There were also more 360's available, both in total (326,000 360s, looks like less than 200,000 PS3s) and in a lower percentage being on ebay....so we'll have to wait a bit longer to see what happens with the PS3 Hardware.

Well, I got my system, but I'm punishing myself and putting it under the tree for Christmas for the entire family. I was wondering if anyone could recommend any good games they have been playing and like, I was thinking of getting Resistance, Marvel Ultimate Alliance. Our family collectively enjoys RPGs but Oblivion has been delayed and they asked for Sonic but that has been delayed also. Can anyone recommend any good games, or three they would recommend?

I'm having a blast with Ridge Racer 7! I would definitely get Resistance if you're into FPS games and Marvel Ultimate Alliance is another good pick-up. I picked up Need for Speed Carbon yesterday but my Brother has it so I haven't had a chance to play it yet but it's been getting pretty good reviews.

I just saw this screenshot of the PS3 version of Fight Night Round 3.



The boxer models look *slightly* more detailed than the 360 version, but is up with the spectators? That is fricking NES quality there.

I spent some time with the system today (mine came in, and in a long story I had to sell it (wife) but was able to keep it(sold it to my workplace)). Best of both worlds.

Tiger WOods - Same as the 360 - perhap some draw distance improvements but that's all. It was a good game on the 360, and I had just as much fun with it here. No Sixaxis improvments made.

Madden - played it breifly. It's Madden. No sixaxis improvments noticed, but I only played 1 game.

NFS:Carbon - played a little career mode, and a bunch of multiplayer - quite fun and looks quite sharp. I'd assume the same thing on the 360. No sixaxis improvements noticed.

The controller does feel quite light, but it also feels solid. I tried twisting and trying to make it stand up to the wimpy weight, but it felt good.

The system is hella quiet compared to the 360, but still noticable. ANd it blows a shitload of hot air, yet is cool to touch.

Well, I opened mine today, and am a bit underwhelmed. I hadn't planned on being able to get one, so I didn't really read up on it. I didn't know, for instance, that you needed a separate memory card reader to transfer saves from your PS2/PS1 memory cards to the system... so if I want to play my saved FFXII game, I'll have to wait. The online store also seems worse than the Xbox version, though I may just need to get used to it (I'm so used to being able to queue up downloads and then do other things). I rented Resistance, and my initial feeling is that it's nowhere near as fun as Gears of War... granted, one is a first gen title and the other is a second gen title. Haven't tried multiplayer on that, and I admit FPS isn't my favorite genre. The upside is that I finally have something to use my HDMI input on my TV... the downside is that I had to buy an HDMI cable separately, and my receiver doesn't take HDMI anyway, so I'm stuck with optical.

I don't mean to complain too much... but I can see why it doesn't seem like there are all too many people excited to actually play the system. My 360 has a bunch of games I'm still excited to play: Gears of War, Viva Pinata, Smackdown vs. Raw, and because of the head start, I already have NBA, Madden, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, and Oblivion on the 360. The only launch PS3 title I'm interested in is Gundam, and that's only because I'm a fan of the series... the game is getting the worst reviews of all the launch games. And having already bought an HD-DVD drive for my 360, the whole Blu-ray thing doesn't excite me as much as it would have a month or so ago.

As a Japanese RPG fan, I'm a PS2 loyalist through and through... it took me a year and a half to get an Xbox. So I'm really surprised by the turnaround in my perception of the two companies so far.

I don't know where it started, but the whole "first gen vs second gen games" argument is a load of bull. Gears of War is Epic's first 360 title. They were as much of a rookie at the hardware as any other first time developer. Just because it is released a year after the 360's launch doesn't magically mean that it is a "second gen" game.

The whole "first gen vs second gen games" started with the 360/PS3. The N64 came out a year after the PS1. Did people compare Mario 64 to launch PS1 games? No. The Gamecube and Xbox came out a year after the PS2. Did people compare Cube and Xbox launch games to PS2 launch games? No. Why should the 360 and PS3 be any different?

It is a valid argument though. How long did Epic have final hardware for the 360? At least a few months before the launch of the console itself. That's almost a year and a half to polish the game. Sony didn't have final hardware for the PS3 until 4 or 5 months ago. That's a HUGE head start. Plus, Epic was using the Unreal3 engine, which was already in development and already has games on the shelf months ago. Insomniac created their own engine for Resistance. Oh, and we'll see how PS3 handles the Unreal3 engine as the only console to get UT2007.

The 360 has been on the market for a year, and GOW is the first game that you can really look at and say, "Wow, that's what next gen should look like". I guarantee it won't take the PS3 a year to have a killer app.

I'm getting some steam rolling behind my argument. Fact is collven, PS3 was supposed to be out last fall(and then spring). So all these launch titles should have basically been done last Nov. giving them a whole extra year to polish them.

Mario 64 released a year after PS1 and looked better than anything on it. Halo was released a year after PS2 and looked better than anything on that system. Same with Rogue Leader on Gamecube. All three systems were more powerful than the Sony systems and they managed to put out more polished games despite Sony's year headstart.

PS3 didn't quite turn out to be the "10x more powerful than 360" behemoth that was promised so the backpeddling argument is this double standard "my launch title vs. your launch title" argument. The PS3 is more powerful, and had a bonus year to capitalize on, just like the N64, GC, and XBOX did, but they failed to do so and fans have to fall back on this flimsy comparison that never existed in generations prior.

Done.

I finally saw a working demo station(watched someone play). MotorStorm looks great. That should have been a launch title. Terrible name though, they need to change it. It doesn't fit the game at all.

Wow, that Fight Night shot is ass. Very nice high-resolution models.. of Play-Doh people.

Ridge Racer sounds like a good third title to get then. I already own it for the PSP, and I really enjoyed playing it.

...and speaking of PSP, has anyone connected their PSP to the PS3 yet?

I don't remember exactly, but I know I was nervous and paid for the warranty because of all the issues the 360 was having. Am glad I did not too as mine is currently out for repair. I think by now we were reading about a lot of freezing due to overheating of the power brick.
News article

Wow, I'd hate to see what the 360 version looked like because that does not look good at all.....and it's suppose to look slightly better than the 360 version?

The other thing with Gears is it uses the latest Unreal engine, and as I understand it the 360 hardware was built around that engine (i.e. designed to run it as well as possible) so that is an advantage over Resistance.

But in all I do agree with the others. The PS3 and 360 are very comparable and there is not going to be much difference in graphics.

Only the most picky of videophiles, or the most hardcore of graphic whores will buy a PS3 over a 360 due to graphics. The battle will be determined by who has the most system seller games in the long run.

They wouldn't build hardware specifically for an engine. Things like that usually work the other way around.

Agreed, and games will still be king. The xbox had slightly better graphics than the PS2 and that didn't make any real difference, so is the PS3 treats the 360 in the same manner, it won't be because of the slighly better graphics.

They talked about it a bit on the 1up yours podcast, and I read an interview or two in the past saying that the Unreal Engine was the driving force of the hardware.

i.e. when designing it they were keeping in mind what it needed to run optimally.

Makes sense as FPS are the X-box's bread and butter genre, so it's logical to optimize the hardware for running the top engine for that genre.

Similarly, the N64 was largely designed to make Mario 64 possible, from the graphics capabilities to the controller they worked closely with Miyamoto to give him what he needed to bring the game to life.

It is possible that the Unreal Engine was a driving force in the design of the 360 hardware, but at a very high level. Not the tight coupling like PC graphic card makers designing their cards so that specific games and benchmarks run efficiently.

I can see the Unreal Engine developers meeting with the 360 hardware engineers to identify what key graphics functions and processor functions would make the greatest impact to Unreal performance. But I would be genuinely surprised if these design decisions were specific to running the Unreal Engine.

That's exactly the case and what I was getting at. The unreal engine was a driving force, so of course Gears looks great as the game should have been easy to program for the hardware since the unreal engine developers gave input on what the hardware should have available to run the engine optimally.

I remember reading an article about 360 and how the decision to have 512 megs of ram was made purely by Epic showing them what the graphical difference would be in GoW between having 256 (which is what they were planning on) and 512. I'm not saying they did it for just that game but Epic used it to show how much better games can look with the extra memory.

Just as an FYI for those looking, check local Best Buy's. My local store (343) had 10 60GB and 6 20GB this morning. Naturally gone though.

I think it is interesting to note that the less powerful system has always won. The NES was less powerful than the Master System. The SNES was less powerful than the Genesis. The PS1 was less powerful than the Saturn and N64. The PS2 was less powerful than the Gamecube and Xbox.

Yes I remember reading in all the gaming magazines (the internet wasn't too big back then) about how the N64 controller was custom designed to specifically play Mario 64.

I don't remember the SNES being less powerful than the Genesis. The only thing I remember the Genesis having was "blast processing," but in direct game comparisons the SNES version always looked better graphically, to me anyway.