by Frank Mainwaring

Created on: March 07, 2007   Last Updated: January 17, 2012

Video Games, like all of our hobbies are personal things. We all have individual tastes and the games that we buy reflect this. It is important to bear this in mind when choosing a video game system. Buying the latest gadget with all the technological bells and whistles there are is all well and good, but if you can't play your favourite game, what good is it?

There are many things to consider, these are some examples:

1) Price. This is one important consideration, not only the cost of the system but the cost of any peripherals you will need - extra controllers, memory sticks/cards, leads all cost a packet when added together.

2) Game prices. This ties in with 1) above in that some systems have a budget range, and over the Internet there is the growing trend of proprietary shops for each of the major consoles, some consoles have a higher base price for their games, so are you prepared to pay more for the same game?

3) Game Genres. Do you love First Person Shooters or do you prefer Role Playing Games? This kind of question is the single most important that you can ask yourself before buying a games system. If you hate a particular genre that is constantly pushed as being the definition of the console, you will be disappointed in its selection of the RPG.

4) Features. Which of the features are you actually going to use? Do you need extra peripherals to be able to use those features properly thereby adding to the cost? Is it using a feature such a DVD playback that you know you will never use, or will it be the defining feature that you will use it for the most?

5) Sociability. Do you like to play games on your own or do you prefer to have a gang of friends you can play against/with/together? It would be pointless for you to own a system that requires one player for all its games if you to play 40-man death-matches, for instance.

6) Which ones do you already own? This is by far the least of the consideration if you are looking to get into gaming, or have limited funds, you will be looking to get the most for your money. Someone who already has the PlayStation 2 doesn't need to look to upgrade as quickly as someone with a 360 for example. It does bear consideration for backwards compatibility though, and this ties in with price and features as if you already have a large catalogue of games from a preceding machine, you will gain much more play time from it than with just available titles for that machine.

7) Timing. Probably the most important question to ask, when to buy? Do you buy at launch? When you get paid? Or do you wait, as you know that the price is about to fall at any time, or that there is about to be a sale. There is nothing worse than seeing consoles and games being sold at a price much less than the price you paid for it last week!

Happy Hunting...I hope you found it of some use!

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