Random musings on my consoles

[Scort]

Having decided to finally pick up a copy of L4D, both myself and a mate have decided to dust off the 360s, pick up 12 months live, and kick the **** out of some zombie hordes!

Frankly, I was dreading turning the 360 back on, I think it was last used in early 2008, possibly back in 2007, and during that time had developed issues with the CD drive spinning down mid-game; making long stints of Forza a nightmare (track vanishing is no fun).

Anyway, I unboxed it and set it up on my TV and fired it up – god, was it this noisy! Still worked though, so I set about updating to the new dashboard, picking a random avatar, I then had some fun and games getting live to recognise Gold on my account (had to do a recovery in the end).

Come play time I was chuffed to bits by the online side of this machine, it blows the PS3 out of the water for me; it’s far more fluid and complete than I think PSN will ever be – private chat was a welcome return and joining games were as easy as ever. Shame all I can hear is a 747 at idle – copying to HD didn’t help much either

Fingers crossed that the next ‘next gen’ someone (either Sony or MS) come up with a unit with the hardware robustness of the 60 gig PS3 but the online ability of the 360 – either free or not.

Read, post, do whatever – no point it telling the fan boys and girls to stay away; they’ll be on this like flies on….

Scort.

 

[Robert1986]

Fascinating story.

 

[KNiVES]

I turned my 360 on for the first time in nearly a year, and downloaded the NXE which until then I thought was just a feeble Wii knock-off. It IS a Wii knock-off (especially the avatars! Shameless stealing or what? Microsoft didn't even try to hide it, and it's a little uncomfortable and embarrassing), but it's a much better menu and dashboard system than before, and the XMB now just looks hopelessly far behind. Until Sony can catch up on the fundamental basics such as full integration within it games including aspects like friends and party systems, it will always be viewed with a certain amount of contempt by anyone who takes his consoles at least with a little bit of seriousness. Unfortunately with every day that pass, the older games become more and more obscure, and it's looking increasingly likely that Sony will never bother trying to adapt its entire back-catalog to keep up with the high standard that Microsoft has admirably and sensibly encouraged and enforced from the very start to form a cohesive and consistent console experience right from the very start. Why bother with the trophy system if a good majority of the console's games don't even have them for example? Why bother trying to chat with friends online if you can't even group up with them? Why can't we talk if we're on separate games? The list goes on. It's exasperating that I raised these complaints the day the PS3 came out, which was over two years since the 360 did before, and still persist to this day with absolutely no clear remedy to come, and most likely never will.

PS3, the most advanced console? Hardly. Hardware isn't everything, and even on that end it's debatable.

 

[Robert1986]

When not playing games:
XMB > NXE

When playing games:
NXE > XMB


I much prefer the XMB for general use. Its just a lot quicker and easier to navigate round.

 

[orderoftheflame]

When not playing games:
XMB > NXE

When playing games:
NXE > XMB


I much prefer the XMB for general use. Its just a lot quicker and easier to navigate round.

XMB for Media

NXE for games.

 

[Memphis]

I much prefer the XMB for general use. Its just a lot quicker and easier to navigate round.

See, I find it to be the oposite, but I can't explain why . I think it more comes down to literally personal preference at the end of the day. The XMB feels clumsy to me. I don't like it sitting in the middle of the screen. I don't like it scrolling across the middle of the screen. I definitely don't like the fact that, when playing media from a USB device, you have to either sort your media into folders that the PS3 wants, or you have to then tell the PS3 to just look at the whole device... why doesn't it do that anyway?!

As I say, I think it's just pure personal preference. I guess I really don't mind either, but prefer the NXE overall .

 

[Streeteh]

Ideal console for me would be Sony hardware combined with Microsoft software, it would be utterly perfect.

I'm not a huge fan of the NXE in comparison to the blades but i've had far less experience with the NXE as my 360 owning mate has moved away. Currently buying a 360 off the MM so hopefully my opinion of the NXE will improve.

 

[ic1male]

That's what they should do for the next gen team up and smack Nintendo back down - Sony make hardware, Microsoft do software. Similar to Sony-Ericsson phones I guess?

 

[Robert1986]

XMB for Media

NXE for games.

Pretty much. I don't play much games these days so I've never really had a need for XMB features in game. It works just fine for media purposes though.

I only wish the PSN had the invite and friend features the 360 has. That was my biggest complaint coming from the 360 to the PS3. It still is really. Probably why I've never settled into an online game for the PS3. I just find steam my go to place for online gaming.

 

[Nanoman]

I definitely don't like the fact that, when playing media from a USB device, you have to either sort your media into folders that the PS3 wants, or you have to then tell the PS3 to just look at the whole device... why doesn't it do that anyway?!

Because it would be a mess. You would be able to see all your music folders in the other categories like pictures and visa versa.

NXE isn't actually available in-game like XMB is. It's more of a small menu. To me whilst actually gaming there is no difference between the two apart from party chat.

PSN needs game info, like links to downloads etc for your games and cross-game chat and maybe invites but I can live without them as it's implemented in-game.

edit: More PS3 games need to introduce the ability to play your own music in-game.

 

[ic1male]

What I like about Xbox that PSN doesn't have - when you get an achievement, you can press the Guide button and it brings up the game's achievements and when you get an invite to a game, it enables you to launch the game rather than just seeing a message in your Inbox.