The fight for silver rages on.

The Kinect has been out for a while now, and I can’t make out whether it was a success or not. The grapevine tells me that Microsoft’s shifted 8 million of the little blighters, which I think is successful but there’s been a bit of a backlash towards it, mainly from those who I suppose you'd call ‘hardcore’ gamers.

These are the fellows who aren’t too happy at Microsoft spending too much time with this camera sensory devise thingy, many of them have threatened to divorce the Xbox 360 unless they put more effort in with them. Not that Microsoft care, they'll keep on neglecting them and working alone in the shed all night while the hardcore gamers sleep alone wondering what could have been.

Microsoft are telling us all that they have a great line-up for 2011. This line-up consists of Metal Gear Raiden and Gears of War 3. What do you mean "is that it!?" surely that’s enough for you isn’t it? You greedy sods!

Yes, the 360 looks to be in a spot of bother this year. Whilst they spent all that time and effort working on the Kinect, they’ve taken their eye off the ball and forgot to make real games, oopsies.

This year could well be the year that Sony overtake Microsoft in the console war that is ‘Race for second place’ because as we all know the Wii is pretty much an unstoppable behemoth hell-bent on invading everyone’s living room and forcing people and their nans to jump up and down like a couple of demented tree frogs on pogo sticks all in the name of a good time. But yes Sony could well take second place from the clutches of the big M.

Think about it, what exclusives are Xbox offering this coming year? Well, I’ve mentioned them: Gears of War 3, which is fairly self-explanatory; and Metal Gear Raiden, a game featuring the whiniest man in gaming who also happens to be some sort of bad-ass ninja at the same time, sorry but every time I see him I just think of ‘Oh Rose wah-wah-wah’.

Now, check out Sony’s exclusives:  Little Big Planet 2, Uncharted 3, Twisted Metal, Killzone 3, Infamous 2, Resistance 3, and SOCOM 4 to name but a few. Yes, they’re pretty much all sequels, that’s how the market is doing it these days. Nevertheless PS3’s exclusives are looking far more appealing than Xbox’s. Even Mass Effect 3 will be multi-platform.

Put this information together with the fact that PS3 has free online multiplayer. Yes, free! All you unfortunate Xbox 360 owners who still have to fork out real money just to play online, I feel for you, I really do. I haven’t renewed mine yet, I really don’t see the point at the moment. I just don’t get how Microsoft can INCREASE the cost of Xbox Live when PS3 have been giving their online service for free since day one.

Another factor that might harm Microsoft’s chances of keeping their grip on second place is the little factor or Blu-Ray DVD players. PS3 has one, whereas Xbox 360 does not. This could prove to be quite a factor in the race as Blu-Rays are getting more and more popular in the HDTV mad world that we currently inhibit. Yeah, you can get them for a decent price on their own these days, but if PS3 are offering one and you’re looking at getting one of the two consoles, it could be a deal-breaker.

So it looks like the PS3 fan-boys actually have something to go on these days. Other than that crappy ‘our console is more powerful than yours’ argument. Nobody actually cares about that stuff. In the end of the day, what matters are the games, and this year Microsoft are clearly lacking in that department.

Unless Sonic Riders is your cup of tea.