I personally think a hardcore game doesn't mean it has a lot of blood in it. It's how you achieve your main goal(s) in a game. For example a consider Starcraft 2 to be hardcore. I also consider World of Warcraft, X-Plane, or DarkStar One. These games are about depth and will most likely have the least amount of blood in the game.

The ones you mentioned I would say they are some of the hardcore action/action-adventure games.

That title is reserved for gamers, not hardware.

I thought a hardcore gamer would want ALL of the LATEST technologies in one package.
blutooth, bluray, ssd upgrade, firmware upgrade, wifi.

I know as a hardcore pc gamer i was always into the latest and BEST hardware....

360 is more hard core for your money :( and ps3 is more hardcore for your entertainment :)

Plays on the PS3

While I would argue that the more "diehard hardcore" gamers play on the 360, the PS3 is easily the best value on the market for all of the reasons the author states. On top of that, factor in painless media streaming, easy to swap out HDD, built in wireless connectivity in every make and model, HDMI 1.3, built in media card readers, BlueTooth compatibility in every make and model, and the list keeps going on and on. I like my 360 I really do, but as for bang for the buck? The PS3 trumps it's competition at practically every turn value-wise. Sure, 400 bucks is a large pill to swallow but what you get in return is a fully robust and reliable HD console that delivers on every front and will keep on delivering with more firmware updates and added functionality. Keep going Sony, you're doing great things.

even the heavymetal rockband metallica plays ps3.

Little Big Planet is the most hardcore game there is.

Dont laugh, I'm super serial.

The only reason why I think the 360 is somewhat more hardcore.. is because it is strictly used for gaming alone.. and is also used for official competitive reasons..

But, that doesn't mean the PS3 is not hardcore.

lol Bathyj your very right. Hardcore for me is something that you have problems mastering because it's so frigging hard to master.

I haven't mastered LBP yet because of the amazingly advanced creations you can make. But im usually first place in every FPS online game with least deaths and most kills. And wipeout HD is cake to me. Beat all my friends in fighting games too usually lands on 5 wins for me vs 1 for them. But something about LBP makes me not being able to master it. Might be able to figure out how to create everything by the time of 09.

PS3 is more heavy eh? I have a 32" TV, but I'd rather have a smaller one... because it's to heavy....

haha ur flaming is soo horrible that no one agrees wit u = P

No, you damn idiot. The fact that it's pissing them off enough to disagree with me shows that my flaming is actually very good.

When you have to actually acknowledge to us that your flaming is good, that's when all of us know it's bad.

had their chance to use Sony to further their own technology and they declined, rudely at that. Sony has given us something completely new each generation and has advanced video gaming much more than Nintendo ever has. Nintendo resisted CD's, forcing you to buy their cartridges, they resisted DVD's (and still do in a way lol) and forced you to buy "mini CD's". lol. The Playstation brand has aged with its generation going from more Crash to more Metal Gear to more of a multimedia hub for its now-older demographic. Microsoft jumped in (no pun intended) when they saw an opportunity, and they innovated in their own way, furthering the industry even more (HDD, amazingly robust online functionality). I'll thank Nintendo for bringing video games to the masses in the late 80's and early 90's (and for some great games, of course), but I'll thank Sony and Microsoft for the way I play my video games today.

There is a lot of credit to be served way before PSX.(I guess it's good thing Nintendo got Greedy and voila the PSX was born.)

As always consoles evolve over time..so it kept getting better, just as going from Atari to NES.

Every console maker piggy-backed someone before them..Sony happened to be a BIG name in the Electronic business which really helped them.

sony brought gaming out of the playground and into the living room metaphorically speaking

sony made gaming kool simple as

nintendo has been gaming for years and its always been seen as a kids thing through the nintendo years, SONY brought gaming to an adult generation, sony made gaming a hobbie for all and not the stereotypical 'games are for kids and geeks'.

ps2 sales justify my point, i am not saying sony invented gaming im saying that they made it a more immersive experience a thing that was finally considered a cool thing to do

why is it anything thats posted on n4g people try to act like its flamebait or twist what said? was my opinion not valid? was i saying sony invented gaming? sheesh grow up

Developers have shaped every generation not Sony so please remember that praise like that is nothing more then the fanboy coming out of you. Different companies have done things to expand the market and make it easier on developers to make good great games in a shorter time. If I were to give anyone praise (even though I'm not a Wii fan at all)it would be Nintendo for saving the gaming industry and not Sony. The gaming industry was bound to grow and still will as games become more realistic to the point were movies are obsolete. Now Sony did expand the market with there brand name presence but so did MS and Nintendo even though by not as many.

"nintendo has been gaming for years and its always been seen as a kids thing through the nintendo years."

Nintendo had most of the market at one time and had plent casual and hardcore games as some would like to put it but it was more so plenty of big name 3rd Party titles left nintendo since sony provided a better platform(hence the cd-based format + failed add-on attemp for nintendo). Before that happened Nintendo had all types of games and the PC platform had more of the adult games you speak of). It wasn't Sony that brough that to gaming.

Again Sony provided the platform but it's the devs that made the platform what it is today. On another note: How you distingush mature gaming? FMV? Blood? Genre? ESRB rating? 3-D world? Nintendo had MGS and NG and other games at one point...were they kiddy games back then?

Sony had 75% of the market-share of course them PS2 sales will be justified. All I'm saying is yeah give credit where it's due but Sony would be nowhere without what Nintendo was able to do. I just don't agree sony was responsible for adult orientated gaming....and Nintendo was for mostly kids back then.

Perhaps you are right to an extent, but as YOU alluded to, Sony did provide the platform for the more mature games to reach a more massive audience as evidenced by both the PSX/1 and PS2.

"How you distinguish mature gaming?" - That's easy, you distinguish it by the themes of the games. Nintendo relies HEAVILY on games with childish themes such as Mario anything, or Warioware, etc. On the other hand, Sony relies more so on games with more mature themes such as Metal Gear 4 (much different from MGS on Nintendo, but that was still a hardcore game, the game has evolved), Resistance 2, and Uncharted. These mature themes include games that put the player in realistic-seeming life or death situations, not Mario getting bumped by a mushroom. The easiest way to see the difference is by looking at the statistics on the age groups that play each console. More 25-40 year olds are playing the PS3, while the Wii is being played by 5-12 year olds and casually by older adults, mostly.

if you guys did not know what 2.4 said, thats crazy.

the only reason playstation was released was because NIN did not want to share royalties with sony....(remember back then: SEGAgenesis touted better processor over Snes, yet still many multiplat games sounded and looked much better on Snes.....until that whole polygon war started: starfox,32x addon for genesis,virtuaracing), Nin still owned gaming at that point due to the 32x being more of a gimmick, which i bought. I had both consoles. nintendo owned portable market too; gameboy.

Basically SONY, came out and sh1111ted on everyones cartridges. Nintendo, sega, atari, NEO Geo with their ridiculous prices.

you guys BOTH need more bubbles, so here, and you are both right on the money.

Nintendo saved the gaming industry from the brink in 1985, and they MADE me the gamer that i am today that same year, when i was 6 years old and got my hands on Super Mario Bros for the first time, but Sony has fathered the MODERN DAY gaming industry, by introducing gaming to the mainstream (which is a double edged sword).

and while i don't care for Microsoft, they added their own mark by introducing the concept of HDDs to gaming (brilliant move in my opinion), and refining online gaming (the Dreamcast introduced online gaming to the masses, but it was LIVE that REALLY unified it for gamers).

what has Nintendo done the past three generations?

1) forced you to use cartridges, when the industry was moving to the large disc based media.

2) forced you to use mini-CDs, when the industry was moving to the larger DVD medium.

3) forced you to buy your Gamecube again, with a new motion controller, and play on your SD set, when the industry was moving to a larger storage medium, and the soon to be standard HD format for movies and games.

don't get it twisted, Nintendo STILL makes some fantastic games (look at Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime, Legend of Zelda, etc), however, they are now courting a different audience.

Ken Kutaragi doesn't get enough credit for expanding the gaming industry with the original Playstation.

for those that don't know, the NES sold 60 million units. the SNES sold 60 million units (to the SAME 60 million that bought the NES).

the Playstation 1 sold 110 million units. that's an industry growth of 50 million NEW GAMERS. the Playstation 2 sold 140 million and COUNTING. that's an additional growth of 30 million NEW GAMERS. that's simply fantastic for gaming at large.

Nintendo is doing it's thing to woo mom and dad, and grandma and grandpa, but that generation just wasn't brought up with gaming like WE were. they may have some fun when you bring the console over, but very few will go out and buy one for themselves. and if they do, they probably won't gravitate beyond the Wii Fit's, Wii Sports, and Wii Music.

Shigeru Miyamoto is the grandfather of the gaming industry.
Ken Kutaragi is the father of the modern day gaming industry.

hell, even the Playstation controller has become the relative standard by which ALL controllers are based (the Xbox and Gamecube controllers were modeled after the design of the PS1 Dual Shock controller, with some modifications, naturally). most PC controllers are based on the Playstation design also.

when i was younger, we were teased for playing video games. now, we have celebrities and other "cool people," touting how big of a gamer they are (we know the truth, but still, that was UNHEARD of 15 years ago, before the PS1 launched).

it amazes me to think how far this industry has progressed since i was a boy.

now that i'm a 29 year old adult, i want a machine that caters to not only my 29 year old self, but my 6 year old self that's still buried somewhere in my mind.

the PS3 suits BOTH of those needs; i get my MGS4s, Uncharted, and Resistance 2's to appease my adult, HD loving half, and i get the Ratchet and Clanks, Pixel Junk Edens, and Little Big Planets to appease my younger self.

i don't think any console is more hardcore than the other, but i believe in giving credit where credit is due.

Butterfinger, I don't think I could possibly agree with you more. That was one of the most accurate posts I believe I've ever read. I'm going on 30 in January and as such I grew up with the original mainstream consoles. The Atari 2600 Junior was my first way back in 1986 and I got the other consoles as they came out. Master System, Genesis, NES, SNES and so on. I got my first PlayStation in 1996 about 6 months after it was first released. Since then, I've moved on from Nintendo because it seemed the console had matured as I matured along with it. Sony itself, wasn't responsible for making games on their platforms more mature, but they were responsible for making each console "grow up" as it were. I now have a PS3 and a 360 as well as a standalone BD player. I have a 61" 1080p HDTV and a full on 930W 7.1 channel surround sound home theatre. I've matured as the games industry has and Sony's consoles have matured along with me. I left Nintendo back in the 90s when I was still a teenager, and as long as Sony keeps maturing along with me, I'll remain a PS loyal customer. Well said, sir. I couldn't have put it better myself.

I don't think any console is more hardcore than the other. It's the games plain and simple. Games that are more than just about beating them. Online gaming and objectives that are objectives with rewards and much more to games and make them more hardcore. Resistance 2 is a whole other game than it's first incarnation. With trophies and co-op gamers spend hours upon hours trying to accomplish more goals. Making it much more hardcore. A hardcore gamer that is an adult either has an addiction or is unemployed. For the amount of hours you would have to put into a game to be hardcore it's almost impossible with a full time job.... Although many still manage to be hardcore.

if it wasn't for Space Invaders none of them would be here.

maybe u should do some research between Sony and Nintendo. Nintendo declined the offer from Sony when Sony tried to advance Nintendo but they Denied Sony of that chance to prove Nintendo so they took what they had learned while they were with Nintendo and used that when trying to make their first gaming console

Dude you come one here every once in a while and set the records straight, and I got to thank you for that. N4G doesn't seem to want to let me give you bubble for that comment above, but thank for your insight.

My N64 and PS1 were pretty much my first consoles, and I think it was that generation when you saw Sony take the torch from Nintendo as the leader in gaming. The PS2, for me, is the king of consoles, nothing compares. I love my PS3 and I think it's the best peace of hardware I own. The content I get from mt 360 and PS3 is amazing, but the Wii sits there and is played every once in a while by my little brother. I like the situation with the big three right now, they all push each other and I hope they continue to duke it out for generations to come.

All I can say to jamie is... the first to actually bring arcade quality games wouild be Neo Geo or Sega, for what that matters... Those are two TRUE arcade makers who turned to the console market.

Sony just had more money to push it´s console forward. As far As I see it Dreamcast was a much better console from day one than PS2 is, as well as the saturn beated PS1 in many areas (ill fated sega marketing and previous hardware installments made it a lousy seller outside japan). Sony, it seems, is good for the long runs. Which is perfectly ok... But don´t go saying sony is the alpha and omega of the console market. It was a multi billion business before sony even decided to enter it... And gaming itself too. Sony just joined the wave...