Due to my recently documented issues with Sony and the PS3 I am looking at investing in an x-box. Amazon has a 360 with 250GB HDD for 149 at the moment with 20 extra for online subscription.

I was a big fan of the PS3 and have never even played a 360 so what are the differences? Online shoot ups are my favourite way of wasting hours of my life – how do online play compare between the two? Also, how much would a subscription to online gaming usually cost? And is it time or data limited or play as much as you like?

Thanks

Online gaming is better on the xbox

Despite what fanbois in both camps would have you believe, there’s not a huge amount of difference between the two consoles technically, for any sort of practical purpose. Both have their exclusive titles, which may influence your decision. Key for me, though, would be “what do all my mates have?” – but then, I don’t much like playing with strangers.

On the Xbox you get Xbox Live in two flavours, silver and gold. Silver accounts are free, because you can’t really do a great deal. If you want to play online you need a gold account. This can be had as a 12 month subscription for about £30 – I can dig up the ebay store where I last bought mine from if you need.

Once you’ve got the gold sub, that’s it (for 12 months) – there’s no other restrictions.

As well as online play, demos are released fairly frequently which can be a nice diversion (I probably spend almost as much time playing new game demos as I do playing full games…!) Not sure offhand if you can do this with just a silver account – I think you can but cold be wrong.

The Xbox online experience, whilst not free, poos all over the PS3 and then rubs its nose in it. In my opinion / experience, anyway.

As most people know both consoles are capable of similar results as far as graphics, physics, textures etc. The main difference is during the development of the games with the 360 being particularly easier to code for….. Less time getting the thing running normally means more time to make it nice, smooth and pretty. So for games that are multi platform that normally gives a advantage to the 360, another issue is Online which ATM is still much improved on the 360 as well as not suffering from the hacking issues of the ps3.
Mind you the ps3 has some fantastic excl games like uncharted, heavy rain, god of war. So when the developer just focuses on the ps3 the games can be fantastic but if it’s out for both consoles I’ll always buy 360 first. oh and acheivments are great

for games that are multi platform that normally gives a advantage to the 360

I don’t think you can draw that conclusion. There’s titles that are nominally better on the 360, and titles that are nominally better on the PS3. The majority of multi-platform games are as close to being identical as makes no odds.

Anyone had experience of MS customer service? Sony let me down (dead console after 18 months – widely thought to be caused by a firmware update from Sony), are MS any better?

The advantage is that it’s easier to code for the 360. but an advantage dosn’t mean it’s always noticable. But in the games i’ve tried it’s often noticable.. imo

Hardware wise the PS3 is far superior. The rate games are going the Xbox may have to be “dumbed down” compared to PC and PS3 games. But at the moment there isn’t much between them. As said earlier. What do your mates have? What games do you like playing? Why not buy a Wii?

when my 360 died (RROD) they swapped it no problem. console two years old and second hand. But i’ve heard bad reports for both..

Does Xbox 360 have a iPlayer interface like the Wii does? (And is that important to you?)

There’s not much in it. My 360 died and MS fixed it FOC outside the normal warranty which was fine. They also gave me a voucher for 1 month gold that I lost during the repair. I would say the PS3 is a better bet for multimedia playing stuff but the 360 generally tends to be a little better at being a games machine.

Think they all do now. The 4OD and the ITV player on PS3 are a bit naff though.

so what are the differences?

Controllers are quite different. Although I’m sure you get used to either soon enough, I was much more comfortable with the xbox controllers from the off.

Hardware wise the PS3 is far superior.

CS – my 360 red-ring-of-deathed after a couple of years, MS couriered it off to Germany, had it back in about 10 days with a free month’s Gold credited. Can’t say fairethnaum.

Xbox doesn’t have iplayer and 4od etc, as they are free and MS wanted to charge for them.

As others have said, very little between them, exclusives are the way forward, Gears of War or Killzone?? also mates, if they all have xbox’s then thats the way forward if not then PS3.

I tend to go through months where i just play the one console then swap to the other, my mates have both so i ended up with both consoles, I find the xbox pad better to use than the PS pad which is decades old now, sony haven’t changed the design since the PS1, i also find xbox gold is vastly superior to the PSN, i know you have to pay but its well worth it.

Also if your quick tesco’s currently have 20% off all xbox hardware and accessories in store and online, might be able to pick up a bargain, you can pick up an Arcade for just £87!!

I have both but my 360 never gets used, I much prefer the PS3 myself. As for online playing, MS may have the margin but not by much. The old oooh PS3 is hard to code for is old news now any developer worth their salt is past that.

If your buying because you huffed at Sony seems a bit silly, 360 still has problems and yeah they fix some but not all. The RROD they were good at though and extended warranties for that fault.

As I’ve said in many a thread on this subject there’s so little in it that it’s all down to personal preference.

I would say the PS3 is a better bet for multimedia playing stuff but the 360 generally tends to be a little better at being a games machine.

Xbox doesn’t have iplayer and 4od etc,

Does have Sky Player though.

Xbox and PS3 don’t have fresh air and mown grass smell as you ride along!

But you don’t get wet playing Xbox and PS3 unless you have a Wii wii.

Generally multi-platform titles run better on the 360, with the PS3 sometimes needing its textures lowered in quality to get anything even remotely resembling a sensible framerate. Many dev studios make the 360 their primary platform then port stuff to the PS3, which will never get the best out of it, and some engines are a bit of a pig to get running at their best on the PS3 (Unreal and Source, for example).

However, a lot of the time you won’t notice the difference unless you’re running the two different versions side by side, unless the PS3 version has been properly botched (as with Bayonetta, although I think they managed to patch a lot of the problems).

Xbox Live Gold is £40 a year, and generally has a bigger,more active community. The downside is that quite a lot of that community are morons, especially in FPSes. Oh, the joy of being threatened with rape and being called a fag jew whore by a 12 year old Texan!

As people have said, look at the exclusives for each system, and see what floats your boat. I’d say for FPSes the 360 wins by a country mile, but the PS3 tends to get slightly more oddball titles, particularly from Japan.

Oh, the joy of being threatened with rape and being called a fag jew whore by a 12 year old Texan!

LOL (But very true

There’s a reason I don’t play with the great unwashed.

btw, someone’s got one on the classifieds at the mo, don’t know whether that’s a good price: http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/ot-xbox-360-kinect-sensor-kinect-adventures-kinect-sports-and-dance-central

Edit: ignore me, looks like that’s just the kinect sensor, sorry!

the joy of being threatened with rape and being called a fag jew whore by a 12 year old Texan!

The first thing I do when I play on line with people I don’t know is put everyone on mute.

Cougar – Member
There’s a reason I don’t play with the great unwashed.

Is that because you just play with yourself? 😉

My GF bought me an xbox 360 & Kinect thingy for Christmas, and we love it. I only have a couple of games, but enjoy wasting time on them if i’m not in the mood to do anything productive.
Best thing is online gaming with friends, so definitely pick whatever your mates tend to have.
The PS3 has a blu-ray dd player, doesn’t it? None of that on the xbox unfortunately. That said you can watch SKY through it & use it as a media centre.

Kinect is a good laugh – Kinect Sports in particular, and they’ll be releasing games later this year that aren’t aimed so much just aimed at kids, which will mean it’s more a useful add-on than a novelty.

Is that because you just play with yourself?

Ba-dum, tish!

Don’t quite understand the SKY comment? Do you mean it does the same job as a SKY box? I don’t have that either.

There is a bit of software from SKY on XBOX360s that lets you watch your sky tv channels through it, using your broadband.
I think you can subscribe to SKY through the xbox alone, then watch it through your broadband instead of having a satellite dish.
I haven’t used it, but I think it only acts as a streaming device, not a recorder.