http://www.hardcoreware.net/playstation-3-vs-xbox-360-one-year-later/

Update January 2009: I have just published our PS3 vs. XBOX 360 Two Years Later article. Once you are finished reading this, you should definitely move on to read that one!

It has been exactly 1 year to the day since we published our PS3 vs. XBOX 360 article, written for us by a friend of mine who is a lead programmer for a game company working on all three consoles (and PC).

His conclusion was a controversial one at the time. That the XBOX 360 pretty much owned in every category; price, performance, graphics, and game selection.

However, a lot can change in a year. Both consoles saw price drops, and firmware updates have the potential to improve both gaming and non-gaming features. Developers have had time to ‘learn’ the intricacies of the PS3, and several new exclusive titles have been released for both.

One year later, I am going to don my flamesuit, and take a look at each console. Let’s see if the PS3 has made strides! It’s certainly selling better lately.

Price

When our original article was published, it was just after the PS3 had launched. If you recall, they had two versions of the console at that time; a 20GB version for $499 and a 60GB for $599. To contrast, the XBOX 360 was available for $299 and $399 at the time.

However, things have changed since then, and both consoles received price drops. The XBOX 360 Premium received a simple $50 price drop, and is now $349.99. The Core version was replaced by the Arcade version, which is the same as before but includes a 256MB memory card, a wireless controller, and some XBLA games on a disc. That version is $279.99. Finally, there is the Elite Edition (or as we call it, the New Retard Edition) which is exactly like the Premium, but is black and has a 100GB more hard drive space for an extra $100. The Playstation 3’s price situation is a bit murkier, as models have been dropped, new ones introduced, prices were dropped to clear out old models, features were left out on some new models, and so on. We started with the 60GB and 20GB versions, and both of those have since been dropped completely. I won’t talk about all that has happened with the PS3’s SKU situation since then, as that would just confuse things. Instead, just consider that we now have a 40GB model for $399 and an 80 GB model for $499. Besides the hard drive size, the 40GB model lacks flash card readers, 2 USB ports, SACD playback, and Playstation 2 compatibility (the 80GB will play PS2 games, but its software emulation is not even close to 100%).

So now you can get a PS3’s ‘lower’ model for just $50 more than the XBOX 360’s ‘middle’ model. You can’t really look at it that way though, since what sets the Premium XBOX 360 apart from the Arcade is mainly the 20GB hard drive. And the ‘low end’ PS3 still doubles that (and aside from that, it is VERY easy to upgrade the hard drive on a PS3, but that’s best left for another day). Comparing the 80GB to the Elite, the PS3 is again $50 more, but this time the XBOX 360 has the bigger hard drive. I have always said that hard drive space on the XBOX 360 is pretty much irrelevant, but future firmware updates are changing that. With the ability to download XBOX 1 games, you are probably only going to be able to fit 2 or 3 of them on your Premium, depending on how many demos you have installed. Plus, if the rumors are true about the XBOX 360 also getting DivX playback, it is instantly going to turn into a great media player solution (it fails miserably as a ‘media extender’ right now), and thus will require a larger hard drive. Update: The rumors were true! The XBOX 360 now fully supports MPEG-4 Layer 2 video, which includes the DivX codec as well as XviD. However, it can only stream this type of video, from a network or external storage; as of this time there is no way to store these files on the 360 itself.

So after all that, who wins the price war? It’s still the XBOX 360, not just because the respective models are $50 cheaper, but all versions of the XBOX 360 come bundled with some games now. The Elite and Premium versions come with Marvel Ultimate Alliance (yawn), Hexic HD (meh), and Forza Motorsport 2 (yey!). While the 80GB PS3 comes with MotorStorm, the 40GB only includes a copy of Spiderman 3 The Movie on Blu-Ray.

It should be noted though, that the Playstation 3 should no longer be considered stupidly expensive.

Performance

Here’s a tough one. On paper, the Playstation 3’s Cell engine is more capable than XBOX 360’s triple-core Xenon CPU. However, as our developer alluded to last year, the XBOX 360 is much easier to develop for. In other words, a lot of the Cell’s power is going to waste. Although that is expected to change eventually, as always seems to happen with Sony’s consoles (compare early PS2 games to current games, and the same goes for PS1), one year later we’re still waiting for someone to fully exploit the system. Another indication that the PS3 is harder to develop for is the fact that almost all multiplatform games arrive weeks - if not months - after their 360 versions.

As we said last year, we fully expect the PS3 to win this category - eventually. To what extent, we’re not sure (very likely it’s only going to be the blockbuster first-party titles that take full advantage of Cell), and when this will occur, we’re not sure either. Obviously, one full year wasn’t enough.

Graphics

This is a sticky subject for a lot of fanboys. A very common argument in most flame wars is that the Playstation 3 simply “has better graphics”. I’m not sure where that argument came from; Sony obviously did a good job of marketing the system. However, the argument is entirely false. The Xenos GPU on the XBOX 360 is superior the RSX on the PS3. This is one thing that didn’t change in the past year.

Xenos simply has more power - higher fillrate, higher pixel processing power, higher vertex processing power, and better memory architecture. If you look at multiplatform games and contrast the graphics on the two consoles, XBOX 360 almost always leads. Whether they use a higher resolution or higher quality antialiasing, games often look better and/or play smoother on the 360. We looked at a handful of multiplatform games a while back, and this was always the case.

Again, we have to consider that Cell has the potential to help with graphics on the Playstation 3. As developers become more familiar with the platform, they are going to come up with new tricks to help games run smoother, and allow them to look better. However, one year after its introduction we aren’t seeing huge leaps (or even baby steps) towards this, except on a couple exclusive titles.

Game Selection

This category has two things to consider; exclusive titles for each console, and which console is better to play multiplatform games on. I think we covered the latter issue with the graphics category; given the choice between playing a multiplatform game on either console, the XBOX 360 is almost always better. At the very least, games will look the same on both consoles. At the worst, games on the PS3 will run at half the framerate of the 360, and at lower resolutions with less filtering and antialiasing. Also, multiplatform games are often delayed by weeks or even months on the PS3 (a testament to the difficulty of working with the system). Case in point, The Orange Box. The 2nd best selling XBOX 360 game after Halo 3 in October, and it is nowhere to be seen on the Playstation 3. And by early accounts, it is quite choppy on the Playstation 3.

So what about exclusive titles? After all, graphics and performance notwithstanding, this has to be the most important decision to make for most gamers choosing between the two consoles. It has been a full year, and.. well… things aren’t looking too good for the Playstation 3. As ScrewAttack noted in their Top 10 Exclusives for PS3, there aren’t even enough decent games to make a Top 10 list with!

Let’s take a quick look at the exclusive games that have come out for each system since we published our first article 1 year ago:

XBOX 360

List of console titles exclusive to the XBOX 360 released since November 20, 2006. Score in green = at least 80% on GameRankings. Score in bold = at least 90% on GameRankings. Title in bold = Overall Game of the Year contender for 2007

Playstation 3

List of titles exclusive to the Playstation 3 released since November 20, 2006. Score in green = at least 80% on GameRankings. Score in bold = at least 90% on GameRankings. Title in bold = Overall Game of the Year contender for 2007

At the Playstation 3’s launch, the XBOX 360 had a 1 year head-start, and had such titles as Gears of War, PGR3, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, F.E.A.R., Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, Dead Rising, Burnout Revenge, Fight Night 3, and Rainbow Six: Vegas, all of which which were either titles exclusive to the 360, or weren’t made available on the PS3 until some time in 2007.

Now we can look at nearly an entire year of exclusive releases for each console, and compare them on an even playing field. I took all the games that were released after November 20, 2006, and found their overall scores on GameRankings. Scores over 80% were highlighted in green, as ‘very good games’ (contrary to some, I think a score of 80% is pretty good). Also, contenders for Overall Game of the Year were highlighted as some of the BEST games for ANY console. In other words, people will want to buy the console just to play these games.

As you can see, there were a lot more GOOD games for the 360 in the past year. While the PS3 had some games that squeaked into the 80% bracket, and one or two really good games like Uncharted and Ratchet & Clank, overall it has been a mediocre year for Playstation 3. Many were looking forward to titles like Heavenly Sword and Lair to make a statement, but those games pretty much fell flat on their faces (especially Lair, a total failure).

XBOX 360 on the other hand saw some excellent titles, including some that may be considered among the best games for any console, such as Halo 3, BioShock, and Mass Effect (of course, we all know that none of these are likely going to topple Mario Galaxy for this award, but oh well).

So for game selection, XBOX 360 not only offers a better experience with multiplatform games, but their exclusive titles are more often better than those on PS3, and in some cases extremely good.

Online Support

Let’s face it, it’s going to be tough for anyone to beat XBOX Live. The interface is excellent, the interaction between players is superb, and extra features like achievements add the small touches that make playing games on the XBOX 360 just a little bit better for certain people.

Playstation Network has the sole advantage of being free for the most part (game makers are still allowed to charge for online play if they want, such as MMO games, etc). However, to play any game at all on XBOX Live, you must subscribe at $50 per year at its cheapest.

One drastic disadvantage of the Playstation 3 is the fact that you cannot send messages to your friend from within a game; in order to reach the XMB or ‘main menu’ of the PS3, you need to quit out of the game you are playing, and go to your friends list that way. There is nothing in the way of voice chat (with the exception of Warhawk), and no cross-game invite system. With XBOX Live, hit one button and you can reach your friends right away. Send them a voice message, or text message, or invite them to the server you’re playing on. You can even add your MSN/Live Messenger list to the 360, and talk to your non-gaming friends any time you want.

Profiles are also more robust on XBOX Live - each gamer has their own tag, their own custom avatar, a list of games they recently played, some achievements they have accomplished, and an overall score to give an idea of how experienced you are. All of this can be viewed in-game. Also, XBOX Live extends to XBOX.com, where you can view and edit profiles from your PC if you prefer.

On PSN, you get an icon, and a small about-me section. None of this can be viewed in-game, and there is no way to tell anything else about the gamer. PSN does not extend to an online version that can be viewed from the PC, either.

With PSN Home coming (the beta is rumored to be starting in December), this section may drastically change. Sony is banking on Home being a huge reason to play games on the Playstation 3 as opposed to the XBOX 360. Public details on Home have been sketchy at best though, so we shall see how things pan out.

XBOX Live Arcade vs. Playstation Store

Another thing to consider is buying games online. Both Sony and Microsoft offer various types of games to download online, and add several each week. Selections range from old-school games from previous systems to refreshed versions of classics, to brand new titles from small publishers and individual designers.

XBLA wins in pretty much every category though; many of PSN’s games are decent, but nearly exclusively from Sony themselves; it seems like it’s much easier for an indie publisher to get their game onto XBLA than PSN. XBLA offers a wide selection of retro arcade games, adding features like online play and leaderboards to many of them. Some of these games have become sleeper hits, like Pac-Man Championship Edition.

One area where the PSN excels (or at least has the ability to) is that Playstation 1 games can be ported directly to a PSP, along with game save files. Best of all, save files can go back and forth. If you are playing Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and want to take it on the road, simply connect your PSP, transfer the save file, and play it from there. Then when you come home, transfer the save file back to the PS3, and you are set. Unfortunately, there are very few Playstation 1 games available in the US.

Multimedia

Here’s one area that my friend didn’t really consider last year, as he is mostly concerned with making games for the systems, and not watching movies on them. I bought my XBOX 360 around the middle of 2006, and my PS3 at launch, so I am talking about my personal experience here.

For movies, the PS3 wins hands down. Not only does it have integrated Blu-Ray capability, it is a far superior movie player to begin with. We also must consider that the PS3 can be had for as little as $399, while an XBOX 360 with HD-DVD player will cost at least $530 (Arcade Edition notwithstanding, since nobody in their right mind is going to buy an XBOX 360 without a hard drive).

Regardless of comparing playback image quality, sound quality, and interface, there is one thing that gives the XBOX 360 an automatic “zero” in every category - it is excruciatingly LOUD. There is ONE thing that I HATE when I try to watch a movie, and that’s background noise. I alway go out of the way to make sure my living room is utterly quiet when I sit down to watch a movie, and the sickening screech of the 360’s DVD drive and fans makes this completely impossible.

PS3, on the other hand, is completely quiet during movie playback. Whether you are watching a Blu-Ray, DVD, or other video format, the PS3 isn’t going to make a peep.

I also much prefer the PS3’s interface to the bright, flashy, sluggish interface of the XBOX 360. Turning on the PS3 to watch a high-definition movie feels like a classy, almost ‘high end’ experience. In contrast, fire up the XBOX 360 and you are treated to a whining fan, screeching DVD drive, and bright flashy colours on your screen. The console itself looks more like a ‘toy’ and the external USB drive required for HD-DVD only extends the ‘low end’ feel.

Then you have the other media formats. XBOX 360 was only ever meant to be an ‘Multimedia Extender’. In other words, it was expected that by this time, most people would have a PC dedicated to hosting multimedia using either Windows Media Center or Vista Home. The 360 would pull the files off this dedicated media PC over the network. Therefore, the 360’s multimedia capabilities are actually quite poor. It supports MPEG-2, MPEG-4, and MPEG-4 AVC (h.264), but only in the WMV, MOV, and TS container formats. It supports DLNA, so is able to discover files on DLNA software like Windows Vista.

Playstation 3 was intended to be an all-in-one media center, and the design shows. At first, it did not support DLNA, but we broke the story when DLNA-supporting firmware was released, allowing multimedia to be streamed from Vista to the Playstation 3. All the major codecs are supported by Playstation 3; MPEG-1, MPEG-2, Motion JPEG (commonly found with digital cameras) through AVI, MOV, MP4, and TS container formats. It will even play AVCHD files directly (M2TS files - the same format Blu-Ray uses).

MP4 support is seen as the future of video, and the PS3 has very good support of this. It supports MPEG-4 AAC audio, MPEG-4 Simple Profile video, as well as Main and High profile (also known as h.264). In a big story last week, it was announced that the PS3 would soon be supporting the DivX codec, through the AVI file container. This will be the first time a non-modified console supports this highly popular format. Here’s hoping for MKV h.264 support! ;)

Audio playback is close, with the PS3 having the minor advantage of supporting SACD, although this is no longer supported with the 40GB version. It’s been sad to see Sony drop many of the advantages they held over the 360 in the past year. Playstation 3 will always be better as a standalone music player since it doesn’t sound like a jet engine, but the 360 has the great advantage of being able to access music from within any game.

I have viewed photos on both consoles, and find the PS3 to be a more pleasant experience. Again, the XMB is so much better than XBOX 360’s tabbed Dashboard, and it’s nice to view pictures without noisy fans blasting away in the background. The PS3 supports some printers directly, which may or may not be useful (I can’t imagine using it as a photo printer, but someone might. probably someone in Japan).

Other Considerations

There are some other subjective topics to discuss that don’ t necessarily fit into our other categories.

• Import Gaming - The PS3 excels in this, as all games are currently unlocked and can be played on systems from any region. This makes importing games from other countries a breeze. Furthermore, you are free to create PSN accounts for any country, allowing you to download demos from other regions. You won’t be able to make purchases without a credit card from those countries however.
  XBOX 360 has many games that are exclusive to Japan and Europe, but with region encoding, they are only playable on consoles from their respective regions. Going the other way, many titles that get a worldwide release don’t have region encoding at all, so owning a 360 outside of the US isn’t so bad if you still want to play US games. Take it from me: import gaming goes both ways!
• Piracy - A touchy subject, but one that must be considered. Although PS3 ISO’s are being released, I’m pretty sure that its game copy protection has yet to be cracked. XBOX 360 on the other hand, has a large scene going for it, and that has to be a consideration for many people deciding on which console to buy. Be warned though; Microsoft actively fights piracy, and has been known to ban consoles from connecting to XBOX Live if a mod is detected!
• Folding@Home - This may not be a big deal to you, but perhaps it should be mentioned. If you are interested in joining a worldwide supercomputer cluster capable of 700 teraflops, and want to help find the cure for diseases like cancer, the PS3 may be worthy of consideration. For most though, this function doesn’t make a difference at all.
• PSP Connectivity - With the 1.8 firmware release, the Playstation 3 received some excellent features, not the least of which is the ability to stream media to the PSP - anywhere in the world. Once two devices are partnered, you can turn on the PS3 from your PSP (as of firmware 2.0) and access all the files on it with the PSP - including HD video. This is where Microsoft got things wrong by trying to turn the 360 into a media extender. Sony decided to make the Playstation 3 a media hub, extending to portable devices like the PSP. A very wise decision, and the features get even better with time.
• Reliability - Here’s a huge one that must be considered - XBOX 360’s made prior to October 2007 are pretty much considered time bombs. It’s not a matter of whether your console will stop working, it’s a matter of when. The 360 has such a high failure rate that Microsoft spent over $1 billion to extend everyone’s warranty by 3 years. While having a long warranty is nice, knowing that it’s only a matter of time before the console dies, nobody wants to have a dead console in the first place. Newer units seem to be okay, so far (knock on wood).
• Backwards Compatibility - This was one of the major advantages of the Playstation 3 when it first launched last year. Since it had all the necessary hardware from the Playstation 2, it would be fully compatible with all PS2 games. Additionally, PS2 games would eventually be upsampled, improving their image quality for newer HD displays. PS2 owners could safely pass along their old console, knowing that their game library would still be accessible, and look better than ever. However, as Sony started revising hardware to cut costs, backwards compatibility suffered. First to go was the “Emotion Engine” CPU in the 80GB version. Some games were still supported through software emulation, since the “Graphics Synthesizer” GPU remained intact; reports show 80GB backwards compatibility to be around 50%. With the latest version of the PS3 (40 GB), the GPU was also removed, and as of now there is no way to emulate PS2 games on these systems. Although it’s probably not impossible to emulate the GPU with the PS3’s hardware, nothing has been announced and I wouldn’t get my hopes up of this ever happening.XBOX 360’s backwards compatibility is nothing to brag about either; consider it at about the level of the 80GB PS3. Many XBOX 1 games will work, but often have problems.
• Display Connectivity - The Playstation 3 wasn’t the only one to get some hardware revisions in the past year. One of the largest criticisms of the XBOX 360 was the fact that it had no digital video output. However, all consoles released after September 2007 (including the low-end Arcade version) include an HDMI 1.2 digital port. Only the Elite comes with a cable in-box.
• Open Source Operating Systems - Again, this may not be something that will sway your buying decision. While both consoles have some form of Linux support, only the Playstation 3 officially supports it out of the box. XBOX 360 has a project titled Free60 that requires you to hack your system and use vulnerable kernels. If your system has later firmware updates, it may be entirely impossible to do this. On the Playstation 3, you simply select an option in the console, and from there you can install one of several distributions that support it, including Yellow Dog (the distro officially supported by Sony), Ubuntu, Fedora Core 7, Gentoo, and Debian.

Conclusion

Recently I received an email from someone, asking if I still “stand by” our PS3 vs. XBOX 360 review. He asked if the PS3 became better in the past year.

I think after looking back a year, more than anything the statements we made were justified. The Playstation 3 didn’t get much better in a year, and in fact the hardware got worse with each revision. It started out with full PS2 backwards compatibility, and now it has none at all. It started out with SACD support, and now it doesn’t support it at all.

However, it also got better in many ways; more than anything, it’s an excellent multimedia hub. With multiple video format support (and DivX AVI support coming), and the ability to stream to the PSP, it’s clearly superior in that regard. Furthermore, it’s a better home video player, since it not only has a better interface for such things, but it doesn’t sound like a jet engine taking off.

But in the past year, we haven’t seen a single HUGE title drop for the PS3. The closest thing is a very good platformer/shooter with excellent graphics. Instead, exclusive games get delayed (MGS4), or end up failing miserably (Lair), or do not live up to expectations (Heavenly Sword).

Multiplatform games continued to be developed on the XBOX 360, then ported to the PS3. I’m sure that developers aim for simultaneous releases in most cases, but this rarely happens. When the PS3 versions of the games do come out, they often suffer from low framerates and poor image quality.

As of now, there is only one multiplatform game being developed on the PS3 later to be ported to 360, and that’s Haze. Update: Haze is now going to be PS3-exclusive. We’ll see how things go with that in a few weeks. I have heard that Unreal Tournament 3 is looking real good on PS3 too, although I’m sure that’s more of a case of Epic’s confidence that they can knock out an XBOX 360 version in a short period of time. The only major issue they are likely to come across is mod compatibility on the 360.

There will always be the speculation that the Playstation 3’s performance will increase; that it is only a matter of time. After all, we saw that happen with both the PS1 and PS2. Since Sony’s systems are powerful yet inherently difficult to work with, this always seems to happen. However, in the year since its release, the only titles to really WOW us graphics-wise are two Sony-published games, Heavenly Sword and Ratchet & Clank.

Sony has yet to catch up with XBOX 360 in terms of online features, although Home has interesting potential. We’ll have to wait and see if it is feasible as an online interface, or just a silly gimmick. This is one area where we should at least see the PS3 get some vast improvements in the years to come.

So do I stand by our statements we made last year? Absolutely. I’m happy that we were ‘proven right’ in the events of the past year. Do I think XBOX 360 is clearly the better console to buy? Not by a long shot. Each console has their own advantages and disadvantages. Read through this article, and you should be aware of most of them. From there, you can decide which one is right for you.

http://www.hardcoreware.net/playstation-3-vs-xbox-360-two-years-later/

Wow. That’s the first thing that comes to mind when I look back to our PS3 vs. XBOX 360 articles (the original, written by a game developer friend of mine when the PS3 launched, and the first annual comparison article written by myself a year later). The feedback I’ve received for these articles has been tremendous, not just in amount but in quality as well. Most people agree that the articles are among the very few on the net that don’t take sides in the argument, and offer a fair comparison of both consoles. They somehow managed to make both groups of fanboys happy.

As always, I will remain completely impartial for this article as well. I am going to keep things as objective as possible, leaving most everything else up to you to decide. If you expect me to tell you which console is the right one for you to buy, or which one “has better graphics” think again. Only you can know that. My goal is to provide you with enough information that you should be able to know clearly which one is better for you. So if you haven’t read our prior articles, you might want to do so first.

Click below to read the entire 4200+ word article :)
Price

What a way to start things off! The prices of next-gen consoles have dropped dramatically since the PS3 was introduced. Last year, we were talking about $500 and $600 models of the PS3, and $280 and $350 versions of the XBOX 360. Console SKUs have changed a lot in the past year as well, especially in the case of the PS3. We have been tracking their changes here and here, so you should go there to see what the latest features are. This is especially important with regards to the PS3, where features seem to be dropped rather than added with every SKU change.

In terms of price, the PS3 can be had for $399 for the 80GB version, and $499 for the 160GB version. It makes almost no sense to pay the extra $100 for the larger hard drive, as the consoles are otherwise identical (except for the fact that the 160GB comes with Drake’s Fortune and Pain, which may or may not make up for the extra cost depending on the type of games you like to play). If you really need the space, a 320GB laptop drive is no more than $80 these days, and it’s very easy to install into the PS3.

As far as the XBOX 360 goes, Microsoft have aggressively dropped the price on their console to the point where the low-end version without a hard drive costs $50 less than a Wii. It even comes with a full game (Sega Superstars Tennis at this time - obviously intended to compete with potential Wii Sports buyers) as well as a collection of XBLA games on disc. If you want to spend no more than $200, and are choosing between a Wii and a 360, the answer is obvious: if you like playing video games, get a 360. If you want to have something sitting around that your friends and family will play once in a while after a few drinks, get a Wii.

The ‘regular’ versions of the XBOX 360 (with a hard drive) are $299 for a 60GB version, and $399 for a 120GB Elite. Both versions come bundled with the same two games at this time; Lego Indiana Jones, and Kung-Fu Panda. So again, there is really not much reason to spend the extra $100, unless you really need the extra hard drive space. Unlike the PS3, you will need to spend that extra cash if you want the space, because the 360’s drive format is proprietary. So if you can justify the need for 120GB, get the Elite. Just be mindful that you aren’t getting much else besides a black paint job and an HDMI cable.

So the main contenders are the Playstation 3 80GB for $399, and the XBOX 360 60GB for $299. For many people, this is all that matters, and they could just stop reading here. After all, XBOX 360 sold over twice as many units at the beginning of the 2008 xmas buying seas as the PS3 (836K vs. 378K - Source: NPD).

One major issues with the XBOX 360’s price is that it still does not have integrated Wi-Fi in the box (no, not even the so-called “Elite”). If you need to use Wi-Fi to connect to the internet rather than cables, you will be required to spend around $100 for a proprietary Wireless adapter. That is absolutely ridiculous for a simple USB adapter that normally costs $20 or so. Here’s a tip: online import stores generally sell them for less, since XBOX 360 accessories cost much less in Asia.
Performance

If you pay attention to actual game developers, and not the angry fanboys, you will learn that no, the Playstation 3 doesn’t have “more graphics power” than the 360. The fact is, XBOX 360’s Xenos GPU itself has far more computing power than the RSX GPU
that resides in the PS3. Does this mean the 360 has “better graphics”? I don’t know, that is a subjective matter, beyond the scope of this objective
comparison, and entirely up to you to decide. If you like what you see
on the PS3, then to you, it has “better graphics”. If you like what you see on
the 360, then there you go. That is all subjective, and not the goal of this
article. The CPU power is another story however; on paper the Cell has a lot more potential than the triple-core Xeon that resides in the 360. Last year, I wrote,

…I fully expect the PS3 to win this category - eventually. To what extent, I’m not sure (very likely it’s only going to be the blockbuster first-party titles that take full advantage of Cell), and when this will occur, I’m not sure either. Obviously, one full year wasn’t enough.

One year certainly wasn’t enough, but were two? That’s a subjective matter,
and up to you to decide. For my money, not many games look better than MGS4 on
PS3, and Killzone 2 is looking really good. However, “Blockbuster” exclusives will almost always look
really good, and comparing one to the other is pretty much pointless.

If Killzone 2 is any indication, it looks like PS3’s Cell architecture is finally beginning to flex its muscle. It is possible that the 360 has already met its full potential, and the PS3 is still getting there, at least for AAA exclusives
are concerned. That is purely conjecture though, and that’s not what this article is about.

XBOX 360 had a huge advantage in most third-party games in 2007. We wrote that first of all, games aren’t really “Full HD” at this point. Games run in much lower resolutions in order to keep the overall quality and effects high. Make no mistake; you need a PC to play games with high detail, full HD graphics; both consoles lag far behind a well equipped PC. But I digress; when it comes to third-party titles throughout its first year, PS3 games were often late and featured noticeably lower quality graphics when compared to the same games on 360. Is that the case now? Sort of, but it’s not nearly as bad. Let’s take a look at some familiar multi-platform games of 2008:

* Fallout 3 - looks essentially the same on both, but PS3 version lacks antialiasing. The PS3 version initially had bugs, but they have since been patched.
* Bioshock - Despite coming out a year later, the PS3 version of Bioshock was pretty much a mess at first. Some of the textures are noticeably lower, and the framerate stutters often. A patch improved things, but the framerate is still lower.
* Dead Space - The developers have been quoted that working with Sony is “challenging” so the old mantra of the Sony and Playstation being tough to work with hold true to this day. Thankfully, they were able to manage a good experience on both consoles, and both versions play about the same.
* Soul Calibur IV - The 360 version runs in a 960p frame buffer, but Namco-Bandai decided to downsample the 360’s resolution down to 720p to smooth the image rather that utilize AA. However, the difference is not significant, so both versions look pretty close to the same (the 360 does have some extra lighting effects). Since you can download both Darth Vader and Yoda on either version, even that has become a moot point.
* Devil May Cry 4 - Remember this one? It came out in 2008 as well. Unlike most games, this isn’t a port from one console to another. Rather, Capcom develops their games on a tri-platform engine (Framework MT), then compile them for PC, PS3, and XBOX 360. Antialiasing is present on the 360 version, since it is essentially ‘free’. To keep it running at 720p with a decent framerate on the PS3, Capcom utilized a pseudo-AA effect by shifting frames and creating a blur effect. It does smooth things out, but during fast moving scenes it tends to stand out.

In the end, I think we can say that multiplatform gaming is getting closer to parity, but it’s not quite there yet. The 360’s superior graphics power is especially applicable to multi-platform games
that do not get a lot of development time to make full use of Cell architecture,
and the XBOX 360’s GPU allows it to run at higher resolutions while eliminating jaggies with “Free” Antialiasing.

Furthermore, Playstation 3 titles tend to ship with bugs that get patched at a later time. This is nothing new to PC gamers of course, but definitely quite new to console gamers (and not exclusive to PS3 either - plenty of XBOX 360 games get patched as well).

You should also consider that many games require a mandatory installation on the Playstation 3, and in many cases load times are still about the same as a DVD would be. With the XBOX 360, you have the choice of installing a game to the hard drive, and when you do you will instantly notice faster load times and quieter operation. Comparing DMC4 load times
on an installed PS3 version to an installed XBOX 360 version is quite significant.
Game Selection

This was a touchy subject for many Sony fanboys who read last year’s article. They stated that it wasn’t “fair” to compare the game selection of the 360, which had an extra year’s worth of game releases. My answer to them is, it doesn’t matter which console came out first. These articles are about what is out there RIGHT NOW.

Last year, the overall quality of exclusive titles was clearly better on the 360. With games like Bioshock, Forza 2, Halo 3, and Mass Effect, the 360 had many “Editor’s Choice” worthy titles, as well as a few “Game of the Year” contenders for 2007. Meanwhile, Sony’s best exclusives were Ratchet & Clank, Heavenly Sword, and Uncharted. Good games to be sure, but not exactly the same caliber. So have things switched around in 2008? Let’s take a look:
XBOX 360 Exclusives released in 2008
Title GameRankings Score
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts 80
Command & Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath 75
Culdcept Saga 77
Dance Dance Revolution Universe 3 72
Dark Messiah Might and Magic: Elements 53
Fable II 89
Frontlines: Fuel of War 77
Gears of War 2 94
Guilty Gear 2: Overture 60
Infinite Undiscovery 68
Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom 56
Left 4 Dead 90
Lips 72
Lost Odyssey 79
Namco Museum Virtual Arcade 74
Naruto: The Broken Bond 81
Ninja Gaiden II 82
Scene It? Box Office Smash 76
Spectral Force 3: Innocent Rage 60
Supreme Commander 59
Tales of Vesperia 83
Too Human 68
Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise 83
Warhammer: Battle March 57
You’re in the Movies 56
Zoids Assault 47


Playstation 3 Exclusives released in 2008
Title GameRankings Score
Buzz! Quiz TV 82
Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice 80
Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds 81
Gran Turismo 5 Prologue 80
Haze 57
LittleBigPlanet 94
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots 92
MLB 08: The Show 86
Monster Madness: Grave Danger 55
MotorStorm: Pacific Rift 82
Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm 76
NBA 09: The Inside 64
Resistance 2 88
SingStar 83
SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation 66
Valkyria Chronicles 87

This table includes games that are “console exclusive” but are also available on PC.
Green = over 80% score in GameRankings
Bold = Worthy of Game of the Year consideration (this is irregardless of their GR scores)

These lists cover the entire calendar year of 2008. Keep in mind that the intention of displaying exclusives like this is not to determine which console “is better”. It is assumed that the multiplatform games are essentially equal on both, and there are plenty of really good multi-platform games. In fact, looking at these lists, only 3 to 5 exclusive games are really worthy of GOTY consideration.

What we can see by looking at these tables, is that the 360 certainly has a lot more shovelware (especially from Japan). Aside from the crap, both consoles offer about the same amount of “good” exclusive titles. And finally, it sort of shows the futility of aggregated scores; are SingStar and Buzz really “better” than Banjo-Kazooie and Disgaea 3?

Looking ahead into 2009, the future of exclusives on XBOX 360 seems somewhat questionable at this point. Little is known about many of the titles, and they have yet to have their desirability (or even 2009 release dates) confirmed. Some of the titles we’re looking forward to are Forza Motorsport 3, Halo 3: Recon, Star Ocean, and (maybe) Alan Wake. Mass Effect 2 is questionable at best. XBOX 360 is however getting some nice exclusive downloadable content, like GTA IV and Fallout 3 (hope you didn’t trade those in!). On the PS3 side, we have Heavy Rain, Infamous, God of War 3, Uncharted 2, Killzone 2, and White Knight Chronicles to look forward to. Gran Turismo 5 may even make it by the end of the year, but probably only in Japan. Those are some pretty big sequels right there, but much of it is conjecture at this point, so we can’t comment on it too much. In November, we’ll look at how each console’s year went ;)
Online Support

Sony has come a long way in the year since we last did this comparison. Can you imagine playing a game, and not having access to your friends list? And whether you like it or not, a lot of people can’t live without achievements. Sony has added these features to their interface, while maintaining free online access. It’s not as good as it sounds however; chatting with friends is still clunky as hell, and it’s still difficult to invite them to games (there is still no auto invite function).

Some games have added better interfaces (Burnout Paradise comes to mind), but in the end, PS3’s online functionality is very poor in comparison to XBOX Live. I guess you can still say “You get what you pay for” in this case.

Another issue is the fact that there are fewer people buying Playstation 3 games. Not only is the console being outsold by quite a significant margin by the XBOX 360 (4.62 million compared to 2.56 million in 2008 alone, and 9.15 million compared to 3.25 million in the lifetime of the consoles), it also sells less games per console. That means that you will find many more online games of Call of Duty 4, for instance, on the XBOX 360. Also, even your multi-console friends will probably choose to play online games on the 360, because of everything I mentioned here.
New Interfaces

Both Sony and Microsoft launched their big interface upgrades right before the holiday buying season, and if there was one thing that set the consoles apart, these new features are it. On the Microsoft side, the entire console interface has been retooled. I mentioned in last year’s comparison article:

I prefer the PS3’s interface to the bright, flashy, sluggish interface of the XBOX 360. Turning on the PS3 to watch a high-definition movie feels like a classy, almost ‘high end’ experience. In contrast, fire up the XBOX 360 and you are treated to a whining fan, screeching DVD drive, and bright flashy colours on your screen.

The “New XBOX Interface” or NXE replaces the annoyingly low-framerate, bright flashy interface with a sleeker system that actually works somewhat similar to Playstation’s “Cross Media Bar” or XMB. It still isn’t as “classy” as the default PS3 option, but it is a HUGE improvement. And if you don’t want to play around on it, simply hit your “X” button on the controller to gain access to all the functionality in a compact window.

Since last year, PS3’s XMB has added theme functionality (both free and commercial themes are available on PSN). NXE also has themes, and it actually does a better job of separating the content you are browsing from the theme itself. Some XMB themes that have light backgrounds are impossible to use because of the white text.

That brings me to Playstation @Home. If you haven’t tried it by now, you’ve surely heard about this ambitious project. Meant to be a sort of “Second Life” for video games, the “beta” launch of @Home can be considered a complete flop by all gamers (Sony fanboy or not). If you know nothing of it, let me try to describe it for you.

Picture this scene: A stark looking “futuristic” city garden, populated by zombies that all have the same blank expressions on their faces, same clothes and same hairstyles. Wherever there is a female zombie, she will be surrounded by at least 5 male zombies, all of whom are showing off their best dance movies. Also, bubble machines are everywhere.

That’s @Home in a nutshell. I am not even going to bring up the absurdity that is asking people to pay to make their zombies look slightly different. I was in the @Home closed beta for a while, and I can admit that it is somewhat fun to win special clothing and furniture by playing games (the Namco prizes are especially cool). The problem is, there is absolutely nothing to do with this clothing and furniture once you’ve won it, except wearing the clothing and placing the furniture on floors.

Since @Home isn’t exactly an interface replacement, we can’t really compare it directly to NXE. Instead, we can simply consider it as being an ‘extra’ to the PS3 that pretty much nobody is using at this point. It may improve, but right now it should absolutely not be part of the reason you decide to buy a Playstation 3.

NXE on the other hand improves the XBOX 360’s interface to the point where it is at least as enjoyable to use as XMB. Personally, I
hated the original XBOX 360 interface, so this new one is a huge improvement. Also, being able to install games to the hard drive (completely optional) is a really nice feature. PS3 games often require installation to bring load times up to DVD speed (or slightly faster). With NXE, you are beating DVD’s already quick load times (and quieting down the ridiculously loud DVD drive).
Playstation Network Store vs. XBOX Live Arcade

The initial interface of Sony’s online store was, to say the least, crap. However they revised it last year, and it is now very easy to find games, demos, and other extra goodies. There are even ‘branded stores’ for companies like Capcom who offer many titles.

Big titles like Mega Man and Street Fighter HD are available on both programs, and usually run well on both consoles. Both consoles have good indy support as well, with all the PixelJunk games and such on PSN, and games like Braid on XBLA.

Microsoft tends to do a better job of adding retro games, while Sony only occasionally adds the odd PS1 title, and has a few arcade games available. This is one thing that drives retro fans like
myself crazy; with hundreds of great games that can easily be made available on PSN for little cost, it’s frustrating that there are so few.

As far as demos go, both PSN and XBLA have time fee-based demo exclusivity. For XBLA, it’s in the form of XBOX Live membership, where if you’re a paying member (which all online gamers are), you get early access to demos. For Playstation Network, you have to subscribe to their “video magazine” Qore to get monthly exclusive demos, the value of which is questionable.
Multimedia

When I last compared the two consoles, the PS3 had just received an update allowing it to play DivX files using the AVI container format (in other words, the most common format used by people who “share” movies and TV recordings). Shortly after that, XBOX 360 received similar features.

As it stands, basic multimedia functionality of the two consoles in terms of playback is pretty much the same. One major advantage of the PS3 is that not only can it stream media, but you can store media on it as well. The 360 was only ever intended to be a “Media Extender” so you can’t do things like save your AVI files on the hard drive.

There have been rumors for the past year that Microsoft would begin supporting Blu-Ray on the XBOX 360 following the demise of HD-DVD. Those rumors have been pretty much completely squashed, so that leaves PS3 as the only Blu-Ray playing video game console for quite a while. And as a Blu-Ray player, the PS3 is fantastic. It supports all the latest features, and has responsive controls and high video quality.
Netflix

Depending on your situation, this may be a HUGE deal for XBOX 360, something that you need to consider if you like to rent movies. With NXE, XBOX 360 added the ability to stream movies in near-DVD to 720p quality to users with XBOX Live Gold and Netflix Unlimited accounts. At a low monthly cost, users have access to over 100,000 titles, including movies and TV shows. Keep in mind however, that this feature is only available to US residents at this time.

With some effort, you can do the same with the PS3, but nothing beats turning the 360 into a media center that allows you to easily browse through thousands of movies and shows, and instantly start streaming them with decent quality. PS3’s Blu-Ray support is more geared for video enthusiasts, where Netflix streaming is more for the casual crowd. So it’s up to you to decide which is better for you.
Other Considerations

There are of course some other things that we need to consider when comparing the consoles that may not fit under certain categories. For some people, this is what will make or break their purchasing decision.

* RROD. The issue has seemingly been taken care of, as reports of recent XBOX 360 models have been few and far between. However, if you are using a launch unit, the longer you play it, the closer you are to disaster. I am knocking on wood at this point, but it just seems that having your XBOX 360 die on you is not a threat, but an inevitability.
* Import Gaming. I touched on this last year - the fact that the Playstation 3 is completely region free for PS3 titles makes it the easy choice for import gamers. If you are into playing the latest whacky titles from Japan, then the decision has been made for you pretty much. Furthermore, it’s very easy to create PSN accounts in other countries, allowing you to play demos intended for other regions. Without a credit card, you won’t be able to purchase PSN games, but this is still a nice feature to have.
* Piracy. The PS3 still has yet to be figured out by modders, so pirates are still left with one choice between the two. That said, Microsoft is constantly battling piracy, in the form of completely banning consoles that play online with pirated games. The Playstation 3 will almost inevitably be cracked, but when it happens and how easy it’s going to be are unknown at this point.
* Folding@Home. Again, not a big deal to most people, but folders who are on the fence about which console to buy will want to consider the PS3. Believe it or not, there are some pretty hardcore folders out there who care a lot about how many points they make.
* PSP Connectivity. This function was added just after I wrote my last article, and it’s only gotten better since then. The interoperability between the PS3 and PSP is nothing short of impressive. Browse the console from anywhere, stream music and video, play games. It’s really cool. Unfortunately, the PSP has become somewhat irrelevant in the last year, due to a lack of.. any games worth playing at all.
* Backwards Compatibility. If you are interested in playing your PS2 library on your shiny new PS3, forget it. Any system bought in a store today has absolutely no PS2 functionality whatsoever. Not even emulation. On top of that, PS2 emulation on the old 80GB version was extremely sketchy. If you really want a backwards compatible PS3, you need to buy a used 60GB or 20GB. In the meantime, Microsoft is expanding their backwards compatibility, and adding new Original XBOX games to their online library from time to time.
* Display Connectivity. When I wrote last year’s article, you had to buy an Elite XBOX 360 to get HDMI output. Since then, every single XBOX 360 has HDMI output (even the $200 Core System) so this is no longer an issue. What may be an issue is that you will need to use a custom cable if you want to use optical audio with HDMI video. This costs around $40.
* Open Source Operating Systems. Again, PS3 is the only console that officially allows you to install Linux on it. You can’t play PS3 games while in Linux, but you can switch back to the XMB easily. There is still a group that is working on a version of Linux that can be installed on XBOX 360.

Conclusion

So, which is better, XBOX 360 or PS3?

The answer is……. Neither! Look, each console has its “pros and cons”. If you primarily play online games, you will want to get an XBOX 360. If you have a nice HDTV and want to enjoy beautiful Blu-Ray movies, you will want to get a PS3. If you are an “achievement whore” you will want a 360. If you like to play import games, you will want a PS3. If you want to easily stream near-HD quality movies and TV shows, get a 360. It goes on and on. If you like Halo games, get a 360. If you are more of a Killzone kinda guy, get a PS3. If you want to spend less than $400, get a 360.
If you think the PS3 has “better graphics” get a PS3. If you think the XBOX 360
has “better graphics” then get an XBOX 360.

The fact is, the decisions that influence your purchasing decision are entirely up to you. What matters to you may not matter to the next person. But hopefully you have a clearer picture of “what matters” to you, and how the consoles compare after reading this article. If it’s exclusive titles, fine. Go with the console that has the games you like. If it’s “which multiplatform games play better on this console” the answer is… Well the 360 is a bit better, but the PS3 is improving in this regard (and buggy games do get patched).

I’ll finish off with some comments that are purely subjective. It is my personal opinion that it just ‘feels’ better to play games on the Playstation 3. After reading this entire article, the PS3 has some advantages and some disadvantages, but for some reason I just like playing games on it better. It’s quiet, I don’t have to worry about it Red Ringing on me, and I actually prefer the DualShock 3 controller (when the connection is not cutting out, which seems to happen with less frequency now that I think about it). I am more of an offline gamer when it comes to consoles, so the XBOX 360’s huge advantage of being the superior online gaming system doesn’t apply to me. I just want a console that will do what it’s supposed to do, and do so quietly. Other people will feel just the opposite, and that is perfectly fine. I have my reasons, and you have yours. And neither of those should affect one another. That’s the whole point of writing this article in the manner that I have.

Comments are welcome, keeping in mind that fanboy crap will not remotely be tolerated. If you have a comment to make, try to do so in a respectable manner.

I just don't see how the 360 is better anymore, the only thing I ever saw in the 360 was the exclusives, but it seems like now all the good exclusives are on ps3 (littlebigplanet, killzone 2, metal gear solid 4, etc...) all 360 has is halo and mass effect 2 (possibly as an exclusive), that interest me anyway.

It's coming to the point where the hardware is about the same price but I think we can all pretty much agree that the ps3 is superior in hardware because of the blu ray drive, it can read any type of memory you can imagine from usb to sd cards, and the failure rate is considerably lower, for only 100 dollars more than the 360 (fifty dollars if you include the online membership charge that is mandatory for a lot of us gamers.)

These sections stood out in the two articles I have provided

Article 1 Extract: regarding Graphics of both consoles.

Graphics

"This is a sticky subject for a lot of fanboys. A very common argument in most flame wars is that the Playstation 3 simply “has better graphics”. I’m not sure where that argument came from; Sony obviously did a good job of marketing the system. However, the argument is entirely false. The Xenos GPU on the XBOX 360 is superior the RSX on the PS3. This is one thing that didn’t change in the past year.

Xenos simply has more power - higher fillrate, higher pixel processing power, higher vertex processing power, and better memory architecture. If you look at multiplatform games and contrast the graphics on the two consoles, XBOX 360 almost always leads. Whether they use a higher resolution or higher quality antialiasing, games often look better and/or play smoother on the 360. We looked at a handful of multiplatform games a while back, and this was always the case.

Again, we have to consider that Cell has the potential to help with graphics on the Playstation 3. As developers become more familiar with the platform, they are going to come up with new tricks to help games run smoother, and allow them to look better. However, one year after its introduction we aren’t seeing huge leaps (or even baby steps) towards this, except on a couple exclusive titles".

Article 2 Extract: regarding multi-platform titles.

"Let’s take a look at some familiar multi-platform games of 2008:

* Fallout 3 - looks essentially the same on both, but PS3 version lacks antialiasing. The PS3 version initially had bugs, but they have since been patched.
* Bioshock - Despite coming out a year later, the PS3 version of Bioshock was pretty much a mess at first. Some of the textures are noticeably lower, and the framerate stutters often. A patch improved things, but the framerate is still lower.
* Dead Space - The developers have been quoted that working with Sony is “challenging” so the old mantra of the Sony and Playstation being tough to work with hold true to this day. Thankfully, they were able to manage a good experience on both consoles, and both versions play about the same.
* Soul Calibur IV - The 360 version runs in a 960p frame buffer, but Namco-Bandai decided to downsample the 360’s resolution down to 720p to smooth the image rather that utilize AA. However, the difference is not significant, so both versions look pretty close to the same (the 360 does have some extra lighting effects). Since you can download both Darth Vader and Yoda on either version, even that has become a moot point.
* Devil May Cry 4 - Remember this one? It came out in 2008 as well. Unlike most games, this isn’t a port from one console to another. Rather, Capcom develops their games on a tri-platform engine (Framework MT), then compile them for PC, PS3, and XBOX 360. Antialiasing is present on the 360 version, since it is essentially ‘free’. To keep it running at 720p with a decent framerate on the PS3, Capcom utilized a pseudo-AA effect by shifting frames and creating a blur effect. It does smooth things out, but during fast moving scenes it tends to stand out.

In the end, I think we can say that multiplatform gaming is getting closer to parity, but it’s not quite there yet. The 360’s superior graphics power is especially applicable to multi-platform games
that do not get a lot of development time to make full use of Cell architecture,
and the XBOX 360’s GPU allows it to run at higher resolutions while eliminating jaggies with “Free” Antialiasing.

Furthermore, Playstation 3 titles tend to ship with bugs that get patched at a later time. This is nothing new to PC gamers of course, but definitely quite new to console gamers (and not exclusive to PS3 either - plenty of XBOX 360 games get patched as well).

You should also consider that many games require a mandatory installation on the Playstation 3, and in many cases load times are still about the same as a DVD would be. With the XBOX 360, you have the choice of installing a game to the hard drive, and when you do you will instantly notice faster load times and quieter operation. Comparing DMC4 load times
on an installed PS3 version to an installed XBOX 360 version is quite significant".