We've established that the PlayStation 3 is secretly less expensive than the Xbox 360 -- at least forty bucks -- if (and I say again, if) you load the 360 with comparable accessories like Wi-Fi, a hard drive, and online multiplayer. If high-def optical playback matters to you, add another $180 to the Xbox 360's tag and make room on your shelf for a bulky peripheral. If you want more storage, you can either pay the Microsoft Hard Drive Tax ($180 for a 120GB hard drive? I just bought a 320GB external at Best Buy for $80!) or go without, no ifs, ands, or buts. Unless you're willing to pay more long term for the privilege of paying less upfront, the PlayStation 3 is therefore probably the better deal, dollar for dollar.
But what about the games?
Of the two systems, Microsoft's Xbox 360 has the better overall exclusives library at the moment. BioShock, Halo 3, Geometry Wars, Forza 2, Project Gotham Racing 4 (and if we time travel a bit, Gears of War, Dead Rising, Dead or Alive 4, Viva Pinata, Crackdown, etc.). Sony has Resistance: Fall of Man, Warhawk, Heavenly Sword, MotorStorm, and that's about it if we're not counting you loony bell curve throws who think Genji and Lair and Untold Legends were underrated. Granted, Microsoft's already played its 2007 holiday hand with Halo 3 and BioShock, and the only 360 exclusive I'm watching between now and December 31 is Bioware's Mass Effect.
What about Sony's holiday lineup? There's Eye of Judgment, the first PlayStation Eye game. Use real cards on a real cloth map to wage strategically complex fantasy battles against the computer or anyone else online, all courtesy the PlayStation Eye, which reads 2D bar codes off the cards and "judges" gameplay accordingly. Niche? Count on it, but hey, I'm not into card games, and I'm into Eye of Judgment. If that sounds even a little bit intriguing, you can read my review here at PC World in a day or two.
Then there's Time Crisis 4...a rail shooter. Sorry, but I simply despise rail shooters. Always have, always will, even if the new alternative FPS mode sounds one-thumb-halfway-up interesting. If you love rail shooters and pointing a light-gun-peripheral at your screen and having your perspective yanked around by a sadistic camera, count Time Crisis 4 in Sony's favor, even if I won't.
Most promising game on deck? Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction. I can't talk about it yet, but oh what I'd say if I could...
That leaves Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and Haze, which we've seen and heard little enough about of late that I wouldn't absolutely count on the latter game making its release date. Drake's Fortune is supposed to go gold any day but who knows and my Sony contact just emailed to confirm it's going to make its November 20th ship date.
Drake's Fortune has me thinking Treasure of the Sierra Madre or Raiders of the Lost Ark (or Tales of the Gold Monkey, if anyone remember that little TV gem). Designed by Naughty Dog, the guys responsible for Jak & Daxter and Crash Bandicoot, it may appeal to fortune hunting fans if it has more to sell than its pretty engine and some Tomb Raider worship. The other game, Haze, is a first-person shooter by Free Radical (the TimeSplitters guys) and looks like it wants to go hog-to-hog with Halo. Think more serious in tone than TimeSplitters, 24-player online battles, and an AI system (dubbed "Conspire") that's supposed to let enemies "react dynamically." What's "dynamically"? Good question. Everyone claims it -- no one ever quite lives up to it.
In other words, while Sony's revised PS3 pricing may be romancing your pocketbook, caveat emptor unless you're not expecting the Sony equivalent of A Very Halo 3 Holiday, or you're content to party with your PS2's (or in the case of the 40GB PS3, PS1-only) library.
$400 isn't quite low enough (at least for me) to fall into the "impulse buy" category. It's just high enough to make me think twice, which is not in Sony's favor at the moment. A weak PS3 game library coupled with the elimination of PS2 backwards compatibility means the PS3 will essentially just be a Blu-ray player for the next 6-12 months. In the fullness of time (once the games are developed), the PS3 will be as dominant as its predecessor. In the meantime, it still has some issues to overcome.
For this holiday season, I can spend $250 on the novelty of the Wii, $280 to jump on the Halo bandwagon, or $400 on... ummm... what exactly? $200-250 is about as high as I am willing to go with an impulse purchase, and $280 is only a slight stretch past that. Beyond that, I'll need a little more than curb appeal to buy in.
Since when has The Darkness been a Sony exclusive? I must have been hallucinating when I played it on my 360 two months ago.
ChrisWVM: Me too! (Fixed.)
400$ for an upgradable blue ray player that also plays games sounds good to me...
Killzone2 will move consoles... Ratchet & Clank looks great...Army of 2 looks cool too... by 2008 Q3 sony will be on top...HOME will be the envy of 360 owners.
If ps3 wants to hane a successful Christmas (which will be hard with many of the killer apps not coming until 2008), here's what they should do.
Make a commercial that goes like this....
System: $350
Add-on high-def DVD: $200
Bigger hard drive: $180
Wi-Fi Adapter: $100
Online subscription: $50
Being cheaper than the competition: Pricelees
PS3...Do the math!
End Commercial.
System:$350
Ethernet cable long enough:$30
Online Subsciption:$49.99
Playing with firends, being happy with out HD and a lot of Hard Drive space, good online connections, updates, downloadable demos,content and more, and getting 75% of the rivals systems game to jump in....
Priceless
Xbox 360: Do the math...
System: $250
Childish games that are still fun, getting to play with the family, and introducing a new way to play: Priceless
Wii wins, 360 second, PS3 last only cause 360 has 75% of PS3's game now
Oh and Haze is coming to the 360 also ;)
Wii is still better even though it lacks amazing graphics
Oh and quit being so biased Matt Peckham all you reviews bash Xbox and praise PS3
Um ilikepie, Haze is a PS3 exclusive, Free Radical and Ubisoft announced it I think last month. And Metal Gear Solid 4 and Final Fantasy 13 are PS3 exclusives.
Most of the PS3 games aren't rated as highly as the other consoles, and the PS3's exclusives have been delayed several years (because the dev kit is crap) or made non-exclusives.
The software for the PS3 simply sucks... if you want to listen to someone who would know, just ask any software maker that isn't being paid by Sony, i.e. Valve, which has dropped production of The Orange Box in favor of someone else handling it...
The upgradeable hard drive would be nice on the 360, but Wi-Fi should simply never be used for gaming for lag issues, and HD-DVD isn't for gaming either. And if your going into the $50 a year for Xbox Live, you might as well go into power consumption, and ISP costs, not to mention that avid gamers get nice three month Xbox Live subscriptions in about half their games.
Well, I looked and I see no mention of Achievements and general usability. The ps3 looks to me like a generation 1 console, the xbox 360 like generation 2. If you look at the Wii you see that hardware specs don't matter as much as usability, apply the same reasoning to the xbox 360 vs the ps3 and you come out with xbox being the clear winner. I own a ps3 and I may play ecxlusive ps3 titles when there is something really compelling but I will play games that I wouldn't have touching in a million years for any other console on the 360 due to the achievements. It is showing is software sales numbers that I have read that the 360 sells more titles and I would estimate gets more use than other consoles despite the sales numbers for the wii.
So in my opinion, so what if ps3 bundles more hardware for a cheaper price, what are you going to do with it, I do nothing but watch the occasional blu-ray movie with it and I have both.
Wait, I hate seeing these price list for Xbox to make it "like the PS3"... but they leave out all the stuff missing from the PS3...
PS3 (what model? $400-$600)
New rumble joysticks: $100
IRD for universal remote $50 (what good is a BR player with no remote?!?!)
Headset - $50-$100
Video cable $50-$100 (it has really no usable video cable std)
Good games that don't feel like "demos and proof of concept" , look at motostorm, I was so excited about the demo... the full game has ONE LOCATION?!?!!? No snow, no woods, just a red dirt track... gee
Oh, and the cheap units don't play ANY old games (Xbox does...)
And you will need a USB hub to connect the GHIII wireless adapters 'cause the BT radio is not good enough.
I am so disappointed with my PS3, Sony helped make me a xbox fan boy... that and Epic's Gears of War... man, anyone PS3 fanboy who says it is lame has not played it... it is what kept RFOM from being considered a good game...
The reason to buy a PS3?
October 30th: Ratchet and Clank's Future Tools of Destruction!
http://www.us.playstation.com/PS3/Games/Ratchet_and_Clank_Future_Tools_of_Destruction