Completely Scientific Comparison
What with the new HD rig and all, plus the new-trinket fun of being a new PS3 owner, I’ve been thinking about the Xbox 360 vs. PlayStation 3. Now, obviously experience isn’t something I can rely on here since I’ve had the PS3 for significantly less time than the 360 and direct comparison is by no means going to be a sure thing either since I have mostly avoided playing the same game on both systems.
But what I can do is provide some non-fanboy comparison of the PS3 to the 360 that doesn’t focus on the number or quality of titles for any respective system. I think we all realize by now that the Xbox has a richer and more robust library than the PS3, so that’s hardly the point here. My comparison points are below, but please note this is merely a trivial exercise. I’m certainly not making purchase recommendations here, as far as I’m concerned the only reason to choose one console over another is the available games.
Non-Game Features
- Aesthetically, neither system is particularly wonderful. The 360′s silly cream/white default color makes it a mismatch in most entertainment centers and the faux chrome disc tray is rather unsightly. The (occasionally infamous) power button quadrant lights offer a nice effect, though, and the covered input ports (rarely used thanks to the wireless controllers) give it a nice unblemished facade. Meanwhile the PS3′s clunky concave exterior seems over-designed (much like the original asymmetric PS2, later vastly improved for the slimline version) and the slot-loading disc drive, while welcome compared to the awkward tray drive on the 360, is set in a clumsily recessed section that looks like an accident. But the PS3′s glossy black finish is sleek and impressive for the few seconds it isn’t covered in dust and the soft touch face buttons feel nice and futuristic.
- Comparing the controllers is a little tough: The best aspects of each are identical: Remote system-on; responsive face buttons, wireless connectivity. Beyond that they each have their strengths and weaknesses: The 360′s weight and offset analog sticks are possibly the most comfortable I’ve used and the trigger buttons are shaped and feel like triggers which is exactly what you want from shoulder buttons. The removable battery casing is a nice bonus as well. However, the D-pad is practically unusable out of the box and the positioning of the Start and Back buttons right next to the Guide button means games that require access to those buttons (map screens are often accessed via Back) can easily lead to accidental pausing while the guide is popped up. Also, the rounded face buttons are significantly less comfortable than the PS3′s wide, flat buttons. But the PS3 missed the mark with the L2/R2 triggers which are arced inward instead of away from the player like a trigger making them feel slippery. The lack of rumble (while not exactly a deal breaker) means the whole thing has a weightless, fragile feel. Still, the Sixaxis controls—while far from perfect—are pretty nifty and the D-pad is excellent (as has been the case since the original, analog-deprived PS1 controller) as is the Home button (in placement, size and feel). One other minor nit with the Sixaxis is the fact that it doesn’t have a removable battery pack so you have to recharge the controller by plugging it into the console via (included) USB cable.
- I’ve actually had two Xboxes: The first was an original chipset unit which died almost exactly a year after I purchased it. I was able to replace it with a newer model (an HDMI-equipped Pro). The original was excruciatingly loud all the time. The replacement is an improvement but it still outputs a game-volume-competing amount of racket. Meanwhile the PS3 is whisper-silent… until the fans kick on which usually happens about 45 minutes to an hour into any game or movie that’s playing. At that point the PS3 and the Xbox are in hot contention for the more obnoxious system. One leg up the PS3 has: Eventually the fans will shut off while the 360′s noise remains steady and constant. Of course, the spin-up, spin-down process in the PS3 also draws extra attention to the volume but I’d prefer moments of peace compared to a steady white noise.
- A lot of people have remarked about the clumsiness of the PS3′s user interface. I haven’t found it to be that bad in practice, and I kind of like the Cross Media Bar. What kills any comparison though is the ubiquity of the Live service through the UI compared to the PS3′s shoved-off-in-a-corner PSN functions. Xbox Live’s Marketplace interface has been updated fairly recently and the adjustments are welcome though still not exactly what I’d describe as “user-friendly,” but they seem like design nirvana compared to the atrocious and frustrating PSN Store interface, which is simply a mess of confusing menu options, wasted space and almost unusable input options, including a brain-dead mapping of the circle button to “Exit the Store” which causes countless snarls of agitation.
- Playing a media disc in either system is mostly the same experience: The controller acts as a remote and some of the buttons are mapped to commonly-used functions while they reserve advanced features for an overlay menu you can toggle. In both cases the biggest annoyance is that the triggers or R2/L2 are mapped to fast forward and reverse which makes a certain amount of sense except those buttons are notoriously easy to bump on accident which results in a lot of frustrated panic as you try to get your movie queued back where you left off. Because of the bad trigger design on the PS3′s Sixaxis it’s a little worse there than on the 360, but I’ve had encounters with the behavior on both systems. One thing that helped a lot for the 360 was picking up a universal remote, but one of the downsides to the PS3 is that it uses bluetooth for controller and remote input which means it’s incompatible with nearly all universal remotes by design. The PS3 has a perhaps obvious edge in this department since it can play Blu-Ray discs (which produce the best source signal for an HD-capable TV that I’ve seen, by a pretty large margin) but the 360 pushes sharp, possibly upscaled picture from standard DVDs and looks better than any standalone player I’ve used.
- One thing the PS3 has that doesn’t even have a 360 analogue is PSP integration features. By and large these are somewhat underdeveloped at the moment limited to some remote on/off functionality, data transfers and a couple of isolated game sharing interactions. Notably missing is the ability for the PS3 to act as a wireless bridge for the PSP which can be sometimes difficult to connect to a third-party WiFi access point with enabled encryption but there is a lot of room for cool down-the-road features and it’s an exciting territory that MS can’t even start to match without a handheld gaming device of their own (no, the Zune doesn’t count).
Game Features
It isn’t easy to compare PS3 and Xbox 360 side-by-side in terms of games because the games themselves are different. I did run a very subjective test by downloading the demo for Devil May Cry 4 on both the 360 and the PS3 and then switching the inputs back and forth to do a graphics comparison. At least with that game, the differences are remarkably minimal. The PS3 seemed to have a slight edge on fidelity of distant geometry and a couple of textures looked a tiny bit sharper and more defined; the lighting effects were a hair more pronounced in the PS3 version but as you might tell by the adjectives I’m relying on, unless you were flipping back and forth you’d think they were 100% identical. Even with the flipping, you’d still have to say they were 98% identical. So round it off and say that at least for the time being they are capable of about the same level of graphical quality.
People also complain about the lack of integrated online features in the PS3. It’s certainly true that the 360 utterly owns Sony’s attempts at online presence-setting and community integration, but as someone who has subscribed to Live since the original Xbox days, Sony’s first foray into integrated online service is actually fairly impressive, and thruthfully is probably further along than Live was at a similar stage of development. Though you have to give Microsoft credit since Sony is using their trailblazing as a means of catching up.
The biggest factor when it comes to gaming on the PS3 versus the 360 is the integrated hard drive of the PS3. Graphics-intensive platform exclusives have a fairly noticeable difference in performance due to the fact that PS3 developers can rely on a hard drive being present to help with load times. Comparing the performance of a game like Uncharted with Mass Effect shows that while both look phenomenal, the experience of Mass Effect is marred by constant texture pop-in and frame rate issues while Uncharted (arguably the prettier game) has some occasional loading but runs very smoothly. It’s possible that Mass Effect’s performance troubles would not necessarily be eliminated if Microsoft included a hard drive standard on every 360 (note that this design decision is a marked step backward from the original Xbox that had an 8GB drive in every unit), but it’s hard to imagine that it wouldn’t help.
The biggest leg up the Xbox has in terms of game-related features is the curiously compelling meta-game that is Gamerscore. Fed by in-game achievements that all 360 games are required to boast (even the morsels on Xbox Live Arcade), your persistent profile gets fed new points for completing various in-game activities. Sony seems to be slowly aping the feature; Uncharted includes something similar but for the time being the awards you unlock have no relevance anywhere outside the game itself. This minor distinction makes all the difference as seeing your Gamerscore grow by playing more and more 360 games creates an all-too-easy compulsion.
While Live and it’s myriad features is superior in almost every way to PSN, Live also requires a $50/year subscription. It’s arguably worth the price but if Sony ever manages to get PSN even close to Live without requiring a subscription, it’s going to make Live look a lot worse.
Finally, the PS3 is completely schizophrenic when it comes to backwards compatibility. Any PS3 will supposedly play PS1 games, but certain models (including the 40GB one I purchased) are not backwards compatible with PS2 games, while other models are either almost entirely BC with an Emotion Engine included on the board or somewhat compatible through software emulation. It’s also difficult to tell which units have which features just by looking at the box making shopping somewhat frustrating if you didn’t do your research ahead of time. Meanwhile the 360 is backwards compatible with a large number of original Xbox games, but not all of them will work and the experience of playing an older game isn’t as smooth as the normal 360 experience.
Summary
Side by side the consoles are actually (anecdotally) very similar. The Xbox 360 has a slightly better controller, a more streamlined and mature online platform and a much better digital distribution service that includes non-game media as well as downloadable content and complete games. The PS3 however has a better overall aesthetic, makes a better media player with the included Blu-Ray drive and has a sort of ephemeral untapped potential especially in terms of PSP integration.
It’s a little difficult to compare them on pricing terms as well; the PS3 has more features right out of the box (guaranteed hard drive at greater capacities and value, built-in WiFi, full online multiplayer support without required subscription) which means your $400 goes further with a single purchase. To match up the PS3′s feature set you’d need to buy at least the Pro 360 model, a $99 WiFi adapter and a $50/year Live subscription which actually makes the PS3 cheaper by $100 if you want to compare the two feature-for-feature. However, not everyone needs WiFi capability or wants to go online at all. I suppose not everyone wants a hard drive either but I can’t recommend the Xbox 360 Arcade model partially because the memory cards are prohibitively expensive but also because I don’t want anyone giving Microsoft the idea that their multi-SKU product lineup including the key feature-deprived low end model is okay.
With so much actually in common it really does come down to the games and while the Xbox has the edge for now, most of the current gen games that you’d want to play are cross-platform. Which means it kind of boils down to a comparison of a handful of games: Gears of War, Halo 3, Mass Effect, BioShock, Dead Rising and Forza Motorsport 2 on the 360 and Heavenly Sword, Motorstorm, Resistance, Ratchet & Clank, Warhawk and Uncharted on the PS3. I’d have to recommend the 360 on that list alone, but it may be worth noting that the PS3 has the better lineup of upcoming exclusives with Final Fantasy XIII, Metal Gear Solid 4, LittleBigPlanet, God of War III and Heavy Rain compared to Halo Wars, Fable 2, Too Human, Alan Wake and Ninja Gaiden II. Admittedly in either case you have plenty of great options and good things to look forward to, but my personal evaluation is that the 360 peaked last fall and the best of the PS3 is yet to come.