Xbox 360 or PS3 - Which is better? - Advice......

Yo nerds!!

Need a little advice here.

I need to get myself a console, but am having trouble deciding which is best.

Primarily it'll be for gaming, more to the point, on-line gaming. (and for the kids to use)

And I'm not worried too much about blu-ray etc...

Just need advice from those who have the consoles, if the PS3 kicks arse over Xbox or vice versa ...

Many thanks...The Rod that is Hot

I have no interest in on-line gaming. I bought a PS3 for the Ratchet & Clank and Hot Shots Golf series, which I have played since they first appeared on the PS2 and PSX, respectively.

Cheers for the info

Blu-Ray doesn't bother me so much as I have a laptop with blu-ray which I can plug into the tv no problem. Not ideal, but it works just fine so hay...;)

It's the games part that I'm most interested in. I used to love playing the COD 's on the PC, and just love the on-line aspect of it all...So taking that into consideration, looks like the Xbox it is....

Nice one

Yes, Xbox, definitely.  While you do have to pay for online play, you get what you pay for.  Voice chat on every game, a party chat system where you can chat with several of your friends even if they're playing different games, and the achievement aspect is strangely addictive and makes you try to do things in your game that you would never do otherwise, giving you more game for your buck.

PS3 is a great Blu-ray player and will be upgradable to the 3D Blu-ray spec, but it just doesn't have the exclusive games that made the Genesis/SNES war so interesting.

My gamertag is doubleofive, if you want to hook up on Left 4 Dead 2, the only game I seem to be playing recently.

I have all 3 current systems.  The xbox is the one that gets the most play.  That includes my wife and my 7 year old son.

I meant my wife, kid and I play the xbox the most.  Not that I play the xbox more than I play with my wife and kid.  But that might also be true.  *blush*

I own a wii, so I'm part of that problem.

Let me break my other statement down for you:

The 360 is turned on and off 4-5 times a day as different people play it for different reasons.

The PS3 is turned on/off 4-5 times a week (max) for watching movies and the occasional game/demo.

The wii is turned on/off 2 or 3 times a month max.  Sometimes whole months pass and it doesn't get turned on at all.

So, the numbers will tell you that I have bought 1 360, 1 PS3, and 1 Wii, but the actual enjoyment derived is not equal like those numbers might sort of indicate.

But yes, a thread with a title like this is a can of worms, indeed!

I'd also recommend the 360 for you, especially since you are interested in online play, and having it as a console for your kids. The 360 has a massive library of games out there, plenty of which can be purchased used very inexpensively.

The PS3 is a nifty machine, but for what you are wanting to use it for, I really think the Xbox 360 is your best bet. And reading through the other posts, it doesn't sound like I am alone in that. Though make sure you buy it new, not used. The older models had a tendency to melt themselves from over heating. The newer models have fixed this problem. With a new console you wont have to worry about the over heating (the infamous red ring of death that you have probably heard about), and you'll have the piece of mind of a decent warranty. 

Alternatively, if you were not very interested in online play, and mostly just wanted something to keep the kids busy, and if they are not old enough to feel shafted by getting a last gen console, the PS2 is absolutely fantastic, and has a massive library of really good games that can now be bought really cheap. 

Well, cheers guys...

Looks like it'll be the Xbox then...although I was a little shocked to see that Xbox Elite is only £50 cheaper than the PS3 slim....I thought the Xbox was much cheaper...Oh well...

And what's the difference between The Elite & Arcade Xbox???

The online on PS3 is a winner hands down. You can customize a PS3 as much as you can a computer, because it is a pretty much a computer. X-Box 360 is great, but I love the PS3 so much better.

Great....Now I have to re-think things

haha

RE: Elite VS Arcade.

HDD and Color.  I think the elite also comes with better AV cables, but if you're going to use HDMI, the other cables don't really matter.  And maybe the Arcade doesn't come with a headset anymore.  And the game pack-ins might be different.

The console itself is no different.

(someone correct me if I'm wrong)

Is hard drive space important....I know, I sound like a complete noob...But I've been used to PC games for years....don't need to worry about such things there...

Here is the xbox.com's explaination of the differences,

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/compare101.htm

There use to be a bigger price difference between the two, but toward the end of last year Sony released the PS3 slim and dropped the price considerably.

I bought the 360 arcade, and later bought a refurbished 20GB HD for $20 (and the 20GBs has always been far more than adequate for me, even with all the DLC I have picked up). Honestly, it is nice to have a hard drive, just so you can download trailers and demos. The arcade comes with 512mb of space for game saves built in, which isn't all that much. You can, however, buy extra memory cards a lot cheaper than a hard drive. If the model between the Elite and the 360 still existed, I'd recommend that, but it appears they've done away with it on the last price drop.

I still think an Xbox 360 arcade for $199.99 (or one hundred and twenty quid), is quite a deal. Looks like the amazon market place at amazon.co.uk has a 20GB HD for £30, which means it would cost you about £150 minimum if you felt you needed an HD (compared to £200 for an Elite with a 120GB drive). Also keep in mind if you want to play online, you have to dish out another £32.99 (amazon's price) for a 12 month Xbox Live Gold Membership (I got 13 months from some guy on ebay for $37 USD, which as you know, is considerably cheaper than £32. I am sure you could find a similar deal and save yourself a bit). It sucks you have to pay money to play online with the 360, but honestly, their online play absolutely kicks the ass of both Wii and PS3 (I've also heard rumors that PS3 is going to start charging for premium online features so they can make them better, might not be true though).

Johnny Ringo said:

EyeShotFirst said:

You can customize a PS3 as much as you can a computer

Since when?

Since never. Hyperbole obviously. A computer holds many more options for a customization, and while the PS3's customization abilities are nifty (it can run Linux, right?) it is still pretty limited. The 360 has no customization ability at all, beyond changing themes. If someone was wanting to use the thing to surf the web, or to run homebrew, the 360 would most certainly NOT be the way to go.

The slims can't run linux.  I knew this going in, but decided the pros outweighed the cons.  Now  I'm not so sure.  :(

I have a 20 GB hard drive (and no HDMI) on my Xbox, and I have to say that I wish I didn't have to worry about space.  I had Left 4 Dead 1 on my hard drive for a few months and not hearing that disc drive spinning was awesome.  I'd have all of my games on there (but Halo 3, which doesn't run well from the hard drive and a game of which I am so over).

I'd go Elite, even if you don't think you won't use it.  You could, and that's the rub.