360 versus PS3

[ShadowBrain]

Oldest stuff I ever played was a Texas Instruments computer. Well, at least my dad owned it and I have all the instruction booklets, but I may not have ever actually played it. In any case, it supposedly blew up a year or so ago.

[bobman37]

I was reading through the early posts in this thread because lately I've been showing more interest in the PS3. I came across this gem:

I turned on my PS3 last night to check if there had been a patch for the bug-riddled mess that is God of War Collection (nope) and it remound me of three PS3 advantages:

• PS3 has a superior boot-up sound.
• PS3 has better buttons on the console itself. They're like magic touch-sensors of joy. Easily one of my favorite things about the PS3. Unfortunately, in Sony's quest to systematically destroy everything cool about their system (like backwards compatability), the new model doesn't have them.
• PS3 is better for watching movies. Big reason: Blu-ray. Medium reason: It's much quieter. Small reason: Better selection in their movie d/l store.
• Actually, being quieter should get its own listing. I seriously, seriously appreciate silent electronics. 360 is a lot more bearable once they added disc-installing but it's still way too close to leaf-blower level.

Every single thing listed in this post is now included in the new 360s. They have magic touch-sensor buttons on the console, the console makes sounds when you press the buttons, 360 is now whisper-quiet. The only thing still valid in this post is the Blu-Ray movie advantage for the PS3.

[Chupperson Weird]

You gotta admit though, if you want a Blu-Ray player, you might as well get a PS3.

[bobman37]

Yeah, sure, if that's your primary motive.

[TEM]

You think they would have did that, it's a pretty big point in PS3's favor. Is there a legal reason the didn't or what?

[Chupperson Weird]

Sony had a large hand in the development of Blu-ray. It isn't owned by them or anything though so maybe Microsoft is just mad that the format they supported didn't win or maybe they know everyone has a PS3 or BD player now.

[ShadowBrain]

I found it very hilarious when Microsoft attempted to make it seem like an HD-DVD player in the 360 was still a good thing (this was a while back).

[bobman37]

That was back when HD DVD and Blu-Ray were relatively new to the mass market, before Blu-Ray won outright and put HD DVD to rest. Nothing hilarious about that...

You know, now that you mention it, it would have been a very nice move by Microsoft to include Blu-Ray technology in the new 360. Of course, due to the reasons Chupperson listed as well as other unnamed reasons, it's pretty ridiculous to expect that to have happened. But it still would have been a nice move.

[Trainman]

I imagine they improved the cooling of the new 360, as well.

My 360 is a space heater, man. In the Texas summer, 20-30 minutes with my 360 on will bring my room up to a sweltering temperature. I bring up the hot summer here because my room has two windows which have the sun shining right onto them for the majority of the day, so my room is mildly comfortable even with the A/C cranked, but when the 360 gets turned on, it pushes the ridiculousness over the edge (read: sweating like crazy).

On the flipside, during late fall and winter, having my 360 on instantly brings my room to a very comfortable temperature.

[WarpRattler]

Not only did they not improve the cooling, but their solutions to the RRoD and overheating issues were to remove the red LEDs and to make the system perform an emergency power-down if it gets too hot, respectively.

[Lizard Dude]

It's true the new model has no red LED, but there's no way the original red ring problem could happen with the way the guts are designed nowadays.

[WarpRattler]

It may no longer be able to have the issue with the X-clamp anymore, but it's still prone to the sort of overheating that caused that issue (and could potentially cause others), hence the emergency shutdown.

[Trainman]

...hence the emergency shutdown.

Which probably means every two seconds if you have the console running longer than about a day. I'm the type that leaves consoles running overnight and generally just for days at a time, so I won't have to wait forever for the [darn] logos/safety warnings, Home and/or Dashboard to boot, loading times when first starting a game, all the intro logos for a particular game, loading times for the menus to show up, and then loading times to get the game started once you pick a file. I like being able to just come back to my game and be back to it in the time it takes the controller to turn itself back on and endure loading times only when I want to switch games.

One egregious example is GTA IV. It's just out of control. I've clocked it at around 56 seconds for the game to load (this is after all the Rockstar logos, etc., by the way). I can't stand games that you can't skip the intro logos in... it's like not being able to fast forward through all the legal crap and trailers on a DVD.

[Chupperson Weird]

I have never once heard of people leaving consoles on for days. No wonder people's stuff is broken if they do that.
Yes, I do leave computers on.

[Weegee]

One guy on YouTube claims to have left his Wii on for almost two years. He encountered some glitch which prevented him from advancing in Twilight Princess' Cave of Ordeals, and he refuses to lose his progress by resetting the game. If he's being honest, that's one hell of a testament to the hardiness of Nintendo's hardware. I'll post the video if I find it.