MandM81 wrote:Yeah, I have not been able to make up my mind about consoles yet.
What made you choose PS3 over X-Box 360?
Due to long-term reasons. I admit when I bought the PS3, it was (nearly) in purpose to play Rayman Origins in high definition graphics but in the beginning I was turned to the Xbox 360 because it was the cheapest alternative: the 4GBs version was costing 200€ at the time, while the PS3 was at 300€ (the 160GBs version).
But after I was thinking twice, and I decided to "study" both consoles while having in account my interests:
Pros of Xbox 360:
- Cheapest console if I decided to go with the 4GB version, and this amount of space would be more than enough for my initial needs
- It is relatively small
- I could try out Raving Rabbids: Alive and Kicking with the Kinect accessory
Cons of Xbox 360:
- The hard drive upgrade to 250Gbs costs 100€ in most places (although I've seen for around 70/80 in online shops, or even more than 100€) and you can only use the model for the Xbox 360, not just any hard drive. This would end up to be more expensive if I bought in the beginning the 250GBs pack.
- Difficulty to find enough variety in Xbox 360 accessories in the stores of my area. The prices are a bit shocking too.
- Difficulty to find enough variety in Xbox 360 games in the stores of my area. The prices are always around the 60€/70€.
- The Xbox 360's gaming catalogue isn't interesting enough for me. I guess it would be just for 3 games and the Xbox catching up dust after.
- The Kinect is expensive (100€), and buying one just for one game, that even has got body recognition problems in its programming? No thanks.
- The Xbox 360 can't read discs in Blu-Ray format.
- The Xbox 360 has got an historical of overheating problems, causing the red ring of death:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360_t ... l_problems
- Playing online games isn't for free, since you need to lay an XBLA subscription.
Pros of PS3:
- The PS3's cheaper model has got a very nice amount of hard drive space: 160GBs.
- The PS3's slim version has got many improvements when compared to earlier models.
- Navigating in PSN and playing online is for free.
- The PS3 can read many disc formats, including Blu-Ray.
- There are many people who use a PS3.
- There's a good variety of PS3 games in the stores of my area and some have really nice prices.
- There's now a more interesting gaming catalogue in the PS3 than years ago.
- I'm familiarized with the PS3 controller, since it is 95% equal to DualShock2 for PS2.
- You can upgrade the hard drive space with any kind of compatible hard drive model in the PS3.
Cons of PS3:
- It is more expensive than choosing the 4GBs Xbox 360.
- The accessories prices are a joke (60€ for a second controller, really?

)
- When PS3 games are released they often cost 70€
Resuming, I ended up to a conclusion that buying an Xbox 360 for me would get even more expensive in the end than buying a PlayStation 3. I also had in account the fact that at home we only have got one Blu-Ray Reader, one from Samsung that is one of the very first models of the market, and when I wanted to watch Avatar I had to go to Samsung's support website digging up the discontinued model's section and downloading a firmware to upgrade the reader, because the reader was unable to read Avatar. After the firmware upgrade, it took 5 minutes to reach the main menu of the disc. And what's funny is that when I tried out Avatar's disc in the PS3, it took 2 minutes to reach the main menu.
The best thing is that in August 2011, Sony made a price cut: the 160GBs version was costing now 250€, which was a much more tempting price. Months later, the Xbox 360 went down to the 150€ in the 4GBs version, but I was already decided to buy the PS3. I can say I don't regret the decision, I'm happy with it.
Again, the decision was based up in my interests and in the long-term value of usage. It is up to you to decide what's the best console for you.