The controller is what lets it down for me; the 360 pad and the Wiimote + Nunchuk were just more comfortable and in the latter's case for featured and versatile.

Still, it had an incredibly strong library of games and was a powerhouse for its time serving up some of the biggest "wow" moments of its generation, so I can overlook its flaws.

I'm one of those weirdos who loved DualShock 1-3. DS3 a bit less, since it had slippery triggers. But the small size was perfect for me (and I have large hands), and the d-pad is the best in the business out of what I tried. X360's d-pad was atrocious.

That's fair; I have big hands as well, it was more the not-so-ergonomic shape of the dualshock 3 and the triggers I didn't like.

With the 360 pad I hardly ever found myself using the D-Pad in games from that generation, and when I did it was mostly just for stuff like selecting equipment rather than movement or anything requiring precision, so it being poor wasn't a major issue for me. On the other hand, its triggers felt way better than PS3's and it fit in my hands near perfectly.

I had all 3 consoles as well, all 3 from launch.

While I started out playing 90% on 360 during PS3's first year, then my 360 died. So I played more on PS3 and cancelled gold since the 360 was gone for repairs. 360 came back, RROD again 2-3 months later. Meanwhile I had gotten used to playing online for free on PS3. When the 360 came back the 2nd time I just used it sporadically, afraid it would break again... (Which it did anyway later, got a replacement but by then most of my games were on PS3)

Then PS3 also started bringing the best exclusives while GT5 became my most played game. So the last games I played on 360 were Alan Wake, Fez and TWD. Bioshock and others I played on PC. 

So while the OS was slow, the store a pita, the browser a joke, it did get the picture quality right (360 had a build in gamma adjustment causing black crush) as well as excellent sound quality (MGS3 over LPCM 7.1 was glorious) where 360 only did compressed DD 5.1, and had that cool glass door (animated icons) for games and movies. 

PS3 felt like a multimedia player first, console second. But still had amazing game support.

Wii was great as well, but getting into full 1080p TVs at the time, 480p was looking kinda rough on 52" 1080p. Good for stylized games but 3rd party games were often a pixelated mess. 

Free online also helped the PS3's comeback after a terrible launch. While it wasn't as good as XBL, not having to pay for your own online must have made a difference. 

Yet agreed, updating games on PS3 was a huge PITA. GT5/GT6 patches, ugh, never again. PS4 was still bad with 28 minute update time for a 300mb GT Sport patch. (Cause it needed to duplicate the entire game on the HDD to apply the patch)

Last few years of the gen, PS3 was better than 360. Overall though I’d probably still give it to 360. Better library, games performed better, better controller. I also liked how on the 360 I could get a message and check it and be fine. On PS3 if I get a message and check it, my PS3 would bog down for sometimes three to four minutes as the laggy OS struggled to keep up.

Wii was never really a serious alternative imho. And as I said, PS3 was definitely better the last few years as MS went all in on Kinect and avoided AAA games outside of the trifecta (Halo/Gears/Forza). Free online helped PS3, too.

To me no, 360 was amazing. It was very nice going from 360 to PS4 though and then getting to play all the best stuff from the PS3 and then all the eventual great exclusives.

You're not the weird one. The PS1 and PS2 utterly dominated the industry, the latter gaining a market share not seen since the NES. If the duelshock was "ass", that wouldn't have been the case. So it's actually the other way around. If a person thinks that controller sucks, which is an opinion they are totally entitled to, it's them that are "weird"... not you. You are in the majority.

PS3 always felt barren to me. Like I was isolated. The 360 felt alive, as if even just going through the UI, I was doing it with other people. There were so many interactive elements, and Xbox Live was so well-designed, that it truly felt like it was the place to game during that gen, and I loved it.

But man, were those PS3 single-player games amazing. Unchartered, Infamous, Little Big Planet... that's what I'll remember it for. These sort of PS2-gen games in HD. You just couldn't get that anywhere else.

I consider early PS controllers until Dualshock 2 to be the best ever made. But their small size ultimately forced Sony to enlarge and modify the shape of their next controllers, and most people were happy about these changes. I wasn't, and this is the part where I'm probably in the minorities

I think people with big hands in particular were generally not happy about Dualshock 1-3's size. But I liked that I could barely feel them in my hands outside the satisfying response/feedback of the buttons. Xbox controllers' fat/hard/rounded face buttons made me feel like a tortoise in comparison, not to mention the d-pad! Many complicated inputs/techniques were much easier to pull off on a Dualshock than on Xbox controllers.

After I cancelled XBox Live the XBox UI was one big barren mess :/ I didn't have it connected to the internet anymore so it was full of blank placeholder pictures for my arcade games, where ads were meant to be and so on. Ugly as hell.

Another reason I cancelled XBL was I could not understand anyone with the headset. Echos all the time. I bought new a controller and new headset, same problem. People claimed it was my internet settings, nothing helped. And no issues on PS3 in GT5 lobbies, could understand everyone and they could understand me. So I had no intention to subscribe to XBL anymore after that experience and double RROD.

The PS3 XMB was the live one with different music when scrolling games and animated video thumbnails. If the PS3 OS was a bit faster it would still be my preferred one. Yet it was telling, games were just a tab on the xmb after music and video... AV console first, games second :/


PS3 might have had a rough launch, 360 wasn't much better. That gen was a mess. Even my Wii's disc reader crapped out halfway through the gen. (Got a replacement but that didn't have the gamecube controller ports anymore) PS3 also ylod, so I lost my launch BC model with SD card reader.

PS3/360/Wii are better remembered for the games, the hardware was woeful.

PS3 controllers were flimsy as well. Although the 360 controller didn't feel right in my hands, at least the thing felt indestructible :) I don't have any working ps3 controllers left and use a DS4 on my ps3 now. 360 controller just needs new batteries. (rechargeable pack won't charge anymore, same with the Wii remotes, back to batteries)

But yes, when you finally got those Sony first party games installed, updated and loaded, tons of fun. I've never laughed as hard as playing LBP with friends, 4 people on the couch slapping each other around and trying to get each other killed lol. Plus you still had 4 player split-screen at the time which worked perfect with a 1080p projector. Motorstorm Pacific Rift, Terraria, tons of fun. And Uncharted 2, TloU, Wipeout HD were all jaw dropping. As well as the games with native 1080p on my 1080p projector. They looked perfect. I still prefer that to all the noisy modern upscaling. Pixeljunk Eden for example was so clean and beautiful!