Alice Gets Fragged

Let's start with this. We all know what a PC is, right? That neat little thing flashing lights and colours in front of you RIGHT NOW. Now, the difficult thing about gaming on a PC is system requirements - sometimes you need a pretty good video card or a fast processor to play a game enjoyably. This is especially applicable if you're playing multiplayer. On the other hand, you presumably already have a PC at your disposal, so there are loads of games you could be playing RIGHT NOW without much outlay of capital, everything from silly little flash games to the newest, shiniest, most hardcore games on the market today.

 

The majority of games released these days seem to be available for XBox, PS3 or PC, so you can pick your favourite, really. These are the newest generation of video game consoles and can playing anything from the newest, flashiest games on down.  I'm sure you could even get Pong on there if you so chose.  With an XBox you can get on XBox Live (for a fee) and compete against foul-mouthed thirteen-year-olds the world over; the PS3 has a similar online kinda deal. Or you can just gather up to three friends (assuming you have friends) or six friends if you have a PS3 (so says wiki) and play together at your house. The XBox doesn't have a Blu-Ray player but does seem to be slightly cheaper.

Neither of us actually owns one, so I'm talking out of my ass here with the help of wiki, but in short: the Wii, another of the newest generation of consoles, has taken an entirely new and far more physical approach to gaming. Using the Wii remote, you can pretend to do just about any sport you like (preferably with the curtains closed so your neighbours don't call an asylum on you). If you're interested in that, I hear the Wii is pretty cool. Personally, I prefer being able to slouch in my comfy chair and make my character do all the work. There are regular games such as Mario for the Wii as well.  It also seems to be the cheapest of the three major consoles.

This is a handheld console by Sony, the makers of the Playstation. In fact, PSP stands for PlayStation Portable. Portable systems are fantastic because you can take your games anywhere; hey, you could even game in the shower (if you didn't mind constantly having to replace waterlogged equipment) or, more reasonably, the toilet, the subway, or surreptitiously at work. The downside? Small screens, and less capability. The games are generally shorter and more basic than what you could get on a Playstation or XBox, but better than cell phone games. There are old PSPs and new PSPs, the most recent being the cute little PSP Go, which wiki tells me has a whopping 16 GB of storage - a lot for a handheld console, and certainly enough to store quite a few games. You can play multiplayer with a PSP owning friend and you can also get online, watch movies or listen to music. It's a nifty multipurpose device.

Nintendo's handheld console is smaller and lighter than the PSP and it comes in lots of pretty colours! Plus, it has a stylus which you can use for some games. I'm a big fan of the stylus method of input as it's easy and somewhat more precise, for some things, than using the regular controls. As well, some games have you do stuff like blow into the microphone or shout to make things happen; this can be fun if you're sitting at home by yourself, but may cause problems if you're on the subway or in class or something. The DS doesn't have quite the same variety of games as the PSP; it tends more towards cuteness and fluffiness. It does have a lot more educational (language-learning, etc.) games available if you're into that sort of thing. It is possible to play multiplayer if your friend(s) also own(s) a DS. It can also play Game Boy Advance games.