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 regardless 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.
Kaden, I think it’s accurate to speculate the PS3 won’t last as long as some of the older consoles simply due to more moving pieces (and smaller ones too). Unless Sony have worked some kind of magic, I wouldn’t be surprised if most are dead within half a decade. I could be wrong as the oldest consoles seem to die before the next generation (SNESs seem to last a damn long time), but in general that’s how most electronics work.
What is inaccurate is speculating they’ll all come down at a similar time or after two or three years. There’s no way of knowing anything like that just yet, though I’d guess a PS3 would be live around about the same period as the average PC in terms of what’s under the hood. Possibly a bit shorter due to cramming the power supply in there which I’ve heard can get quite hot (not good for electronics), but I’d still expect it to last a few years to half a decade or more if well looked after.
And I agree about Diablo666.
The only thing I’ve ever had that was made well by US manufacturers is my Mag-Lite. Seems they make weapons and things that can be used as weapons better than most places but as far as electronics go they’re so-so. He did raise a good point about the 360’s triggers and analog sticks though. They is tight.
I was wondering if anyone had any experiences with buying a new PS3 and transferring downloaded content? I know no-one who’s had to yet and I’m curious as to the process. 360 was as easy as using an online license transfer tool and if you have the games you downloaded on external memory they work either with the new licenses OR if you access them from your account and are connected to the net.
I’ll find out myself if they release a silver PS3 here somewhere down the track…
I think the earlier PS3 models get hotter than the new ones. I’ve got an 80GB (no backward compatibility), & it doesn’t even get warm most of the time, but I hear the older ones do. If they do bring out the 45nm one that should stay even cooler so reliability should be even less of a worry then.
I haven’t been able to try the 360 joypad as everytime I’ve been to a shop the display 360 has either been RROD (good selling technique by the shop, not) or had a game on like Lips that isn’t worth trying. I’m personally very happy with the Dual Shock, & my fingers haven’t slipped of L2/R2 yet, which seems to be one of the things people complain about, & you can get the clip on triggers if you really want, they’re only about £3.
On the ps3, if this is what your talking about, as long as you bought it, you can download it as many times, and share that content with up to 5 different ps3s at once (friends). You just need all your same login info.
I have a few games that a friend of mine bought installed on my ps3, and I can use it regardless of what profiles I am logged in to.
Great article and it just shows the small difference between each of the consoles.
The thing that swayed it for me towards a PS3 is that the XBOX360 has the “three dots of doom” situation and th PS3 is an overall better multimedia option.
The only problem with the PS3 is as you said XBOX Live is so much more better.
I liked my 360…but then it gor the rrod…I have no warranty. I dont like my 360 anymore. I personally dont really care about online gaming, folding, playing space invaders or watching blu-ray/HD…but I JUST WANT TO PLAY GAMES WITHOUT MY SYSTEM EATING SHIT.
So now I’m buying a ps3. From what Ive read its quiet and reliable, and thats all I want. The 360s notorious lack of reliability murdered any appeal it had for me.
I am saving to buy a 360 soon. I have a PS3, and it has been in the shop for a month for they cant get a lazer replacement for it, they are sold out everywhere. Only other option is sending it to Playstation and waiting for more MONTHS to get it back. SO…I am going to get an xbox to play COD5 live on it until I get my PS3 back someday. Then I’ll use it only for my older games and blueray. I am mad that xbox has to charge for online play when PS3 can make it free?? BUT I am also mad that in some research, the lazers seem to go out frequently in the PS3, but they will not make it easily available to have repaired regular repair shops for blueray etc. I hear so many people say some games are better on some than others. I wish I could find a site that would list that, so I’ll know before I buy.
I have had no problems with Sony returning my PS3, when I(emphasis on I) messed up my console. I had it repaired and returned within a couple of weeks. They are quick and efficient. In that respect my friend also messed his up. (Compressed air turned almost upside down to gett the dust off because he wasn’t thinking it condensed on the electronics and should’ve been considered water damage but i digress.) He got it back in two weeks as well was like brand new again.
First up i would like to say thank you to Carl for a brilliant console omparison. It really helped me to understand thr ‘pros’ and ‘cons’ of both consoles. Secondly, I would like to thank all you guys who have commented you too helped me see and decide which console too buy.
I got and XBOX 360 Elite and recently it has got red lights just after the years warranty ran out :( I was extremely frustrated as this is the second time it has happened and, like a previous comment highlighted I feel it is unacceptable for priducts too keep constantly breaking down.
After reading through the article and comments written I have decided that I am going to fix my XBOX and sell it then buy a PS3. Online gaming is very good but it is not pivotal to me and I just want to have a console that works and i do no need to worry about RROD.
Thanks again
Tom
Don’t void your warrenty just yet buddy.
For RRoD the warrenty is 3 years. Same as any other problems that have popped up a few times.
Unfortunately for me the warrenty didn’t cover having a large TV dropped on top of it. ;!
No biggie though as a pro unit is cheap these days and the 120gb HDD slides right in. Used the license transfer tool and I was good to go.
I bought a PS3 then superbowl weekend. It bit the dust when i was sliding my big screen around and pulled it off the shelf btw they dont handle a 4 foot fall very well. I had thought about buying an xbox 360 but i have over $500 in games and added accesories for my ps3 now. That right there makes up my mind, its ps3 again. Blu Ray Player is sweet
I’ve decided to have both systems just so that i have a wider range of games to pick from. I personally do not have a preference for either system. I think it is important to note that quite a few people who had the earlier generations of xbox or had their console banned ended up buying a replacement. I believe that has artificially inflated the sales figures in terms of new customers.
[...] I mention the RROD factor in all my XBOX 360 vs. Playstation 3 articles (check our Year 1 and Year 2), but until it happened to me, I didn’t have the true perspective of what a pain in the ass [...]
great article ! it really helped me ! i am yet to buy 360 or ps3 ! so i want a genuin advice from the writer himself or any other person ! firstly i hope that games would be frequently realeasng on both and will not be stopped ! secondly will and xbox elite from USA work properly in India with the ability to run Indian Games ! thirdly i prefer black colour , so elite or PS3 ? do reply ! thnx !
I was just wondering due to the RROD (Red ring of death) on the Xbox how many Xbox 360 consoles have had to be replaced and how that has increased its sales over the more reliable PS3?
Well Jimmy (I can call you Jimmy, right?),
I believe most units that are destined to fail do fail within the warrenty period meaning they’re replaced at no additional cost therefore no sale.
So I’d say it hasn’t increased the sales of the much more enjoyable console (except in terms of smug/media viewing), the 360, all that much.
Silver,
Quote “much more enjoyable console” – if you like?! – depends on what you find enjoyable! I personally wouldn’t find it enjoyable constantly expecting my console to brick itself at any moment – warranty or not. That one’s down to personal preference though as I’m sure the 360 is awesome whilst it’s working – after all, the PS3 is (awesome, not working, although it is working, still).
I do agree that even MS don’t class warranty replacements as sales (I’d be suprised & disgusted if they did), so I don’t think these will affect the numbers. You do, however, hear a lot of stories about passionate gamers with 360’s buying 2nd units so that they have something to game on when their main units dies & has to go back to MS for repair, or buying a replacement unit when their goes poof outside warranty.
I’d say the sales figures for the 360 are inflated due to 2nd/3rd units sales, but not to the levels that some PS3 fanboys would like to think.
I also think it’s sad & amusing that people have to consider things like this with a 360, & I don’t think I’ve ever come across another product that creates this mentality where a proportion of 360 owners actually consider this okay, & will blindly go through 4 units whilst still slagging off the competition – it’s almost like a badge of honour to some people (like ASBO’s in the UK).
For me, it doesn’t matter – I have my PS3 & a PC & the two complement each other – I get access to a lot of the “360 exclusives” on the PC. I look forward to Alan Wake, but I’ll admit I’m still a bif miffed about Fable II not being on PC yet. Couldn’t give a monkeys uncle about anything Halo or Gears of War.
GT5, God of War III, & The Last Guardian will increase sales of the much more enjoyable console. But it’s not more enjoyable, yes it is, no it’s not, but but but…..what’s the best console – neither… both…. the PC…. but that isn’t a console…. the Wii then…. don’t be silly – in that case there isn’t one….but I want my console to be better because I bought it….tough luck…but I’m a fanboy…..still tough…..the other one can’t be any good because I don’t have it….but it’s too expensive….but yours breaks down a lot….only 3 times so far, but yours doesn’t have any games….oh, how 2007 of you….it looks like a George Foreman grill….but look at that power supply….Blu-Ray is so slow….DVD is so small…Xbox live is much better…no it’s not, & you got to pay for it…it’s only a few $ a month & you get what you pay for….but yet the PS3 is still expensive, you get what you pay for….it doesn’t work like that….oh, now it doesn’t work like that?…. gaystation…. 3fixme… fanboy…. xbot…… blah blah blah blah blah.
I think that’s roughly how a fanboy argument proceeds. I may have missed a step or two in the ever descending spiral of stupidity that we find ourselves occassionally caught up with whilst we try our best to maintain the high ground.
Well the guy did call the PS3 more reliable and so far I’ve only had problems with a PS3 (unless you include the problem of what happens when you drop a TV half the size of your wall on top of a 360). Granted it was a PS3 that was in a known fruity bunch, but either way the blu-ray laser going or my hard drive not being recognised til I fiddle around with it every so often really bugs me.
Enjoyable is honest for me just as reliable might be honest for he (if he even ever owned a 360), like you said, that stuff’s all personal preference. lol
I don’t think the sales are too inflated. Not that many I know have two units apart from those who are wealthy enough and they’re a minority.and as the console has a RRoD warrenty of 3 years, 360s have only been out for a year or so longer than that and most RRoD-prone consoles die well within three years, there’s really not much space to move there.
I don’t consider my 360 failing but I think a good part of that is knowing even if it does fail for a reason not my own fault MS are pretty damn good at sending out a new one. Easy shit. Now if I lost my investment for good I’d likely be annoyed at them somewhat but as it is, I can afford a spare for if my main RRoDs if need be (none have thus far) and the longest MS has taken to send one to a friend in my area is a fortnight.
Oh and I also doubt many have gone through 4 consoles as few strike me as that retarded. I mean seriously, if three of the same consoles die on you, will you really buy another? Unless like me you have the money, you won’t and way too many people claim they have gone through that many units. Particularly before a statement like PS3 RULEZ! or PS3 4 lyfe! or something similar.
I don’t even need to go into off the shelf retail games. The 360’s arcade titles alone kill the PS3’s total offerings for me. Look them up if you haven’t there are some beautiful exclusives there both console and otherwise.
As for that last part, I have a PS3 for the odd title I want that I can’t get elsewhere but screw GT5 and God of War 3. Yeah I loved previous God of War games but not only do they start feeling slightly repetitive, but now there’s a shitload of clones available too. Kind of like how everything Halo bar the Halo 3 multiplayer aspect feels to me. It’s been done and even with a facelift it’s still more or less the same thing. At least the Halo 3 multiplayer gives all kinds of new options to allow one to act retarded in a multiplayer setting and I feel other games would benefit from doing something similar.
I’m a gamer first and foremost and I base my decision on what I’ve experienced. I dislike all this new motion crap every console maker seems to be trying as well as all the casual games choking the shelves and as far as I’m concerned the 360 and the Wii’s Virtual Console are where the fun is right now for me. Maybe for you the PS3 does what the 360 does for me (especially as most of the best games now are multiplatform), but there’s just something the 360 gives me that the PS3 don’t.
I have a ps3 and bought it primarily because for the extra money spent you get a blu-ray player, a blu-ray player alone is £100-£200. the console itself is more reliable. everyone i know with a 360 has had red ring in a year and a half but all the people i know with a ps3 have had no problems, and one of my mates has had one since the release. the 360 may have better online but i dont think it is good enough to warrant the cost of live. The only reason i would consider a 360 is thye console exclusive games which regardless of what the article says i believe are better, gears of war 2 being one of the best games i have played in ages.
You should really meet more people. =D
I had a launch elite and it only died because a television fell on top of it doing noticeable damage to the console. The hilarious part is while I was initially told it wouldn’t be replaceable due to it being my own fault, there was a change of heart, and now I’ll be getting a replacement. I wonder if Sony would be that cool if someone dropped a huge-ass television on top of their PS3?
I got a 360 pro for use in the meantime and it seems just as good, as quiet if not quieter than my PS3 which still makes more noise than my Wii. What’s also funny is I’m not the biggest FPS fan and I still find more games I prefer on my 360 than on my PS3. Yeah the PS3 has a few games I’d hate to lose like LittleBigPlanet, Valkyrie Chronicles and Disgaea 3, but apart from those I don’t really play the damn thing. It’s pretty much become a media centre I play my DVDs and media files on.
You honestly think the 360 is quieter than the PS3! lmao that is the funniest thing i have ever heard. When i read that i seriously laughed out loud! You obviously have never played a PS3.
My 360s have both been quieter than my PS3s. They make around about the same level of fan/disc noise but the PS3’s got those annoying beeps it does from time to time for whatever stupid reason. I expect that from some PCs, but not a gaming console.
Silver,
I appreciate that some PS3’s will go faulty, & some 360’s will be solid. I was referring to the general concensous that the 360 is quite unreliable in comparison to..well..most electronics.
You’re right, I don’t own a 360, never have. I have a decent gaming PC & most of the good 360 exclusives end up on the PC anyway, not so much with the PS3. The combination of PS3 & PC works for me. I can’t see a compelling reason to get a 360, & the reliability issues do put me off.
Even though you state that MS warranty & customer service is efficient, & I have no reason to doubt you, you yourself have 2 units, & you aren’t the only one. I say the sales figures are inflated, but agree that it’s probably not by massive amounts. I also accept that some people who claim to have gone through 4, 5 or 6 consoles are PS3 fanboys trying to stir things up, but I won’t accept that it’s all of them. Even taking this into account a lot of those will have been warranty repairs & not part of any sales figures anyway.
You’re entitled to your opinion of GT5 & God of War III. I am not bothered for Halo or Gears of War either, but that won’t stop these monster games from selling. These 4 titles alone are among the biggest of the big when it comes to game franchises, & they do sell like hotcakes regardless of yours & my opinion of them. Either way GT5 & GoWIII will be good for the PS3 when they finally release – I think it’s doing a lot better than the American (generally) internet doubt machine likes to make out, but a boost in sales is never a bad thing.
I agree about the motion control situation. It has it’s place, but I don’t want the next 4 years of gaming to be just ported Wii titles & shovelware. The Wii has some really good titles & can be oodles of fun, but it also has the biggest percentage of available crap out of the 3 consoles, & I don’t want quality to suffer because they try to incorporate Natal or Sony’s falic glowing ball of fun at the cost of good games.
I fiind that exclusives on the PS3 are the games I have most fun with, & not the multiplatform games, although there is some good ones out (don’t reckon a lot to Prototype, playing it on the PC at the moment, it’s a bit mediocre, kinda fun now & then but looks awful on a monitor at 1680×1050 – maybe it’d be better on a TV).
Nice of MS to replace a console you bricked, got to give them some Kudos for that.
Trouble is the general concensus isn’t likely a good indicator, especially these days as half the xbox360 players I know don’t even go on the internet through anything other than a 360 nowadays.
Just the IM integration and online experience through the 360 I guess. The ones that do go online tend to do so because they actually bother checking their emails, some love a forum or two and a few just use their PCs at work. :/
And yeah, one 360 (two when I get a new one back or my old one back if they have some sort of a console panel beater), a couple PS3s (a new 80gb and an old 60gb with PS2 emulation still available) and a Wii. Used to have two wiis for Virtual console games but I sold one when they let you play the games off SD cards. Some sweet shit that. But I do need to eventually pick up a decent gaming PC. I’m currently using a smaller laptop that can barely run Fallout 3 at optimal settings with no spares around…
As for the Wii, I’ve found that generally it’s the most fun when you stick to Virtual Console and also grab the odd must have retail game/Wii Ware title. House of the Dead Overkill with the hand cannons is simply amazing as is Super Smash Bros. Brawl with a wireless gamecube controller. To me they’re a good part of the gaming diet and regardless of whether you grab a 360 or a PS3, the Wii makes a great side-console.
Ah Prototype… I could never really get into it that much, though some parts were mildly amusing for a while. Same as that inFamous game everyone was telling me was awesome. I preferred an older game ‘The Bard’s Tale’ in that though the choices weren’t as interactive they certainly were funnier. Also those retarded singing goblin things were hilarious. I think it was on all the older consoles and PC so if you see a copy, give it a go. lol
And yeah, I was using my PS3 with a Flatron W2242T which has 1680×1050 as it’s native resolution and things did look a little screwy. @_@
Maybe it’s that resolution in general? I could hook a few things up to a monitor at that resolution and see…
And yes, it was very nice of them, especially as I didn’t act angrily or anything. Just told them exactly what happened and they said there wasn’t likely anything I could do and then I heard back from them a bit later that they would replace it. I’ve never had that kind of good service from anyone else.
As i write this my xbox is currently arriving at its destination with Microsoft to be repaired for the 2nd time after my second RROD. Its nearly 3 years old and I only have 1 month left on my warranty so it finally kicked the bucket at the right time. I say finally because after about 2 months from its last repair which was when it was about 1 year and half old, it started playing up by taking about 15 mins to read some games and dvds. Some would play no bother strangely enough but others could take 15 to 30 mins for console to recognize them. I didnt wanna go another 2 to 3 weeks without the console so i persisted until now when i finally signed upto xbox live and tada! I installed the new interface started playing fifa online and it crashed! I wasnt very surprised to see the RROD when i loaded it next time.
All in all this has put me off ever buying any microsoft hardware again, let alone just xbox’.
Customer service was mince as-well as they tried to fob me off with how uncommon it is for the same console to RROD again. Funny how out of 6 people, including myself, who have an Xbox 360, 5 of us have had the famous RROD. One bought an elite after his instead of repairing it as he has enough money to do so, another had RROD 3 times before selling up and buying a ps3 and after mine is repaired for 2nd time I’m away to sell it all and buy a PS3. I simply dont trust the console enough to plow more money into a new one. Even if they are designed better than old ones, they’re still not immune to the RROD from what i’ve read.
I just feel sorry for the poor sod whos gonna buy my xbox after its repair coz if its anything to go by the last time I dont hold much hope for it surviving long!
Out of the 17 360 owners I know IRL (some geeky from my LAN party days, some construction workers from my old career, a guy from school and just my mates here in my home town) including myself, only two have had RRoDs. That’s why I don’t buy the rate being as bad as some moan about. Maybe our stores all have good batches, maybe we look for things such as the 12.1A voltage indicating the console is a Jasper, maybe we’re just lucky. Either way half of us have had our 360s for a matter of years and there’s only been two RRoDs. Newer models may not have conquered the RRoD, but I really don’t see many get bricked and I have worked in and around stores that fix consoles. As for the elite being RRoDless, possibly the newer models are more resilient BUT one of those two 360s I mentioned that carked it (the one belonging to my old school friend) was a launch elite so they can still be susceptible.
As for customer service, I’ve called them a few times as some of my friends have… ‘issues’ with customer or tech support and their own rage. Might be different for other countries, but here the tech support seem pretty awesome at what they do. They certainly helped me out once when they didn’t need to.
Everyone I know who has a xbox 360 has at least had one rrod or more so yeah i would say from my perspective it’s worse than microsoft will ever admit. If you have a older model xbox i would say rrod is very likely it just depends on how often you use it and for how long.
Really? For me it’s a minority of people.
Maybe you and your friends got a fruity batch like that one of PS3s ebgames got here a while back. I just had to buy one of those ones too, not one from one of the 99% of good batches… Grrrr.
But yeah, the launch consoles do tend to drop like flies (with a few remaining, just remaining quite loud at the same time), but newer ones don’t seem to die as easily. I’d know as I’ve had two newer 360s, one’s still running great and the other got crushed by a half a wall sized TV…
It still powered on, just wouldn’t do anything. But then, it powering on while half crushed was more than I expected it to do.
Breaking down 2 times in 3 years. Jeez. That seems to be common problem with them, and I don’t know how ANYONE can defend the RROD. Sure they’ve fixed it supposedly… I’m sure they did a dandy job with the new ones, they have all the experience fixing the problems over the four years the 360 has been out…
Some 360 fans say that they prefer the 360 for the pure gaming aspect and blame the ps3 for being a media platform first. That’s why they’re making a move to enforce facebook and twitter (lol) on the 360. Tried to play COD:WAW online at a friends house over xbox live and it honestly took longer than the ps3 does to find a game of nazi zombies (I know this cause I rented COD for the ps3 recently). What a joke.
Did your friend have dialup or a poorly configured network?
As a guy whose friends are more often not mostly huge FPS fans I not only have it on both consoles but I also have the Collector’s Edition with the sweet ass stainless steel flask and tin. I’ve NEVER found it to be a problem on the 360 and it’s usually a lot faster to set up a good game with your mates via the invites system. I haven’t had a problem with the PS3 version either, but the 360’s has always struck me as most conveniant. :/
Silver,
2 bricked 360’s out of 17 is still an 11.76% failure rate which is way above industry standard. It may be a lot better than the initial batch of 30%+ failure rate that the launch 360’s suffered from, but it’s hardly what I’d call a selling point, & if you class you & your friends experience as a good one then it makes you wonder what a bad run is like.
You will always get different levels of customer service at different times. Depends on who you get, what mood they’re in, etc. Also, different people have different expectations, & what I might class as good customer service others may not be happy with even though they’re essentially the same thing. You can’t please everybody all of the time.
Rhetorik,
People will defend the 360’s RROD because they spent money on it, & need to justify their purchase. The same as some PS3 owners defend their console of choice even when somebody else may have a valid criticism (ie, iffy multiplatform ports, & mandatory installs). I wouldn’t put either of those 2 issues as high up the “what were they thinking” scale as the 360’s reliability issues, but you catch my drift.
As far as I’m aware, they haven’t done a dandy job on the news 360’s, just slightly less of a hatchet job than the old ones. I mentioned previously that shop staff at Game (UK) advised me a few months back that they were still getting 360’s back daily for all chipsets & varieties including the elite with various problems so it’s not limited to one particular iteration of the 360.
Silver/Rhetorik,
Even not having used xbox live the feature list does make it sound easier to get online & communicate with your friends than PSN. The PSN is definitely a quite segmented experience being on a game by game basis. I can understand the reason why people of a social disposition would choose xbox live over PSN for convenience alone. For me it doesn’t justify the cost, & I don’t have any problems online, but I get it.
The difference is some 360 owners HAVEN’T experienced a single reliability issue with their 360 (unless you include having it crushed by a giant TV, but I bet any console would have been crushed. Hell, it marked my tiled floor beneath the console) whereas ALL PS3 owners have to deal with mandatory installs and the poorer online service.
I haven’t had an issue so I rave about the 360. Maybe if I did go through a 360 a week like some claim to I’d start to care. Even if I did have one that went two or three times a year though I still wouldn’t give a damn as 360s are stupidly cheap these days and you can just slot in the old hard drive and use your older peripherals. How cheap are they here? Two or three retail games’ price cheap. I could buy three a week on minimal job hours.
Very well done on the article.
I feel picking a system depends on income favorite types of game.
E.G. I used to own a 360 but have traded it in for a ps3, due to being a huge fan of the metal gear series, a big fan of shooters. Also income wise due to I already pay for a high speed net and I can’t afford the extra cost due to the econmy and bills.
The 360 may be “stupidly” cheap, but I didn’t realise they were designed to be disposable. Although I think that anybody who claims to go through one a week might be talking out of their @rse. I may think the 360 is unreliable, but I’m not that delusional.
In prinicipal I agree with Tim’s sentiment that you should pick a console based on the games you want to play, there are other factors, but I believe this to be the main one.
I’ve had disposable mobile phones that cost more. :/
Maybe they weren’t designed to be disposable, but they turned out that way and the core unit’s all you need to rebuy. Everything just works with it which suits me well.
When I came to the decision of buying a new console I was really confused about which one to choose (PS3 or XBOX 360); I finally decided for xbox 360 elite because I previously owned an xbox and I had never had a ps before. I was happy with my console and I signed up for xbox live. Everything was doing OK until I bought a PSP and saw the whole XMB stuff which I found really fancy, afterwards played on a friend’s PS3 and realised it had the same interface, that’s when I started wanting a PS3; later on I learned about the whole blu ray stuff and I went mad for a PS3 so I bought a 40 gb model. At first I thought I would only use it to watch movies in blu ray but I found the sixaxis very comfortable to use and the XMB really easy to understand (I cannot say the same with the menus of the xbox even with the new interface) so I started buying games for it and liked it.
I signed up for PSN and started playing online and I really can’t tell the difference between the gameplay in PSN and XBL; I found myself fond to the organization of the playstation store, finding it very easy to use and very useful to download demos, plus I didn’t have to buy a wi fi adaptor for the console.
My main concern when reading your articles was which console was better because I thought that the fact of PS3 having its games on blu ray discs already gave it an advantage in graphics over the DVDs used by the xbox. Now I learn that the disc is not the principal factor determining th quality of graphics.
To be sincere, the controler for the xbox is more ergonomic than the one of the PS, but the thing I really despise of the xbox is all the noise that it makes, microsoft should really work on that.
Exclusive titles for the PS3 have been great, I have really enjoyed playing Killzone 2, LBP, MGS4 and inFAMOUS; I cannot say the same about Haze (really bad game) or Lair (the only good thing of this title was the use of the sixaxis movement detector to control the dragon). I am waiting for the release of God of War III and Uncharted 2, which are expected to be awesome.
Other thing that has really impressed me of the PS3 is its compatibility with the PSP, I really have no words to describe how cool is that.
Even though I dont play games on my 360 anymore, after reading this article I think I will try again and look for that little differences you recall in the text; I have both consoles, so why not taking the best out of both?
Ah, I see one has already converted. They saw the light. Haha
As a side note to the wonderful XMB (I also found the new and old 360 layout quite confusing and useless) is that Sony also uses the XMB on their new TVs and Blu-ray players. I’d say it’s a decent way to organize things and they see it that way too.
When some people are paying upwards to 100 dollars a bill for high speed internet and tv service I can see how they would hate to spend however much the different xbl services are. If you can do without all the dandy friends service the xbl has, why not just go the free route? Thousands are doing it just fine on the ps3 every day.
I love the XMB, I think it looks very smart, & it’s easy to use. The only thing I am wanting is for the “in-game XMB” to streamlined so that it only shows the items that are available without quitting the game – hopefully if they do this it will speed up the menus somewhat.
Well I had a 360. bought brand new. it broke down not even a week later(and no I am not even close to a hard core gamer) I just bought a 80gb PS3 and there’s no contest. PS3. and 360 defiantly has gone as far as it will go. ps3 hasn’t even started. you really think I want to buy a new system every year? PS3 will last, it still has a future. 360 is gone and done for. no contest, those who need to choose do yourselves a favor, get a PS3, Microsoft is horrible when it comes to customer service, horrible product. PS3 will be around a lot longer
I bought a 360 in the recent week, and I’ve been playing for awhile now, I didn’t get any rings or any other problems. But now that I look back, I really should have gotten a PS3. I know there’s no point being a fanboy. I’ve seen friends with PS3’s and they are having a great time with it. But my friends with 360’s have less fun times. And with all the great games coming out, like inFAMOUS (which I really want to get!) and others. I’m disappointed that I didn’t notice earlier, and now I’m stuck with this 360 that I don’t enjoy :(
Great article. Although I think you should revise the playstation @home part because it has gotten a lot better. All of the people now look completely different, and the different game locations you can travel too can be really cool.
Hey uh good comparison. You did a really good job. Personally I’m an Xbox fan just because of the online features and the party feature. I swear if the PS3 made me pay $8 a month and gave the same online features as Xbox I wouldn’t hesitate to get a PS3. Then again it would just be the same console.
xbox 360 is garbage I went through 3, the first one I got took a shit when I hooked it up, after the third one failed I got it replaced and sold it to my brother he’s went through 2 all in the time span of 2 years
Another kudos for this article. I’ve read the previous 2 articles (launch and 1st year) and found them very
objective. Except for this article, which voted for PS3 by its end. Nevertheless, I liked this article very much.
I have a PS3, and I started looking in the internet for articles concerning it after buying it. I don’t know, maybe
I’m just out to justify my purchase. But prior to buying, I had the chance to play with my friend’s console. We had
guitar hero world tour then, just enjoying the songs we liked and pretending to make music. Then I started browsing
for articles about the PS3. I never knew there is a war going on!
There are several things which sold the PS3 for me.
First, of course, are the games. I won’t know whether its exclusive or not. As long as I like it, I’d buy it. And I
also wait for at least 2 months after its launch before buying so I could buy it used for a lower cost. And if there
is a game I like which is XBox 360 exclusive, I’ll just go to my brother-in-law’s home and play it there.
Second, its multimedia capabilities and connectivity. I can plug a USB drive into it and play music, videos and
pictures of my son and wife (I’m a long way away from home) through the living room TV. And if that’s not enough,
I’ll log on to the internet, go to youtube and watch my brother in law show-off his new helicopter flying moves. I
don’t have to worry about tripping over network cables and such since I can connect it wirelessly to the router
located in the other room. This may be a disadvantage when I try to stream HD videos through the wireless network,
the connection is just too slow for this purpose and the lag is unacceptable. So I guess I’m stuck with connecting a
USB drive. By the way, the drive has to be formatted in FAT32, so very large files (ripped from blu-ray or HD-DVD)
have to be split into 4GB files first. I don’t know if XBox360 have this limitation. And I can also listen to music
when I’m washing dishes in the kitchen by connecting my PSP through ORP.
Third is the lifetime of the console. I can’t deny that this console may be out of date by 2009 or so, but I don’t
really care if it’s that old. Hell, I bought my first PS2 (early 2008) when the XBox 360, Wii and even the PS3 is
already sitting beside it in the store window. But looking forward, for me it has a longer lifespan than XBox 360 or
Wii. I mean, come on, blu-ray, wi-fi, bluetooth, USB connectivity, changeable non-proprietary laptop hard-drive,
updatable firmware?
I’m not going through the online experience part, since I don’t have that many friends playing consoles and going online to play with other people.
As for the XBox 360’s RROD, I don’t even know that the 360 had these problems before I bought my PS3. But now that I knew, it justifies my purchase more hehe.
That’s it for me. If I have the financial capabilities, I’d buy a XBox 360 with all its accessories and games and annual membership fees. But since I don’t have that much money, I’ll stick with my PS3.
I’ve had three xbox 360s (two got rrod) and only one ps3(still going strong) for the past two years or so and to make matters worse now my xbox wireless adapter has now decided to f**k up, at least it outlasted the first two consoles. So now I just can’t be bothered with microsoft anymore. I wished I never invested in a libray of xbox 360 games i’ve gained over the years. From now on i’ll stick to ps3, even if multi-platform games generally favour the xbox. For the online stuff’(most gamers on xbox live are hateful anyway) i don’t often play online and i find psn store a lot less cluttered and proper money is better than the crappy points system. I had great times on the xbox 360(maybe again someday) but i’m tired justifying having one with all the problems so f**k em. By the way nice article.
hey i just bought the limited edtion 360 i will admidt i am a fanboy for the xbox but mostly cause of the online issue you talk about but getting back to what i was saying i bought the limited edtion 360 the red one with resident evil 5 and it is so much quiter than my buddys xbox like silent so i did some research and i guess there is a new chip that makes it quiter and it only runs off of 12 amps wich is alot better than the old one which i think is 24 energy efficient but i wanted to make a argument about that if the xbox was more
sorry im out here in iraq in the army my internet shuts off sometimes but yea if it is as quite as the playstation 3 would you like the xbox better for its better performance and game selection
I think most of the noise of the xbox is actually caused by the dvd drive more than the fans cooling the chips so if you install the games to the hard drive (If you have the space) it’s almost as quite as the ps3(if have a newer model xbox after it rrod again) but definitely not if you play straight from the disc regardless of what model it is, though you are right to say they have gotten quiterer in the later console changes.
My Xboxes have all run fairly silently. :/
Even compared to the PS3.
That said, the Wii’s quieter than both the 360 and the PS3 so if you’re going to judge your pick on the noise they make alone, GET A WII!!!!
But yeah, old 360s can be really, really loud. Take my mate’s launch console for example. He got it for us all to play and I still distinctly remember having to turn the volume way up just to drown out the noise…
Nowadays my 360 sits next to me for easy disc swapping and she barely makes a whisper. Maybe I’m just lucky with which DVD player my 360s got or something though as I’ve heard the second to last DVD drive (Phillips) is seen as one of the better ones…
i dont have a ps3 or a 360, but i have a wii, which is not as gud as those consoles, but is interesting. anyway for those of u who are arguing which console is better, the 360 or the ps3. the anwser is ovbious! its the ps3. lets face it.. ps3 puts more on the table. sure the 360 may have a bit better graphics. but does that qualify it to be better then ps3? no it doesnt. for those of u who didnt know the 360 was made by microsoft one of the most leading innvonations.. but is shit.. beacuse just look at windows! it gets fucked up after like 3 months! and did u know that the 360 got recalled for errors done by microsoft, but look at the ps3. it has a few flaws that cud have been fixed.. but still it has not been recalled! i believe the only reason why people buy the 360 is not for its higher quality graphics.. its just for a game! halo. sure its a gud game.. but its ont gud enough for some1 to buy a console for it. but look at the ps3 it offer way better games then halo. and it also puts more on the table. like it has a higher capacity hdd. bllue ray. free online gaming. thrilling games.. what more can a gamer ask for? see my point?
Thank You!
Dynamicly
You truly are an hero to the PS3 fanboy community in general!
P.S. Halo was on the original Xbox and the later Halo games on 360 won’t sell the console to all FPS fans let alone gamers. Gears of War is better.
And yes, the PS3 has a higher capacity hdd (when you buy and install a third party one, but why would you unless you’re going to use it as a media box [not enough game content to fill the standard hdd] and a proper media box will work better for that purpose), blue ray (yay for a slower drive that allows several DVDs worth of data to be stored on a single disc at the expense of speed making some games have forced installs?), free online gaming (like Xbox Live lite with less arcade games to buy) and thrilling games (just half that of the 360). What more could a gamer ask for?
This gamer thinks a 360.
Dynamicly, Please don’t try to help the PS3 cause – it’s scary.
Silver,
We all the know the graphics of the 2 consoles are very comparable. Multiplatform games tend to favour the 360, & exclusives currently tend to favour the PS3.
You can get a 160GB PS3. Isn’t the largest 360 one 120GB? so you don’t need to install a third party one (before you say it, I know it’s more expensive, & it’s probably cheaper to just buy the 80GB version & upgrade the drive yourself, just pointing out a fact).
Blu-Ray isn’t technically slower than DVD – it’s about the same speed over the whole disc. From what I’ve read the main problem is that the data has to be organised a lot more carefully on a Blu-Ray due to the size, & it’s just easier, & cheaper for the devs to make it install to the hdd. Killzone 2 ran competely off disc & that doesn’t have any isses – devs just need to get their head round Blu-Ray disc management. Saying that, I personally don’t have the slighest issue with mandatory installs anyway, & if I can’t find something to do for 5-10 minutes while a game installs then I need help (have a cuppa tea for crying out loud)..
I suspect that 360 owners have lost more time to reliability problems than PS3 owners have lost to installs.
Graphics very comparable? HA!
Oh to the naked eye most multiplatform games may achieve somewhat similar graphics regardless of platform but the graphics solutions themselves are both quite different and do things in different ways and on different levels. I’d say neither is remarkedly better than the other but each does things the other will suffer with.
And I did hear about US 160gb PS3s. Trouble is the stores over here sell 80gb models as the most expensive. I have heard of one store selling 160gb PS3s, but those were merely 80gb models with switched out drives. Guess Sony loves Australia. lol
And yeah a 2x blu ray disc doesn’t achieve the same results for disc read speeds as a 12x DVD drive. Yeah you can optimise the placement of information on a blu ray disc to achieve comparable speeds, but a 12x DVD will read faster. Oh and the DVD playing capabilities of the PS3? Only 8x I believe. Very few developers will spend as much time optimising their discs as those who created Killzone 2 as it’s just not efficient. And you’re right, mandatory installs aren’t too bad when a game library is smaller. There aren’t as many games to install!
I have firsthand experience that PS3 installs have eaten more of my time than any reliability issues with my 360. And unlike some I don’t drink tea. I’ll grab a beer and I can do that while I game…
To the naked eye is all I’m bothered about. The technicalities behind how they achieve the graphics are really not that important to me. It’s me, & the console, & the TV, oh, & my naked eyes.
I agree that most developers won’t spent time optimizing a blu-ray, & if it costs them time & money & it’s easier to stick an install in, it’s kind of understandable.
It doesn’t matter what DVD read speed is. Games don’t come on DVD’s, just films.
Metacritic currently shows 367 games for the PS3 – I think that’s enough to be going on with, & I don’t think I’d have any problem filling up an 80 or 160GB hard drive if I wanted to.
Hmmmm, beer. Yep, I’d say beer is also an acceptable alternative.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Plenty of games come on DVDs!
If you mean solely for PS3, than maybe there aren’t any. But then there might be. I remember some games on PS2 were on CDs rather than DVDs for example. I’m thinking the PS2 Metal Slug games were like that…
As for the PS3 hdds, only way I could fill one is with forced installs and other media that suits my media centre better. PSN’s downloadable game selection is pitiful compared to XBLA. And woah, 367 games? That’s just in NA, right? Because if that’s every game it’s pitiful…
they have more games a normal working person with a girl/boyfriend can handle. how many games do you need u cant buy?
i for myself have atleast 3 games at home i did not even played ONCE. because i dont have the time :(
there are so many great games out there i can never play cauze of time. maybe the xbox has more games. who cares? i cant even handle the fewer ones for PS3 >.<
and to the topic of installing:
installing is not a reason to buy or not to buy. image u buy an RPG with 100h playtime. the install takes you 10 minutes. who CARES about 10 minutes?! you have 100h fun just after these 10. and as bonus to the waiting, u have fery short loadtimes and a silent console.
also why is the readspeed important? i cant watch my DvD and Blu-Rays without any stuttering whatsoever and loading times for games are also not very long. but even if loading times are longer than on Xbox360…I CAN WATCH BLU-RAY WITH IT. beeing able to watch those nice thingis, i truly can wait 5 seconds longer then others. (if u have a seperate BR player, thats fine for you. but i didnt want the extra cost, storage, remote control and plugin on the electrics. also Blu-Ray is from Sony and also the PS3 is. so its a very good and compatible player i would think. they even make advertisement that blu-ray XYZ plays best on PS3 :D )
mfg, Robert
Oh I just like having a wider sleection with more niche games. I don’t play too many boxed games myself these days (xbla has way too many classics), but when I go shopping for them I like knowing there’ll likeoly be a few games that will appeal to me.
I myself have a shitload of unopened games as a result of having too much money. :/
I’ll probably play half of them before the next consoles come out. Maybe.
Well other people go on about the little annoyances, so why can’t I? If I wanted to install games I’d just play them on the PC. I can get more than twice the res in some PC games than so-called ‘hi-def’ in PS3 games. And that’s including some games a few years old.
Why is readspeed important? Well if your disc isn’t read fast enough, it can’t be streamed as fast which is a technical limitation. More loading time, less fast action though there are many ways a developer can mask it. Those elevator rides in some games are a new loading screen of sorts half the time.
And yeah Sony might have convinced you the PS3 is the world’s greatest media player. But my couple grand media centre farts in your general direction. It does cool stuff like hold and load one of six discs of any format at the press of a remote button, display better visualisations on either a large monitor OR a TV and it looks really awesome with it’s matching 5 speakers and sub woofer. Even plays some dead formats if I get some rarities from somewhere. Will the PS3? HELL NAW. Plus the sound I can get from it…
Kills the PS3’s capabilities any day.
Silver,
Quote “I myself have a shitload of unopened games as a result of having too much money. :/”, & “But my couple grand media centre farts in your general direction”.
You’re just showing off now. You could go off some people ya know!
On serious note, most people don’t want to spend a couple of grand on a media centre (I didn’t quite spend a couple of grand on our last car!), so comparing a £300 or $400 (whatever it costs in dollars now) console to a high end 2K media centre is hardly is a fair comparison (nice if you can afford it though). Also, Sony hasn’t convinced anybody about anything, they’d have to have a marketing department & some advertising to do that, & even PS3 fanboys have to admit that Sony has failed on that front.
367 is the number of games that Metacritic has listed with review scores, it’s the only guideline figure I could come up with without scouring t’internet for hours (got better things to do, like go to work…actually scrub that, better wasn’t really the right word to use when it comes to work, but I still had to go…Mondays).
As for the resolution thing PC vs console. I do agree that a better resolution gives a better picture..in theory. That is, unless the source material is so rubbish in the first place that all a high res monitor does is highlight how bad it looks…yep…that’s right, I’m talking about multiplatform games again..namely that PC abomination that is Prototype which has got to look better on a hi-def TV. On PC it looks four or five years old at least, & framerate issues which I understand the console versions don’t suffer from. On the other hand Bioshock & Crysis look awesome on a monitor, & there is plenty of PC exclusive games that look really good.
I just prefer sitting in a comfy chair in front of a big TV (relatively speaking).
I agree with Roberts’ take on installs & not being able to get through the PS3’s existing game catalogue though – these issues really aren’t that big of a deal if you’ve got hours of gaming to look forward to. Just like the the 360s’s reliability issues don’t appear to be a big deal to millions of 360 owners when they still get to enjoy their gaming experience for the majority of the time they own the console.
As for disc read speeds, it’s hardly a big deal. It can be optimised on the PS3, but if the developers haven’t got the time, inclination, or it’s financially prohibitive then the hard drive is a perfectly good solution & saves wear on the Blu-Ray drive anyway. After all, replacement hard drives on the PS3 aren’t expensive if the worst happens (it’s possible, hard drives do fail).
I have the money because I was smart enough to look into easy ways of making money and if I say something it’s because it’s true.
Your car analogy is flawed for one reason. You’re likely using US currency while I’m talkin’ AU currency. US currency being worth a deal more the vast majority of the time. A decent PS3 is approx $700 or $800 here, so a $2000 media centre isn’t even the same price as three PS3s. Also, you can get a decent centre for around the same as a PS3 possibly missing one or two features. I mainly got the one I did due to high compatibility, an awesome look and the sweet sound system included with it.
Like to game in your lounge chair?
I can game from my bed. Large monitors aren’t too expensive these days and combine them with a wireless keyboard/mouse/game keypad (specially made for shooters and the like) and a wireless controller and you have epic win. BUT it isn’t the same as a console in terms of how you have to boot it up and use the mouse/keyboard to less conveniantly navigate (a minimisable problem), net problems with a few games that you don’t seem to get with the consoles and also the time it takes some PCs to boot up. Higher res is higher res. If you’re worried about shite looking shite, prepare to see shite in some PS3 games if they’re released with shitty textures. Personally 1080 looks low res to me on more recent monitors if they’re big enough…
Disc read speeds are a HUGE deal when gaming, unless the game is streaming from a hdd in which case you’ll have no real problems, hence the PS3’s approach to force you to install things with some games. It’s big as it limits the max capabilities of the PS3. If it can’t be streamed, it won’t happen. Like your loading screens? You’ll have a higher chance of seeing the damn things when games start further evolving to test the hardware if they don’t force you to install content.
I would like to hear more about the building quality between the 2.
Yeah, I knew the exchange rate would take some of that 2K into account. I’m at work so didn’t have the time to look into how that would affect it, but it’s still 2 & a bit times the price of a PS3 so I’d expect a media centre at that price to perform expceptionally well at what it’s designed to do. The PS3’s media functions are good, but it’s no suprise that they don’t match up to a dedicated unit, & I wouldn’t expect it to.
I could game from my bed, but I wouldn’t be able to see the TV – that might be a tad awkward (anyway, the bedroom is for sleeping & shaggin baby…sorry, had an Austin Powers moment there..I do apologise).
Like I said before I agree with you about resolution, & a well programmed PC game will always look better than a console game, but there is a recent trend for multiplatform games to be pretty much ignored on the PC & then just shoved on that platform afterwards just as a cash inflow. Prototype may be an extreme example, but it does look dreadful on a 22″ widescreen monitor at 1680 x 1050 & runs like crap. I’ve seen console reviews complement the graphics, but when I look at Infamous on the PS3 against Prototype on the PC, the PS3 wins handsdown on this particular one (I haven’t seen Prototype on a console so can only surmise that it may look better on a TV, if it doesn’t then maybe it’s just a graphically challenged game). Maybe if I was playing it on a larger screen in a comfy chair I would be more involved in the game, & not take as much notice of how bland the city looks.
Large monitors aren’t that expensive? If you say so, replacing my old 19″ Hyundai CRT with my current Samsung T220 was a big purchase for me, & required some serious thought before I parted with the cash.
How big monitors are you talking?, as there’s been surveys & studies that strongly suggest the human eye has trouble telling 720p from 1080p on anything under a 50″+ TV at standard viewing distance. When we purchased our 40″ 720p Samsung we couldn’t tell the difference in the shop, & the price variance was around £200-300 (it cost around £550) which means it really wasn’t worth the extra cost for us to go 1080p.
The fact that every PS3 has a hard drive removes that limit as a problem. The PC has been using the HDD & installs for years now, & although still one of the slowest components in a modern PC (except DVD/CD drives) it’s still way quicker than any current affordable alternative until sold state comes into it’s own & prices come down. If the PS3 only had Blu-Ray & no HDD then I might agree with you. If an install improves game performance then I’m all for it. If it doesn’t affect game performance then I couldn’t care either way.
Gossepio,
You really want to go there don’t you. If you insist on pursuing this line of questioning then all I’ll say is look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360_technical_problems, & then see if you can find a similar page for the PS3. If you look at any PS3 vs 360 forum you’ll find your answer. In fact, if you’re using Internet Explorer or Firefox just click on edit, then click on Find, & then type the word “reliable” in as a search parameter, & see what you find on this single webpage alone. Nuff said on that subject.
Just set a monitor up in your room. Easy stuff.
I’m yet to play prototype on PC, but usually when a game looks shite on PC it’s either a console port or the original was made for PC and then it was later redesigned for consoles, some developers are into that kind of thing…
I can get a 22″ LG Flatron W2242T for under $200. I have several of them scattered around as they tend to be the best size for playing up close for me. Any bigger and my eyes can’t track all the onscreen action. I’ve noticed anything up to 30″ can be bought fairly cheap if you shop around but for every inch after that the price seems to climb dramatically.
As for monitor size, I’m more talking about the resolution than the physical size of the screen. When you get used to resolutions more than twice that seen on ‘HD’ consoles, you start noticing the difference. TVs just don’t have the ability to show what a kickass monitor can.
And, no it doesn’t. It remains a problem for developers not wanting a forced install and for those that don’t mind… You have a forced install. Waiting ten minutes is a disadvantage over not waiting at all if you do not wish to.
I find it funny when PCs are compared to consoles for a few reason, for one, new pc games tend to need to have the latest hardware to run a game the way its meant to be played, so you’re like a donkey chasing carrots to keep up (expensive) and the fact that console games can often visually like great (KILLZONE 2 / GEARS OF WAR 2) even though they are quite a bit underpowered to top end PCs witch in my opinion proves that you don’t need raw power to make beautiful game its all down to the developers. With consoles when you play games you’re not left feeling sour about your hardware limitations because every game on the xbox 360 or ps3 wil be the same experience for every gamer. PC gaming is hardly user friendly, the only good thing i can think of is that the games are alot cheaper.
SILVER, why the hell would you have games that you’ve never opened and 1080 looks low res……WTF.
Because I have too much money to spend and I’m like a child in a candy store when I go videogame shopping. If you’re Australian I can tell you exactly how I make the money so you can to (though, this method’s only got a few years left) but basically I just looked for an industry needing a ton of workers, picked that industry, negotiated my pay and work nightshifts.
As for 1080 looking low res, ask any PC gamer with way too much money on his hands. I don’t PC game too much these days as I’m lazy and consoles don’t require much to get things going optimally, but half my PCs run resolutions significantly better than a hi def TV.
Why compare a PC to a PS3? To me the PS3 is a shit PC. They both run media, both have games needing installs, both can be used as a personal computer… Hell, PCs can have blu ray drives. The main real differences is a PS3 will get you into the game faster and have compatibility with all games designed for it BUT the PC’s library dwarfs the PS3’s and games that are compatible with the PC tend to work a lot better the vast majority of the time.
For me, the Xbox 360 is a nightmare because I have had 3 different Xbox 360’s in the past 9 months! Two have been the RROD and the last being that it doesn’t read disc’s, then it couldn’t read my hard drive, who knows what’ll happen next! My older brother has a PS3 and he recommends i get it for LittleBigPlanet and Killzone 2 and his new game BlazBlue, which is almost like Tekken! I also like watching movies and watching a movie on Blue-Ray would be really nice!
well…the Xbox IS a little shit pc :P
and ps3 is a good mediacentre for its price. i can stream my music, vids and pics into my living room, can play funny games and watch my blu-rays while relaxing. (lying in bed and not sleeping doesnt relax me :/) and all that for ~300 Euro in a litte compact black box.
i dont want my living room packed up with 30 boxes of whatsoever, when i can have the features i most need and want in one thing :D
The PS3 is a SHITE mediaplayer. Unless you’re viewing media through mplayer or something under Linux. Just way too many formats it just don’t like. My media centre does everything yours does and more and has the added benefit of not looking like a George Foreman grill. One time I almost tried to insert a scotch fillet steak into it while half asleep, thankfully the PS3 ain’t top loading. lol
Compact black box my butt. For a game console there have been bigger… Or have there? 360 is smaller, N64 is smaller, SNES is smaller, PS2 is smaller… I think some pre mid 90s consoles might be bigger. Possibly. My media centre itself is tiny, the speakers and sub are quite nicely sized.
My living room doesn’t have 30 boxes of crap in it. Only has a large TV, a PS3, a 360, a Wii, a gaming AV splitter thing for easy console switching, a controller and remote speakers for my media centre which is housed in my bedroom and a few controllers as well as a universal remote (360 compatible logitech harmony one). My bedroom on the other hand is quickly becoming a wire jungle…
Hey should Xbox 360 get Windows wouldn’t it be smarter insted of getting Linux becuase it both by Microsoft. PS3 i knew it got Linux but the problom is i don’t know how to install it can some please help me with that and by the way GREAT artical it really changed my mind alot after reading this thanks alot for posting this artical
Silver,
You’re media centre may be awesome, but it’s kinda off topic. I haven’t come across any problems playing media files on the PS3. It copes with CD’s, DVD’s, Blu-Rays, AVI’s (divx), MP4’s, & apparently WMV’s, but I can’t confirm the last one as I haven’t tried. It’d be nice if it did MKV’s, but as DIVX is the main format I use it’s not a problem on the odd occassion I might want to use the media side of the PS3 (I use the PC mainly for media, but if I want to watch a film when my better half is playing Sims 3 it’s nice to know that the PS3 is there).
You can’t have a go at the way the PS3 looks when the 360 looks like a squished wheelie bin, it’s not exactly pretty. If I had a 360 I would be putting recycled crap inside it when I was half asleep, but Microsoft already has that covered (joke….or was it?!).
As for the size of the PS3, it’s only a couple of cm bigger than a 360 on each side, but as the PSU, wireless, & hard drive are already inside the unit it will actually take up less space than a 360, with less cable clutter. I agree that the PS3 is a large unit & compact is not a good description, but the 360 is hardly dinky.
It was actually the weight I first noticed when I opened up the box for the PS3, & not the size. It feels solid to put it mildly. Don’t expect the 360 to be as heavy with having some parts being external & separate.
Yeah but you’ll find there are some AVIs, MP4s and similar it won’t read due to not likeing part of the way the file was encoded or whatever. And some older formats like RealVideo Variable Bit Rate Files as well as existing formats such as Quicktime movies really don’t seem to want to play without mplayer through Linux,
Considering the consoles are all in the lower to mid 10s of centimetres tall, a few cm is actually quite a difference. If they were a metre tall or something than a few centimetres would be nothing, but as small as they all are it’s quite noticeable.
Squished Wheelie Bin? Try looking at a 360 with a decent faceplate like the official Hotrod one from MS. It screams made to play RPGs. I’m STILL hanging for a silver PS3 or just one of a unique colour. Do you guys have them in your respect countries yet? Sony has little love for Australia so I can never tell…
And my 360 is plenty dinky. Just stick the powerbrick behind a monitor or speakers or something and it looks like a piece of art.
And yes, the 360 is much lighter than the PS3, but on the same note, neither struck me as particularly heavy unless comparing them to previous consoles which they both seem to be quite heavier than. =D
with t-versity a can stream anything to my ps3 except mkv. but often those mkv are also avaible in divx so…problem solved ;)
and i think the ps3 looks good. u consider it big but a normal barebone is bigger and looks like a simply barebone…i just like the design and color :)
u seem to get a bit angry :/ i for myself thought the whole time, that the xbox can do the same with a wireless adapter oO and unless u have both consoles and dont sell ur shitty PS3 and i dont get it why u care so much :S
LOL. If you only knew all the video formats out there you’d know how stupid that sounds. My media centre is MUCH more compatible than the PS3 and it still has a few formats it just won’t take.
As for that second part, I don’t really care how much a spiderman font and black spray painted george foreman grill appeals to you aesthetically and the last part just leaves me totally confused. Normal barebone is bigger? Bare bone what? Or did you mean Bear Bone? Because then it depends on which of the bear’s bones.
And yes, a 360 can stream multimedia if you want it to, but I’m of the older gamer who just wants his machine to be optimised for gaming and not all this other crap a ton of other devices already have covered. Does my SNES play DVDs? Not that I’m aware. Would I want it to at the cost of it’s higher cartridge read speeds? HELL NO.
Quote “much more enjoyable console” – if you like?! – depends on what you find enjoyable! I personally wouldn’t find it enjoyable constantly expecting my console to brick itself at any moment – warranty or not. That one’s down to personal preference though as I’m sure the 360 is awesome whilst it’s working – after all, the PS3 is (awesome, not working, although it is working, still).
i have an elite and have absoluytely no fear of the red ring of death. i took my xbox to my mates once and plugged it in and switched it on, ARGH! 3 red lights, switched it off, switche dit back on, yay, 2 green lights!!! that is all its done wrong, and i have had it since the elite came out.
my perosnal opiniion is that the 360 is better, much better control configuration. ps3 controls may be six-axis but what the hell use is that? and the analogue sticks next to each other is awful, i had a ps2 and bought a gamecube when it broke cos i hated the ps2 control, gaecube is basically the same as xbox but slightly different buttons.
xbox being too noisy? install the games! a lot quieter.
turn the volume up! much more exciting, sound drowned out, oh problem fixed!!!!
meh, enough said, i personally prefer the xbox to the ps3. but it is a matter of opinnion in most cases, but actual power-wise, they are almost equal. 360 just beats it by having more grpahics to play with, games really do need that these days.
I own both consoles and like them both equally
Graphics:
Xbox 360: Great on most games but i care about gameplay.
PS3: Great on some games and killzone2 looks amazing but i want good fun gameplay.
Movies:
Xbox360: plays dvds i have tons of DVDs and i blast my movies anyway so i dont hear the console.
PS3: I have many BluRay discs aswell so whatever i see no difference in quality.
Controllers
Xbox360: Feels great nice triggers and joypads.
PS3: Feels great nice layout and joypads. Triggers could be better but i love it eitherway.
Music:
Xbox360: Dosent play music from ipod touch…
PS3: Dosent play music from ipod touch either… thank god for its ext. speaker.
Multiplayer:(Ethernet not wireless)
Xbox360:You have lag now and then easy to talk to friends.
PS3:Lag now and then and all my friends have cell phones so I just text them to go on.
I used wireless on both and i personally perfer the stability of wired connections.
Exclusives:
Xbox360: I love halo 3! out of the 60 games I own about 30 each console this one is played nearly once a day.
PS3: I love me some SOCOM: Confrontation! Played about once a day.
(I hear Crysis 2 is planed for both consoles and I personally think it will only be as good as the first two if its on PC)
Doesn’t the ipod patch from XBL (optional media update or whatever it is) add support for the ipod touch? I don’t know as I lack one, but it supports the older ipod varieties.
Silver,
It may not play all of these files perfectly, but I haven’t come across these problems myself so I couldn’t say.
It doesn’t matter what you say about faceplates – I think the 360 is an ugly console, but then again you aren’t a fan of the PS3’s aesthetics. I think you’re nitpicking over the size of the PS3 – you probably think I’m nitpicking about the power supply on the 360 – it’s all down to personal preference anyway.
The 360 isn’t dinky. The Wii is the only dinky console this gen.
As far as weight is concerned, what else are you going to compare them to except previous consoles. Again, I think the Wii is probably the only one that compares to previous gen consoles in that respect.
Devious,
I’m glad you haven’t had any problems with your 360, & I hope it carries on that way. The simple fact is that even now the 360 is not the most reliable console out there, although it is considerably better than it used to be.
Controls are personal preference, I like with the Dual Shock, but I get why people would prefer the 360 controller.
Quote ” xbox being too noisy? install the games! a lot quieter.
turn the volume up! much more exciting, sound drowned out, oh problem fixed!!!!”
Amazing how the 360 fanbase moans about the PS3 mandatory installs, & then uses 360 installs as a positive. If it works then fair enough on the install, but don’t moan about the PS3’s installs. What do you do if you want to watch a DVD on your 360, you can’t install that, or do you have to copy all of the files over to the hard drive (does that even work, & if it does, what a hassle). Or I could do you suggestion & turn the volume up….what if it’s 2 in the morning, & I don’t want to annoy the neighbours – that’s not problem solved, that’s create 1 problem to hide the original problem.
Quote “meh, enough said, i personally prefer the xbox to the ps3. but it is a matter of opinnion in most cases, but actual power-wise, they are almost equal. 360 just beats it by having more grpahics to play with, games really do need that these days.”.
It’s easier to get the good graphics out of the 360, & multiplatform games show this. I also agree that they are comparable in power, but please point me in the direction of a 360 exclusive either out now or coming out that is graphically better or even equal to the best that’s available on the PS3. Alan Wake & Forza 3 do look really really really good, but GT5, & Uncharted 2 look graphically superior, This is purely about graphics, doesn’t mean anything about how they’ll be as games.
I blame my love of homebrew movies and rare media only obtainable via the net I guess…
But yeah if you’re only gonna be playing commercial video, the PS3 should meet your needs as should the 360 for anything bar blu-ray.
The 360 is plenty dinky! It’s smaller than from the base of my hand to my elbow and my arm is thicker where the muscle is (even if my arm is half is half the width at the part joining the hand).
The Wii’s amazing. Unlike the PS3 and 360 it’s actually LIGHTER than most older consoles. I am truly amazed (not really) at the advancements here.
Devious, don’t worry about his remarks concerning reliability. Common knowledge that most 360 gamers are too busy playing their reliable consoles to come to the defence of them against PS trolls pretending to have 999 bricked 360s. I’m special cos I have my 360 next to my laptop, next to a TV and under a portable DVD player.
Oh and Kaden, I haven’t bitched about the noise in my 360s. Mine are near silent just as my PS3s are. My mate’s launch 360 though which I played heavily before getting my own was really, really loud but I’d say they’ve fixed that with different components or something in most newer revisions. I say most as I do have a friend whose word I trust who told me his new red 360 was still making enough noise to be noticable.
I can’t comment on Alan Wake and Uncharted 2 due to not seeing so much footage but Forza 3 actually seemed kind of better visually to me than gt5. I’ve only seen low quality web vids thus far, but I could even see cracks in the road in Forza 3’s actual gameplay footage while the people’s hair that was visible in gt5 looked rather last gen. Yeah they’ll both look great when they come out I reckon, but so far Forza 3’s the one impressing me.
@silver:
at first, i dont need linux oO or do you mean linux on the host-pc? i have just vista with t-versity. it makes my PC a mediaserver (also possible with WMP) which can be used wireless by my PS3. and what t-versity also does, it converts all files ON THE FLY while its streaming. so as long as i have the codecs on my pc, t-versity will convert it and my PS3 will play it. thats all. and also my sound is really good. going with an optical to a 5.1. HDMI would be better but most TrueHD sounds are only in english and not german. so again no problem.
what is a mediacentre to you? normaly it is a barebone (little pc) with windows media version. u mean a normal rig that…what? do you BURN all your files and put it in there? lol
and for your PS3. it seems broken :( it beeps when u turn it on and turn it off. thats all. NO beepin while running. and also it IS quiter. its almost unhearable. maybe somethings wrong with the automatic ventcontroll :(
btw: who cares about the weight of a console?? its no LAN-PC whatever. put it where it belongs and thats it :D furthermore i think the PS3 looks a bit better when you place it on the small side. so the disc entrance is vertical. :)