Xbox 360 vs. PS3

I have both, and I'd tend to agree with your overall assessment.

Honestly, my PS3 gets use as a Blu-Ray player and for some exclusives.

On the best PS3 exclusives, I *do* tend to find the graphics nicer than the best games on XBox.

But on any multi-platform games, most of the ones I've looked at, the XBox comes out on top....I don't know why. It doesn't make sense to me, because on paper the PS3 is supposed to be more powerful. In practice, however, I don't see it.

Further, the structure of the PS3 supposedly causes some problems....witness the reported issues with Skyrim, where past 60 hours or so into the game, an issue with the memory structure of the PS3 supposedly leads to some users being unable to complete the game.

As a media platform (ie. streaming videos etc.) I find the PS3 inconsistent. It's really frustrating. I have to toy with the thing to get it to find pictures on my computer, or music, or videos. And even when I *do* find that content, much of the time, I get "incompatible file format" errors.

I watched a bunch of videos in MKV format, streamed from my PC to my PS3, and half the time, it would say the file was incompatible. Forcing me to watch the videos on my laptop instead. Then, as an experiment, I tried watching the same videos on my XBox. Every single one worked, no problem, no hiccups.

Paying for XBox Live is annoying....particularly when I don't use it for months at a time (I tend to be hot/cold with my gaming....I'll play a lot for a month, then won't touch it for two months). So I prefer not having to pay, a la PS3.

However........the actual *experience* of XBox Live is better. It's easier to get games, chat etc. is integrated better, etc. Am I a fan of Microsoft Points? No. I've compared prices, and it's more expensive for me to rent a movie via XBox Live than it is just just walk to the video store and rend the Blu-Ray. But after having my credit card possibly stolen in the big PS3 hack last year, I'm not putting information like that in there again.

The hard drive issue kind of sucks too. My PS3 had more hard drive space (60 GB) than my original 360 did (20). But after my first 360 went and I replaced it, the new one also had 60 GB. Because the PS3 has to save information from Blu-Rays and so many different games onto the HDD, I find it ends up using up that 60GB so much faster. On the XBox, I just use it. On the PS3, I have to keep going on, and wasting time figuring out what to delete so I can try a new game.

That's really annoying.

I won't say the PS3 sucks....it's a cool system, but it's *really* finicky. Even using software designed to work with it, like PS3 Media Server, I *still* can't get content to stream reliably...yet that same software, intended to service the PS3, works with my 360 perfectly.

Banshee

Janx said:

halo 2 came out sort of around the 360 launch window (right after if I recall). It was much bemoaned that it was xbox original and NOT a 360 version.

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Sorry, but I feel the need to correct you on this.

Halo 2 was released Nov 9, 2004 (and the French version was leaked awhile before that). The 360 was released on Nov 22, 2005. So there was over a year between their releases.

As someone who collects video game systems, including both the Xbox 360 and PS3, my general opinion boils down to the following:

Gaming between the current versions of hi-def systems is the most homogenous it has been since the day of fixed-game systems.

Clarification question: do I have to pay for Xbox Live or just Xbox Live GOLD?

Also... what's the point of Gold? I upgraded for $1 the other night and so far I haven't a clue what's different about my gaming experience.

Also, Skyrim rocks!

Kzach said:

Clarification question: do I have to pay for Xbox Live or just Xbox Live GOLD?

Also... what's the point of Gold? I upgraded for $1 the other night and so far I haven't a clue what's different about my gaming experience.

Also, Skyrim rocks!

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You have to pay for XBox Live Gold.

I'm not entirely sure of where features break down between the two, but I think it's something like:

Silver

-can buy movies etc. from the market
-can look at trailers
-can download games from XBox Live, as well as expansion packs etc.
-can purchase TV episodes, TV seasons, etc.

Gold

-can play online
-can stream content from certain services like Netflix, if you have a subscription to that service.

I'm not sure about friends etc. I've allowed my Gold subscription to lapse a few times, and was still able to talk to friends, even though I was on Silver. But I don't know if that's just to encourage people to come back, a glitch in the system, or something else.....or if Silver normally allows you to have a friends list, and talk to them.

Banshee

Banshee16 said:

But on any multi-platform games, most of the ones I've looked at, the XBox comes out on top....I don't know why. It doesn't make sense to me, because on paper the PS3 is supposed to be more powerful. In practice, however, I don't see it.

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The 360 has a slightly better GPU than the PS3; the PS3's CPU is more powerful in theory but substantially more complex. And a single-layer Blu-Ray disc (typical for a PS3 game; I'm not actually sure if a PS3 can play multi-layer Blu-Ray discs, or even if they exist outside of demonstration projects) can hold as much data as about 3 double-layer DVDs (double-layer DVDs are required for 360 games).

What it comes down to, mostly, is that the PS3 is better than some respects in theory, but in practice it takes more development effort to get the same output. And unless you're making a game where you expect poor US sales (or great Japanese sales), or Sony is paying you to make the game a PS3 exclusive, you really can't afford to spend more developing a PS3 version that's going to sell fewer copies (though you also can't afford to not do a PS3 version at all, because the marginal cost of a decent port brings in a lot of extra revenue).

I have 2 Xbox 360s and a PS3. I love them all. I REFUSE to choose between them -- and at the price these things can be bought for - I don't have to choose, either.

Generally speaking, I usually get the PS3 version of a game over the 360 version (if both are available) unless there is a good reason not to. The PS3 sees more work as a Blu-Ray player, too. I do subscribe to XBLive and it's a better service than the PSN (you get what you pay for).

Whatever the case, in the console wars? I WON.

I've found that in general, I use the PS3 for movies and the 360 for games. Unless it's an exclusive, there's no real reason to buy a game for the PS3. I try to wait until the picture quality reviews come out, but a lot of the time 360 has been winning in that department lately.

I got DA2 for PS3 just to try it out, and it was fine, but the OS patch process is slow and a pain. 360 seems to deliver updates with less time staring at a "Downloading" screen.

The PS3 exclusives are great. God of War is gorgeous on the PS3. Maybe unless it's an exclusive, the devs don't spend enough time optimizing it for the (rather unique) setup on the PS3?

I'll be buying Mass Effect 3 for the 360, but that's not because of the consoles... It's because I played ME1 and ME2 on it, and I want to continue my character!

Alan Shutko said:

I'll be buying Mass Effect 3 for the 360, but that's not because of the consoles... It's because I played ME1 and ME2 on it, and I want to continue my character!

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This was actually a significant reason for my swap as well. I just bought ME1 and ME2 in order to build my old character (1st lost in a HDD crash, second lost with a Windows 7 malfunction) from scratch with all the 'right' choices so that I can continue in ME3.

Already pre-ordered the collector's edition of ME3 with the bonus Valkyrie Rifle and Defender armour... can't wait!