The alaTest Blog

All of the current generation gaming consoles have been out since about 2005 (or 2006 in the case of the PS3). Both the Xbox 360 and PS3 focused heavily on performance, each outpacing their predecessors (the original Xbox and PS2) significantly, achieving roughly 300 million polygons per second in performance. Nintendo, on the other hand, chose to focus on revolutionizing the console interface, making the Wii only slightly faster than the GameCube, obtaining about 100 million polygons per second. The Wii wasn’t anywhere near the league of performance found in the Xbox 360 and PS3, but Nintendo still had an advantage. Neither Sony nor Microsoft intends to replace their current consoles until well into 2015. Nintendo has something prepared for 2012: “Project Café.”

Read more on the Nintendo Wii 2

Portable gaming has been around for decades, starting with Mattel’s light based handhelds back in the Seventies. Things really started to take off in the late Eighties with Nintendo’s original Game Boy, followed a little over a year later by Sega’s more technologically advanced Game Gear, and even though the Game Boy sold significantly better, this marked the slow start of technological progression of handheld consoles.

Read more on the Future of Portable Gaming

So you want to be the best mom/dad/uncle/grandma/(insert generic family descriptor here) by getting your son/daughter/niece/nephew/etc a fancy new portable gaming machine, but you’ve noticed that there are quite a few versions to choose from and aren’t sure which one will be the best fit.

Fear not! Your holiday shopping woes are at an end (for gaming handhelds at the least).

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With the holiday shopping season fast approaching, odds are many wish lists include one of the three big gaming consoles, but if you want to surprise someone or even just know a bit more about that shiny new game console your kids are asking for, it can be tough to know exactly what you’re looking at. This is our crash course for gaming consoles to help you with your holiday purchase.

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