Xbox vs. PS3

"A comparison of two top video game systems

Last time these two met, PlayStation was the king of the hill and Xbox was the new kid on the block, albiet a more powerful, faster new kid. Now Xbox 360 is out and looking good, but PlayStation 3 has yet to enter the ring; find out who has the better foot work, quicker jab and stronger right hook.

Playstation 3

* The weigh in:

It’s not out until spring, and while a price has not been set, industry experts believe it will be competitive with Xbox. According to Sony, it will use HD-DVDs for its game media and will output video at a higher resolution than the Xbox 360.

* Games:

Blu-ray DVDs will hold 54 gigabytes of information and Playstation 3 will utilize Blu-ray as its game media. Games on PS3 could technically be six times bigger than 360’s games, which means longer playing times, more graphical detail and more animation. In general, better games. But it’s up to the developers.

Since 360 has the market share at the moment, developers will most likely create games that easily adapt between systems. So until developers make games specifically for PS3, there shouldn’t be much difference in the games.

* Multimedia:

While 360 supports a wireless connection to the home computer and Internet, PS3 connects through a much faster 3 gigabit ethernet cable. PS3 also has a greater variety of media ports and supports regular DVDs as well as the Blu-ray DVDs. The PS3 online community is not nearly as popular as Xbox’s, but it will feature support for video conferencing.

* High Definition:

PS3 supports dual HDMI output of 1080p – a better resolution than the 360 offers. It can be displayed over two monitors or TVs. The difference is in the ‘p’ designation; in short it means progressive scan, which is better than interlace, but 1080i is nothing to quibble over either. In fact, the most common HDTV’s only support 780p, which both systems can output. And of course they will both work with standard TVs.

* Outlook:

The real difference maker will be the success of the Blu-ray format. If developers utilize its increased space in a meaningful way, the game play will be incredible.

Xbox 360

* The weigh in:

The Xbox 360 fully loaded costs around $400 and features a wireless controller, headset, detachable hard drive and a few other gadgets. The bantam weight costs $299.99 and does not have wireless controllers or a hard drive, which will make saving games difficult. Memory cards sell for $40 but hold a fraction of the storage capacity the $100 optional hard drive offers.

* Games:

25 games will be out for Christmas, including hot titles like Perfect Dark Zero, Kameo and Call of Duty 2.

* Multimedia:

360’s development team markets this system as a media center, not just a gaming system. It features USB ports and allows users to play digital media stored on the home computer by way of Microsoft’s Home Media Center. It recognizes iPods and other devices through USB and the user’s music can replace the game’s soundtrack. The 360 also plays DVDs, even homemade ones. PlayStation is slated to have compact flash ports and play the next generation of DVDs: HD-DVD.

* High Definition:

The 360 outputs at the maximum 1080i, which means 1080 lines of resolution; standard TVs are 480i. Optimally the 360 is played on an HD-TV to really enjoy the graphics, but the Xbox plays just as well on standard TV sets, as well as HD-TV’s that are 780p. 1080p is the setting just above 360’s and is utilized by Sony.

* Outlook:

Xbox chose to use dual-layer DVDs, which have an upper limit of nine gigs, as their game media; Sony’s will be using disks with a storage capacity of 54 gigs. This might seem excessive, but HD graphics chew up storage space. Nine gigs could be seriously limiting. But the Xbox Live online community is thriving and they have the Halo franchise." [more]