PS3 vs 360: Opinions needed
 

So, I need a good list of pros and cons. My Brother is picking one of these up next week and can't decide which. He wants to make sure whichever he buys will really be worth it, but hasn't been following all of the news and what not (He has two kids and works a lot, so he just doesn't have time to do that these days.)

What do you guys think? Blu-Ray vs HD also applies here. Which has the better movie selection now, and which do you think will have it later etc?

I would pick the 360, but I really don't have technical reasons to back that up.

But if he picks PS3, I hear there's going to be a price drop in the next week or so, so definitely don't buy anything until that's announced.

Overall it really boils down to what your mainly using it for.

I have a 360, it is my 3rd one. So yeah I've had 2 break on me. Now at my work we don't get many PS3 returns and 90% of them aren't because it's broken so in the department of a longer lasting system the PS3 wins.

Movies, well the 360 has a HD player you gota buy separate but it comes with a 5 HD movie offer and King Kong on top of that so you get 6 movies right off the bat. A movie being about 30 bucks a pop that's a free 200 bucks right there and the player is about that much*150 on sale sometimes* so it evens out.

Now as far as the movie selection goes Blu-ray has way more titles, it includes Sony movies as well. Now HD-DVD has it's exclusive titles as well so really just do your research. If I were you and got the game system I'd just buy the player I didn't get. In reality it's cheaper to buy a PS3 for Blu-ray disks then the player*Cause it plays games as well* and better to buy a player for HD-DVD because the whole rig with a 360 cost about 600 bucks, but the 360 also plays games so if you weigh it out it's worth it.

Now, the important part, the games. As of right now 360 has way more titles, and since it's been out longer it has some good games priced at around 30 bucks. Now if your like me and don't have much money this is great. You can get some good games for half the price of a new one. I also found the 360's selection to be better then the PS3's. 360 has all the games the PS3 has that I'd want. But we are all different and I'd look into it more. Off the top of my head the main games PS3 has exclusive that everyone raves about are Lair and Fall Of Man. To counter that the 360 has it's Halo 3 and Gears Of War, but really the games I enjoyed alot were Lost Planet, Dead Rising, and Fight Night 3.

I also find the controller comfort to be important. I'm going to be dead honest with you here, whoever made the PS3 controller needs to be shot. Why you ask? Well for one it's a PS2 controller that's wireless and has this useless motion control feature that doesn't work well. The 360 controller is comfort at it's best. My hands have never felt better playing a game. I used to get bad cramps playing games up until I got that sucker in my hands. Now I get headaches before hand aches, the way it should be.

So that's about all the insight I can give you on the subject I hope this helps you out! And enjoy which ever one you get, be sure to let us know.

PlayStation 3
+ Blu-Ray movie format is currently more widely supported.
+ Superior Build Quality
+ Home of Final Fantasy
+ Better graphics (and build in HDMI support)
+ Best racing games
+ Free online multiplayer & voice chat
+ PlayStation Home offers far superior interface and achievement system (& Web Browser)
+ Digital Video recorder services to be offered for PS3 next Spring
- WAY more expensive
- Currently less games available
- Controller batteries aren't replaceable
- Hard drive is internal and non-replaceable
- Fewer exclusives until next wave of first/second party games hit


Xbox 360
+ Game lineup caters to core gamers tastes
+ Its cheaper
+ Excellent selection of small downloadable software
+ Primary home of Mistwalker Studios (Sakaguchi's studio)
+ Replaceable hard drive
+ Superior exclusive content on average
+ King of the shooters
+ Reliable online service
- Worst hardware build quality in industry history
- Controller face buttons are knobby and stiff
- Xbox Live requires $50 yearly fee to play online
- Backwards compatibility has slacked off
- Still way too many shooters compared to other genres
- Lacks much family friendly content


I own an Xbox 360 that recently broke down. I'm currently in the process of getting it fixed, but if they force me to pay for repairs, I may just shelve the thing for some time. I was planning on saving up for a PS3 in the future anyway, and there are too many good Wii games coming out to get cheated into having to replace my 360.

If you're looking for HD movies, just go with the PS3. Blu-Ray is the foretold winner, and the DVD upscaling abilities of the PS3 are outstanding. If you're looking for some good old fashioned online gaming, the 360 will likely suit your tastes better.

Personally, I feel the PS3 has more potential than the 360. It isn't anywhere near meeting it yet, but I honestly feel the 360 will be played out in two-three years and Microsoft will already be pushing a successor with their cheap-ass four year cycle approach. The PS3 was built to last longer than that. Whether it will or not is yet to be seen, but the big games haven't hit yet, so its still a matter of wait and see.

Basically, its a risk either way. You've got one (360) that "currently" has the better lineup, but may not last long because of hardware issues and quick succession turnover, and another one (PS3) that still has yet to really get on its feet with the heavy hitting games.

Take your pick. Outside of the Banjo game coming to Xbox 360, I pick PS3. Developers will start to crank out the goods as they become well associated with the hardware, and I feel Sony will let the machine live long enough for that to happen. Four years just isn't going to cut it when technology is this expensive. Developers need time to reap some profit, and consumers need time to actually enjoy their investment.

I'm assuming your brother has an HDTV since you're asking about the formats.

I have both a PS3 60 GB version and a 360 Elite (both hooked up via HDMI), and here is my take on them:


+ XBox 360
Game-wise, I find myself playing the 360 way more. The game library is just larger. As Spitfire said, a lot of the games on the PS3 are also on the 360. For the most part when this happens I get it on the 360 for two reasons:

1. You get achievements for the 360 games, which is a fun little way to keep track of your completionist ways.
2. I feel that Sony used their PS3 as a way of pushing their HD format rather than just as a flat out gamming console. That led to a high price that just made the system unreachable for most consumers. That pisses me off and so out of principle I get non-exclusive titles on the 360.

Plus, I never had a regular XBox, so I get to play a lot of the classic XBox games that I never got to play. The backwards compatibility of XBox games might not be 100%, but of the games it does play, they all are rendered fantastically in HD.

Yes, you have to pay for online play, but $50 a year is reasonable. I have also found the service to be very reliable as well.


+ PS3
Of the nonexclusive titles, I like the ones coming up on the PS3 better. Metal Gear Solid and Ratchet & Clank are two of my favorite franchises ever. MGS4 was probably the #1 reason I even got a PS3. My old neighbor calls it my $660 game.

Backwards compatibility is better on the PS3 as far as number of titles is concerned, but the upscaling of PS2 games isn't as good as they are for the XBox games on the 360.

However, after firmware 1.80, the PS3 trumps the 360 on the DVD playing front. There tends to be combing when watching DVDs on the 360, while the PS3 de-interlaces perfectly in most circumstances.


If I were your brother, I'd list all the games that would want to get on each system and then use that list to base my choice on.

Wow. I read through those couple of posts and picked out a ton of misinformation. I'm disappointed in you guys. Home as a superior interface? Lair as a huge game? Jesus. And what's with all the assumptions? No one KNOWS that the 360 is going to be thrown out in 2 or 3 years, that's just speculation. As far as the PS3 "potentially" getting better than the 360 down the line, anything is possible, but the cell has so many bottle necks that developers are pretty much treating the PS3 as the treated the Xbox last-gen. The Xbox had so much power, yet no one took advantage of it aside from the 1st party. Why? Because PS2 was the lead platform on 3rd party games.

Anyways, I own both, so I'm gonna give you my honest opinion on it. Giving you the information you need to make a choice.

The 360 is superior for games right now. Whether it will stay that way is something you have to decide for yourself. Both MGS4 and Final Fantasy are (currently) exclusive to the PS3, while the 360 has Halo (of course) as well as Rare, but also seems to be coming with a lot more new IP exclusives.
At the moment, the PS3 really has nothing worth playing. In terms of exclusives you've really only got Motorstorm, Lair, Resistance and Heavenly Sword. Lair and Resistance are pretty awful, Motorstorm is average and Heavenly Sword is great, but about 5 hours long. While the 360 has games like Gears of War, Dead Rising, Viva Pinata, BioShock, Lost Planet, Blue Dragon, Kameo and both Halo 3 and Mass Effect on the horizon.
You've also got to factor in that 3rd party games have almost exclusively run better on the 360 thus far, not to mention the 360 versions have come out before the PS3 version on way too many occasions lately, and for one reason, 360 is the lead development platform for almost all 3rd party next-gen games. This will not change. So if you're into sports games or just the best version of 3rd party games, the 360 really is the way to go.

As far as movies go, the PS3 does very well. In terms of DVD playback, you have got it made with the PS3. The thing has what is probably the greatest upscaler in DVD history. As far as Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD, the only way to solve that would be to look at what you're going to get on each format and which movies you enjoy. Blu-Ray has more selection right now, but it isn't exactly better than what you'll find on HD-DVD. The thing is, HD-DVD is tossing money to get studio exclusives, and so far that includes The Matrix trilogy, and also Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, which is insane. Blu-Ray on the other hand, has Disney and of course Sony. Everyone thought the HD format war was over, but HD-DVD is sticking around, and now actually making a huge push against Blu-Ray, so either way you're gonna just be choosing a side which may or may not lose.

As for TMB's pointless and straight up wrong b*tching about BC, you're not going to do well with either console anymore. The new versions of the PS3 out now have the emotion engine removed, meaning all of their BC titles are now software based, which I've heard causes a sh*t ton of bugs. The 360 pretty much has any game you'd want to play BC at this point. But neither are perfect, and if you've already got a PS2 or Xbox, this whole point is pretty negligible.

You've also got to factor in the price. As someone misinformed you above, no there isn't going to be another PS3 price drop in a week. The PS3 is too expensive for the quality of games you're going to recieve, but if this is more about an HD format, you can't really go wrongm especially with the 5 free Blu-Ray's offer (even if most of them are horrible). The 360 HD-DVD drive has dropped in price, though. I've seen it as low as $99 USD in a bunch of places, and as Spitfire said, it comes with an offer for 5 free HD-DVD's, as well as King Kong. The 360 is super cheap, but as most unfortunate people will tell you, it does have a 35% failure rate. If you take care of it, you shouldn't have a problem, though.

In terms of other features, I think I'd have to give it to the 360. While you do have to pay to play online, it's well worth it for the experience. Whereas playing online on the PS3 is painful, especially when you're used to the things the 360 online service spoils you with. Both the PS3 online store and the XMB are both completely retarded, as well. The 360 really has it's sh*t together in this department, with a f*ck ton better online content, and a much nicer and easier to use interface.

So really, this won't be a clear cut case certain people. You have to weigh what you want to play/watch more. Check out the games available on the 360, then check out the games available on PS3. Look at Blu-Ray and HD-DVD exclusives, and take your pick. You really can't go wrong with either, though if you want games to play, picking the PS3 wouldn't be the best choice.

I think you should not choose a game console by looking at game console itself. You should be looking at their game library or future games that will be released for the system. You should make a list of games that you would want to play, see whether they are/will be available for 360 and PS3, and go for the system that has longer list.

How much should the quality of your TV factor into a next-gen purchase? I'd be interested in getting a PS3 or X-Box 360 but I've only got a small, regular definition box, so I wouldn't be getting the most out of any of the games or Blu-Ray movies.

Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are pointless if you don't have an HDTV with at least 720p. And games from either will look good (with some exceptions) on a normal TV. It should be a factor, but if you don't own either, you should at least get one.

You'll still see the benefit of the consoles even if you are playing on a SD-box. People overplay the difference high definition actually makes. You loose resolution and clarity, but it still looks amazing.

You win the thread.

I would add Ninja Gaiden Sigma to that list. You can get Ninja Gaiden Black for the XBox, which is essentially the same game, but not nearly as pimp as the PS3 remake.

Eh, I guess. It looks nice, but it's still basically the same thing, and the parts with Rachel are pretty lackluster. If someone really wanted to play it that bad, I would just buy a 360 and get Black. Especially considering Ninja Gaiden 2 was announced for the 360 earlier in the week. But yeah, if you've got a PS3 and haven't played Ninja Gaiden, you should at least rent it. I can't say buy, because I personally hate Ninja Gaiden, but it's worth trying.

*nods* Very wise thing to do. That's what I did when I was choosing between getting a DS and a PSP (although it took me less than a few seconds to say that I would be happier with a DS). Look at the line ups of the consoles and the games they have out right now. What can you see yourself playing more? A PS3? Or a 360?

Then again, there is that issue with money. If you are currently stuck in a dead-end/low-pay job, go with the 360. Unless you want to stop eating for a week and save up for a PS3.

Personally, I would go with a 360, but that's just me. The PS3 will eventually have a lot more games out (and, if tradition keeps up, will be a lot cheaper come Christmas time), so if you want to wait for that one, by all means wait.

I assumed Lair was large because it's advertised to s*** at my work and it's like the #2 game in the PS3 section on GameFAQs. I honestly don't know what it's about myself I just hear people talk about it a lot. Can't you play as a dragon or something?

Anyways I totally back the HDTV statement. Even if your getting a small like 20 inch just for gaming it's worth it. Really though dumping a grand down on a 42 inch TV really is a good investment. I'd recommend getting LG because it looks great and is affordable. Ideally Pioneer is actually the best, and isn't just a brand where you pay for the name. Those TVs are amazing.

I'd also suggest getting a surround sound system it really adds a whole new level to the game. Play your cards right and you can get all this stuff at good prices. I got my TV for a grand and my surround system for a 100 bucks. Yeah I work at Best Buy and get a discount but if you see an open item you can bargain with the reps there to sell it to you for a lower price. Any open item is really something their trying to get rid of because they hate having them sitting around so it's free game for you to barter with them.

OMG why did they even do that? I understand that they wanted to add more content and all, but every time it's a Rachel level, I spend the whole time wishing I were Ryu instead.

People are talking about it a lot because it bombed. It's horrific. And you play as a dragon rider, or some such stupid sh*t. All I know is the game is horribly made and controls like complete ass.

Yeah, I'd love to know too. I guess it was just trying to justify yet another version of Ninja Gaiden.

Wow, well I can't say I'm surprised. If it's a dragon rider game then they probably tried to use the terrible motion controls for it.

Are there any good PS3 exclusives sides Fall Of Man? I see alot of people buy Heavenly Sword but that looked like a Dynasty Warriors rip off when I saw the preview for it.

wait, Sigma isn't a new game? It's another revamp of The First NG? That's incredibly bunk. I was going to talk my brother in to getting that if he chose the ps3. **** that now.

Resistance if f*cking awful. Both in design and gameplay. It doesn't help that the dual shock/six-axis has to be the single worst controller for a FPS ever made.

But yeah, PS3 has very little. Motorstorm is fun, but extremely shallow. As for Heavenly Sword...well firstly it's nothing like Dynasty Warriors, I don't even know how you could have come to that conclusion. Secondly, it's really good, but I beat it in 5 hours.

I suggest buying an XBox 360. I have an XBox 360 and a PS3, and I spend much more time playing my 360. Part of this might be because my PS3 doesn't have Wi-fi because it's the 20 GB version. The 20 GB harddrive on my PS3 is fine, but not having Wi-Fi means that I am not able to get online(My PS3 is not near the router). I bought a wireless adapter for my XBox 360.

Currently XBox 360 has more good exclusive games. Although, XBox 360 and PS3 share many 3rd party non-exclusive games.

As for the 35% failure rate, isn't the failure rate lower when it comes to new XBox 360s that are being released now? I haven't had a problem with my system that I bought in February of last year, but there are indeed many people that have had problems.

Overall, I suggest XBox 360.

The new new 360's haven't been released yet. They're coming early next year. However, the ones that are being released now do have the improved heat-sinks, which drastically reduces the chance of any kind of overheating failure.

I don't know what to say about the entire thing, honestly. I've had my 360 since a couple of months after launch, and I've had absolutely no problems with it at any point.

Oh ok.

The only problems with my 360 I have had are that a message appeared while playing Gears of War a few times saying that it couldn't read the disk or something like that. Unrelated to this (I think), I heard a growling noise from my 360 while playing one of my music CDs and sometimes while playing Halo 2 on Live. When that happens with Halo 2, I just turn the console off and it's fine when I turn it back on. Hopefully I won't have any major problems with my XBox 360.

I agree with the others, I like the XBox 360 wireless controller more than the PS3 controller. Although, you have to buy a $20 play and charge kit for 360 if you don't want to use AA batteries. The PS3 controller comes with a built in rechargable battery. $20 isn't that much for a play and charge kit, IMO, so that really shouldn't be a factor in deciding which system to buy.

The only problem with the PS3 controller is the battery starts to retain less and less charge the more you play. After a certain amount of time, you're going to have to buy a whole new controller, because that battery inside the six-axis isn't replaceable.

Not really a problem with the controller per say, but the fact that they package a measly 5' USB cable with it is the weak sauce.

The incredibly short USB cable is also retarded. I hate having to plug it in when you do a system update, there are just so many inconveniences in the design of the thing.

The cable has nothing to do with it? It's the capacitor inside the battery that retains the charge. Eventually, all batteries do have to be replaced. It just depends on how big the capacitor is inside.

EDIT: Oh, you were talking about just the cable as a weak point. My bad.

Actually this brings up something I've been wondering but haven't really had a chance to test. Correct me if I'm wrong but:

The 360 controller will charge if it's plugged in and you turn the system off.
The PS3 needs to be on to charge the controller.

I'm not 100% sure. I never really had a chance to find out because if the battery gets low for the 360 controller and I just plug and play. And I leave the PS3 controller in when I'm watching DVDs.

Complete opposite, actually. The 360 controller won't charge while the console is off, but the PS3 controller will.

Ah, good to know. Thanks.

Aw huh I assumed it was good because that's the game PS3 owners always brag about when they talk about their systems.

I actually didn't really have anything to base that on I glanced at the back for a quick second and some of the screens reminded me of DW. The trailer I saw was a cut scene they showed at my work around Christmas time.

It's charging when the light is red yes? Because if that's the case my controllers, and Ipod both charge while my system is off. Though my system is weird, like it won't shut off all the way and I can still hear it running but it doesn't display anything on screen and appears off. While it does this I can charge stuff. And if I turn it on and then off again it stops.

My Xbox 360 does that too.

Yeah, sometimes the red light will stay on, but that doesn't mean it's charging. I've tested it a couple of times and whenever I turn my 360 back on and check the battery charge, it's always the same as when I turned it off.

Well thanks for telling me that then I was mislead by that for awhile. Glad I got a wall charger for my Ipod now cause I used to let my 360 charge it and I always wondered why the battery would die the next day when I charged it all night. I thought the life on it just sucked. When I got the wall charger it started lasting longer so that makes alot of sense.

I get a check from the school this week....should I buy a D-100 Nikon, or a ps3......

Why do you have to plug it in when you do a system update? I don't.

Because it won't allow me to continue unless I do? Maybe it has something to do with the NA consoles being different. I know I'm not the only one who has to do it.

Get the Nikon it's a great camera. The people we were traveling with on our trip to Europe had one. That thing takes some amazing pictures. And has about a billion settings.