The XBOX360 had the advantage of an early release, and is still doing really well in the market, having a 3.2GHZ IBM PowerPC tri-core processor and a 500MHZ GPU, the console is mainly attractive do it's powerful running speeds, fast-paced online action and mind-blowing graphics.

Plus the console is moderate in pricing: it costs $299.99 for a core system, and $399.99 for a premium system. The cost for one of these is well in between the Playstation 3's horribly expensive price, and the Wii's cute cheapness.

One main bad point about the 360, is that because it does not contain a processor from the original Xbox, it cannot play original Xbox games without additional emulation software from the Internet.

Now to the Playstation 3:-

The Playstation 3 is highly expensive, but unfortunately for us Europeans and the Australians, we cannot grab ours until March 2007. So much for a Christmas present....

But for the money it comes at ($499.99 for 20gb and $599.99 for 60gb) the Playstation 3 might be worth it, with the new Sixaxis controller and Blu-Ray drive, it will appeal to some as an entertainment system.

The Playstation 3 contains a Cell Broadband Engine (3.2GHZ) IBM Power-based CPU is almost equal to that of the XBOX360, and the more powerful 550MHZ RSX GPU (based on NVIDIA G70) gives gamers an almost real-life experience! Perfect hardware for Racing and FPS games.

Playstation 3 is highly compatible with the Playstation Portable (PSP) and is often used in games as a controller, once it has been used in a racing game as a rear-view mirror.

Playstation 3 is also compatible with most Playstation and Playstation 2 titles, and future firmware updates will provide more compatibility.

Finally, to the Nintendo Wii:-

The Nintendo Wii is the most unusual console out of the three, and is the one I shall be getting for Christmas this year.

It has a IBM Broadway processor and a ATI Hollywood GPU. It is not as powerful as the XBOX360 or the Playstation 3, but the Wii's unique game play and controller makes all the difference.

Being able to use the controller as anything from a sword, to a baseball bat, even to a steering wheel makes games active, and can even be a form of exercise.

Plus, Nintendo has got a lot of killer-applications on it's side, such as Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and the upcoming Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Pokémon Battle Revolution.

To top it all off, Nintendo Wii is backwards compatible with Nintendo GameCube, can connect via wireless link to a Nintendo DS or Nintendo DS Lite and download Nintendo 64, Super Nintendo, NES, Sega Mega-Drive (Genesis) and TurboGrafx-16 games for a small price, then keep them and play them on your console!

So what do you want? The expensive yet powerful Playstation 3? Or perhaps you want the average priced and powerful XBOX360, or do you want the cheap, unique and highly-backward-compatible Nintendo Wii?

Thanks for reading