Need advice for 360/ps3

rainless said:

Well Jesus, Frank... Where the hell are you living? WEST West Virginia? j/k

But anyway my point an about bluray isn't about movies... it's about next generation games. History says... the past two generations have each moved on to new media. It's probably going to happen this time as well. The undisputed "System of Last Year" was the 360. But this year Sony's going for "The Surge."

Click to expand...

no... central wv.... i live an hour from work, medical, food/other shopping, etc..... i know of plenty of walmarts... but they all are at a minimum 1 hour drive from where i live....

the big concern i have with the sports games is the frame rate issue on the ps3. is that going to really be fixed this year?

I've had both a PS3 & XBox 360 and the PS3 is gone. I sold it and got a PS2 to play legacy games. The X360 is a great movie player for DVDs and HD DVDs and though it looks certain at this point that Blu-Ray will unfortunately win the format war MS has already stated that they'd produce a Blu drive for the console if there is demand. Games on the X360 looked better to me than the 2 or 3 interesting games I checked out on the PS3 and I absolutely despise the way Sony has dropped hardware support for legacy PS2 games on the current PS3s. STUPID STUPID particularly given the ridiculously limited PS3 library. The PS3 is coming along...but way too slowly IMO. These things have limited shelf life and by the time the PS3 has a respectable library of quality games MS will likely have something better than the X360 out there.

I would listen to Tenchi86 here; I believe he gave perhaps the most well-rounded assessment of the two without the cheerleader act. I love my PS3 [now enjoying Ninja Gaiden Sigma for the nth time] but my 360 remains my principle gaming console of choice. We're now seeing many more multi-platform titles [good thing for PS3 owners] but I usually default to the 360 because of Live and achievements.

I'd recommend the 360 for Sports games due to Live. The PS3 is just fine, mind you, but you'll find no shortage of players on Live playing Madden or NCAA 08. This is one area in which the larger install base is to your advantage. This may change with the introduction of Home but that is merely an assumption and we current KNOW that Microsoft is the clear leader when it comes to online gaming.

Since your needs are so basic it's really a toss up between the consoles. I just say the 360 because (a) Live, Live, Live and (b) you really don't care about Blu-Ray or HD DVD which would have been a check for Sony.

My best advice would be to buy based on the best deal and current availability that suits your needs.

deception``

TollhouseFrank said:

no... central wv.... i live an hour from work, medical, food/other shopping, etc..... i know of plenty of walmarts... but they all are at a minimum 1 hour drive from where i live....

the big concern i have with the sports games is the frame rate issue on the ps3. is that going to really be fixed this year?

Click to expand...

You must've gotten one HELL of a deal on that house big guy.

I'll have to look up info to confirm the sports thing so I won't say either way until I can back up what I say with a link. But I can tell you I played Madden 08 on both the PS3 and 360 and didn't really notice a difference.

I think the other thing you'd have to look at is, since you're into sports games, you're probably going to want the newest version of said game. In which case this year should be the only year that matters. And I've already made my case for this year.

Don't get me wrong... I love my 360 (currently putting together a highlight real in NBA 2k8), but I also don't think Microsoft is going in the right direction in regards to downloadable content (the size limit on Live arcade games, their stance against free downloadable maps in games like UT3... This means things like user created roster updates... which are a dime a dozen on PC sports titles, may not materialize on the 360 but be more likely on the PS3.)

If you were talking about getting a system today and were only interested in playing the games from last year (as opposed to playing new exclusives 1-2 months from now) I'd say go with the 360. You got Mass Effect... and I guess everything else (including Bioshock soon) is on PS3 already. Most of the sports games and whatnot are half off now (NBA 2k8 is $39.99 at gamestop).

But the MLB games and a whole crop of new games are coming out soon and this really promises to be Sony's biggest year.

EDIT: Confirmed http://ps3.ign.com/articles/841/841745p4.html

2k Sports (at least) has been working on the PS3 sports games and so far has MLB 2k8 (which, because of liscensing is now the ONLY mlb baseball game) locked down at 60 fps. Madden and the rest are expected to follow suit. It was really just an issue of the previous games having been ported over from the 360 (according to developers notes) and the 360 system not working as well on the PS3. This year the games are being rebuilt from the ground up.

ah. nice. thanks rainless.

whichever way i go, i guess i'm gonna hook up through hdmi. Is there a way to seperate the sound-stream from it and have it go to a soundsystem? Or am i stuck with the (likely crappy) speakers in the small (20-26" range) hdtv i'm gonna get?

TollhouseFrank said:

ah. nice. thanks rainless.

whichever way i go, i guess i'm gonna hook up through hdmi. Is there a way to seperate the sound-stream from it and have it go to a soundsystem? Or am i stuck with the (likely crappy) speakers in the small (20-26" range) hdtv i'm gonna get?

Click to expand...

Okay. Do you have a digital or analog stereo system?

If it's digital, the optical out on the 360 is actually located on the component video plug, all you have to do is cut away a few milimeters of plastic from the plug and you should be able to slide the HDMI cable underneath and use both.

I'm not sure about the PS3, but if it's built anything like the PS2 (and the PS2 and PS1 were virtually identical in terms of connection) then the A/V and digital outs are probably already seperate. So you should be able to connect HDMI for your video them just plug in the optical cable for your stereo.

EDIT: I was right.

http://playstation.about.com/od/ps3/ig/PS3-Console-Images/PS3-Console-and-Sixaxis-Images.--5R.htm

used to have optical. not anymore. that system fried. down to a backup analog system.

I am with most others here in saying that you would do best to spend your money on an HDTV first before anything else. The HDTV is useful for movies and stuff besides just gaming, and once you start gaming with either of these gaming systems you will be wishing you had an HDTV. I had a Magnavox 27" standard def TV when I first got my 360, and after a week of playing Gears of War and Dead Rising on that thing I HAD to pony up the extra cash to go out and buy a 37" Vizio TV. The difference was like night and day, and it even made it more enjoyable to watch movies and stuff. Get a TV before anything else!

As for which gaming system to get, I own both a 360 and a PS3. So far, at this point, I have had much better gaming experiences on the 360 than on the PS3. My PS3 has been mostly relegated to being a blu ray player for movies and for playing PS2 games. What games you like will help determine if it will be that way for you. In any case, you probably can't go owrong with whichever game system you go with. Best of luck.

Yeah the T.V. is key. You ask anybody who's been around for a while and they'll tell you I had no intention of getting a PS3 *or* a 360. But then I got my HDTV at an after christmas sale and was like "Well... I got an HDTV... Might as well get a 360."

It was a really simple equation.

rainless said:

Yeah the T.V. is key. You ask anybody who's been around for a while and they'll tell you I had no intention of getting a PS3 *or* a 360. But then I got my HDTV at an after christmas sale and was like "Well... I got an HDTV... Might as well get a 360."

It was a really simple equation.

Click to expand...

Very true! I picked up a 1080p Aquos, and as soon as I saw how my Wii lQQked on it w/ component cables.... I went and got myself a PS3. I didn't really get the PS3 for Blu-Ray player since I got a free Aquos BD-Player w/ the TV.

I have 3 titles...

Motorstorm [bundled]

Warhawk [w/ Bluetooth]

Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix [Download from PSN Store]

I swapped in my 360 and got my PS3 40GB yesterday with Juiced 2 Import Nights it's crap tried to take off NFS Underground but falls flat on it's face. I am trading it towards SEGA Rally and getting Heavenly Sword too then next month Army of Two.

I am after COD4 aswell don't know if PS3's online is just as good I like the looks of that WarHawk can download it or for an extra £12 get the headset & game disc.

AngelfireUk83 said:

I swapped in my 360 and got my PS3 40GB yesterday with Juiced 2 Import Nights it's crap tried to take off NFS Underground but falls flat on it's face. I am trading it towards SEGA Rally and getting Heavenly Sword too then next month Army of Two.

I am after COD4 aswell don't know if PS3's online is just as good I like the looks of that WarHawk can download it or for an extra £12 get the headset & game disc.

Click to expand...

Yeah. Lot of people trading in their 360s recently. (Xbox Live memberships coming up due and whatnot.)

I'd trade mine but there are still some games I really want to play (like I still have to finish a bunch of original xbox games and whatnot.)

So I guess we'll see. I do have a birthday coming up

Another thing is that the PS3 can play bigger games out the box via Blu-Ray. The X-Boh media is still only on DVD AFAIK.

Krome said:

Another thing is that the PS3 can play bigger games out the box via Blu-Ray. The X-Boh media is still only on DVD AFAIK.

Click to expand...

I think you are right, however the Blu-ray player in the PS3 is 2x so you get a read rate of 9MB/second. While the Xbox 360 will using a DVD drive at 12x reads at 16MB/second. So it appears that PS3 games load slower than Xbox 360 games. Can anyone confirm this from personal experience? Also maybe down the road Sony will release the PS3 with a 4x or 6x Blu-ray drive and we will see much shorter load times.

AngelfireUk83 said:

getting Heavenly Sword too

Click to expand...

You will love this game! If you have a 1080P TV and a surround system it will make you ......

VinnyTAMU said:

I think you are right, however the Blu-ray player in the PS3 is 2x so you get a read rate of 9MB/second. While the Xbox 360 will using a DVD drive at 12x reads at 16MB/second. So it appears that PS3 games load slower than Xbox 360 games. Can anyone confirm this from personal experience? Also maybe down the road Sony will release the PS3 with a 4x or 6x Blu-ray drive and we will see much shorter load times.

Click to expand...

Not all PS3 games are Bluray. The PS3 still reads DVDs at 12-16x (depending on the model of drive used. Both the 360 and PS3 have gone through about four different drive types.) So loading times, and how loud the drives are, will depend on what model the disc drive is.

But to answer your question, I've noticed no real difference in load times. A lot of PS3 games (such as Devil May Cry 4) install to the PS3s hard drive and load faster than their 360 counterparts. But we're really talking about a difference of 1 or 2 seconds.

Some of my standard DVD's had serious picture issues when playing on the 360 via the component cable and the console was new is was sent to me in September from the repair place. And I was getting a little fed up of some content I bought not working e.g Arcade Games from 1st console to new one and calling MS support and hearing how they can't do anything nor refund me.

The PS3 plays all my DVD's like a normal DVD player would if not better I have a 26" HDTV 1080i soon we be getting a 1080p HDTV. I've played Heavenly Sword really like it tonight played it at my friends who just got a Yamaha 5.1 SS with AMP sound really good a tweak is needed to get it sounding right.

I am upgrading my PS3's HDD with a 160GB 1 I have also read reviews on 7,200rpm vs. 5,400rpm drives when installed in the PS3 no real gain so I'll save money.

360 has a vastly better online system, countless more games, cheaper, and it is only getting better.

Even with an HDTV a PS3 would end up being a giant paperweight for me, like it has been for so many that have purchased them.

Without a HDTV? Absolutely no reason for a PS3. I'd at least use it for the Blu-Ray, but w/o a TV that can play them, no point.

Heck, most of the people I know that have PS3's use them only because they play Blu-Ray, and have maybe 1 or 2 games that collect dust.

Just check the month-to-month sales, they speak for themselves.

PlayStation "Home" is gonna be good when it arrives, and they are gonna fix the XMB soon to be more user friendly.