Hello Shad3y. I just wanted to let you know that Weezysbaby does make some points, but he is also off on several things.
The big “PS3 or 360” question was on my mind for quite a while. I sunk way too many hours into researching and reading reviews, but none of them seemed to have everything wrapped into a nice bundle. That was my goal for this article, to wrap everything up into a five to ten minute read. Where I have included facts, they are for both consoles and main points aren’t left out. I have thrown my opinions in throughout, so just ignore them if you don’t like them. I am a PS3 owner due to what I found, but tried not to make this sound biased. And remember, and the article is kinda lenghty, but has everything you need to know, so try to bear with it. And I don't own a 360, but have played it a lot with friends and have researched both extensively.
On the technical side, the PS3 is superior to the 360, which isn’t just my opinion as many experts also claim that, even if they favor the 360. The PS3 (80GB version at $500) comes with a built in blu-ray player, DVD player, CD player, digital music player (like mp3 and a bunch of other formats), SD/mini SD card reader (so you can plug your camera’s memory card right into the system and view photos or save them on the hard drive), PS2 and PS1 backwards compatibility, 4 USB drives, blue tooth functionality, HDMI port (and compatibility with RCA/component video), and built in wi-fi (the 40GB version doesn’t have PS2/PS1 backwards compatibility and also doesn’t have a SD/mini SD card reader, but otherwise is the same at $400). The 360 (20GB version at $350) has a DVD player, CD player, digital music player, limited Xbox backwards compatibility, 3 USB drives, HDMI port (and compatibility with RCA/component video). This isn’t everything for the two, so if you want to know more about that stuff you should look for it somewhere else. As far as the processors and graphics chips go, I don’t know the specifics and don’t know enough in that area to comment, though I have read multiple times that the PS3’s is better but the 360’s works well too. In order to upgrade hard drive space, the PS3 is much nicer. You can buy a hard drive with more memory from any company as long as it is the right size physically, and replace the one in the PS3, or you can plug in an external one through a usb drive. On the 360, you have to buy a special Microsoft one which is much more expensive and there are only two sizes (20GB and 120GB I think). The 360 has currently sold more consoles than the PS3, but keep in mind that the 360 has been out a year longer and the PS3 is catching up. That’s the actual technical components of each of the systems, but there is much more in making a good game console.
The PS3 has a built in blu-ray player that you can play blu-ray movies on, but in addition to that the PS3 games are written on a blu-ray disk. Now, the blu-ray movie player is nice if you love the super hi-def resolution for movies, but there’s more to it than that. Why it's actually important is because the PS3 games come in blu-ray format. 360 games come in DVD format. Blu-ray disks have 25 GB memory (single layered), where as DVDs have only 5 GB memory (single layered). This means that PS3 games not only have better graphics (though it's not really showing right now, I'll talk about that later), they also have more space to put information into the game (as an example, if you read a magazine article and a novel like Harry Potter, which will give you more information? Which will take longer to read? Blu-ray is like the novel. It allows for a deeper, longer, and better game theoretically). Right now this may not seem like a big deal because 360 games run and look just fine. But in the future, this probably will matter. The DVD format may cripple the 360 when game developers are trying to put so much into a game, and there isn't enough room. This will leave the PS3 with a much better gaming experience. Remember, this is more of a reason for the future. It is probable that blu-ray will last and DVD won't. Now, 360 owners may say "Well, you can buy a HD DVD player for the 360, which is just as good." It actually isn't. It costs $150, and it only plays HD DVD movies, which are being outsold 3 to 1 by blu-ray movies. The games are still in DVD format.
Another technical feat of the PS3 is the built in Wi-Fi (wireless internet) to play online. For me, this was very important; I wasn't prepared to send a 40 ft cable through the house to connect to the main modem or buy a $50+ additional modem (keep in mind though that you need a wireless router in your house to connect to or be in a Wi-Fi hotspot, it doesn’t work magically). The 360 does offer a Wi-Fi accessory, only it costs $100 which adds to the growing price. Controllers are another buying point. Both cost $50 for the wireless version (PS3 controllers are only wireless, 360 wired controllers are about $10 less). I personally like the 360 controllers a lot, and the different colors are a nice option. A sad fact about the 360 controllers is that they don’t come with rechargeable batteries built in, like the PS3 ones. And in addition to that, you have to buy a recharger to recharge the rechargeable batteries. For $50, you can get one charger and 3 batteries (if you end up buying 2 additional controllers for a total of 3 with the one included, like I would). To recharge the PS3 controller’s batteries, you can use either the usb-mini usb cord included with the system or one that you find around the house and plug it into a usb port on the PS3 or even a computer. I happened to find 2 in my office without even looking hard. So yes, the 360 controllers are nice but will add to the building expense. Right now, the 360 controllers have rumble and the PS3 ones don't, but Sony is releasing the Dualshock 3 (basically PS3 sixasis controller with rumble) in the spring of 2008. Also, PS3 offers system software updates for free over the internet every month or two. This allows it to stay freshly updated and for Sony to continue to add on better features to the PS3, like the ability to use themes, make music playlists, fix problems, etc. The 360 recently received a software update, but it’s the first that I’ve heard about. So the 360 offers updates, but not near as often as the PS3.
In my opinion, the PS3's XcrossMediaBar is easier to navigate and nicer than the 360's Dashboard (the home page of each system where you access music, games, etc.). Don't get me wrong, the Dashboard works fine and there’s nothing wrong with it, but the XcrossMediaBar is my personal favorite. On the PS3, you can set the background to any picture saved on the hard drive. And now with the new update, you can give it themes, which are free on the Playstation Store and free for download online created by other users, and look really cool. It basically gives you a new background and changes the icons (for movies, music, etc.) to something related to that theme (the nature theme, for example, turns the icons next to each word into what looks like frosty snowflake-like representations of each icon). The 360 also has themes, but having used them it seems that it only changes the shade of the blade and may add a background picture (if you have no idea what the XMB or Dashboard is, look it up on Google so you know what I’m talking about), which isn’t quite as fun. Also, for the 360 you have to pay for additional themes or certain pictures to use, and the example they show you (if there is one, there isn’t always) is small enough that it is hard to tell exactly what you’re buying. You can also buy software to create your own themes for PS3, and post it online for others to download. The PS3 offers an internet browser, allowing you to go to any website you want and make a list of favorites by simply touching the select button. The 360 doesn't have an internet browser of any kind. It’s not a big deal, but very nice to use occasionally.
The online gameplay is another major buying factor. I won't lie, Xbox Live is better than Playstation Network (I don’t really know why, they seem pretty much the same to me, but everyone else says Live is better for some reason). Though I don't know much about Xbox Live, never having used it, this is what I've gathered. It's easy to use, you can make friends lists, send messages (even during games), and there's a good matchmaking system to play with your friends. In addition, there is a thing called achievement points where you get points for doing certain things in games, and you can show off to your friends how many points you have. There's also arcade games that you can download, and I believe there are more available now for 360 then PS3 (for now anyway). You can also download game demos, additional content, and there is now a digital media system where you can either “rent” or buy movies or tv shows. It’s very good, but with a price. Xbox Live is $50 a year. Many say it's worth it, but I can't testify either way seeing as I haven't used it. Playstation Network is PS3's online system. It is free, which is very nice. You can also make a friends list and send messages, but not during gameplay (for right now). There is matchmaking, though it’s not as good as the 360’s from what I’ve heard. The Playstation Store is growing rapidly, and more game demos, trailers, add on content, and arcade games are becoming available (the demos and trailers are free, the arcade games and add on content usually cost you something). The Playstation Store will be adding a movie/tv show download system similar to iTunes and Microsoft next year, as well as introducing an accessory that allows users to record TV shows directly onto their PS3 hard drive to watch at any time. The 360 has more demos, trailers, and add on content available currently. But Sony has something amazing in the works to overcome the super Xbox Live. It’s called Playstation Home, and it should be available as a free download next spring (of 2008). In Playstation Home, you create an avatar person that is deeply customizable, and get your own apartment, which is also very customizable. In this virtual world, which is made up of other Playstation Home users, you can go talk to anyone, invite them over to your apartment (to play music that is on your hard drive), go to the “movie theatre” and watch either full length movies/tv shows or previews (and download them if you want to, but probably not the full length ones), play arcade games for free like bowling, chess, 3 point shootout, etc., and earn and show off your trophies (which is Sony’s version of achievements and points for the 360). Sony intends for retail companies like Coke and Gap to make their own lounges, which will look cool and allow Home users to play games, listen to music, etc. I’m completely satisfied with Playstation Network, because there are still plenty of people playing online games and new features are being added. You may want to know that Xbox Live has many more users than Playstation Network, because more 360’s have been sold. So, Xbox Live-excellent but $50 per year, Playstation Network-not as good but fine, free.
As far as graphics go for the two systems, right now they are relatively equal. I think that will be changing quite soon, but I could be wrong. I do know that Uncharted: Drakes Fortune, a PS3 exclusive, is reported to look much better than any game out on the market, and the PS3 is still in its first year. The reason more games are available on the 360 is that it has been out over a year longer than the PS3, giving the developers time to get used to writing games for the system. PS3 games were having their release dates pushed back because, as I’ve heard, the PS3 is challenging to develop for. This will change over time, the developers just need to get used to it. Games like Heavenly Sword, Uncharted, and Ratchet and Clank Future show that it’s not impossible to come out with a good game on the PS3. If you noticed that many of the PS3’s best looking games are exclusives, here’s why. Since the 360 came out first, developers got used to developing for it, so they just ported multiplatform games over to the PS3. But they don’t really change much in the ported version, so the PS3 multiplatform games are basically DVD games put on a blu-ray disk, because developers don’t add graphics and gameplay with the extra room. So because Microsoft rushed the 360 into the market early and didn’t make it a true next gen system with something other than DVD, PS3 games are suffering (that made me kind of mad when I first read that). I do know that some developers have started making the main game on the PS3 and porting it to the 360, which they say is much easier and the result is two much better games (I know the developers for Burnout Paradise and Devil May Cry 4 used the PS3 as the main format, and others will probably follow). But since many developers up until now have used the 360 as the main platform, many PS3 ports aren’t too good (like Madden 08 and the Orange Box). Just as a side note, if you've noticed, the PS3's first generation of games graphically are roughly just as good as the 360's second generation of games. The PS3 would stay equal at one generation behind 360, but there's another factor to throw in. The 360 is being used almost to its full capacity right now. Sure, its games look good, but remember they're in DVD format. And the PS3 has blu-ray to combat that, on top of its huge potential not being tapped fully at the time due to the short amount of time it's been out. So, the 360 may very well hit a wall soon, allowing the PS3 will surpass it by quite a bit. If you want to see what the PS3 is capable of, check out Killzone 2 or Final Fantasy XIII, they are exclusives with absolutely amazing graphics that take advantage of the PS3’s power.
In the failure ratings category, the 360 definitely wins. Currently, one third of Xbox 360s are breaking and being sent in for repair, most commonly for the "Red Rings of Death". I know people who have had a hole the size of a quarter burned through the middle of their Halo game. Tell me that wouldn't suck. 360's are known to overheat and start smoking, which might cause some issues. To cope with this, Microsoft offers a 3 year warranty, so you can get it fixed for free, you just won't get to play for a few months and have to go through the hassle. And the new 360 models have something that’s supposed to fix or limit the problems, though I’m not sure whether or not it works. PS3 failure ratings are at about 3%. They don't overheat often due to their nice cooling system. They're also quiet when they run. 360s on the other hand are LOUD. If you have the sound cranked up to full, you may not here it. If not, it's quite annoying.
Backwards compatibility is one of the last issues. The 40GB PS3 doesn't offer it, but the 80GB version does. And if I remember correctly, the PS2 dominated the last generation market and is still publishing games. I still like playing many of those games, so PS3 was the way to go. Although I did notice that the PS3 games look so good and seem to be so much better that PS2 games don’t really stand a chance and I don’t play them close to as much. The 360 does offer backwards compatibility, but not with all of their games (though almost all of the good ones). There aren't as many Xbox games to choose from, but it’s not that big of a deal due to the large library for the 360. Price used to be an issue for the PS3, but not anymore. The 40GB PS3 is only $400, only $50 more than the 360 core (at $350). The 80GB is $500, but worth it for the backwards compatibility in my opinion. And in my opinion, the extra $50 or $150 is worth buying the PS3. Many people also say that 360 is destroying the PS3 in sales. It's true that the 360 has sold more systems than the PS3, but the 360 has been out a whole year longer. The PS3 has sold roughly the same amount of consoles in its first year as the 360 did in its first year (about 5 million). And that's with the PS3's higher prices and initial bad game selection (which is already changing). The PS3 has actually been doing pretty well since the price cut; its sales were boosted almost 300% and it’s beaten out the Wii and 360 in Japan for about a month. There’s also supposed to be a massive Wii shortage this holiday season, so consumers will look to the 360 or PS3. As a side note, if you are wondering about the difference between the 360 Pro and Elite models, they’re pretty much the same. The differences are; the Elite costs $450 compared to the $350 Pro, the Elite is black and the Pro is white, the Elite has an included HDMI cable and the Pro doesn’t (though they both have HDMI ports), and the Elite has 120GB of memory compared to the Pro’s 20GB. And about HDMI cables, if you but a Monster brand, which is the “nicest”, it will cost you between $70 and $100. Or you could buy one off of Amazon for $5. Ya, only $5. That’s what I did, and it works as well as the Monster cable, which I used at first but later returned. So the Elite is a sexy black color, but I don’t think that and some more memory is worth the extra $100.
Finally, there’s the games section. I’ve seen 360 owners bash the PS3 repeatedly, saying things like "The graphics are better" (which they aren't) and "There's funner and better games on the 360" and "PS3 doesn't have any good games". These are lies. I really don't think the amount of games total matters at all. Seriously, are you gonna own over 100 games? I would think not. Personally, I'm gonna keep it at roughly 15, and there's always Gamestop to trade in games at. So the amount of total games doesn't really matter, cause you won't have that many; the amount of good games matters (Does anyone get excited when exclusives like absolute Blazin Infinity, Aquazone, and Big Bumpin come out? No, I haven't even heard of them, and the 360 exclusive library is full of dumb games like this. As far as good games go, many of them are available for both consoles, including GTA 4, Guitar Hero 3, Call of Duty 4, Assassin's Creed, Madden, NBA Live, Army of Two, Star Wars: Force Unleashed, Timeshift, Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, Unreal Tournament 3, and Devil May Cry 4. As far as exclusives, 360 has a few great ones, but only a few. And their "exclusives" aren't really exclusives, as you'll find below. If you're anything like me, you know that Halo 3 is amazing (and if you don’t think it’s great then you’re probably lying to yourself). That game alone almost got me to buy a 360 actually. There's also Bioshock, Mass Effect, Gears of War, and Crackdown (though Bioshock is rumored to be ported to the PS3, Gears of War 3 will be on PS3, and Mass Effect will eventually come to PS3, which only leaves Halo, and Bungie is independent and its future non-halo games may be on PS3 as well as 360). That's all I can think of that are actually good. But there is a remedy for the lack of some of those games for PS3. If you have a Vista computer, you can buy Halo 2 for Vista, Gears of War for Vista, Bioshock for Vista, and other "Games for Vista" as they're called. Then you buy a 360 wireless controller, a gaming receiver for your wireless 360 controller, which is only $12 (a little receiver that plugs into a USB port on your computer and lets you use the 360 controller for your Vista games), and you're set. And while Vista games offer Windows Live Gold and Silver for the same price as 360, the silver edition offers online play for free. The gold only allows you to play cross platform with 360 owners if the game is capable, which most aren't. So, if you have a Microsoft computer, the "exclusives" for the 360 lose their exclusivity. PS3 has many good exclusives, and I mean many. Warhawk is amazing, a must have online multiplayer only shooter game. Then there's Ratchet and Clank Future, Gran Tourismo 5, Metal Gear Solid 4, Haze, Heavenly Sword, Final Fantasy XIII, God of War 3, Littlebig Planet, Afrika, Killzone 2, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, White Night Story, Ninja Gaiden Sigma, and of course Resistance: Fall of Man. That looks like a good game line up to me, and it'll only get better as developers tap into the vast potential of the PS3. I think Haze and Unreal Tournament 3 will kind of combat Halo 3 for online shooters, though they won't be exactly the same. Just as an interesting side note, the 360 version of COD4 and Halo 3 aren’t even truly hi-def, cause they are both actually programmed at 640p and are then upscaled to actual hi-def.
And yet, even with all the good stuff behind the PS3, the 360 is still doing very well. I even wish I had one sometimes, but couldn’t figure out why when I asked myself except for Halo. Well, I’ve come to a personal conclusion. The 360 has a lot of hype surrounding it right now. What is the 360 hype? Well, Microsoft is definitely advertising plenty for the 360. And also, games like Guitar Hero 3 don’t offer the same stuff on the PS3 as they do on the 360. There isn’t any matchmaking on the PS3 version, but there is on the 360 version. Why? I have no idea. Also, as an example of the hype, I recently saw a Rockband commercial. It looked pretty cool, but you know what I saw at the end of the commercial? The white 360 sign with the Live logo under it. Rockband is also on the PS3, but for some reason it didn’t advertise it. Also, if you go to a website to buy a game, the box art they show is almost always the 360 version. I don’t know why everyone seems to love the 360, but they seem to have taken over the market in America (though the PS3 is beating the 360 in almost every other country, especially Japan). Sure, it could and probably will change eventually, but that may answer your question about why you and everyone else like the 360 so much.
I made a “to look forward to” list for PS3 so you all PS3 future owners would know what to look forward to (most of it is in the article above, it’s just all together here). Most of this will be available some time in 2008: in game XMB (so you can send/receive messages during a game), in game music (from your hard drive, so you can listen to Rihanna while playing COD4), Playstation Home, Dualshock 3 controller, and a whole bunch of exclusive games, including Haze, Metal Gear Solid 4, Littlebig Planet, Killzone 2, Gran Tourismo 5, Afrika, possibly Final Fantasy XIII, probably Resistance 2, and just maybe God of War 3.
I hope this helped you make up your mind. Happy shopping!