Xbox 360

Kosmo

Well, most servers I'm at my ping doesn't go over 20-30 in most cases, not enough to have any effect to your gameplay. Played at Jolt server last weekend, against some old clan buddies of mine, kicked some ass even if the ping was around 80. But granted, ping isn't everything, your ping can be 5 and still suck if you have alot of choke, packet loss and crappy confs.

lech

Well, Kosmo, you're in Europe, I'm in Chicago, while typically my ping to the western coast of the US (depending on the route) is an avg of ~120, pinging to western Europe is anywhere from 120-200+ depending on the server and game. However, the ping for Unreal based games is terrific, even with some of the craziest pings, the game is still decent.

Kosmo

Unreal is much smarter when it comes to choke, packet loss and rate ;) Oh, and you make Chicago sound like some third world country :P

Minisweeper

"I'm at my ping doesn't go over 20-30 in most cases, not enough to have any effect to your gameplay" - you obviously havent met half the 13year old CS players out there :) The minute they get killed or do something dumb it's OMG HPB!! or OMG CHOKE! xD

Krak

I am not a fan of consoles, never have been. I hate em, except for a few classic console only games, which are few and far between. A PC can do anything a console can and much (more, and) better, and I just hate gamepads. I'll take a keyboard and a mouse over a controller any day. And that auto/assisted aiming bullshit in most console games, there is a name for that.... its called an aimbot. I also pretty much only play FPS games, which all blow chunks on consoles. I'd rather take the cash you would dump into a console and toss it into my computer. To each their own.

Minisweeper

I totally agree with everyone talking about keyboards and gamepads. I suppose it depends what you grew up with - i have friends who've had consoles since the first ps and didnt get a pc till as recently as this year (fuck knows how they survived) so they have an impressive knack with a pad compared to their keyboard. Granted though you can do so much more - especially with the custom design/layout gaming keyboards you can buy these days. And you can never beat a mouse as a pointing device. I'm not sure though. Up until now pc's have always been better than consoles. People could argue that consoles were dedicated gaming machines and therefore better for the job but realistically the PC was always more powerful in most every department. Better processors/memory/bandwidths etc if you could be bothered spending the money to make them to a good spec. Now though things *could* change. The processors and video cards theyre sticking in the latest consoles are insane and (without spending 4 or even 5 figures) not available as PC parts. If they released keyboards and mice for consoles they could draw level or beat pc's for gaming capabilities but theyre gonna have a hell of a battle going down.

NickE

I think mark needs to update that /me functionality to only replace it when there's a none-alphanumeric character in front of it, or perhaps even only newlines, as that's really getting to be sort of troublesome.

EDIT: I rest my case.

Kosmo

Well, Mini, as long as I have played in the clan scene in CS, DoD, NS and ton and yet another ton of mods and such, I can say that I have met some kiddies. Blaming this and that for their lack of, well, a brain. Krak, you are absolutely right, consoles are good for only the console only games like Harvest Moon, Animal Crossing, Katamari and Zelda Wind Waker. But don't you dare say that even one FPS game comes as high in story, gameplay and visual quality as Metroid. I have played them all. From Wolfenstein 3D to Halo2 and you just can't compete with it. FPS games usually fall very short from the tree they were spawn from. But Metroid games just raise the bar so far that other games don't even bother jumping, they just roll below and hang their head in shame. And technology, no console will ever beat a PC in long run, maybe some console someday might be faster, better, we have the money to rebuild him, six million dollar console... but that is just for couple of months. As for what comes to the control device.. I can beat your ass in Mortal Kombat 3 with keyboard, but don't even ask it in Soul Calibur, DoA or Super Smash bros. Melee, pads all the way baby. So there are ups and downs in both PC and consoles allright. But would I toss out my PC and completely change for console? No way. Would I toss out my console and just concentrate for PC? No way amigo. Me, my PC my GC and my DS are like brothers.

lech

Oh, and you make Chicago sound like some third world country :P

If you only knew of the troubles I've had with my dsl over the past 2 years...

For some reason, though, state to state connections seem to really differ over here and the quality isn't exactly great for long distance gaming. But all in all it's the game you're playing, and your relative location opposed to the server and so on.

The only way I can see a console beating everything else, is when that console is upgraded to a full blown computer and marketed as such with some superior input devices (mouse/keyboard).

All in all though, using a joystick or gamepad on the pc is sometimes useful depending on what you're playing, the keyboard and mouse is simple an extra bonus for accuracy and binds. Screw that up up down down left right left right crap, just drop console and type out what you want without having to memorize insanely dumb combos.

Minisweeper

The question is, ladies and gentlemen, do i go and chill outside my local store in my car untill morning and buy one? I pulled in at 5 minutes to midnight excited they were still open and looking queueless. Till they told me they shut at midnight and wernt selling till 9am. So we went for a cruise round leeds (nearest city) and the only ones i could find were £622 (no, that's not an error. i was surprised too.) for the core pack. Yes that is nearly triple SRP. I wasnt even particularly bothered about getting one. But then someone mentioned they were released at midnight and i got a bit of an adrenaline buzz about getting one. And since i will eventually anyway it kinda makes sense to buy one now if i can.

Krak

I'd hold out for the PS3, for so many reasons. Ownage.

jesusphreak

Do not hold out on the PS3. I wouldn't ever trust a Sony product with the ridiculous amount of things they have said that they would do and then not done.

Krak

But you trust Microsoft? Nice, whatever, to each their own. I'd never own an Xbox. Crashing mid game, over heating, made by MS.... On stats alone the PS3 owns the Xbox.

jesusphreak

But you trust Microsoft? Nice, whatever, to each their own. I'd never own an Xbox. Crashing mid game, over heating, made by MS....

Well, with my 360 so far, I've never had it freeze, never had it crash, and it hasn't overheated. The 360's that are overheating is due to people shoving the powerbrick behind their entertainment system. Its pretty much a high-end PC. It needs ventilation.

On stats alone the PS3 owns the Xbox.

Actually, this isn't true. Theoretically the PS3 has a better processor...but theoretically the PS2 had one as well. The 360 has by far the better videocard...its a custom-made beast that won't even be in PCs until late next year...and even then it won't have some of the unique things it has on it. The PS3 video card is just an off the shelf nVidia card which has now been available to PC owners for several months.

So yeah...the whole thing about the PS3 being more powerful is pretty much bunk. Its more or less a reset of last gen. PS3 has the better theoretical CPU...360 has the better videocard. Tell me, who had the more powerful system last gen?

On top of that, having a 360 I know how well they have done everything. The controller is literally the best controller ever made. The UI is genius...being able to do things like chat with someone playing CoD2 while you play PDZ is something special.

They've really wrapped the entire thing around the UI and LIVE, and it shows. Sony having a free online service (and being a hardware company on top of that) just means that they won't even touch what MS is doing.

Krak

I HATE Xbox controllers. Cannot stand them.

Tell me, who had the more powerful system last gen?

Yeah MS did, with a system that came out a year after the PS2.

But I don't want to get into a Sony vs MS, fanboy discussion, nothing good ever comes of them and they go no where. In fact, I hate consoles of all kinds. Im a pure PC gamer. I just stated my opinion, derived over what I have read vs the two new consoles n the past week.

So how long did you wait in line for yours.

Kosmo

So who the hell cares what console has the most power? You can't even measure them, nor compare them side by side, the technologies have gone so far apart. Dreamcast had way more power than PS2 and it died, whoopde fucking doo the power did good to him eh?

jesusphreak

So who the hell cares what console has the most power? You can't even measure them, nor compare them side by side, the technologies have gone so far apart.

Well, the people promoting the PS3 love to throw out that inaccurate "the PS3" is more powerful statement.

Krak

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/614/614783p1.html Hmmm

jesusphreak

Hmm. Its pretty easy to throw dry specs out there and have uninformed people make conclusions on it.

A great example is that "550mhz" value for that PS3 and the "500mhz" value for the 360. Gives the completely wrong impression. While the PS3 has 50 more mhz, that isn't an accurate way of measuring videcards. The 360 has a custom-built ATI graphics card which has a daughter-die which includes 10 mb of EDRAM which provides free AA and HD. The PS3's videocard has no such extra RAM and thus the card itseld has to apply these effects which performance-wise can be costly.

There are other stats such as shader pipelines (of which the 360 has many more), etc. Basically, the 360's GPU more or less destroys the PS3's, but that isn't immediately apparent when you are only comparing processor speed.

Also, the 360 has a lot more system bandwidth, on top of the fact that the PS3's processor will be difficult to develop for.

You just can't compare straight up specs unless you really know what is going on. Sony has always been quick to pull stuff out of their butt - anyone remember them saying at e3 1999 that the Emotion Engine in the PS2 would produce Toy Story graphics? I do.

Sony has always been about false hype. This e3, they were claiming that the Killzone trailer was ingame footage done on the PS3 hardware. The developers themselves later said that the demo was prerendered.

Its just not worth taking Sony at its word.

Kosmo

Hehe, someone has been bitten by the propaganda bug. The sad truth here is Jesus, that neither of the two companies, ATI and nVidia, made the GPU chip from ground up. Both were based on the current development model of the next generation of GPU chips, G70 for nVidia and R500 family for ATI. Both of them are as "custom" as the chip need to be to be used in the console. So stop your fanboy drooling jibba jabba. Both of the companies have pulled "facts" from dark and melly tunnel. Granted, Sony is the master of smoke and mirrors, and anything we have heard from PS3 is almost as good as nothing.