Do I get the Xbox 360 or the Playstation 3?

**frazzled** · March 17th, 2009, 12:09 PM

My sister's birthday is coming up, and my Mum's asked me to choose between an Xbox 360 and a Playstation 3. I know very little about them, other than the fact that they vary in game selection (one has exclusives the other does not, and vice versa?) and have different versions of the consoles (why?).

She's mostly into shooter games (loved playing GoldenEye and Perfect Dark on the N64) and adventure games like Mario. In terms of price, I understand the Xbox is cheaper, but that's not a huge issue here. What I'm having trouble with is deciding which console fits her needs as a gamer, and which will last longer in terms of entertainment value and durability.

Which console is better for her? I understand there's a lot of technological differences between the two, like the Blu-ray player and online gaming... which system has greater bang for your buck? Any major tech issues with either of them?

Help!

**Grimmlok** · March 17th, 2009, 12:29 PM

right now I'd say XBOX has bigger bang for the buck.. their line of games is much better than PS3.. more of them, and better quality. The PS3 has the blu ray player, but their line of games is pretty small and a lot of them suck.. apparently PS3 games are harder to make, so not a lot of developers are doing it.

**TheONe** · March 17th, 2009, 12:49 PM

I've been a playstation guy forever so I would have to lean towards the PS3....I just hate the Xbox controllers.

**twitchy2.0** · March 17th, 2009, 01:01 PM

*tosses coin*

**darksithbunny** · March 17th, 2009, 01:07 PM

I would say Xbox 360. You can get Xbox live and play games online. Also get neflix. It is awesome. I don't know what I would do without it.

**nancydrew** · March 17th, 2009, 01:36 PM

I have both, and I really prefer the 360. I almost regret getting the PS3 in a way. ALMOST. Not quite though.

**celeb_2006** · March 17th, 2009, 02:34 PM

It's weird, I believe the PS3 is technically somewhat 'stronger' than the 360 yet time after time, when they do side by side screen comparisons of the same game, the 360 seems to have the edge on graphics. But to me it's a little nitpicking since to me it's rather minor graphical improvements.

I think both games have good first person shooters and a good mix of different games. Some are exclusive to each but most games are made for both.

My co-worker has a 360 and he's had the red ring of death three times already. He's fed up and will buy a PS3.

**twitchy2.0** · March 17th, 2009, 02:47 PM

Originally Posted by celeb_2006

red ring of death

My husband got red-ringed, sent the thing off to be fixed and then a couple of weeks later, the courier guy hands over a box and says "here's your x-box". There was NOTHING on the box identifying it! They just see so many of them that he knew what it was.

**frazzled** · March 17th, 2009, 02:52 PM

Originally Posted by twitchy2.0

*tosses coin*

Tell me about it!

Yep, looks like I might as well go with Xbox. I've asked around - even found a three-part comparison on some site - and it seems like the right choice for her. When she brought it up, she specifically mentioned all the new Grand Theft Auto games. It looks like Xbox has all the new ones, too, which is good. The last one we bought was probably GTA: San Andreas. I must've spent a whole summer playing it over and over!

Can someone explain what Xbox Live is like?

**january** · March 17th, 2009, 09:14 PM

Originally Posted by celeb_2006

My co-worker has a 360 and he's had the red ring of death three times already. He's fed up and will buy a PS3.

Yep, we had an XBox360 and after SO many technical issues, we were like - screw it, we're buying a PS3. We have it now and it works like a charm, no issues, gorgeous design. Xbox360 does have more games to choose from, but fuck it. I'm not dealing with that mess again. It doesn't matter if it had great games if you can't even play it.

My husband's coworker just got the red ring of death a few days ago as well. He's pissed. To be honest, I haven't heard anything good about the XBox360 in a long time, besides the fact that you can stream Netflix live.

**frazzled** · March 19th, 2009, 02:33 PM

What causes the ring of death to appear, anyway? Excessive gameplay?

**Grimmlok** · March 19th, 2009, 02:37 PM

the red ring of death happened a year or 2 into an older models' life because, obviously, not all the kinks get worked out till much later. It was a compounded overheating issue.. over time the overpowered processer and underpowered ventilation system would just melt things. My roomate's first gen xbox360 went tits up and he got a brand new one as a replacement and zero problems.

they upped the ventillation capacity and improved a number of things in the system itself to reduce heat production

**MrsMarsters** · March 19th, 2009, 05:17 PM

Easy XBOX360, you don't have to worry about that ring of death it rarely ever occurs anymore. Xboxlive is amazing since is is simple to use you can easily download custom content, movies, older games, etc.

I had the first generation xbox and I never had an issue. There are more games for the XBOX, and the controllers are simple to use when you get use to them.

Have fun with it!

**Grimmlok** · March 19th, 2009, 05:30 PM

yeah, i forgot to mention we rent movies through the xbox all the time.. the roomate has his computer hooked up to it too so we can stream music through it (like an xbox itunes), he downloads tv shows on his puter and we can watch it on the tv through the xbox..

we watch all our dvd's through it too LOL

**Karistiona** · March 21st, 2009, 06:47 PM

Definitely Xbox all the way, I have both and I far prefer my Xbox. Xbox Live is great, it's kind of like Windows Vista only far m ore functional and it lets you access demos, downloads, games and all kinds of fun stuff. I know that Live in the USA is a bit different from the UK one so I won't go into it too much, but it's far more functional than the PS3. PS3 is really only good for Blu-Ray.