Very shortly, I will have $100 in Gamestop credit. I'm not the biggest fan of Gamestop in the world, as I mentioned in a Twitter post not too long ago. But, I get credit there easily.
I've got a huge list of games for last gen systems that I need (want) to get, but I'm way behind on games anyway. As $100 is not a small amount, I started thinking once again about picking up a 360 or a PS3. I had been planning to get a PS3 if I ever got anything, but some recent research, and events in general, have complicated the decision again. Here are the relevant facts, my handful of readers may chip in with their thoughts (I would appreciate it, in fact.)
1) I have a pretty good computer (rather, a really awesome computer). The only game, oddly enough, that I have been unable to run at maximum settings recently is the Champions Online Demo. Had to set everything just about to minimum. I think that might be a bandwidth thing, though. If a game is available on PC, I have no doubt that I would be able to play it, and play it better than either the 360 or the PS3. BUT, not everything is available for PC. It would be nice if I could find a list of which 360 and PS3 games are published for PC.
2) I will not pay for Xbox Live Gold. Period. There are rumors that the Playstation Network is going to start charging, but at the moment, it's free.
3) I don't care about the BD drive in the PS3. I have a great HTPC, and GPL BD drivers and software are finally showing up for media programs to use. I figure I'll add a BD drive to my HTPC before the end of the year.
4) Unless the title is programmed well, the 360 usually provides a better game experience with it's more capable graphics chip. What mainly impresses me is that the 360 seldom falls below 30 frames per second on any game, while the PS3 seems to run around 20-25 fps in the same games. To be clear: neither system's visuals look "better" to me, but the 360 does seem to run more smoothly most of the time...
5) when it's running, anyway. I can't find firm numbers, but the newest 360s are supposed to be much more reliable than older models, but that's a hell of a record to overcome. I never bought the anecdotal stories that the 360 had a first-year failure rate of 50%, but the more-likely rate of 15% is beyond bad enough.
6) Do I need both? I don't want to spend that much money, even with $100 in gift cards.
Maybe I should just ignore it all for another six months. Again.
I think the Xbox is a little more established (in America at least), so developers of cross platform titles tend to develop on the Xbox first, then port to PS3, which is probably what accounts for any performance differences between the two. Still, some of the PS3 stuff that's coming looks gorgeous, much better than anything I've seen on the Xbox (and you've got stuff like FFXIII which will come on multiple discs on the Xbox, and only 1 on the PS3).
So what it really comes down to is exclusives. Maybe it's just because I own a PS3, but I think the most interesting exclusives are coming for the PS3:
God of War III
FFIII Versus (different than FFIII)
Gran Turismo
Modnation Racers
Heavy Rain
The Last Guardian
Agent
(and that's ignoring recent exclusives like Uncharted 2, Infamous, Killzone 2, etc...)
Xbox doesn't seem to have much, and a lot of times, Xbox exclusives are also available on PC (like L4D2). There are some interesting things coming:
Mass Effect 2
Halo: Reach
Alan Wake (this one seems really interesting to me... the only xbox exclusive that I really want to play)
Crackdown 2?
Fable 3?
So it really depends on what kinds of games you're looking for. For the record, I have been perfectly happy with the PS3, and there are still like 10 games I want to play for it before any of those other exclusives come out.
Thanks very much for your comments, and your PS3 blogging. Your blogs on the Playstation Network as much as anything really got me strongly considering the PS3 as a better option than the 360.