quite easy :

1/ are u limited on the price ?
if yes, go Xbox360; particularly if u live in europe

2/ du u want HD ?
if yes, go PS3 with BR player

3/ whihc line-up do you prefer ?

Sony games versus PC games
GT versus Froza
MGS4 versus Splinter Cell Convinction
FFXIII + vXIII versus plenty of "less famous" JRPG (+Star Ocean 4)

I'd say 360 is winning right now in JRPGs, too. Ratchet and Uncharted are action-platformers. How is 360 winning FPS? Are you including Gears, which is 3rd person? MGS4 can actually be first person, but even that isn't considering FPS. Also, Resistance 1 and 2. Bioshock in a few monhs will be on both. Mass Effect is an RPG. I'd actually say PS3 is winning this unless there is some game I'm forgetting. Perhaps it's more even if you expand it to "shooters" to include Gears.

Looking at your list of games, I see that you were once a PC gamer, if you ever intend to return to pc gaming you may as well skip the 360 and go for the PS3 as there is a lot of overlap between the PC and the 360 and PC/PS3/Wii gives the best coverage.

Alternatively you could go PC again since you could put together a gaming system with more power than a PS3/360 combined for about $500 as an upgrade to your existing machine. I see that you like strategy games and the PC/Wii combination is quite powerful. You can even plug it in to your tv if you want and use it as a media centre/gaming machine if you prefer using console type controls. Most of the sports games now are going to start coming out on the Wii anyway so you're not missing out there, and you get to enjoy most of the 360's excellent lineup + the pc exclusives.

Its basicly a - Phenom X4 9850+Free motherboard $235 (Quad core is good for strategy games) 2gb ram - $40, Radeon 4850/Geforce 9800gtx $200 so round $500 with shipping.

You are painting the picture very one sided my friend.

MGS4 is one of the best games of all time the same way Halo 3 is...in the "been there done that" way.

FF13 and GT5 may be out in a year or so, but why would he just not wait till then (and obvious price cuts) to buy the PS3? Howmany other exclusives are there on the 360 that he could be playing now ot by the end of the year?

Also, if I send sony 50 bucks a year, will they make PSN better? If 50 bucks makes the difference I'll gladly send them the money to give me the features Xbox live does.

Good point about The Show. GT5 and Motorstorm count as well. As long as EA gets the framerate fixed for their sports games on PS3 (which is good for NCAA and Madden from all reports), then PS3 wins that, too. Also, I forgot to mention Killzone 2. Good point.

Based on what you like, I would go for the 360 Premium.

Make sure its the newer models and look for a bundle.

The only reason I would consider the PS3 is you already have an HDTV and are also interested in buying/renting bluray movies. Then the additional $ for the PS3 is ok. Keeping in mind you are losing rpg's and a generally better selection of multiplatform games.

but, that's just my opinion.

I have a PS3 and 360 and in my opinion the PS3 is better. however, the wii beats all lol

Amazingly I would agree with what Squilliam said. If you have a decent PC then 360 is less enticing. Thats what happened to me when I nearly bought a 360 back in 06.  If you have to choose between any of these consoles or a PC go with the PC obviously it has many great uses but.... You can't deny that PC gaming is much more expensive then console gaming in general...

Ps3 Pros:

- Wifi out of box
- Blu-ray player
- free online

Ps3 Cons:

- More Expensive
- Old multiplat titles had problems

360 pros:

- Cheaper (if you don't buy online [$45+ tax for prepaid card re-new after 13 months] or wifi adapter [$88+ tax] or HDD [If you go core/arcade and want to update later $90+ tax] or HD-DVD player [If HD movies is what you want. $69+ tax] or play and charge kit [If you don't want to keep buying batteries $18+ tax per controller)
- Better library

360 cons:

- pay to play online
- potential rrod
- noisy
- If you own gaming PC - shares a lot of exclusives with PC

Go look at the future line-ups to see pros for each system through games


Ps3
Ratchet and Clank
Resistance
Uncharted
MGS4
GT5P
Motorstorm
Heavenly Sword
UT3 (with mods)
Warhawk
Singstar
MLB '08 The Show


360
Gears of War
Halo 3
Mass Effect
Viva Pinata
Forza2
Ninja Gaiden 2
Dead Rising
Crackdown
Blue Dragon
Lost Odyssey

Ps3
Resistance 2
GT5
FF13
Killzone 2
Motorstorm2

360
Gears2
Forza3 (rumor still?)
Banjo
Halo Wars
UT3 (exclusive map?)

Had my PS3 since Sept. 2007. Just got the 360 cuz of all the new JRPGs coming out and lower price and it was soooo worth it. Never been xbox fan since I don't like FPS, but Xbox Live alone was worth half the value. :) I never thought I'd pay for a subscription seeing the PS3's online services, but now I understand why people pay for Live.

FF13 won't be for a while and Prologue for GT5 was SO NOT WORTH IT for me with 1/5th the number of cars and tracks for 66% of the price of full game.

I say get 360 now, and save money for PS3 in a year or 2.