Rockers Delight

# September 3rd, 2009 at 10:32 am

Hi Ash, I have both consoles and I also have a couple of the same game across both consoles (most notably CoD:4). I think that the PS3 edges the xBox for offline play, slightly smoother, slightly better graphics, and a lot more functionality in terms of being a home media center.

BUT. When it comes to online gaming… there’s really no comparison. XBL eats PSN like a cheap pancake. On CoD4 in particular the differences are pretty big, on PSN the framerate is noticeably reduced during online play, there’s a lot more lag, most people don’t have headsets, and you get kicked out of the lobby pretty much after every single game. XBL has its faults, but it does all those things a lot better - not to mention the facility to report/complain/recommend people who you play with online.

If wanted a console as a home-media center, I’d go with the PS3 - for online gaming, it’s definitely the 360!

# September 3rd, 2009 at 12:14 pm

I agree about the ps3 lacking some social interaction; a big one is the cross game party chat that I used to use all the time on my 360, I’ve been using my ps3 for around 2 years now and it’s still something that I miss.

I think that Home can be used effectivly if it’s socializing your after but otherwise I’m not a very big fan of it and its rarely ever used. Xbox does have a far bigger communications base installed (although one could argue its not the best thing; remembering back to when I had my xbox, the gears of war multiplayer was basically filled with obnoxious little american brats calling everyone racist slurs; thats not to say PSN doesn’t have its fair share of idiots though but I’ve came across a lot of nice people on PSN that I still have on my friends and talk to regularly on a daily basis.)

I think that with the release of the Slim we could see PSN starting to become more active with new users joining games but until then I have to say that Live has the edge.

# September 3rd, 2009 at 7:40 pm

I sure would like people to chime in! The more the merrier, as I’m sure there’s a lot of people out there with interesting and contrasting opinions. I want to devour them… rather like an Oreo.

@JohnONolan Best phrase I’ve heard all week: “XBL eats PSN like a cheap pancake.” It’s funny, but you’re right. Sony need to beef up the PSN.

Aaaand as my comment has descended into referencing food, I’ll end it here. Banana.

# September 3rd, 2009 at 11:05 pm

Having only been in the PS3 game for 2 days (I was waiting for the Slim… and a price cut) I haven’t had too much experience with the multiplayer aspect of PSN. BUT, I can say that I’m already missing the social side of Live. When I switch on my 360, I’m instantly connected, I’ve got my Live friends list (admittedly, I can count it on one hand but thats not the point) and I’ve got MSN. At any point during play I can happily chat away or pester people on my list, when people come online or start chatting with me it tells me and I can get to them with a single click. I can start an open party despite no-one being online and friends can come and go as they please, it’s great.

I do like multiplayer gaming but I don’t tend to do it so much alone, 99% of the time I’d much rather use party chat and enjoy multiplayer with people I know, where the banter has a competitive edge but is friendly and easy going. I get all of this on 360 but on PSN I get a little pop up telling me someone is online… so what? I can’t do anything about it! I can’t talk to them without leaving my game, instead I have to create a chat room which takes about 4 button presses to get to when playing a game.

When I pre-ordered my PS3, I actually bought a PS3 headset. In all the time it’s been out, I never recall reading about it’s voice chat limits once, I simply expected it to be there, I never doubted such an obvious feature to be missing, I think that says something… or then again, maybe Live and the 360 have simply spoilt us, like an embassador and a plate full of chocolates.

I’m beginning to sound a bit fanboy-ish here so let me just say that so far, I’m loving my PS3, I like it’s interface, it’s media centre goodness, the games of course, I think the PSN Store is great (pay attention Microsoft!), I even like firmware 3.0! But if they can make a voice chat room as easy to set up as a text one, I’d be able to love some social gaming on my PS3.

# September 6th, 2009 at 6:50 am

The party system with cross game chat is really the only feature we are talking about. PS3 has nothing to compete with it (no I don’t count the chat rooms). I prefer my PS3 for gaming, but I have gone so far as to use xbl to talk to friends while playing games on my PS3. Most of the time I just use my cellphone. As far as the social aspect goes that’s the only thing I can think of. I’m not looking forward to facebook on my 360.

Actualy, I just thought of something. The 360 is great for being social online, but it’s a terrible system when you have more than one gamer in the house or friends come over. The PS3 has games like littlebigplanet that are great social games and anyone can make a profile and play online or on the same couch as their friends. I’m not willing to pay for multiple xbl gold accounts. Silver is pretty useless. So my gf is stuck going on my account to play online.

If we were talking about downloadable games I would take PSN over XBL everytime. Shadow Complex and Castle Crashers are fantastic but that’s 2 gems in a sea of blah for me.

# September 29th, 2009 at 10:04 pm

i agree i currently play ps3 only because my xbox died on me 3 times and i refuse to buy another one.I really miss the 360 mostly for the arcade games(uno FTW!!!),and also i miss alot of my old uk friends from 360.

# June 7th, 2010 at 6:11 am

i own both. PSN sucks … XBL is much better at letting me interact with friends. but i play ps3 more.