Yep, neogaf is ps3 biased, gametrailers is ps3 biased, vgc was nintendo biased until now apparently. So..

if he prefers final fantasy and fighters and possibly mmos than ps3 is without a doubt the platform to buy

If you don't care about Blu-ray movies, then get a 360.

It's library of fighting games and JRPG's is *way* better than what the PS3 offers.  In fact when it comes to JRPG's the PS3 is (currently) one of  the worst consoles I've ever owned. The PS3 does have the superior version of FF13, but that's pretty much all it has. The rest of it's JRPG library is mostly made up of ultra low budget niche titles. If you're looking for a traditional JRPG with decent production values that is exclusive to the PS3, then you can choose from exactly zero titles (!). And that is after nearly four years on the market ! And all I see on the horizon is yet more low budget niche titles. The 360 isn't all that great either for JRPG's but it does have a small handful of decent quality titles, which is a hell of alot more than what the PS3 currently offers.

The 360 fighting game library is again much better than the PS3 library. The 360 has exclusives like Dead Or Alive 4 and Samurai Shodown Sen, a *much* better version of Virtua Fighter 5 (online play, better graphics, "C" revision with better character balance) and the (slightly) superior version of most of the multi platform titles. The 360 also come with a hardware video upscaler that can significantly reduce input lag on many 1080p displays (crucial for fighing games). The 360 game pad is crap, but that's true for the PS3 pad as well. No true fan of fighting games would be happy with either pad. That's why there's plenty of third party fighting gamepads and arcade sticks available for both systems.

You can read more about the PS3 1080p lag problem here: The New Definitive HDTV Lag FAQ and here: Games & input lag.

And Demon's Souls is pretty much the antithesis of a JRPG. It's a dark lonely depressing WRPG with frustrating trial and error gameplay that involves memorizing billions of cheap instant death traps. It's not all that difficult (most of the bosses can be killed from a safe spot using ranged attacks), just cheap and depressing. I hated it.

I respect your opinion but disagree with mostly everything you just said, especially the Demon's Souls part. I would actually like it if you elaborated more on it, especially on which "bosses exactly can be killed from a safe spot using ranged attacks"? I can think of a couple, but yea.....

What I wrote about Demon's Souls is opinion. If you disagree then that's OK. I respect that. The rest of what I wrote is (mostly) fact.

Anyway I didn't say that Demon's Souls is a bad game, I said I hated it. Which isn't the same thing. Demon's Souls is what it is. And if you like that sort of thing then it's obviously a great game. I was merely offering the TC a second opinion, as I feel DS is a game that most traditional JRPG fans will absolutely hate. Unless of course they are fanboys that blindly praise anything that is exclusive to the PS3, which is unfortunately true for a depressingly large percentage of the JRPG community.

As for "bosses that can be killed from a safe spot with ranged attacks" I don't remember all the exact details. I do remember that the level 4 end boss (the big stingray) could be killed safely from the house using that storm sword. The boss before that can be easily killed with arrows by moving in and out of a safe spot at the top. I killed the swamp female end boss from a safe spot with arrows. The boss before that could be killed by strafing in and out of a safe spot, and the boss before that could be killed with both magic and arrows from a platform above. I killed the 1-2 dragon with with arrows from a safe spot. There were more, but that's all I can remember from the top of my head. The bosses that couldn't be killed this way were in general very easy to beat. The only boss that gave me some troubles was the fire beast.

I'd go with PS3. Its only $299 now which is reasonable and it has lots of great RPG's.

360 is cool too and a bit cheaper but red ring of death still exists and many of its exclusives are shooters which you don't like.

From my experience of giving a opinion to friends and family on which console to get, here is my take. Go out and choose the console that fits you the best. If you have big hands and like the game library on the 360, then by all means go for the 360. If you like blu-ray movies, 3D support, and the gaming library for the PS3, then go after the PS3. It all really does just fall down to opinion. By the way, since your a lawyer; wouldn't that mean that you have enough money for both consoles?

They're are more JRPG's on the 360 and with fighters it's a toss up. The 360 pad is horrible for fighters. But, if you're really into them you'll buy a stick anyway.

Final Fantasty 13 for the PS3 is the better version. If you had both consoles, it's a no brainer. This would be the version to buy. But, the 360 version is far from unplayable and unless you had them side by side, you wouldn't realize there was a difference.

That being said, since you've been out of gaming for a while and could possibly phase out of it again quickly, I would probably buy a PS3. At least if you quit gaming you've got a blu-ray player.

Actually no, most of what you wrote is opinion, you do have a couple of facts there. The only facts you have there is that VF5 is better than the PS3 online - considering the PS3 version is not even online that's a given, that DOA4 is an exclusive game, albeit a very bad one IMHO. While most multiplat are indeed better on 360, that's not actually the case with the fighting games as they're pretty much equal across all platforms. Your assumption that any JRPG fan that loves DS = PS3 fanboy is ludcirous at best, especially considering DS is one of the highest praised games this generation, getting numerous awards, winning RPG of the year from certain places last year and even getting Gamespot 2009 overall Game of the Year. Your description of bosses is also very poor, no offense, and I don't blame you for not remembering, since you hated the game.

WARNING - DEMON'S SOULS SPOILERS BELOW 

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The only way to kill the big stingray - Storm King - is using the Storm sword, you have to kill the baby stingrays before that and you cannot hide behind the house as they won't come out that far. The boss before that - Old Hero - is supposed to be killed that way if you had been paying attention. The swamp female end boss - Maiden Astrea - you don't even have to fight her lol 5-2 and 5-1 boss can indeed be killed with projectiles but that's not the best and easiest way to kill them either. The 1-2 Dragon is not even a boss lol

WARNING - DEMON'S SOULS SPOILERS ABOVE

WARNING - DEMON'S SOULS SPOILERS ABOVE

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WARNING - DEMON'S SOULS SPOILERS ABOVE

Anyways I respect your opinion, we all know Demon's Souls is not for everybody, I think your description of the game:

And Demon's Souls is pretty much the antithesis of a JRPG. It's a dark lonely depressing WRPG with frustrating trial and error gameplay that involves memorizing billions of cheap instant death traps. It's not all that difficult (most of the bosses can be killed from a safe spot using ranged attacks), just cheap and depressing. I hated it.

Is downright wrong, but hey that's just what I think. I guess we can just agree to disagree :)