LATEST CHATTY HEADER
Subscribe to Shacknews Mercury starting at $1/month!
Chrome Shack Community Guidelines Chatty Search
Scroll down to join the conversation.
New to Shacknews? Signup for a Free Account
Already have an account? Login Now
New to Shacknews? Signup for a Free Account
Already have an account? Login Now
Subscribe to Shacknews Mercury starting at $1/month!
Chrome Shack Community Guidelines Chatty Search
Scroll down to join the conversation.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 18 replies.
I’ve owned a 360 in one form or another since launch, and for a while there I had two units. I’ve grown tired of waiting for cable companies to come out with acceptable HD 1080p options, and I’ve realized that no cable company that I have access to has the head end to support that widely yet or for several years to come, so I sold my second 360 and bought a PS3 mostly for blu-ray.
Here’s my review / comparison:
Controllers:
360: Great, the best by far I’ve ever used, it’s comfortable, and the triggers are positioned perfectly. I have no real complaints, except for the play and charge kits have relatively short lives. But they last a long time on decent batteries. My only other real complaint is the d-pad – it needs to be redesigned imo, it just feels weird – thankfully it’s almost never used for movement of any kind, and mostly for inventory selection etc.
PS3: Ugh, I’ve tried to like it and get used to it, and although my opinion of it has improved since I first started using it, it’s still pretty bad. The triggers (perhaps the most important buttons) are placed very awkwardly. The analogues are also kind of awkward; I find that I can get much more precision out of the smaller 360 ones. The first thing the wife said is that it looks and feels like something out of the 80s – she has small hands and she still prefers the 360 controller. The d-pad however I prefer, I wish it were transplanted onto the 360 controller, that would create perfection. Also, the controller charger cable is ridiculously small – to charge and play I have to sit 2-3 feet in front of my tv.
Therefore the 360 is a clear winner for me here.
UI:
360: A bit too flashy and clunky, I HATE how the avatar thing is basically forced onto you, but I find everything very logically laid out and easy to navigate through. I can quickly find what I’m looking for; though I dislike how most of the video content is restricted to the US (I live in Canada). Therefore, the whole netflix thing, as much as I was looking forward to it, isn’t really an option for me.
PS3: Clean, aesthetically more pleasing, and there are more system options (which I like). However, I can’t navigate and find things as easily as I can on the 360 dashboard, but perhaps that’s because I’ve been using the 360’s UI for years.
Overall, however, I definitely prefer the PS3’s UI look and feel to the 360’s.
Live vs. PSN:
360: Live is awesome, I love it and I have from the beginning. It works pretty much flawlessly, and it integrates well with pretty much every game. The marketplace is easy to navigate through, there is a lot of content available, and the arcade game selection is wide. Usually I can pickup my subscription for $30 each year if I find a deal, so for the price it’s 100% worth it for me. Communication with friends / others players is extremely easy and again integrates flawlessly into every game I’ve played. I’ve RARELY had any issues with lag / dload speeds that I haven’t been able to attribute directly to my ISP.
PSN: It’s free, so really I can’t complain too much. However, I find it hard to navigate through the menus to find things, personally I find the home thing to be a needless distraction, and I’ve had more than a few issues with lag. Communicating to friends is also a bit awkward; it doesn’t seem to be integrated too well.
Between the two, Live is the clear winner for me – I’d gladly pay twice the price for the same service, and I wish PSN were as good – I’d happily pay for a PSN subscription if it meant upping the quality to Live levels.
General out of the box value / price:
360: Though the elite is a bit too pricey, the arcade etc models offer great value. The different price points make sense to me, and I’m glad that all of the required cables for HD are included, with a remote for DVD playback and a headset. If you’re looking for a gaming console with a low entry price, this is pretty much it. The exclusion of wifi is really quite silly though, and charging $100 for the adapter (half the price of the console itself), wtf, stupid. Thankfully there’s an inexpensive router solution without the adapter.
PS3: Way too expensive, this was one of Sony’s biggest issues as I think it’s a huge deterrent to entry. For the price you’d also expect certain things to be included that are not – no blu ray remote, no out of the box cables for HD, no headset – WTF? These low cost items mean a great deal when you’re charging the price that is being charged – if I pay $400 for a console I expect to have those types of things included. The lack of a headset included in the bundle really creates an issue for PSN – you have most people in most games unable to communicate – it was a really stupid move. The 360s come bundled with headsets, so every game I play has most people able to communicate with each other. Also, the damn system is advertised as a blu ray player for one of its main features, so the exclusion of the remote just boggles my mind. The bundled wifi was a good decision, but so far it seems finicky – I’ll have to test it some more.
The bundles / prices / what’s included / excluded make little sense to me, and it’s clear that whoever made these decisions along with most of Sony’s marketing decisions needs to be fired.
For reasons stated above, the 360 wins here for me when you’re talking about bundle value and price point options.
Games / Graphics / Sound:
360 / PS3: I won’t spend much time here since this is pretty subjective, but basically I prefer the 360 library. I prefer the 360 collection of exclusives to the PS3’s offering – but that’s a matter of opinion so to each his/her own here. Of the cross platform titles that I’ve played on both, the PS3 comes off a bit sharper, but the colors seem a bit more washed out and less vibrant. Also, there seem to be more frame rate issues on the PS3 for cross platform titles. I can’t tell a difference in sound, but people say the PS3 is supposed to produce higher quality sound – perhaps that’s correct. I’ve played through Resistance (not a huge fan), Resistance 2 (really enjoyed it), most of Uncharted (so far I’m having fun with it, nothing exceptional for me though), and I’ve played quite a bit of Little Big Planet (Love it, and so does the wife!). The PS3 exclusive titles that I’ve played seem to be well done, and though I haven’t been impressed with some of the technical aspects of the earlier games (like Resistance 1, and Uncharted), I’ve been impressed with Resistance 2, LBP, and of course Killzone 2.
It’s a hard call here since there’s so much subjectivity, but for me this goes to the 360 since I prefer it’s exclusives, it seems to handle the cross platforms better, and Live guarantees that I have a consistently enjoyable time every time I play online which is HUGELY important to me. Also, no L4D on PS3, ugh, that’s a huge disappointment :(
Other:
360 / PS3:
The 360 is noisy, it breaks, and I’ve had TERRIBLE customer service from MS. I’ve gone through six 360s, and therefore over 3+ years of ownership have been without a 360 for probably about 8 months (without any compensation). I pretty much almost gave up. I’m scared to turn the 360 on nowadays because I’m just waiting for it to fail. I bought a second unit a while back (before I traded my old one in for a PS3); just to make sure I had a spare on hand in case my console failed. You might ask why I bought a second unit if I had such terrible experiences with the first. Well, hardware issues aside, it’s a phenomenal gaming console in my opinion, but I did come close to totally abandoning the 360 – I’m glad that I didn’t in retrospect.
For someone who is looking for HD content, the blu ray player is a great inclusion for me. Right now, it’s my ONLY viable option for consistent HD content, so the PS3 gets huge thumbs up from me on that front. Blu Ray playback so far seems flawless, and I’m impressed with the quality. Also, video streaming so far seems superior on the PS3 – thank god I don’t have to deal with tversity anymore, the ps3 media server hasn’t given me any issues yet and it took me literally 2-3 minutes to setup – very happy with it. Also, whether you’re playing games, movies, or something directly from the Hard Disk, the PS3 is quiet and so far I’ve had no reliability issues with any hardware, but it’s still too early to tell.
The PS3 is huge and ugly, the 360 is pretty ugly too, but I find it less ugly.
So, overall what do I think is better? Well, for me (hardware issues aside), it’s definitely the 360 because I care most about gaming and the 360 has a few key features that put it way over the top for me – Live, the controller, the exclusives, the price etc. Though the blu ray playback is a huge bonus for me, and there are a lot of things about the PS3 that I do like, my vote has to go to the 360. But gladly I don’t really have to make a choice having both is the best for my needs.
The post has been reported. Thank you!
You must be logged in to post.
You must be logged in to post.