Wow. That’s the first thing that comes to mind when I look back to our PS3 vs. XBOX 360 articles (the original, written by a game developer friend of mine when the PS3 launched, and the first annual comparison article written by myself a year later). The feedback I’ve received for these articles has been tremendous, not just in amount but in quality as well. Most people agree that the articles are among the very few on the net that don’t take sides in the argument, and offer a fair comparison of both consoles. They somehow managed to make both groups of fanboys happy.
As always, I will remain completely impartial for this article as well. I am going to keep things as objective as possible, leaving most everything else up to you to decide. If you expect me to tell you which console is the right one for you to buy, or which one “has better graphics” think again. Only you can know that. My goal is to provide you with enough information that you should be able to know clearly which one is better for you. So if you haven’t read our prior articles, you might want to do so first.
Click below to read the entire 4200+ word article :)
Price
What a way to start things off! The prices of next-gen consoles have dropped dramatically since the PS3 was introduced. Last year, we were talking about $500 and $600 models of the PS3, and $280 and $350 versions of the XBOX 360. Console SKUs have changed a lot in the past year as well, especially in the case of the PS3. We have been tracking their changes here and here, so you should go there to see what the latest features are. This is especially important with regards to the PS3, where features seem to be dropped rather than added with every SKU change.
In terms of price, the PS3 can be had for $399 for the 80GB version, and $499 for the 160GB version. It makes almost no sense to pay the extra $100 for the larger hard drive, as the consoles are otherwise identical (except for the fact that the 160GB comes with Drake’s Fortune and Pain, which may or may not make up for the extra cost depending on the type of games you like to play). If you really need the space, a 320GB laptop drive is no more than $80 these days, and it’s very easy to install into the PS3.
As far as the XBOX 360 goes, Microsoft have aggressively dropped the price on their console to the point where the low-end version without a hard drive costs $50 less than a Wii. It even comes with a full game (Sega Superstars Tennis at this time – obviously intended to compete with potential Wii Sports buyers) as well as a collection of XBLA games on disc. If you want to spend no more than $200, and are choosing between a Wii and a 360, the answer is obvious: if you like playing video games, get a 360. If you want to have something sitting around that your friends and family will play once in a while after a few drinks, get a Wii.
The ‘regular’ versions of the XBOX 360 (with a hard drive) are $299 for a 60GB version, and $399 for a 120GB Elite. Both versions come bundled with the same two games at this time; Lego Indiana Jones, and Kung-Fu Panda. So again, there is really not much reason to spend the extra $100, unless you really need the extra hard drive space. Unlike the PS3, you will need to spend that extra cash if you want the space, because the 360’s drive format is proprietary. So if you can justify the need for 120GB, get the Elite. Just be mindful that you aren’t getting much else besides a black paint job and an HDMI cable.
So the main contenders are the Playstation 3 80GB for $399, and the XBOX 360 60GB for $299. For many people, this is all that matters, and they could just stop reading here. After all, XBOX 360 sold over twice as many units at the beginning of the 2008 xmas buying seas as the PS3 (836K vs. 378K – Source: NPD).
One major issues with the XBOX 360’s price is that it still does not have integrated Wi-Fi in the box (no, not even the so-called “Elite”). If you need to use Wi-Fi to connect to the internet rather than cables, you will be required to spend around $100 for a proprietary Wireless adapter. That is absolutely ridiculous for a simple USB adapter that normally costs $20 or so. Here’s a tip: online import stores generally sell them for less, since XBOX 360 accessories cost much less in Asia.
Performance
If you pay attention to actual game developers, and not the angry fanboys, you will learn that no, the Playstation 3 doesn’t have “more graphics power” than the 360. The fact is, XBOX 360’s Xenos GPU itself has far more computing power than the RSX GPU
that resides in the PS3. Does this mean the 360 has “better graphics”? I don’t know, that is a subjective matter, beyond the scope of this objective
comparison, and entirely up to you to decide. If you like what you see
on the PS3, then to you, it has “better graphics”. If you like what you see on
the 360, then there you go. That is all subjective, and not the goal of this
article. The CPU power is another story however; on paper the Cell has a lot more potential than the triple-core Xeon that resides in the 360. Last year, I wrote,
…I fully expect the PS3 to win this category – eventually. To what extent, I’m not sure (very likely it’s only going to be the blockbuster first-party titles that take full advantage of Cell), and when this will occur, I’m not sure either. Obviously, one full year wasn’t enough.
One year certainly wasn’t enough, but were two? That’s a subjective matter,
and up to you to decide. For my money, not many games look better than MGS4 on
PS3, and Killzone 2 is looking really good. However, “Blockbuster” exclusives will almost always look
really good, and comparing one to the other is pretty much pointless.
If Killzone 2 is any indication, it looks like PS3’s Cell architecture is finally beginning to flex its muscle. It is possible that the 360 has already met its full potential, and the PS3 is still getting there, at least for AAA exclusives
are concerned. That is purely conjecture though, and that’s not what this article is about.
XBOX 360 had a huge advantage in most third-party games in 2007. We wrote that first of all, games aren’t really “Full HD” at this point. Games run in much lower resolutions in order to keep the overall quality and effects high. Make no mistake; you need a PC to play games with high detail, full HD graphics; both consoles lag far behind a well equipped PC. But I digress; when it comes to third-party titles throughout its first year, PS3 games were often late and featured noticeably lower quality graphics when compared to the same games on 360. Is that the case now? Sort of, but it’s not nearly as bad. Let’s take a look at some familiar multi-platform games of 2008:
- Fallout 3 – looks essentially the same on both, but PS3 version lacks antialiasing. The PS3 version initially had bugs, but they have since been patched.
- Bioshock – Despite coming out a year later, the PS3 version of Bioshock was pretty much a mess at first. Some of the textures are noticeably lower, and the framerate stutters often. A patch improved things, but the framerate is still lower.
- Dead Space – The developers have been quoted that working with Sony is “challenging” so the old mantra of the Sony and Playstation being tough to work with hold true to this day. Thankfully, they were able to manage a good experience on both consoles, and both versions play about the same.
- Soul Calibur IV – The 360 version runs in a 960p frame buffer, but Namco-Bandai decided to downsample the 360’s resolution down to 720p to smooth the image rather that utilize AA. However, the difference is not significant, so both versions look pretty close to the same (the 360 does have some extra lighting effects). Since you can download both Darth Vader and Yoda on either version, even that has become a moot point.
- Devil May Cry 4 – Remember this one? It came out in 2008 as well. Unlike most games, this isn’t a port from one console to another. Rather, Capcom develops their games on a tri-platform engine (Framework MT), then compile them for PC, PS3, and XBOX 360. Antialiasing is present on the 360 version, since it is essentially ‘free’. To keep it running at 720p with a decent framerate on the PS3, Capcom utilized a pseudo-AA effect by shifting frames and creating a blur effect. It does smooth things out, but during fast moving scenes it tends to stand out.
In the end, I think we can say that multiplatform gaming is getting closer to parity, but it’s not quite there yet. The 360’s superior graphics power is especially applicable to multi-platform games
that do not get a lot of development time to make full use of Cell architecture,
and the XBOX 360’s GPU allows it to run at higher resolutions while eliminating jaggies with “Free” Antialiasing.
Furthermore, Playstation 3 titles tend to ship with bugs that get patched at a later time. This is nothing new to PC gamers of course, but definitely quite new to console gamers (and not exclusive to PS3 either – plenty of XBOX 360 games get patched as well).
You should also consider that many games require a mandatory installation on the Playstation 3, and in many cases load times are still about the same as a DVD would be. With the XBOX 360, you have the choice of installing a game to the hard drive, and when you do you will instantly notice faster load times and quieter operation. Comparing DMC4 load times
on an installed PS3 version to an installed XBOX 360 version is quite significant.
Game Selection
This was a touchy subject for many Sony fanboys who read last year’s article. They stated that it wasn’t “fair” to compare the game selection of the 360, which had an extra year’s worth of game releases. My answer to them is, it doesn’t matter which console came out first. These articles are about what is out there RIGHT NOW.
Last year, the overall quality of exclusive titles was clearly better on the 360. With games like Bioshock, Forza 2, Halo 3, and Mass Effect, the 360 had many “Editor’s Choice” worthy titles, as well as a few “Game of the Year” contenders for 2007. Meanwhile, Sony’s best exclusives were Ratchet & Clank, Heavenly Sword, and Uncharted. Good games to be sure, but not exactly the same caliber. So have things switched around in 2008? Let’s take a look:
| XBOX 360 Exclusives released in 2008 | |
| Title | GameRankings Score |
| Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts | 80 |
| Command & Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath | 75 |
| Culdcept Saga | 77 |
| Dance Dance Revolution Universe 3 | 72 |
| Dark Messiah Might and Magic: Elements | 53 |
| Fable II | 89 |
| Frontlines: Fuel of War | 77 |
| Gears of War 2 | 94 |
| Guilty Gear 2: Overture | 60 |
| Infinite Undiscovery | 68 |
| Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom | 56 |
| Left 4 Dead | 90 |
| Lips | 72 |
| Lost Odyssey | 79 |
| Namco Museum Virtual Arcade | 74 |
| Naruto: The Broken Bond | 81 |
| Ninja Gaiden II | 82 |
| Scene It? Box Office Smash | 76 |
| Spectral Force 3: Innocent Rage | 60 |
| Supreme Commander | 59 |
| Tales of Vesperia | 83 |
| Too Human | 68 |
| Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise | 83 |
| Warhammer: Battle March | 57 |
| You’re in the Movies | 56 |
| Zoids Assault | 47 |
| Playstation 3 Exclusives released in 2008 | |
| Title | GameRankings Score |
| Buzz! Quiz TV | 82 |
| Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice | 80 |
| Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds | 81 |
| Gran Turismo 5 Prologue | 80 |
| Haze | 57 |
| LittleBigPlanet | 94 |
| Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots | 92 |
| MLB 08: The Show | 86 |
| Monster Madness: Grave Danger | 55 |
| MotorStorm: Pacific Rift | 82 |
| Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm | 76 |
| NBA 09: The Inside | 64 |
| Resistance 2 | 88 |
| SingStar | 83 |
| SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation | 66 |
| Valkyria Chronicles | 87 |
This table includes games that are “console exclusive” but are also available on PC.
Green = over 80% score in GameRankings
Bold = Worthy of Game of the Year consideration (this is irregardless of their GR scores)
These lists cover the entire calendar year of 2008. Keep in mind that the intention of displaying exclusives like this is not to determine which console “is better”. It is assumed that the multiplatform games are essentially equal on both, and there are plenty of really good multi-platform games. In fact, looking at these lists, only 3 to 5 exclusive games are really worthy of GOTY consideration.
What we can see by looking at these tables, is that the 360 certainly has a lot more shovelware (especially from Japan). Aside from the crap, both consoles offer about the same amount of “good” exclusive titles. And finally, it sort of shows the futility of aggregated scores; are SingStar and Buzz really “better” than Banjo-Kazooie and Disgaea 3?
Looking ahead into 2009, the future of exclusives on XBOX 360 seems somewhat questionable at this point. Little is known about many of the titles, and they have yet to have their desirability (or even 2009 release dates) confirmed. Some of the titles we’re looking forward to are Forza Motorsport 3, Halo 3: Recon, Star Ocean, and (maybe) Alan Wake. Mass Effect 2 is questionable at best. XBOX 360 is however getting some nice exclusive downloadable content, like GTA IV and Fallout 3 (hope you didn’t trade those in!). On the PS3 side, we have Heavy Rain, Infamous, God of War 3, Uncharted 2, Killzone 2, and White Knight Chronicles to look forward to. Gran Turismo 5 may even make it by the end of the year, but probably only in Japan. Those are some pretty big sequels right there, but much of it is conjecture at this point, so we can’t comment on it too much. In November, we’ll look at how each console’s year went ;)
Online Support
Sony has come a long way in the year since we last did this comparison. Can you imagine playing a game, and not having access to your friends list? And whether you like it or not, a lot of people can’t live without achievements. Sony has added these features to their interface, while maintaining free online access. It’s not as good as it sounds however; chatting with friends is still clunky as hell, and it’s still difficult to invite them to games (there is still no auto invite function).
Some games have added better interfaces (Burnout Paradise comes to mind), but in the end, PS3’s online functionality is very poor in comparison to XBOX Live. I guess you can still say “You get what you pay for” in this case.
Another issue is the fact that there are fewer people buying Playstation 3 games. Not only is the console being outsold by quite a significant margin by the XBOX 360 (4.62 million compared to 2.56 million in 2008 alone, and 9.15 million compared to 3.25 million in the lifetime of the consoles), it also sells less games per console. That means that you will find many more online games of Call of Duty 4, for instance, on the XBOX 360. Also, even your multi-console friends will probably choose to play online games on the 360, because of everything I mentioned here.
New Interfaces
Both Sony and Microsoft launched their big interface upgrades right before the holiday buying season, and if there was one thing that set the consoles apart, these new features are it. On the Microsoft side, the entire console interface has been retooled. I mentioned in last year’s comparison article:
I prefer the PS3’s interface to the bright, flashy, sluggish interface of the XBOX 360. Turning on the PS3 to watch a high-definition movie feels like a classy, almost ‘high end’ experience. In contrast, fire up the XBOX 360 and you are treated to a whining fan, screeching DVD drive, and bright flashy colours on your screen.
The “New XBOX Interface” or NXE replaces the annoyingly low-framerate, bright flashy interface with a sleeker system that actually works somewhat similar to Playstation’s “Cross Media Bar” or XMB. It still isn’t as “classy” as the default PS3 option, but it is a HUGE improvement. And if you don’t want to play around on it, simply hit your “X” button on the controller to gain access to all the functionality in a compact window.
Since last year, PS3’s XMB has added theme functionality (both free and commercial themes are available on PSN). NXE also has themes, and it actually does a better job of separating the content you are browsing from the theme itself. Some XMB themes that have light backgrounds are impossible to use because of the white text.
That brings me to Playstation @Home. If you haven’t tried it by now, you’ve surely heard about this ambitious project. Meant to be a sort of “Second Life” for video games, the “beta” launch of @Home can be considered a complete flop by all gamers (Sony fanboy or not). If you know nothing of it, let me try to describe it for you.
Picture this scene: A stark looking “futuristic” city garden, populated by zombies that all have the same blank expressions on their faces, same clothes and same hairstyles. Wherever there is a female zombie, she will be surrounded by at least 5 male zombies, all of whom are showing off their best dance movies. Also, bubble machines are everywhere.
That’s @Home in a nutshell. I am not even going to bring up the absurdity that is asking people to pay to make their zombies look slightly different. I was in the @Home closed beta for a while, and I can admit that it is somewhat fun to win special clothing and furniture by playing games (the Namco prizes are especially cool). The problem is, there is absolutely nothing to do with this clothing and furniture once you’ve won it, except wearing the clothing and placing the furniture on floors.
Since @Home isn’t exactly an interface replacement, we can’t really compare it directly to NXE. Instead, we can simply consider it as being an ‘extra’ to the PS3 that pretty much nobody is using at this point. It may improve, but right now it should absolutely not be part of the reason you decide to buy a Playstation 3.
NXE on the other hand improves the XBOX 360’s interface to the point where it is at least as enjoyable to use as XMB. Personally, I
hated the original XBOX 360 interface, so this new one is a huge improvement. Also, being able to install games to the hard drive (completely optional) is a really nice feature. PS3 games often require installation to bring load times up to DVD speed (or slightly faster). With NXE, you are beating DVD’s already quick load times (and quieting down the ridiculously loud DVD drive).
Playstation Network Store vs. XBOX Live Arcade
The initial interface of Sony’s online store was, to say the least, crap. However they revised it last year, and it is now very easy to find games, demos, and other extra goodies. There are even ‘branded stores’ for companies like Capcom who offer many titles.
Big titles like Mega Man and Street Fighter HD are available on both programs, and usually run well on both consoles. Both consoles have good indy support as well, with all the PixelJunk games and such on PSN, and games like Braid on XBLA.
Microsoft tends to do a better job of adding retro games, while Sony only occasionally adds the odd PS1 title, and has a few arcade games available. This is one thing that drives retro fans like
myself crazy; with hundreds of great games that can easily be made available on PSN for little cost, it’s frustrating that there are so few.
As far as demos go, both PSN and XBLA have time fee-based demo exclusivity. For XBLA, it’s in the form of XBOX Live membership, where if you’re a paying member (which all online gamers are), you get early access to demos. For Playstation Network, you have to subscribe to their “video magazine” Qore to get monthly exclusive demos, the value of which is questionable.
Multimedia
When I last compared the two consoles, the PS3 had just received an update allowing it to play DivX files using the AVI container format (in other words, the most common format used by people who “share” movies and TV recordings). Shortly after that, XBOX 360 received similar features.
As it stands, basic multimedia functionality of the two consoles in terms of playback is pretty much the same. One major advantage of the PS3 is that not only can it stream media, but you can store media on it as well. The 360 was only ever intended to be a “Media Extender” so you can’t do things like save your AVI files on the hard drive.
There have been rumors for the past year that Microsoft would begin supporting Blu-Ray on the XBOX 360 following the demise of HD-DVD. Those rumors have been pretty much completely squashed, so that leaves PS3 as the only Blu-Ray playing video game console for quite a while. And as a Blu-Ray player, the PS3 is fantastic. It supports all the latest features, and has responsive controls and high video quality.
Netflix
Depending on your situation, this may be a HUGE deal for XBOX 360, something that you need to consider if you like to rent movies. With NXE, XBOX 360 added the ability to stream movies in near-DVD to 720p quality to users with XBOX Live Gold and Netflix Unlimited accounts. At a low monthly cost, users have access to over 100,000 titles, including movies and TV shows. Keep in mind however, that this feature is only available to US residents at this time.
With some effort, you can do the same with the PS3, but nothing beats turning the 360 into a media center that allows you to easily browse through thousands of movies and shows, and instantly start streaming them with decent quality. PS3’s Blu-Ray support is more geared for video enthusiasts, where Netflix streaming is more for the casual crowd. So it’s up to you to decide which is better for you.
Other Considerations
There are of course some other things that we need to consider when comparing the consoles that may not fit under certain categories. For some people, this is what will make or break their purchasing decision.
- RROD. The issue has seemingly been taken care of, as reports of recent XBOX 360 models have been few and far between. However, if you are using a launch unit, the longer you play it, the closer you are to disaster. I am knocking on wood at this point, but it just seems that having your XBOX 360 die on you is not a threat, but an inevitability.
- Import Gaming. I touched on this last year – the fact that the Playstation 3 is completely region free for PS3 titles makes it the easy choice for import gamers. If you are into playing the latest whacky titles from Japan, then the decision has been made for you pretty much. Furthermore, it’s very easy to create PSN accounts in other countries, allowing you to play demos intended for other regions. Without a credit card, you won’t be able to purchase PSN games, but this is still a nice feature to have.
- Piracy. The PS3 still has yet to be figured out by modders, so pirates are still left with one choice between the two. That said, Microsoft is constantly battling piracy, in the form of completely banning consoles that play online with pirated games. The Playstation 3 will almost inevitably be cracked, but when it happens and how easy it’s going to be are unknown at this point.
- Folding@Home. Again, not a big deal to most people, but folders who are on the fence about which console to buy will want to consider the PS3. Believe it or not, there are some pretty hardcore folders out there who care a lot about how many points they make.
- PSP Connectivity. This function was added just after I wrote my last article, and it’s only gotten better since then. The interoperability between the PS3 and PSP is nothing short of impressive. Browse the console from anywhere, stream music and video, play games. It’s really cool. Unfortunately, the PSP has become somewhat irrelevant in the last year, due to a lack of.. any games worth playing at all.
- Backwards Compatibility. If you are interested in playing your PS2 library on your shiny new PS3, forget it. Any system bought in a store today has absolutely no PS2 functionality whatsoever. Not even emulation. On top of that, PS2 emulation on the old 80GB version was extremely sketchy. If you really want a backwards compatible PS3, you need to buy a used 60GB or 20GB. In the meantime, Microsoft is expanding their backwards compatibility, and adding new Original XBOX games to their online library from time to time.
- Display Connectivity. When I wrote last year’s article, you had to buy an Elite XBOX 360 to get HDMI output. Since then, every single XBOX 360 has HDMI output (even the $200 Core System) so this is no longer an issue. What may be an issue is that you will need to use a custom cable if you want to use optical audio with HDMI video. This costs around $40.
- Open Source Operating Systems. Again, PS3 is the only console that officially allows you to install Linux on it. You can’t play PS3 games while in Linux, but you can switch back to the XMB easily. There is still a group that is working on a version of Linux that can be installed on XBOX 360.
Conclusion
So, which is better, XBOX 360 or PS3?
The answer is……. Neither! Look, each console has its “pros and cons”. If you primarily play online games, you will want to get an XBOX 360. If you have a nice HDTV and want to enjoy beautiful Blu-Ray movies, you will want to get a PS3. If you are an “achievement whore” you will want a 360. If you like to play import games, you will want a PS3. If you want to easily stream near-HD quality movies and TV shows, get a 360. It goes on and on. If you like Halo games, get a 360. If you are more of a Killzone kinda guy, get a PS3. If you want to spend less than $400, get a 360.
If you think the PS3 has “better graphics” get a PS3. If you think the XBOX 360
has “better graphics” then get an XBOX 360.
The fact is, the decisions that influence your purchasing decision are entirely up to you. What matters to you may not matter to the next person. But hopefully you have a clearer picture of “what matters” to you, and how the consoles compare after reading this article. If it’s exclusive titles, fine. Go with the console that has the games you like. If it’s “which multiplatform games play better on this console” the answer is… Well the 360 is a bit better, but the PS3 is improving in this regard (and buggy games do get patched).
I’ll finish off with some comments that are purely subjective. It is my personal opinion that it just ‘feels’ better to play games on the Playstation 3. After reading this entire article, the PS3 has some advantages and some disadvantages, but for some reason I just like playing games on it better. It’s quiet, I don’t have to worry about it Red Ringing on me, and I actually prefer the DualShock 3 controller (when the connection is not cutting out, which seems to happen with less frequency now that I think about it). I am more of an offline gamer when it comes to consoles, so the XBOX 360’s huge advantage of being the superior online gaming system doesn’t apply to me. I just want a console that will do what it’s supposed to do, and do so quietly. Other people will feel just the opposite, and that is perfectly fine. I have my reasons, and you have yours. And neither of those should affect one another. That’s the whole point of writing this article in the manner that I have.
Comments are welcome, keeping in mind that fanboy crap will not remotely be tolerated. If you have a comment to make, try to do so in a respectable manner.
yeah the fat ps3’s looked really nice. my brother has the slim 120gb, which looks good, but the material(??)/ casing seems like a scratch(insert something) type thingy. i no its out of the question now, (most likely) but i think it would have been awesome if the slim was just a to scale model of the old “fat” ps3’s. im not saying the slims are crap, just the look on the original ps3 was stunning. with all the reflected light coming off the thing. it was
I have had a 360 since the very first ones came out and i find it amazing. My friend has a PS3 and it looks cool and every thing but its just so un-user friendly its confusing. We have a lot of arguments over which is better and he always goes to the blu-ray. The blu ray like it says in this article is for movies the gaming graphics are basically the same for both consoles. My 360 has had one problem and i sent it back once for free and only took a few weeks. Newer 360’s have no problems failing at all ( with my experience )… He also always goes to free internet. So what its 50 dollars a YEAR most people make that in a few hours and online play is so much easier and smoother with xbox ( in my experience .. Again )… Ps3 is great but i personally love xbox 360 they’re amazing and so much fun. and if you want to chat with people online on xbox its a lot better sounding than ps3 that sounds like every one is sitting 10 feet from their mic yelling in a glass box. But like this article says its completely up to you.. I recommend xbox 360 just because the online capability is so much greater and its so much more user friendly and microsoft is an awesome company. And another thing they say that xbox’s always have tons more problems than ps3’s and that there are way more xbox’s that mess up than there are ps3’s but could it just be because millions more people have xbox’s? and if you buy one game compared to 100 games isn’t it more likely that, the 100 games will have a couple that came with no discs or don’t work. and that one game will work perfectly fine?
tyler,
I understood where you were coming from with the online thing being better on the 360, but your last couple of points were very Microsoft Defence League.
quote “and microsoft is an awesome company”.
I’m glad I wasn’t eating my breakfast or I’d have ended up with cereal on my keyboard. Microsoft is a money grabbing, peripheral overpricing, 3rd party stopping, hardware faliing, dlc buying, banana money charging bunch of thieves. This is a company that wanted to get BBC Iplayer onto the 360, but only for Live Gold account holders, even though it’s a completely free service for UK TV license payers, & when the BBC said only if Silver account holders can get it MS didn’t want to know. Microsoft is the main culprit for releasing broken hardware & software & fixing it later (if someone threatens to sue them). It ended up costing them millions & millions in warranty repairs (don’t think they did it out of the goodness of their hearts, they just didn’t want suing for even more, or being forced into recalling all 360’s). It’s a company, it’s out to make money just like Sony, & it’s had plenty of practice at being a bit of a git to make more.
Quote “And another thing they say that xbox’s always have tons more problems than ps3’s and that there are way more xbox’s that mess up than there are ps3’s but could it just be because millions more people have xbox’s?”
Wordlwide, the PS3 is about 4 million units down (give or take a mil or two, I haven’t seen the most recent sales figures) with the 360 selling somewhere not that short of 40 million units.. There have been various surveys showing failure rates of earlier models from 30% right up to 55% & higher, which is shocking. These figures are subjective though, so just a a rough guide.the 360 even has it’s own wiki page just because of the reliability issues.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360_technical_problems
The difference between sales of the PS3 & 360 is not 55%, or even close to that. However, this shouldn’t affect your decision when buying a “new” console as the Jasper 360 is supposed to be a lot better. Also, some of the old 60GB PS3’s seem to be having a few problems as well. Put simply the failure rate of the 360 “was” shocking, unacceptable, & well out of order. Microsoft knew the 360 was unreliable before they released it, but they wanted to be out there before Sony so they didn’t care (that also goes against MS being an awesome company). Either new console should be (fingers crossed) reliable, & previous history shouldn’t stop you purchasing what you want, but only a blind fool would love Microsoft as a company, & make excuses for them. You can love your console all you want though, just don’t let the wife see you, she wouldn’t understand. ;)
Unfortunately for me I *was* eating (my dinner) when I read that.
As bad as MS can be though, they do seem all to happy to keep repairing defective units and are generally very timely.
I think *most* big name gaming hardware companies can be dirtbags some of the time though. Hell, even Nintendo. I mean their customer service is great and all but they seen to have mostly forsaken the core gamers.
There are some software companies that are worse even then the big 3 hardware giants though. Think the occasional game that won’t work at all out of the box. Even now, years later, that whole Pool of Radiance thing still leaves a bad taste in my mouth, even though things did settle fairly well after the whole ‘not working on release, occasionally fucking up the odd PC’ thing.
i prefer xbox 360’s. mine got rrod like 2 weeks from now. i just found out it is under an extended fault warranty. i rang microsoft and they are repairing it for free and the postage is free. but i did just buy a new jasper model elite anyway. but their customer support was very good. they said they would send it back with a 1 month gold card. ( which covers the time it was away, and yes, they are sending it back either repaired or giving me another xbox). but as much as i like the xbox 360, microsoft are merchants(rip-off merchants). although, when you think about it, so are sony and so are nintendo. its their job to make as much money as they can. although microsoft is the biggest offender here.
i actually think microsoft are funny in the way they make their products so that they are only compatible with their own products or their subsidiaries, in most cases.
but in any case, if my xbox 360 breaks i am more than happy to buy a new one over a ps3, reason being, XBOX LIVE. thaqt is their biggest selling point so you could probably bet the Red Ring aint going away forever, although, the jasper models seem fairly nice.
IF you read this Essay, im sorry.
it’s all very well saying M$ will fix your 360 for free and all that jive but i prefer when i don’t have to depend on great after-sale service to fix something expensive which breaks down after 4 month, my elite 360 broke for the 5th and final time last week and although it was a minor fault, (the battery pack), it was just another addition to a catalogue of errors i experienced with it so i decided to get rid of it completely, gone is my yearly subscription- (6 month), the few games i downloaded, the money i wasted on avatar clothing etc etc, but losing that stuff was the cheaper option than paying £50 for a new battery brick and possible further pay outs for subsequent failures.
I would like to point out the main reason of preference anyone has seemed to post is always software based issues. This can be changed. I said before that Live will not hold forever and PSN Premium may just bring that in the coming months. The ways you navigate can be changed. I would not be surprised to see downloads to change the GUI of either of these consoles. It would make since to put true customization in the mix. The comments about MS are typical. You are forced to live with them in many ways so if you hate them you will be upset on some level with them anyway because you are using something they control or made.
Sony can not be compared to MS in the way they have approached this console. Sony took time in making it reliable. They certainly have and should be criticized for not taking the time on the GPU to get a proper match-up to the cell. They have gotten away with it because the cell can take the burden off the gpu in some ways. This keeps them on level with MS and their 360. I notice that the complaints against the 360 are almost always the same. Noise, scratching discs, and RROD (pre-Jasper). That is poor QA and engineering.
MS did not want to fall behind Sony as they learned even with the original XBOX that they could not tame the PS2 fans enough to gain the market share. They wanted to be the first in and more than likely, they will try and do the same with the next console. First one out the gate “wins” theory. It will be as always a majority rules market. The majority will not always target the same thing within their own group. Some will like it for its controls. Some will like it for its library. That is what makes it so important to hammer out the whole system and not focus squarely on one attribute of the system. Market share is easier to hold if you have all the bells and whistles.
Sony made a few bad choices too. While blu ray does have a great storage capacity, to achieve similar read speeds to a DVD, the disc has to be optimized and that seems to have only happened in a handful of games tops. And then there’s the PSP Go… Need I go there?
Nintendo and MS have also tried a few things, some more successful than others, and while we can see drawbacks now, perhaps it only means a stronger next generation of consoles. The thought of a blu ray drive with higher read speeds has me drooling as does the thought of digital distribution (so long as the content is there and there’s multiple paying options).
As far as the present goes I’m expecting psn premium to cause an upset depending on how good it is. Really it’s only the online/interface and games that still have me liking the 360 so much and from what I’m seeing so far it looks like the ps3 may have already won this year gameswise so long as the choice games are released. It will be an interesting year I think…
Silver,
Yours is Pool of Radiance, mine is Gears of War on PC, not because it’s a bad game, but because it’s a good game I could never play. It refused to work on my more than adequate gaming rig (copes with Crysis on good settings) crashing after no more than 5 minutes. Even after being patched it was still unplayable.
I kinda get where you’re going with the Blu-Ray optimisation thing, but I put that down to the developers, & not Sony. I agree wholeheartedly with you about the PSP Go though. What were Sony thinking. Surely the whole benefit of going download only is cheaper games as you pay a lot more for the console. Maybe the PSP go will be brilliant in a couple of years, after all the PS3 didn’t exactly set the world alight when it was released.
LOL Did gears of war attempt to format your harddrive when you attempted to uninstall it?
That was Pool of Radiance in a nutshell.
lol how did your elite die 5 times? im not saying that red ring is your fault (all the time), but i still think maybe around 50 percent of failures ( with the falcon and jasper chipsets) are the owners fault. i had a limited edition halo 3 console, with the old chipset (zephr????), and it lasted 2 years, it only broke because i played it on a 35 degree day ( celcius, not fahrenheit) for about 9 hours just after i gave it a 1 hour break from an all nighter. now im not sure whether a ps3 would have burned out either, but im sure most consoles other than the ps2 slim and the wii would have burned out. in australia, obviously our summers are stinking hot and the hot days are many and consecutive, but i think my xbox 360 burned out due to a lack of respect or care from me. but i was playing non stop and i couldnt give a damn or spare a thought for the possibility of it burning out.
oh well, just my experience.
I’m still amazed that “some” 360 defenders (fanbosy) make out that a fair portion of failures are down to owners not taking care of their consoles. The 360 has been proven to have a stupidly high failure rate in it’s past. It’s also been proven that part of this is due to inadequate heat dissapation, ie dodgy heatsinks, fans, & poor airflow design. If you can buy a 360 & a PS3 in Oz, then you should expect them to work in all weather/temperature conditions. If MS can’t supply a product that works reliably in your country because of the ambient temperature, then they shouldn’t sell it there, end of!
I’ve had my PS3 left on all day with the heating on full blast, & yes the fan ramps up to 360 levels, but at least it’s noisy for a reason – it just keeps on going. Should I have to turn my TV or PC off after a set period. My PC CPU runs at around 25-35 degrees C, & it was built by a 30 something bloke with no I.T. buildy bodgy putty together techno qualifications. Surely a multi billion dollar corporation can design something a little better than me. I know there’s restrictions because of size, but Sony managed it, & put the PSU in there as well.
In theory this should be mostly a thing of the past with the Jaspers, but please 360 fanboys …….. STOP DEFENDING BAD HARDWARE FROM A SHIFTY COMPANY!!!!!!!!!!!! Defend the games, defend the controller design, defend Xbox Live, cross game chat & Netflix if you must, but stop arguing the case for the unarguable.
i wasnt simply defending microsoft, and im no fanboy. it is a fact that “some” consoles break due to lack of care. and im just stating that i am not mad at microsoft for my console getting rrod as i had a week of stupidly hot temperatures and the xbox was on for the majority of the time. pretty much all day and night with little breaks in between. when this is going on for like 7 days, then i think you cant blame microsoft. i mean, i have had like many ps2’s, and even in their manuals, it says you should only play in 2 hour intervals with 45 minute breaks inbetween. and the ps2 slims are freaking tiny. so what would you expect from a bigger built console such as the xbox 360? so thankyou for your statement, but i think you took it the wrong way.
A lor of owners DO mistreat their consoles and when a console is prone to overheating and the like, getting your console covered in dust might just put the nail in the coffin.
And though I agree with you that some 360s failing are due to the hardware going, you have to admit, 5 elites dying is a bit of a stretch. Australia and many electronics don’t mix btw. I have a mate who bought a smart phone that would shutdown at extreme temperatures and he could never turn the thing on here in summer. That is rediculous…
The real problem for Australians is we tend to get the dregs from elsewhere and very few people are willing to change the design of a device for us specifically. It’s BS but there isn’t exactly anything Aussies can do about it short of having air-con on 24/7 but that costs a small fortune and an even bigger fortune when the air con decides to die.
let me clarify my comment above and the “5 deaths” my elite experienced,
the first problem was a grating noise when a disc was spinning, this happened after the first week and the problem was the disc tray not aligned properly due to some mishap in handling, it was’nt MS’s fault, my fault or the stores fault, it was the fault of the people trusted with it’s delivery to the store, regardless of whose fault i was sans 360 for a week.
secondly i had a semi RROD, 2 lights, an overheating problem, – the solution was to buy an additional fan which i did, even though my 360 was in the centre of the room unblocked by any wall or other potential air blockage, my PS3 was side by side with it, maybe that was the problem, the PS3 greedily sucking all the air from the surrounding atmosphere to deny the 360 but i doubt it.
thirdly i had problems with the wireless adaptor which dropped in and out of coverage signing me out mid game and having to go back to the dashboard to reconfigure the connection, seeing as line connection was not an option i was compelled to buy one of them twin aerial wireless adaptors which helped. (the PS3 remember, is side by side with the 360 and it’s wireless never suffered).
number four – read failure, certain discs would be read as DVD, this was rectified when i ejected and closed the tray again until the next disc was inserted and had to repeat the “eject/close” process, this problem was unresolved as shortly after this i had problems with the battery brick, (problem n0. 5) which decided not to function which brought me to the brink of dropkicking the 360 around the room, i hesitated and calmly repackaged the 360 and brought it to the shop from whence it came, they agreed i was having a bad time with it so they agreed to relieving me of it.
in between these failures i reacquainted myself with the PS3, I had never used it too much owing to my xbox preference, it dawned on me that i was ignoring a superior machine and was impressed by it’s online play which i never utilized beforehand, it remained problem free during them times my xbox was getting nursed back to health,
as i have said, none of the xbox problems were drastic, no full RROD but my decision was financial, do i continue throwing money at the xbox to prolong it’s life or content myself with a reliable, fun console which as so far (*touches wood,) has not let me down………
xbox 360 are clearly more unreliable. Saying 360 owners mistreat there consols is an insult to all 360 owners. Its like calling all 360 owners dip-sticks, for gods sake.
You have to assume that a minority mistreat there 360, PS3, WII, PC etc. And the reliabilty issues with the 360 must be totally warranted.
I totally agree with kaden101 about designing a model to should work in the country its being sold in.
Well how about you convince electronics manufacturers to make models of their appliances specifically for Australians then?
I’d be behind your efforts, even if I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t do shit.
strangely enough i also have the wii which has given me no problems whatsoever…..
that’s because it hasn’t been switched on since the week i bought it….LOL
Lol savo.
I am sure 360 and ps3 must get tons more punishment than the wii with all the addictive online games. I don’t switch my wii on too much either. The only game I play on the wii is Tiger Woods but I can’t help think that might be more interesting if there was a mini game in it where by you were chased by his wife with a golf club.
To Silver,
Maybe I am being unrealistic to expect electronics like this to work in extreme temperatures. I think electonics designer should give it more attention though. Maybe a seperate fan perefferal (official) for hot climates. I am no expert though. The machines have the same warranty no matter where they are sold so it would be in maufatures interests. I am sure they are probaly doimg the best they can. Trouble is its just not good enough yet.
I got a custom case that houses both the internals of one of my ps3s and one of my 360s. It’s a decent size but everything seems to stay cool and it’s conveniant.
Trouble was I haven’t seen a good one designed to hold them both plus a wii…
Only downside is saying goodbye to my warrenties. Lol
I’ve had my elite now for just over a year, I’ve played with it for 7/8 hours at a go and never had a problem. I always chuck the games I’m playing straight onto the hard drive so there’s not so much noise when playing (lets face it it is very noisy if you play from the disk) and of course less heat generated. As for the Blu-Ray films debate, I watched loads of HD films now on the Zune application and so get to watch some great films in full 1080 complete with surround sound. Ok so I’m limited to what’s on Zune at the time but there’s always a great choice and the streaming words great even at my relatively low 5meg average broadband speed or I’ll just leave a film to download in full overnight. Before I played on the 360 I was going to get the PS3 and nothing else, I was PS3 all the way having had a PS2 but after playing it, I found it felt a bit sterile it didn’t excite me as much as the slightly more raw Xbox. Either way I wouldn’t be without my Xbox now, I just keep it very clean and dust free, and away from any other heat sources and it keeps going and going.
my objective was never to insult all xbox 360 owners as i would have said ” all xbox 360 owners mistreat their console and its not microsofts fault at all”.
i believe i said “some”. which might ( Big might here) differ from your accusation.
aside from this, i thought you meant your xbox 360 elite rrod 5 times. whether it was a jasper or not that is a ridiculous amount of times to get rrod. though through your clarification, im satisfied.
You guys have been busy! : )
I am going to have to point out one fact that kills the finger pointing at the user fault of 360 failures. Certainly it is possible to mistreat a console and get a problem. Looking at what has been said though no one is saying that their PS3 failed because they did any of the same things that they did with the 360.
I personally have had my PS3 on for consecutive days without heat issues. The fan cycles to bring down the temperature when it hits a certain level and then ramps down to move minimal air until that same temperature level is hit. So does that mean that all the PS3 owners are the better, more sensible gamer? Nope, it just means that the design works. Look at how the internals are. The PS3 moves more air with less noise because of the internal mounting position of the fan right on top of the heatsink. The 360 on the other hand is a case mounted fan with a shroud over the entire chip array. It pulls air from all the contained board but not directly off the sink. Look at how computers are designed. Outside of the aftermarket liquid coolers, every system has direct fan placement on the heatsinks of the GPU and CPU. It makes since and is more effecient/effective than a case fan. Case fans are used to further decrease case ambient temperatures.
I noticed Geoff stated he used the HDD to keep it cooler. This is not actually going to work. HDD are the #3 heat producers in a pc. They are the same on your 360. The fact that it is a top or side mount (depends on how you have your case set) will help some but for the most part the fact that you have one on it is blocking a vent in the first place. Horrid design on MS’s part. They should have made the drive offset of the case and made a vent underneath the drive to allow it to breathe. My friends HDD died because of heat from the 360 building up on his drive (he stood his vertical). There are gripes on the PS3 as well but I cannot believe anyone would blame themselves for poor engineering. Sure you can prevent its failure. Just go buy liquid nitrogen and keep it at -200 degrees or build a mod case and make the cooling better. MS just didn’t QA the actually running of the machine. They know people will do all nighters, they just wanted to have Live and marketshare so bad that QA was thrown out for profit. It cost them and they know it, but they got what they wanted…..for now.
Whoops, I started off the reliability sh*tstorm again. Sorry.
No, Silver, Gears of War didn’t try to format my HDD, that’s really bad. On the other hand, you should be able to play a game on Windows using Live for Windows, designed for Windows, but that says something about MS.
Sorry for referring to your as a fanboy dingdong. An interesting point you raised though is that you stated that the 360 is a “bigger built console”, Surely the fact that it’s bigger means there should be more room inside to adequately arrange heat venting. It isn’t like it’s got the heat from a PSU in there either.
Deman, I don’t think you’re expecting too much at all for a product to work in the country that it’s sold in, & Microsoft obviously didn’t try their best. As I pointed out earlier, if I can build a PC that runs cool, then MS should have been able to design a games console that vents heat at a reasonable pace. Apart from that, there’s all the other problems they’ve had in the past, E74, scratchy badly aligned DVD drives, read errors, etc. So it’s not all down to temperature. Fingers crossed that’s all behind 360 owners now (or at least Jasper owners).
I stand by my belief that a company shouldn’t sell a product that can’t be used in the environment it’s sold in. Wherever that is. Maybe I’m just picky.
well knowing the reliability issues wuth the xbox 360’s so far, i should have known better.
one of my older brothers owns a ps3, as he got the original playstation (psx/ps1) and the ps2 the first days they came out, and his favourite game on ps2 was killzone, so he inevitably was going to get a ps3. another one of my older brothers doesnt want to get a ps3, but wants/ doesnt want an xbox 360. what i mean is, he would like to have an xbox that he could play non stop without it overheating. so this is stopping him from getting one, especialyy with the recent rrod of my console. him being a nintendo fan since the very early days, or the earliest for that matter, was dissapointed with his wii. as you all know, nintendo used to have RARE wroking for the N64. he was also dissapointed at microsoft( aka moneybags) for taking RARE. in my opinion, RARE was the best on the N64. ( Goldeneye, banjo kazooie 1 and 2, perfect dark.) he owned all of these games and thought they were the best ( which at the time they were, and still are very enjoyable.). the most favourable game, Conkers bad fur day, which he paid 130 dollars for when it first came out.
in my opinion, microsoft hasnt done well with RARE. the new perfect darks arent as solid, only a mediocre banjo nuts and bolts and where is conker? since live and reloaded, i havnt seen or heard anything of it since.
well, anyway, i rambled on too long and now it doesnt make sense.
Many people may say that when you send your 360 in you receive great customer support and you have it back in a few weeks. However, in my case I just about had the worst customer support ever. My Xbox from late 2008 Rrod and I sent it in. A week later I received my Xbox 360 back and I was so excited to start playing it again. I open the box and I see a letter there and I look at the letter and it says something similar to this: “Sorry, but we were unable to repair you Xbox 360 because it has more than just the Rrod problem.” I scanned my Xbox, and had never touched it before or opened it up so in my mind it should be fine and it is just the Rrod problem. I did some research, however, and found out that the only reason Microsoft did not fix my Xbox is because their was dust on the inside of it. I opened it while trying to fix it my self and there was mountains of dust and this was the only reason they did not fix it. What kind of customer service is that?
So finally I decided to get the new sleak 120gb ps3 Slim which works awesome! And does not have all that noise! :)
If you’re going to be using any PC/PC like console in a dusty environment, compressed air is your best friend. Though preferably you don’t want to be using it in a dusty environment at all.
I did a little research of my own as I’ve rarely heard of problems with MS tech support other than the occasional lengthy wait for repairs. I didn’t find any cases of a console being too dusty to be repaired and in general it seemed like mostly modified or tampered with consoles were the ones they wouldn’t repair. Considering I’ve got mates who’ve had their out of warranty period 360s fixed and even the occasional one showing definete signs of user misuse, MS tech support seem pretty leniant. Perhaps it’s the tech support in your area? Either way I wouldn’t mind seeing your sources on not fixing a dusty unit.
Sony tech support also seem to have their act up here too now with most things, but I’ve noticed they can still be pretty slack with promotions. Like those ‘download a theme and meet conditions and get free PSP Go game/s’ style promotions.
@Brandon.
i recently sent my xbox in for repair, and im pretty sure it specifies somewhere that they dont have to repair mistreated, opened or dusty xbox’s. or something like the insides cant have any dust, or that foam crap thats supposed to cushon packages.
i can recall been regaled with tales of microsofts friendly speedy service by employees in the local gamestop i frequent, this was prior to me buying a xbox.
they told me horror stories of PS3’s breaking down and sony refusing to fix them and MS taking back all broken 360’s and repairing within a week, sony was a nightmare apparently.
(i can remember saying to them with slight sarcasm that microsoft have experience in the field of return and repair. )
unfortunately for me, all these assurances of a speedy resolution by the gamestop crew seemingly did not extend to me, as for some reason as i was waiting weeks when i first encountered problems and then encountered more as the weeks ran on and the failures of the 360 began mounting..maybe it was the recession that hampered my repair??
as of yet i have not had the opportunity to test these diatribes against sony’s aftersales service.
the staff in the gamestop are self confessed 360 fanboys and have been reprimanded when a “mystery shopper” went in one day and was practically forced to ignore the PS3, so with cynicism i can only suggest that the only argument 360 fanboys have to counteract these “RROD, failure rate..etc etc” arguments is to suggest that microsoft have a magic 360 repair wand and if yours breaks……don’t worry, MS will sort it out.
anyone play MAG?
good game, no lag, no long queue for connection but fails monumentally on gameplay, whoever thought that teamwork in a game would take so much effort, everyone i’ve played against so far is more interested in their own kill ratio and stats than actually playing the game as it was intended,
mission 1: defend the base.
some random player, probably called “xX5t34lth a55a551n78Xx” :bollox to that, i’m going to go over here and snipe the opposition as they spawn, maybe camp out in the long grass and shoot unsuspecting players as they run by.
mission 2: attack the base.
xX5t34lth a55a551n78Xx: – “bollox to that, i’m going to go over here and snipe the opposition as they spawn, maybe camp out in the long grass and shoot unsuspecting players as they run by.
mission 2: steal the enemies vehicle.
xX5t34lth a55a551n78Xx: – “bollox to that, i’m going to go over here and snipe the opposition as they spawn, maybe camp out in the long grass and shoot unsuspecting players as they run by.”
repeat to fade………..
annoying.
I had an experience with Sony tech support a while. The people I talked to didn’t seem very well trained compared to the majority of people I’ve spoken to at other companies. That said, the failure rate of the PS3 is that much lower that it very well might be less experience for the tech support people.
MAG I’m still yet to purchase, but I played it at my mate’s place earlier today and it was great. I live fairly rural so the net connections here are usually quite dodgy but MAG didn’t do too badly especially compared with some of the games we normally play down here. I think it was because we don’t really take our shooters too seriously though. If we did I can see how players like your hypothetical one might be quite annoying. lol
And to all PS3 gamers in general,
http://geohotps3.blogspot.com/
can I get a ‘HELL YEAH, HOME BREW!!!’ ?
it’s a bitch of a game :)
i’m playing it since friday and am still level 4, i’m just using the assault rifle but it’s getting increasingly irritating, i have stayed away from the sniper rifle unlike 99% of the other players and just “run and gun”, any stops and it’s the proverbial “BOOM…….HEADSHOT”,
pausing to look down the site ultimately ends with some chap 3 mile away hiding behind some digital trees blowing a ventilation hole in your cerebral cortex which dissolves the game into some nonsensical cagey stealth affair as you crawl across the map from bush to wall to building filled with deep trepidation wondering if some camper has you in his sights, even your supposed team mates emerge from spawning and take up position with their rifles and have their own private battle with the enemy snipers, regardless that the objective is further down the map, somebody make a WW1 shooter for these guys, they can then crouch and take pot shots at each other for 4 years and just wander into no mans land occasionally..
maybe i’m no good at it????……nah, it’s the other picnic warriors. :)
from what I’v seen of MAG so far it doesn’t impress me at all. My opinion. It might get better if i play it more
God this thread is getting stupid, you ALL need to learn a few things:-
1, NEW xbox 360’s rarely if ever fail through heat sink issues,
2, ALL electrical equipment has a recommended operating temperature so all those of you who play your ps3’s for 3 days straight, you are dicing with death,
3, the xbox 360 was the first of its generation, and did suffer problems, but then so do many gadgets that are new (iphone, dvd recorders, et all)
4, BOTH consoles instructions give Important pointers that the console should NOT be left on for too long due to overheating.
5, i have owned both the ps3 and the 360, my 360 was 3 and a half years old before it got rrod, however my ps3 was unreliable, crashing often in the middle of games or web browsing, the internet connection of ps3 for online gaming is at best sketchy, but then you get what you pay for, the end result, i only used my ps3 for blu ray playing, so i sold it, and bought a blu ray player instead, and you know what, i dont miss it one bit.
You clearly know nothing about chips. If you take any cpu and remove the heatsink and fan you will notice that it will turn to smoke in less than 2 seconds of being powered on. All cpus get hot. The temperature in the room would have to be in excess of the internal temperature of the chip itself. Yes you will eventually hit a near zero point dissipation at too high a temperature. That would take record desert temperatures on a properly built cpu with a heatsink and good cooling fan (or other method of cooling).
No one is saying the Jasper edition is as bad as the old chips. It is still not as reliable as the cell. The fact that you had it happen the other way around is mere chance. Nothing is perfect we know, the problem with your argument is that you assume that the experience you had holds true to all. It is beyond belief for you to see that MS had a record failure rate on the 360. That is fact, regardless of your belief. It is relevant to the vs. arguments as quality as a whole is something to think about in this purchase. So who is needing to learn things? You obviously need to learn that people should know where things are coming from before they buy them.
Look at Toyota today. In this worldwide economic downturn they were making headway. The recalls they just had are linked to cheapening the design and manufacturing of their lines. Wouldn’t you give them credit for the years of quality or is the single year of flaws all you see? I know Toyota is a good brand. I would buy one, I just wouldn’t buy one on the list of recalls. Same goes for the non-Jaspers.
As for shutting down due to heat. I ask anyone that has both or one to listen to the fan as it changes speed. Notice the length of time your fan is ramped up versus the amount of time it is “idled”. I use quotes on idle because that is going to change when the cpu is functioning for games. The typical ramp up for any cpu cooling fan will be around 4 times the base “idle”. If you never notice the ramping, you are stressing the cooling system. Shut that system down on occasion. If it is cycling with great frequency then all systems are more than likely good to go. The idle time may be only 1 minute long. You have to see that the fan can actually cool it to a designated point of operation. This temp is different with each cpu type.
lol picnic warriors. they can ruin many games.
well, after my xbox 360 died, i was thinking id get a ps3(also). then i just bought an elite xbox 360 and my other xbox is in repairs. i might get a ps3 soon depending on how well this MAG game is. it looks pretty awesome on youtube, and xbox hasnt brought out a good shooter in a while. plus, my brother will be getting it soon so may as well join the club eh?
btw, my brother wants to know if God Of War 3 also comes with number 1 and 2 also. he already has them, but he figures it’d be more convenient plus maybe enhanced resolution?
looks like blu ray will be at work not only with good of war 3 but possibly with 1 and 2 added on a disc?
seeeya
I don’t think God of War 1 and 2 come with the normal edition of the game, but there’s an edition contained in a chest you could preorder from ebgames that looks mad, has PS3 versions of both games and a wealth of other nice items. Or you could import the God of War collection from NA right away, I’ve seen a few less patient people do that despite the lack of goodies. =D
i got involved with a few games yesterday with people who actually played it properly and used the squad system, squad leaders were issuing commands and patrol leaders directing us, they OIC threatened to kick anybody who was not using their mic from the game.
there was proper communication and direction, heavy machine gunners were asked to lay down suppressing fire, medics were asked to hang back with sniper rifles and then rush forward to heal fallen comrades, there was requests for grenades to be thrown into certain areas……. :)
it was a totally different experience and 100% enjoyable,
the review for MAG in a PS3 magazine stated that the success of the game depended on the people playing it, i was getting annoyed after the first few games but it’s an absolute joy when playing with people who appreciate it.
SONY-HARDWARE COMPANY, VS MICROSOFT-SOFTWARE COMPANY. I WITNESSED ALOT OF CRITICISM OF MICROSOFT BECAUSE OF AN ARCHITECHTUAL HARDWARE DESIGN FLAW. BIG DEAL. MY XBOX PRO SYSTEM BUILT IN 2007 GOT THE RROD 4 WEEKS AGO AFTER OVER 2 YEARS; SENT IT IN 2 WEEKS AGO AND RECEIVED IT BACK TODAY. BY THE WAY ALL SERVICES FOR FREE, NOW THAT’S SERVICE. THESE COMMENTS ARE NOT SUPPOSE TO BE ABOUT BUSINESS ECONOMICS. IT SUPPOSE TO BE ABOUT THE XBOX 360 VS THE PS3. XBOX SOFTWARE COMPANY VS PS3 HARDWARE COMPANY. IN MY HUMBLE OPINION THE XBOX INTERFACE DASHBOARD KNOCKS THE PS3s OUT OF THE BOX LITTERALY. THERE IS REALLY NO COMPARISON UNLESS YOU ARE TALKING BLUERAY HARDWARE OF WHICH BLUERAY PLAYERS BY MANY COMPANIES ARE ALL UNDER $250 DOLLARS EXCEPT FOR SONY OF COURSE ($300). ALL OF WHICH HAVE THE MAJORITY OF THE SAME FEATURES AS THE PS3 BLUERAY PLAYER. WHEN I PURCHASE A VIDEO GAMING SYSTEM, I AM DOING SO TO HAVE THE MOST ENTERTAINING EXPERIENCE THAT I COULD IMAGINE HAVING, AND XBOX 360 DOES THAT FOR ME, THANKS. P.S. I OWN BOTH SYSTEMS.
If you hadn’t typed in CAPS no one would have read your post!
My eyes, they burn.
Not going to chip in here as I’m still in the market for one of these two creatures… would love to see a “three years later” article!
I know nothing about PS3 or XBOX. I dont want to play any games. All I need is to be able to stream media (all possible formats) from my external hard drive and the ones from my PCs on the network onto my HDTV. Basically it should allow me to connect my External HDD to it via USB/eSata. It should play files from my PC thats connected to the wireless network. I should be able to access the HDD on my PC without physically connecting it to the PC.. but through the media player. Something like WDTV Live.. but more stable.. for this purpose which is better… PS3 or XBOX 360?
You really don’t want either if gaming isn’t important. There are standalone devices that will greatly outperform both of them, particularly in which formats they can read and input methods. I recommend looking them up on a tech site, reading the reviews and going from there. Depending on how much you’re willing to spend you can have some really great setups these days.
Thanks for the response. I had read a lot of reviews on many such media players such as WDTV live, Aus O!Play, Egreat. Popcorn hour and the list goes on.. however, almost all of them have some problem or other.. Either issues with networking, bad GUIs, or lack of support for certain file types etc. many suggest using XBox or PS3 with XBMC or similar media center GUIs.. Thats how my search came to this….
i love americans. because they sue so much ( stereotype………..or is it) they scared microsoft so that they had to offer excellent service when dealing with an rrod error.( im my opinion and others i know). this is great as you mentioned, FREE repair and reply paid post so you dont have to pay postage either. im glad people stand up to these ‘untouchable” transnational corporations or else id be out 150 bucks for repair:).
anyways, cant wait to see god of war 3. although i do not have one, my brother does and this along with MAG might entice me into buying a ps3 soon. i loved prince of persia ( the trilogy) on ps2, although god of war was somehow better. one of the best games on the ps2. i recently bought prince of persia 1 ( the sands of time) and 2 (warrior within) for xbox so i could play them on my xbox 360. loved sands of time as i used to, bloody brilliant. but, piss on me backwards compatibility i couldnt play the second. thats pretty annoying as i bought it expecting to play it again. i also heard the 3rd( Two thrones) isnt backwards compatible with the xbox 360 either. id love to see them become playable, but i heard the xbox 360 backwards compatibility team is over.
anyone know about this,?
is it true that no more original xbox games are being made backwards compatible with the xbox 360? i hope to god they are, because i really want to play them.
Yes we americans are sue happy. I will be suing you for slander next week!!!! : )
Consumer rights is a big deal in the states. It is noteworthy though that becoming a lawyer, you will meet with satan and arrange a few predetermined victories to justify the 8 or more years of law school. : )
i’d sue for the comment composed in CAPS LOCK, it forced my brain to shout unnecessarily into my synapses when decoding it :)
Hi all i’m a xbox 360, ps3, wii owner and ive had reliability isssues with both :(
xbox- well i think its been mostly covered with mabye the exception of the open tray fault.
my 360 is out of warranty and m$ wants £92 for repair,now i can pick up a pre-owned console for less than that,
however the ps3 isnt without its niggles eithier, first one i bought (brand new 60gb) requierd a update, after the update the console would’nt recognise blu-ray discs, dvd’s fine, music fine, NO blu-ray so i return to the shop got a refund and bought a pre-owned 80gb for £60 less. Network adapter never worked (this could bedown to the previous owner???) so i trudge back to the store rather unhappy and had it replaced by a 160gb free of charge for inconviniance :) so far no probs, but im not looking forward to the next update.
on whole though to be honest i dont think i could do without either of them.
DAMN YOU SONY-SOFT!!
ok guys i have a question. I want a pair of gaming headphones hopefully with surround sound. Can you recommend any good ones? Any experience with them? They must be compatible with PS3. I saw an Earforce HPX and they sounded good but are they compatible with PS3? Sorry i know it’s off topic but thanks in advance if you know anything.
ok guys i have a question. I want a pair of gaming headphones hopefully with surround sound. Do you know any good ones and have you any experience with them? They must be compatible with PS3. I saw a pair called Earforce HPX. Are they good and are they compatible with PS3? Sorry i know this is off topic but any responses would be great thanks in advance
sorry for double post
the “Ear Force P21 Gaming Headset for PlayStation 3″
http://www.hawkee.com/shop/prod/6599201/reviews/
they cost about £60, they’re pretty bulky, they’re wired but they are fantastic.
thanks savo, i need a pair that will let me hear whats going on behind me
I think both have their pros and cons, but if you can afford it, buy both! The two combined make for a perfect team. I’m picking up my ps3 when I get paid next week, and the following week getting the xbox.
Firstly, where is this years article!!
Would be interesting to see if you have preference now or not.
One point which seems to be sorely missed by PS3 marketers is the TCO (Total cost of ownership) of the Xbox 360 is far greater than the PS3. $50.00 a year online, that is $300.00 over an expected 6 year life of the machine. So essentially the 360 is the more expensive unit.
I think the PS3 has made huge strides in 2009 with the live service and multiplayer issues, all that is needed now is a decent driving game to compete with Forza, lets hope GT5 doesn’t get put out until 2011………
My xbox live gold membership just expired this month and I won’t be renewing it, its just not worth it in my opinion. Only going to use my xbox 360 for exclusive titles such as the fantastic Mass effect 2 and all multiformat games i’ll get on the ps3 from now on, mainly because its free to play ps3 online and i can buy dlc from PSN with a Maestro card that xbox live stupidly does not accept.
……….and the rumour that mass effect 1 &2 is coming to PS3.
According to vgchartz.com worldwide sales for last month for ps3 and xbox are:
ps3 203,836
xbox 360 166,948
Total worlwide sale are
ps3 31.76m
xbox 360 37.64m
Now considering the xbox 360 had a head start and if like me when i got rrod in the past i just purchased a new one rather than going without console for a few weeks to get it fixed, is the user base for the xbo 360 really that much bigger than the ps3? Has the bubble finaly burst for microsoft dominance over ps3?
Also worth a mention that total worldwide sales for the wii,ds and psp are:
wii 67.28m
ds 124.81m (bloody hell thats high!)
psp 53.85m
Not sure how acurate these figures are though, so the best console is wii and the best handheld is ds……….wtf………well maybe not, i have i wii and it hasn’t been turned on in months. Sale figures aren’t everything, its all down to the games in the end i suppose.
bloody wii :)
a lot of people waited for the price of the PS3 to drop before getting one and the slim PS3 would have helped sales.