For all the gamers out there who sat through Halo matchmaking when they should have been studying for midterms, and for all those dedicated PS2 fans who plowed though Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas in its entirety the first day it was released, this has been the week we’ve been waiting for.

It started last Thursday when Mr. Gates finally revealed the Xbox 360 on an MTV special. A week later at E3, the gamers’ Mecca where developers and publishers show what’s in the works to a drooling audience, Sony officially revealed their next super console, the PS3. The next generation of consoles is coming (as if my GPA wasn’t suffering enough as it is).

So can we gamers expect red-eyed-caffeine-laced nights in our dorm with these new machines? Let’s put it this way—don’t plan on sleeping for a week after getting one. These things are impressive. There are already a slew of games in development for the launch of both consoles and they look ridiculous. With the new Quake 3 engine being leased to both companies, there’s enough normal-mapping and dynamic shadowing to give any graphics whore a wet dream. For those who didn’t understand that last sentence, let’s just say that the games are pretty, very very pretty.

The consoles look gorgeous. Gone are the days of the clunky black box with a big green disk stamped in the middle. The Xbox 360 has a curvy, organic shape that’s designed to sit either vertically or horizontally, much like a PS2 without a stand. In fact, the Xbox 360 is specifically designed to sit at the top of any entertainment center in all its off-white glory. The front faceplate is removable so gamers now have the option of customizing their console.

Sony also has a reputation for being a player in the console business, and it shows in the PS3. While the PS2 looked better then the original Xbox - my stereo is less of an eyesore - it still had a cold, industrial look. The PS3 is actually…elegant. It has a clean, simple design that’s rumored to be available in three basic colors for launch. Wireless controllers are standard for both consoles, which will eliminate the problem of tangled cords. Microsoft is choosing to update the Controller S with repositioned black and white buttons on the shoulders, addressing a problem that plagued the old controller. Sony has opted for a boomerang-shaped redesign of their proprietary DuelShock that preserves the old controller’s button layout. This should be welcome news to Xbox fans used to being tethered to the ridiculously large original Xbox controller.

What else is different in the next gen? The Xbox 360 comes with a removable 20GB hard drive standard that can transport large amounts of data. It also has two slots for 64MB memory cards and several USB ports to stream pictures and mp3 files. Out of the box it can play DVDs in high definition and, if the owner is so inclined, he could stream HDTV to the Xbox 360 over a Media Center PC and simultaneously talk to his friends over Xbox Live, Microsoft’s online network. All consoles will be automatically connected to Live, with two levels of service, one paid and one free. Updates to the service include a much cleaner and more accessible menu system, video messaging, and a five star “reputation” ranking (something like eBay’s reliability rating). One of the most interesting changes, however, is the addition of the gamerscore system. It’s a measure of how “successful” a gamer is. For example, if a player finished DOA 4, one of the 360’s launch titles, on its hardest difficulty setting, his gamerscore goes up. Online play through the original Live was both revolutionary and fun, but it still faced problems. Cheating was common whether it was people who simply screamed into the mike to distract other players or more advanced methods that exploited the hardware itself. The updated service now provides more options to choose who you play with, along with information on the player’s history. This means no more worrying about team-killing retards and screaming brats.

Sony is playing the details of their new console a little closer to the vest. What we do know about the PS3 and what it can do comes from a demo of a “rubber ducky” that was shown during the E3 press conference. What’s so impressive about a rubber duck? Well it worked off the updated EyeToy, a camera peripheral that captures the user’s movements and transfers them on screen. In the demo, a bathtub was modeled filled with water and a rubber ducky. The user held two cups, one green and one blue. By physically moving the cups around, the user could move the two digital cups in the gameworld and realistically dip and pour water. Granted, few people would buy a bathtub simulator, but the demo defiantly showed off the PS3’s new processor, codenamed “Cell,” which is rumored to be 35 times faster than the chip in the original PlayStation.

But which platform will be superior? In a perfect world we could afford both consoles and have all day to just twiddle our thumbs. Unfortunately, this is not the case. We must choose (sniff…). Both consoles are rumored to be priced around $300 for a basic package, and the two are similar in many respects. Right now I’d have to give the slight edge to Microsoft because its planned release date is in 2005 rather than 2006 and because its online plan is currently more developed. However, there just isn’t enough info on the PS3 to make a concrete decision yet; you can never count out a console with launch title that starts with Metal Gear Solid. In the end, it’ll probably come down to brand loyalty; if you enjoy supporting the worldwide dominance of Microsoft, you’ll probably go with the 360. If you own a PS2 now, you’ll most likely just upgrade.

Of course, Microsoft has a little something called Halo 3, which is rumored to be released in spring of next year…around the same time as the PS3 launch date.