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Xbox 360 vs PS3

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Well since this site has now been running for the grand total of 19 days I thought it was about time to do a Xbox 360 vs PS3 piece… Every site has to have one 🙂

I am going to avoid all the technical jargon as it really doesn’t mean anything to me. I want a games console to play games on and everything else it can do is just an added extra…

Now both the machines are fantastic machines to play games on. The graphics are brilliant, I think all the games come out with Dolby 5.1 as default now so the Audio is brilliant. Microsoft have greatly improved their controller and the PS3 is using an advanced Dual Shock controller which virtually everyone finds easy to use… So now onto the differences…

Price
I’ll start with the big difference, the Premium edition of the Xbox 360 is R3699 and the PS3 is R6299. That’s a R2600 difference which is huge….. I’ll give a point to the Xbox on that one…

Controllers
Next would be the controllers, even though the PS3 is using an advanced dual shock controller it doesn’t have rumble. That vibration effect. That in itself is not that bad but what this really means is that you don’t get Force Feedback. If you are a racing game fan you would naturally expect to buy a steering wheel for the PS3 that will give you resistance when hitting a wall or being bumped by another car. The PS3 cannot do that. It does however have a 6 axis (sixaxis) motion sensor built in which you can use to control airplanes or dragons but which has not been used effectively yet…. The lack of force feedback/rumble was a terrible design consideration by Sony and for that they lose a point.

High Definition Movies
The Sony PS3 comes with a built in Blu-Ray player. The Xbox 360 has a standard DVD player. So what? Basically Blu-Ray allows you to watch movies in High Definition (if you have a HD TV that is). You won’t realise how bad the quality of your TV is until you have seen games and movies on a HD TV and after that you will struggle to watch DSTV normally… The Xbox 360 has an optional HD DVD attachment (HD DVD vs Blu-Ray is like Beta vs VHS). A standalone Blu-Ray player is going to set you back about R10 000 at the moment so the PS3 is a bargain as a Blu-Ray player. They took a risk bundling Blu-Ray in the PS3 before a winner has been announced but currently it seems like Blu-Ray might win this war and if so then it was a good move by Sony… I don’t have a HD TV but I’ll give the points to Sony on this one.

Online Service
If you want to play games online then right now it is no contest and the Xbox 360 wins hands down. You have to pay $50 per year for this option but it is worth it. Sony has recently announced PlayStation Home which looks interesting but until it is active it has no real online service to speak about. Point to Xbox

Back Catalogue
The Xbox 360 can play some of the old Xbox games and the PS3 will play most of the old PS2 and PS1 games. Our PAL version of the console no longer has the hardware to play all the old games but Sony has promised over 1200 titles playable by release date and more will become available over time. However if you have a large collection of PS2 games you have a PS2 as well so I never quite understood the fascination with backwards compatibility. But Sony gets the point for this one anyway.

Networking
The PS3 has a built in Wifi card whilst you have to buy one for the Xbox 360 at high cost. Both have an Ethernet port. Both systems can be linked to other systems for local multi-player. For building in Wifi Sony gets a point.

Games
Really to me this is what it is all about and this is why the PS2 trounced the competition in the last round. They had the best exclusives and the most games. Sony has been losing exclusives hand over fist to the Xbox 360 in the last year and at the same time the 360 has had some brilliant and some strange but great games developed for it. When looking at all the games the 360 has about 7 times the amount of games of the PS3 and with their latest smash hit Gears of War along with Halo 3 it looks like they are winning the games race. Then add in Guitar Hero and Grand Theft Auto along with many other ex-PS exclusives and I can’t see them being stopped this year. Point to Microsoft…

Power
Much has been said about the potential power of the PS3, but every comparison between the two in terms of graphics and game-play has either put the Xbox on top or they have tied. I don’t want potential I want results now. Point to Xbox….

So all in all I recommend getting the Xbox 360 and when the PS3 gets some more games and comes down in price pick one of those up as well. As I said right in the beginning they are both fantastic machines but currently the PS3 is lagging in this generation and the 360 is shining….

Is the PS3 worth R6299? If you have a High Definition TV and you are willing to gamble on Blu-Ray winning or you want to be on the bleeding edge of technology then yes it’s worth it… else absolutely not.

The PS3 is also capable of running Linux, I left that out on purpose as I wrote this article on my PC and I don’t want a PC in my lounge.

Oh if anyone was trying to keep count
Xbox 360 — 5
Playstation – 3
nexgenwars.com
nexgenwars.com

Last Updated: March 19, 2007

10 Comments

  1. BlueCollar

    March 19, 2007 at 21:14

    Great article, Gavin. Also good mention on Guitar Hero 2. Gonna be the best game ever :p

    Reply

  2. vanmartin

    March 20, 2007 at 14:02

    Have to agree with BC, nice article. Addresses the things that really matter instead of discussing the theoretical limits of each console.

    Reply

  3. Nic

    March 28, 2007 at 12:33

    Great post, thanks for the comment on my blog! Keep up the detailed work.

    Reply

  4. Justin Hartman

    April 2, 2007 at 08:39

    Nice post. As you saw from my original PS3 post I just don’t see the value any longer in owning PS. Very sad as I’ve been a loyal fan of their for many years but they in turn have made my mind up in moving to Xbox.

    Reply

  5. ho ho

    April 10, 2007 at 13:23

    this review is shyte

    Reply

  6. Bollocks

    May 9, 2007 at 15:00

    IIn the beginning, I agree with ho ho. You are obviously an ICEbox fan. I have tried both consoles and on HDTV nogals. PS3 is definitely the better option. Why dont you mention that to include a BluRay player in the Xbox will make the machine cost more than a PS3, which has been developed to give gamers a wholistic experience…nevermind the blah blah about a PC in your living room (your tv and dvd is also a form of a pc). DSTV is also testing HD transmissions because many people are getting HDTVs. I think that I can only agree with your comments about the lack of dual shock for controllers coz I love racing games…but thats something I can live with considering all the other value I get from the King Of Consoles. BTW…if you were a game developer, would you willingly choose to lose out on profits by keeping games exclusive to one console? It was possible in the past when PS was the only REAL console out there, but with competition, comes opportunity.

    The end

    Reply

  7. LazySAGamer

    May 9, 2007 at 15:45

    Once again someone accuses me of being a Xbox fanboy and claims the PS3 to be the better machine, but in all your ramblings you never mentioned gaming once…

    I buy gaming consoles to play games and until the PS3 has the better gaming experience I will still advise people to buy the Xbox

    Reply

  8. HungryHooligan

    May 10, 2007 at 18:20

    Yes i definately agree with lazy. Anyway gaming is generally targeted at the younger market, how many schollers, students or any average young adult can afford the price of “wholistic experience”, which i assume is the PS3, HDTV, premium priced games. I wish i could have it all but i cant and i dont think the targeted market can either. And that is all irrespective of how much better PS3 will be in terms of graphics; cause it just doesnt matter.

    Reply

  9. Ant

    October 17, 2007 at 23:47

    I have read lots of xbox vs Ps3 sites and forums and it’s pretty interesting stuff. I’ve had my Xbox 360 for about 5 months now, no probs etc. But now i’ve sold it and purchased the Ps 3 Premium 60gig Version, it’s an amazing machine especially on a hd-tv…I’ve had it for about 1 week now and in my opinion it edge’s the Xbox 360, but still i respect all xbox gamers as i was one before.

    Reply

  10. Ruslan

    October 18, 2007 at 10:35

    I have both and the current game list on the X360 outpaces my PS3 gaming list by 25:1 thus far. Hope this improves by 2008 but till then there’s plenty of AAA games coming for the X360 in 2007 & 2008.

    Reply

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