H3TV recently had a Fight Night Round 3 Challenge in the Apollo Theatre. The challenge saw gamers and hip hop stars playing the game on both PS3 and Xbox 360 in split screen on the same 1080p monitors at the same time. Those on hand all proclaimed the Xbox 360 to have the graphically superior version of the game.

Dipset’s Juelz Santana stated “PS3′s High Definition picture doesn’t come close to Xbox, at least for “Fight Night.” Everyone that had the opportunity to compete on both consoles scored Xbox higher right across the board.”

The unbiased event was witnessed by cameras from CNBC, BET with reporters on hand from various magazines and newspapers.

The console transition is about to be complete. Within weeks, the Nintendo Wii and Sony Playstation 3 will finally hit retail (in some markets at least). Nintendo has been keeping a video gallery of people experiencing the Wii for the first time. The clips effectively show the fun people can have gaming when the concepts and control schemes are simple and familiar. Gamers of various nationalities, ages and even families are shown enjoying themselves with the Wii Sports titles.

What’s interesting is seeing how even people that fall outside of the stereotypical gamer profile are able to just pick up and play the games since they’re based on real life activities that are familiar and comfortable to them. What will be very intresting to see is how the general public and consumers react to the Wii when they get a chance to experience it for themselves this Fall. The Nintendo Wii is slated to hit retail in the US on November 19th.

The Wii Experience Video Gallery

Sony demonstrated their “Remote Play” feature of PS3 today. The term is used for the functionality between the PSP and PS3 systems. By switching the PS3 into Remote Play mode from the Cross Media Bar (XMB) players will be able to access a number of features and content types from the PS3 on their PSPs. For example, you’ll be viewing the PS3 XMB on your PSP. You’ll be able to watch your video trailers (resuming exactly from the same point you left off from your PS3 mind you), listen to music and view photos stored on your PS3 units.

This will be available to you from anywhere in your wireless hotspot and someday anywhere else in the world.

Sony has announced that their PS3 kiosks will be arriving in stores nationwide soon. Sony plans to have the kiosks begin to appear on October 26th. The kiosks will display the games on Bravia LCD units. Due to the smaller size of the screens, the Bravias will show in 720p and not in 1080p. The units will also be connected to the internet, so that new content can be sent directly to the kiosks from Sony. This will be much more efficient than curent kiosks that send new content to retail via DVDs.

Sony has recently announced that the first 500,000 PS3 systems will include the Blu-Ray of Talladega Nights. This will be exclusive to PS3 owners as the movie will not ship to retail until December 12th.

The gun that signals the first round in the next generation war has already been fired. Launching the Xbox 360 in November, Microsoft has enjoyed a head start on the competition. Considering the enormous amount of mindshare Sony currently has in the console race, many expect the Xbox 360 to have little hope taking the top spot despite the one year lead time. Still, is the situation really that bleak? Is the Playstation 3 launch this November really going to spell doom for the Xbox 360? We’re going to look at a few reasons why Microsoft and their Xbox 360 may be sitting in a much rosier position than many give them credit for.

We know the PS3 will launch worldwide in November. According to Sony, that launch will see one million units put into the retail channel. One million units worldwide is not a big number. Everyone has seen the effects of a worldwide launch and how long it can take to get units in numbers that match demand. Microsoft still hasn’t fully gotten up to speed with Xbox 360 shipments yet and with all the new technology being put into the PS3 such as Blu-Ray and Cell, consumers shouldn’t expect for things to be any easier from the Sony camp. Meanwhile, Microsoft will certainly have quantity up to par this Holiday season with Wistron, one of their three manufacturing partners, even promising to be able to produce one million Xbox 360s per month by the end of the year. Still, having Xbox 360s in retail during a PS3 shortage alone won’t be enough. What’s needed are the games and this is an area in which Microsoft, surprisingly, just may have the upper hand.

Many people have been criticizing the initial Xbox 360 lineup of games as not “being ‘next-gen’ enough” or “not being the quantum leap they’ve been expecting.” Naturally, the secrecy Sony has been keeping on the state of many of its games has had the public expecting that the PS3 will be the system to show graphics that will blow their minds this Holiday season. However, as we get closer to E3, we’re starting to see that some of these titles aren’t as impressive visually as we’ve been lead to believe. As much as we scream about gameplay this, and gameplay that, most consumers that are making the jump to the next generation want to see which platform has the better graphics.

In an interview we conducted with John Carmack recently he mentioned “They are both powerful systems that are going to make excellent game platforms, but I have a bit of a preference for the 360’s symmetric CPU architecture and excellent development tools. The PS3 will have a bit more peak power, but it will be easier to exploit the available power on the 360.”

What’s worse for Sony is that in the situations we’ve seen where a title is for both the PS3 and Xbox 360, they both look the same. After all, we were all blown away at Sony’s E3 conference last year when we saw “Fight Night Round 3” as the most impressive real-time demonstration of PS3 software. Then what happened this year? It was released on Xbox 360 and wasn’t missing a single step. If the multi-platform titles coming out end up looking so similar such as the EA sports lineup, “Rainbow Six: Vegas,” “Brothers In Arms: Highway to Hell” and others, it could take a lot of gas out of that Sony engine.

What we’re likely to see at retail is the following: The PS3 will sell out, there’s no doubt about that. It’ll sell out very quickly and many gamers who’ve been waiting for one will be empty handed. What the average Joe over here in the US is going to see is that even though the PS3 is sold out, Madden Football 2007 is available on Xbox 360 as well as PS3 and looking nearly identical. Outside from that, it’ll be up to the exclusives. This will be tough for Sony as Microsoft will have second generation Xbox 360 titles available. Seriously, when consumers walk into a store-front and they see the likes of “Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom” on PS3, they will notice that it will be lacking graphically compared to “Gears of War”, “Too Human” and other Xbox 360 titles due to see release at the same time. There is a very real threat of PS3 titles at launch not being able to catch up with Xbox 360 offerings graphically. Combine the fact that PS3s will be in short supply with plentiful 360s on shelves, multi-platform titles that don’t show any visual advantage on PS3 (including the all-mighty and all-selling Madden), and a stable of stellar 360 exclusives that outshine the PS3 launch exclusives then things suddenly don’t look so dire. Microsoft just may be able to pull this off without even having to worry about a price drop.

E3 is literally around the corner now. At the time of this writing, the show is two weeks away, promising to reveal many more pieces to this puzzle. Sony could make us all stand and take notice with playable games that really make us believers. We’ll be there and we’ll soon enough see, but without some major changes to what we’ve seen, Sony may be in for quite the shock this Fall.