Jack,

This is why your opinion is regarded as irrelevant, misinformed, and full of BS. Your arrogance is astounding. Are you sure you're not a Sony employee getting paid to discredit Nintendo? For someone who claims to be an "adult", you're spending a lot of time making juvenile remarks. You never dispute the point that many of the games coming out for PS3 are retreads of older titles with prettier graphics. There is no substantial change to gameplay in those titles. In a way, it's the "same sh*t, different day" mentality. The problem is that the "same sh*t" gets old after a while.

"Jack"

You are not a "self-respecting gamer," because you have absolutely no concept of what makes a game and/or console great. Under your logic, the PSP would be a far superior alternative to the Nintendo GameBoy/DS lineup - yet anyone can see that Sony got owned in the handheld space, just as Sega, Atari, and even NEC (TurboGrafx Portable, anyone?). What makes a game and/or game system great isn't how powerful it is, but how good the EXPERIENCE of playing the game is. The Wii isn't a system designed to overpower the rest, it's a system designed to redefine the way people think about games.

I should also point out that your attempt to link "self-respecting gamer" to the amount of money you spend is moronic at best, and plain idiotic otherwise. It is clear to myself and others (judging from the responses to you) that you do not and can not speak for others when defining "self-respecting gamer". I'll take the Wii and games like Zelda, Metroid, etc. over the PS3 and overpriced drivel that is basically the same title with "prettier" graphics. I'll also have more money to spend elsewhere.

I was at Wal-Mart tonight (Anchorage, AK) when they started the Wii process. They had 37 on-hand, and basically gave everyone in line a ticket, then drew tickets to determine who got one of the units. I know that another local retailer had 75 Wiis, and the line started around 5:30PM there. From what I saw of the Wal-Mart launch, it went pretty well.

I don't trust any test run by Tom's Hardware. First of all, Intel is a sponsor of that site. Second, if you look at the tests they ran, it's the testing methodology created by Intel, not a third-party. Tom's Hardware has run more than one "comparison" over the last year that was flat-out biased against AMD - including one in which they said the Pentium D outperformed the FX-57, even though the Pentium kept crashing.

Yes, the Conroe benchmarks are rigged - that's becauswe Intel will only allow their benchmark methodology to be used. The "benchmark" trades real-world scenarios in favor of hand-picked tests that tend to favor Intel in the first place.

@ #8:

If you really think that using a MAc makes one an idiot, then it is you who is the true idiot. There are significant reasons why the majority of graphic design work and magazine layout/editing is done on Macs - even the PC fanboy mags you must certainly read.

Clearly, your own comment indicates your utter lack of comprehension, understanding and ability to assess this for what it is - a report that people have already begun to upgrade their systems to faster Core Duo CPUs. It's not surprising, although your narrow-minded, ignorant remarks do show why so many Mac users hate Wintel fans. For the record, I use both platforms.