The PS3 is a great system if your tastes go beyond Halo and Left for Dead. It has some of the best exclusives of this generation, and most of the big titles are now cross-platform anyway.

Sony ditching Linux support was a no-brainer; how is this a deciding factor for anyone looking to buy a game console? Cutting a few USB ports and flash drives...who cares? The only big hit is the removal of backwards compatibility, and talking with actual gamers, most never use it anyway.

I tend to think that those who bag on Sony's cost-cutting measures are completely glossing over the 360's horrible reliability record and umpteen versions that have caused nothing but confusion for anyone looking to buy one. Add in expensive hardware upgrades (having to buy proprietary hard drives that cost a fortune) and the need to buy a "premium" system just to get an HDMI port until recently, and you have one of the worst consoles, hardware wise, to ever grace the market. All models of the PS3 have allowed you to drop in just about any 2.5" hard drive as a replacement and they've all had HDMI from day one. And the slim provides heat reductions, reliability improvements, and functionality improvements on a system that was already built like a tank.

On top of all this, you get first-rate Blu-ray playback as a bonus.

If you care about the sheer number of games, a few exclusives (90% of the many 360 exclusives are garbage), and absolutely nothing else, then the 360 is for you. I've been a hardcore gamer all my life and the complete opposite of a Sony fanboy, but for me, the PS3 was the right choice.