XBOX 360 VS. PS3 by Chris Lopez January 10, 2007

To 90% of all the gamers out there right now who have the slightest idea of current events, the big question is which platform is better? I n a nutshell I believe the answer is Xbox 360, with no doubt in my mind, only consideration to the powerful aspects of the rival Ps3. The first category the Xbox 360 wins in is price, obviously, for the Xbox 360 core system is $299. While the Ps3 20GB systems is $499, both prices being the lowest offered. The 20GB Ps3 comes with a hard drive; however you do not need a hard drive to experience and enjoy most games on the 360, plus you can always buy a memory card if needed. The Ps3 does not have memory card slots, an adaptor is required. And if you want the premium versions of both systems (60GB Ps3 and an Xbox 360 with a hard drive included) just add on a $100 to each one. The Ps3 may have the available 60GB hard drive, but the 360’s 20GB hard drive is removable where the Ps3 is only replaceable. Next category is game selection. Another win for the Xbox 360, considering it has a year head start which is a millennium in the gaming world. Just about all multi-platform game developers have made the 360 their primary choice due to the timing of release. This means the games will perform and look better on the 360, and the Ps3 versions will just be reenactments of the Xbox versions. The 360 is also far quicker to develop due to better tools, documentation and the fact that the 360 runs on 3 general purpose CPU’S vs. the 8 specialized processors on the ps3 which require direct memory access. Another key point is the impressive line-up of 360 games on store shelves. The Ps3 just launched so there is virtually nothing of interest on the system. Not to mention that some Xbox 360 games are already discounted, all Ps3 games will be full price due to recent launch. In multimedia, the Xbox once again blows Ps3 away with its full media center extender 2.0 experience, and it supports live and recorded TV (HDTV) over your home network; all along with shows and movie downloads. The 360’s device connectivity is top of the line; Microsoft built Xbox 360 can connect with an ipod and, ironically enough, with the PSP (Playstation portable.) which is pretty damn cool, along with many other portable devices. The Ps3 can play content from some devices and it cannot play protected WMA files, the Xbox 360 can. One of the biggest areas in which the 360 prevails in is Live (online game play). Microsoft has got the online system down, they have nailed it. On the Ps3 gamers are playing on isolated areas of connectivity in which you can only talk to other gamers if you are in the same game. On Xbox live, you have an account and a profile where you express yourself with a gamer score, gamer picture, screename, and a motto and so on. Also you have a friends list where you can invite to game, send messages or have a private chat with at any time game or no game. The Xbox live support is phenomenal; the Ps2 online support was horrible, now Sony is playing catch up but is having trouble since they took a huge leap with going with blu-ray technology. The Ps3 does have blu-ray tech. which is a new disc format with considerable storage capacity, 25 -50GB resulting in very high quality. The Xbox delivers a HD-DVD player; blu-ray disc cannot play on this and vise versa, HD-DVD is like comparing VHS TO DVD. Now besides the console war, there is one between blu-ray and HD-DVD. To explain this war would take another page, so in the point of view from the consoles I would go with the 360. For the soul purpose that the 360’s HD-DVD is a separate unit, while the blu-ray is built in the Ps3. Some might think, well the built in blu-ray seems more convenient. Indeed it does, but after about 3 years of playing DVD’s, including games on the Ps3, the DVD reader will burn out resulting in having to buy a new Ps3, where when in 3 years the HD-DVD burns out your Xbox 360 is safe and you can replace the HD-DVD player at anytime, and in 3 years the price of the player will decrease. Backwards capability is an issue to some; personally I buy a next-gen console to play next-gen games. The Xbox has partial backwards compatibility, Ps3 has near complete compatibility. Now some might love that fact some might not care at all, one more fact to consider though, is original Xbox games are up scaled to HDTV resolutions and some games are graphically enhanced. The PS3 is only able to downscale current-gen games to non-HDTV resolutions. For some miscellaneous information, the Xbox enables four wireless controllers plus wired ones via USB, same as Ps3, however 360 controllers can be used on any windows based pc via USB as well. So if you haven’t decided which next-gen console you want, choose wisely.