Ask anyone on the forums, I am the resident Playstation 3 fanboy; I have owned all Sony's consoles and never really cared for a gaming system that didn't bear the Sony badge. Yet the other week something strange happened. I bought an Xbox 360, and I liked it. Actually that doesn't sound right, I really liked it. I liked it enough to throw my fanboy notions out the window, but a question popped up in my head. A question that no dedicated fanboy could ever truly answer. Which is the better gaming console? The Playstation 3 or the Xbox 360.

I must say I was excited when my new white console showed up at my house; I excitedly set it up to the right side of my TV to allow for adequate ventilation, sarcastically chuckling to myself as I glanced at my gorgeous (and refrigerated) PS3. A second gripe hit me. "Already", I thought myself. The strk white shell of Microsoft's console really stood from from the rest of my black home theatre setup. In hindsight I should have gotten an Elite but that's my mistake. The only other thing I criticized about the actual design of the 360 is the massive power brick that I had to somehow jam in behind my entertainment unit. Other than that the two console's aesthetic design is up to personal preference so don't let me tell you which one looks better.

Now isn't that nice to look at?

I must say I was surprised at how nice the NXE actually looks. It's a sharper looking interface than the PS3's XMB. The downside to this is that compared to the PS3 it has taken me much longer to learn where to find everything and it seems like a lot of settings that I love to play around with have been hidden from site. Also a lot of information has been either hidden or is harder to find. A feature of the NXE that I love is that as soon as I log onto my Live account I see all the new things available to me and all the events coming up in the Live Calendar. The NXE and the 360 give a greater sense of community over the Playstation 3.

Well since we are already talking about the interfaces and the communities, why not continue with the Xbox Live arcade and the PSN store. Now this is only an Australian perspective on the matter but the amount of content on the Live Arcade is huge compared to the PSN. A fact that is slowly starting to even itself out with more demos and great games coming (Fat Princess anyone?) but its an uphill battle. With the new Vidzone service that has been announced for Australia things are looking brighter for the PSN.

Cold and sterile, but very functional

There are a few points that are generally personal preference; the first being the games. Fanboys on the internet will defend their consoles exclusives to the end of the earth. But do you know what? I don't care about exclusives anymore. Seriously guys the multi-plat games coming out this year should be more than enough for any gamer. Even with the PS3 gaining what seems to be a better exclusive list for 2009 the 360 has a back catalogue of excellent exclusives. Just be thankful that the games coming out are top quality. The other being the controller; I like the built-in battery, the D-pad and feel of the face buttons on the PS3. On the 360 controller the best parts are the triggers, the indented shape of the analogs and the way the headset plugs. But like I said, its all up to personal preference.

What I can compare though is the online. Yes I know, you have to pay for Xbox Live and the PSN is free. But playing games on the Xbox 360 with mates is a much more enjoyable experience. I emphasise the word mates because you can get the same, less fun, experience playing with/against random people on both consoles. But 8 player party chat is just the best thing to happen to gaming since, well online gaming. I can be playing Gears of War single player whilst my mates are playing Call of Duty or Rock band and we can still talk. That is just a great feature and worth the price of admission alone.

So which one do you like better?

Stay with me, there are only a few more points left to cover. The first of these are the actual online identity of each person. While being able to compare trophies with someone and viewing a few select statistics your online identity on the PSN only goes so far. Over Xbox Live however much more information can be provided about your friends. Things like the cross game invites and voice messages just add to the online experience. Sony does have Home on its side but that hasn't been as big as of a success that Sony hoped with only 6.5 million people actually downloading the service.

Multimedia and movies are a big push this gen; the Playstation clearly has the upper hand in this regard. Blu-ray playback is a great addition to the console and makes the price difference worth it. Streaming content to both consoles is easy to set up and use on both consoles. But the big red mark on the 360 is how loud the console is, its not something that you would want to make your default media streamer.

That brings me to almost my last point; build quality. We have all heard about the 360 and the RROD and the quality control issues. The PS3 is starting to get some hardware failures as well but in a much smaller margin than that of the 360's. Which is unfortunate because this is the only point that seems to set the two consoles apart on build quality.

Is it this one? Well as long as you dont try to plug in anything you already own.

Opened vs closed source, there is a reason this is the last topic that I cover. I get increasingly frustrated when looking at the prices for the official Xbox accessories. Now I will agree with anyone who says the PS3's accessories are over priced too. But almost anything can be plugged into the PS3 and used, I have a PS2 USB Headset that I paid 5 dollars for brand new that I use. Compare that to 30 dollars for a 360 headset and you can begin to see my point. Lets not forget about the fact that I can place any 2.5 inch SATA hard drive into my Playstation but I have to buy a specific 360 hard drive.

Now I have to say after buying a 360 I love that console, and by playing more and more I will appreciate its features more and more. I love my PS3 and all the games coming this year have me excited more than any games so far. They both have their bad and good points, and to be honest their terrible points. But overall it's in the best interest of anyone who claims to be a so called Hardcore gamer to have both systems.

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