Thinking about buying a console

[Dread Not]

When I decided to buy a current-gen console I went with the PS3, and if I could go back and make the decision again, I would still go with a PS3. While exclusives have seriously dried up this generation, the 360 has only a handful of exclusives that make me badly want the system (Gears, Shadow Complex, Fez, 'Splosion Man), there are at least twice as many PS3 exclusives I'd never want to miss out on (Demon's Souls, inFamous, Uncharted 2 and R&C: A Crack in Time being amongst my favorites). Also, the only 360 exclusive on the horizon I can think of is Halo 4, while I can think of a few more on PS3 (Sly Cooper, the Last of Us, God of War: Ascension, the Last Guardian). They all might suck, and who the fuck knows if TLG is ever even going to come out, but I'm definitely holding my breath a lot less for Halo.

EDIT: Derp... forgot about Gears: Judgement.

If you're not going to play multi-player, I'd say that should steer you more towards a PS3 as well with more single-player focused exclusives, not that I'm knocking Gears of War's single player. If you also have a gaming PC, I'd say that also diminishes one of the major draws of the 360. While many (though not all) multi-platform games look better on 360, PC is often the best way to go.

That's my personal take, though you may want to give more weight to the opinion of someone who has spent more than a few hours at other people's houses with both systems.

[General Zod]

Another problem I've encountered with the PS3, obscene installation times. The machine doesn't like streaming all that data from the bluray disc, so if you buy some games you'll be forced to spend anywhere between 10 and 30 minutes installing game data to the PS3's hard disk.

[Zinegata]

Another problem I've encountered with the PS3, obscene installation times. The machine doesn't like streaming all that data from the bluray disc, so if you buy some games you'll be forced to spend anywhere between 10 and 30 minutes installing game data to the PS3's hard disk.

I've never had this issue save with Metal Gear 4, but that's because MGS4 is a dinosaur which actually installs and deletes parts of the game each Act.

[General Zod]

Another problem I've encountered with the PS3, obscene installation times. The machine doesn't like streaming all that data from the bluray disc, so if you buy some games you'll be forced to spend anywhere between 10 and 30 minutes installing game data to the PS3's hard disk.

I've never had this issue save with Metal Gear 4, but that's because MGS4 is a dinosaur which actually installs and deletes parts of the game each Act.

I ran into this with MGS4, FFXIII, and the Yakuza games. There might be a few that I'm forgetting.

[Thanas]

It's ok, Thanas. It's ok. :v

What drives you to buy a console? If its the superior hassle free experience, Im not sure what the ETA is in the next round. Do you have specific games in mind?

Please don't say Mafia.

Several reasons. For one, my current PC is nearing the end of its usefulness for games and I do not want to upgrade it as I spend a lot of time tweaking my windows to what I want it to do. So I don't want to spent the time buying another new laptop and then spent several days reinstalling programs, removing preinstalled software etc.

Then I also am currently fed up with DRM and steam shittyness, but not to the point where I am going to pirate games (yet). And I never owned a console, so there is the novelty factor to it as well.

Specific games....maybe Madden, but that is it.

One thing I am concerned about is precision - does a controller keep up with a mouse in terms of that?

[Stark]

Obviously they're not the same in pointing precision. What you've heard about shooting etc in games is entirely false, however; unless a game is poorly designed you'll never experience any 'blah easier with mouse' stuff. I get more 'easier with a controller blah' things when I use my PC, to be honest, especially now games are generally designed for controller first. The worst thing about ports is shitty lists; many games use stupid lists for inventories which is pretty ass.

As someone mentioned, though, the PS3 controller is very small and light, and I find it quite uncomfortable to use. They also have the main thumb stick in the wrong place. But barring exclusives there's literally no reason to buy a PS3 so you should have no worries.

[Flagg]

Yeah, Thanas unless you just have to play God of War or inFamous there is just no reason to buy a PS3. And I own one and have since it came out.

[Enigma]

Thanas, just check out the list of games for each console and see what you like. If you find that the 360 has more games that interest you, then get the 360. Ditto for the PS3.

As for the controllers, though Stark and whoever else found the PS3 controllers uncomfortable, I on the other hand do not. Then again the overall control design hasn't changed much since the PS1 (more so between PS2 and 3) so to me I've gotten used to it (I have all three PS consoles.). Yes, they are light but durable. I've dropped my PS3 controller on the floor quite a few times and haven't damaged it in the least. I don't know about the 360 and someone can easily correct me but what I like about the PS3 controller is that you can use it wireless.

I do agree that you shouldn't buy any early versions of the PS3 (unless there plenty of PS1 & 2 games you want to play, then get the 60GB PS3 version) or the 360.

I'm taking a different stance than many here. I'm a PS3 owner and I like it but I'm not going to push you into getting a PS3 if you find that the 360 has titles that you may like more.

What I'm trying to say is that you are not going to get a truly impartial answer since most PS3 and 360 owners here (or anywhere else) will push you to get what they have and trash the other.

Do some online research and if it is possible where you are, see if you can rent each console and try them out. If not, if you have friends that have a 360 or a PS3, ask to borrow it.

[General Zod]

What I'm trying to say is that you are not going to get a truly impartial answer since most PS3 and 360 owners here (or anywhere else) will push you to get what they have and trash the other.

I own both, and for me the installation times are the deal breaker on making me use my 360 more than the PS3. I'd say figure out what it is about the console you don't like the most that's a deal breaker, and get the other one.

[JLTucker]

The only thing the PS3 is good for is Blu-ray playback. The only exclusives worth playing are Uncharted and Uncharted 2, which I think you'll hate. I don't know if you care for the massive jump from DVD, so I'd say choose another console.

[Stark]

He already said he doesn't care about BD stuff, he's just looking for a games box, and buying a console for one or two games is always dumb. I wonder if he'll be into multi and social play? In this case, the PS3 is certainly inferior - whoever described it as the better console for multi literally had Los and Vendetta stunned into silence yesterday morning. Maybe they were thinking of MAG. :v

The idea that nobody is saying anything objectively meaniful about the consoles is bullshit. It's a minor social thing, but PS3 apparently doesn't even have group chat; Vendetta, even when playing a PS3 game, uses his 360 to talk to his mates. That's fucking damning, but it remains to be seen how much it's important to Thanas, who will be starting with an empty friends list and might well just turn it on once a week to strangle people in Godfather.

Someone saying nobody will give you real distinctions between the consoles who is so ignorant they suspect 360 controllers aren't wireless is just priceless.

[Zinegata]

Another problem I've encountered with the PS3, obscene installation times. The machine doesn't like streaming all that data from the bluray disc, so if you buy some games you'll be forced to spend anywhere between 10 and 30 minutes installing game data to the PS3's hard disk.

I've never had this issue save with Metal Gear 4, but that's because MGS4 is a dinosaur which actually installs and deletes parts of the game each Act.

I ran into this with MGS4, FFXIII, and the Yakuza games. There might be a few that I'm forgetting.

Which points to the issue being limited to certain games, rather than the problem being the machine "not liking" streaming data from blue-ray (it's not any worse than DVDs).

The issue really, as with MGS4, is that early PS3s had poor hard drive capacity and some game developers tried to "help" by constantly installing and uninstalling huge bits of the game. With most games I've played though (MGS4 being the sole exception), the install process doesn't really take longer than the PC.

[Stark]

I think you're missing his point; the 360 doesn't have a required process at all and you can just play the game straight away. Copying the disk just improves load time (more or less), and the copy doesn't take nearly as long due to smaller volumes.

I doubt it's an issue for Thanas, however, simply because I don't imagine he'll be game hopping very much and he's already used to PC installs. Luckily for him, the PS3 sucks in all kinds of other ways too. :v

[General Zod]

Which points to the issue being limited to certain games, rather than the problem being the machine "not liking" streaming data from blue-ray (it's not any worse than DVDs).

The issue really, as with MGS4, is that early PS3s had poor hard drive capacity and some game developers tried to "help" by constantly installing and uninstalling huge bits of the game. With most games I've played though (MGS4 being the sole exception), the install process doesn't really take longer than the PC.

Which kind of defeats the point of getting a console. You really don't want to deal with installation times, you just want to pop in the game and go.

[Vendetta]

It's a minor social thing, but PS3 apparently doesn't even have group chat

Yeah, it's an OS limitation. Voice chat isn't a default part of the PS3 OS and it would take too much memory up to have it active all the time, games have to individually implement it, which is why cross game chat isn't possible on PS3.

Same goes for things like media streaming. I have all my music on a NAS drive, and whilst both the PS3 and Xbox can stream from that NAS drive, the PS3 can't do so in a game unless the game specifically implements music streaming, whereas the Xbox does it as a core OS function so every game can do it.

Which points to the issue being limited to certain games, rather than the problem being the machine "not liking" streaming data from blue-ray (it's not any worse than DVDs).

BD is pretty bad for non-sequential access (at least on the drives in the PS3). This is why a lot of earlier games that didn't have installs replicate whole bunches of data at different points on the disc so the seek time stays low. Later on they cottoned on to installing data that is frequently used to the hard drive, which is why PS3 installs are only partial installs.

[Vendetta]

Which kind of defeats the point of getting a console. You really don't want to deal with installation times, you just want to pop in the game and go.

Most hilarious is when a game updates. Many games, even purely singleplayer games, force download of their DLC in a required game update which the game will not launch without. PS3 game update downloads can be slow as balls due to this.

[One Two]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that nothing PS3 exclusive is going to draw Thanas. Gundam Game #231? Infamous? Sackboy Adventures? Come on.

That said, releases for both seem to be winding down, so lets hope he's already got games in mind.

Where are you getting this Gundam thing from? The PS3's biggest advantage over the 360 is its exclusives. Not saying he'll love all of them, but enough of them are worth mentioning Heavy Rain, Motorstorm, Demon Soul's, Killzone, God of War, Gran Turismo and that's just off the top of my head.

Now if he doesn't care about exclusives and wants to focus more on playing online, then yeah, get a 360.

Obviously I'm ignoring other factors, but they were already mentioned above.

[Stark]

A list of games including exactly one good game and one (different) game Thanas is likely to care about isn't really very compelling. It's actually kind of sad to see PS3 slaves tout Demon Souls as an exclusive, when the sequel is available on everything. It'd be like 360 enthusiasts harping on Mass Effect 1.

On the other hand, the sweet Gundam games are literally the only reason I'd even consider a PS3, but even at the amazingly cheap prices you can get a PS3 it's just not worth it - and have a 360 as well I'd be able to avoid the shit ports.

I'm not sure how many times people need to say it, but a few exclusives is a poor way to choose a console unless you are totally focused on a single title. Buying a PS3 to play fucking Gran Turismo is ludicrous.

[One Two]

A list of games including exactly one good game and one (different) game Thanas is likely to care about isn't really very compelling. It's actually kind of sad to see PS3 slaves tout Demon Souls as an exclusive, when the sequel is available on everything. It'd be like 360 enthusiasts harping on Mass Effect 1.

On the other hand, the sweet Gundam games are literally the only reason I'd even consider a PS3, but even at the amazingly cheap prices you can get a PS3 it's just not worth it - and have a 360 as well I'd be able to avoid the shit ports.

I'm not sure how many times people need to say it, but a few exclusives is a poor way to choose a console unless you are totally focused on a single title. Buying a PS3 to play fucking Gran Turismo is ludicrous.

And that's why I mentioned more than one game.

And one, don't call me a PS3 slave. And two, I'm sorry are you Thanas incarnate? Do you feel what he feels, do you know for a fact what he'll like before he tries it?

[Stark]

Stop being so self-obsessed. Others have also mentioned Demon Souls, and it's still funny and will never stop being funny. It's been pointed out to me that ME1 was actually a better example as those games are plot-heavy and Dark Souls isn't. Insulting knee-jerk PS3 recommendors bad, insulting 360 recommendors good!

And seriously if you can't even attempt to imagine the needs of others, how can you make a recommendation? I doubt Killzone is Thanas's cup of tea and as an added bonus it's terrible. Its no reason to buy a PS3. The thread makes it pretty clear a PS3 is a good choice if a) you want to play exactly two games which happen to be the exclusives and b) have no friends or interest in social functions or play. Maybe that's Thanas' use case, but I seriously doubt 'the need to play Demon Souls' is.

[One Two]

Stop being so self-obsessed. Others have also mentioned Demon Souls, and it's still funny and will never stop being funny. It's been pointed out to me that ME1 was actually a better example as those games are plot-heavy and Dark Souls isn't. Insulting knee-jerk PS3 recommendors bad, insulting 360 recommendors good!

And seriously if you can't even attempt to imagine the needs of others, how can you make a recommendation? I doubt Killzone is Thanas's cup of tea and as an added bonus it's terrible. Its no reason to buy a PS3. The thread makes it pretty clear a PS3 is a good choice if a) you want to play exactly two games which happen to be the exclusives and b) have no friends or interest in social functions or play. Maybe that's Thanas' use case, but I seriously doubt 'the need to play Demon Souls' is.

I don't feel like playing into your "I like to make other people's arguments for them in order to make them sound stupid". Fuck off.

Thanas, you could go with either one. There's stuff to like about both consoles. There's stuff to hate about both consoles. Flip a coin or get a Wii.

[Stark]

Do you honestly think that post is helpful at all, or as helpful as people discussing (in some detail) the various side to the decision? 'Toss a coin'?

Just because you can't make a decision doesn't mean Thanas can't. It's actually pretty sad that so many people seem to consider this a difficult decision at all, when given a set of preferences it's easy.

[Thanas]

I don't really much care about playing online or about playing exclusive titles. The only thing somehow appealing would be God of war but the thing seems to be a pretty stupid hack and slash butchering greek mythology.

What I am most interested in is having things run smoothly and fast.

[Vendetta]

And that's why I mentioned more than one game.

Yeah, but the only unique gameplay experiences among them are Heavy Rain and maybe Motorstorm (there are other off-road racing games, but they tend to be download only games and are more limited). The others all represent gaming experiences which are easily replicable in multiplatform games, and frequently better.

[Stark]

I don't really much care about playing online or about playing exclusive titles. The only thing somehow appealing would be God of war but the thing seems to be a pretty stupid hack and slash butchering greek mythology.

What I am most interested in is having things run smoothly and fast.

With cross-platform, theres often some variability in port quality. What I hear is that unless the game was developed for PS3 first, the PS3 versions have either lower frame rates or more crashes or both. Dragons Dogma, to take an example, runs about the same on both but crashes more on PS3. The PS3's architecture is apparently horrible to program for, and in the world of cross platform business it usually doesn't get as much care as PC and the PC-like console.

Vendetta, what's the crossbar like? We joke about the dash being slow these days - what's the Sony side like?