About to buy a PS3

Hopefully this thread does not get locked...but I have to throw my opinion in here.

I am an owner of both consoles as well, and the thing is, everyone is right...but none are giving all the info needed. Steve is right in the aspect that live is better, but mostly for the shooter crowd. Steve talks about skill level being higher on live but again, for the shooter crowd. It is quite a bit tougher to get kills from what I remember when I played on live, but from a racer aspect, the skill is down. Racing against psn'ers is much tougher. I remember winning many races with forza and pgr, but very few on the psn with f1, wsbk and gran turismo. And also from pinner's aspect, Demon's Souls has a vicious online that has many skilled players that I doubt any skilled shooter could compete with, and vice versa. Steve has also talked about connections and lag. I personally (other than the huge psn security breach) have had very few issues with this but each persons experience differs from another due to region, internet supplier, routers, modem and so forth. I agree with Audacity that I have yet to see an actual critical analysis by industry professionals that put either services lag and connection (the two things I believe are the most important) above one or the other. If someone has one, please share as I would like to read it.

Eluder is right that live is better, for some gamers, in my opinion for the social gamer. It is easier to link up with like minded individuals for similar games on live, but it is not really that hard to do on the psn, just a few more steps. I switch back and forth from the lone gamer to the social gamer, but since most of my friends have ps3's this is where my social gaming comes from. Also, saying the 360 is better for gaming is ludicrous. Both are fantastic, both offer an extensive library of games, but I do most of my gaming on the ps3 as I personally believe it offers a richer VARIETY of EXCLUSIVE games.

Everyone should also remember that being a hardcore gamer does not mean being an online gamer. Online gaming is a relatively recent concept to the console gaming industry's 30+years. I consider myself a hardcore gamer, but I do not define myself as such because I have logged weeks of online time with COD, but because I play a variety of great games often.

Each console is great, each has its pluses and minuses. The best thing to do is get both and reap the benefits of each. If you can't do this, make a list of what is most important to you for your gaming needs and make the decision from there. You have all the opinions you could ever need here on this forum, now all you need to do is make up your mind

Good times!

I have always preferred the 360 experience for several reasons.
Here are some of them:

1) Far better controllers, the PS3 controllers are too small and the triggers are rubbish
2) Online is a much better experience on Live, faster, less lag, in and out of game chat works better, party system is better, game and system updates are far quicker and simpler.
3) Load times on the 360 are better since I can install everything to the HDD and being a DVD drive, it takes less time to do this vs the PS3's slower BD drive
4) I prefer the exclusives on the 360 than the PS3. I am a shooter and racing fan, and I find these genres are better on the 360, far better. I never liked the Resistance, Killzone or Uncharted series, so these were not enough reason for me to keep playing on the PS3. And GT5 was an enormous let down, so I'll stick to the PGR and Forza series on the 360.
5) The 360 is just an overall more polished experience than the PS3, starting from the Dashboard (vs the XMB), all the way to getting online and finding content.

Yes, PS3 and PSN have improved since launch, but they are still playing catch up to what MS has done over the years.

Again, this is my personal opinion, but I've been gaming since the Atari days and have owned almost every major console that was ever out. I just think MS has a more polished experience than Sony, both from a service and hardware perspective.

Yeah, I can agree with more polished and better service, as it should be with more experience and a pay for online service, but not by much for my gaming needs. As always, each user experience is different.

But as for hardware, I find the xbox controller somewhat clunky and big except for the better triggers, and prefer the Ps3's for the button/stick layout with better d-pad and right side button feel. As for the console hardware itself, I have to disagree. The ps3 is showing its hardware superiority with each passing season as exclusive developers push the boundaries of graphical excellence with this console. Not saying that exclusive games do not look good on the xbox, just that Sony's exclusive games look better. Also, there is virtually no difference in the graphics for cross console games as well.

Well of course the PS3's going to have better graphics, it's a newer system that costs a fair amount more than the 360. It should look better, the problem is, it's pretty marginal, and anyway, graphics aren't everything. Compare Killzone 3 which may be a beautiful looking game, but it's boring as hell. Now when Gears 3 comes out this week, I'm sure it'll look nearly as good as KZ3 (or possibly better), but it'll play about 10x better, but again, that's my opinion.

And with regards to the hardware, it's obvious MS has improved product quality, as I've had every revision of the 360 (by choice) since launch, and the product quality has definitely improved. For the PS3, I've also had many revisions (mostly by choice), since the original 60GB w/hardware backwards compatibility and you can tell they've started to skimp and the product quality has gone down.

And back to the controllers, I can't stand the flimsy joysticks on the PS3, they have no tactile feedback, and they're too small. The PS3 controller was built for people with tiny hands IMHO, and I find it very uncomfortable to play with for longer periods of time.

costs more ?hmmmmm what country you live in ,249 for a 160 gb ps3 ,200 for a base 4 gig xbox that needs a hard drive ,same price in my world or cheaper is ps3. As for the controllers ,who has off set thumbs lol,no thanks ,they didn;t change the ps3 controllers for a reason ,the users love em ,fits in my hands perfectly ,as to ones own though ,and exclusives you wanna talk exclusives lol ,not much to talk about on xbox lately ,gears 3 next week is only exclusive i would love to have on ps3 .xbox has turned into a family kinect box since it came out ,shovelware !I,m not saying the move is good ,it sucks as well ,but at least exclusive games like ,grand turismo,resistance , uncharted ,rage isn;t exclusive but the developers are saying its better on ps3 ,as will arkham city, dark souls amoung others ,developers are finally getting the best use outa the ps3 ,took awhile but the futures bright next 2 or 3 years,till next consoles arrive!