I’ve asked this question of my gaming buddies but now I want to open it up to anyone to give me a larger pool of answers.
I am not looking for fanboy comments or arguments just an honest simple answer.. (I will be posting all responses but may edit out anything that is looking to spark an argument.. It’s my blog and them’s my terms)
So the question is quite simple…
Why do you prefer the Xbox 360 over the Playstation 3?
Told you it was simple, I am doing this to help me write Console Wars part 2 so please don’t try and start pointless arguments as your comments wont get published..
Lots of love an hugs M@
I was waiting for the PS3 to arrive, back in the day, for what seemed an eternity so i decided to go and buy a 360 instead. That in a nut shell is probably the reason. I mean, I am now just used to the ways and workings of the 360. I borrowed a PS3 from a friend when one of my 360s had RRod and was getting repaired and the first thing to irritate me was the updates for every new game i put in which seemed to take forever compared to the 360. After becoming used to the 360 menus i found the the Ps3 menus less ‘friendly’. I also dont like the idea that you don’t get a headset with it. I dont begrudge paying the annual fee for xbox live either and i’m glad after recent PSN problems. I feel the content and service provided for that fee is excellent and i think i will take something groundbreaking from sony to sway me from Xbox in the next generation of consoles.
Chat/Party chat, XBL arcade, the pad, achievements and mates
I played PS3 for a couple of years and loved it, but I was simply blown away by the 360s chat function. If Sony had nailed this I would still be giving them my money.
The fact I can demo all XBL arcade games is brilliant. I spend as much money on these games as standard disc based games.
The pad is miles better than the Dual-shock. Sony need a new design.
Achievements. I know. Very sad. I love the sound when I get one. PS3 has there trophies, but as I went up levels they became worth less. A silver in the early days was great, but towards the end it would hardly move my level up. Where as 10gamer points is 10gamer points. I think I just outed myself as a points whore.
I own both consoles and I love playing the exclusives on both, but when it comes down to multi-player games that are available on both formats. It boils down to what console my mates have. If they all buy COD on 360 that’s what I will be buying.
For me it’s because the Xbox is no fuss, just get on and do it, and do it this way because it works, and we’ll tweak that way once every 12 months. And each annual tweak will add a bit of something, and make everything just a touch easier and slicker looking. The PS3 needs constant prodding and poking. Sometimes hitting with a stick. And then, and only then, I can get on and do something. Maybe. And XMB. I am really not a fan of XMB. What a mess.
PS3 makes me work to get to the fun. XBox just gets me straight in.
I switch on the Xbox and there it is a couple of seconds later. No fuss, no nonsense. Just “Hey, game, movie, or music? Or maybe watch a video about what’s happening in the XBox world and the latest releases?”
I switch on the PS3 these days and the first thing I see is a bunch of “Look what I did overnight while you were asleep! Aren’t I great!” messages. (I have PSN+ so this is all kinds of save game upload and title update messages. It’s all good stuff but I don’t need to know about it. Just do it, and only bother me when something breaks.)
And want to see the latest news from PS3 land? No problem, click here, navigate the store, and put down a few quid on this months video mag. Xbox gives you this weekly, for free, as part of the Live Gold sub.
Now I can get on and do something. I scroll through a non-intuitive list of icons, get to the game one. Scroll down too far. Move up again. Press X. Realise I went too far. Go back. Down one. Press X. Now I’m gaming. But wait a minute – here’s a new update that arrived today, after last night’s auto-update check. What? 500Mb? WTF? And I have to do that before I can do anything?
I have never seen an update on Xbox go above a few Mb. Never.
So I finish, and I hold down the PS button, choose “Switch off the system”, and go to bed. Several hours later I arise, get my day started, wander downstairs, and discover that “switching off” is a vague idea in PS3 land and it actually means “sit here *not* switching off because I think something else is happening, so you just hold in that power button for 30 seconds to convince me that I really do need to be switched off.”
That actually happens less these days than it used to. But only because after hitting the “Report this problem to Sony” many times after starting up after a forced switch off that Sony sent some kind of message back that told the PS3 that it needed to be factory reset. (Seriously – I got a system message one day that said something like “Sony recommends doing a factory reset to fix your problems. Do that now? Yes/No” type thing. I chose “Yes” and it formatted and reset the system disk, or something.)
I have never had anything like that on the XBox because it has never been needed.
Then there is the DLC. “Hey, chap, you want to give us some money? Sure! No problem! But first, which version of the DLC do you need? Check your original disk to see which one of these very similar codes is stamped on it and then select the correct version of the DLC for purchase! We’re going to make it *extra* fun by making this description so long that it has to marquee back and forth across the screen, making it hard to confirm which code you are looking for. And when you scroll the list we might just show the first half of the code you are looking for! WE IZ AWESOME! (Oh yeah, choose the wrong one? Tough. Try again. That’s £10.99 again, please.)”
Never, never, never seen that on the Xbox. It’s all “Hey, want the DLC? No problem – click here, confirm you want to do this, oh! Not enough points? Fix that here, now, no problem, and here’s your DLC!”
In it’s defence, graphics for platform specific titles on PS3 can be awesome. (How much do I want to see Ico and Show of the Colossus on the PS3? ****THIS MUCH****.) Graphics for cross-platform games? Never seen a difference, but that is probably more to do with publisher than platform.
One last thing – and this is always mentioned because the XBox does it so much better, is social. Setting up games with friends is much easier. The oft-mentioned cross-game chat, too. Joining a friend in whatever game they are playing is almost trivially easy. Microsoft realised that with Live on the original XBox they were really on to something. Credit where it’s due – they looked ahead, saw the multiplayer future, and got it pretty damn close to being perfect that it’s one of the few things that changes in the OS updates each year. (There are some things I would change to make it even easier, but that’s mainly to do with user interface stuff, and moving around. And I’d add some kind of clan or group function too. Maybe in the 720 when that appears…)
So that’s it. Xbox doesn’t get in my way. It feels like it’s trying to help me get to what I want to be doing. PS3 makes it feel like I have to work to do that.
I never used to. Lets start with that. The first console i bought, of this current gen, was a 360. The first game i ever played online was Call of Duty 4 and it was like nothing i had ever experienced before. It really did change my view on gaming and playing with friends. Then, as has happened to 90% of the people i know (slight exaggeration maybe), the console RROD’ed. I was angry, i hadn’t even owned the console a year! Off it went to the Microsoft fixy place and back it came after a week or so. On life went. Then it broke again! So off it went again, but this time when it came back it got traded for a PS3.
Now at first i hated the PS3, the xmb was, and still is, rubbish. Everything was slow and cumbersome, friends lists took a while to load, installing games was never fun, updates took forever, no cross game chat made setting up games a pain, especially if people were getting kicked, and list goes on. But my anger over being sold a console that broke twice still hadn’t gone away and so i stuck with it.
And after a while it became the norm, buying new games and setting aside an extra half an hour for installs and updates, keeping an chat room open for setting up online games, getting used to the loose and inaccurate analogue sticks and lets not talk about those triggers (clip on triggers were bought asap). . . and it was still good. Most of the big releases were multi-format. Some of the PS3 exclusives, absolutely justified the purchase, Demon’s Souls, Valkyria Chronicles, Uncharted etc. I met a great bunch of lads on another Sony exclusive, MAG, and although i always seemed to have problems with that game, i still had fun.
I can’t remember the exact reason i purchased a 360 again, but i think it was a few of our small clan going back to their 360s for gaming and as they were so ridiculously cheap now, i thought why not, and all those problems with the PS3 i had forgotten about were suddenly back with a vengeance; magnified, underlined and in bold.
So after that little (long?) story i’m sure it’s quite clear why i prefer the 360. It’s the little things that matter. Joining a friends session on a online game is as simple as bringing up the dashboard and pressing X. Cross game chat when setting up a game with friends is invaluable. Installing entire games to the HDD makes gaming silent (my PS3 is quite noisy now and as i play upstairs, at night, with the tv sound low, this does matter to me). Yes i have to pay to play online, but i think the service is worth it, and if you shop around online, it isn’t that much anyway. The pad i’m torn on, it’s bigger than i’d like, don’t like the d-pad or the face buttons, but the triggers and sticks are spot on. And finally online games, like Street Fighter WORK! Playing Street Fighter on the PS3 was like pulling teeth, my friends and i constantly had problems. On the 360 it’s as smooth as silk. Unsure why the platform should make any difference, but that was the case for me anyhow.
So while the 360 is my preferred console, i did spend over two years playing solely on a PS3 and still had fun. Gaming’s just a hobby for most of us after all, albeit one we do take seriously at times, but still just a hobby. I don’t have any sort of affection/loyalty towards any company, so i’ll just go with whoever provides the best product/service and while Microsoft lost me in the early days, in the end Sony didn’t provide me with what i wanted and so i had to go back.
In the end i don’t think it matters too much either way, whichever console you have, as long as your having fun gaming, then that’s all that matters no? Leave the fanboy wars to the kids and just play.
Paz.
Andy and Paz have said it all really. I used to love the PS3 because it was all I’d known and it seemed all grown up and sophisticated. When Paul bought our first xbox I actually refused to like it on principle…until I tried gaming on it. After half an hour I was sold. The xbox is just more user friendly, everything I want or need for my gaming experience is right there in my face at the click of a button without me having to search around in that horrible PS XMB. I can join friends either in game or chat easily, I can try new games out with demos, i can instantly see what my friends are doing/playing. The other day I purchased and downloaded some new maps for BLOPS and was able to browse new releases, watch sky player, play an XBLA game all while my download carried on in the background, AND it took a fraction of the time it would’ve on the PS. Quite simply its just ease of use.
We still have our PS3, Tom still plays games on it but only because he doesn’t get much chance to use the xboxes when Paul and I are on them, other than that it gets used once a week as a blu ray player on family film and take out night.
I did love the PS3 and I made some great gaming friends on it but I’m afraid I totally forfeited those friendships in favour of a better (in my opinion) online gaming experience on the xbox.
I got a 360 a few months after release and was blown away by pretty much everything. Online gaming, chat and achievements. MW online took up so much time.
I waited and saved and eventually got a PS3 in 2009 and yeah when I first got it I played it quite a bit. I even traded in my 360 in to fund new PS3 game purchases.
Though I wasn’t keen and I’m still not on the XMB too dark and not very user friendly. No headset with console purchase was annoying.
About 6 months later I bought a new 360 elite as most my mates seemed to be with MS still.
MAG is probably the most time I’ve spent playing on the PS3. It’s more of a glorified blu ray player these days. Which is a shame
(Dont even get me started on the constant updates which take forever to download)
^^^ like they said!
Seriously though, whilst technically superior, the PS3 let’s the user down at every stage of the experience.
I’d never really been a fanboy. I had a PS3 because it was what I bought. I’d played on the Xbox a bit, didn’t really like the big clunky controller, then dutifully went back to the PS3. I played my first online game on the PS3, MW3, which opened up a whole new world of gaming for me. I’d been online before, but it wasn’t social, it was random lobbies in games that I forget. Friday night Mike Myers sessions with a regular bunch of lads was an alternate to going out.
Then, it happened. The Exploit. Sony had invested so much development effort on having the most technically advanced console that they left the back door wide open. The network wad breached, and instantly games became unplayable. After a short period of head-burying and a bigger breach, the network was taken down.
Having gone from being a weekly social event, my PS3 was now nothing more than a blu ray player. In a fit of disgust and with a pocket full of cash I went shopping and came home with an Xbox, the games which I loved and money for the DLCs which I needed. I didn’t know the Xbox. I certainly didn’t know how incredible it is.
The graphics may not be as good as the PS3 in all cases. You might need to juggle multiple disks for a game, but the network, oh the network! Matchmaking works, the chat works. Don’t want to play the same game as your buddies, but don’t want to be a social outcast? Easy, get an Xbox.
I’ve still got the PS3. I moved house 4 months ago, and hadn’t used it for a few months before that. It’s in the house somewhere…
I’ve just thought of something else..customer support. On the occasions I had problems with PS3, trying to contact them to resolve it was a nightmare, I’d have to search the website looking for a ‘contact us and not read FAQs or forums’ option then email them then verify I was the primary account holder then be told I had to call them at MY expense. Once or twice I asked them a question on twitter and got no reply at all. I’ve got about 3 outstanding queries with PS3 that have never been resolved because I couldn’t be bothered with the hassle of trying to contact them.
Xbox is a whole different experience. The support team on twitter are amazingly helpful and if they can’t help you they’ll point you in the direction of someone who can. If you don’t use twitter you can go to xbox.com which is incredibly easy to navigate, you can view all your gaming stuff, contact support, set games to download etc. It’s joyful.
I prefer the xbox for a few reasons:
1. Fable is an xbox exclusive game. I knew they were building a second so bought the 360
2. Cost – Me being a tight arse with my cash, the xbox (at the time) was about £150 cheaper than the ps3. No brainer for me.
3.Controller – I love the controller, fits snuggly into my hand and allows fluent gameplay.
4.Friends – My friends have xbox’s. Need I say more?
5. GPU – The xbox sports an ATI graphics chip. <3 ATI
Not really a fan of console gaming. I think it's for the none techy generation. Don't get me wrong, console gaming is fun and I have owned them in the past but only because my friends had them. Converting them to PC gaming was too much of a pain. If you can't beat them, join them!
I want to try and do something more in the evenings than just play games, that’s the reason the PS3 is no good for me! I don’t have the time or patience for constant slow updates, installs, disconnections, getting people into just one lobby etc.
The 360 is quick for me, turn it on, greeted with a child friendly interface and join up with whoever via cross chat to organise a game.
I was really against the 360 (even though we owned one) for a number of reasons and one being the amount of PS3 fanboys I was involved with.
I’m not against the PS3 though as it’s a brilliant gaming machine when you have all the time in the world.
One massive benefit with the 360 is that you can swap HDD around when you get RROD, with PS3 you lose the lot.
(PS3 has many better things than 360 such as signing in different accounts and playing the games, 360 are a nightmare for this)
I’m still getting a PS3 back!!!
There are many reasons I prefer Xbox over PS3, but here are the main ones:
1. The controller feels more sold, sturdy and comfortable to use. I play a lot of FPS and prefer the using the trigger buttons to fire rather than a flat R1 press on a PS3 controller. Also the position of the thumbsticks feels more comfortable than them being in-line. There has been a counter-argument that the D-Pad is a bit naff on the Xbox compared to Sony’s controller – I agree, but it’s a bit of a non-argument for me as I never play games where the character is controlled by the D-Pad (that would be platform games or games like Pacman).
2. Xbox Media Center. In 2005 I ditched Sky+ and opted to build a PC fit to run as a home PVR to record freeview telly running Windows Media Center. I have continued with each version of MCE and Windows 7 + Xbox 360 works a treat for watching live TV, recorded TV or playing any of my music/video content in the room where my Xbox is located (no hardware add-ons required).
3. Xbox Live. It’s not free, but you get what you pay for. The online service is brilliant. Party chat FTW. Makes it easier to setup a game while everyone finishes playing whatever game they are playing.
4. Ease of updates. On the rare occasions when the Xbox dashboard needs an update, this is pretty much a one button operation. Press A to continue. Wait 3-5 mins. Done! On PS3 the updates are more regular and intrusive in my precious gaming time available, there are lots of button presses and you have to agree to the same EU agreement that hasn’t changed since 2009 every time you update – then the update takes about 20 mins to half a hour. Grrr!
5. Ability to use VGA output. It’s a small, but important feature. If I use HDMI or Component video then when I switch off the console my telly doesn’t go into suspend mode. I will often forget this and come back to find the TV displaying ‘No input signal detected’. With VGA output the TV behaves more like a computer monitor so switching off the console means the telly goes into suspend mode. Joy!
So there you go. I do like PS3, Blu-Ray is a plus in terms of not having to have games on 3 discs or whatever. Blu-Ray for films is irrelevant though to me. I own 2, but as I upscale DVD via the PC anyway and don’t have surround sound or a 90″ telly, there’s little difference.