Xbox or Playstation?

[baggss]

I was on the fence about this for a while as well Doug. The problem was solved several years ago when my wife went out and bought me an XBox 360 without asking me, for my birthday. In the end I've been happy, and here's why: There are no games that I want to play that are not available for XBox but are on PS3, but the reverse isn't true. I've been a fan of the Halo games since the original and since they are pretty much XBox only, that's where my wife went. Doesn't meant there aren't games exclusive to PS3, they just don't seem to be ones that interest me.

I haven't looked at the Wii. If I want exercise I'll go out and run, walk or work out. IMO gaming is for, as you put it, "mind numbing fun".

 

[Ttaylor394]

To qualify my opinions above, I have never even played a PS3, and haven't played the Wii for like 3/4 years.

gl

I thought I was pretty succinct with my opinions/thoughts (which is what the OP was going for i believe, not specs). Furthermore; if we only read the posts on this forum that had ample experience on both sides of the topics at hand, then there would not be much reading material to be had. Letting it be known, I don't appreciate the ill-intent your post had for its 1st half.

I let the OP know that everything I said was biased by explaining that I only play the 360 for the past few years. As for the Live network, I have not had any issues that a restarted modem, router, or 360 could not fix. I put the decision making in his hands, I'm sure my advice was taken with a grain of salt (if at all).

You assumed that I (and maybe the OP) are ignorant.
I gave my thoughts, and assumed that they are intelligent enough to make their own decisions.

 

[Discerptor]

I'm a fan of the PS3 because of its superior capabilities as a general home media hub and the fact that exclusives available to it better suit my personal taste. I actually just made this decision recently, after a good number of years of not buying any new games. That said, for your purposes, I think the Xbox 360 may be a better bet, for the following two reasons:

1) I don't particularly care about the online gaming aspect on home consoles, whereas that seems to be an area of concern for you. The Xbox 360's online experience is clearly more polished than the PS3's, even if it costs you more. That said, I can still see this going either way for you since the difference isn't that large anymore and there's the annual fee thing. Which is why most of the weight of my reasoning goes into the next point...

2) If a large part of the usage of this console is going to be the movement-focused dance games and whatnot, Kinect is a far better technology for this than the PlayStation Move. The PS Move is literally a carbon copy of the Wii Motion Plus, but Kinect went a different direction that actually lends itself better to a number of types of games, most notably dance-oriented ones. The camera analyzes your full body's profile, and dance games that actually look at how your whole body is moving are possible. The PS3/Wii approach just analyzes something you're holding in your hand, which isn't quite as immersive an experience for a dance game and simply can't do things like look at how your legs are moving. The PlayStation Move will be better for things like shooting games that have you aiming at the screen, but I get the feeling those aren't the kinds of games you want to use the movement system with.

EDIT: One more thing. I get the feeling you don't have very strong convictions about the exclusive games on the two platforms (unless you're willing to hunt down a first-gen PS3 for complete backwards compatibility, in which case, hey, you get to play all the old versions of Resident Evil and Silent Hill!). Most of the games released on both look (very slightly) better on the Xbox 360 despite its inferior hardware because of the fact developers tend to develop the games on that platform first and then halfheartedly port it over to the PS3. Why? Because it's easier to reuse code between the PC and Xbox 360 versions of the games if they're also releasing the game on the PC. This is more the case with older games than newer ones, since another minor part of the issue back then was simply that the Xbox 360's earlier release meant developers were already very familiar with that hardware at a time when they were just starting to learn the PS3's.

 

[iggibar]

Most of the games released on both look (very slightly) better on the Xbox 360 despite its inferior hardware because of the fact developers tend to develop the games on that platform first and then halfheartedly port it over to the PS3. Why? Because it's easier to reuse code between the PC and Xbox 360 versions of the games if they're also releasing the game on the PC. This is more the case with older games than newer ones, since another minor part of the issue back then was simply that the Xbox 360's earlier release meant developers were already very familiar with that hardware at a time when they were just starting to learn the PS3's.

Huh? This is totally not true! The 360 has already met its limit graphics wise. The PS3 has yet to have a game that can fully utilize its power. That's why you see developers cut down on field of vision, and peripheral views so they can only apply detail to the immediate surrounding on the 360. It's already at its limit. If you ever played Black Ops, you would have noticed on the 360 that the processor starts lagging once someone drops napalm on everyone. That doesn't happen on the PS3, and you can actually see where the fire is, without getting pruned alive by invisible flames. There are many other games, like Skyrim where they had to severely cut down on unneeded scenery to get details at least up to par for the environment closely around the character. You won't see one game that available on both consoles with drastic game differences because that involves unbelievable large amounts of money to develop them individually, so they go somewhere in between. Where you can see the real differences in console power comes from games that are available on only one console.

PS: To whomever gave me negative feedback with my other post, and left a comment just saying "malicious," care to explain how that was malicious? Do you even know what malicious means? I bet you won't respond >.>
Here's the definition:

Malicious: characterized by malice; intended or intending to do harm

 

[Discerptor]

The 360 has already met its limit graphics wise. The PS3 has yet to have a game that can fully utilize its power. That's why you see developers cut down on field of vision, and peripheral views so they can only apply detail to the immediate surrounding on the 360. It's already at its limit. If you ever played Black Ops, you would have noticed on the 360 that the processor starts lagging once someone drops napalm on everyone. That doesn't happen on the PS3, and you can actually see where the fire is, without getting pruned alive by invisible flames. There are many other games, like Skyrim where they had to severely cut down on unneeded scenery to get details at least up to par for the environment closely around the character. You won't see one game that available on both consoles with drastic game differences because that involves unbelievable large amounts of money to develop them individually, so they go somewhere in between. Where you can see the real differences in console power comes from games that are available on only one console.

I don't disagree with any of this, and I noted in my post that the PS3's hardware is superior. That said, when you take into account all multiplatform games released between the PS3's launch and now, the majority of them tend to look better on the 360 for the reasons I outlined. I also said that this was more prevalent in older games, and it is true that the trend is reversing in a number of cases now with the 360 having reached its limit. That said, since Doug presumably will be picking up a number of those older games that he's missed out on in the last five years, I felt it worth pointing out.

 

[baggss]

PS: To whomever gave me negative feedback with my other post, and left a comment just saying "malicious," care to explain how that was malicious? Do you even know what malicious means? I bet you won't respond >.>
Here's the definition:

It's negative rep. Don't whine. Suck it up like a man and take it.

No, it wasn't me, I would have left my name. That being said if I could give you negative rep for the above quoted comment you'd have it already. Guess I need to spread it around more and come back to you...

 

[Doug b]

EeeeeennterestinK! Some points to cover and make clear:

1. The motion sensor types of games: This part is for my wife, not me. I'm with baggss on this one. And I doubt that she will know or care about the differences in how each one handles the details concerning how movement is scored. Just so long as she believes that she's doing it right, and it's entertaining is likely more than enough for her, and justifies getting me a new toy! ;P

2. Graphics aren't a concern. I mean come on... it's ridiculous (to me) to think that I wouldn't be impressed by either console at this point in time. My first console was the Atari! Also had Intellivision, ColecoVision, Sega (original) Nintendo (original) Nintendo 64,the Game Cube (old and new I believe) original Playstation, and original Xbox which I still have. I'm probably missing one or two in there somewhere.

I guess things like lag due to graphics power is a different matter however. And I appreciate that the PS3 has the horsepower needed to handle more graphic intensive code.

Someone (sorry.. lots to go back through) made the point that Xbox users are likely crowing about how poor the PS3 online experience is in comparison to theirs, likely because they have to pay. That seems pretty logical. I only have a couple of real life friends who own a 360, but I don't think they do much online gaming, so that part of the experience is fairly moot.

3. The whole blueray bonus thing seriously disinterests me. Not a selling point at all. I refuse to purchase any more physical media and waste space. What interests me a heck of a lot more is the media consumption aspect of these devices. Hulu, Netflix etc etc... I was planning on getting something akin to the ATV or the Roku box, so this would be a great bonus for us.

Old school games would be great, but I don't think I should make them a priority or base my buying decision on that. I'll look at each one's exclusives, but don't think that will be a huge factor either. Thus far, I'm leaning towards the PS3. Thanks everybody... keep the opinions coming!

Doug

 

[Discerptor]

EeeeeennterestinK! Some points to cover and make clear:

1. The motion sensor types of games: This part is for my wife, not me. I'm with baggss on this one. And I doubt that she will know or care about the differences in how each one handles the details concerning how movement is scored. Just so long as she believes that she's doing it right, and it's entertaining is likely more than enough for her, and justifies getting me a new toy! ;P

2. Graphics aren't a concern. I mean come on... it's ridiculous (to me) to think that I wouldn't be impressed by either console at this point in time. My first console was the Atari! Also had Intellivision, ColecoVision, Sega (original) Nintendo (original) Nintendo 64,the Game Cube (old and new I believe) original Playstation, and original Xbox which I still have. I'm probably missing one or two in there somewhere.

I guess things like lag due to graphics power is a different matter however. And I appreciate that the PS3 has the horsepower needed to handle more graphic intensive code.

Someone (sorry.. lots to go back through) made the point that Xbox users are likely crowing about how poor the PS3 online experience is in comparison to theirs, likely because they have to pay. That seems pretty logical. I only have a couple of real life friends who own a 360, but I don't think they do much online gaming, so that part of the experience is fairly moot.

3. The whole blueray bonus thing seriously disinterests me. Not a selling point at all. I refuse to purchase any more physical media and waste space. What interests me a heck of a lot more is the media consumption aspect of these devices. Hulu, Netflix etc etc... I was planning on getting something akin to the ATV or the Roku box, so this would be a great bonus for us.

Old school games would be great, but I don't think I should make them a priority or base my buying decision on that. I'll look at each one's exclusives, but don't think that will be a huge factor either. Thus far, I'm leaning towards the PS3. Thanks everybody... keep the opinions coming!

Doug

Based on this, I change my recommendation to the PS3. It's a better Roku/AppleTV than the Roku and AppleTV.

 

[Doug b]

Definitely leaning heavily towards the PS3, but the one thing I've noticed about it is that the wi-fi bands are only A, B and G, excluding N. I wonder if this is another reason people seem to get more lag on the PS network? Though, I'd be more inclined to use hardwired ethernet if this was a problem, so whatever, I suppose.

The question now is... where to buy it and should I go for a bundle pack or would it be cheaper buying the components separately ? Looking on Amazon, their PS3 listings are a mess, and I don't see any great deals in general. Walmart, though I don't like their business practices, seem to have decent prices and packages. I can't imagine that Best Buy would have any great deals to speak of except for on Black Friday, but there's no way I'd go to such a zoo, even if I were not working.

Doug

 

[alexsd123]

Definitely leaning heavily towards the PS3, but the one thing I've noticed about it is that the wi-fi bands are only A, B and G, excluding N. I wonder if this is another reason people seem to get more lag on the PS network? Though, I'd be more inclined to use hardwired ethernet if this was a problem, so whatever, I suppose.

The question now is... where to buy it and should I go for a bundle pack or would it be cheaper buying the components separately ? Looking on Amazon, their PS3 listings are a mess, and I don't see any great deals in general. Walmart, though I don't like their business practices, seem to have decent prices and packages. I can't imagine that Best Buy would have any great deals to speak of except for on Black Friday, but there's no way I'd go to such a zoo, even if I were not working.

Doug

I wouldn't rule out eBay either. There are often really good deals there for the PS3.

 

[iggibar]

It's negative rep. Don't whine. Suck it up like a man and take it.

No, it wasn't me, I would have left my name. That being said if I could give you negative rep for the above quoted comment you'd have it already. Guess I need to spread it around more and come back to you...

Are you serious? What's wrong with knowing what I asked? Especially with the response given? Don't worry though, I don't expect much from you, I know you hate me no matter what. I don't care about the rep, I wanted to know why "malicious" was written! Next time, don't get involved where you shouldn't be involved in! Thanks for letting everyone know the kind of people we have in this forum though! I'm glad to know that you always seem to have it out for me though...

If you have a personal grudge with someone, it is not appropriate to give them negative reputation without reason. Giving negative reputation because you don't agree with what was said is not an appropraite use of the reputation system. People are entitled to their own opinions, and just because you don't agree doesn't mean the user was wrong or not contributing to the conversation.

Know where this came from?

 

[iggibar]

Doug, if you are seriously thinking about getting something now, Target is going to sell the Xbox 360 4gb model for $139 during Black Friday. Walmart is going to have the PS3 for $200 with 2 free games(Rachet and Clank, and LittleBigPlanet 2). They are both good deals imo.

 

[Doug b]

Doug, if you are seriously thinking about getting something now, Target is going to sell the Xbox 360 4gb model for $139 during Black Friday. Walmart is going to have the PS3 for $200 with 2 free games(Rachet and Clank, and LittleBigPlanet 2). They are both good deals imo.

Lol... As it is, Target is a zoo near where I live. Even if my wife and I weren't working that day, there's no way either one of us care enough about waking up super early, waiting in line to get in a crazy zoo with the natives just to save $60 on a gaming console. If it's something that can be bought online, that's another story.

The other issue is that even though that's a good price, it's still only the basic model which I'll need to upgrade at some point, and that will cost more later, so what's the point I guess? I'd rather just either get the 160 or 320 gig PS3 and be done with it until the PS4 comes out. Just hope that will be later than sooner. I'd hate to invest in to a dead technology!

I wouldn't rule out eBay either. There are often really good deals there for the PS3.

I'll never buy anything such as a computer or camera from eBay. I just don't trust the system or the sellers enough to deal with the repercussions of getting a faulty or dead product. Plus, I don't trust PayPal worth spit, either.

I'd rather pay more up front and know that my service options are feasible than have to worry about it.

Doug

 

[iggibar]

Lol... As it is, Target is a zoo near where I live. Even if my wife and I weren't working that day, there's no way either one of us care enough about waking up super early, waiting in line to get in a crazy zoo with the natives just to save $60 on a gaming console. If it's something that can be bought online, that's another story.
Doug

Yeah, I agree with you, that's why I bought my PS3 used...I didn't want to put too much money into it(or at least that was my thinking) when something new is possibly expected as a next gen console. The next gen console to arrive will probably be the Xbox "720" though. Though, between just you and me, I'm starting to play less of both the 360/PS3(maybe 3 hours a week of gaming). My sole time spent on them comes from media playback.

As for the hdd on the 360, my friend has the 360 slim, and has upgraded the hdd, but I think he swapped out the drives with his old, dead 360. So I'm not too sure if swapping drives is as easy on the 360 slim as it is with the PS3 where you can just format a new drive, connect it to your PS3, and let the PS3 software create a new copy onto the new drive. Then, all is left is for you to put the newly created hdd into the hdd bay. I'll post back when I found out exactly how he did it, just in case.

Still, I can't really believe how cheap the 360 is in price...it's practically the price of a Nintendo 3DS! It sure is a great bargain for that someone looking for one.

 

[Doug b]

I was reading up on swapping out 360 HDD's, and it's not as simple as just formatting. The drive has to be a Microsoft slim one, simply because it has the proper firmware applied to it. Talk about locking down a system! Of course it's also likely possible to find said firmware and hack the HDD, but I'm not so into doing those things much anymore.

Doug

 

[Printerman]

PS3 for the sole reason of overall price. I would quite happily pay for the ability to play online (I even subscribed to Playstation Plus, the paid service for PSN), but with that, I would expect that paying for it might make things less expensive inside of the network, which is not true with XBOX Live. There are very few free, or inexpensive items on the XBOX Marketplace, whereas subscribing to Playstation Plus gives you discounts on thousands of downloads.

 

[iggibar]

Just heard back from him. What he pretty much did(might be more complicated than this, but I wouldn't know) was this:
-Take the new 360 slim's hdd caddy out, and take it apart(voids warranty).
-Take apart the old 360's top/side loading hdd caddy, and take it apart.
-Place the old hdd inside the new slim's hdd caddy, and put it into the 360 slim.

The 4gb is also built into the 360, if the slim doesn't have a caddy, the new drive will be loose inside.

As long as you have an actual 360 hdd, it will work, but for me, going through all that trouble is useless considering it voids your warranty.

 

[Doug b]

PS3 for the sole reason of overall price. I would quite happily pay for the ability to play online (I even subscribed to Playstation Plus, the paid service for PSN), but with that, I would expect that paying for it might make things less expensive inside of the network, which is not true with XBOX Live. There are very few free, or inexpensive items on the XBOX Marketplace, whereas subscribing to Playstation Plus gives you discounts on thousands of downloads.

I'm a bit confused about the PSN business model. Online gaming is free, but there are exclusives that can only be accessed if you're a "premium" member, right? I'll go ahead and look that one up, but feel free to give me an example of what the comparisons between premium and non would look like.

Just heard back from him. What he pretty much did(might be more complicated than this, but I wouldn't know) was this:
-Take the new 360 slim's hdd caddy out, and take it apart(voids warranty).
-Take apart the old 360's top/side loading hdd caddy, and take it apart.
-Place the old hdd inside the new slim's hdd caddy, and put it into the 360 slim.

The 4gb is also built into the 360, if the slim doesn't have a caddy, the new drive will be loose inside.

As long as you have an actual 360 hdd, it will work, but for me, going through all that trouble is useless considering it voids your warranty.

Definitely not worth it, especially given the fact that the failure rate of the 360 is twice that of its competitor.

Doug

 

[Printerman]

I'm a bit confused about the PSN business model. Online gaming is free, but there are exclusives that can only be accessed if you're a "premium" member, right? I'll go ahead and look that one up, but feel free to give me an example of what the comparisons between premium and non would look like.



Definitely not worth it, especially given the fact that the failure rate of the 360 is twice that of its competitor.

Doug

Subscribing to PS+ gives you access to hundreds of free and heavily discounted items. Along with this, it gives you 2 features inside of the Playstation OS:

1.) The ability to automatically download game updates/patches when the console is in standby (I love this one)

2.) The ability to access cloud storage for game saves, and trophies.

 

[Discerptor]

Definitely leaning heavily towards the PS3, but the one thing I've noticed about it is that the wi-fi bands are only A, B and G, excluding N. I wonder if this is another reason people seem to get more lag on the PS network? Though, I'd be more inclined to use hardwired ethernet if this was a problem, so whatever, I suppose.

The question now is... where to buy it and should I go for a bundle pack or would it be cheaper buying the components separately ? Looking on Amazon, their PS3 listings are a mess, and I don't see any great deals in general. Walmart, though I don't like their business practices, seem to have decent prices and packages. I can't imagine that Best Buy would have any great deals to speak of except for on Black Friday, but there's no way I'd go to such a zoo, even if I were not working.

Doug

Amazon had a good deal on the 160GB PS3 until about a week ago: $250 but you get a $50 gift card, making the effective price $200. Of course, that went away this week to make the inevitable Black Friday deals look even better. I would keep an eye open for said Black Friday deals, though. Getting a complete PS Move package with a game and an extra controller for a low price sounds enticing.