A friend thinking of getting a 360 or PS3, which one and what games?

[binary solo]

Wait, aren't you the guy who shakes his head in wonder at why people go on the internets and asks total strangers for gaming recommendations?

Oh well no one ever said we have to be consistent. Or is this a piss take thread?

Assuming it's not a piss take thread:

Yes, yes it's a JRPG but do you think your friend might like Valkyria Chronicles? It's not your typical JRPG, it's got a good story, and the strategic style of the gameplay is quite engaging. If she likes anime art style that's a bonus too, if she doesn't like anime then it could totally put her off.

She might also like Folklore, but that game is certainly a matter of taste, especially because there are few movie cut scenes and lots of the typical RPG dialogue style "cut scenes". Might be hard to get too.

If you already have friends who have Buzz then you can do sofa vs sofa matches online (if you are remotely interested in trophies there are bronze, sliver and gold trophies to be collected with sofa vs sofa matches), as well as the more usual everyone playing when you get together in one place games (only now you'd have 2 places). And lets face it, who doesn't get a hankering for trophies / achievements once they start collecting them?

Kinda odd to say she's interested in playing Bioshock, but then ask people not to recommend the uber hard-core, I woulda put Bioshock into the uber hard-core category myself, at least from the perspective of gameplay. Perhaps you really meant "ultra gaming-geek" games like Halo, GoW, Demon's Souls etc.

I think the Mass Effect franchise is a good reason to go with the 360. Forget any remote possibility of it going to PS3, you can't deal in what ifs and maybes (unless you're an ultra gaming geek, which this person clearly is not). One day I might buy a 360 for the sole purpose of playing my way through the ME franchise (assuming I don't one day have a PC capable of doing the same). It's pretty much the only reason I'd buy a second console, there aren't any other 360 (non-PS3) games that interest me. Of course buying a console for a single game franchise means not paying anywhere near the current price for said console.

There's Alan Wake of course for 360, that game seems to be right up her alley. If I may make so bold I'd say Alan Wake is the 360's response to the story/movie quality of the Uncharted franchise. And a very good response it seems to be.

She can't go wrong with either choice, but I think things are slightly in tha favour of PS3. My own personal bias comes into play here too though.