When
it comes to console games, it's close to a turnaround between Sony's
PlayStation 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360. For most players, however, the Wii
hardware is not a serious piece of hardware. The Wii U can change that, but it
remains to ask if the Wii U will be left in the dust by its next-generation
rivals and what that means for the Wii U game suite. If you just look at the
hardware of this generation and assume that you are still in the market for a
new console, should you buy a PS3 or an Xbox 360?
Here are five reasons why the PS3 is
ultimately the better choice:
1.
The PlayStation Network is free. Sure, sometimes the PSN goes down or shut down
by hackers, a problem that has made Microsoft better, but Xbox Live Gold costs
you $ 50 a year. That's $ 50 more than you pay for playing online games in PSN.
As Paul Tassi states, if you pay for Xbox Live, you will not get a discount on
Netflix or Hulu or any other app. You only pay twice. Fifty dollars a year is
not a bargain, but it's enough to buy one extra game a year. If the Xbox 720
costs the same cost per year as the 360 and the PS4 maintains its free PSN
access, the next generation decision is just as easy to make.
2.
The PS3 has a Blu-ray drive. If you're like me and my family, most of your
media is being streamed nowadays. Especially for animated films like "How
to Train the Dragon" and everything else from Pixar, as well as other big
screen movies like "The Avengers" or "The Dark Knight", the
Blu-ray can make a big difference in both visual appearance and film Make
difference sound. This also means that there is more space on the discs for PS3
titles than for Xbox 360 titles, resulting in noticeable graphics improvements
in PS3 versions of many games and, more importantly, in having each track on a disc
fits. There are few things that are more annoying than swapping an Xb0x 360
disc in the middle of the game.
3.
The PS3 has better exclusive titles. Unless you're a big fan of Halo or Gears
of War, PlayStation 3 simply offers better Sony exclusive devices than the Xbox
360. I'm not a big, unexplored fan, but if you like Indiana Jones-style cinema
games, you cannot much better than the Naughty Dog Adventure franchise. God of
War may be a bit thin at this point, but the title of the Action Greek Myth is
still a big draw.
4.
The PlayStation 3 controller is rechargeable. Never underestimate what really
irritating batteries can be. I own Dark Souls on the Xbox 360 and in the middle
of a serious boss fight (Smough and Ornstein) my controller died. This was my first
attempt on the boss and I summoned an NPC and another player to help me in the
battle. Just as we entered and began to fight, my character froze. I pressed
the buttons crazy and watched my life go before my eyes and I could not block
or roll, run or fight. If this had been a PS3 game, I could theoretically have
jumped off the couch, pushed through the living room, hooked up the controller
to the console, and saved my life. Since it is the Xbox 360, I have not even
tried. I would have had to find the batteries first, if we had any at all.
Sure, it was my fault I let the controller die, but there's still room for a
rechargeable controller in terms of comfort, especially for lazy, forgotten
people like me.
5.
The Kinect is not ready for the big leagues. Of course you do not have to buy
any Kinect or other motion gimmick hardware, but the Kinect software seems to
be too big a psychological plot at Microsoft. There are plenty of new Kinect
titles and only a few top notch new Xbox 360 exclusives on the market today. Is
Microsoft putting too many eggs in the Kinect basket? If so, it is worrying.
For one thing, the Kinect is not nearly what it has popped out. We mostly
played demos for the Kinect, but it was a really frustrating experience for us
and our five year olds. It keeps dropping players and is as accurate as you can
get.
Do
not get me wrong - the concept is fantastic and some of the games are fun,
especially for kids. I can imagine that a future generation of Kinect can be a
good selling point for the Xbox 360/720 / etc. But this time, I'm more worried
that Microsoft and Xbox 360 developers are paying too much attention to a
device that's only half finished, without neglecting any motion controller
games.











