A year ago, I was still swearing I would never buy a PS3. They cost too much, the Sony Root Kit, and XBLA and XBOX Live were too awesome. Furthermore, I didn't need Bluray, after all, I had the HD-DVD add on.
Then something happened, advanced audio codecs, Heavenly Sword, and Wipeout HD. First the audio codecs, Dolby-TrueHD made its appearance and to my dismay, I learned the Xbox 360 couldn't decode or output it to a decoding receiver. Wow. Microsoft never told me the HD-DVD add-on would not support any HD Audio and, at the time, I didn't know enough to check.
A little reading and I learned the PS3 was Dolby-TrueHD certified, and could possibly support Dolby-MA through a firmware update. It may even be able to support bit streaming. The option is in the PS3 OS but rumor is the HDMI chip in the current models physically do not support bit streaming HD Audio. I wanted Apocalypto in HD but it was Bluray exclusive; my defenses started to weaken.
Then, screenshots of Wipeout HD running at 60fps in 1080p began to appear. Just to give you a little background on how big this game is for me and probably a lot of others, I never really played consoles before the Xbox 1, I'm a computer guy. My games, my career is in IT. There are two big console games that I have only played on the PC. These games endeared me to gaming, the original Resident Evil, and Wipeout XL.
The thought of Wipeout in my living room @ 1080p, 60fps, Dolby Digital 5.1, well, that brought down the rest of my defenses, and I took the plunge. I bought a PS3 in anticipation. While Wipeout HD hasn't arrived on PSN yet, I'm glad I gave the PS3 a chance.
The PS3's immediate impact was to introduce me to Bluray and uncompressed Audio as well as Dolby-TrueHD. I never thought Audio could be so much
better than the standard DTS and Dolby 5.1 Surround I had been used to. But I was wrong, very wrong. I watched Apocalypto which was Bluray exclusive and Unforgiven. I was sold. Despite no playback resume (at the time), within days I sold my HD-DVD add-on and 8 HD movies for $75 to a work buddy. Two weeks later, Warner went Bluray. Phew, good timing. And yes, my buddy is still my buddy. Not my fault he doesn't follow N4G, he would have known the end was near.
But, a game console is about the games and I can't deny Gears of War, Dead Rising, and all the great XBLA games. What was shocking for me was the dearth of games I wanted to play on PS3. There simply were none. After Gears, no FPS on PS3 appealed to me. There was no good Zombie game and I had just finished off Dead Rising on the 360 and wanted to bash some more infected. As for PSN arcade games, excuse me while I stop laughing, or crying.
Then I decided to give Heavenly Sword a try after all the hype. I bought it on eBay for $35 because I just couldn't buy it at full price given all the online frame rate issue horror stories, whining about the relatively short length etc. While Heavenly Sword isn't perfect and there are frame rate slowdowns, the production quality, overall experience, and plain fun it delivered put the PS3 on equal footing with the 360 in my eyes. Yes, one game. Despite its much larger and more proven library, there was simply nothing quite comparable available on the 360. The only other game I've felt this way about is Gears of War.
Though some find it short, and it is a button masher (I personally find nothing wrong with a quality button masher), you really have to experience it to understand and appreciate the production quality, in a button masher no less. How good is it? Well, I know the names and bios of all the actors. I can't even say that about Gears.
So, I was OK with the PS3 but still somewhat unsatisfied with the limited PSN and game library. What finally made me a convert was Hard Disk. I wasn't happy about paying $179 for a 120G drive on my Xbox 360, or having to sell my console (which was my fourth due to RRoD) and buy the new Arcade model just to get an HDMI port. But I did both because I had no choice. I had a new HDTV LCD and was buying so many TV shows and renting a lot of movies I filled up the 20G stock hard disk. I was shocked and somewhat disgusted to find that I could, and did, upgrade my 40G PS3 to 160G using a standard 2.5" hard disk for $100.
Even though I won't need a 500G hard disk in my PS3 any time soon, after all, yo can't download movies and television on PS3 yet, it's nice to know when they are available this summer I can find the best price, model, and manufacturer and pop one into my console. I'm truly a convert and can officially recommend the PS3 to any gaming enthusiast. If it's going in your home theater. In fact, I actually recommend it over Xbox 360. The PS3 has Bluray and the Xbox 360 is just too loud. No matter what you hear or read, the PS3 is virtually silent.
Of course if you're just gaming you should get whichever console has the games
you want to play. There's nothing wrong with the Xbox 360, I just now believe the PS3 is easily, easily the better value.
For all those other users on the fence, not sure what you'll get, or who to believe, there's nothing to fear. Go ahead and take the plunge, I think you'll be very pleased.
Here's what Rocks on PS3 and what it still needs (and it does have some significant needs if you're coming over from Xbox 360 and Live) from an Xbox 360 fan who opened my eyes to the dark side, and discovered it wasn't so dark after all:
What it's got that absolutely rocks:
What is a rock and needs improving:
Microsoft announced its financial results for Q3 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming Xbox business and more.
Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.
To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.
The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.
Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.
15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.
These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse
The charity event will be streamed live from Gamescom in August.
Thanks to the slip-up of an artist working on the title, we now have more evidence that a new Injustice game is in the works.
VERY WORDY. congrats if it is what you really want, to be honest, i didn't read it, but i pray that it is not a thread bashing the 360 and praising the PS3 for its " UBER L33TN355".
What ever makes you happy matters the most bro, good luck and i guess congrats
lol welcome to the dark side
and ya ps3 is better imo too but still wouldnt give up our 360 just yet ;)