Which Console Is Better

[Todd98]

Okay guy's I am going too buy a console and give it a try again. After looking at my Sega Genesis, Playstation & Nintendo in my footlocker and all the games I had for them I decided too buy another console.

Which one is the best out on the market? I have been leaning towards Xbox.

[Jeffro]

if i were to ever by a console, in which i prob won't, i would buy a ps3. i heard there were alot of problems with xbox's.

[Trooper110]

Depends what you want. Personally I'd buy a Wii or a 360. Both of them are a lot of fun and lots of good games imo. Playstation of course has good games, but Blu-ray is overrated imho and they're releasing almost all games cross platform now.

I much prefer the 360 for playing games on the net, and the console has gotten a lot better. It also has a wider developer base. The Wii is just a lot of fun with what they can do with the controllers.

[Cal]

From what I see---

The XBox is great for online play, its also a good video player (you can hook up an external drive to it and watch movies, downside is they have to be encoded to WMV). I'm pretty sure the most recent iterations of the console have solved the Red Ring of Death issues.

PS3 is expensive, has decent (free) online play, and occasionally better graphics than the Xbox (GTAIV ran at a higher FPS on Xbox than PS3). It's also a BluRay player if you're looking to get one of those.

The Wii is the cheapest, and has some great games (Smash Bros, Mario Kart, Mario Galaxy, Zelda..) but not so much after those. I'm a fan of Mario Kart's online play, but Smash Bros is pretty awful online (lag hits hard).

On a personal level, I have a Wii and a 360, and don't use either all that much. I use the Wii when I have friends over for the multiplayer games, and the Xbox mostly as a video player....and to agree with Trooper, i think BluRay is also overrated...I don't really care to spend 30-40 bucks to buy a movie just because the resolution is higher. I'll stick to my DVDs, thank you.

[Thrashdragon]

If you want a Blu-Ray player, the PS3 has one of the best players on the market for considerably cheaper than standalone models that don't offer any better performance. Also PS3 sales have been on the rise over the last few months so it may start to attract more third party developers.

The 360 has more games and a much better online service, and they finally fixed the overheating problem (after I bought mine of course).

The Wii I found to be a novelty, mine hasn't been played in a year and is sitting in a box. WiiSports only keeps you amused for so long. It's underpowered, pretty much every game not actually made by Nintendo is garbage, and its online features are awful. You have to be a hardcore Nintendo fan to get any serious use out of it (or have a lot of Wii parties, but all my Wii parties always quickly turned into Rock Band parties).

Having played all three IMHO the 360 is the best dedicated gaming platform.

[Trooper110]

Not to mention you HAVE to have a HD television, preferable 720p minimum and advisable 1080p to get full use of Bluray. Disks are too expensive, and you can get a DVD upconverter that will work with a "regular" TV, or your HD set, makes the movies look a lot better, works with 'regular' DVDs, and you can pick up for under $100.

The 360, if you put it on your network and have a Media Center PC, or Media Center capabilities, you can stream WMV, DivX (or XviD, can't remember which), and I belive AVIs natively. You can also get quite a few transcoders that work well for streaming video. This also works with audio if you want to play songs through the Xbox for some reason. I'd want it wired though, unless you have a short distance to go and a draft-N setup.

[Truthbringer]

If you plan on getting a xbox360 wait for the 60gb models to release along with the $200/$300/$400 pricing that will come with it for the arcade/regular/elite systems. I own all 3 systems and each one has good things and bad things to it.

The wii has nicely priced games, but most of the non first party games are very mediocre and even though the system is the cheapest out of them all the accessories (extra wiimotes, nunchuk controllers, component cables, etc) will kill any money you would expect to save going wii.

Ps3 you have built in wifi, bluray, partial game installation for faster load times, free to play online, and supposedly upscales dvd's better than the 360. If they weren't giving out $100 gift cards when I bought a ps3 I'm not sure I'd own one currently as I use it mostly as a very expensive ps2. My biggest gripe about the ps3 is the heat it puts off, but its the only one of the three that has a internal powersupply so I guess its to be expected.

Fall update for the xbox360 will introduce some new functionality like full game installs to the harddrive which will be pretty nice as the noisy dvdrom is probably the worst thing to the 360 next to its reputation for hardware failure which still occurs, but hey microsoft warranties red ring of death and even sends you a coffin with shipping covered. Playing 360 online isn't free, but for $50-$40 a year its not terribly expensive and the online experience is the best among the 3 consoles...Wifi is a $100 option which is kinda crazy, but not as crazy as their harddrive prices when purchased seperately.

Oh yeah I don't know about the arcade model, but normal 360's come with a component cable, elite comes with hdmi and component, ps3 comes only with a composite cable, and wii comes with just a composite cable also. Help you factor any additional cost for what cables you might need/want for your setup.

[Rand{CLR}]

Todd, it comes down to two factors: Blu-Ray vs. Full Family Fun.

PS3 is best on Blu-Ray, a bit hurting on games, but Blu-Ray more than makes up for it. Meanwhile, the Wii is unsurpassed when it comes to having fun with the family, friends, at parties, etc. The addition of the motion plus add-on soon will only make it better.

I haven't really seen anything I like about the 360, except that its games are $10 cheaper than PS3 games.

-Rand

[{CLR} Major.Massacre]

PS3 all the way. Yes its short on great games right now. By febuary of next year there will more than enough AAA titles. You want the best graphics? Buy a PS3. You want better online support? Home online is coming and it blows the xbox online support out of the water, and did I mention its free?
All this talk about prices... if you want the best, you have to spend the money. 1080p all the way!
Resistance2, Killzone2, Resident Evil 5, Socom Confrontation, I could keep going. The first year and a half was rough for the ps3, but how was it for the 360? The same. After COD4 and GTA4 xbox fanboys couldnt say much. Not trying to knock the xbox 360 its got its share of great games. But if you look at the specs between the two there is no competition.

[linemanstud]

Here is what I would say...hold off on getting any for a few months. As far as performance goes, I would say stick with the PS3. The advantage of the Xbox is that it has all kinds of amazing games that are out right now. The way things are going, there should be a huge price drop just after christmas, plus there are a bunch of games that should be great coming out for PS3 pretty soon here. Really, the final decision needs to be based on what you would prefer in the end. You need to decide if you want games now, graphics now, or if you are willing to wait and see what happens.

[Todd98]

Thanks all! I will go with the PS3.

[{CLR} Major.Massacre]

Thanks all! I will go with the PS3.

Woot!

[{CLR} Major.Massacre]

I have xbox live and PS3 and I think id say PS3

Make sure to post your online ID in the playstation forum here at Cain's!

[Pumpkin_Jack]

Buy The Wii

[K PhaNTOM]

WOW, so many PS3s... Well as a proud PS3 owner, I'd say no. I admit the graphics are awesome and will improve soon with 50GB of space.. however it is not less buggy than a 360. I got my PS3 when it came out, on the 17 of November. Many games worked, but Call of Duty 3, Assassins Creed, and GTA-IV DID NOT WORK! I was so pissed, they worked for 5 minutes and then froze. Obviously there is a problem with either the RAM or the gfx Card.