PlayStation 3 80 GB

PlayStation 3 80GB Get it now!

Thursday, December 10, 2009 by Migo | Posted in Best PlayStation 3 80 GB, Buy PlayStation 3 80 GB, Cheap PlayStation 3 80 GB, Discount PlayStation 3 80 GB, Looking for PlayStation 3 80 GB, PlayStation 3 80GB

Like many this holiday season I had to decide between an Xbox 360 and a PS3. Seeing how by far most games are coming out for both systems these days with equal performance, I had to decide based on exclusive games, hardware capabilities, and overall value for the price. Here's my pros/cons for each:

PS3:
Pros
-better and more varied exclusive games (GT5, Killzone 2, Motorstorm PR, Uncharted, Ratchet, Metal Gear Solid 4, and the upcoming Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII)
-Games are on blu ray, and of course you can watch blu ray movies as well. The PS3 is still one of the best performing blu ray players on the market. It's not like the PS2 which was a crappy DVD player.
-powerful hardware. While most components inside aren't much better overall than the 360, the CELL CPU is much, much more powerful than the Xenon CPU in the 360, and it can handle many GPU related tasks that the Xenon can't. This ultimately shows in exclusive games like GT5 and Killzone 2 for example. Much better looking than the best looking 360 exclusives.
-sleek hardware and software design. The system is just a beauty to look at, even if it is a dust magnet, and the operating system is so clean and easy to use.
-Backward compatible with ps1 games (ps2 games as well if you have one of the older models)
-Standard hard drive on every system (uses basic 2.5" SATA notebook drive so it's easily upgradeable)
-Standard WiFi in every system
-rechargeable controller out of the box; no need to buy any play and charge kit like MS forces you to
-hardware has very low failure rate
-Media capabilities such as photo, video, and music viewing are much better than on the 360
-Extremely quiet operation. Often times you can't hear it even if you try

Cons:
-new models no longer ps2 compatible

Xbox 360:
Pros
-has a more polished online interface and more features like cross game chat
-games drop in price faster than ps3 games because they are on DVD

Cons
-hardware not as reliable as ps3
-boring and unpolished looking exclusive games
-games are limited by the low capacity of DVD9. Devs either have to compress the hell out of their games to fit on one disc or put up with paying MS even more royalties for multi disc games. Blu ray has more than enough space for now to keep games on one disc with very little compression. This is why ps3 multiplatform games usually have support for higher quality audio. The blu ray can hold that much data.
-does not include much out of the box like ps3 does, which leads to many hidden charges.
-online play is NOT free; costs about $40 a year
-no wireless internet; must pay $100 for the official adapter or $30 for a wireless bridge. Not an issue for those who can use ethernet, but many of us play in our living rooms which are way too far from our router.
-$199 version does not include hard drive, which you will almost certainly need. The small memory it comes with can only hold a few game saves, nothing more.
-hard drive is proprietary to MS, meaning you can only use their overpriced drives.
-Loud


Overall, the ps3 was a no brainer for me, even if only for the tremendous value you get for $399. Don't be fooled by MS ads with "starting at $199". That's not what you will be paying. There's too many things that you will probably have to add to that cost. Take my example, I add a $30 wireless bridge, $100 60gb hard drive, $20 play and charge kit, $40/year online play, and I'm already pretty much at $400, the price of a ps3 WHICH INCLUDES ALL THOSE THINGS FOR FREE. And it still doesn't have blu ray. Now when I bought this ps3 all I had to buy extra was a $15 memory card adapter to transfer my ps1/ps2 saves to the hard drive. That's it.

But in the end all you should do is critically look at the features of both systems and do your research. Two traps you shouldn't fall into are the stigmas that both systems suffer from their early days. For ps3 that's "$599 and no games!" and for 360 it's "80% chance of red ring".Get more detail about PlayStation 3 80GB.