Wow. So I think we all knew the release of the new game consoles was going to be big-but did anyone really think it would come down to people being mauled just for the privilege of owning a PlayStation 3? Much of what I've heard about the PS3 launch has honestly shaken my faith in humanity: In Japan wealthy businessmen hired homeless and poor Chinese folk to purchase the systems en masse so that they could turn around and eBay them (kotaku.com). In Hartford, Conn., a man was held up, and eventually shot, while waiting in line outside a local WalMart. Given all of this mayhem, is the PS3 even worth stirring up this sort of consumer frenzy?

Honestly, I think not. Looking at it purely as a gaming system, the PS3 is woefully equipped at launch. The system's only must-have game is "Resistance: Fall of Man," an alternate history World War II game which pits humans against-you guessed it-alien intruders. And even though "Resistance" is great and all, it doesn't really justify purchasing a $600 console when the Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii have better games at lower price points. Pretty much everything else worth owning in the PS3 launch lineup is available in some form on another platform as well. So consider me baffled why people are lining up for this thing-other than the eBay profiteers of course.

Perhaps Bill Gates had it right in a recent CNET News interview in which he said, "Sony can make 80,000 bricks, and people would buy them." For once, I may have to agree with him.

The Wii has had a considerably smoother launch ride. Not only are there more systems available than the PS3, but Nintendo's must-have launch title is the latest Zelda game-something over which gamers have been salivating for the past few years. While originally planned as one of the last GameCube titles (a GameCube version will be made available in a few weeks), Nintendo pushed the project to the Wii to insure a strong draw to the new system. While I feel somewhat burned over this as a one-time GameCube fan, the decision makes complete business sense. Plus, I'd rather be playing Zelda with the Wii controller anyway.

Changing gears, it seems as if Microsoft's Zune is doing as poorly as practically everyone had predicted. What surprises me the most about the device, though, is all of its failed potential. The Zune includes wireless capabilities, but it can only be used to trade songs to other folks, and then they can only listen to a song three times before it's locked out. In typical Microsoft fashion, you can't do anything with the device that seems the least bit intuitive. (Of course, the Xbox 360 is exempt from this truism.)

If used to its full potential, the wireless features of the Zune would have actually made it a competitor to the iPod, and not just a gussied-up imitator. Why can't we stream music to others instead of trading songs? Since the traded files are rendered useless fairly quickly, streaming seems like a suitable option as well. Why can't the Zune stream music and (gasp!) video from a wirelessly enabled Windows computer? It could take advantage of the same multimedia hooks in Windows Media Player 11 that the Xbox 360 uses.

Finally, and perhaps the greatest loss of all, why didn't Microsoft innovate for once and give us a music store that could be accessed from directly within the Zune? Imagine being able to connect from any open wi-fi point to download new music. This would also give us the ability to update pod-netcasts from any open wireless access point as well! Oh right, Microsoft refuses to acknowledge the existence of podcasts. There's that hubris again-stifling innovation wherever it appears.

If the Zune was released with this sort of feature set, I could easily see consumers second-guessing an iPod purchase. At least, I know I would want one.

Devindra (dahardawar@amherst.edu) will love his 2003-era Rio Karma MP3 player until the day it dies, or until somebody actually makes the audio player of his dreams.