XBOX360 or PS3?

[Tuomas]

Hi.

I know this is a stupid subject, and not really something I'd ask anyways. But my mom called me last night and asked me if she should buy an Xbox Imagine that. Anyway, I adviced her to wait a bit and consider. My brother of course encouraged her to buy one as soon as possible because he goes home more often and wants to play it. I'd never put 250â,¬ on a console, but... is the thing going to get old soon, or will it live long enough to be worth it? I really don't know much about these.

Also, why Xbox and not, say, playstation 3? My sister and his husband bought an Xbox360 too and they seem to like it. Which one is better? And the games? I suppose you can get every new game for each, but do they cost the same? PS3 can play older ps2 games afaik, to me that's really a good thing considering the amount of games made for it.

What do you think? I really don't want her to buy a crappy console :/

[Buckethead]

It really all depends on what you want to do with it and which games you want to play. Here are some facts that might help:

• PS3 has a Blue ray drive while Xbox360 can only play DVDs.
• xbox live (gold) costs money while Playstayion network is free.
• Xbox games have achievements, always! PS3 has trophies but not all games have them and not as many.
• Xbox has a more RAM and video RAM but PS3 has a better processor.

Also look at these list of games. Check out the exclusive parts and see if it matter much to you:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PlayStation_3_games
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Xbox_360_games

Also it's cheaper to buy an xbox360 but it might cost more in the long run. PS3 games seem to drop in price less then xbox games.
Oh and Xbox360 can also play older xbox games, in case you were wondering. But actually I'm not sure if the newest version of PS3 can even play PS2 games anymore.

Good luck!

[Anian]

Pssst, you didn't hear this from me, but

Spoiler

Xbox games can be cracked and thus downloaded

[close]

But yeah, I suggest you look at the games that are offered and the prices, in which case I think Xbox has a slight advantage. Though the whole internet part is far better for PS3.
I mean charging for DLC that's free for pc games...that's just sickly rude.
Also, as you said about old PS2 games, you can buy a whole lot of the old one, for cheap...in fact, I suggest you buy PS2. 

If your parents are going to play it the most, then Wii might even be the best option (less hardcore gaming, cheaper and can be "homebrew enabled"   )

[abstauber]

@anian
You mean: the xbox can be homebrew enabled

[Arboris]

Xbox games have achievements, always! PS3 has trophies but not all games have them and not as many.

To elborate on this: any game post 2009 has achievement on the PS3, some before 2009 have retroactivly gotten the achievements (games like fallout3 and gta3). But personally this has never interested me in any way, shape or form. (even steam has them these days, I mean really,  whats the point?)

[Anian]

But personally this has never interested me in any way, shape or form. (even steam has them these days, I mean really,  whats the point?)

Well achievements should not be in any way a factor in buying a console. Though I like it when I'm playing L4D or TF2 and it says I managed todo something, not only cause it usually is named something funny but there are milestones that used to give you items in TF2.

[Arboris]

but there are milestones that used to give you items in TF2

Which is my single most greatest gripe with TF2.

[Mouth for war]

I have both Ps3 and xbox 360. I use my 360 a lot more. I think that console has more to offer. But I'm a total gamenerd and wanted both consoles because some games are ps3 exclusive and some xbox 360 exclusive. It's only the first version of the ps3 that's compatible with ps2 games if I'm not mistaken? They removed that feature on the later releases. Also the games made for both consoles generally looks better on the xbox even though the ps3 is supposed to be a more powerful console...It's just a matter of taste I guess. I'd say go for the xbox but I really enjoy my ps3 too of course but one thing I hate is the playstation network...at least here in europe. It totally sucks A** the only thing worth downloading from there imho is the final fantasy games and Metal gear solid. Xbox live has a lot more to offer I think.

[arj0n]

xbox: better gpu [graphics mem handling] [eg. less tearing ingame]
PS3: better cpu [workload mem handling] [eg. quicker loading games]
PS3: less noise from the console while running
PS3: free online gaming
xbox: payed online gaming
PS3: Blu-ray Disks [54 gig]
xbox: Double layer DVD [9gig]
ps3: 2 versions: 120 GB Slim and 250 GB Slim
xbox: 3 versions: Arcade, Elite [120 GB] and Slim [250 GB hd + internal WiFi adapter]
ps3: longer life-cycle

note: ps3 with 120 or > gig hd [modern ps3's]: not backwards compatible with ps2 games [if the ps3 is original aka not hacked/modded]!

So, when choosing have these in mind:
ps3 biggest pro's: Blu-ray, free online gaming, longer life-cycle
xbox biggest pro's: [slightly] better graphics ingame, more games [but ps3 is releasing a lot since 2010 too]

My own opinion: PS3.

regards,
Arj0n.

[Ryan Timothy B]

Also the games made for both consoles generally looks better on the xbox even though the ps3 is supposed to be a more powerful console...

Actually if I remember correctly, I think I read something on how XNA (if that's what the professionals use too) is very easy for developers to use over the one for the PS3. So the developers like to build the games for the 360 and port them over to the PS3; unless the game is obviously Japanese, then you know it's gonna be shit anyway (joking ).

I believe I read that there are things the 360 can do that the developers have their games to work by, and once they port them over to PS3, they have to remove those effects and such since the PS3 doesn't support it. But don't quote me too much, check out a review site or something. Jeeze!


I actually don't like the average exclusive PS3 game, which is why I have the 360. Something about having a large sword and attacking thousands of men at once just doesn't seem entertaining for me. Of course the 360 has exclusive finger mashing games like Ninety-Nine Nights, but I'll avoid them like the plague. I'd prefer Mass Effect, Halo (even though it's not all that fun), Crackdown, Gears of War, and once upon a time there was Bioshock on this list before PS3 managed to fight for them. There seems to be a lot less exclusive games coming out on the 360 lately though.. Hmm.

Also there are Xbox Live Indie games. Not sure if the PS3 has something similar.

[Chicky]

Arj0n, the xbox does not have the better GPU. The PS3 have exclusive titles that make use of graphic intense feature that the xbox cannot support, i'm no expert but texture quality and lighting engines in PS3 exclusives like Uncharted 2 far surpass xbox exclusives like Halo:Reach. As Ryan says, cross platform titles often look a little worse on the PS3 as they are ported from the xbox. Obviously both systems have different development tricks to make the most of the hardware, some of the more advanced PS3 features are neglected in this situation.

Another factor to take into consideration is the read speed of DVD's against Blu-Ray. The best example of this is Final Fantasy 13 where on the PS3 the CGI cutscenes are pixel perfect HD with no visible compression but the xbox suffers from high compression and lots of visible artefacts, this is because the DVD cannot read fast enough to play back true HD video.

Then again, xbox has a far superior online service with tonnes of 'arcade' games. The xbox also has a 'indie' download section with a varying quality of third party games. I cannot stress enough how flawless xbox live is, everything works perfectly and there is easily 10x more content than the Playstation network. Par some minor nat issues xbox wipes the floor with Playstation in this respect.

PS3 has Playstation Move, which is a far superior motion controller to the xbox's Kinect. The Playstation Move is really smart piece of kit with full 1:1 motion tracking and depth tracking.

Both consoles share most games, xbox has Alan Wake and the Halo franchise which are awesome. PS3 has Uncharted 2, the most beautiful gaming experience to date.

I play my xbox more, i'm addicted to Halo:Reach.

[Tuomas]

Oh yeah, I forgot to tell I've got a brother and sister, ages 11 & 9 (in november). I assume the console is for them rather than my mom, but I still wouldn't have thought she'd be buying a console for them. We'll see.

But this is why I value these forums a lot. You guys have been more helpful than I ever expected, and all these answers while I only had lunch The conversation seems to get interesting to me too, though I'm thinking of suggesting Xbox to her, simply because it's cheaper, and she's a nurse who obviously doesn't get paid too much Good to know it's not a piece of shit.

[Anian]

Well it's cheaper, but you pay a subscription for online and those XBLA indie game are not free either.

[Wonkyth]

XBLA will be getting Spelunky.
'Nuff said.

[veryweirdguy]

XBLA has indie games, but most of them are guff. It's too difficult to wade through to get to anything decent. PSN has a range of "minis", which are a similar thing as I understand, but I have no experience with them.

Both systems have a similar range of online titles (360 has Arcade, PS3 has PSN) providing a load of affordable, decent smaller games. There are slightly more for 360 I'd say, but PS3 has a range of original PSOne titles and the like.

In terms of retail releases, it's much of a muchness. 360 used to have the advantage, but PS3 has really caught up in the last year or two I'd say. The only way to decide based on this is to look at what exclusives each has, and which of those look better. I personally prefer the PS3 exclusives, such as Heavy Rain or LittleBigPlanet, but I know many who prefer things like Halo or Gears.

PS3 has blu-ray, which is either a big deal or it isn't. No modern PS3s play PS2 games currently, although they all play PS1 games.

Personally I'd lean towards PS3, but both are good.

[monkey0506]

Just to clarify on the PS3's backwards compatibility for PS2 games..they cut it out when they made the first system with 80 GB HDDs. I know this coz my old roommate got that one and it's not backwards compatible.

Sony's line of thinking:

"We're giving you more space on the hard drive which means that the emulation software would now take up a smaller percentage of your disc space..so basically, we're just gonna cut it out altogether and save you the trouble of having to play any of the awesome games that came out on our prior system."

Also Chicky, it's not only the read-speed that plays a factor in DVD rendering quality. Blu-ray's blue lazer actually is thinner than DVD's red beam which is how it can fit more information onto the same sized disc, without having to increase actual compression ratios. This means that a BRD can store video at a significantly higher resolution than DVD can. And as we all know, scaling up is always bad, bad, bad.

Oh, also: I personally play Xbox games more than PS games. I find the controller to fit my hands more comfortably. I'll give you one guess as to which one I bought when Circuit City was going out of business.

[abstauber]

Oh yeah, I forgot to tell I've got a brother and sister, ages 11 & 9 (in november)

Why not buying a Wii? Cheapest system, cheapest games, low power consumtion, small and still fun to play. And of course it targets family entertainment. 

Oh, and for railshooter fans it has lots to offer

[Tuomas]

Dunno, everything the put out on wii seems just so retarded. Well, so does all these (insert instrument)-hero things too. I hope they won't get any if those :/

[abstauber]

Haha - well, actually appreciate the fact that my fake intruments are wireless. And the Drumset even connects to my pc.

But of course I'm smart enough not to start a flamewar on the best console system

[Arboris]

Don't diss my "simon says" skills, yo