Ben--The-Benny--WilkinsonWhy Choose The PlayStation 3?
This generation of consoles is quite fractured, more so than the previous two generations. The Wii has grabbed most of the casual audience that previously turned to Sony for cheap, simple gaming, and Microsoft has spent a great deal of effort (and money) on making the 360 an attractive alternative for the core gamers who in previous generations turned to Sony for high-profile third-party games.
So where does this leave Sony; specifically, its PlayStation 3? The most obvious answer is that the console is still left with arguably the strongest collection of first-party developers and exclusives of all three home consoles currently on the market. Certainly, unless Microsoft or Nintendo have some big announcements planned for E3, the PS3 has by far the strongest line-up of exclusives for 2009. It's also worth noting that the loss of third-party exclusives seldom means the game becomes a 360 exclusive and no longer available on the PS3; only that the game is released for both.
Then there's the matter of value. Both the cheapest 360 and the Wii sit comfortably at much lower price points than the PS3. For the average consumer, that's enough to swing the decision away from the PS3, but the fact remains that the extra cost is far outweighed by the gains of features like Blu-Ray functionality and a wireless internet connection right out of the box, both things lacking in its HD competitor. The disastrous hardware issues of the 360 also need to be mentioned, even if these problems are diminishing.
While not quite on par with the premium Xbox Live service, Sony's PlayStation Network is still an excellent free service for online gaming, with the PlayStation Store being a good source of demos, downloadable games, themes, videos and additional content. When not free, these downloads are always sold with real prices rather than the vague points systems used by Microsoft and Nintendo. Sony has also made great strides since the system's launch to make the PSN more comparable to XBL, and as the years go by it will likely become increasingly difficult to find ways in which the PSN does not stand alongside Live as a robust online gaming service.
Another strength of the 360 has been its community features, with achievements, mandatory leaderboards in Xbox Live Arcade games, gamercards and access to other gamers' profiles from the PC all coming together to result in entire communities building up around these features. This is another area where Sony has done a good job catching up; it's rare now for games to release without trophies (and soon all games will have them), the EU PSN recently launched gamercards (with the US likely to follow) and players can access their own profiles and trophy collections from their PCs, with more functionality to come.
Of course, the primary consideration when buying a games console should always be the games available for it, and Blu-Ray, Live, trophies/achievements and motion controls are all secondary considerations. After a rough start, multiplatform games on the PS3 are generally on par with the 360 versions, meaning that it is mainly about which games are exclusively available on one system.
Titles like Halo, Gears of War, Fable and third-party games like Mass Effect (still currently exclusive) all represent the 360 well, with exclusive DLC deals for certain third-party games making them more attractive propositions on Microsoft's console. The Wii has all the old Nintendo stalwarts of Mario, Metroid, Zelda and Smash Brothers that some gamers will enjoy each and every generation, with certain third-party exclusives like MadWorld and No More Heroes bolstering the line-up.
As mentioned above, to compete with these the PS3 has some of the strongest developers and franchises of the last few generations, with series likes God of War, Killzone, Uncharted and Gran Turismo all seen as leaders in their respective genres, and high-profile third-party exclusives like Metal Gear Solid 4 adding to the line-up. When combined with the console's other existing exclusives and the new IPs we are likely to see as the generation progresses, it's difficult to see how a PS3 purchase could possibly disappoint.
Oh no! All these extra features are being forced on me!
wouldnt it be cheaper to buy a ps3 than to buy a xbox360 and a blu ray player?
u must not be a owner of a wireless cell phone.
its all about wireless these days.
Last edited by kreate on 5/3/2009 5:25:37 AM
You can easily make your Wifi connection unusable by outside sources simply by using the built-in features of your Wireless router. They all have them. MAC address filtering is my favorite, since all it requires is taking the physical MAC address from the PS3, PC, Laptop or any other periphery that may require a network connection, and plugging it into the filter list. To do this on your PS3, it's in system info. On your PC:
Start ->Run ->cmd.exe
ipconfig /all
It will be listed as Wireless Ethernet Adapter, you want the 'physical address', usually displayed like:
00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
That goes in your wireless MAC filter list. Then you're all set. Noone who doesn't have the typed in addresses, can access your wireless network.
Ok, so next you say that Sony is forcing you into buying things that you don't necessarily need. I guess that's fair. Some people don't 'need' Wifi, or Bluray…let's be honest, they're aren't exactly required to survive. However, given both machines are promoted as in-home media servers, the two aforementioned qualities add significantly to that. Another thing to remember is the design, neither the 360 or PS3 have much RAM, so having as much space as possible available via optical medium can only help developers in the long run…not to mention HDD space. Which, and here's something that really bother's me about the 360…proprietary harddrives…wtf is up with THAT?!
I paid $180 for a SATA2 320g laptop drive…spent 5 minutes swapping it out of my PS3.
Morne
Last edited by Mornelithe on 5/3/2009 12:24:28 PM
duffman… The PS3 is a extraordinary machine which is well worth it's price tag with all of the features that are included:
-Easy to use XMB
-Remote Play
-Wireless Internet
-Playstation Home
-Playstation Lifestyle (News)
-Trophies
-You can use an Internet Browser
-Awesome exclusives (Flower, LBP)
-Motion Sensing Controller
-Photo Album Stuffs
-Playstation Store (With Movies!)
Well, honestly, all you have to do is read the article. I can't see how anyone could prefer a 360 over a PS3; with all of the PS3's updates, it's so incredible superior to the 360 that I laugh at people who think that 360's are better than PS3s.
So HAHAHAHAHAHA to you duffman.
Byda way, if you don't like companies forcing you to have features you don't want, I'm sure you'd love how Microsoft abandoned their 360 lovers by adding awesome new feature such as; "NOTHING!"
duffman you don't make sense. It sounds like you want a machine that can just barely do what you want, not a machine that reaches beyond like the PS3. Like one of the PS3 commercials said:
"PS3: Play Beyond".
Sorry duffman, I'm just tired of people saying that the 360 is better than the PS3. It just certainly isn't true to me. I mean 360 means Halo and Gears of War and Fable, but PS3 means LittleBigPlanet, MGS4, God of War, Uncharted, Killzone, Resistance…
And then this really old but awesome exclusive called Folklore. That game was so fun and addicting and it was surprisingly deep. It was awesome.
Unlike you duffman.
I don't know how to make a smiley say "bleh" so I'm going to put this smiley up instead:
:C
OK, that was near borderline semi-fanboy.
But it's okay =D
LOL @ 'bleh' face.
>=]
fanboy or not, its not offensive or considered 'lame excuse' like the xbox fanboys.
sony is NOT forcing anything on anyone.
xbox fanboys needs to get that fact through their heads.
if i buy a ps3, im not FORCED to use any of the features if i dont want to.
isnt it considered 'common sense' for the average gamer to buy a ps3 instead of a blu ray player if blu ray is something he also wants?
the fact of the matter is… xbox360 consumes your cash fairly quickly over time. while the ps3 is a one time payment. this is generally speaking.
unfortunately, 'common sense' isnt so common.
Last edited by kreate on 5/3/2009 8:06:46 AM
@duffman,
" i dont like wifi people can tap in and use it on you."
The only way that a person can hack into you're wireless is if you are making it easy for them to get in there, if you have a admin password thats easy to get into then thats u're fault. Wifi is the safest it has been for years. I have everything wireless and never had a problem with connection or anyone trying to hack in cause they can't i change my password every 6 months and have a WEP key as well. The biggest mistake people make is that they don't use the security features of their routers and thats why their internet gets used.
@Neurotoxiny I agree with u 100%. Also Folklore was amazing game, unfortantly it got dusted under the rug, i have friends who have never heard of it before. It was never hyped or announced that much.
For as me i like the PS3 for a lot of reasons,I also like the fact that i don't have to pay to play online, never had issues with PSN with people except during the beta of home but XBlive i go over there and man the crap that flies out of peoples mouths is gross and freightning.
I think that, at the end of the day, it's either:
a) whatever console gives you the features that you need, or
b) whatever console your friends have.
Features:
Whilst I have more friends that own a 360, I tend to prefer the features that the PS3 offers. I enjoy playing games on 360 and whilst there are features that I don't use ("party" and "cross-game chat" for example), I'd still love to see them on PSN if only for PS3 owners to stop complaining that we don't have them.
Interface:
I find that PS3 XMB is generally cleaner, simpler and better laid out. However, "in-game" interface is more smooth on Live. Whilst everyone wanted in-game XMB access for PS3, I still don't get why Sony opted for the whole XMB to appear, when the majority of functions you cannot access without quitting the game. Cut this down and give users just access to the essentials, surely this would speed things up?
Community:
I probably communicate more(whether its in-game, video chat or simply messages) with PSN friends than I do with Live. No idea why, just seems to be a more "mature(?)"/friendly environment.
Areas to focus on:
IMO there are four areas that Sony (in some cases particularly SCEE) need to get sorted in order to be fully on par with Live:
– Communication: as mentioned in above, Cross-Game chat and party systems;
– Playstation store: if Microsoft can release demos etc globally one week, why can't Sony?
– Video store: Europe still waiting for this;
– PSN cards: not everyone has a credit card, why these STILL aren't available worldwide whilst the USA (and Asia?) has had them for nearly a year now, I just don't know.
I haven't mentioned price as an essential as I feel that this is not going to happen for a while. Yes, £299 is an expensive price in today's climate, and I can see PS3's selling by the bucket load if/when they hit the £199 "sweet-spot" but until Sony can get development costs down further, you either got to stick with 360 or keep saving 🙂
If/when the above gets sorted, there won't be any reason for people to say that Live offers more content than PSN. For now , I'm happy with what the PS3 has and the 1st party titles that are coming this year and the next.
One last thing, the reason why I'm supremely glad to have my PS3…Sony's 1st party exclusives, always stay exclusive. There's no chance that a year, two years, three years down the road, the game will come out for PC, a thousand times better. That's the biggest issue with the 360…it has no exclusives (Except for Gears 2…but that's not really enough to sell a console..vs my PC).
Morne
Why choose the PS3?
1. Free online play
2. Stronger processor than the other 2 "Next-generation systems"
3. Better internet browser than wii (Xbox 360 doesn't even have one xD)
4. Best exclusive games
5. Extremely low failure rate
6. Built-in Wi-fi
7. Best of both worlds- playstation 3 has high definition games & motion sensitive controllers
8. It's the most envied console of today- people treat you differently after you tell them that you have a PS3
9. It has the coolest design. It looks sooo superior when its next to a different game system- like an alien space ship that has came to take over the world!
10. It has better compatibility with PSP than Xbox 360 & Zune, or even the Wii & DS. PSP is a UFO, While the PS3 is the mothership 😀
11. Its menu is easier to use than the menus that Xbox 360 & Wii use.
12. It's timeless.
Congrats Benny! Lookin good on the main page.
duffman: You brought that ownage on yourself. If you have no interest in the PS3, why are you here in the first place?
Haha
Here's my reason why choose the PS3:
Amazing exclusive that only the PS3 have due to Blu-Ray.
you should buy a ps3………………………CUZ I SAID SO=p
Well written and I totally agree with him.
A while ago I wrote the story of my friend that bought the Xbox while I opted for the PS3 at launch…
In the beginning it was a different story, but I stuck by my choice and now the PS3 IS the best machine to own and the momentum it has gained over the last 2 years just proves that in 3 years time the PS3 will be unrivaled until the "next generation" comes along.
But very well written article Benny.
Want to know why I chose the PS3?
Because I have patience! Nearly all my friends went and got a PleaseFixMe in the year it had on the PS3, even though none of them had the original Xbox, and all had the PS2.
They also try and hide behind the fact it was too expensive, which I can give them some recognition for, but in that year they were paying money to play online, they could have been saving their money for the PS3, and it has had price cuts since.
Why did I buy a 60GB PS3?
It's because I always like making the smartest choices.
I liked this article so much I saved it onto my bookmarks. Partially because of the really funny/intelligent argument that follows it :p