Choosing a Console

[Cali Selina]

I have decided that I want to buy a new console so I can get more into gaming.

So, what do I choose? I have a Nintendo DS and a Wii but I want either a Playstation 3 or a Xbox 360. In your opinions, which one has more pros than cons? Sure, I can just read online reviews but I want to hear from people who have owned them for some time and have had a great experience or nothing but a pain.

I can't choose between them. I'm not a hardcore gamer, it will be more casual and I am very much into anime related games.
And for the console you recommend, tell me which games you played.

Thanks!

[VampireG]

Firstly I would ask yourself what console do your friends have? If your friends have Xbox 360's then I would go for that.

However here are my thoughts which are reasonably well advised as I own both consoles.

Personally I would choose the Xbox 360 and here is why:

Most of my friends own them
There is a massive amount of choice when it comes to games and they cater for all sorts of players from Hardcore to those who just want to play at weekends.
Xbox Live although a paid service I feel is much better than the PS3's free online service.
Xbox 360 Dashboard I find more intuitive than the PS3 XMB.
Installing the whole game to the HD is a great way to speed games up and it really does work well.
Xbox Live Arcade has some really good titles
1 vs 100 is a great game for Gold Members and worth taking a look at, you can actually win real prizes.
Movies on demand are great, although sometimes they seem to download a little slower than promised.


The PS3

It has a Blu-ray player
Free online play, although my experience is it is not as well tuned as Xbox Live.
PS3 Store to download movies and games
PS3 Home an online virtual world to meet people and play games (think sims but real time with real people)
There are a lot of games coming out for the PS3 that are the same as the Xbox 360, some exclusives are on the PS3 but it depends on what games you like before committing to a system because of exclusive games.


Basically I play my Xbox 360 far more than I do my PS3, I use my PS3 for a Bluray player and not a lot else. Any games I buy are normally available on both systems and I choose the Xbox 360 again because of friends and most times the games score higher on the Xbox 360 that PS3. (Fanboys will point out that because games are ported to the PS3 then they come off worse, games developed on PS3 will be better from the outset)

[Cali Selina]

Which console do my friends have? The answer would be neither. I only have two people that I still have regular contact with (although in recent weeks that seems to have dwindled to one) and that's another reason why I wasn't sure. Because no one I knew had either console.
It will probably come down to which console has the most anime games available. Mind you, a lot of them are released on the DS.

I'm not bothered about blu-ray. I only have a small tv so it would probably be wasted.
I'm assuming that Xbox Live is where you play with other people? I wouldn't bother with that. The only game I play with someone else is Halo on the old Xbox with my Dad. I don't like playing with or against other people. Even with PC games like Guild Wars I prefer NPC characters to real players.

What is the Xbox 306 Dashboard? I shall have to search Wiki.

Hmm.....

Thank you very much :)

Edit: With the exception of one or two games, it looks like most of the anime games I want are either playstation 2 or Nintendo DS. Maybe I will stick with the DS for anime games. But I still want another console.

Edit #2: Done some searching on the internet and found an interesting article on the Xbox 360 (http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3160603). I've taken a look at the games available for each of them (anime related) and it seems that they have several games for either console.
I also found out that our private career who battled through the snow this morning has a younger brother who owns a 360 that's just out of warranty and displayed the three red rings of death. She also said that several of her friends and her brother's friend's consoles have died soon after the warranty ended.

[VampireG]

There has been a lot of bad press about the Red Rings of Death and reading between the lines most of it fueled by Sony PR companies. I have had one console and that did actually RRoD on me, and Microsoft replaced it after a week so I was pretty happy, since then I have upgraded my Xbox 360 to an Elite and had no issues at all. I believe that all new Xbox's now have a modified Chipset and more cooling to circumvent the issues that can cause RRoD.

Out of 23 friends with Xbox 360's, I am also the only one to ever have had any issues, my new Xbox Elite is running fine and has no issues either.

As long as the problem exists in the minority of Xbox 360 consoles that are sold, then the PR engines will try and make it into a bigger story than it actually is. 20% of Xbox 360's had some problem which I believe has been fixed, however there is little press that will tell you that the PS3 has had a 10% failure rate as well. However it depends where you get your stats from, as the old saying goes 99% of stats are made up on the spot :)

[Cali Selina]

However it depends where you get your stats from, as the old saying goes 99% of stats are made up on the spot :)

That's very true!


there is little press that will tell you that the PS3 has had a 10% failure rate

When I googled for reviews, I didn't get any pages saying that there was a problem with Playstation. Do you know what kind of problems were encountered? Sorry if that sounds rude!

I think I am going to go with the Playstation. Thinking about it, there is nothing stopping me from buying the Playstation one month and then buying the Xbox the next month. I'll probably stick to just one though. Now, I just need my first pay check to come through and I can spend! Tried to get a loan from my Dad but he knows that I spend faster then I can to pay him back XD

[VampireG]

Either way it is a good choice. Hope you have fun with you new PS3 :)

[BeckD]

When I googled for reviews, I didn't get any pages saying that there was a problem with Playstation. Do you know what kind of problems were encountered? Sorry if that sounds rude!

Like the RROD the playstation can get the YLOD (yellow light of death). I've had a PS3 for about a year though and have been lucky. I only have a PS3 because my eldest son has one. Seeing as how he lives in Essex whilst we live in Lincs he can play online with his brothers and sisters and we can do Video chats on it too (as well as with my brother in LA who also has one) so the point about what friends have is a very valid one.
Some of the patches brought out for the PS3 adversely affected one or two games while fixing others. My favourite, Singstar had been recently rendered virtually unplayable until just before Christmas because of rubbish patches but that was a London Studios issue rather than Sony. Online playability is getting better. It has been a looooooong time since I've been kicked off of an online heavy game such a Modern Warfare whereas it used to drop me all the time at one stage and I had to resort to wiring it up rather than relying on the wireless.

[VampireG]

When I googled for reviews, I didn't get any pages saying that there was a problem with Playstation. Do you know what kind of problems were encountered? Sorry if that sounds rude!

Not rude at all, I would guess that the 10% failure rate in the PS3 is down to manufacturing problems and in most cases with consoles the disk drives get hammered in transit or something like that.