Used to do a fair bit of PC gaming some time ago in the Duke Nukem/Quake/Doom/etc and was, even though I say it myself, quite good.  Times move on, however, and now realise that a PC is not really a gaming machine and that other devices do the deed much much better.

Thinking of getting back into it again, now I have some extra time on my hands (and a humungeous flat screen telly!) so lloking for some advice.

Xbox versus Playstation?  Which is dearer/best/most reliable?

Heard that the xbox is the 'better' device but thought I would seek more adult opinions rather than a straw poll of some of my younger neighbours..... 

Personally I've got the 360, plenty of good games, live is well thought out but costs about £30 a year for the full fat version.
You can link your 360 to your pc to play videos/music on the tv very easily.
Most new games come out on all 3 popular console formats so less limiting than it used to be in the xbox/ps2 days and as a bonus Duke Nukem is downloadable on the 360 if you fancy a bit of nostalgia.

Indeed B, as would my Gnome the xbox modder extraordinary.
The 360 suffered from the famous red ring of death which they have now acknowledged is down to poor manufacturing and have increased warranty to 3 years for this issue along with modifying the chipsets etc to cure it on the newer boxes.

New ones should all be the newer Jasper chipset according to his lordship.
Biggest difference is the elite comes with a 120Gb hard drive premium comes with a 60Gb and the arcade only 512Mb. The storage comes in handy for running the game from the HD and not wearing your dvd drive out even though the disc must be in to play and for storing any downloaded content etc.
Elites being black may look better in your living room decor than the white units.

Your next choice will be ethernet or wireless connection to your router, ethernet you just need a cable, wireless you need the xbox wifi adapter to stick in the back (about £60).
I'd recommend a play & charge kit for your controller rather than muck about with aa batteries, then you can recharge the controller whilst you play by plugging into any usb socket (on the console or a pc).

I think technically, the gayStation should be the better machine, but (and forgetting its sony for a sec) I've yet to see any game that really is "wow!".

Xbox more established.

Be aware, some places are still selling older xboxes - you can tell through box by power requirements, without breaking seal. Reject any that aren't the very latest 'Jasper' ones. They fail.



BUT the decision is based on what games you wish to play. If you've got your heart on Halo3, a gayStation ain't much cop.  Also, for online gaming, xbox is more established as well, but not free.  gayStation has bluray player - not the best, but does the job.  xbox does do MCE extender.


Hmmm....

Marks DTM Calib wrote on 13. Nov 2009 at 21:43:


True but if a cable run to the router/hub is feasible it's always going to be the better and cheaper option than wireless.

CaptainZok wrote on 13. Nov 2009 at 21:47:


I use a wireless router but running a cable behind the sofa is not a problem.... 

As to a blueray player, my DVD player is that already so don't need another, unless the gameplay needs an inbuilt one??