I would go with the XBOX if it wasn’t for the failure rate ( 44 %). Now that the ps3 has dropped to 299.00USD for the 80 gig I think I should go with it, especially since the online play is free. I was going to get a ps3 today, but this decision kept me from going. So, whattya think?
I don’t believe that 44% failure rate for a second. The survey was about as self-selecting as you can get. But you’ll probably get more responses in The Game Room.
I’m moving this over to the Game Room, where those with an opinion are more likely to find it.
twickster, moderator
I have a PS3 and I love it. I switched from a 360, which I also loved - I just wanted a bluray player as well. Like I said above, I don’t think you can really base your decision on failure rate. That rate has substantially decreased over the years, and I really don’t believe the 44% number at all.
A few things to consider:
- Are there any exclusives on either side of the equation you MUST have?
XBox 360 exclusives
PS3 exclusives - Do you need a bluray player?
- Do you have a Netflix account you’ll want to use to stream movies directly to your TV?
- How serious of an online gamer are you? (PS3 = free, 360 = better service)
Do any of your friends game? If so, you’ll want to stick with whatever system they have if you plan to play online. Cross platform play doesn’t exist in any game as far as I know.
I think they are both awesome. I have played games on both plaftforms never noticing a considerable difference between the two.
Now that the ps3 price has been lowered I do think it offers more bang for the buck out of the box.
That having been said since the xbox360 install base is so much larger it is a lot easier to find used games cheaply.
In addition to Munch’s excellent list I would consider the controller for each before making a decision. It’s a small thing, I know. But, everytime I use a 360 I long for the ps3 controller that fits so perfectly in my hand. (And, I imagine plenty of 360 users have the opposite feeling.)
I have a PS3 and I love it. The exclusives never played into my consideration because all of the games I wanted to play were multi-platform. I love the fact that I have a blu-ray player, can go online, etc.
If it wouldn’t ruin my PlayStation, I’d totally make sweet, sweet love to it.
Are all PS3s backward compatible now?
The new PS3 Slim will not be backwards compatible.
Without backwards compatibility and with limited exclusive titles, I don’t really find the PS3 that attractive as a primary console, even with the new price point.
Most people I know who got a PS3 also wanted a Blueray player. If you’re like me, and can’t really see a noticeable difference between properly upscaled DVD and HD Blueray unless you’re six inches from the screen, then that is a very unconvincing reason.
Yeah. According to Sony all of the user polls come out and say a majority of gamers aren’t interested in playing PS2 games on the PS3. They probably would have been better served to run this poll before putting out the PS3 so they could have avoided all of the cost and confusion.
I’ll have to take their word on that although compatibility with the PS1 was a large factor in my getting a PS2 and the lack of compatibility is a major factor in my not getting a PS3. The PS2 still sees plenty of action so a new system would have to replace the old one, not just add another bundle of wires and pile of discs to the family room.
Wow - do you have a 1080p TV? Because I can see the difference quite clearly on a 46" LCD (and the PS3 is an excellent upscaler by the way, which I haven’t heard said much about the 360).
With 720P, I guess I could understand this, but with a good 1080P BD movie, you can see a noticable difference in detail and overall picture quality.
If you do not have (or plan to buy) a 1080p TV, the 360 would be the best choice - and admittedly has better online options (for however much per year XBox Live Gold is). But if you have full-HD aspirations, no Blu-Ray player, and no desire to play Halo or Gears, the PS3 is a great choice, especially now that the Slim model has come down in price, expanded the default hard drive, and lowered power consumption by 50% (likely affecting noise as well).
As for backwards compatibility - if you have an HD, the PS2 games’ graphics seem downright primitive. Once I went HD I tried to play all my favorite PS2 games (GTA:SA, Shadow of the Colossus, GT:4) and they looked awful. PS2 game compatibility isn’t all its cracked up to be.
If you like PS2 games, keep your PS2 (and play them on a small screen, to keep the illusion of quality). But if (and only if) you have a good HD setup, don’t forego a great game/Blu-Ray/all-around-entertainment system (and now a helluva value) for lack of backwards compatibility.
Why not just get both?
The new-gen X-Box 360s do not have the failure rate of the old ones. I believe the Falcon motherboard forwards. Basically, anything new and on the shelves… but wait a month, there’s a price cut coming.
Only the first couple “generations” or so are, so pretty much anything you can get off the shelf is not.
My husband and I are old PS fans (had both PS and PS2), so when our DVD player crapped out, we got a PS3 partially for the BluRay functionality. We do have a 1080p TV, and the BluRay looks fabulous, plus regular upscaled DVDs look good but not quite as good as the BluRay. We also own a Wii, mostly for the Fit and the EA Sports Active.
I agree with the poster who said to look over the exclusives lists, and the one who asked if your friends have one system or the other. A friend of mine via World of Warcraft wanted to play Rock Band with me online, but he’s got an XBox, so no joy.
There’s a Doper groupfor the 360.
Take a look at the exclusive game lists. Most people tend to like the 360’s better, but a lot (including me) prefer the PS3. 360 has a better online experience but you also have to pay for it monthly, and pay for a Wi-Fi access point if you need as it doesn’t come with.
I love my PS3 shrugs, very glad I got it. Also, you should keep an eye out for either a Dell deal, or a package deal at one of the Big Box Stores; I dunno what the big thing about a $299 PS3 is because I paid $308 for mine about a year ago from Dell, and I’m sure they will have similar deals getting the new price point down to the mid 200s.
It has been asked a hundred times, and this is a uniquely dumb question.
Not in that it’s wrong to ask or want an informed answer, but that it tends to bring out a rash of dumb in most people doing the answering, no matter how rational they can be about other things. I guess dropping $300 on technology with only one competitor makes people want to blow up at the idea of someone choosing opposite of them on the binary of HD consoles.
That said, there are still a few things it’s good to know, value-wise, about each console currently.
PS3 - $299 is a pretty big drop from last week, and it’s even more impressive compared to the system’s original cost of $599, less than three years ago. That gets you all the features of the PS3, except for Backwards Compatibility. Sony has stated they don’t have BC as a priority anymore, citing lack of demand. You do get a rechargeable wireless controller and built-in wifi capability out of the box, both of which are extra on the 360. The PS3 comes with composite cables, which means you’ll need to supply your own component or HDMI to get all the pixels your PS3 wants to render.
(On a side note, I have to point out that it’s a bit odd to compare upscaled DVDs to HD-media movies. Upscaling is a software process of filling in pixels and using averaging algorithms to make it appear that a video in 480 has more lines than it does. Standalone upscalers can range from $200-2000, depending on what you want. To compare, HD-DVD and Blu-ray videos actually just have those extra pixels built in. There’s no software guessing or blurring, because there is more data.)
Sony’s online is free (compare to $50 a year MSRP for 360), but it doesn’t have all the same features as the other option. It does to out-of-game voice chatting, and the in-beta Playstation Home is a pretty neat option for interacting with other gamers and sharing an experience with a 3D environment of streaming trailers, game arenas, minigames, and some collectibles.
It’s also worth noting that the 80GB PS3 may seem like a bargain now, but it’s actually in liquidation mode. Sony will be shipping the PS3 Slim at the beginning of September, with a redesigned shell, 120GB, and all the same features of the current new models (except the ability to install Linux).
360 - The 360’s last price drop was about a year ago, from $349. It’s now $299. What goodies lie in the box besides the XBox are: a wireless controller with 2 AA batteries, component+composite cables, an ethernet cable, a headset for voicechat, and a 48-hour trial of Xbox Live Gold.
Gold may seem like a pain to pay for, especially if you’re not big into online games at all, but keep in mind it’s also required to be able to stream Netflix to your 360. It also gets you some fun features such as video chat and the new(ish) eight-person Party system, where you can chat over VoIP and invite your group to games easily.
As for the failure rate, the 360 has been doing a lot better with that. A recent magazine survey claims the defective rate for all iterations of the 360 to be a bit over 50%. As has been mentioned, tho, the survey of 5,000 wasn’t exactly unbiased (i.e. it’s a magazine for hardcore gamers, and there was likely some self-selection). It’s good to be aware of the risks, but the risks here are mitigated by a three-year warranty for the 360’s overheating problem and the cooler chipsets being installed in new models (Falcon in late 2007, and Jasper in late 2008). As long as you’re not buying a used 360, you should be getting the Jasper model, which, so far, is proving pretty resistant to the ‘red ring of death.’
The 360 may not’ve been looking at a price drop this year ordinarily, but with their move on Tuesday, Sony may have forced Microsoft’s hand. The main reason to prefer 360 over PS3 in most gamers’ minds was price, which are now matched. As it stands, however, the only substantiated rumor regarding the 360 is that its Elite (120GB) model will be dropping to $299 to phase out the Pro model. This seems likely, given that the Elite packaging has recently changed to be similar to the Pro and no longer includes the hard cost of an HDMI cable in-box.
All that said, most of the value in this generation lies in its online play. Both systems offer free friends’ lists and leaderboards for plenty of games, as well as free demos and downloadable games. The first thing I recommend to someone jumping into this console generation is to look at what their friends and family are playing - it’s much more fun to hook up with and play alongside people you know rather than to be looking at a feature-filled menu stuff you’ll never use.
I’m not one for console wars; for me, it’s 100% about the games. And the 360 quite simply has more and better exclusives. Something that nobody else has really mentioned in this thread is that with cross-platform titles, the 360 versions consistently look and perform better than their PS3 counterparts in spite of the PS3 having superior hardware. In fact, the recent Ghostbusters game was an absolute fiasco.