It's the battle of the ages, played out with a new generation of hardware that, for the first time, appears to leave all but the most high-end gaming PCs in the dust. Opinions about Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3 vary, but it's pretty clear that both devices kick serious butt from a technical perspective. Looking over the specifications, and listening to representatives of both companies, however, I've come away with a few general thoughts.

From a pure processing standpoint, the PS3 appears to beat the Xbox 360, but the first generation PS3 games are not graphically superior to anything that's available on the Xbox 360. The PS3 has a few advantages, however. For example, it's mostly compatible with the millions of existing PlayStation (PS1) and PlayStation 2 (PS2) titles, which is a huge plus (in US and Japan only: European PS3 units lack a compatibility chip, making them far less compatible with previous generation games).

Xbox 360, however, drops the bomb on the PS3 in a few important categories as well. It's HD Media Center Extender experience blows away anything Sony offers on the PS3, and it supports live and recorded HDTV over your home network, along with TV show and movie downloads. Its device connectivity--including direct support for Apple iPod and Sony PSP devices--is top notch. And the hugely compelling Xbox Live service gets even better with Xbox 360. Sony has nothing like it: On the PS3, games are isolated islands of connectivity, allowing gamers only to communicate with others in the same games. Finally, Microsoft took away one of Sony's biggest advantages when it announced a free 1080p upgrade for all existing Xbox 360 units.

And then there's the Nintendo Wii. Nintendo's next-generation console eschews technical prowess for a truly innovative new hand controller system that includes two devices, a remote controller that can double as a classic NES-type controller for older games, and a Nunchuk, which plugs into the Remote Controller and provide additonal functionality. The Remote Controller is wireless and provides gamers with a degree of motion and freedom that is simply unavailable on either the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3: For example, to swing a golf club in Wii Sports, which is bundled with the console, you literally swing the remote controller as if it were a golf club. To hit a baseball, you swing the controller like a bat. This system is much less expensive than Microsoft's and Sony's offerings, and it is much more appealing for kids of all ages. It is also much less compelling to traditional gamers.