Xbox 360 Versus PS3: Who Holds What Advantages Where

Let’s just make one thing clear before I even launch into this discussion: I play games on both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 regularly and I’ve put them each through their paces as media players. Therefore, in this article, you will not have to endure a fanboy’s rant concerning one console’s profound superiority over the other. What I would like to offer instead is an unbiased opinion on what advantages each console holds over the other based on my personal experiences with each of them.

Both consoles are likely to be around for a few more years at least, and the recent release of Kinect and PlayStation Move will undoubtedly extend the lifespan of the Xbox 360 and PS3 beyond initial expectations held when the consoles first launched in 2005 and 2006 respectively. I have only had limited experience with Kinect and Move so I’ll leave their respective merits out of the equation in this discussion.

The Xbox 360 and PS3 both have powerful multimedia capabilities. I prefer to watch DVD movies on the 360 as the upscaling employed on that console seems to produce a sharper image on my HDTV. On the flipside, there are more settings to tinker with on the PS3’s video player including the ability to boost the movie’s volume level. This is handy as you don’t have to turn your TV’s volume all the way up to hear what’s being said in a movie and then blow your speakers the next time you turn it on.

Playing backup DVDs is also better on the 360. I’ve never had a problem getting one to work on the 360 whereas certain backup DVDs won’t load on the PS3, or the volume will cut out while you’re busy watching it.

I also find that there are far more Xbox 360 games that allow you to listen to music or podcasts stored on a flash drive or hard drive while you’re playing them – very few PS3 games support this option. This is a nifty feature to take advantage of when you’re playing a fighting or driving game where sound isn’t so important. What better way to catch up on a videogame-related podcast than while playing a game?!

I did this recently with the excellent Kojima Productions podcast while completing story mode in Street Fighter IV!

The PS3’s big advantage over the 360 in the multimedia department is obviously its ability to play Blu-rays. The quality you get with Blu-rays and the amount of bonus content that can fit onto a single disk makes DVD look very antiquated in comparison. I’ve also read on Digital Foundry that the PS3 plays ultra hi-resolution HD video better than the 360 due to its superior processing power. There’s also the matter of 3D movies. At the moment only the PS3 can play them, provided you have a 3D-compatible TV of course.

Let’s consider the durability of the console’s respective disk formats for a second. I have read that Blu-ray has a stronger coating than DVD, and personal experience appears to validate this information. I have heard many stories of people’s 360 disks getting scratched and one of the Xbox 360 games I was looking forward to renting from (South African videogame retailer) BT Games – Lost Odyssey – was removed from their catalogue because one of the four disks got scratched. I have not heard of any similar issues with PS3 disks. I’m sure it is possible to damage a Blu-ray if you took a weapon of mass destruction to it, but otherwise it is one of the most durable formats around. This highlights another advantage of the PS3: games never come on more than one Blu-ray and therefore disk changes are non-existent and you have fewer disks to manage and protect per game.

This brings me to one of Xbox 360’s best features: the ability to fully install games. Granted, the disk still has to be in the drive to run, but fully installing a game reaps numerous benefits, including smoother gameplay, shorter loading times, less power consumption and (best of all) near-perfect silence from your 360. It really is worth getting a hard drive just so you don’t have to hear that terrible grating noise when the game is loading. It reminds me of the PlayStation 1 days when you knew a CG or FMV scene was coming from a mile away because it sounded like the console was chewing on your disk before it played.

The new 360 models are reportedly ‘whisper quiet’ so if you have one of these you can count yourself lucky. Most single-disk 360 games only take about 10 minutes to install which is a small price to pay considering all the advantages you’ll gain. The console will even play the disk if it becomes badly scratched, provided it’s already installed on your hard drive.

There is a massive discrepancy, however, between the maximum capacity each console’s disk format is capable of. The Xbox 360 dual-layered DVD can only house 6.9GB of information whereas a PS3 dual-layered Blu-ray can store 50GB. Unfortunately, few games on PS3 take advantage of this great feature since so many of them were designed with the 360 in mind (i.e. multi-platform titles).

It’s exciting when a PS3 game actually makes use of all the space available on a Blu-ray – for instance God of War III had at least 2 hours of fascinating behind-the-scenes footage, all in glorious HD.

Final Fantasy XIII had stunning CG sequences running at 1080P on the PS3, Heavy Rain had at least 10 language tracks to choose from, and Metal Gear Solid 4 had lossless audio as well as a ridiculous amount of bonus content. PS3 games will sometimes contain additional language tracks as compared to their Xbox 360 counterparts due to the extra capacity of Blu-ray, as was the case with Star Ocean: The Last Hope International which included both English and Japanese dialogue.

The graphical merits of each system are a source of eternal debate (and much antagonism) between fanboys. I have played the big budget exclusives of both consoles and can only conclude that PS3 games like Heavy Rain, God of War III and Uncharted 2 look a lot better than Xbox 360 titles like Alan Wake, Fable 3 and Gears of War 2. Compare a main character model from Alan Wake to one from God of War III, or an environment from Uncharted 2 to one from Gears of War 2 and the difference will immediately be clear to you.

Perhaps the Blu-ray allows for more hi-res textures to be employed, or all the extra processing power of the PS3’s SPUs are a deciding factor. I have heard that the 360 has a superior graphics chip compared to the PS3, which results in benefits like improved anti-aliasing, better draw distance and fill rate. However the PS3 is the more powerful system overall and this is most evident when another AAA exclusive is released for the console.

However, the 360 usually rules the graphics roost when it comes to multi-platform releases. Developers often choose the 360 as the lead platform as it is easier to program for, and more popular in certain parts of the world like the United States. They tailor the game to the 360’s strengths and then convert it to the PS3 at a later date. This sometimes results in compromised gameplay and graphics for PS3 owners. Bayonetta is one such example of this. Even a high profile game like Red Dead Redemption was dumbed down a little for the PS3 version in terms of resolution, environmental detail and draw distance.

Things have improved for PS3 owners over the years though. EA Sports games like FIFA 08 looked better on the 360 but recent games in the series look almost identical. The same is true for multi-platform releases in 2010 such as Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit.