Will it ever end? Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's Playstation 3, always in the heat of the gamer's debate. Game publishers taking a stand on the console they prefer, and perhaps unfairly making a multi platform game better on one console. And Nintendo Wii, which is usually in the background, comes out on top with the highest selling console since the PS2.

Lots of fun from the world of next-gen consoles this week. It all started on Monday when US news sources started picking up on a preview of Splinter Cell: Conviction featured on Aussie site, Gameplayer. In it, the game's producer Dany Lepage seems to trash PS3's AI capabilities. from the preview:

"So, Conviction is confirmed for PC and Xbox 360. But what about the other consoles? Double Agent was a 360 exclusive for a whole week. On this issue, Danny could give us a firm answer. "It's NEVER gonna come out on the PS3 or the Wii." It's a logical decision. Nintendo's console simply doesn't have the graphical horsepower, and he candidly told us how the PS3 can't handle AI nearly as well as the 360."

Naturally, Xbox fanboys leapt on this delicious titbit like banned attack dogs.

Today, though, Sony struck back. The company's US mouthpiece Dave Karraker struck back, snarling, "PS3 can more than handle AI... as you will see with Heavenly Sword, which has hundreds of on-screen enemies with different AI routines at one time thanks to the power of CELL."

But the excitement doesn't end there. Also today, EA has been 'forced' (asked) to explain why the latest version of Madden runs at 60 frames-per-second on Xbox 360, but only 30FPS on PS3. It's not a technical issue this time however, according to an EA Sports technical support chap emailed by a concerned PS3-owning Maddenite:

Supernouva via blogs.guardian.co.uk »