[Bond]

I believe BaB made a tragic mistake in his analysis of "the year that was." In this thread I have tried to rectify the situation.

In regard to the 360, he said: "not the year for the 360" and "it offered very little in the way of exclusives."

This claim will be disputed.

In regard to the PS3, he said: "banner year, the best in the console's life. And may have been the console of the year just due to the turnaround and the quality of its software."

This claim will be reaffirmed.

In regard to the Wii, he said: "[it had a] stellar year, if you looked at it." The quality of software on display was "quite remarkable."

This claim will be disputed.


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Titles that the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 share are italicized. Titles that the PS3, 360, and Wii have as exclusives are bolded. Metacritic scores are in parentheses following the title. Titles under each console are ranked from highest score to lowest. 82 was the lowest possible accepted score. Recurring titles such as sports games were not included. For simplicity sake, I have only compiled retail releases.

Playstation 3

1. Uncharted 2 (96)
2. Modern Warfare 2 (94)
3. Street Fighter IV (94)
4. God of War Collection (92)
5. Assassin's Creed II (92)
6. Killzone 2 (91)
7. Batman: Arkham Asylum (91)
8. Demon's Souls (89)
9. BlazBlue (89)
10. Dargon Age: Origins (87)
11. Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time (86)
12. Resident Evil 5 (86)
13. Red Faction: Guerrilla (85)
14. inFAMOUS (85)
15. Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (85)
16. Borderlands (83)

These 16 titles average an 89 review score.

6 of these tiles are exclusive to the PS3, and average an 89.8 review score.

10 of these tiles are shared exclusives, and average an 88.6 review score.

None of these titles were released for the Nintendo Wii.

Xbox 360

1. Modern Warfare 2 (94)
2. Street Fighter IV (93)
3. Batman: Arkham Asylum (92)
4. Forza Motorsport 3 (92)
5. Assassin's Creed II (91)
6. Left 4 Dead 2 (89)
7. BlazBlue (88)
8. Dragon Age: Origins (86)
9. Red Faction: Guerrilla (85)
10. Resident Evil 5 (85)
11. Borderlands (84)
12. Halo 3: ODST (83)
13. Halo Wars (82)
14. Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (82)

These 14 titles average an 87.6 review score.

4 of these tiles are exclusive to the 360, and average an 86.5 review score.

10 of these tiles are shared exclusives, and average an 88 review score.

None of these titles were released for the Nintendo Wii.

Nintendo Wii

1. Metroid Prime Trilogy (91)
2. Little King's Story (87)
3. New Super Mario Bros (87)
4. Boom Blox Bash Party (86)
5. Punch-Out!! (86)
6. Dead Space: Extraction (82)

These 6 titles average an 86.5 review score.

6 of these tiles are exclusive to the Wii, and average an 86.5 review score.

None of these titles were released for the Playstation 3 or Xbox 360.


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Now, to rank the consoles. We will first use quantity of quality titles:

1. Playstation 3 (16)
2. Xbox 360 (14)
3. Nintendo Wii (6)

Average score over all titles:

1. Playstation 3 (89)
2. Xbox 360 (87.6)
3. Nintendo Wii (86.5)

Average score over console exclusives:

1. Playstation 3 (89.8)
2. Xbox 360 (86.5)
2. Nintendo Wii (86.5)

Average score over shared exclusives:

1. Playstation 3 (88.6)
2. Xbox 360 (88)
3. Nintendo Wii (86.5)

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Conclusion:

Using the combined and generally accepted metrics of quantity and quality of titles released this calendar year, the clear ranking of the consoles from best to worst is as follows:

1. Playstation 3
2. Xbox 360
3. Nintendo Wii


- Bond out.