Xbox 360 vs PS3 (fanboys steer clear)

quarryman

I own a 360 but with Blu-ray/HD-DVD battle over I've been considering a PS3.

Can people comment on the advantages/disadvantages of both based on:

• Reliability
• Games catalogue
• Online capabilites
• Media support (blu-ray, AVIs, DIVX etc)
• Price
• Noise

Please don't turn this into a console war, I'm just looking for the information as things stand, such as, the 360 becoming more stable (less RRODs?), improvements in online features, etc.

K.O.Kiki

PS3 is quieter, reportedly more reliable, plays AVIs, has a standard hard drive for storage, a free online-play system and has some interesting games.

Xbox 360 is cheaper, has some decent streaming support, reportedly has a better online system (except you have to pay for it), a larger catalogue of games (but IMHO, not enough innovation).

Personally I steer clear of the 360 cos it's noisy as fvck.

Creamy Goodness

quarryman wrote: »

I own a 360 but with Blu-ray/HD-DVD battle over I've been considering a PS3.

Can people comment on the advantages/disadvantages of both based on:

• Reliability
• Games catalogue
• Online capabilites
• Media support (blu-ray, AVIs, DIVX etc)
• Price
• Noise

Please don't turn this into a console war, I'm just looking for the information as things stand, such as, the 360 becoming more stable (less RRODs?), improvements in online features, etc.

this is going on what i've seen on boards.

Reliability:

seen < 5 people saying they had to return their ps3's to sony. the xbox there's a sticky that has 200+ posts.

Games catalogue:

most of the big games are multi platform, neither side have great exclusives in my books. although with MGS4 for ps3 my opinion might change.

Online capabilites:

this is where the ps3 sucks compared to the 360, on the upside you don't have to pay and it's still able to play online.

might as well throw in here, that the ps3 has built in wireless, 360 that's another 90 quid or so.

Media support (blu-ray, AVIs, DIVX etc):

ps3 has blu-ray, xbox has dvd, you had to buy a 200euro add on to get anything like blu-ray. ps3 also has divx support.

Price:

i'm not too up on price ranges but when you factor in a wireless adapter and xbox live membership vs just a ps3 and a hdmi cable, the ps3 seems the better package.

Noise:

ps3, whisper quiet
360, need a megaphone to talk to someone sitting beside you.

Jip

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Personally I steer clear of the 360 cos it's noisy as fvck.

In a room where everyone tiptoes and whispers maybe, in a regular household with normal volume on the t.v. it's not noticable.

hal9000

Im in the same situation as ureself but I think im going to take the plunge and get a PS3 over the weekend, I really like my 360 and all but there's a few upcomming games on the PS3 that are drawing me to it (anything with WipEout, I want it!)
oh and good luck with this thread not bursting into flames!

Otacon

quarryman wrote: »

Reliability

From what I've seen and heard, the PS3 is a more reliable machine. The RROD errors still seem to crop up from time to time. However, recently there have been stories of old launch PS3s getting errors reading discs.

quarryman wrote: »

Games catalogue

The XBox wins here obviously. There is a HUGE catalogue for it. However, the PS3 is coming back and the ratio of must-have exclusives in the future is shifting to PS3. Still, with Mass Effect and Fable 2 on the way, I think the 360 wins.

quarryman wrote: »

Online capabilites

Again, XBox wins. The XBL service is pretty hard to beat. The PSN is getting better but still has a long way to go.

quarryman wrote: »

Media support (blu-ray, AVIs, DIVX etc)

IMO the PS3 wins here. With Blu-Ray, most AVIs and the ability to install Linux, it is going to be on top in this regard for a while. Also, the ability to swap in larger HDD easily and risk-free means your media library can be held on the PS3 itself, without externals.

quarryman wrote: »

Price

This is a tough one. Hardware-wise, the PS3 is definitely worth it, and a great buy. But tbh, it is more of an investment, seeing as the games library is still quite small. The 360 is dirt cheap but you are getting what you pay for here. Purely as a piece of hardware, its pretty bad.

quarryman wrote: »

Noise

The 360 is loud, the PS3 is not. It does make a difference when playing games and watching movies, as sound is a big part of the experience.

quarryman wrote: »

Please don't turn this into a console war, I'm just looking for the information as things stand, such as, the 360 becoming more stable (less RRODs?), improvements in online features, etc.

There are more detailed posts already posted on other threads, as I'm sure you've seen. These are just my opinions. Check the info out for yourself and decide. I'm a pretty happy PS3 owner/former 360 owner.

Azza

I have a PS3, PC and a Wii but not an Xbox 360.

From my understanding of it from a reliability viewpoint the Xbox 360 is suppose to have the worst reliability of the current generation of consoles with the Wii having the best. Apparantly around 50% of the launch Xbox 360's consoles have failed. The Xbox 360 suffers from R.R.O.D or red ring of death which I believe is due to overheating. A revamped Xbox 360 (falcon) with a redesigned heatsink was released which improved the situation somewhat but the problem still persists to a lesser extent. A second revision I think called Jesper will be released soon and might fix the problem further. In my local game Gamespot the guy behind the counter told me he was on his third Xbox 360 since its release the first 2 failing and then being replaced/refurbished by Microsoft. In my local Game and Symths toy store both sets of staff told the Playstation 3 is more unreliable though saying since christmas they had far more PS3's returned than Xbox 360's.

From a noise point of view the PS3 is very quiet while I hear the Xbox 360 is quite loud.

From an online viewpoint the Xbox 360 is suppose to be well ahead of Playstation 3 with its Live service. While the Playstation Network is free I keep hearing in terms of quaility of service (lag free gaming) and online options and services (achievements & downloadable content) its behind Xbox Live. You do have to pay for Xbox Live but its pretty cheap like €5.00 a month. Can't say I have used either though, just passing on what I heard.

Price the Xbox 360 wins. All versions are cheaper. Although its really up to a user to decide which version is better is value to them. You need to factor in hard drive sizes and what blu-ray means to you. Game prices seem pretty similar for both platforms. Strongs rumors that price cuts are coming soon on both machines. Also don't forgot you may need to get a HDMI or component cable on top of that If you want HD which costs €10-20 euro.

Media capabilty. Your PS3 plays blu-ray and DVD. I have started renting blu-ray movies and they have been pretty dissapointing. Only marginal improvement over a DVD player with good upscaling. With the odd exception in terms of movies (The Matrix, Casion Royale, Blade Runner: The Final Cut being the exceptions) unless the movie makers go out of there way to make a decent HD version of the movie better the benefit of blu-ray has so far being dissapointing to me. Documentaries though like Planet Earth are a different story and look fantastic in HD. PS3 can do Xvid and Dvix codec's as well as stream music and videos. The Xbox 360 has DVD and .wmv support and can stream music and HD video using mpeg-2 and mpeg-4 and .wmv. You can also play your own music in game using the dashboard feature.
I heard rumors on xbit labs that Asus is currently making a Blu-Ray attachment for the Xbox 360 at the moment.

Game catalogue.
Well the PS3 is a dissapointment to me with most of the decent games coming next year. This includes Resident Evil 5, Gran Turismo 5, Killzone 2 and Final Fantasy 13. However MGS 4 (my reason for owning a PS3) is just around the corner and of cousre its got GTA 4 already. One big game due this year is of course Resistance 2.
The only other game of note is Uncharted Drakes Fortune. Warhawk is mean't to be a good mutiplayer game. I hear Racket and Clank is pretty decent too come to think of it if you like platformers.
Bioshock has been confirmed for the PS3 as well. Almost forgot Wipeout HD looks good.

Xbox 360 offers even less interesting titles to me as whats decent on that I pick up on PC albeit much later. But major titles include Gears of War and soon Gears of War 2, the Halo series. Ninja Gaiden I think. Bioshock and Mass Effect. Resident Evil 5 is also due for this platform. Its got big racing titles in the likes of Project Gotham Racing and Forza Motorsport. Fable 2 is a big exclusive.

Big titles available on both machines would be The Orange Box, Oblivion, GTA4, COD 4 and Devil May Cry 4. Street Fighter 4 has been confirmed that its coming to both machines. Fallout 3 and Far Cry 2 will also be released on both machines.

Finally from a technical point of view the PS3 is slightly better on paper but in 9 out of 10 cases the Xbox 360 runs the same games better. Unless the game is designed from the ground up for the PS3 it will run and probably look slightly better on the Xbox 360 (and in that case it will probably be exculsive to the PS3). Seems the PS3 is harder to design games for and its not uncommon to hear about PS3 games being delayed. Usually the difference is slight (but check out eurogamers Xbox 360 V PS3 shoot out sections and you will see that the Xbox 360 usually socres higher frame rates and the PS3's anti aliasing feature causes a annoying vasaline effect) but the performance on the PS3 usually is fine for a decent gaming experience. A tad dissapointingly the PS3 has few games in 1080p so most of the time the games on both machines run in 720p. Most people also seem to prefer the Xbox 360 controller if they have spent decent time with both machines. Although the PS3 controller is rechargeable from the go you need to get new batteries or get a rechargeable battery for the Xbox 360 controller or get a wired controller. The PS3 has better support for keyboards and also you can install a Linux OS onto the PS3 if you want. The PS3 has also no backwards compability while the Xbox 360 backward compatabilty is considered patchy at best. Finally Sony is in the process of ditching the current Six-Axis controller and replacing it with Dual Shock 3 which includes the Six-Axis ability. Unfortantly its not available in Europe yet but I would nearly recommend waiting until it comes bundled with the PS3 before buying it which should be in the next month or two. Also finally the PS3 has built in wireless like the Wii but you need to pay extra for that if you want it on the Xbox 360.

quarryman

wow!

right mods, close the thread!

projectmayhem

Otacon wrote: »

Again, XBox wins. The XBL service is pretty hard to beat. The PSN is getting better but still has a long way to go.

while i would generally agree i've spent far more money on PSN titles then XBLA titles, and more consistently. i think i've only bought one or two XBLA titles, while my ps3's hard drive is stuffed with PSN games. all worth every cent of it. some of which i would have gladly paid more!

Jip wrote: »

In a room where everyone tiptoes and whispers maybe, in a regular household with normal volume on the t.v. it's not noticable.

as a 360 owner i completely disagree. it's as noisy as my pc, which has 4 fans whizzing at any given time. it's so noisy that, being in the attic room in my house, i can't play late at night for fear of waking people in rooms below.

Naikon

I have an xbox 360 core which I bought pre owned simply
to play GTA4. I am not that impressed with it.

As Projectmayhem has said above, the thing is far too fecking noisy.
My PC is nowhere near as noisy as this "entertainment" system, even though there are more sources of noise
from the PC. The 360 has this horrible whiny whirr which would get on anybodys tits.

Not only that, but the thing becomes unacceptably hot after after about 20 mins of usage.
Coupled with the crap ventilation, I can't give Microsoft the thumbs up in terms of hardware design choices.
Pretty much to be expected of Microsoft products tbh. I wait in fear of a red ring of death now:pac:

The whole machine just feels like a cheap and cheerful toy, contrast this to the PS3 which just appears to be built better overall.
I think you can tell I am not a fan of the 360...
PS3 ftw!

Shiminay

My 360 (which was bought 3 weeks ago for GTA IV) is considerably noisier than my PC (which was built for games and has 4 120mm and a 200mm fan!). This boils down to the DVD drive, when not running a game off that, it's grand.

I'd have just one correction to Azza's very good post - some PS3s have backwards compatibility with PS2 titles (the 60GB Launch one I believe), but I'm not sure how well it's supported.

tHE vAGGABOND

Im ignoring the main purpose of this thread, but have to ask this regarding the PS3..

the ability to install Linux

Why in the name of god would you want to install Linux on a games console?

TinCool

Having previously owned a 360 and currently own a PS3 and having no real alliance to either, I'd go with the PS3. I bought it specifically for it's Blue Ray capabilities after HD-DVD recently died, but alsi I'm having a lot of fun playing GTA IV.

• XBox is noisy, PS3 isn't
• PS3 plays Blue Ray, XBox (currently) doesn't
• PS3 looks the business (i.e. under a nice Plasma TV), XBox doesn't
• PS3 has wireless built in
• PS3 can have it's HD upgraded to a larger capacity one
• PS3 has wirelss/rechargable controllers without the need for separate batteries

Granted, the XBox has more games for it but it has been around longer than the PS3.

Thumbs up for PS3 for me anyway.

TC

Benzino

First of all, i own both an Xbox 360 and PS3.

Reliability
The PS3 is more reliable and therefore wins this round. Just look at the xbox forums, loads of people have/had problems with their 360, be it the RROD or games been scratched. Although, as it's been mentioned here before, there are posts appearing on the playstation forum about problems with the drive not reading games etc.

Games catalogue
Who wins this one is up to you. The 360 has more games, no doubt about it. But what games do you like? To you like GT or do you prefer PGR? Halo or Killzone? MSG? Fable? Most of the great games are multi-platform (Bioshock, GTA etc), but what exclusives do you want to play most?

Online capabilites
The 360 wins this one. But, what do you want do online? For me, I just want to play games online and download demoes. Hence why I feel no need to pay for Live.

Yes Live is better for online gaming, but PSN is free and constantly improving. It's up to you whether you feel paying for Live is worth it. If you want to get movies and the like as well, then the 360 is the one to get (although this feature is coming soon to the PSN it's worth noting).

Media support
The PS3 wins this one imo. I have had no problems playing movies (from dvd's or off usb) on both consoles, but the ps3 has a blu-ray player, as well as ports for sd/miniSD cards. Streaming from a pc to a 360 is very easy, it can be done for the ps3 as well, but I have had problems in the past doing it.

You can also put Linux on the ps3 as well if you wanted to for whatever reason.

Price
The 360 is the cheapest as we all know, but it doesn't come with wi-fi, so you should factor in the price of that if you need it to connect to the net. IMO, I think the PS3 is better value for money. It has everything you could want hardware wise and is very reliable.

Noise
I am still amazed to this day how loud the 360 is. I mean I turned off the ps3 and turned on the 360 straight away and the difference is unbelievable.

So to sum things up imo:
* Reliability - ps3
* Games catalogue - The console that has the games you like
* Online capabilites - 360 (PS3 if you want free online gaming).
* Media support - PS3
* Price - If you want the cheapest - 360. If you want the best value for money - PS3
* Noise - PS3

Naikon

tHE vAGGABOND wrote: »

Im ignoring the main purpose of this thread, but have to ask this regarding the PS3..
Why in the name of god would you want to install Linux on a games console?

1. LAMP server
2. Because you can

Fol20

I have no alliance to either console and at the moment i own a 360.

Reliability
The ps3 wins this hands down...im on my third xbox since i first bought it back on launch day..i know of others who are in the same situation but i have heard that the rrod has calmed down over the past year+u have a 3 year warranty if your console rrod's anyway with microsoft.

Games catalogue
This all depends on the individual.Im a big fan of fps and the 360 is king of this area..the 360 has a large collection of titles and some upcoming titles such as gow2,too human,fable,halo wars and halo chronicles.in my opinion the 360 beats the ps3 because in comparison to killzone and resistance,i thought they were a let down i thought gow etc lived up to the hype.

Media support
Everyone on this thread is boasting about blu-ray..but really is that the way forward...i believe digital download will be the leader in this area so i think its not too important.Both consoles offer div/avi etc so there equal in that regard.Although i never used linux on the ps3 iv heard its not great.Although the hd dvd lost the war..you can now easily pick up the hd dvd add on and a few hd dvd at really cheap prices.Although they are not going to produce any new movies they already have a healthy collection of hd dvds at respectful prices as low as e7.Personally i think both systems are the same in this section as blu ray isnt too important to me.

Price
Ok the prices vary on both systems,however i prefer the 360 method of selling the product.Instead of paying a large some of money for the full package(ps3),they(xbox) offer you a basic system in which you can upgrade at your own discretion.

Noise
As other op's said the 360 is very loud and i have to admit the ps3 is quiet.When i first heard the ps3 i was amazed how quiet it was in comparison to the 360

Online capabilites
Although you have to pay for the xbl service while the psn is free,i think its worth it to pay a fee for the year as your online gaming experience is far better on the 360.Talking to friends is simple with just the touch of a button and if you want to get the best gaming experience choose the 360

Longevity
At the moment i think the 360 is dominating in every regard in term of gaming HOWEVER i think the ps3 has the legs to survive longer in this console war..I say this as the 360 seems to be peaking or close to peaking in terms of graphics etc while the ps3 is only starting off.

Hope this helps in your position

Captain Chaos

Reliability:
PS3 wins, although I don't use it nearly half as much as my 360. I had my 360 2 and half years and the PS3 one year. 1 RROD from the 360 and my PS3 has froze up about 3 times on the main menue.

Games:
The 360 has around 300 games but it has more games that I like on it over the PS3. Most of the quality titles come out on both consoles but so far the 360 does have a graphical edge. (from Gamespot and other sites) All cross platform games I buy for the 360 over the PS3 because I prefare the feel, weight and button layout of the 360 controller.

Online:
The 360 has a better service and so it should seeing as you pay for it but that only to play games. You can still download, video chat, voice and text friends for free. PS3 basically its a free service and needs a bit work overall. The PS3 has a web browser built in aswell which is handy and something I feel the 360 should get in a future software update but probably won't.

Media support:
The PS3 has it, Sony were right with bluray, it will play nearly anything, DIVX and AVIs, the 360 abilities in this area have been and are continued to be added to so the PS3 will just top it in blu ray suport. The PS3 does a good job at upscaling DVDs aswell.

Price:
Well here now is a good one, the 40GB PS3 is a better deal than a arcade 360. For a 360 to have a abilities of the PS3 you need a Pro console that has the 20GB harddrive and wireless controller. I use wireless so I had to get the wireless unit for the 360. So a Pro 360 with a wireless network unit is the same price as the PS3. Also games on the PS3 can cost €5-€10 more than 360 games even if it's that same game, I have seen this done in shops and online.

Noise:
The 360 is a noisy fecker when playing games but thats because of the DVD drive, if you play a demo off the harddrive its as quiet as a PS3. The 360 is also as quiet as a PS3 when playing DVDs. I always have headphones on when I play games so the noise does not bother me at all.

All in all they are very very close in overall performance abilities, things that make the PS3 stick out more is bluray and its web browser. For me I like them both but currently I use the 360 for all my gaming and the PS3 for my media. You are best off looking at what games are coming up, whats exclusive and what cross platform. For me if I was going out to get just a games console tomorow I would get the 360 because I prefare its games, I'm not really into the style of most of the PS3 exclusives, MGS4, Killzone 2 and Little Big Planet being exceptions. If you want a multimedia centre thats solid and looks good next to a shiny black HDTV get a PS3. If your loaded and have the best part of a grand burning a hole in your back pocket get both.
The 360 will be replaced by MS's next console long before the PS4. The 360 was designed to be the top dog for MS for 5 years, it was released in December '05. The PS3 is designed to be around for 10 years, so Sony must have alot of tricks ahead for the PS3 as it has to take on the Xbox 3/720 whatever aswell as the 360.

Thats my view.

Otacon

tHE vAGGABOND wrote: »

Im ignoring the main purpose of this thread, but have to ask this regarding the PS3..
Why in the name of god would you want to install Linux on a games console?

Naikon wrote: »

1. LAMP server
2. Because you can

I installed YDL on my PS3 before the firmware update containing DivX support was released. I used it as a media player as I had installed VLC on it and it could play anything. Even now, I still use it to play some files I have that the PS3 OS doesn't support.

I also just wanted to experience with it a bit.

koneko

If you already own a 360 then getting a PS3 is a good idea, it has exclusive games the 360 won't and it's always good to have your bases covered

For me personally, if I had to choose between the two right now (so an "either or" situation), it'd be the 360 at the moment (better controller, much better online/menu/friend integration, more games and games I prefer). I have a 360, Wii and PS3, wouldn't have it any other way because if you only pick one, no matter which it is, you'll be missing out on some quality games.

Azza

Its the ideal solution having all 3 machines and a decent gaming PC but unfortantly that little matter of cost is the problem.

tHE vAGGABOND

I just plain don't understand why you would run a bloody linux webserver on a PS3? But each to their own?

As a random thought, the new 360 elite is not loud at all I'm told - and its HDMI for your fancy tellys [and still cheaper than a similar spec PS3] [That said, I did not realise so many boards readers lived in monasteries!]

IMHO PS3's are too expensive,
there are no PS3 exclusive games I like,
I dont have any blue ray movies and dont intend to as DVD does me just fine thanks,

and all my mates are on live - therefore thats where I am!

Retr0gamer

tHE vAGGABOND wrote: »

As a random thought, the new 360 elite is not loud at all I'm toldQUOTE]

Lies, it's what MS want you to think. It maybe quieter but it still sounds like you have a jumbo jet in your living room. It's actually not that noticable until there's a quite part in a video or game and then it can be quite distracting.

Fol20

As iv said earlier im on my third 360...the elite that i bought back in September produces the same amount of noise as a premium...no more no less

KamiKazi

The 360 must be ridiculously loud if the PS3 is much quieter.

I like the way you can stream media to your 360 with Windows XP media center, apparently you can do the same with PS3 but I havent tried it yet.

Otacon

KamiKazi wrote: »

I like the way you can stream media to your 360 with Windows XP media center, apparently you can do the same with PS3 but I havent tried it yet.

Yup, you can do the same with the PS3, or use TVersity for both.

KamiKazi

Otacon wrote: »

Yup, you can do the same with the PS3, or use TVersity for both.

Yeah just installed it now

thelordofcheese

Just an aisde on the issue of reliability, unless your picking up a second hand 360 then it's a bit pointless to count the RROD's from earlier versions of the 360. I'd imagine you'd be buying an Elite and from what i understand they're quite sound with a very low RROD rate.

Creamy Goodness

why would you not bother counting the old 360's pre falcon etc?

where they not the same generation of console? were they inbetween the xbox 1 and the falcon 360?

of course they should be counted as console failures.

thelordofcheese

Cremo wrote: »

why would you not bother counting the old 360's pre falcon etc?

where they not the same generation of console? were they inbetween the xbox 1 and the falcon 360?

of course they should be counted as console failures.

Well unless you're planning to buy and earlier one, why would it matter?
If you're buying an Elite the earlier versions reliability doesn't factor into it, only the reliability of the model type you're buying.

steviec

* Reliability
Been through 4 360s, PS3 seems pretty much bulletproof by comparison.

* Games catalogue
The 360 had a head start, but in the last year there's been better PS3 games released than 360 games IMO. The PS3 exclusives tend to cover a wider variety of genres and it seems to be a great system for strong story driven games which I like. The 360 is better for shooters. Both consoles have fantastic catalogues though, you won't be disappointed either way.

* Online capabilites
Xbox Live is apparently much better, I really haven't noticed. The main difference is that you can send people messages over it regardless of if your playing different games or whatever. This is an advantage if you're serious into organising online games and forming clans and that kind of thing I guess. If like me you just like to pop into random online games now and then, the PS3 is equally good, and free.

* Media support (blu-ray, AVIs, DIVX etc)
Blu Ray is over-rated IMO. I have a pretty decent HDTV and the novelty quickly wears off, I wouldn't go out of my way to move from DVD to Blu Ray. That said, the PS3 is still by far the strongest proposition for media support. I can just plug my external hard drive into it and play any of my hundreds of videos, just like I could on my PC. The 360 can play them too, but you have to jump through hoops installing software to stream stuff over the network or copying things onto other USB devices since it's support is hit and miss.

* Price
I don't know what the current retail prices are anymore. Bear in mind you're adding the cost of joypad batteries / charger, online subscription, and probably a wireless adaptor after you buy your 360. You'll need to add the cost of a HDMI cable to the PS3.

* Noise
The PS3 isn't silent but it's pretty quiet, certainly quieter than the PS2. The 360 is ridiculously loud though, it's louder than your average PC which is unacceptable in the living room IMO.

Royale with Cheese

Format an external hard drive to fat32. Fill it full of downloaded movies/tv shows/music and the 360 will play everything. I use it as a media centre and noise aside it's perfect. I keep my media on external hard drives so I can play it from more than one source, so the 360 works perfectly for this.

As above, Blu-Ray would not interest me. HD is vastly overrated by people obsessed with the best home cinema setup possible. Can't be fecked with discs either. Downloading is the way to go.

I've never played a ps3 so can't comment on that but the only things I don't like about the 360 are...

- Reliability. On my 3rd console itself, which had to be sent to Microsoft a while back. These things just break. It's ridiculous.

- Yes it's noisy. It doesn't bother me as much as it seems to bother other people but it really shouldn't be that loud.

- Microsoft are **** for just overcharging for everything. Not including wifi and then charging €90 for a usb dongle. €50 a year for online play. Wireless controllers don't come with rechargable batteries. Stupid prices for dlc.

Apart from that I love it.