I figured I’d get this out of they way since I’m sure fan boys of either system will call me a hater or
something.
Heres The Rundown Of What I Believe Are Strong and Weak Points Of The Playstation 3.
Playstation 3
The Hardware
Hard Drives and Back Up Utility
I absolutely love how the Playstation 3 works with the HDD and advanced users. The ability to upgrade your hard drive with whichever brand you choose is a major plus for me over the Xbox 360 which makes you purchase a Microsoft brand hard drive. The small range of drives you can buy for the Xbox 360 is sad, sure you can buy a Western Digital Blue Scorpio and modify it with the Hddss.bin from an official drive. However even that limits you to the official sizes that are already on the market, nothing bigger and nothing smaller. The Playstation 3 however lets you choice any 2.5″ notebook drive of any size and any manufacturing which is great. However you must format this drive to fat 32 which is limited to files smaller than 4gb. Xbox 360 uses Fatx
The Playstation 3 CPU, GPU and System Memory
The CPU
The Playstation 3 sports a 3.2 GHz Cell Broadband Engine with 1 PPE & 7 SPEs (really 8 with one disabled at the factory) This is a quite powerful chip however not as power as fanboys try to make it seem. I read somewhere (will put up link once i find it again) that states that a single SPE is equivalent to a single core of a core I7 clocked at 1.6ghz. Though thats nothing to scoff at that is still quite powerful however that is not more than twice as powerful as the triple core PPC Cpu of the Xbox 360 like some try to say.
The GPU
The Playstation 3 boasts a 550 MHz NVIDIA/SCEI RSX ‘Reality Synthesizer’ which is based on the G70 Nvidia chip series but has feature that at the time were to be introduced with the new 7000 and 8000 series Nvidia cards. You can say that the PS3 chip is close in power to the 7800GTX which at the time was one of the most powerful graphics card on the market. the limited 256 MB GDDR3 RAM at 700 MHz and the independent shaders are what holds the chip back from being closer to the 8000 series.
The Ram
The Playstation 3 has 256MB of XDR system ram which is about the same as overclock DDR2 memory. XDR runs at 900mhz (7.3ghz effective) and 28.8GB/s. I believe this is why there are no custom soundtracks for every game not some insane theory that Microsoft patented that feature. If the Playstation 3 had even 128mb of more system memory it would blow the Xbox 360 out of water.
The Playstation Network
The breakdown of how game titles, music and videos are great. I find it easy to navigate through the store. The PSN in the multiplayer aspect is good enough from my short experience with it as I don’t play online anymore (will be explained below) but its free so you really can never argue with free. however i wish the online matchmaking had an anchor system to base it off of rather than randomly placing me with opponents but as i said before IT’S FREE and you can’t argue with free in today’s economy.
The Controller
The Dual Shock 3 six axis controller is a nice touch for racing games and flight simulations. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen gamers turning their controllers when playing racing games so Sony was genius in spotting this and developing this controller. The internal rechargeable battery is a great cost saver as I don’t have to buy an extra piece of hardware to keep from spending money on batteries. My only beef is the official form factor is made for short people with small hands (I am 6’7″ with big hands) so any game that requires both joystick for movement cause my thumbs to constantly bump and touch. I opted out for a Pro Elite Wireless Controller which uses the Xbox 360 form factor.
The Software
The XMB
Ok here comes the rant. This is more of a weak point then a strong point the xmb is the worst thing Sony could have put into the PS3. The XMB can’t multitask to save the system’s life. Why can’t I listen to music and browse the web at the same time? The system is obviously powerful enough to do so or even change my settings and listen to music. Also I can’t talk to friends and play my games at the same time or message a friend without the XMB stalling like its having a nervous breakdown. The menus are out right stupid as you would think video settings and display settings should be one menu and that’s just to name one. Network, Power save, Date and Time, Remote play, and Security settings should all be under System settings instead of Sony just making a new menu for every small little detail they can think of. Also Why does game settings have an option for upscaling VIDEO its a game settings menu (face palm). Why does Printer settings have its own menu when right above it is accessory settings; isn’t a print an accessory too (face palm). Why Does the Photo Menu have a playlist instead of being named slide show? Also The User Interface as a whole is just ugly and is in desperate need of a redo. Only on a Jailbroken PS3 can change it somewhat but even that is still ugly. I actually am not at all surprised at all by the fails of the XMB Sony has never been able to write good software. Ok now that that’s over.
The Backup/Restore Utility
The Backup Utility is great for when/if I want to upgrade my hard drive. This simple tool allows you back up everything on your internal hard drive to any usb device that’s formated to fat32 then restore it back to your new hard drive.
The Games
Well back when it was the Playstation 2 vs. Xbox vs. Gamecube Sony had an insane amount of exclusive titles so one would think the game line up of exclusive titles would be even larger now. However due to Microsoft capturing the college and adult gamer market with its 1 year head start and Direct X 9c support which for some companies is easier to program games in then OpenGL ( i think OpenGL is better so don’t go their) Sony has lost nearly all of there exclusive rights with gaming companies. Here’s a rough list of PS3 exclusives (some of these titles aren’t out yet). Credit for the list goes to “Joe Blow” at avsfurom.com
Afrika
Ar tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel
Atelier Rorona
Bleach: Soul Resurrección
Brunswick Pro Bowling -Move-
Buzz! Quiz TV franchise
Cross Edge
DC Universe Online
Demon’s Souls
Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice
Eye of Judgment, The -PSEye-
EyePet: Your Virtual Pet -Move- / -3D-
Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli
The Fight: Lights Out -Move- / -3D-
Folklore
Formula One Championship Edition
Full Auto 2: Battlelines
Genji 2: Days of the Blade
God of War Collection
God of War 3
Gran Turismo 5 -3D- / -PSEye-
Gran Turismo 5: Prologue
Haze
Heavenly Sword
Heavy Rain -Move-
Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds
Hyperdimension Neptunia
inFAMOUS
inFAMOUS 2
Katamari Forever
Killzone 2
Killzone 3 -Move- / -3D-
Kung Fu Rider -Move-
Last Rebellion
Lair
LittleBigPlanet -Move- / -3D-
LittleBigPlanet 2 -Move-
M.A.G.-Move-
Magic: The Gathering – Tactics
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire
ModNation Racing
MotorStorm
MotorStorm 2: The Pacific Rift -3D-
MotorStorm: Apocalypse -3D-
MLB: The Show franchise -3D-
Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm
NBA: The Inside franchise
Ninja Gaiden Sigma / 2
No More Heroes: Heroes’ Paradise -Move-
Playstation Move Heroes -Move-
Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction
Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time
Resistance: Fall of Man
Resistance 2
Resistance 3 -Move- / -3D-
Ridge Racer 7
Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes
Shoot, The -Move-
Singstar franchise (incl. Dance/Guitar) -Move- / -PSEye-
Sly Collection, The -Move- / -3D-
SOCOM 4: U.S. Navy SEALs -Move- / -3D-
Start the Party -Move-
Time Crisis 4 w/GunCon 3
Time Crisis: Razing Storm -Move-
Trinity: Souls of Zill O’ll
Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom
Valkyria Chronicles
Warhawk
White Knight Chronicles I & II: Awakening of Light and Darkness -Move-
Yakuza 3
Yakuza 4
20 in 1 Gamefest
Agent
Atelier Meruru: Alchemist of Arland
Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland
Champions of Time -Move-
Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten
Dragon’s Crown
Dynasty Warriors 7: Xtreme Legends
ESP project
Everybody Dance -Move-
EyePet & Friends -Move- / -3D-
Final Fantasy Versus XIII
Final Fantasy XIV Online
Guerrilla Games project
The House of the Dead: Overkill – Extended Cut -Move-
Last Guardian, The
Liquid Entertainment project
Marvelous project
Media Vision project (Wild Arms developer)
Medieval Moves: Deadmund’s Quest -Move-
Move Fitness -Move-
NCSoft Unannounced MMORPG (rumor: Guild Wars 2)
Quantic Dream project #1
Quantic Dream project #2
Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One -3D-
Ready at Dawn project (PSP God of War developers)
Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny
Santa Monica Studios (major project)
Sing and Draw -Move-
Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time
Sony’s sandbox play/create/share project
Starhawk
Steamboat Chronicles 2
Tales of Grace F
Tales of Xillia
Tekken Hybrid (TTT HD + TTT 2 Prologue)
Twisted Metal
Uncharted Waters Online
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception -3D-
Yakuza of the End
Yakuza 5
The Homebrew/Jailbreaking/Custom Firmware
First off everyone should thank fail0verflow Geohot and KaKaRoTo These People and group are some of the most influential to getting the scene off the ground. Multiman is a great app for running your PS3 backups from internal or external Hard drive. Showtime is another good one for playing videos of more formats than what the XMB allows. Other OS can be re-enabled on a Jailbroken PS3 which is awesome it allows PS3 owners to run Linux and Unix based operating systems on our PS3’s. This feature was taken out by Sony because of Geohot’s Other OS exploit which allowed us to run homebrew. This action was illegal by Sony which is why they lost the law suit against Geohot. PSN is impossible now with a homebrew enabled PS3 which i believe is a crime against the consumer. The Homebrew scene for the PS3 is growing and hopefully will catch up with the Xbox 360 homebrew scene.
Please Comment and No Fanboy stuff
From Xbox To Playstation 