PS3 vs. Xbox - A Head to Head Comparison

[Audioholics]

<A href="http://www.audioholics.com/news/uploads/ps3thewinner1.jpg"><IMG style="WIDTH: 49px; HEIGHT: 100px" alt=[ps3thewinner1] hspace=10 src="http://www.audioholics.com/news/thumbs/ps3thewinner1_th.jpg" align=left border=0></A>The folks at GizmoCafe.com had a chance to play with the PS3 for awhile and overall they seemed to be much more impressed with the PS3 than I thought they’d be. The biggest question on everybody’s mind now that it’s finally out there is – ‘how it stacks up to the Xbox360?’. We spent most of the weekend taking the PlayStation 3 through some head to head comparisons with Microsoft’s gaming machine.

[Read their Conclusions]

 

[birdonthebeach]

The real question is, how much do you think I can get for the PS3 I scored last night?

 

[KrisJ]

Games will make or break the console.

 

[Zer0beaT]

I'm not convinced on the PS3 yet, infact I doubt I'd get much use out of it looking at the near future and thus I'm going to wait to see how its game lineup turns out in 2 or 3 years and perhaps it will be priced ALOT lower by then.

I'd love to have a BluRay player (almost as much as I'd like an HDDVD player) but I'd much prefer a universal player. Hopefully those start shipping sometime next year.

I think if you're buying a gaming console (and only one, owning all of them would be ideal) the games have to be what sways your decision. Everyone has different tastes, and my tastes tend towards what Microsoft provides and will provide for exclusives, that's probably what makes me prefer the Xbox I guess, while someone else would prefer Playstation games.

I personally think for all the things PS3 has, the Xbox 360 has other things which may be more or less important depending on the person.

The PS3 has BluRay and internet browsing, the Xbox 360 has an HDDVD addon and acts as the ultimate Media Center Extender which I personally find to be its greatest additional feature (mine gets used by my whole family for recording TV & streaming music on a daily basis). The PS3 has free online gaming, the 360 requires a subscription but offers a superior service with standard features across all games.

Right now I think the Xbox 360 is a far superior system simply because it has more games and better games and they're all awesome online. But a year from now, two years from now, perhaps PS3 has all the killer apps? Maybe Nintendo gets some better third party support for Wii along with their infamous exclusives?

In the end though it doesn't matter what the enthusiasts think, or what a game site thinks, or what a fanboy thinks. The mainstream consumer will decide what sells the best and thus will likely end up with the best game lineup.

 

[gene]

I had the opportunity to play a PS3 last night on my reference system. The graphics were excellent, at least as good as I've seen on my Xbox360.

What I didn't like was the antiquated setup interface which I feel the Xbox360is superior in this regard. I also prefer the controllers of the Xbox360 but do like the tilt feature of the PS3 controllers.

I watched some SD DVd's on the PS3 and it was clearly inferior to even a decent $300 DVD player. The 2 Blu-ray titles I saw were decent, but not stunning. Talledega Nights in particular didn't impress me. The colors seemed washed out and it just didn't appear high def to me. OTOH, the comedy baby criminal movie (can't remember the name) did look pretty nice.

Overall, both systems are superb gaming machines but in the end, as others have stated, its the software that matters most. So far Xbox 360 has the edge since it was to market first. In the past, PS2 was a better seller than Xbox b/c of game selection despite Xbox was a better gaming platform.

We shall see....

 

[evilkat]

Wait, wait are you telling me there are actually people buying the PS3 to USE it, instead of selling em??

 

[ellover009]

He has a good point of games either make the system or break it. One example is the 360 lineup, it's pretty dam good but some of the games don't give you the feeling that I must buy this system. One thing I have yet to see the xbox 360 is offering a good old fighting game, soul calibur rocked on the xbox but soul calibour 3 only came out for the ps2, other ps2 games are metal gear 3, final fantasy series, devil may cry, god of war, TEKKEN (it's old school, it works, and it's one of those games where button mashing does not help against an experienced player). Until xbox builds a library as diverse as the ps games it is still a formidable opponent, a rolling ball with momentum to spare. Why get a PS3? even if the graphics aren't as good as the 360 it would allow me to play some of my old PS1 games, I gave away my ps1 a while ago, the ps2 did not appeal to me, I can now play old ps2 games, my old ps1 games and newer ps3 games. It does not make sence to me to invest in a PS2, console $130, controller $30, mem card $20, HD cable $20 = 200$ that can be put towards a newer console.

One thing to point out, it took the xbox 360 a little bit to get the kinks worked out of it, the red rings of death, the brick power supply overheating, that patch that came out not too long ago to update to 1080P that fried a lot of systems. Sony will patch some of the minor issues and in the end it's all about what appeal to you the most. Before anyone says anything about the wii being perfect, theres quite a few of those that started getting error screens. This is the Beta testing phase.

 

[Herr D]

Tekken 6. The reason I'm going to buy a PS3.....next year

 

[matty76]

in case anyone is looking for an in depth analysis of what each system has to offer and its shortcomings I found this article very interesting.

http://dpad.gotfrag.com/portal/story/35372/?spage=1

and these are very interesting as well...

http://gaygamer.net/index.php?id=1931

http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/16/ps3-doesnt-do-1080i/

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/11/15/720p-ps3-games-downscale-on-older-hd-sets/1

http://money.cnn.com/2006/11/15/commentary/ps3_review/index.htm?cnn=yes

I'm told (by my wife) I'm too old for video games (turning 30 next month), however I'm sure my 6 and 2.5 year old sons will love their 360 I bought them for christmas this year...and their HD player, I picked up the race wheel for my youngest.

 

[Wayde Robson]

I wonder what the console manufacturers are going to do about the opening sales game speculators. I don't mean they're going to want to squash the practice so much as profit from it themselves.

Making more is not an option because it's at a loss. Charging more could be but too high a cost could kill interest before it even gets going.

I am interested to see if the price of the PS3s will come down due to the popularity of first release console speculating these days. I think the sheer volume of eBay auctions for PS3s has to be hurting the prices they're fetching.

 

[kkrambo]

I was dead set on buying a PS3 from about this time last year (it was originally suppossed to release in Spring 2006) until about six weeks ago. I wanted the HD gaming experience and the Blue-Ray player. I never seriously considered the XBOX-360.

But recently I lost interest in the PS3. The $600 price didn't bother me (although I probably would have opted for the cheaper one since I don't need the wireless ethernet feature). Instead, my interest waned and I got interested in a different toy -- a Home Theater PC that I built myself.

The HTPC has cost me over $1200 so far and I can't justify the PS3 on top of that. And now that I have this HTPC I'm learning about how the XBOX 360can act as a media center extender. That is an appealing feature and if I had the money to spend on a new game console it would now be a toss-up between the PS3 and the XBOX-360. But I don't plan to get either yet. Maybe next year.

-- Kevin

 

[ToxicFrog]

I too was suprised by the reviews overzealous enthusiasm.

Prices are the same (if you include, the $200 xbox360 hd player). As are graphics.

PS3 has a slight edge in terms of features/abilities (but it is also released a year later, so that should be expected).

I've owned both. Suffice to say, I kept the xbox360 and sold the PS3. My friends approved.

 

[BMXTRIX]

I managed to pick up a PS3 last Friday through the EB Games preorder of a month ago. No lines, no headaches, just showed up, asked for a PS3, got laughed at, showed him my receipt, laughed back at him, was handed my PS3.

Is it without a doubt the best gaming console ever? No. But, it is the best Sony console ever. Right away better than the PS2.

It likely will take a couple of years for things to really shake out between the X360 and PS3 for overall quality. One of the big factors being how incorporated Blu-ray can be leveraged for enhanced gaming when compared to X360 and DVD. Right now - it seems to not matter at all, but there was also a time when people thought that DVD was silly to be used for games.

For me - it is the combination of true Blu-ray playback for movies at a $500 price point... Far cheaper than any stand alone Blu-ray player on the market, and at a quality that rivals most other Blu-ray players. Along with HD gaming. Could I get it with X360? Sure! But, I am not of the opinion that HD-DVD and an add-on drive is the best way to get the superior overall experience.

Feature I really like? When you have the console off and just want to watch a movie - just slide it in and the system turns on and immediately starts the movie. No wading through the menu system to get to what you want. Press eject and the movie pops out and pressing the power button shuts things down again. It makes it a very adept Blu-ray Disc player that my wife will have no problem using without me. A big fat 'solid!' from me on that.

I definitely want to see a GOOD HD movie - like Superman Returns on the player. Not sure what Clint watched, but I would never judge the player without ensuring that I first received a top notch disc for playback. Talledega is notably mediocre - at best.

I'm really interested to see how things will pan out with PS3 over the next year. I figure that even if Blu-ray flops overall - I will still have a killer gaming system to enjoy for years to come.