Modern day console and its games vs PC gaming

[Adari]

Hi,

Since i recently got a fulltime job and take some uni classes in the evenings I was thinking about buying a console for the casual gaming aspect (and I need a new TV too, cba with updating my PC as I only use firefox and msn).

However, I was wondering if any of you can spread some light on what console gaming is like these days. I'm leaning towards PS3 (mainly because wii is not available anywhere), will play games like GTAIV (doh) or assassin's creed. Is a controller on par with mouse + keyboard these days? Or is it acceptable for said games?

Any info will be much appreciated, my last console was a SNES so...

PS: am I right to assume that PS3 has the future, but xbox360 correctly has more to offer in terms of available games?

 

[ST^]

Consoles will never beat a PC on controls for RTS and FPS games (no doubt someone will show up now and say they're as good at FPS with a controller as they are with a mouse, heh...). Controllers are always acceptable though.

As for PS3 vs. 360... it's hard to say if you haven't been much of a console gamer lately. Basically comes down to a) which one has more exclusive games that suit your style, and b) do you want a blu-ray player?

If you haven't had a PS2 or played most of its big games, I'd recommend it 1000 times over any new console.

 

[~Latency~]

i would say go for the xbox 360 (i own both) .. much larger back catalogue of games, every game that comes out now literally comes out for both consoles with xbox having better downloadable content (10 hour addition to gta for exmaple) .. also i find that xbox live is a zillion times better than the ps one, the ps one doesn't feel like you're online at all, it's really basic.. xbox is vibrant and alive, easy to use and fantastic stability, played cod4 all day for many many days with no lag and no disconnections, whereas i had to return unreal tournament 4 for ps3 because i could rarely get a stable game (might not be the same for all games, just generalizing) it was really so very poor and dated..

plus 360 is cheaper..


though if you're into mgs and final fantasy it 'may' be worth going for a ps3.. but there's no way you could even argue that ps3 is as good as, or will be nearly as good as the 360 right now, or even by the end of this year..

 

[gunner440]

The third play station of sony is best ever.

 

[Jonty]

Hi Adari

I was in a similar position to you. I hadn't owned a console for years (Megadrive II ^^), but I didn't want to spend a fortune building a new PC suitable for Crysis and the likes.

In end I went for a 360, and I'm happy with my choice. It has a large variety of games and an excellent online service. My brother also has one, so that really swung it for me. As ST^ says, no controller will beat a mouse and keyboard for FPS and RTS games, but developers know this when they're designing, so overall you shouldn't have any problems (and you have a good excuse when things go wrong, 'You know that wouldn't have happened if I had a keyboard and mouse ...' ).

My major complaint with the 360 is the noise, since it is very loud under load, but apart from that I'm happy with it. There will be an updated 360 out later this year with a built-in Blu-ray drive, but it will just be for movies (and music), not for game content.

If you do want Blu-ray movie playback, then the PS3 is an excellent choice. It's a great console, with very good games (arguably not as many titles as the 360, but obviously these things changes with time), and it receives frequent updates to improve its functionality. The online component isn't as good as the 360, but again it's improving fast. I'd happily have chosen a PS3 if my brother had had one, so just decide based on your own needs and ignore the fanboys (on both sides).

As for the Wii, I had one for a while and to be honest I really didn't like it. Yes, it's small, cheap and quiet, but it's more like a toy than a console. Granted, maybe I'm not their core demographic, but aside from Wii Sports and a few other games, I just don't want to play endless Mario clones. Hats to Nintendo for sticking with a winning formula, but it seems they're flogging a dead horse at times. The motion controller is fun, especially with your friends, but after a while the novelty soon wears off.

Kind regards

 

[Ch3tan]

Think the important thing to consider here is that he is also going to have to buy a new TV.

If you buy your movies and are interested in HD content then get the ps3. Gta4 will keep you going for a while until the better titles come out later in the year, and you will have a blu-ray player.

If you are purely after gaming or online gaming then get the 360.

I would not get either until you get that new (HD)TV though. Do what St^ said and just buy a ps2 if you aren't upgrading the TV just yet.

 

[Embattle]

Rumours are the Xbox upgrade, which should be this year, are due to give the Xbox a Blu-ray drive and graphics chip changes although probably too late for you for it to matter.

 

[Aada]

If you want to play games go for 360 if you wanna watch movies go PS3.

As someone said the PSNET is really old and to be honest the Dreamcast had a better online service.

Plus Gears of War 2 this November.

 

[Wonk]

Basically comes down to a) which one has more exclusive games that suit your style, and b) do you want a blu-ray player?

If you want to play games go for 360 if you wanna watch movies go PS3.

Hehe, it's not hard to see what you two have got.

 

[Adari]

Hehe, thanks a lot for allt he replies. I really can't decide now though. I don't watch movies on my TV right now (I do buy series I love) but I probably will when I buy a new TV.

Speaking of TV's, any recommendations (with console gaming in mind)?

 

[soze]

As has already been said 360 has a better selection of games and if online gaming gives you wet dreams best pick a 360.

The PS3 doubles as a media center PC with WebBrowser and you can even install linux on it and have a fully fuctional PC under your TV. Add to that the Media Streaming and Blu Ray it makes an attractive product for the price and fingers crossed the good games will not be delayed again.

As for TV I think Samsung offer good quality and high specs for not a bad price. The main technical Forum here has a few TV threads in it that might be worth digging up.

 

[inactionman]

Also one thing to bear in mind is that just like the PS3 you can use a 360 as a media center, it also has DIVX/XVID support and with software like tversity you can transcode anything you like, it just lacks the hi-def drive. Although the 360's noise problem doesn't help!

As for TV's, I've recently bought Toshiba's and had no problems. Last one I bought was the 42X3030, which is great, but may be a little large for you! There's a few threads in the techie forum on this.

 

[Adari]

Thanks again.

I'll think about the xbox360. I don't know, theres something about it that doesnt make it very appealing at all.

I need to go into a store and actually play them. There are usuall stationary demo units but these mostly have disconnected controllers so they don't end up with kids playing games 24/7.

 

[Sparx]

the 360 controller is also better, the PS3 one feels like a cheap third party model

If you are only going to get an HDTV for your 360 then cheaper option is a PC monitor and VGA cable, i have it connected to my HDTV via VGA and its perfect HDMI isnt much better than VGA tbh

 

[soze]

the 360 controller is also better, the PS3 one feels like a cheap third party model

Thats a personal not factual thing becuase i think you are 100% wrong i cant stand the 360 pad and think the ps3 one is fine just not heavy enough.

 

[Sparx]

Thats a personal not factual thing becuase i think you are 100% wrong i cant stand the 360 pad and think the ps3 one is fine just not heavy enough.

Yes i agree its a personal feeling, its also a feeling that everyone else i know has even the people who have PS3s. So i'm not just chucking wild comments around.

Perhaps its cause i am used to the 360 one, i love the weight to it. Feels like i am holding something

 

[~Latency~]

definatly a personal thing for the pads, my brother doesn't mind the xbox ones but doesn't paticularily like them, whereas he proper rates the playstations ones (heavy ps2 and 3 player)

whereas i dont mind the ps ones (played ps and ps2 many years) but for the ps3 they feel really underweighted, so don't really like em, whereas i love the xbox pad

 

[Ch3tan]

not looked at the new models of tv's so cannot really comment. But for proper in depth user reviews check on avforums.com . It is the best bet when looking for any Av stuff.

 

[Rubric]

I founf myslf really torn over whether to go ps3 or xbox 360. I went 360 in the end as i have an SD tv and refuse to go HD for at least 3 or 4 years. However if i had had an HD tv i would have gone for the PS3 as it has everything out of the box.

 

[Starman]

I also own both consoles.

As others have stated it really comes down to what do you want it for?

X360 for online, and a coherent online service via Xbox Live.
PS3 for media centre, and the as it stands atm basic online offering which will hopefully improve in due course.

 

[Yaka]

well casual gaming is just a gimmicky moniker that the press use to separate games suitable for family's with say gta, manhunt etc.

anyways having owned all 3

wii for simplified fun pretty much any game orginaly designed for it and the odd port are easy to get to grips with some nice gems on virtual console as well. opera browser is so simplified the missus/gf could use it with no probs oh and both iof em are silent as well and dont sound like a nasa space launch in you living room

ps3 as noted by almost everyone ere for media playback and also makes an ideal
living room pc with ydl tux installed. hdd is upgradeable without affecting warranty. online gaming is not sonys real problem as they leave it up to publishers and developers to do what they want. tho psn store is getting better slowly. games to get for now are limited (uncharted, heavenly sword,
gt5p, ratchet and clank, motorstorm, f1ce) .


both the above consoles are uber reliable few if any hardware related problems, my sisters kids shoved 3 dvds in my wii had to open it up to remove the discs and it still werks.

the 360 has great online service, mping games with friends is easy and online gaming and content wise its the best. it falls flat on its fucking arse with the reliability of its hardware tho which ms still haven't sorted and perhaps never will. im on my 5th 360 all of mine have suffered 3 RROD failures. and the hard drive is uber expensive and ms have come out with a piss poor excuse for the hard drive issue read the bs here

 

[Ch3tan]

I founf myslf really torn over whether to go ps3 or xbox 360. I went 360 in the end as i have an SD tv and refuse to go HD for at least 3 or 4 years. However if i had had an HD tv i would have gone for the PS3 as it has everything out of the box.

What the hell for? Buying a next gen console then playing it on a SD Tv is just ridiculous. It's like playing PC games at 640*480. There is no reason not to invest in a HDTV now.

 

[Jonty]

What the hell for? Buying a next gen console then playing it on a SD Tv is just ridiculous. It's like playing PC games at 640*480. There is no reason not to invest in a HDTV now.

I agree, HDTVs are as cheap as chips these days, and HD media is becoming more prevelant, so there's really little incentive to hold off.

Kind regards

 

[Yaka]

What the hell for? Buying a next gen console then playing it on a SD Tv is just ridiculous. It's like playing PC games at 640*480. There is no reason not to invest in a HDTV now.

ch3tans spot on, but with 360 you have a choice of buying the vga cable and hooking to you monitor, you should be able to see the differance compared to sdtv.

 

[Raven]

If you can afford it take the PS3. Though I still maintain the PC is the better option, though if as you say you only really use it for MSN and the like then its pretty pointless paying out £500-600 for a PC.

A console controller is fine for most console games, though there is no way it comes anywhere near to being as fluid as a mouse/keyboard.

The decent console games end up on PC anyway, most of the time as a "directors cut" like assassins creed or gears of war. GTA4 will eventually be out on PC only better than the console versions.

At the end of the day it depends what you want it for, the old adage that a console is only good for sports sims and platformers doesn't hold true, they can now run decent FPS and RTS games at bearable quality, just with wanky controls. Though this wont be true for long as the PC is an ever evolving platform, with the obvious upgrades. Though if gaming is a hobby that you take great pleasure in then spending a few hundred a year on upgrades shouldn't be a problem.

I would buy a PS3 tomorrow if I didn't know within a year it would be a glorified media centre.

 

[Yaka]

well x360 and ps3 both manage to run cod4 fine both hold up well to a ninja pc playing the same game, yes you get a higher res, i agree with kb and mouse.

as for pc as gaming platform, cod4 is a perfect example more peeps with pirate copies playing it than those with legit version on pc. and crysis amzing and stunning game that it is has sold poorly.

game devs, this goes for allmost all pc devs are looking towards both the 360 and ps3 as piracy is not a major issue on either (yes 360s can play backups but this means no xbl and hasnt affect game sales by much) valve, id, epic, bioware are looking to consoles, valve tho have made steam into a sound platform for buying games who along with blizzard are possibly only ones on the pc scene looking rosy


oh and directors cut my arse, they just sugar coated both with little bits that dont add much to either game

 

[ST^]

Crysis shipped a million copies and it had ridiculous system requirements. Didn't do badly at all.

 

[Yaka]

took its time to get to 1mill

 

[Ch3tan]

I disagree strongly with the higher res thing.

I run at 1080p, my PC runs at 1920*1200. But running a game at that res on my PC with all the eye candy turned on would result in 0 fps. Now not all ps3 and 360 games run with AA and effects turned on, but the ones that are well programmed do. As the developers get used to the conolse they will be able to make games look and perform better (same happened with the ps2). In reality does anyone see PC games using a higher res than 1920*1200 in the next three years?

Also the mouse/KB argument. The controller works well for Gears of War, it works fine for cod4. you ahve to remember that everyone is using the same controls so their is a level playing field, and there is an element of auto aim to compensate for slower reaction with a control stick that mouse/kb.

 

[inactionman]

Ch3t, no console game runs at 1080p (unless they are really basic), they may be upscaled to 1080p from 720p but they are not native 1080p. This is because the GPU's in consoles have obviously fallen behind the mid to high-end PC ones in PC's nowdays, amongst other things (CPU power, memory). Some console games are even rendered below 720p and are upscaled (rumors that GTAIV on the PS3 is like this). I'm not saying that it's not easier to develop for a fixed platform, as it generally is, I'm just saying that the consoles are starting to get a bit old these days, the fact that they were designed 3 or so years ago is starting to show.

I have no problems running all my PC games at high detail (max detail in some games) in 1920x1200 and getting 40+ fps, except with Crysis (and we know how badly coded that was). Also there are already 27" and 30" monitors, and they are steadily getting cheaper, besides who would have thought we'd be running PC games at 1920x1200 a couple of years ago?