Filed Under: Gaming
You may recall last Christmas, when I got my PS3. All was well. I despised the Xbox 360 and everything to do with it, despite being told many times by friends to get one. I was a devoted Sony fan, won over by everything the PS3 had to offer - free online play, great games, Blu-ray support. All was well.
Then I got a few more games - Burnout and Assassins Creed - and enjoyed the gameplay of both, and the amazing online of Burnout. I made new friends on the PS3, and was persuaded to buy Call of Duty 4. All was well.
Then I got CoD4. I was plagued by the constant errors - “Cannot connect to host” - and much to my dismay, those gamers on the 360 had none of this. Our complaints to the game developers were ignored. Then I joined a clan, and found the lack of an in-game messaging system pretty annoying. Still, I put up with it, hoping for this much-requested feature in the next update.
The next update came, and went. So did the next one. They redesigned the store, but still no game invites, no in-game messaging, no sign of PlayStation Home, their big selling point, in sight. By this time it was getting to the point of insanity. Why can’t we have some basic features that the users of the 360 have had since launch?
Then GTA IV was released. I loved the single player, and me and my mate (who has a 360) had a night playing it. He brought his 360, I played on my PlayStation. He was playing away online, joining games full of players. I couldn’t get into a single game. Even when I hosted one, I hardly gathered 6 players, never mind 16, and kept getting disconnected from my own games.
Now my other friend is getting a next-gen console. When he asked for my advice on which console to buy, he seemed surprised when I said the 360. Unfortunately, I’ve put my money and trust in Sony and they’ve let me down. I’m now seriously considering jumping the band-wagon over to Microsoft and the Xbox 360.
Sure, I don’t mind paying £40 a year to play online. If you can get into games and have fun with your friends, it’s worth whatever money you’re paying. It seems that developers favour the 360, and so do the players. Sony released figures a few days ago saying that ‘the PS3 is outselling the 360 in Europe’. What’s the use in that if they can’t run an online gaming service?
The world of gaming is moving more and more onto online play, and consumers won’t put up with delays and excuses no longer.
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Dear dear Jordan, sounds like you have been reading xbox blogs and havent done your research 0.0.
1:~CoD4 problems and connection to host errors are also at large on xbox and yes, infinity ward have failed to roll out a patch- not Sonys problem
2:~In game messaging is already on numerous PS3 games (for example resistance, Rainbow 6, Motorstorm) but no one really knows why it wasn’t included at launch and it has been known for 3 months that In-game xmb (which includes messaging) is out this June, along with a basic form of achievments
3:~GTAIV works perfectly online for me, with only one problem which was fixed with the last patch, your disconnection problems is you, not the PS3
4:~Are you insane? Jumping the bandwagon from Sony to Microsoft is crazy, the only thing Microsoft has to offer is a superior online experience which can easily be added via updates to the PS3, most people are now converting to the PS3 as the 360 “exclusives” are crap compared to Sony’s (who the hell wants Halo 3, I hated it) superior line up, would you really put temporary network superiority over Sony’s Bluray, Great exclusives, Free online (you get what you pay for I suppose, pay nothing, get nothing in return) and other things?
5:~Sony are focused in making a home entertainment system, with gaming being their second aim, the Xbox however is solely built around gaming, hence the emphasis on the online, however Xbox live is well known for lagging a lot more then PSNetwork. Also name 1 developer that actually favors the 360 (except the obvious 1st party developers- ie Bungie)? I hate it when people say “oh this game is 1 fps faster then the PS3 version, so the developer must favor us”
Sure the delays are annoying but Sony take things slow, while Microsoft rush (RROD is a good example of them rushing, also the faulty disc drives) I am sure when Sony finally delivers, it will DELIVER.
Much like when the PS2 first came out it did quite bad in sales, by the end of its life it was huge and had improved drastically.
My conclusion is that both consoles have their own pros and cons (PS3 having bluray, Xbox having superior online service) but you can only really judge them if you own both.
May 18th, 2008 at 4:20 pmI used to love my 360 but after witnessing the RROD, leading me to purchase a PS3 while I was waiting for a new one I have barely touched my 360, only to talk to some friends and have entirely given up paying a subscription for essentially nothing much better then the PS3