PS3 vs Xbox 360

The PlayStation 3 is powered by the “Cell processor”, which is boasted to be 35 times more powerful than its predecessor, the PS2.

Its graphics is powered by an nVidia graphics chip called an RSX (“Reality Synthesizer”) which operates at 550 MHz core clock with over 300 million transistors, and is claimed to be more powerful than two GeForce 6800 Ultra cards put together.

Comparing the PS3 to the Xbox 360 as far as specifications are considered is near impossible, due to the GPUs and CPUs construction. The RSX has a smaller number of pipelines than what the Xbox 360 boasts, but this could still mean that they are more powerful. Graphics aside, the Nintendo Wii is an even harder comparison due to the completely different market that they appeal to (however with the PlayStation Move this could change).

The online facility, as with the Xbox 360 is an important factor. The PS3 can be played online for free, a positive in comparison with the Xbox: Live (£32-£40 subscription a year). However, there have been mixed reviews with the PlayStation Network, and it is widely known that Xbox: Live is far superior. Downloadable files will cost you extra, but this should not be a major issue for the overall lifetime of you PS3 online experience.

The standard controllers on the PS3 are not a redesign as first anticipated, in fact the controller looks similar to the old PS2 controller with the addition of wireless capabilities. The Sixaxis controller uses Bluetooth technology and has a motion sensor, with 6 degrees of freedom (all as standard). A newer version was designed to incorporate the rumble feature (DualShock 3). The PS3 can accommodate up to 7 players at one time, also additional controllers can be connected to the USB 2.0 ports available. Furthermore, PSP owners will be able to connect their handheld gaming device to a Wi-Fi port as either a controller or an additional screen, perhaps even for viewing tactical information in game.

The system is available in various colours including white, silver and black. The media format that the games will be stored on is Blu-ray (the successor to DVDs) – a standard single-layer Blu-ray Disc can hold 25 GB – roughly 5 times more storage than a standard single-layer DVD. The Blu-ray drive will support all Blu-ray formats (BD-ROM/BD-R/BD-RE) and be backward compatible with current CD and DVD formats to enable ‘some’ PS2 games to be played (Sony say 200 do not work). As well as this flexibility, what really separates the PS3 from the Xbox 360 is the fact that the console doubles up as a Blu-ray / DVD player. At the moment the benefits of such a system has not reached its full potential, but can be just as successful as the PS2 was to DVDs (providing that Blu-ray stays competitive with HD-DVDs).

September 2010 saw the release of Sony’s new motion control system, PlayStation Move, to rival the Wii MotionPlus and Kinect for Xbox 360. It has many similarities to the MotionPlus controller – the ability to mimic sword fighting, golf, tennis, boxing etc. One notable advantage over its Nintendo counterpart is its more noticeable precision. Also, if the requirement in the game is to recognise both hand movements, then the another PlayStation Move controller or the navigation controller can be added (to the unused hand). This means there are two controllers acting wirelessly – this is not the case with the Wii. At the moment, barring unreliable third-party hardware, the system in the Wii has the MotionPlus in one hand with the wired nunchuck controller in the other, which does become a bit restrictive at times, especially during sports like boxing. Sony believe that gamers want to have physical controllers based on the relative failings experienced with the Eye-Toy on the PS2.

Nevertheless, what Sony have created on the face of it is nothing particularly new and the fact that their main rival, Microsoft have come up with an altogether different concept in Kinect, it may be worrying times leading up to the next generation of console for Sony. Whether Kinect will prove Sony’s theory that controllerless gaming doesn’t work only time will tell.

The PS3 comes in varying hard drive sizes, at release it gave a retail value of £425 – which is quite considerable compared to the other consoles. What should also be priced-in is a 2nd controller (£30) and couple of games (£80), which gives an overall total of £535! Adding PlayStation Move to that makes the cost even more considerable – maybe this is why it has taken so long for Sony to come up with it.

As the years have past, this console is slowly becoming cost effective. However, as purely a console, the PS3 is still rather expensive. However, if you a looking for a great console and a Blu-ray player then this would be great value at this price.

Prior to the concept of Kinect, the PS3 was marginally superior to the Xbox 360, but with the introduction of the PlayStation Move, from a cursory perspective it now looks like Sony are comfortable with the present, whereas Microsoft have looked to the future.

 

Microsoft has revealed its new console, the Xbox 360. As can be seen from the picture opposite, the console is smaller, curvy and more stylish than the console before it, with the addition of being able to stand vertically or horizontally. The Xbox 360 can also be customised using a variety of faceplates to suit your style or furniture.

As can be seen from the specs, the Xbox 360 boasts a custom-built IBM PowerPC CPU running at 3.2GHz with memory at 512MB RAM. The graphics chip is a custom-built ATI chip capable of advanced antialiasing and shader effects. This means that the Xbox 360 will have the processing power to deliver true 720p and 1080i wide-screen HDTV images for all of its games – slightly less than what the PS3 can achieve but considerably better than the Wii.

Microsoft have continued and improved their Xbox Live feature, being available in silver and gold tiers, with the addition of a new feature: Xbox Live Marketplace where users can access a multitude of demos, maps, skins etc. for download. These are available for the Silver Membership, which is free, however, to play online Gold Membership is required, which comes at an additional cost (around £35 a year). This would seem a little unreasonable when you see that the PlayStation and PC online features are free. On the other hand, Microsoft have pumped a lot of investment into Xbox: Live and feel that they have justified its price. In addition, Xbox: Live is considered by most users as superior to its competitors – all the servers are provided by Microsoft, which means its almost guaranteed to be lag free. In addition, they have successfully integrated voice chat (which is also available on the PS3 but with varying success, and the PC with third-party applications).

Microsoft later announced the ability to stream or download HD movies (at an additional cost per movie). Xbox: Live also provides access to Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm. And lastly, all these features will be accessible via Kinect, i.e. you don’t even have to touch anything!

Another interesting feature of the Xbox 360 is the Media Center Extender where you can stream video, audio and photos from networked PCs running Windows Media Center Edition. Also media can be streamed from portable music players, digital cameras, and Windows XP PCs.

Currently the Xbox 360 retails for around £200. You can buy your system with a range of different hard drive capacities – its necessity is up for scrutiny but is a useful addition for caching etc.

The Xbox 360 uses the main gaming format, HD-DVD technology compared to the slightly more advanced Bluray technology (BD-ROM) used in the PS3. The Xbox 360 is backwards compatible with the top Xbox games.

November 2010 saw the release of Kinect for Xbox 360, Microsoft’s version of a motion control system. What makes it different from its competitors, as well as what was mentioned previously, is that it gives the user entire control of games (new games compatible with Kinect only) through body movements and/or voice commands. These can be used in fighting games where the game can pick up each punch and kick of the user, or a ‘virtual reality’ game where you can interact with a character on screen. As with all of the new motion control systems, its what the games can deliver, not just how good the technology is. Kinect looks to be ahead of the game in terms of technology but the games need to be of high standard to compete with the Wii and PS3.

The Xbox 360 as with its predecessor will prove to be a worthy competitor to its Sony counterpart. As long as Microsoft deliver on games like the Xbox-only exclusives and the highly promising Kinect, there is no reason why the Xbox 360 can’t be the best console this year, next and beyond.