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2 out of 3 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"Some facts and oppinions along with stuff people may not know."
Pros: Relatively a good value given what you get
Cons: No HD cables included, Additional controllers don't include charger cables
Summary: PS3 and Blu Ray Xbox 360 and HD-DVD Facts ( with a few oppinions on the side):
1.The controller for the PS3 does have a replaceable recyclable lithium-ion battery. It is replaced by removing the 5 cross tip screws and pulling off the bottom of the controller. Instead of electronic guts, there is a battery compartment. Snap on access panels like the Xbox 360 are far more subject to getting lost unless some one pays even more for the cabled charger solution, and rechargeable batteries should last for several years before becoming unable to retain a charge. Thus pulling apart a sixaxis controller should not be necessary all that often. Note also that the PS3 comes with a full rechargeable solution built into the controller where as the 360 requires you to purchase a rechargeable solution as an additional expense. Arguably additional controllers for the PS3 could benefit from additional USB recharge cables; however it does come with one with the base station. USB recharge cables for the PS3 can be obtained for as little as $1-$10 (not sure I would trust a $1 cable) at some dollar stores, The cheapest solution for the 360 I've seen is around $10 per controller and involves battery swapping, or $15 (via Ebay or $18 else where) per controller for a solution like the PS3's.
2.As of Monday of this past week both Best Buy and Walmart both had the PS3 in stock because apparently people weren't getting the prices they wanted off ebay, and so returned their extras. My local Best Buy had 8 systems, 5 were 60Gig, and Walmart had 5 systems, 3 were 60 Gig. I actually didn't expect it when I asked the sales clerks, but I praise smart consumers, and hope the little Timmy's out there get their PS3's they asked for this Christmas.
3.There is a lot of false hype going around about the costs of producing Blu ray disks and how this cost is going to affect the consumer. The fact is the cost of setting up a Blu ray production line is no more expensive than it originally was to set up a brand new DVD line. The HD-DVD consortium is hyping up the fact they are cross converting existing production lines, and thus there is a cost savings to the manufacturers, and this then will be passed on to the consumer; however, this is pure fallacy as now that both are in production they are selling for roughly the same price, and in fact as of my last check the average price of Blu ray disks is actually about $3 cheaper than the average price of HD-DVD disks.
4.As of the last statistic I read Blu ray systems out there have surpassed HD-DVD systems by over double. It is obvious that the sale of the PS3's have indeed made it the more distributed format as of this time, and that the whole first to market aspect of HD-DVD is not truly a factor.
5.Currently more companies are backing Blu ray than are backing HD-DVD. The only major movie company stead fast against Blu ray seems to be Universal. Where as Fox, and Sony (obviously) do not support HD-DVD. It should also be noted that Apple and Dell, two of the largest distributors of computers both support Blu ray meaning any one who purchases media systems from them will get Blu ray. It is true that Microsoft is a supporter of HD-DVD, but much like Sony, they are biased in their choice as they aided in the development of HD-DVD, so will make money off every sale of every player.
6.Some people feel that games on the 360 are better than an equivalent game on the PS3. As technically this is always opinion and not really fact, I sat down with both systems and tried two games I had access to side by said. The first game was Call of Duty 3, and Upon examining both, I would have to say that the xbox 360 definitely had higher frequency detail in many of it's textures where as the PS3 looked a little washed out in comparison. That being said both systems seemed to have an equivalent amount of stuff happening on screen at the same time. One thing that was missing from the PS3 incarnation of this game was the ability to play split screen with a friend. Despite these two strikes against the PS3 version of Call of Duty, my Brother and I found actually playing the game a hair more fun on the PS3 as to whack an enemy with the stalk of the gun you had to make the movement with the controller. On the 360 you just pushed a button (The less effort may appeal to some, but we were having a bunch of fun whacking the bad guys on the PS3). If you're after a graphical masterpiece, then I would recommend the xbox version, but if you after a bit more fun, I would recommend the ps3 version. The other game we tested out was Ridge Racer 6 on the xbox vs Ridge Racer 7(aka 6.5) on the PS3. Now I read a whole lot of posts with this one picture on Aviator Loop and a cruse ship that was removed from the shot. Naturally I went searching for this elusive spot so that I could see the missing boat, and after running the course 3 times, I finally figured out that the picture was from the fly in at the beginning, and yes the boat was indeed gone; however, this one section goes by so quick that if you blinked you would miss it, and beyond which it couldn't be seen at any point while actually racing. Now lets talk about what could be seen in game like the fact that the textures on all the surfaces were much cleaner and more colorful on the PS3. Much like how Call of Duty 3 on the PS3 lacked the high frequency detail that the 360 had, In Ridge Racer it went the other direction. The 360 version of Ridge Racer seemed washed out and flat in comparison tot he PS3. Not only that but there we many points in the game where it looked like that added additional geometry to make some of the houses, buildings and other environmental elements more robust. To top it of the Ps3 version had the option to steer using the controllers motion sensitivity. It prove to be quite effective, and added an additional dimension to this game making our vote go for the PS3.
7.Lastly Lets look at what you get for your money as a lot of people say the PS3 is over priced, and to get an Xbox 360 instead. The two most comparable models are the 20Gig versions because they both share a common hard drive size, and thus are closer to being on par with one another. The price difference between the 20Gig PS3 and the 20Gig Xbox 360 is $100. For the difference in price one must ask do they get over $100 in value? The most obvious thing one gets one the PS3 is a Blu ray drive, to add an equivalent HD drive to an xbox would cost an individual $200. That alone puts the 20Gig xbox 360 at the price point of the 60Gig Ps3; though, one could argue that a person could get the non hard drive version of the xbox 360 along with the HD-DVD drive and match the price of the 20Gig Ps3, but then you have no way to store game progression with out using a memory stick of some form. That would also mean the xbox 360 owner would loose the ability to have wireless controllers, and they would loose the ability to have backward compatibility with old xbox games until they got their hands on a hard drive for their system. Now HD dive aside what else doe the PS3 come with. The PS3 has the complete wireless controller including batteries and charger cable, where with the xbox you have to add the above mentioned batteries and charger. The PS3 has Gigabit ethernet (10/1000) the 360 has 10/100. That being said unless your transferring high def videos from your computer to your PS3 or Xbox that may not be a factor, but given that there is a possibility one may, then the PS3 will have the advantage. For general on line game play they are both adequate. The PS3 has an HDMI out built into it making it easy to attach to a HDTV if you have a cable, sadly the PS3 doesn't include either a HDMI or a component cables so you need to spend at least $20 to get them. Fortunately it is 100% backward compatible with ps2 cables, so if you have component cables for a PS2 they will work. I can not speak for the 360 (didn't try this) but a nice tip for people who get a PS3 is you can get a 64 meg USB dive for less than $10, and use it as a portable memory card for games on your PS3. Over all I would say that the Ps3 is definitely a great value for the money when compared to the xbox 360, and has a bright future ahead of it.
- 1 reply to this review
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i am sorry but after reading the review you sound a lot like you favor the ps3 better. I really want to tell you everything wrong with the ps3 but i really dont have time. Anyway since you were talking a lot about blu-ray, lets talk about that. First of all do you remember beta-max vs. VHS. Let me reresh your memory. Betamax was clearly supposed to be better that VHS but guess who won VHS. Also I dont think Sony is smart because they raised the price of ps3 to $600 and most of the Europe and US market consists of causal gamers who wont spend $600 for a console. Also I went to best buy and saw 2 ps3 just sitting there and few ppl strolling through the game section didnt even notice it. Anyway sony strategy is back firing at them. If they dont sell their consoles (due to the high price) then blu-ray wont sell and ppl wont have a ps3. Sony will be taking 2 hits at once. But if it did pay off then they will make twice the profit. But is taking such a risk smart. NO given sony video products. Just look at Microsoft they give you an option. Also Sony is tryin to push consumer to buy a product when they might not need it. I mean many ppl i know still have a sdtv and they wont purchase a hdtv for another half a year. Anyway you were very sure about blu-ray but i think sony is taking a bigger risk and i think the risk/benefit ratio, the risk is higher.
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