PS3, Xbox, or Wii

PS3 and what HIM ^^^ said

I bought all three.Then I sold my PS3 since it was used for nothing but Blu-Ray playback and I got an Oppo. I still have my XBox 360 and I play it all the time. In fact, I'm about to buy a new one for my other room -- its that good. It has the best selection of games by a Grand Canyon sized margin and they're better than anything on PS3. It has the best online gaming experience by far. The dashboard is also fantastic.

XBox 360 wins hands down. The PS3s major selling point, the Blu-Ray player, is no longer any kind of a factor. You can do as good or better for less money and still have money left over to put towards the best console out there, XBox 360!

Oh, the Wii is useless unless you're having a party. Not that PS3 has the Move and XBox 360 has Kinect there's really no reason to play the Wii except for some of the games that are exclusive.

+1 to what Demiurge said. Netflix on 360 will be getting the 5.1 update soon, so really the only difference is Blu-ray (which I also got the Oppo to take care of). And sure, the PS3 has free online play, but this is definitely a case of "you get what you pay for" because 360 not only has the higher population of players, its guide and cross-game invites/party chat make it super easy to hook up with your friends. Plus, if you do get a hankering for motion controls, I gotta say... Kinect is pretty damn cool, though vastly different from what the Wii and PS3 Move are offering.

polkatese wrote: »

XBOX360 hands down for the reasons stated above.

Wii has become THE exercise tool console, wife and kids are on it all the times, not for games but to exercise.

Who's in line for Black Ops?

Good call on the Wii...its great for exercise, especially as a family. Yeah, during the summer months you want to be outdoors, but Wii in the winter time is a great way to stay active.

I'm holding back on Black Ops. I have just not been impressed with Treyarch CoD releases and I smell a Medal of Honor type **** brewing. Lots of hype for this one for sure. I have too many games to play right now (5 I haven't even loaded yet :eek: ) anyways and the new Assassin's Creed next Tuesday, but I hope I'm wrong about this one.

It really does depend on what you want it for.

We bought the PS3 mainly because of it's media capabilities. However we don't use it for this much any longer, I have a different BDP and have plenty of other devices that do media streaming.

We're basically just using our PS3 as an upgraded Wii at this point, having bought the Move a couple weeks back. Really, that's ALL we use it for, but it's fun.

If I didn't own anything were buying one today, I would probably do some research between the Kinext and the Move and see which of those I preferred and go with that Console. I just bought the move since I already had the PS3.

People say that the XBOX is the way to go if you're a real gamer. Personally I say if you're a 'rea'l gamer then the PC platform is the only way to go, but that's just me. It's definately more expensive and from time to time you'll run across a game that's buggy, but the good titles are usually well developed, and the trade-off in terms of realism and accuracy of playing with a keyboard and mouse and with better graphics are worth it IMO.

But if you're really into games and do not want to go the PC route, I think the XBOX is the way to go.

disneyjoe7 wrote: »

If you where to buy one, which one and why?

As assimilated said it really depends on how you want to use a console. For a cheap entry into excercise and party games, the wii will do the job. Especially because it has the balance board for actually weighing yourself and keeping track of your progress. But the hardware and graphics are hopelessly underpowered next to the 360 and the ps3. So for more serious games, you often have no other choice but the other two. And the multimedia capabilities just aren't there. For more serious motion control games like role playing, shooters and real-time strategy, I don't think there will be a better motion control system right now than the ps3 move as it's the most accurate of the three and you don't need to use your whole body jumping around to use it like the 360's. So it's more flexible in being used both on and off the couch. But the games aren't there yet for the latest two, so you'll have to wait for both until they catch up to the wii. The 360's system is a unique experience from the other two, though, in that games allow you to use only your body to control the games.

If you want to game online with other players from all over the world, right now you can't beat the 360. It's got a huge player population and a well honed interface. It's also got the horsepower for the latest 'serious' games. And a great selection. Although I wouldn't expect as many of them to be upgraded to motion control for the reasons stated above. But the gamepad still does its job well. And people even find it preferable to the ps3's gamepads if you've got large hands. I believe the 360 is also capable of 3D gaming, but I haven't seen the same push for it as the ps3 since the ps3 also has 3D blu-ray to support. But with 3D adoption rates, who knows if this will be a factor. But there are already 3D games out there with more 'serious' 3D games in just a few months. The 360 also has good support for some multimedia functions including streaming. Although you are limited in local console storage to the 360's expensive proprietary hard drives.

If multimedia functions will be a main use for you, you just can't beat the ps3. Not only does it have blu-ray, but it has been hdmi capable with blu-ray from the start. And since blu-ray was such a push early on, the console has gotten regular firmware updates to support advanced multimedia options including both DTS-MA and TrueHD in 7.1 surround. And it supports both 3D gaming and 3D blu-ray except you lose the lossless audio for 3D blu-ray. Except for 3D lossless audio and analog audio outs (it only has two stereo ones), the ps3 remains a very high quality option even compared with the better current crop of players. So you don't need to buy a dedicated one and can save a little coin. The HDD is upgradable to any generic SATA laptop drive, so you can store a lot more stuff on the console which is especially helpful for video. Although if you only use streaming, you may not need this. If you mainly play solo games in campaign mode, there is less of an advantage to the 360 as top tier exclusive games are becoming rare and the games play pretty much the same on both the ps3 and 360. There are notable exceptions for both consoles like the Halo series for the 360 and titles like Little Big Planet for the ps3. Although this may change depending on which way the winds blow with the new motion controllers. And many may argue that online play is where the real fun is.

Wii - cheaper fun but becoming outdated even with its motion controllers.

360 - great 'serious' gaming fun, with a lot of full body motion control potential. A lot of multimedia capabilities with limitations.

ps3 - second to none multimedia capabilities, support for both 3D gaming and 3D blu-ray (without the lossless audio), most accurate (mouse level sensitivity) motion controls, has similar standard game offerings to the 360 with limitations in selection and online game play.

disneyjoe7 wrote: »

So it sounds I couldn't go wrong with either the Xbox, or the PS3. It will be just for games, and not watching blu-ray's so that PS3 feature doesn't matter too me.

In the end if the blu-ray thing is removed the Xbox wins hand down right?

Absolutely.

Demiurge wrote: »

I have always been a gamer and was a PC gamer, but the XBox 360 blows PC gaming out of the water. Its been 5 years since I've bothered to buy a PC game. When PS2 and XBox were out I rarely played my consoles, because PC gaming was superior. Not anymore.

In what way?

It's just an opinion of course, but I'm curious.

Most of the XBOX games are available on PC, in fact all that I have interest in are. In addition, i have an XBOX 360 controller that works on my PC and has 100% full functionality, and even though I don't use it in most games, the few I do use it in like Assassin's Creed play exactly the same way they do on my buddy's 360. Also XBOX Live integrates with the PC side as well, so no problems there.

So why do I prefer the PC route? Well I can basically get the same gameply that I can get on an XBOX, but also have the flexibility to play some games using the keyboard and mouse. I also get better graphics and usually have more control over settings and things like save-games.

Yes with PC you do run into the occasional technical glitch, but I haven't had any issues with a game in quite a while. I'm sure you also have those on the XBOX, especially when you get red ringed (or does that problem even still exist?).

Quite a bit has changed in the past 5 years in the PC gaming industry as well, so keep that in mind as well. Clearly I'm in the monority since more people game on consoles than PCs, but I just don't get it.

We have two PS3's and a Wii. The PS3's get used all the time for games, streaming shows and music, and blu-ray. I am sure an XBox would be fine as most of my friends only have it. We just like more games that are exclusive to the playstation. Just do your research, and pick which ever one has the most games you like. Or get one of each, and be done with it.

disneyjoe7 wrote: »

Question I see the Xbox kinect systems and just plain Xbox systems. Can a Kinect system play Xbox games or does it need Kinect games?

If you're looking for traditionally non-motion controlled games that get an upgrade to benefit from the new controller, the move already has many games upgraded for it because it can be used on traditional shooters, role playing games, etc.

The kinect system is just an add-on to a regular 360 system. So if your question is does the kinect packaged system work for non-motion controlled 360 games, then yes it does, using the standard controller. It's just not as flexible in replacing that standard controller, IMO.

+1 the Best Buy. Wall wart never seems to have them hooked up correctly.

kuntasensei wrote: »

The vast majority of games will still come out with no motion control.

For the 360 this may be true. The wii of course is all about motion control games. And they are already retroactively upgrading many of the games for the ps3 and top games like Killzone 3 are releasing with it as an option. The move just naturally lends itself to replacing the standard controller for many functions. And it feels very natural in the hand vs. the dualshock. After a little practice, I don't really feel like I'm using anything special to play RUSE. Although it must look rather strange, scrolling, zooming, and rotating the battlefield camera minority report like with the wand when viewed by someone else.

kuntasensei wrote: »

I was referring to ALL games, not just a particular console. The vast majority of games do not have motion control, and even with Move/Kinect on the market, I don't expect that to change. I think tech like Kinect will matter in the future, but I don't expect a massive sea change from any of the three in this console generation. Just sayin'... Don't lend it too much weight, because the marquee titles (Call of Duty, Halo, etc.) will still be sans motion control.

Halo is an exclusive title on the 360, and I wouldn't expect with the kinect's form of motion control that it would be very useful for a first person shooter anyways. However, the move is a blast to use with a gun attachemnt and rail shooters like time crisis. And if they can get the movement controls right, it should provide good gameplay with FPS games as well. Since they're making games like SOCOM 4 and Killzone 3 compatible with the move, it isn't a giant leap to think they might have a call of duty etc. move compatible as well in the not too distant future.