think of it this way, instead of paying whatever free for XBL, i could be eating lunch, taking my family out for dinner, or going to the movies with that money, with PSN i dont need to worry about a fee that'll pop outta know-where. im sure XBL is good, but its not for those who dont want or need to recklessly spend extra money. Free online is the one thing i have to admit Sony did 100% right this gen.

think of it this way, instead of paying whatever free for XBL, i could be eating lunch, taking my family out for dinner, or going to the movies with that money, with PSN i dont need to worry about a fee that'll pop outta know-where. im sure XBL is good, but its not for those who dont want or need to recklessly spend extra money. Free online is the one thing i have to admit Sony did 100% right this gen.

I strongly disagree with this...beacuse of 1 reason.

Matchmaking with similarly ranked people.

Most of the best games that have matchmaking integrate a system where you won't get your ass handed to you every time you log in. Street Fighter 4, Halo 3, COD, Gears...etc. They will match you with people with similar stats as yours...or atleast try.

Since PSN is free, nothing stops a player that is ranked higher in a game from creative a new account every month and owning people that are jsut learning to play the game. Happens on xbox 360 despite people having to pay for their accounts...I can imagine how bad this is on PS3.

It's not to bad to be honest, i should know, right now im playing Tekken 6 and i gotta say the ranking system is pretty decent on PSN, i've only face like 3 out of 50 people who really, REALLY kicked my ass, all the others were even matchs.

I strongly disagree with this...beacuse of 1 reason.

Matchmaking with similarly ranked people.

Most of the best games that have matchmaking integrate a system where you won't get your ass handed to you every time you log in. Street Fighter 4, Halo 3, COD, Gears...etc. They will match you with people with similar stats as yours...or atleast try.

Since PSN is free, nothing stops a player that is ranked higher in a game from creative a new account every month and owning people that are jsut learning to play the game. Happens on xbox 360 despite people having to pay for their accounts...I can imagine how bad this is on PS3.

     I've always been curious about what the 'real' difference was between Xbox Live and the Playstation Network. For every, 'My Online is Free' post, there's the contrary, 'You get what you pay for' follow up. But outside of forums and blog posts, I've never really known. Now, thanks to a friend destroying his 360 trying to clean the DVD lens (somehow the motherboard snapped in half) and his subsequent revenge purchase of a PS3... I have a much clearer, informed opinion.

     To keep this post short and to the point, my friend, after only four days, returned his PS3 and is right now, as I type this, picking up a replacement 360 to occupy the same dusty shelf in the same musty basement it was in before, where he can once again get his 'online' fix going. To be fair, the PS3 has some incredible games, but my friend's main reason for gaming at all is to play against others, and that is where the PS3 falls painfully short. The online interface is clunky and lacks so many of the community features that are intergrated into Live, that navigating between games with friends is complicated and time consuming. With so many varying degrees of blue-tooth quality headsets, the noise levels during games makes communicating a complete pain, to the point that we had to actually call each other's cell phones to hook up. Not good.

     Overall, just a very frustrating experience... at least in the eyes of someone who's used to how things work on the 360. Sure, Live costs, but I can finally say with absolute certainty that if online is where you want your cosole to be, the quality and community driven features of Live are more than worth the price.

    Both great systems with plenty of must have exclusives for each, but after experimenting with the PS3's online capabilities for a few days, I won't be second guessing my purchase for a quite awhile. For the past two months or so, the PS3 has made some serious inroads towards the sales lead established by Microsoft, every week the numbers push it closer, Sony definitely has that going for them. Now on the other hand, the Playstation Network still has some serious catching up to do.

Matchamaking is in almost all games in all consoles these days so its not something on XBL only.

is that the free account's problem ? O_o

i mean, you can play CoD 4 for example and get a prestige ALA get skilled in it, and then go play MW2 even with low levels you are skilled.

in-game levels dont mean anything (except unlocking skins and perks) , its all about skills, and now most FPS's for example look and play exactly the same so if you play "this" one , you are going to be good at "that" one too