It is that time of the year where we all must pick our superlatives in every gaming category we can think of. In this instance, we have decided to pick our Best Console of 2007. The prerequisites were what you would expect. Details like quality of games, online experience, system performance, availability, as well as user friendliness. As a group, we all voted separately and all came to the same conclusion. The Xbox 360 is the winner. Here is why.
Before everyone goes apeshit, I understand the ramifications of choosing one system over the others. I will be as explicit as I can with the reasoning and in all fairness consider all the specifications.
Hardware:
From a sheer technological standpoint, the PS3 stands far and above the other two. The built in wireless, the Blu-Ray capabilities, the larger disk space, and its ability to not break every 20 minutes really gave the 360 a run for its money. As I said, the PS3 also has it downfalls, namely the price. Granted there have been price reductions on both sides and now an almost affordable 40 gbPS3 model at $399.99 closed the gap (no BC though). Yet when the console first hit the shelves, 600 bucks was steep. Very steep. Blu-Ray was supposed to be the clear winner in the next gen DVD war, but no one knows how that is going to end. You could walk into a store and buy the PS3 right at launch. Why is this a bad thing? People didn’t want to cough up the dough. Both now have HDMI support, so thats a push. Edge: PS3
Games:
As far as games, well, you can make a case for both, but I have to give the nod to the 360 on this one. Yes, Halo 3 is a reason here, but love it or hate it, the game’s popularity cannot be denied. MGS4 WILL be a killer app once it comes out and is exclusive, at least for awhile people are saying. Gears of War sold a ton of units by itself as did Halo 3. There are some very, very good games out for the PS3 and Killzone 2 SHOULD be another monster, but its not here yet. BioShock, enough said. Most of the EA Sports games run at a full 60 fps as opposed to 30 fps on PS3. No reason why, but its just reality. Edge: Xbox 360
Online:
There are two schools of thought here. Free and Not free. The PSN is free. That is good. You have to fork up like 7 bucks a month for Xbox Live. That’s not so good. Xbox Live has a lot higher audience however, and that can be attributed to it being around longer. XBL is pretty much superior in many ways with the price being the major exception. DLC and Downloadable Games are basically a push. The friends list, messaging, and integration across all games; XBL is just ahead of everyone else. Especially when GTA4 drops and there will be exclusive content for Xbox 360. Expect some general disdain when that happens. The PS3 Home feature is very cool, but not enough to ebb the tide. Edge: Xbox 360
Intangibles:
Backwards Compatibility is basically a push on this one. The list for the Xbox 360 has grown exponentially and the PS3 can handle pretty much anything. The lack of BC on the 40 gb PS3 hurts though. The graphics are more or less equal. Both consoles claim to have 1080p games and most comparisons are very, very close. The controllers, well, you either like them or you don’t. Both are easy to use and have a small learning curve, though the six axis is very cool. Edge: Push
Final word:
As you can surmise, the Xbox 360 takes the crown. This is not to say that next year the PS3 will not make huge strides and close the gap. There is little to no mention of the Wii. Its been a year and you need to spend close to 700 bucks to get one with maybe 5 must have games. The Wii is a great concept, but until its widely available and their gaming catalog expands, this is a two horse race with the Xbox 360 by a nose. Commence flaming me.
Online is going to belong to Microsoft for a while. Sony and Nintendo need to do some serious work to catch up in that department.
As for games, every year is a crapshoot, so you never know.
But I definitely agree, the 360 is the overall best console of the three right now.
Yeah Microsoft has invested a LOT of time and money into Xbox Live, and it’s going to take a lot for Sony to make the PSN at that level, which is something I don’t see happening for at least 2-3 years. I’m not even going to consider Nintendo in the online realm until friend codes disappear.
Gotta agree.
PS3 is king of hardware this gen compared to Xbox 360.
Xbox 360 had a better and bigger library of games this year
And XBL is currently better than PSN.
ehhh there is nothing to flame you here on it actually makes alot of sense .. you should have chosen the DS if you wanted to cause some drama .. included a Money category
I have to say this is a really poorly written article
you lost me at “Before every goes apeshit”
please re read your articles before posting maybe have someone else do it..
my time is money and your wasting both…
Wasn’t Apple interested in gaming? Apple should buy out Sony’s Computer Entertainment division. Within a year XBL would look like a Firebird next to a Maserati.
@ Beon Wang: Are you kidding me???
HA – if your “time is money”, then what the hell are you doing reading a gaming blog – get back to work cheif!!!!
PS – great article. You pretty much nailed everything correctly – I can’t argue with any of that!
I agree with most of the article except for this:
“You could walk into a store and buy the PS3 right at launch.”
It was very hard to get at launch.
@ Wang:
That was a typo. Sorry for the error, but shouldn’t you get back to the Mrs. Fields’ cookie booth? I think the Brownies need to be refreshed. Time is money my ass.
i disagree, wii should be the best console of the year, i like ps3 most but i still think wii should have been the best
For the hardware part its definetly Ps3, because of quality and functions.
For online services there should be 2 gategories, Microsoft definetly handles the demos and dlc content very well compared to 2 others but when it comes to games they do not really have their own servers and I have heard that many games lag a lot when compared to Ps3 which doesnt suffer from lag at all.
good word
The Wii should be the winner, but honestly as a Wii owner, I know it will never be superior in terms of what hardcore gamers want. Nintendo didn’t launch the Wii with online gaming (big mistake), and they are seemingly only putting their efforts into Mario and the new market of casual gamers (notice the absurd percentage of party and kiddy looking games on the Wii). They are far too family oriented to make a real stand. Being sold out for over a year is kind of a plus, though. The lack of online options pretty much kill it for me.
Toejam:
How is being sold out over a year a plus? Wouldn’t the inability to get a system hurt its overall worthiness? I might have misread your comment, so correct me if I did.