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Games & gear: Xbox 360 vs Playstation 3
Xbox 360 vs Playstation 3
by tas81685 - 3/14/09 12:46 PMHello forum members, I am in need of your assistance. I am thinking of buying a new game counsel and i am not sure which to go with. I could use your assistance in clarifying some pros and cons.
Xbox
I like the Xbox 360 for being cheaper but fewer features. I like some of their games, Halo, Burnout, Assassins Creed.
PS3
I like PS3 for the features although expensive. I look forward to some of their games, God of War, Little Big World.
I know there are a lot of other great games for each I have not listed, if you have a specific game please tell me. I really haven't played any of the above except for Halo 1 but I have been told about the others. Are there new releases of either system coming out, or discounts? Please any pros and cons to either system would be greatly appreciated. And if there are some out there that are set on a Wii, I guess I would like to hear from you as well, after all my wife would prefer the Wii. Thank you everyone for your time.
Why limit yourself
by Jimmy Greystone - 3/14/09 3:11 PM In reply to: Xbox 360 vs Playstation 3 by tas81685Why limit yourself to just one? I don't mean that you have to buy all three at once, but you could always choose one for right now, and then save up for the other two at some later point.
As to which one you get... Normally I say to look at the games available for each system, and pick the one that has the largest number of games YOU want to play. However, in your case, you have the wife wildcard in play, which skews things considerably.
I might suggest starting with the Wii in this case, to keep the Mrs happy, then spend some time looking into the other two.
I will also say that Assassin's Creed was a considerable letdown. I was hoping for a bit more from Ubisoft, after the Prince of Persia trilogy. Assassin's Creed was either incredibly easy to the point of performing a bunch of side quests just for a little added challenge, to frustratingly difficult around the last two missions. The controls were rather clunky IMO. Sometimes you'd try and pull off some specific counter move, and it wouldn't register, or you'd end up doing some other move. Combat quickly became limited to just using one or two basic counter moves, and the story ends on a stupid cliffhanger. That all said, it was quite beautiful visually, when you'd climb up on some perch and look down on the city. But to me, nice visuals don't make up for poor controls, a lackluster story, and repetitive combat.
Depends on You're Looking For
by Minh-Vu Nguyen - 3/14/09 9:28 PM In reply to: Xbox 360 vs Playstation 3 by tas81685Well it depends on what you expect from the console. Here's a summary for pro's and con's
The Xbox 360 is only $300 now (regular one with a hard drive, not the "Arcade" version). It's primarily a gaming system, with a few extra features.
Significant Pros:
Most numerous and most variety of games.
Great exclusives: Halo series, Gears of War series, Mass Effect, etc.
Great streamlined online organization.
As of now, most popular system among "gamers."
Significant Cons:
Hardware weakness: Red ring of death. I don't know if that's fixed in their newer releases. However, the Red Ring of Death usually occurs when the Xbox overheats.
You have to pay $50/mo for online service.
The Playstation 3 ($400), on the other hand, is a mega entertainment system in addition to being a gaming console.
Significant Pros:
Great exclusives: Resistance series, Killzone 2, Metal Gear Solid 4, Little Big Planet.
Blu-Ray technology
Free online service
Solid hardware
Most advanced hardware, technologically speaking, and has the most room for potential.
Longest life-span of the 3 systems (due to reason above).
Significant Cons:
Online service not as streamlined yet
Still lags behind the Wii and Xbox 360 in popularity due to slow start.
Now, I personally own a PS3 while most of my closest friends own Xbox 360's (so yes, I've experienced the 360 just as much).
If you want a solid consolidated entertainment system, go with the PS3. That's what I did.
Now if you want a purely gaming experience, it's a 50:50. Before this year, Xbox 360 dominated this category. But PS3 has caught up with great releases. So if I were you, I'd go to Gamespot.com or IGN.com and look at the each console's exclusives and decide. Do you want Halo 3 or Killzone 2? Gears of War or Metal Solid Gear 4 (MGS4)? At this point, many great games are multiplatform, like Grand Theft Auto or Call of Duty.
Because I'm a PS3 owner, I'm biased in favor of the PS3, but not without reason. One thing is that I love the Blu-Ray technology. I watch everything in Blu-Ray now and my home entertainment system runs through my PS3. Secondly, the PS3 technology gives it the greatest potential in the future--only two games have shed some light on the PS3's potential: MGS4 and Killzone 2. Its cell technology is superior and all its games is on Blu-Ray, which can hold more data than DVD or even HD-DVD. As of now, Xbox 360 games and most PS3 games are not that different technologically speaking, but that's because companies are still working on using the PS3's cell to its potential. The PS3 is only a little over 2 years old, and we're looking at a lifespan of around 10 years. On the other hand, the 360 seems to be reaching its plateau. Those are my key reasons for buying the PS3.
When the PS3 was first released, there were three primary criticisms: its price ($500-$600; I bought mine for $600), online capabilities, and its games. The price has dropped significantly now. Since MGS4 (Summer 08), games for the PS3 have been great. And online support is gradually, but surely, improving.
Now, I know your wife likes the Wii, probably because of its user-friendly and lighthearted nature. But PS3 has a great game that magically appeals to everyone from gamers to normal people like your wife: Little Big Planet. It's fun, cute, simple yet creative, innovative, and addicting, especially with a party of players. All my girl friends--who own and love the Wii--love it AND all my gamer guy friends--who own and love the Xbox 360--love it. What can I say? It's one of the best party games out there since the Super Smash Bros series and the Mario Party series.
Before I leave you, let me give you something to chew on--a list of great exclusive games already out for the PS3 and potentially great ones that will come out (off the top of my head):
1. MGS4
2. Little Big Planet
3. Resistance: Fall of Man
4. Resistance 2
5. Gran Turismo 5 (not Prologue, the real one)
6. God of War 3
7. Killzone 2
8. Final Fantasy XIII Versus (normal FFXIII is multiplatform)
9. InFamous
Have fun contemplating.
Online or no
by not2worried - 3/16/09 10:24 AM In reply to: Xbox 360 vs Playstation 3 by tas81685Well if you plan to play online. XBOX really is the way to go...
Yeh you have to pay $30 ( on sale) for 13 month, but well worth it.
After that.. you have to look at games....
Xbox has the best library right now.
PS3 has blu-ray..
Ect...ect..
There is a rumor of a $100 drop on the Ps3 in April, But Rumor only!!!
And I think $50 on the Xbox...
Again all Rumors...
my opinion
by SirWilliamBlade - 6/25/09 4:57 PM In reply to: Xbox 360 vs Playstation 3 by tas81685just to point out a fact, the playstation may be the more expensive console but it can be cheaper than xbox if you need a wireless adapter, internet access, chargable controller. those alone jack the xbox up more than the ps3, and that is with the $299 xbox 360.
personally i have owned both, and i got rid of my 360 due to system reliability issues. as for online, i dont have and have never had a problem playing my ps3 online so i still dont understand what the difference is or why people say xbox is better online, i think it is just a weak defence for some fan boys, and other people hear it and believe it. i personally know that i can play a game online with xbox and playstation, as long as i can play it who cares. i have noticed microsoft has been down alot more than playstation due to updates. it was recently out for an update that had to do with microsoft zune, and it didnt change anything noticable in xbox.
my preference is ps3, i like the extra features and internet browser, along with the fact that i can also do netflix among alot of other movie sites on my ps3 with playon which you can google. they give you 2 weeks to try it before you purchase it, the total price i paid was 39.99 and it was worth it to be able to view hulu, netflix, cnn and a few other video/movie sites on my ps3, and with an addition of pandora.com, you have free internet radio on your ps3 due to the web browser which makes the ps3 a stronger all around media device than the xbox.
as for system esclusives, i personally hated halo, and i own killzone and only played it for an hour before i popped in Call of Duty 5 again, so niether system has exclusive games that are worth buying a system over the other, though i know some will disagree, in particular fans of metal gear, halo, god of war, little big planet, and a few others that i cant think of.
personally you should ask what are you wanting to spend, and what do you want the system to do.
system exclusives are great, but one game isnt worth purchasing one system over the other in my opinion, considering the close price range of all systems. i can however honestly say that i DO NOT recommend the xbox 360 arcade edition, with out a hard drive you are severely limited on what you can and can not do its not even funny and due to that it pretty much dumbs down the system, and if you use it online, the updates you need will use up what little memory it does provide you with.
Short but sweet
by josiahstaggs - 6/26/09 6:42 PM In reply to: Xbox 360 vs Playstation 3 by tas81685The xbox 360 has a nicer interface, consistant updates and improvments, Top notch Social/online experience, Some HOT exclusive games like Halo 3 and Gears of War. Cheaper.
The PS3 doesn't have much going for it, decent games, ok UI, poor online experience, over-priced. The only big plus about it is the fact that you get a blu-ray player built in.
Let's be fair
by Jimmy Greystone - 6/27/09 2:56 PM In reply to: Short but sweet by josiahstaggsLet's be fair here. Sony is updating the PS3 firmware probably more often than Microsoft is updating the 360 firmware these days. And the UI is debatable. I, for one, detest the "New Xbox Experience". I was no big fan of the old "blade" system either, but in comparison, it's much better. For starters, I could specify which blade to start up on if I booted straight to the dash, and I wasn't forced into some string of ads like in the NXE. Things were also generally placed much more intuitively in the old bladed system. Not that it wasn't without its fair share of oddities and just plain, "***?!" instances, but on the whole it was quite a bit better.
Halo 3 was kind of a letdown too. The first one was really good, the second one just kind of went off into the "Huh?" territory, and the third one was completely off the rails. Aside from the higher resolution graphics, there wasn't any real substantial improvements over the original two. Characters still moved like they had a giant stick jammed up their arse, collision detection was awful, and the animation in general was just pretty bad. Gears of War wasn't much better either.
I honestly wish game companies would stop spending time just making pretty looking garbage, and actually work on improving the physics in games. Star Ocean 4 may not be the best looking game out there, and the plot leaves a bit to be desired, but Square-Enix actually took the time to go beyond simple ragdoll physics with the game. There's a girl with a long pony tail that will move in a largely realistic way for example, and the characters will have things like bracelets that can slide down their arm when they hold their arm up. It still has a long ways to go, but it's worlds beyond anything in Halo 3 or Gears of War... Every time you kill some Locust Grub in GoW, and you send the corpse flying halfway across the map just by accidentally kicking it, something's wrong. Or the time I saw a Boomer do some kind of weird gymnastic thing where it seemingly cartwheeled up about two stories before falling into some kind of map hole.
Sony and Microsoft both have glaring faults with this round of consoles. Sony has a very expensive device, which while technically superior to Microsoft and Nintendo's offerings, suffers from being difficult to program for, and you have to deal with Sony's arrogance which has reached Jobsian Apple proportions after their successes with the PSX and PS2.
On the Microsoft side, you have to deal with very shoddy hardware. Microsoft cut numerous crucial corners to be the first to market with the 360. First there was the RRoD, then there were issues with the optical drive scratching discs, there have been issues with the video converter chip overheating and causing issues, the optical drive in the 360 is LOUD, and the optical drives in the 360 have a very high failure rate. There's also the E74 issue. And on a personal note, the media player on the 360 blows every farm animal there is.
With Nintendo, you get a system that isn't going to be capable of some of the things that the added processing power of the PS3 and 360 make possible. And the whole Wiimote thing isn't going to be for everyone. I think it was a little shortsighted of Nintendo, with the rise of HDTV sets, and the inevitable conversion to all digital TV around the world, to limit the Wii to only 480p, and not include HDMI support. At the very least, they could have had added a chip that could scale a 480p signal to 720p or 1080i/p.
There's plenty of fault to go around, so let's at least keep it balanced shall we? If you prefer one console over the other, that's fine, but let's not pretend like there aren't plenty of warts on all three.
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