From PlayStation to Xbox – a traitor journalist writes
The day I start working on an Xbox magazine, Sony sends me this image. What are they trying to say?
So, today’s my first day on X360, a specialist Xbox magazine, after a three-year stint on PLAY, a specialist PlayStation magazine, having been on 360, another specialist Xbox magazine, for a year before that. I figure my arriving here fresh from the heart of PlayStation land gives me a unique perspective on Xbox land, so my first post on this blog is going to be some thoughts on what ‘they’ think of ‘you’. Something like that anyway.
The thing I personally missed most about the 360 while I was on PLAY was the controller. For me the very first PlayStation joypad was the best controller ever back in 1995, but Sony’s insistence on crudely adapting its original design instead of properly reworking it to move with the times has meant it’s gradually got worse and worse. The Dualshock does at least have decent face buttons and a D-pad that works properly, but the sticks and triggers are awful. I honestly get bad cramp in my hands from playing racing games with that thing.
The 360 also has superior online services to the PS3, although whether it’s £40 a year ‘s worth of better is debatable. Still, I pay my £40 a year without complaint and I appreciate that it’s easier to play games with my friends, that there’s a bigger selection of downloadable games, that Live accounts have more detail and more options and that download speeds are faster. Seriously, it can take hours just to update a PS3 game.
So, what will I miss about the PS3? Well, personally I have to say that I think the PS3 has had a better, more diverse range of exclusive titles over the last couple of years. I think Killzone 2 is better than any Halo game, although Resistance isn’t, not by a long way. InFamous was inferior to Crackdown, but InFamous 2 is promising to display exactly the kind of bold ambition and innovation that Crackdown 2 categorically did not. Gears Of War and Forza are both great but they’re just another shooting game and another driving game where the PS3 has Uncharted 2 – a shooting game with so much more to offer – and Gran Turismo 5 really is about to rain beautiful, glistening, shiny, realistic rain all over Forza’s parade. Then the PS3 has the likes of God Of War III, LittleBigPlanet and Heavy Rain. The 360 just doesn’t have its own equivalents to those. I suppose there’s Fable but sorry, I just don’t like Fable.
I still mostly play multi-platform games and prefer the 360 for those, but when it comes to platform exclusives, the PS3 does get the chance to exercise its more powerful hardware and to exercise Sony’s more adventurous approach to publishing.
Finally, I’m not really into motion-controlled games, but I can see why Move has done well, and can’t really see how Kinect can realistically compete right now. Still, it’s a worthwhile endeavour on Microsoft’s part, even if it does just end up a costly learning experience, because the most decisive battle of the console war will be fought on a casual battlefield.
So yeah, I’m excited to be back on a 360 mag because the 360 is a great pure gaming machine, but I’ve learned from ‘the other side’ that there’s a lot to be said for a platform holder that’s willing to take creative risks. Sometimes Sony’s risks don’t pay off and it gets a lot of stick for it, but sometimes those risks result in great games and huge leaps forward for gamingkind. As Sony’s CEO Howard Stringer often likes to say, and I’m paraphrasing, you don’t stay ahead of the game by standing still. Now that I’m an Xbox boy, I’d like to see a little more of that kind of attitude from Microsoft.
By the way, the guy from Sony was only kidding around. We’re still friends.
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I have both consoles, but i don’t see how the online is superior from one another. It is almost the same but the Xbox has lots of small features people will probably never use crammed into it.
Don’t worry GavinMackenzie, no one takes what you write seriously anymore anyway. In fact people take what you write with a pinch of salt these days. Lmao!! Heres just some of the reasons why..
” The 360 also has superior online services to the PS3 ” ( Thats so not true whatsoever ) PSN users can Game-Share while XBL cannot. I can share bought PSN games or map-packs and play it with my mates online. You cannot do this on XBL. 9 What’s the better service now.? Or we have PS+ members get content given to them monthly for just joining the PS+ network, XBL doesn’t give anything away like PSN do. Much better than what XBL offers it’s Gold Members isn’t it. What’s the better service now.
EXAMPLE = All 5 Fallout III Map-Packs where given out free this month to PS+ members so gamers that haven’t played them can now do so while they waited for Fallout III New Vegas. ( Thats without all the other full games and map-packs being given out to PS+ members ) Thats much better than XBL isn’t it.
” Live accounts have more detail and more options and that download speeds are faster. Seriously, it can take hours just to update a PS3 game ” ( Thats so not true either lol ) heres why.
Details and options both have pro’s n con’s, ( Please look at game-sharing as example ) and as for taking hours to update a PS3 is BS, plain and simple. They DL content around the same time of each other. It must be YOUR connection as i own both consoles and tested both in DL speeds.
These are just some of the reasons why people take what you write with a pinch of salt.
Having had both feet firmly planted in both camps for a good couple years I couldn’t have put it better myself. I play ps3 for the great exclusive and 360 for xboxlive. It is better just because folks talk, at least before party chat lol.
Why’d you tag Podcasts?
And who have you replaced? :O
Get on your knees b!tch, Microsoft ding-a-ling coming for you.
I mostly agree with your “PS3 exclusives are better” comment…..but you wash it all away and end up sounding like a fool when describing Crackdown as a better game than Infamous. Congrats on the move (I guess) but please review Crackdown by today’s standards and see it for the shiny turd that it was/is.
Go get laid kid.
So are the mods going to place what i said on here then ?
I understand the pros and cons of both consoles but you make out like the xbox has no flagship titles other than Halo, but you downtread Fable and Gears of War (of which there are 2 very good installments) despite them being very well recieved games both critically and by fans. Plus there’s also Mass Effect 1 and 2 which you didn’t even mention, both so good they justify buying the console just on their own and Left 4 Dead 1 and 2.
I’d argue that the xbox exclusives are just as good. and big titles like gta, fallout, final fantasy, modern warfare and arkham asylum have been released on both so you don’t lose out on those.
In fact….I really think the xbox’s exclusives are BETTER, just my opinion.
@ Joe.
Without getting into fanboy BS, how can you say that Xbox’s exclusive are BETTER than PS3′s ?
Even though you say it’s your opinion, you are wrong. ( yes an opinion can be wrong )but it’s a fact that PS3 has better exclusive games out of both these consoles.
Oh. Biggs.
Very sad to see you go, but welcome, Gav.
I don’t care what anyone says, Xbox is on its last legs trying to beat the PS3.
-Console looks better.
-Reliability.
-On-Line network officially bigger than XBL.
-Easier to use XMB than Dashboard.
-Better exclusives
-Metal Gear Solid 4
-Killzone 2
-Resistance FoM, 2
-Uncharted
-No stupid addons… WiFi is built in, Blu-Ray player built in. By equpping a Xbox 360 to the same spec as a out of box PS3, it’s technically more.
-Controllers are the similar designs to PS1 and PS2, because it’s worked that well with gamers, why change it?
So please tell me, what advantages does a X360 have over a PlayStation 3?
NONE.
ill keep this short and to the point. PS3 got hacked twice in 1 month, PS3 pads suck and if you join microsoft rewards you get 400MS points everytime you get XBL gold, wether you get 1 month, 3, 6 or 12, you get 400 everytime. you also get points for participating in demos and betas, i have a PS3 and the piece of crap is just gathering dust. end of discussion, PS3 fan boys just got schooled.