Does Anyone Else Think The 360/PS3 Debate Gets Out Of Hand?

[second exodous]

First off, I don't own a 360 or a PS3, but when I talk to owners about it they go off the handle when you play devils advocate.

Since the PS1/N64/Dreamcast I've been a computer/handheld gamer, and have never really played a lot of console games since. I had no interest in the new waves of consoles but when talking to people about them I never got yelled at or was ever called a lier or have feared for my life, that is until the PS3 and 360 came out.

On every debate I like to play devils advocate, not because I want to create turmoil but because I want to get the really good information. But when it comes to the PS3/360 debate I've learned to never bring it up. People that I've know outside of the gaming realm and thought were nice levelheaded people that would never resort to violence I've seen them turn into rabid animals when I take the opposite side of the debate. When did such blood oath loyalty become standard? When I was a kid and got into the argument of my SNES being better than so-and-so's Genesis the 'F' word was never uttered although in other topics with the same people it sometimes did. Voices were never raised to yelling level and arms never failed around wildly. One was never called a lier with the most profane adjectives thrown in.

When I say to a 360 person that their system has a downfall because you have to pay to play online I better have a bullet proof vest on. When you tell a PS3 person that their system doesn't have as good of games you better have life insurance.

When and why did it become like this? The only sure way to calm nerves is start talking about the Wii, for some reason no one gets upset when you say you like the Wii. Maybe its because everyone can admit the Wii is by far the funnest console.

EDIT: Can one of the mods change 'Thing' to 'Think' in the subject, a typo I missed. Maybe cap the 'PS' in 'PS3' also?

 

[Polossatik]

I know plenty of people who have one or the other, or even both.
Only a few are really "religious" for their stuff and most people think they are just silly.

I have a wii, and I'm happy.

Might be a cultural thing in certain "circles", but not to big here in Belgium.

 

[gruso]

I'm baffled by people who are so blindly loyal to a brand name, it's rather sad. That brand name will never defend your honour in return, or pull you from a burning car wreck. It'll just rush another flawed product to market and hope you give it more cash.

While the fanboy wars have gone on since the early 80s, I agree that they're worse these days. I think it's because the demographics have widened so much now that gaming is mainstream. Consoles used to be the domain of nerds, but now every dickhead owns one too.

 

[iprice]

I have all three current gen machines - PS3, XBox360 and Wii. All are great at what they do and all have some fantastic games available exclusively for them (together with crap). If you want to be able to play all the best pieces of software then you're going to have to own all the hardware too. Each has pros and cons. Singling out any one as the better system is pointless, as any definition of better is purely subjective.

At the end of the day hardware and brand loyalty is pointless, as it's software that is all important.

This is why I've also got a MegaDrive, Saturn, PS1, PS2, SNES, N64, GameCube, XBOX, DreamCast and others. Gives me a much wider range of games to play.

It doesn't matter how great a machine is; if the software is crap (or perceived to be) or there's no support from publishers, developers and purchasers, then it's not going to stay around for long. An example of this is the DreamCast - a fantastic machine, loved by everyone that actually played on it.

Just enjoy whatever system you've got as best as (and while) you can. It won't be around forever.

 

[Ravnos]

I own both, they both have their ups and downs. The reason the 360 fanboys get mad about the "pay for online" thing is that $5/month isn't that bad and the experience is way ahead of the PS3 or the Wii. Until recently, I would have put it ahead of PC online in terms of ease of use and standard features, but there's been a lot of progress made on that front. And there are plenty of good games on the PS3. I'd say it has better exclusives overall, unless you really like Halo or Gears of War, though I tend to buy the 360 versions of cross platform games for the better online. People get a little ridiculous about the rivalry, but that sort of thing happens with lots of things. Cars, sports teams, whatever. You always have the noisy and stupid minority who shit bricks about every little thing.

 

[Orkie]

No point arguing about it. The PS3 is better than 360, this is a fact.

 

[Chip]

It's nothing new. There were constant battles in my middle school between NES and SMS. It did occasionally come to blows.

Console fanaticism is no worse than sports team fanaticism. At least there aren't riots in Redmond every time the Xbox 360 has a good quarter. Nobody's ever been trampled to death at a video game tournament. Christ, in some South American countries, they kill players that loose big games. I don't think anybody's ever been shot for buying a Wii instead of a PS3.

 

[second exodous]

Up till the PS3/360 I never had a console debate get out of hand, people argue but people just seem they are more strongly biased now. I'm surprised to see how many people say they have both, out of the 15 or so people that I know have a new gen system they only have one. A lot of them also own a Wii 'for the kids' but you can get them talking about various Wii games. Maybe the problem is the fanatical people only have one of the two.

I was going to cite cost but the xbox was only an incremental price hike over the PS2. The PS3 and 360 are on the expensive side though, maybe since a lot of people can't justify both systems people are more biased. When I was a kid I had the SNES and my brother the Genesis, he had the Game Boy I had the Game Gear, he had the N64 and I had the PS1. Basically we had both of the biggest systems on the market at the same time so we played both. We didn't argue about which was better was pointless because we liked both. Now-a-days they are just too freaking expensive for a household to have both, unless you're a gamer that buys them yourself you don't own two. Like I said about everyone has a just a Wii or a Wii and 'other' so everyone can agree on the Wii being fun, this proves my point a little bit.

Also, when I was a kid houses that didn't have more than one system would trade with their friends for a while, I'll let you borrow my SNES and games if I can borrow your Genesis and games sort of thing. That isn't done anymore, people act like they can't survive without the system and kids can't do it because Dad would curl up in the fetal position and die. This also makes me think that the game system has become too important in life. So now the younger generation isn't exposed to both.

I think it's because the kids that grew up with 'the cheap systems' are grown up and adults are just more violent. Instead of just fun it's now a way of life. We no longer have our Moms telling us that we've played long enough and it's time to go outside now. No more 'get your homework done first'. My parents never played video games. My Mom liked Pac Man but that was about it. Now the parents play games and I think things have changed.

 

[craigix]

I once saw an amazing fight over the C64 and ZX Spectrum.

It was a summers day in about 1990. Now, in the UK we didn't really have the PC until around 1996. Until then it was, in order, mainly, ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro, C64, CPC, Atari ST, Amiga.

Anyhow, we are all in some kids bedroom, playing something on a 128k ZX Spectrum.

The old argument starts 'My C64 is better than this spectrum shit'. 'No it isn't'.

This went on for about 20minutes of ridiculous argument which no one was going to win with words. We were of course encouraging it hoping to see a fight of some sort.

The argument escalated to a slightly aggressive point made worse by the game we were playing being unforgiving and the player constantly dying. The C64 owner died, and hit the spectrum claiming it to be so shit that he had died in game. This resulted in a small fight starting 'Don't hit my computer' 'Why? Will I break it, because it's so shit?' and so on.

'It's harder than your C64 pile of shit'.

The C64 owner shouted 'It's fucking hard is it?' laughing as he hit it again, obviously attempting slight damage with this hit.

The it happened. The owner of the Spectrum wrenched it from the desk said something like 'Fucking harder than you' and THREW IT OUT THE WINDOW.

The spectrum flew, AV cable still attached, out the window and landed on the kitchen roof, bounced off and landed in the garden.

For about 1 second there was much silence and then we were crying with laughter. Howling.

The spectrum was retrieved.

The Spectrum was brought back in to the bedroom with us all crowding around to see the remains. It was damaged.

The decision was of course made to plug it all back in to 'see what happens'. The C64 owner had the concentration of a monk willing that Spectrum not to work. You could see it in his face, he knew the argument rested on this.

The bloody thing still worked. It was indeed hard. Harder than the C64 we decided. The C64 vs. Spectrum debate could never be seriously touched again by the C64 owner. If he ever did bring it up he would be drowned out with 'Let's see you throw your C64 out the window then! aaaaaaahahahaa Yaaaa'dickhead!'

And thus ended the arguments.

 

[mali]

:lol: Awesome!

 

[Nova]

No point arguing about it. The PS3 is better than 360, this is a fact.

This.




Ahaha I joke. Craig unknowingly made a point there. Try throwing any current gen console out of the window and then playing it after! We should all just become Spectrum fanboys.

 

[second exodous]

Craig, you made me think of something. One thing I've seen people argue as hard about is computers, mainly Mac and PC's, like your C64 and ZX Spectrum(computers), so I guess fanaticism for electronics existed before in the computer realm. It makes me think that maybe part of it is that game systems do more now. You can have your documents, pictures, video, everything on your console HD. In the end you form a stronger bond where in the past on a video game console you just had your saved games. Although owners didn't have all of that on a C64 they still did more on it than just game.

I don't know, I'm just having difficulty understanding peoples extreme loyalty for the current gen systems. Mac, Linux, and Microsoft people have been like this for years. I never got that either.

 

[lulzfish]

Hm, was that because the Spectrum didn't have moving parts like a hard drive and optical drive?
Hopefully once flash becomes a cheap alternative to hard drives, we can see tougher computers again.

I don't own any of the "current-gen" consoles. I have a PS2 that I rarely play, and most of my Windows games go unplayed or un-installed, since I'm in Linux all the time.

 

[Nintendo]

No point arguing about it. The PS3 is better than 360, this is a fact.

SONY PS3 and Microsoft XBOX 360 are more or less in par overall.
Bu what I don't understand is...

XBOX 360 had a 1 year sales lead to SONY PS3...Yet! SONY PS3 is gaining good ground, and looks to be leap-frogging XBOX 360 in sales next year?

Ditch the 360 now, Microsoft, because it's time for a new console...



EDIT: As they say...In with the new...
Out with the old...

More info here...

http://community.eu....ts/td-p/9911958

& here...

http://community.eu.playstation.com/t5/CONSOLERAMA/allways-comparing-consoles/td-p/9891480

 

[daclassicgamingmaster]

Honestly, who the hell still argues this?? I own all three systems. The Wii is a piece of shovelware shit and it obviously caters to the 10 years and under crowd. Plus it's STILL 100% gimmicky, even 3 years after release.

The PS3 sucks except for MGS4, maybe Uncharted and soon God of War 3. I love it for HD, though.

The only system with a plethora of great titles is the 360. Yes, it caters to the 17+ crowd, but at least the Kung Fu Panda-esque titles aren't half assed and don't require you to wave a controller around like a mongoloid.

 

[Nova]

The PS3 sucks except for MGS4, maybe Uncharted and soon God of War 3. I love it for HD, though.

The only system with a plethora of great titles is the 360. Yes, it caters to the 17+ crowd, but at least the Kung Fu Panda-esque titles aren't half assed and don't require you to wave a controller around like a mongoloid.

I'm not sure I agree. The consoles don't have that many different games, I reckon there must be <10 must have titles unique to each console. I'm not saying either is better, but the 360 doesn't have a lot more in terms of games than the PS3. Used to, but not anymore.

p.s. I think Halo and Gears are both pretty shit, and I owned them both, so don't cite that to me.

 

[daclassicgamingmaster]

Halo, Gears, GTA DLC, Fable, Mass Effect, BioShock...off the top of my head.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_games_exclusive_to_a_seventh_generation_console

Compare exclusives on the 360 vs. PS3. It's pathetic how slim the PS3 list is.

 

[Polossatik]

The point of this thread was to question why people seam to have a "strong urge" to defend "their" system as "the best" and bash the other.
Not to actually do this here

The simple fact you have them on both sides (C64/spectrum... PS3/360...) shows only that ALL systems have "good points".

It just depends what you can afford/are looking for, just like some people like a Ferrari vs an Austin or a Golf vs a Mini Cooper (if you can't pay a Ferrari or Austin...).

Some are better in X then others, who are better in Y, yes, but there is not one system that is "the best", simply because peoples needs/expectations differ.

I have a wii, not because it's nintendo or white, but because I don't play the kind of titles who work great on PS/Xbox, I simply like the fun factor of the few wii titles I play.
And it's a great console for smaller kids (yes, even if those games are "crappy" in my point of view, as long as the kids like them, i don't care)...

 

[Goity]

Halo, Gears, GTA DLC, Fable, Mass Effect, BioShock...off the top of my head.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_games_exclusive_to_a_seventh_generation_console

Compare exclusives on the 360 vs. PS3. It's pathetic how slim the PS3 list is.

Bioshock is on PS3.
Also according to Wikipedia's list, PS3 has 41 more exclusives than 360. I doubt this is reliable, but it hardly supports your argument.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Xbox_360_games
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PlayStation_3_games

Out of the list of games in your post, the only ones I really like are the GTA DLC and Fable. Also, Lost Odyssey is very good, but other than that PS3's exclusive support absolutely decimates 360's at this time, partly due to Sony simply having more 1st party studios than Nintendo and Microsoft combined.

However, both consoles can be better than the other depending on your tastes in gaming, and there's certainly enough to distinguish between them to own both. If you're in to Gears and Halo, and play lots of online games then 360 is your best bet. But the PS3 is so much better in most other respects that I personally use mine a lot more than my 360.

Plus, the GOTY for 2010 is pretty much undisputedly Uncharted 2, a PS3 exclusive .

 

[Ravnos]

'the cheap systems'

What? Is this a joke? The SNES launched at $199 in 1990, while the Genesis launched a year earlier at $190. That works out to around $325 each now after inflation. That's more expensive than a 360 Elite or a PS3 Slim. It's more than I paid for my 360 Pro back in 2007. The NES launched for $199 in 1985. That's close to $400 now, or more than what I paid for my 160GB PS3 with 3 games. And the Commodore 64, while reasonably priced compared to its contemporaries, was more expensive than a lot of mid-range gaming PCs are now. Honestly, these things were never "cheap". If anything, they're cheaper now than they've ever been and offer quite a bit more value for your dollar.