What to get? Xbox 360, Wii or PS3
Jun 30th, 2008 by douglas
I’m ready to ditch the PS2 and upgrade to a new gaming unit. I mostly play NHL/MLB/NFL games on my PS2 right now but I think with a better gaming unit I would broaden my horizons. I don’t own many games and usually trade them in when a new one comes in so I’m not worried about still playing them. I’m also online quite a bit and would like to use it also as a surfing tool, gaming online, DVD player and whatever else i can geek out over to take advantage of my HDTV. Oh yeah and I love Guitar Hero.
My question is what should I get? Are refurbished machines worth the money?
Let me know in comments!
[...] douglas wrote an interesting post today on What to get? Xbox 360, Wii or PS3. Here’s a quick excerpt: [...]
If you’re looking to have fun with friends over: Wii
If you’re looking for a good game with graphics: PS3
If you’re looking to waste money: XBOX
My personal vote is go where the exclusives lead you. I impulse bought a wii over a year ago, abd recently picked up a 40gb ps3 (for percieved longevity over 360) but exclusives are the key.
Go with the games. What system has the most games you want to play?
We have a Wii and an XBox.
The Wii is great for parties, the Mario franchise, the Zelda franchise, Metroid, and fun weird little games (Boom Blox, tons of old-school Nintendo/Sega games, Zach and Wiki) I also love the control system. I’ve always been a controller-flailer, and it’s nice to have it actually work in my favor.
It also makes some games a bit more intuitive for me. Nice to be able to hold a controller like a gun, or “throw” things, or the like. They sell a lot of add-on accessories, some of which really do enhance gameplay, some of which are just oversized pieces of overpriced plastic. Also, while the PS2 and XBox versions of Guitar Hero allow you to purchase additional songs, Nintendo hasn’t gotten their act together on that front, so you’re stuck with the songs in the game.
XBox is great for network play, and a heaping handful of mature-level games I wanted to try out (GTA4, Condemned, Burnout Paradise) that Nintendo wouldn’t touch with a 10 foot cattle prod, and some really fun ones through their stores (Penny Arcade’s new adventure series, Psychonauts). I also really dig RockBand, as I love singing along to stuff loudly and off-key, and it lets me play at a level equal to my husband who plays the guitar game at a far higher level than me. Being able to download bunches of songs that I love from the online store is very nifty. Hell, the online store is nifty on its own… Nintendo doesn’t really use theirs to full effect. The downside: as there is online play, there are also a lot of douchebags available on the servers. Also, some people have a number of glitches. We’ve been lucky on that front *knocks on every piece of wood in the house*
I have to agree with w0m, go with the system that has the exclusive titles you want to play. Wanting to play Gears of War is what lead me to purchase a 360 last year.
I would stay away from refurbished consoles. With either system, if you have a problem, the warranty is going to be an issue. If my understanding is correct, issues with refurbished consoles are not normally covered under the same warranty as a new console. This generation of consoles has had far more problems than previous generations. Saving a little money is not worth the hassle of having to buy a new console if something happens.
If yo do go the 360 route, get the hard drive. Can’t do much with out it.
Yabba Dabba!
First off, I own no “next gen” console, I want to upgrade my PC, and I like PC games more (generally) anyway. But that said, to me, the console matters less than the games you want to play on it (and the cost) I’ve played with each of the systems, and to me, there isnt a huge difference between the 360 and PS3, it completely depends on the games for me. (damn Ratchet and Clank… makes me want a PS3!)
And the fact that there is such a huge back catalog of 360 games, many for $19 or less, is a perk, and I notice that it seems that everyone is playing online games on X-Box live, so that might be easier to play online with friends if you want to. The main pro for buying the PS3 now is the built in Blu-Ray player, and if your an early adopter, thats a powerful thing. Personally, since Blu-Ray discs are still expensive, I’m waiting, it will come down, and I’ll just get a seperate player for it.
For the movie/tv lover in me, what really makes me lean to the 360 is the ease of using it as a media center.
So I could easily watch downloaded HD content stored on my PC, streamed to my HDTV.
music/Podcasts/TV/Movies all in HQ/HD etc…
All three systems offer something like that, but for Windows users, the 360 is just easy peasy, to set up and use. And ease of use is key in keeping my lovely bride happy.
I played with the Wii, and nope, it’s not the best graphics, sound, blah blah blah, but I had the best damn time playing games on that system! I hadnt had so much sheer fun playing games in years! No WOW factor in the physics engine or counting blades of grass, blahblahblah It was just fun, and honestly, if I was buying a system just for games and fun, I would lean towards this one because it was a great time.
Although a drunken player could send a controller flying…
As with all things, it completely depends on what you want to do with it, which one is best for you.
Your mileage may vary….
I have a Wii and a 360. they had the stuff I wanted to play (Nintendo fan boy + Gears of War, Halo, etc) The red ring is a concern, but you always run a risk with hardware like this. It’s just a well publicized problem, as apposed to others.
If you are big on Blue Ray, PS3 is the best deal in town. And gets most of the big games that xbox gets (excluding what I mentioned before) It will kick 360’s ass eventually on the front of graphics, but not as bad as PS2 vs Xbox, from what I’ve seen.
Wii if you’re a nintendo fan. It’s fun, inovative, and guitar hero/rock band are over there too. but you won’t see GTA anytime soon. Buying old games and new wiiware games (dr. mario online has me hooked) is addicting.
Xbox has the most “mature” online from what I’ve experienced/read. (I’ve never played the PS3’s) And developers will be more apt to use it since they don’t have to run their own servers. They also had the rumble right out of the box, vs PS3 not. And I have a Xbox Elite, which upscales DVDs for HDMI and works as a media center extender (rip DVDs to my PC upstairs and watch downstairs. Amazing.)
Also note; both systems can perform media center functions; though ps3 isn’t locked to windows
One thought that no one has mentioned is the Xbox has many more titles readily available over PS3. That will change in time but if you want to explore a bunch of games right away I’d lean toward Xbox.
I also don’t know how often you play games. So if you are looking for a few good titles and really great games I’d go with PS3 (it looks cooler to me and integrates with other stuff like PSP) also if you get the right console you can play older Playstation games. Not all PS3’s are built alike.
Hey Doug -
I love gaming. I’m a dork.
1. Forget Guitar Hero and buy Rock Band so I can come over and play too.
2. PS3 has waaaaaay better graphics than the Wii.
3. Wii is super fun for parties.
4. PS3 is way fun for playing on your own. Better single player games.
5. PS3 has two versions. One costs about $550 and the other $399. $550 has a bigger hard drive for gaming downloads and also plays PS2 games. The $399 does not. However, PS3 has way better graphics than PS2 so I myself would not pay for the bigger one.
6. I don’t know about XBox.
;-D
I’d go with Xbox… but that’s because I want one too. My deciding factor is titles. There’s so much out there for the 360 and great functionality with Xbox live (so I understand). It’s such a big investment, you def want to make sure it’s not something that’ll just be a dust collector in a few months.
My son went through 4 (!!!) used/refurbed Xbox 360’s before he finally gave up and bought a new one. GameStop was good with it all and kept replacing the faulty ones. For this reason, I advise caution purchasing “refurbished” or “used” systems.
I know you started this blog with the question related to gaming. From the comments, looks like PS3 has some fans for that. I’m not a gamer, so I can’t help you with that side of things. One bonus feature of the PS3 is its Blu-ray disc player. Here’s a review from Nov 2007:
http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/hd-dvd-bluray/1927/shootout-3-blu-ray-disc-players-sony-playstation-3-page2.html
The PS3 has one of the best blu-ray players on the market. It has the latest feature sets and you may only have to do firmware updates through the enet port. Since you have the HDTV, the blu-ray player is an added bonus for this gaming console.
Wow well there’s quite a range of opinion here and I love it! Thanks all.
I’m not too worried about entertaining others but I have loved playing the Wii. I’m looking at longevity and most bang for my buck so it looks like the PS3 may be in the lead. It may come down to whatever I have cash for when I can’t wait anymore. A selling point for the Xbox though is I have a lot of friends who own one and play each other online.
Thanks for the heads up on the Xbox refurb CarolineFB!
*sigh* decisions decisions!
we’ve got xbox 360 … probably because i just h8 sony
and yes, the xbox live thing is wonderful for online play
i think there’s another price drop coming soon from both sony and microsoft, but if you’re looking now, amazon has a sale on the elite system ($425 … save $25)
http://www.amazon.com/360-Elite-System-Console-120GB/dp/B000OYMSL6/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1215440349&sr=8-2
Confirmed … yep, there’s going to be a price cut soon:
http://www.informationweek.com/news/personal_tech/virtualworlds/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=208808668
I’m lookin at the 40GB PS3 right now. Honestly, i only play sports games, guitar hero and some other random titles so 40 should be plenty.
Thanks for the heads up CP! now do i get the PS3 or pay off my Pens season tickets? hmmmmmmmmm