To PS3 or not to PS3

[Ginger Lord]

With the advent of the PS3 slim, things have got a bit more interesting. Thinking of getting one as the Wii is great for group games but lacks some decent SP stuff outside of Mario/Zelda. That and it could be useful to have played the games of places I've applied too

Seems like its much of a muchness between the PS3 Slim and 360 Elite on the games front. No Forza, but gain GT5. MGS isn't interesting to me either, LBP is!

Once I took into account all the hidden prices of the 360 Elite (Live Gold + retardedly prices wireless adaptor) it comes out a lot more expensive than the PS3. Controllers are pretty similar priced.

+ Blu-Ray

+ Better reliability than 360

+ Free online MP

+ Internet browser?

+ Built in wireless

+ Wont sound like I have a 747 on take off next to my TV

- Misses a few MS only games...but none I would die for.

- Online MP not as easy as Live!?

Thoughts from current PS3 owners would be appreciated, same for Xbox folk.

[Grinwhrl]

Its worth it now. Im even getting one soon!

[madgernader]

The internet browser isn't much, but it works for some simple tasks. I don't know what you mean by "-online multiplayer not as easy as live" I've never had any issues connecting and playing little big planet, resistance, mag, or uncharted multiplayer games, it went just as smooth for me as xbox live ever has.

As for losing some microsoft exclusives, I'm sure you can find someone who lives near you that would let you play their 360 to play these exclusives. Since so many people have 360s

[KungFuSquirrel]

Honestly, if you can afford it, there's plenty of reason to own both, and if you're still more of a PC gamer owning either has enough of a library to complement your PC exclusives/multi-platform titles.

PS3 is a killer media device with Blu-Ray, in the US the 360 + Netflix is also pretty amazing, but that won't do you much good. The first party Sony game library is solid enough to stand on its own now (aside of my free copy of BIA:HH, all my PS3 titles are Sony developed or published). Batman: AA is the rare case of a PS3 SKU getting a little extra love, but in a lot of cases the 360 still wins the multi-platform battle. If you want shooters, the 360 has a far stronger selection. Sony doesn't seem to drop the price of their older exclusive games unless they hit the "greatest hits" line, which shouldn't deter you but it's something to keep in mind.

For online/multiplayer, the PSN stuff may be free but you also get what you pay for. Live is a total package and well worth the cost (and it's also very easy to find significantly reduced cost 12-month subscription cards online). There are a few MP gems on the PS3 (SOCOM and Warhawk are two of the strongest, MAG may have potential as well), but across the board the 360 is going to lead here, especially if you want to play specifically with friends. Built-in wireless on the PS3 is a win, though if you do get the 360 wireless adapter it works well. There's also some guides online to creating your own wireless bridge if you have the parts lying around or can get them for cheaper.

Reliability has been an issue on the 360, but the new models do appear to be much better and the PS3 has recently seen some issues coming up on older models. On the 360, there's a strong warranty system in place, but the PS3 "yellow light" issues that are coming up appear to be out of warranty.

You may have to buy some cabling to get the PS3 hooked up and to charge your controller. I know they have a combo HDMI/USB cable kit available, not sure what the price is.

For me personally, stuff like Live and my preference of the 360 controller over the DualShock has me leaning mostly toward the 360 It sounds like from what you've listed the PS3 might be better for you, but they're both solid platforms. Like I said to start, if you can afford it, there's no problem with having both

[seir]

I liked X360 until I bought PS3. It's not like I don't like X360 anymore. Now I see what means free muliplayer gaming and how web browser is a cool feature. Even menu seems to be more adult/stylish. Oh, and DivX movies with subtitles support - that's also nice.

One thing that I hate in PS3 is the pad...

[Furyo]

I'm also thinking of getting a PS3, but with real life kicking in it will have to wait. The main reason I'd get one is to play the exclusive games on it. Because outside of exclusive games, the PS3 games almost always are of lesser quality than their X360 counterparts, for simple and easy dev realities anyone in the industry knows.

Blurays are getting cheaper but remain expensive for most of them, and I'd also have to buy a TV, so that PS3 purchase is soon going to be north of 1500 bucks minimum....

[AlexM]

I play my ps3 the most out of my consoles, but that's 50% because it can emulate ps2 games. Otherwise i just prefer a console for a few types of games: 3rd person adventures, platformers, beatemups, sports, jrpgs etc..

Many of the xbox360 exclusives I really want to play are on PC, I cant play FPSes without the mouse/keyboard. I do want to get one for a few XBLA titles and the community games section though, that could get rough on my wallet quick though.

[Taylor]

Basically PSN lets you add friends and send mail, that's it. The games themselves have to handle any kind of invites, matchmaking and parties so this leads to some poor and inconsistent implementations. The few games I do play online like BlazBlue, Street Fighter IV, Fat Princess, Uncharted 2 and Killzone 2, all do a pretty good job. I also play Demon's Souls but that works differently, and I would imagine it's something that wouldn't be allowed on Live (people join your otherwise single player game and, without consent or warning, try and kill you).

The PS3 “yellow light” issues are not worth considering. It’s a rumour that’s come along recently because of a very ill-researched Watchdog episode that suggested instead of paying Sony £100 to fix your out of warranty PS3, you should pay the same to people in a van to try and do it with a very high fail rate. It was fronted by freelance columnist for Microsoft whose anti-Sony articles strangely went offline the day after the episode went out. Yeah.

It all really comes down to what games you want. The PS3 is probably ebbing ahead with exclusives right now, certainly my two top games this year are on it (Demon’s Souls and Uncharted 2), but strangely there are some obscure Japanese titles you can only get on the 360, leading to me importing a Japanese one. It’s kind of odd that the home for obscure Japanese RPG’s and shmups is the 360. PSN also has some very good downloads but the 360 certainly has more choice, and a lot of people really drop the ball when doing their PS3 ports.

[KungFuSquirrel]

The PS3 “yellow light” issues are not worth considering. It’s a rumour that’s come along recently because of a very ill-researched Watchdog episode that suggested instead of paying Sony £100 to fix your out of warranty PS3, you should pay the same to people in a van to try and do it with a very high fail rate. It was fronted by freelance columnist for Microsoft whose anti-Sony articles strangely went offline the day after the episode went out. Yeah.

Good to know. Only saw the first part, not the follow-up. That'll show me! (and neither platforms issues, even the RROD, really strike me as cause to not purchase)

Re: backwards compatibility in Tanuki's post, don't forget that only the old 60gb PS3s support hardware compatibility, and I believe only the old 20s have software. They've dropped it entirely on the new ones.

[Ginger Lord]

Never had a PS2 so can't see myself wanting to play any of the games so backwards compatability isnt an issue for me. I was a Nintendo boy back then so I have everything I want on the N64 and my Wii can do NGC games. As for playing online, general match making is good enough I reckon. Most people I know from Uni have a 360 but tbh, I'd rather play with complete strangers than them

Incidentally, everyone I know from Uni has had their 360 sent back to MS at some point.

Games that I can think of that I'd buy:

Uncharted 1+2

GT5 (eventually lol)

LBP

Assassins Creed 1+2

R6 Vegas 1+2

NFS Shift

GTA4

Mirrors Edge

Borderlands

L4D2 (maybe..)

The end ones are cross platform so not a massive issue, top ones PS3 exclusive afaik and out of the MS exclusive ones I've played GoW at Uni and found it meh, Halo is boring as hell to me. Probably throw in Killzone and Resistance too at some point.

I'd mostly buy my games second hand from Gamestation so initial price isn't too bad (and if it doesnt work, they replace it anyway so no loss)

Edit: Whilst I seem to have made my mind up on PS3, there is still something nagging me about the 360 in the back of my mind...

[KungFuSquirrel]

Infamous is pretty great, sort of a lower-key Crackdown but a ton of fun (and if you go PS3 you won't be playing Crackdown anyway). Ratchet and Clank is top-notch as well - Tools of Destruction is solid, there's a downloadable episode to go with it, and Crack in Time comes out this week.

also, Warhawk. shill shill

Edit: also, L4D2 is PC/360 only. Not that I see that swaying you, but just a heads-up

[Ginger Lord]

Edit: also, L4D2 is PC/360 only. Not that I see that swaying you, but just a heads-up

Ah, no loss then. Didn't think much of the first one.

Shall have a wander round town tomorrow to see if anyone can beat the PS3 Slim 120GB + 2 Games for £249 offers I've seen.

[Sentura]

bionic commando is also worth getting, as well as brutal legend...

[Thrik]

Owning both, if I were faced with a choice then I'd choose the PS3. Both platforms have some pretty killer games (Fable 2 being my main 360 one), but the PS3 consistently does a lot more for me as an overall piece of hardware as it handles my films, music, videos via the web browser, etc. Being in the UK, you may also like the built-in iPlayer integration.

Also, as an overall system I definitely think the PS3 is more robust and well engineered. This includes the operating system, the hardware (quality control of the 360 pads is as abysmal as the console itself in my experience), the DLC shop, and to be honest just about everything from beginning to end. Even the save game system is better implemented on the PS3, whereas on the 360 I've had a good few games where you just get a single file and it can be easily overwritten by starting a new game.

The 360 has some terrific exclusives and the best multiplayer middleware, but when you strip those away the PS3 absolutely annihilates it — and to be honest the PS3 has just as many compelling exclusives now anyway. IMO if the PS3 and 360 swapped launch dates, Microsoft's console wouldn't have stood a chance.

Do try and get both eventually though so you get to fully enjoy what has been a generation of awesome games.

[Warby]

sony in general has the best exclusives ( by FAR )

uncharted 1 +2

god of war 1 + 2 + 3

shadow of the colossus / ico / last guardian

do i need to say more ?

thats like my top 10 games of all times right there ( assuming guardian and gow3 keep the quality of its predecessors up)

if you spice in some resident evil 4 and half life that list would be complete !