really waned of late. The only game on it that keeps me interested is the Wii Sports Bowling, and even that is losing its shine.

The 360 seems to be the only console I want to play on, and I was trying to decide why?

It boils down to a couple of things:

1. Depth of the games.
Apart from the cheap, rewritten old games that keep appearing on the XBLA, the games on the 360 offer a lot more than a five minute wiggle of a joystick. There is story telling, a proper narrative, character development - hell sometimes you even get emotionally attached to a character which severly alters the gameplay.
On the Wii, you get featureless characters (called Miis) who have the minimum of facial expression, and have balls for arms and legs! The games are 9 times out of 10 a series of minigames that mean you never need to continue any longer than the five minutes it takes to play it once.

2. Achievements
Having a recognised goal that you can then show to your peers is surprisingly addictive, and it also creates a useful guide as to what is achievable in the game. Fair enough there are some ridiculously simple ones (pressing "Start" in The Simpsons game for instance), there are some incredibly difficult or time consuming ones (normally involving getting 10s of 1000s of kills in a multiplayer game - Gears of War 1 and 2). But this carries further thanks to Xbox Live - you can compare your achievements with your friends so even in a one player game you can keep it competitive. And competition is addictive.

The Wii does have its plusses - when the controller works the games are great, but with the absolute glut of minigame compilations available sorting the wheat from the chaff is frustratingly difficult and you end up playing a game against the controller itself, whether it's darts, skee ball, or some other fairground based game it becomes 'guess the best way to hold the controller' multiplied with inconsistant throwing actions with no controller feedback at all, so half the time you fluke a good shot then the others where you feel as though you have done more or less exactly the same end up missing the board / going wide etc.

Anyway, hope my 360 gets picked up soon - I was promised it would be within 48 hours and that deadline is fast approaching...