I've got a PS3, and Xbox 360, and a Wii.
Honestly, I think blueray players are overrated. The extra content tends to be obnoxious and the upgrade in graphics isn't really noticeable enough yet to be worth the extra costs. You also have to keep in mind that many blueray players are sold without the necessary cables to take advantage of actual HD. (Of course, this may not be true for all blueray players. I'm basing this off when my mom bought hers only to realize she had to go out and buy an HDMI cable to properly use it.) Frankly, unless you have a big enough TV and are just a technology-junkie, I don't think blueray today is worth it. On top of the costs of the player (and possibly the cables), you have to factor in that Bluerays themselves cost more and are still less commonly available than DVDs. If you like renting movies (I especially like taking advantage of the new $1/night deals with providers like Redbox), chances are you'll be renting DVD's 9 times out of 10. Also (though this could just be a rumor), I've heard that Blueray discs tend to be more sensitive to scratches. I have doubts as to whether or not the discs will hold up over a period of time.
But that's just my opinion on bluerays. If you're absolutely sold on the necessity of a blueray player, getting a PS3 might not be a bad idea, especially if you want to get into console gaming and aren't particularly fond of online play. But if you aren't completely sold on the blueray, it might not hurt to consider looking at the 360.
The advantages to the PS3 (in my eyes) are the controllers, the free online gameplay, the easy-navigability of the console's menu, the PSN store, and the available titles. I'm not an online gamer myself. I find online gamers to be insufferable jerks and online games to be generally unplayable if you don't start on the very first day and devote EVERY SECOND OF YOUR LIFE TO PLAYING THAT ONE GAME. You probably know what I mean. But the benefits of the PS3 having free online gameplay to non-online players like you and me is that when we do find that one game we want to try out multi-player on (for me it was Fat Princess), we don't have to feel limited by a purchase price. The PS3 is great for that "every once in a blue moon" online gamer.
Connecting your PS3 to the internet will probably be a cake walk if you're passingly familiar with computers and have a wireless connection, and it will probably appeal to you as a PC gamer to have access to the PSN store, especially if you're interested in ports of older titles or fun little games that won't eat massive sections of your HD. And I personally find the layout of the PS3's home menus to be much more easily navigable than the 360's, though this might have something to do with having only had a 360 for a few months
Graphics wise, there's little to no difference between a PS3 and a 360 when using the same connecting cords. I've noticed that some 360 games tend to have longer loading times than their PS3 counterparts, but the same can also be said in reverse for some titles.
Generally, I really like the 360. I own more titles for it and I play it more frequently. The larger library is a significant bonus that shouldn't be ignored.
But, and this is a pretty big but, I have two huge peeves with the 360. The first is that the battery-operated controllers that come standard with the console are a piece of crap. They're not particularly glitchy or poorly-made, but when the batteries start to run low your controller will start randomly disconnecting. When the controller disconnects, the game automatically pauses and the "Please Reconnect Controller" message will flash until you hold the big X button down for about five seconds and the signal reestablishes. These disconnects will become more and more frequent until the batteries just stop working. When we first got our Xbox, I thought that the battery pack in the back was just coming loose. This lead to severe irritation.
This sounds like a fairly insignificant problem on paper. If your batteries are going bad, just replace them, right? But the controller seems to start having these issues every time the battery power falls to, say 25%. Perhaps even as high as 50%. This means that you are either going to deal with irritating, random pauses in your game or throw out a lot of batteries with juice still left in them. Considering the battery life in the controllers seems to be only a few hours at best, that's a lot of wasted battery power. There are alternative options, of course. Rechargeable batteries, for one. But these are signficant hidden costs you need to consider. Plus, there's the chance that if you don't keep an eye on your battery power you could wind up in the middle of an awesome gaming session only to be unable to continue due to lack of battery power.
The PS3's controllers have irremovable, internal batteries. When you need to charge them you have to plug the controller into the USB ports on the front of the system to charge them. (There are other options, of course. Charging stands you can buy, etc. But I've found that the USB wall chargers you probably already have around your house, such as for cell phone charging and other USB-based devices, tend not to work with the PS3's charging cord. Laptops, however, work perfectly fine.) The charging cord packed with the PS3 is roughly 3 feet long. Once you adjust to the freedom of wireless controllers, it feels incredibly restrictive. They sell longer cords, of course, but they're fairly pricey. HOWEVER, the PS3 controller will keep on playing with no detriment to gameplay until it is on it's last battery legs. And beyond the restriction of the charge-cord length, there's no significant detriment to playing while charging. This means less interrupted gametime.
Ultimately, I think the biggest thing you should look at should be the game library. Don't be fooled by the hype that the only games out there for the 360 are crappy space marine shooters. That is only 60% true. This is just my opinion, but the PS3 seems to have more great, unique titles but generally fewer games while the 360 seems to have very few truly good titles but a larger selection of fun, OK games.
Infamous may not be all that great story-wise, but it does have some genuinely interesting character moments towards the end. Plus, the gameplay is incredibly, incredibly fun. This is of course just my opinion. I'm not huge into shooters, rail, 3rd, 1st, arcade, or otherwise, but the sandbox design gives an addicting freedom to strategy that a lot of shooters nowadays have abandoned. You turn on a shooter today and you follow a liner hallway until you see some chest-high walls, you crouch and wait for the opportunity to shoot. It's dull, and the worst part is despite how they dress it up there's really only one way to complete the mission. With Infamous, if you can't take the enemies head on, why not jump down to the ground and take them from the other side? Or scale the buildings and pick them off one by one? Or jump on some rails and hit and run? Or just throw caution to the wind, dive in, and beat the crap out of everyone in sight with melee attacks? It's no shining standard for the most combat options in a game, but it's still fresh enough to be worthwhile. And the sequel boasts a stronger story and characterization, at least from what little I've played of it.
If you get into games for their story, Heavy Rain might be another motivator for you. I will stand up and admit that the first hour or so are slow. So very, incredibly slow. Take a shower. Get dressed. Do some housework. Become a horribly depressed slob. It can be tedious. It's necessary for the narrative and to give you a handle on the controls before things get crazy, but it's still tedious. And I found that the replay value was minimal because I got the "best" ending on the first go. But once you get past the "tutorial" segments, the game picks up and it picks up fast. This sort of interactive drama isn't every gamer's cup of tea by far, but if you like stories in games there aren't much stronger ones out there than Heavy Rain's.
So, yeah, that's my big ramble on the subject.
09 Sep 2011, 11:47 pm
