Sad to say... but if you REALLY like videogames, then you made the biggest mistake ever, unless your intentions were only those of buying a "relatively" low-cost/low-quality Blu Ray discs player.
The reasons are waaaay to many to be listed. But since I perfectly know the ignorance regarding videogaming console systems, I'm gonna do a brief recap...
(I'm not stating that
you are ignorant, I'm only saying the general public IS enormously ignorant. And that's mainly because of the fact that PlayStation, during the years, has become the de-facto standard videogaming system everywhere. It's never been a matter of quality, it's always only been a matter of "brand" and advertising. PlayStation has always been one of the worse consoles on market, but since most people didn't know it, they bought it anyway without even having a singular good reason to do so.)
Well, I will now try to explain why the XBOX 360 is MUCH, MUCH better than the PS3. Let's begin:
- lower cost (one might think the lower cost is due to inferior technical power... the reason is ABSOLUTELY NOT that. The reason of 360's lower cost simply stands on the fact that the XBOX was designed and developed using well known and consolidated technologies. With the PS3, instead, Sony preferred to impress everybody by showing them a complete abuse of almost prototypical avant-garde electronic technologies. The SPU powering the PS3 is a monster, but only
technologically speaking. It's effective computational performances are pretty much the same of the multicore processor of the 360, only
slightly better. But since the architectures used for the CELL needed a great technological improvement, the PS3's hardware came out as being much more expensive than the 360's. And in the case you were wondering it, mind that as a matter of fact
the XBOX 360 is faster than the PS3, not the opposite. That's because the cache memory of the CELL processor is three times less then the cache memory of the 360's multicore. This means that even if technically speaking the CELL processor is faster than the 360's multicore, the loading times and general computing speed of the XBOX are approssimately three times faster then in PS3 because the XBOX CPU can store three times more datas and load them more easily. I think this is basically the reason why lots of games on the PS3 needs to be actually "installed" on the hard disk... but i'm not sure about this. Anyway,
always remember that newer technologies and higher prices DON'T necessarily imply better quality and performances.)
- the best internet service of all time, and potentially free. (I said potentially free because if you use your internet account to chat with friends and download contents, then you don't have to pay absolutely anything. It's a matter of taste, I know, but for somebody who doesn't care about online gaming, XBOX LIVE is free like the PS NETWORK, but works much better, is a lot faster, and the service is always at his top shape, in EVERY country of the world, even here in Italy, not only Japan and/or U.S.)
- MUCH better graphics (visibly better texture quality, better anisotropic filtering power, much more detailed polygon-models on screen, better High Definition compatibility and, most of all, MUCH MUCH faster framerates. All of this is due to the fact that the 360's video card is practically
two generations ahead of PS3's. In 2005 Sony, to contain the overall costs, opted for the modification of a really obsolete NVidia GeForce PC video card, while Microsoft, instead, engaged ATI to develop a "special purpose" next generation high-performances video card, technically as advanced as the NOW more powerful PC videocards. And when I say "now" I mean 2008. In 2005, when ATI developed the Xenos video card, there wasn't
anything remotely similar to it on PC. It was the most powerful video processing card
ever, at that time. Sony instead went for a modified GeForce 5800, wich was an old generation video accelerator, even at that time.
Don't buy it when people say RSX is more powerful than the modern GeForce 7800!!! Don't buy it because it's not true!! Really.)
This being said,
don't count me as a Microsoft fanboy. Because I am not. It's just that I have accurately followed the development of XBOX and PlayStation through the years and, most importantly, I've seen 'em both in action many times, and compared 'em.
XBOX is waaay better, on almost all of the main gaming aspects (graphics, processing speed, loading times, High Definition compatibility). Add to this the fact that PS3 has practically no more interesting exclusive games and you will know for sure which console to buy. (Final Fantasy, Virtua Fighter, Tekken, Devil May Cry, Silent Hill, the Tomb Raider series, and many many more... all of those games that made the PlayStation so strong in the past are now on the 360 too, just with
much better graphics and performances.
Even Metal Gear Solid 4 has now a GREAT possibility of becoming multiplatform, as said a couple of days ago by Yo****aka Arai, representative of Konami at the TGS2008. Time will tell.)
So, for the future... if you are not dying to have a Blu Ray player (and in my personal opinion, you shouldn't be), or if you are not an hardcore-die-hard fan of the Gran Turismo series, then go for the XBOX 360 all the way, without even try to dout about it. It's an advice.
Damn, it came out longer than I thought... hope it is also clear enough for everybody mad enough to read it all...