XBOX 360 OR Playstation 3?

I had an initial release 360 and loved it. 2 years later it gave me the rrod and I just shut it down to play again the next day, nothing horrid. Then it happened a few times more just before my console and games were STOLEN. (console was named Venimen and had a crap ton of achievements on it, may the thief slowly and painfully rot to death) I have been console free for about 2 1/2 years now and they have been long long years! Now I have the green for a big LCD TV and a new console!!! But I can't decide on the game system to get. Looking online for reviews I mostly find opinions from 2007/8 and that doesn't't help much in this fast paced field. For a guy who just wants to sit down and play a few games about blowing heads off and cutting monsters up what is best? I doubt I'll ever go online and I can't get a good steady WiFi signal here anyway. I am leaning toward my familiar 360 at the moment.
Also worth noting that I don't have any bluray disks but I do have over 200 DVD's. I am not looking forward to the switch inevitable as it may indeed be.

Now on the TV decision I have no clue except I'd like LCD between 30 and 40 inches. Not making a thread for that part but I think I'll look around and see what BestBuy has in stock. I rarely watch TV so this is 90% just for the gaming.

It ultimately comes down to preference but I've felt that the FPS and driving games have usually been better on PS. I use my PS3 for some web searching from my TV but it's not the reason I purchased it. It's also my blu-ray player an in that role is still rates as one of the best. Additionally, I've still own a PS1 and PS2 hooked up to a different TV for the niece and nephew. The PS1 is about 10 years old and it's still plugging along just fine. I've had good luck from the standpoint of reliability with Sony's consoles which is the final reason I stick with them. I'm aware of 3 examples of dead Xbox's within my limited circle of family and friends but my guess is that the failures are more environmentally influenced (kids beating on them and such) than just purely hours of use.

I know nothing about it, except...

My 10-yr-old bought, okay I should say blew his entire savings on, an Xbox 360 Pro 2 days ago. (We have a Wii) He anguished over it. He wailed & cried his eyes out over the difficult decision as he mowed the lawn and dumped the clippings. (I can't imagine what the neighbors must have thought about the screaming kid dutifully doing yard work at my house.) Apparently, Playstation wasn't even an option to consider. The Xbox Live account, being connected online, chat, etc. Those were other factors he considered after the games themselves. He plays violent games like Call of Duty. I can't remember what he got for the Xbox but it's a wartime game. (Our well of childhood innocence long ago received a big dose of poison when Spider Man games were discovered, then his friends showed him Call of Duty.)

In the end he got the Xbox. I gotta admit the games look pretty cool. But I will resist... Must... resist...

I can add that hooking it to an HD TV via HDMI made it easy and wow the graphics are absolutely amazing.

I don't know if the credibility of a fairly well connected 10-yr-old who has grown up with computers in every corner of the house is worth anything to an adult looking to use the thing, but there ya go. FWIW and all that.

Sgt. LED said:

Now on the TV decision I have no clue except I'd like LCD between 30 and 40 inches. Not making a thread for that part but I think I'll look around and see what BestBuy has in stock. I rarely watch TV so this is 90% just for the gaming.

Click to expand...

Oops, didn't see the second part.


I'm not sure how serious you are with your gaming but 1080P TV's don't really make the best displays when compared to higher resolution computer LCD with low latency. I only mention it because you're spending some sizable bucks to mainly play games, in which case you might want to explore the option of a computer system if you don't presently have one capable of gaming. A gaming computer also has a secondary use of course. If you're not to serious about your games and don't mind the controller interface vs. mouse and keyboard, then I suppose it really doesn't matter. Consoles allow multiple players and a larger audience so maybe that has a bearing on what you do also.

Never had a big screen TV and I only want to play with a controller.
You can blow too much cash fast with a gaming PC especially when you don't know what you want or REALLY need. Then a 9 year old screws it up in 15 minutes while you are at work downloading Hanna Montana garbage.
No thanks!

I am firmly rooted to console gaming but thank you for bringing up the idea early on in the thread so I could squash it. :thumbsup:

Strictly for gaming? Do you care about watching movies? I voted (and purchased a) PS3, and I'll explain why.

1. Unless you care about the Xbox specific franchises (Halo) game availability isn't really an issue on PS3.
2. You can watch Blu-Ray movies on PS3, and it also upconverts standard DVDs to near 1080p.
3. I prefer Sony's exclusive content to Microsoft's.
4. I like the controllers better.
5. No ring of death.

As far as the TV goes, look for something with multiple HDMI inputs, full 1080p resolution, a high contrast ratio, and 60hz refresh at a minimum - 120hz would be preferable to avoid graphical issues in fast action games. I bought a 40" Toshiba LCD (1080p, 60hz) from Best Buy, along with a PS3, earlier this year. The TV was under $700, PS3 was $400. Oh, and if you so care, it doesn't hurt to have a VGA input on the TV, like mine does - there is something to be said about browsing CPF from your recliner on a big tv.

What kind of games do you enjoy on consoles? I've been playing a good bit of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and my TV has kept up just fine - but I can imagine a 120hz tv would look even better than mine when Call of Duty 6: Modern Warfare II comes out this November.


PS - Don't you dare let the sales weasel at BB sell you a $50 HDMI cable. I bought mine on clearance at Target for $9, and I still feel like I overpaid - but it is 12' long, and gives me flexibility to re-arrange my living room should I desire to.

xbox 360 is nice if ya dont mind that they break a lot more from what ive heard

Ive got a 360 and a PS3. That being said the PS3 is great because it plays blu ray but I really think there are better and more games for the 360? So the 360 gets my vote :thumbsup: Ohh yea and if you get it hacked you can play burned games

the 360 might be the worst thing Microsoft has ever come to create...the earlier versions had so much issues that I needed a spreadsheet to include all the mistakes they've made:shakehead

Sgt. LED said:

You can blow too much cash fast with a gaming PC especially when you don't know what you want or REALLY need. Then a 9 year old screws it up in 15 minutes while you are at work downloading Hanna Montana garbage.

Click to expand...

Next time, log out or at least lock the console. If the kid HAS to use the computer, don't give him Administrator access (or even Power User).

Admonishments aside, console gaming has certain advantages over PC gaming. The games "just work" (there's no wondering if your video card can handle it, or if you have the right sound card drivers), sitting back with a controller in your hand is more comfortable (although there are some games better played with mouse and keyboard), and having the game on the big screen is pretty cool (if your TV is up to it).

The PS3 has one major advantage over XBox 360-- it plays Blu-Ray movies. One could purchase a PS3 solely as a Blu-Ray player and not do too badly, really.

If you're more interested in gaming, it may come down to exclusive content -- or what system the majority of your friends have.

The Xbox 360 for sure. It has soooo many benefits and is a much better console.

• You get to play the Halo series (the best video game series on earth)
• You get to play the Gears of War series (another amazing video game series)
• You get all the cross console games such as Call of Duty, Need for Speed, Madden, NBA Live etc.
• You get the best online play in todays gaming. Xbox Live is paid for, but you pay for a reason. It offers great gameplay, new downloads, a really good buddy system, the ability to communicate with players in game etc.

As with most things, you are going to receive a lot of highly opinionated answers, but thats ok. Here is mine and I hope it is helpful. I am an avid 360 player (despite not owning one, 4 of my best friends do and I play enough with them to own one) and if you have any questions, feel free to PM me and I will do my best to answer anything regarding gameplay etc.

Good luck in your search, Sarge

M16a

m16a said:

The Xbox 360 for sure. It has soooo many benefits and is a much better console.

• You get to play the Halo series (the best video game series on earth)
• You get to play the Gears of War series (another amazing video game series)
• You get all the cross console games such as Call of Duty, Need for Speed, Madden, NBA Live etc.
• You get the best online play in todays gaming. Xbox Live is paid for, but you pay for a reason. It offers great gameplay, new downloads, a really good buddy system, the ability to communicate with players in game etc.

As with most things, you are going to receive a lot of highly opinionated answers, but thats ok. Here is mine and I hope it is helpful. I am an avid 360 player (despite not owning one, 4 of my best friends do and I play enough with them to own one) and if you have any questions, feel free to PM me and I will do my best to answer anything regarding gameplay etc.

Good luck in your search, Sarge

M16a

Click to expand...

Your arguments about the "best" this and "best" that are all completely subjective, based on your own view of the content. We shouldn't be trying to sell him on "our" favorite console; rather, provide an objective view of what's out there, pitfalls of either console (like you pointed out, XBOX Live is paid, where Sony's PSN is free... XBOX 360 won't play Blu-Rays, but PS3 will... XBOX 360 has different exclusive content than PS3... if you have a 360 your friends will mooch off of you when they come over to play it... :nana.

Sgt. LED, take everything with a grain of salt - but you knew that. :tinfoil:

I'm actually considering this same question for myself (oh, and my family too ).

Some research has turned up news that Microsoft completely redesigned the cooling system for the 360. This *should* address the ring of death problems that have plagued so many owners. If I were you I would stay away from a used 360.

A friend of mine recently purchased a used PS3 at a very good price, and he said that the PS3 has as many online activities as the 360, but without a subscription fee. Is that true?

As an owner of all the current gen systems (360, PS3, Wii, and older systems like PS2, PS1, Xbox, Dreamcast, Saturn, Genesis, Gamecube, N64), I'd have to say it depends on what kind of games you like to play and if there are any exclusive franchises that you favor. Also, do any of your friends have gaming consoles? If so, it may be worthwhile to get the same one so you can borrow/lend games to each other or play together.

Since you say that you doubt that you will play online then the value of free online play of the PS3 vs paid Xbox Live is equally useless to you. Same with the PS3's built-in WiFi vs $75 add-on WiFi of the 360.

As for reliability.... PS3 hands down. I'm on my 4th 360, 2 RRoDs and 1 dead DVD drive took out the first 3. My 3 year RRoD warranty is gone so once this one dies, that's it. I'd have to buy a replacement, probably an Arcade since I've got a 120GB HD. A few of my co-workers also own 360s (6 of them) and every single one of them has had to send theirs back at least once (one has sent his back twice). These are all older 360s though, none of us have the newer Falcon & whatever the newest motherboard revision is called 360s. 4 of my co-workers have PS3s (1 also has a 360) and they all work fine, from the initial launch 20GB & (2x) 60GB models, to the latest no-PS2-emulation 80GB model. I've got the 80GB MGS4 bundle PS3 w/partial PS2-emulation.

We've got about 10 PS3 games and about 40+ 360 games. I share the 360 with my younger brother and he's the one with the Live account since all his friends also have Live accts and they play online all the time. I honestly don't game much on my PS3. I've got a few exclusives for it (MGS4, Little Big Planet, Killzone 2, Resistance 1 & 2, Infamous) but honestly, it's not that much better/different than FPSes on the 360 (Halo, Gears of War, etc). I use the PS3 primarily as my media & blu-ray player. I have the PS3 Media Server software running on my main PC that streams all my movies, music, & photos to my PS3 via gigabit LAN (it also streams to the 360 now, though I find it scales & looks better on the PS3). Works great, plays any and everything that I can throw at it, divx, xvid, mkv, rmvb, mov, mp4, etc.

Most of the big AAA titles are released on both platforms nowadays so really, your decision should be based on which exclusive platform specific titles that you want to play.

One other minor thing that bugs me is the batteries for the controllers. The 360 uses 2xAAs, and I've got a minor stockpile of Eneloops I can swap them out at will in about 10 seconds. We also had a MS play & charge kit, who's NiMH have now died (can't hold a charge for more than 1 day) so I'm glad I don't have to throw the whole controller out. The PS3 Dual-Shocks use built-in Li-ions, so when those cells die, I'd have to chuck out the entire controller ($50). I also have to plug it into the PS3 when the batteries are low so if you have a short USB cable, it's gonna suck when you're trying to charge & play at the same time on a big screen with a short 4ft cable. You can buy a 8-10ft USB cable to mitigate this. Also the PS3 does NOT charge the controller if it's in off or standby mode. So you have to keep the PS3 on to charge them. You can of course by a 3rd party stand-alone controller charger but knowing what I know about good & bad li-ion chargers now, I'm not too confident in the quality of those cheap $15-20 chargers. Too bad I can't hook up my Pila IBC charger to it.

One other thing that I should mention. If a game is released on both platforms, paid/free DLC will come out either simultaneously (Call of Duty map packs) or on the 360 first, depending on the title. For example for Fallout 3, there have been 3, maybe 4 map/add-on packs released for the 360 version now, but still none for the PS3 version yet. So that's something else to consider, but it will vary depending on the game.

So after all is said and done, I would still consider the 360 to be the better gaming platform even though the hardware is flawed (evidenced by my possesion of a 4th replacement unit). The PS3 is the better media/blu-ray playing/streaming platform that happens to also play games.

Unless you have desires for a Blu-Ray player then I would go XBox 360. We have two, one an original and one purchased a couple years later. Never had a problem with either one. I probably just cursed myself.

The original knock on the PS3 was cost and availability of games. Cost hasn't changed much but I think the game situation is better.

My favorite game right now on the XBox is Fallout 3 (also available on PS3). Post-apocalyptic wanderings through the wasteland with cool weapons and enemies. Great visuals when you take out an enemy. I can't match my kids (or computers) anymore on button mashing games so I tend to stick to RPGs these days although Halo is a must!

If you're not going to use your TV as a computer monitor and are sticking to a < 40" display, you might consider a 720P/1080i unit. Both 720p and 1080i are technically "high def" and at smaller screen sizes you will be hard pressed to discern the difference between them and 1080p. A lot of games are 720p natively and scaled up to 1080p when viewed via HDMI. HD cable is 1080i. Dish Network is claiming 1080p content on some VOD but no guarantees their compression scheme won't make it look like crap. You could save some bucks.

And yes, head to monoprice.com or pchcables.com (my boys up the street!) for your HDMI cables. Remember its a digital transmission, 1s and 0s. Works or doesn't despite marketing fluff to the contrary.

Good luck. I've been enjoying 52" wonder for a year or so. Finally they got to a price point and technical level that made it worthwhile!

AvroArrow said:

As an owner of all the current gen systems (360, PS3, Wii, and older systems like PS2, PS1, Xbox, Dreamcast, Saturn, Genesis, Gamecube, N64), I'd have to say it depends on what kind of games you like to play and if there are any exclusive franchises that you favor. Also, do any of your friends have gaming consoles? If so, it may be worthwhile to get the same one so you can borrow/lend games to each other or play together.

Since you say that you doubt that you will play online then the value of free online play of the PS3 vs paid Xbox Live is equally useless to you. Same with the PS3's built-in WiFi vs $75 add-on WiFi of the 360.

As for reliability.... PS3 hands down. I'm on my 4th 360, 2 RRoDs and 1 dead DVD drive took out the first 3. My 3 year RRoD warranty is gone so once this one dies, that's it. I'd have to buy a replacement, probably an Arcade since I've got a 120GB HD. A few of my co-workers also own 360s (6 of them) and every single one of them has had to send theirs back at least once (one has sent his back twice). These are all older 360s though, none of us have the newer Falcon & whatever the newest motherboard revision is called 360s. 4 of my co-workers have PS3s (1 also has a 360) and they all work fine, from the initial launch 20GB & (2x) 60GB models, to the latest no-PS2-emulation 80GB model. I've got the 80GB MGS4 bundle PS3 w/partial PS2-emulation.

We've got about 10 PS3 games and about 40+ 360 games. I share the 360 with my younger brother and he's the one with the Live account since all his friends also have Live accts and they play online all the time. I honestly don't game much on my PS3. I've got a few exclusives for it (MGS4, Little Big Planet, Killzone 2, Resistance 1 & 2, Infamous) but honestly, it's not that much better/different than FPSes on the 360 (Halo, Gears of War, etc). I use the PS3 primarily as my media & blu-ray player. I have the PS3 Media Server software running on my main PC that streams all my movies, music, & photos to my PS3 via gigabit LAN (it also streams to the 360 now, though I find it scales & looks better on the PS3). Works great, plays any and everything that I can throw at it, divx, xvid, mkv, rmvb, mov, mp4, etc.

Most of the big AAA titles are released on both platforms nowadays so really, your decision should be based on which exclusive platform specific titles that you want to play.

One other minor thing that bugs me is the batteries for the controllers. The 360 uses 2xAAs, and I've got a minor stockpile of Eneloops I can swap them out at will in about 10 seconds. We also had a MS play & charge kit, who's NiMH have now died (can't hold a charge for more than 1 day) so I'm glad I don't have to throw the whole controller out. The PS3 Dual-Shocks use built-in Li-ions, so when those cells die, I'd have to chuck out the entire controller ($50). I also have to plug it into the PS3 when the batteries are low so if you have a short USB cable, it's gonna suck when you're trying to charge & play at the same time on a big screen with a short 4ft cable. You can buy a 8-10ft USB cable to mitigate this. Also the PS3 does NOT charge the controller if it's in off or standby mode. So you have to keep the PS3 on to charge them. You can of course by a 3rd party stand-alone controller charger but knowing what I know about good & bad li-ion chargers now, I'm not too confident in the quality of those cheap $15-20 chargers. Too bad I can't hook up my Pila IBC charger to it.

One other thing that I should mention. If a game is released on both platforms, paid/free DLC will come out either simultaneously (Call of Duty map packs) or on the 360 first, depending on the title. For example for Fallout 3, there have been 3, maybe 4 map/add-on packs released for the 360 version now, but still none for the PS3 version yet. So that's something else to consider, but it will vary depending on the game.

So after all is said and done, I would still consider the 360 to be the better gaming platform even though the hardware is flawed (evidenced by my possesion of a 4th replacement unit). The PS3 is the better media/blu-ray playing/streaming platform that happens to also play games.

Click to expand...

This is probally the most objective and concice post on this topic. No offence to anybody elselovecpf My post won't be as good either.

I have both systems. I'll probally vote PS3 overall but for pure gaming I love the 360 for their arcade. The amount and quality of arcade games can't be matched by PS3. For disc based games they are about equal. There are only a few games limited to either system. I've been playing Metal Gear and Final Fantasy since the 8-bit NES. So I'm partial to the PS3. Halo and Gears of War are awsome though.

My 360 crapped out on me too. Still under warranty but when they swapped the hard drives so I could keep my arcade games MS went downhill with me. Long story short... I have to be online to play the arcade games I payed for. MS CS has been no help:candle:

The Blu-Ray tech in the PS3 is a great option. I'm starting to be a HD snob after getting so used to it. Either way you will get great gaming and I highly recommend Fallout 3. I love it when you can't possibly finish a game in a weekend, and still not be bored with it.

I have both and while I do like the PS3 I give the nod to the 360, here's why.

1. Netflix movie streaming, even HD
2. Lots of excellent games
3. Superior online experience
4. Great controllers

everyone i know who has a 360 has had it brake on em what garabge they made then they fixed the heat issue and then they got that 407 error or what ever they call it.360 is a great gameing machine but has awefull qualty control

1wrx7 said:

This is probally the most objective and concice post on this topic. No offence to anybody elselovecpf My post won't be as good either.

I have both systems. I'll probally vote PS3 overall but for pure gaming I love the 360 for their arcade. The amount and quality of arcade games can't be matched by PS3. For disc based games they are about equal. There are only a few games limited to either system. I've been playing Metal Gear and Final Fantasy since the 8-bit NES. So I'm partial to the PS3. Halo and Gears of War are awsome though.

My 360 crapped out on me too. Still under warranty but when they swapped the hard drives so I could keep my arcade games MS went downhill with me. Long story short... I have to be online to play the arcade games I payed for. MS CS has been no help:candle:

The Blu-Ray tech in the PS3 is a great option. I'm starting to be a HD snob after getting so used to it. Either way you will get great gaming and I highly recommend Fallout 3. I love it when you can't possibly finish a game in a weekend, and still not be bored with it.

Click to expand...

Thank you. I'm trying to be objective even though I have every reason to hate the flawed cooling design of the 360. Waiting 1 month for the RRoD replacment x3 sucks. Yes, they give you a 1-month Live Gold card, but still, that's 1 month of no gaming. Now that I'm home, I just counted and we have 47 360 games and 11 PS3 games (disc only, excludes Live/PSN/downloaded games), so when the current one dies, I really have no choice but to buy another one to replace it since we're so heavily invested in it (that plus a living room full of plastic drums, guitars and mic that plug into it).

As for your arcade/DLC stuff not playing unless you are on-line, check the xbox support site. It basically says to try re-downloading the game/content. If that does not work or you have a crap-ton of DLC, then you will have to run their DRM re-licensing utility. They are supposed to do the DRM re-licensing before sending out your replacement 360, but sometimes they forget. At least now you can manually initiate this process. They introduced this sometime late last year or early this year. Before, you'd have to go through like 2-3 support people on their help line and get bumped to a supervisor before they would authorize this. Now you can do it on your own, but only once per year. This should fix it so that you can play all your stuff (and on all your local profiles) when you are offline.

Back onto topic... one other thing to note. For a $400-500 supposed "hi-def" gaming console, I think it's pretty lame that the PS3 does NOT include any hi-def cables (HDMI or component (blue/green/red)) in the box. On the plus side, the SP/DIF/optical output jack is built-in the back so you don't have to buy a special A/V connector. The only caveat is that the PS3 will only output sound via HDMI OR optical, not both simultaneously like the 360 can, which can get annoying when you're trying to set it up on a Logitech Harmony remote. BTW, if you do decide to get HDMI cables, buy it from monoprice or mycablemart like the other person mentioned. Do not let the bugger upsell you to a $75 Monster HDMI cable. The $6 HDMI cable from monoprice is better.

The 360 comes with a dual/switching composite AND component cable so that you can play in hi-def (1080p) via component right out of the box. You can of course connect it via HDMI (all the new 360s have this now, but the old 360s did not) instead. But if you want surround via optical AND HDMI video, then you will have to pay $50 for the 360 HDMI cable kit. The reason being is that you cannot plug both the stock A/V cable (that contains the optical port) AND a generic HDMI cable in simultaneously. You need to buy the MS HDMI kit that has a different A/V connector that is offset and will fit both a HDMI cable AND an optical cable simultaneously. I didn't want to spend $50 on the HDMI kit so I just plug mine with via Component & optical. There were no advantages to running it via HDMI for me. This whole optical thing is completely irrelevant if you do not have a surround sound system with optical in.

Another thing to note is that out of the 11 PS3 games I have, only 1 supports 1080p (MGS4), the rest are only 720p. Whereas over 75% of the 360 games we have support 1080p. I'm not sure if there's a huge difference between the 2, but it's an interesting tid bit of info. We did buy most of the cross-platform AAA titles for the 360 so maybe those (CoD4, CoD:WaW, RE5, etc) support 1080p on the PS3, but I don't know for sure. What I do know is that in Star Ocean: the Last Hope (JRPG for 360) the game will freeze in certain battle scenes when the 360 is running in 1080p mode. The only workaround is to force the 360 to 720p mode, then it plays fine. Weird bug that I had never seen before in any other game. The details did go down a bit, but at least the game was now playable.

As for paid Live Arcade vs PSN games.... Live Arcade has a better selection. Castle Crashers is stupid fun with 4 people together (online via Live or locally on your couch). It used to be 360 exclusive but coming to PSN soon. I'm looking forward to Fat Princess for PSN this Thursday. Hopefully it will be as fun as Castle Crashers.

One more tip. Since you are in the U.S. check out fatwallet.com or cheapassgamer.com for deals on whichever console you decide to get. You can sometimes save a lot or get a much better deal than just checking out bestbuy/fry's/whatever website. Might as well save some money to spend on more flashlights.

PS3! PS3! PS3!