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Relative merits of an Xbox 360 vs. a PlayStation 3?
Eruvadhril
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Registered User regular
I'm quite new to gaming, unless you count the two years when I was a kid and we owned a PlayStation and a coy of Tomb Raider. Now that I'm no longer frequently moving around or in boarding school, my inner gaming geek has made herself known and I'm enjoying her company greatly. However, an unfortunate lack of dead rich relatives means that I generally like to make sure that a game is worth the money before I buy it and, as such, have decided that I'm not going to buy the Wii-compatible Rock Band when it's released. This means that I'll have to save up for a bit to buy either a PlayStation 3 or an Xbox 360. After looking around a bit, I've found that a PS3 would cost a thousand dollars ($700 if I want to sacrifice backwards-compatibility), while I can get an Xbox for just over five hundred. Is the PlayStation really worth twice as much as the Xbox? Is there something inherently wrong with the Xbox which, while perhaps not making it twice as good, would nevertheless make the PlayStation the better option?
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Blu-ray, a small number of exclusive games.
That's it. If you don't want a blu-ray player, take a look at the current/upcoming exclusives for the PS3. If none of those interest you, get a 360. If there's just one or two PS3 exclusives that you are interested in, look at the 360 exclusives.
PS3 is more expensive due to more expensive hardware, primarily the blu-ray player. Graphically there's not much difference and not likely to be until maybe the end of the generation.
(get a 360).
The 360 is probably the best system out there right now. There is a lot of good stuff to be had on both XBLA and in retail releases. The PS3 is no slouch anymore, really, but the 360 does have a pretty big advantage in it's library at the moment.
Really, the best thing you can do is look at the game lists and see what jumps out at you.
Well, I came into this thread with the intention of recommending either the xbox 360, or the ps2, but I guess one of the nice things about the PS3 is the backwards compatibility. There is an insane amount of great and varied games in the PS2. I still regret selling mine sometimes.
You should know that nowadays pretty much all the games get released for both consoles, so what a lot of people take into consideration are the 'extras'
Xbox 360- Xbox live. True, you have to pay for it, but out of the three, it's the best online server. Great if you want to play against your friends in different games. Like someone else mentioned, the xbox live arcade has tons of cheap and casual games.
ps3- Their online service is free. It's not bad, as in that it doesn't work, it's just not as good as xbox live. But if you never had live, you might not notice the difference. Also, bluray and backwards compatible. And Metal Gear 4(the sole reason I'm tempted to buy one)
I don't have a 360, and I haven't really run out of games to play on the PS3. If you're like me (I play anything but fighting games, basically) there are way more than enough titles on either system to keep you occupied.
That said, IGN says GTAIV is very slightly prettier on the PS3, but I won't have access to the sexy, sexy DLC.
No. There were some hardware issues with the first year's worth of consoles, but those have more or less been worked out, and the 360 generally has the better library.
However, some people like Blu-Ray players, and also like lots of the games on the PS3. If that's your cup of tea, go for it. It's a great investment as a blu-ray player that also happens to play games.
The 360 has the edge in terms of online functionality, price, gaming library, etc. Most games come out on both systems.
If you have a gaming calibur PC then the 360's library advantage shrinks drastically. The reality is most of the games you'll want to play are available on both. The PS3 is finally starting to get some real system seller exclusives when MGS4 comes out.
Xbox-Live is a more supported and integrated online platform, but PSN is completely free to use and offers at least most of what XBL does. The upcoming home update is supposed to add more PSN community features, so the differences may shrink even further.
The PS3 hard-drive is not proprietary and only needs to conform to a size and maximum RPM standard. You can replace it or upgrade it yourself on the cheap. If you buy a 360 without a hard-drive you get to pay $100 for a proprietary microsoft brand hard drive. Universal PS3 hard drive support means slightly faster load times in general.
The 360's high speed DVD drive combined with the fans can make a lot of noise, which can be obnoxious for people who need to play with quiet audio or like watching movies. The PS3 runs whisper quiet.
True, the PS3 has grown a lot in the short time it's been out, and even since last summer. The Store got an (overdue) update recently, looks much better. There's talk of Sony adding d/l movies, but Sony being Sony, that'll take a lot of in-fighting to happen. Same with the Blu-ray to PSP "thing" that's been promised for awhile.
For me, the selling points were the PS2-backwards, and that it just seems more professional/serious to me than the XBOX. More like a "system" than a "console." But if you're just in it for the games, no, 2x price probably not worth it.
I will note the PS3 has had zero major issues that I've heard of. I hear the 360 has more or less resolved the red ring of death, but still.
PSN: TheScrublet
Especially given that at current exchange rates Aussie dollars are almost at fucking parity with our increasingly devalued money.
Anyway, bottom line is that the systems have a near-identical library (this generation is really the death of the third-party exclusive) and essentially the same capabilities with respect to CPU and graphics, so either look at the (few) exclusives on each side, both current and upcoming, and I guess there's blu-ray, too.
You're being sarcastic, right? There's no way you've been around since 2003, using terms like "Xbot" and haven't been torn to shreds for it.
Actually, fan noise is more or less equivalent to the PS3, and a loud DVD drive is indicative of a failing DVD drive, and should immediately be repaired.
If you bring this shit into H/A your ass will not know why it suddenly ceased to be.
Oh also if you buy a 360 is has a 25+% chance of breaking.
i've saved at least two hundred bucks importing games through play-asia
both systems, between the multiplatforms and respective exclusives, have easily enough great titles to entertain all but the most ravenous game-munching geeks. so if you really can't decide, go with the ps3 and save yourself around fifty bucks on new releases
The only Japanese PS3 games I own are DMC4 and VF5. That's out of like 15.
Yes, that's exactly what that means.
Some PS3 games will limit your online play options and/or graphic violence based on the region, though. (Off-hand, the only game I know of that does this is Resistance)
this is a suprisingly large issue - I have a friend who can't get into 360 games because she only played a ps2 and is used to those controllers, whereas I am like physically incapable of doing anything useful on a playstation controller
according to this website the majority of BD's are region free, but some aren't, so check it out if you're unsure of what to expect
The PS3 does have some of this, but there are more games on XBLA compared to the downloadable PSN games, and the advantages of having Windows means that the connectivity to other computers is more straightforward on the 360 -- if you're running Windows. It's not an either/or situation though.
The PS3 does a good job of seeking out media servers and is more compatible with Windows stuff than Mac stuff, I've found (as a mac user). If you set up shared drives, the PS3 will see them on the network, and you can play pictures/movies/music.
The 360 has better integration of that music into games, if you play games where the soundtrack is just filler music for instance (like a racing game).
Both systems have demos & trailers, and I think the 360 has a few more as well. Arguably, though, the PS3 is more "ready to go" out of the box regardless of which version you buy, since the hardware is essentially the same -- the only real difference is backwards compatibility. Both new versions have wireless, for instance, and all of them have a hard drive that's replaceable (the newer ones are 2.5", laptop-sized drives).
I know, it's almost like I was making a little joke or something. I think you guys would probably pitch a fit If I tried to use unbewiivers ironically.
It's been my personal experience, and (after some googling) the internet at large seems to agree with me that the 360 fans are louder. A DVD drive that is loud is not a sign of imminent failure. Obviously if there's grinding then the drive is malfunctioning, but by pure virtue of the fact that the disk is spinning 6 times faster the drive is gonna make more noise than a BR drive. The 360 does less hard drive caching as well so it more frequently has to spin up to speed to access data from the disk, while the PS3's BRD either constantly spins at 2x or the speed up is so imperceptible that you would think it was.
I agree, anyone who says that the noise levels of the two systems is comparable has either never been in a room with both running, or has severe hearing loss.
If it matters at all to you I have a freind in Pern who owns a PS3 and takes advantage of the region free to get games at far reduced costs. Since both systems have many of the same games, this economically seems to be the wisest desicion. If you are mister moneybags however it shouldn't matter in the slightest.
Do not underestimate this. I've clocked maybe twenty hours in my life on a PS controller of some kind. On the original XBox Dukes and the 360? Many, many times that.
My roommate got CoD4 for his PS3, and I had fun playing it, but I sucked. I recently played it on a friend's 360 and holy shit does controller familiarity make me so much better at that game. It's all about the thumbsticks; if you're accustomed to the Dual Shock thumbsticks (which have basically no resistance) you probably can handle it. But the 360 thumbsticks, like those on the OXBox controllers, require a little more force to push. I personally feel that it allows for more precise control, but it's almsot entirely dependent on what you've used.
The 360 controller is great, and if you don't have a preference for either I'd highly recommend it. But if you've owned and played a PS1/2 a lot, you may want to stick with what's familiar unless you want to spend months retraining your thumbs.
I'm in a room with both running, right now and as long as the drives aren't spinning, the sound level is indistinguishable. And when I first got my 360, the spinning drive did not actually add a significant amount of noise.
Doubly true if you have a good computer that can handle a bunch of the new games that are released on all platforms (Bioshock, Prey, etc.)
PSN: TheScrublet
I have to disagree with this - although hd is clearly prettier, most 360 games are a fairly obviously improvement over oxbox games (and just from looking at trailers I think the same thing is true for PS2/PS3). Just using the most recent comparison, GTA4 is a dramatic improvement over San Andreas on my SDTV (and I'm sorry, but it's not even close)
I do somewhat agree with your overall point, but it depends on what types of games you want to play - if you want to be able to play new games as they come out, play cod4 with friends, that kind of thing, then there can be a benefit to being in the current generation of consoles, whereas if you're mostly looking for solo experiences then the massive backlog of PS2 games can be more important