I have always been a loyal Sony supporter ever since they converted me from my SNES to their PS1. I have owned a PS1, PS2, PSP and not one but two PS3′s. Not once really ever wanting to own an XBox or a 360, mostly because Sony had made good hardware and sourced good developers and I was happy with them for my gaming needs, where they lacked I had PC.
However this generation has been full of trouble for Sony since the beginning, they ignored customer requests for dual analog sticks on their PSP’s after countless hardware revisions, made promises of UMD conversions for adopters of the PSPGo then scrapped those plans, removed features on each PS3 revision, universal card reader, USB ports, backwards compatibility, OtherOS, even went so far as to remove the option of OtherOS for all existing users, which they are still embroiled in a lawsuit over. Now their PSN has been offline now for 3 weeks due to a malicious attack on their servers and it has been handled very poorly, wrong information, lack of information, and missed deadlines have plagued Sony while they try to rebuild with more security to supposedly prevent future issues.
So having said all this, I decided to take some of my old PS3 games that I haven’t touched in ages and head over to my local gamestop to see what kind of deal I could get on a brand new XBox 360. Once there there was a Forza 3 bundle with a 250gb HDD, and two controllers on sale for $199. With over $100 in credit available to me with my trade in it cost me $90, and I spent another $90 getting 12mths of XBL with a chat pad and a headset. I immediately headed home and unpacked my new toy.
One of the first things I see is a giant power block that the cord from the XBox plugs into before plugging into the wall, this was a far cry from the PlayStation 3, which uses a standard PC power cable and plugs directly into the back of the PS3 with no intermediary. The plug that goes into the 360 itself is also quite large, along with the controller being bulky in comparison to a DualShock 3, all in all most of the 360 hardware seems bulky.
I spent a good 5 minutes trying to get the chat pad to join to the controller properly, it didn’t want to sit quite flush, but after reading the instructions (maybe i should have done that first?) it was noted some firm pressure might be required, so I no longer feared breaking it and had it seat without a problem. Once it was seated it lit up which was very nice to see because that was what made the PS3 chat pad useless to me, I like to game in the dark. I was disappointed in the lack of Bluetooth support for the 360 as I already have a wireless headset, and the 360 wireless headset looks hideous, however the wired headset plugs into the bottom of the controller so cable length is not an issue.
Upon booting up the console I was plagued with updates every time I tried to touch anything, almost every menu item was just a place holder and needed the actual software to be downloaded upon activation of the item. The menus seemed to be slightly sluggish at first, but after everything was updated and installed the perceived lag was gone and the menus were fast and responsive. Navigation seems a little disconnected in comparison to the XMB, and the sheer volume of ads crammed between the actual applications I want to run is a little frustrating. I streamed a video from my PC to my 360 easier than on PS3 with finer control of that video while it plays as well.
The inclusion of Netflix is very similar to that of the one on PS3, with the added option of watching in a party, which seems interesting but I’m not sure I would use that particular feature. Twitter and Facebook apps are great, but too clunky for me to want to use, especially when I have PC or iPhone as a easier more refined option. The lack of a web browser for the 360 was another disappointment, its very convenient to use that when you need to check something and someone is on the PC.
I am still suprised at the fact that I bought an Xbox, Microsoft has always been the Evil company to me. Sony however has handled my own customer service issues in an unsatisfactory way for me, and does not show any signs of improving in the near future. I have jumped ship like a rat on the Titanic and am having a hard time looking back, I think it’s safe to say that the vast majority of multiplatform gaming purchases will be for XBox for the remainder of this generation and next generation I’ll probably not adopt Sony hardware at all.
Thanks for reading, if you have any comments please leave them below, or add me on XBL: DemonicMember PSN: DemonicMember or email me with our contact form.
you see the light! both consoles very good but the 360 will always be there for you when the shit hits the fan, although you pay a bit for live its worth it in the end!! enjoy your 360!
He paid more because he got the chatpad with it.
Yeah, I grabbed the one with a chat pad, and a headset, even tho the bundle had a headset, but i’m sure ill break one eventually