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Owning both a PS3 and an Xbox 360.
Chronocross_xp asked me what I thought about my new PS3. I put my thoughts together in a blog post that I thought I'd share here.
Say what you will, but when Sony dropped the price on the PS3, I hauled my butt down to the Best Buy and bought one. Actually, I bought the last one on the shelf. I brought it home and set it up and then I just sat there and looked at it and at the Xbox 360. I now have two pieces of consumer electronics that essentially do the same thing.
If nothing else but to justify this in my own mind, I want to talk about these units together. The style points definitely go to the PS3. It's black sleekness is evil! The 360 looks like the toy that it is next to it. The PS3 is a computer. You can plug in a USB mouse and keyboard right into it. You can also plug in media cards. I ran the PS3 all last night because I wanted to charge the Sixaxis controller. I didn't worry about that at all and I made sure I ran Folding at Home. I wouldn't dare waste precious 360 burn time by keeping it on all night. A 360 is like a light bulb. You've only got so many hours before it burns out. My original PS2 is what, 5 years old? I have no doubt that in 5 years the PS3 is going to be going strong. I'll probably have gone through a half dozen 360s by then.
But I sound like I'm ragging on the 360. The fact is, right now, the PS3 can't touch the Xbox as a gaming system. There are tons of great games out for the 360 and not so much for the PS3. Everyone knows this. Moreover, the 360 has movies you can download. The PS3 has a couple of trailers and a few demos and games, but nothing like the 360. The 360's software is superior. The PS3 isn't bad, but applications launch in a kind of clunky way compared to the 360. The 360, while it's running, is awesome!
But as I sit here and watch coverage of E3 it's clear that the games for the PS3 are coming. The PS3 has so much potential, it's almost painful to see it in its current state. From a hardware perspective, the PS3 is an impressive machine. It's significantly quieter than the 360. When I watch HD DVD movies on the 360 with it's separate drive, it's noisy enough to be distracting. The PS3 is quiet enough to be a real piece of home theater equipment. In fact, the real reason that I bought it was that I wanted a Blu-Ray Player. The PS3, in my opinion, up-converts slightly better than the 360. Watching movies in 1080p is something that once you experience it, you don't want to look at anything else and now I have the player of the standard that is poised to win the format war.
The 360 streams video from your computer quite easily. I did it once just to try it. I really don't have much use for it beyond that. I believe you can get the PS3 to do it as well although I'm not sure as easily. For me, the media card support is more important.
So yes, in the end is it overkill to have both a 360 and a PS3? Of course! Is if fun, absolutely. I have the best game system available right now in the 360 and a terrific Blu-Ray player in the PS3. I can tell you though, that as games come out going forward, I'm going to look for them first on the PS3 and only buy the exclusives on the 360. The last thing I want to do is get half-way through a game and have to send the 360 back to Microsoft because it has given up the ghost.
Say what you will, but when Sony dropped the price on the PS3, I hauled my butt down to the Best Buy and bought one. Actually, I bought the last one on the shelf. I brought it home and set it up and then I just sat there and looked at it and at the Xbox 360. I now have two pieces of consumer electronics that essentially do the same thing.
If nothing else but to justify this in my own mind, I want to talk about these units together. The style points definitely go to the PS3. It's black sleekness is evil! The 360 looks like the toy that it is next to it. The PS3 is a computer. You can plug in a USB mouse and keyboard right into it. You can also plug in media cards. I ran the PS3 all last night because I wanted to charge the Sixaxis controller. I didn't worry about that at all and I made sure I ran Folding at Home. I wouldn't dare waste precious 360 burn time by keeping it on all night. A 360 is like a light bulb. You've only got so many hours before it burns out. My original PS2 is what, 5 years old? I have no doubt that in 5 years the PS3 is going to be going strong. I'll probably have gone through a half dozen 360s by then.
But I sound like I'm ragging on the 360. The fact is, right now, the PS3 can't touch the Xbox as a gaming system. There are tons of great games out for the 360 and not so much for the PS3. Everyone knows this. Moreover, the 360 has movies you can download. The PS3 has a couple of trailers and a few demos and games, but nothing like the 360. The 360's software is superior. The PS3 isn't bad, but applications launch in a kind of clunky way compared to the 360. The 360, while it's running, is awesome!
But as I sit here and watch coverage of E3 it's clear that the games for the PS3 are coming. The PS3 has so much potential, it's almost painful to see it in its current state. From a hardware perspective, the PS3 is an impressive machine. It's significantly quieter than the 360. When I watch HD DVD movies on the 360 with it's separate drive, it's noisy enough to be distracting. The PS3 is quiet enough to be a real piece of home theater equipment. In fact, the real reason that I bought it was that I wanted a Blu-Ray Player. The PS3, in my opinion, up-converts slightly better than the 360. Watching movies in 1080p is something that once you experience it, you don't want to look at anything else and now I have the player of the standard that is poised to win the format war.
The 360 streams video from your computer quite easily. I did it once just to try it. I really don't have much use for it beyond that. I believe you can get the PS3 to do it as well although I'm not sure as easily. For me, the media card support is more important.
So yes, in the end is it overkill to have both a 360 and a PS3? Of course! Is if fun, absolutely. I have the best game system available right now in the 360 and a terrific Blu-Ray player in the PS3. I can tell you though, that as games come out going forward, I'm going to look for them first on the PS3 and only buy the exclusives on the 360. The last thing I want to do is get half-way through a game and have to send the 360 back to Microsoft because it has given up the ghost.
Comments
Games come first in a gaming system and at the moment, none of the "next gen" systems have truly solid lineups, ESPECIALLY the PS3. Despite having all three next-gen systems (got em' as gifts, heh heh), my PS2 and Gamecube still get more use than the PS3, 360, and Wii combined.
I'd personally hold back on buying either, much less both, the PS3 and the 360 for another year or two when more price cuts have happened and the game lineups are much more solid.
I bought my PS3 when in first came out in Australia in March. I was in an interesting situation, I sold my PS2 before I went travelling and as such had no games console at all when I came back. There was a bunch of PS2 games that I had missed and wanted to play, so it seemed like a good idea to pick one up. Plus even though the 360 has a good selection of games, there was very few of any real interest.
The PS3 cost me A$999, which is around US$850 (although the Australian dollar is very strong at the moment). While it was very expensive and there isn't that many games out for it yet, I'm still very happy with my purchase. The few games that I do have are excellent, and the quality of the movie playback is outstanding on my 32" LCD.
While I can certainly understand not wanting one because of the price and lack of games at the moment, I would have no problems recommending a PS3 to anyone.
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/psp/sony-updates-ps-store-adds-psp-and-ps3-cross+support-for-psone-games-257600.php?mail2=true
(A few links to the web sites talking about this cross compatibility. Although for the record I own a 360 and it does kick much ass! =D And also I do see Guitar Hero's in my near future as well as purchasing Catan and Carcassone.)
Gizmodo