You've got the wrong approach, and should be focusing on the GAMES not the system. Sports games will be nearly identical on PS3 and 360, think Rock Band is on all three, racing games likely the same with the possible exception of something like Mario Kart, and there are probably plenty of adventure games out there, though Zelda is a Nintendo owned franchise. Nintendo makes and/or publishes all Zelda titles, so they are only on Nintendo platforms. For now at least. In 5-6 years when the inevitable Apple-Nintendo merger happens, who knows.
But seriously, just go to some game review sites like IGN and Gamespot, and check reviews of games. Just sort of browse through a couple of genres you're interested in, and keep a running tally of which one has the most games you're interested in playing. Whichever one has the most games at the end, wins. After all, who cares if the PS3 has a theoretical higher graphics capability if there's only like 5 games you want to play for it, but the Wii has 30, or the 360 has 25?
And honestly, the graphics on the PS3 and 360 are just higher resolution, they aren't really what I'd call better. Companies blow about 80% of a game's budget coming up with really high resolution graphics, but they still use the same tired ragdoll physics engines, the characters still tend to move like they have a fused spine, facial expressions look like those Conan O'Brien gags where they take a still photo and cut out the mouth. Gameplay is more often than not an afterthought at best. It's basically the same kind of crap they've been pumping out since the move to 3D models instead of sprite based games, only the graphics resolution keeps improving. But if it's ultimately a largely unplayable mess, it may as well have been an animated movie.
A lot of the exceptions to this end up being some of the more "kiddie" style games like Eternal Sonata and Tales of Vesperia, which have cell shaded (cartoony) graphics. If you can get past that, and a few other little flaws, they're pretty good RPGs. And while I admit Gears of War is fun on the 360, the character animations are so stiff you sometimes feel like you're watching someone do that robot dance that was popular in the 80s. So the point of this rant is that you shouldn't discount the Wii simply because the graphics may not be as mature looking. The grass isn't a whole lot greener on the PS3 or 360 side.
with the holidays coming up, i'm fixing to get a new gaming system. i haven't had a new one in many years. i'm intrigued by the wii controller, but i feel like the graphics are childish. i think the ps3 and xbox are more up my alley, but don't know what sets them apart. any advice?
fwiw, my favorite games would be:
- a baseball game
- rock band
- a racing game
- adventure game (like zelda from along time ago)
what would you suggest?

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