melon

I see. So it's "North American content," not "U.S. content" and "Canadian content"?

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tdinc

The Playststion store is not Region locked, but it goes by in which the Region your PS3 account is registered. meaning Prices for Canada and US differ

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vern

360 content is IP locked. Even if you specify US in your account and you hold a US credit card, your IP is still checked.

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melon

God I'm finding deciding this to be very difficult!

One, I don't have a lot of money right now, so the premium PS3 cost is a bit harder to swallow. On the other hand, I get the sense that one needs extra accessories for the XBox 360, which negates all the potential cost savings--in other words, they're equally expensive.

Two, I get the sense that, while the XBox 360 has been plagued with hardware problems, the PS3 is plagued with more software/game stability problems (i.e., what I've read about "Fallout 3" for PS3). With Jasper XBox 360s available now (and I just found a guide as to how to identify them), the hardware problems should be more of a thing of the past, but I haven't a clue what the differences are between the U.S. and Canada XBox Live content, and I imagine that I will be quite angered by the answer to that question. At least it sounds like the PS3 online content isn't as restrictive, but, on the other hand, isn't as plentiful (i.e., the exclusive online content for "Fallout 3" for XBox 360/Windows, which won't be coming to the PS3 at all). I imagine that, if I get an XBox 360, it will be coming with me every time I visit my parents south of the border.

The biggest dilemma I'm facing is that it seems like there's things I want that only exist on one or the other console, while both seem to have some very detrimental failings that make it very hard to decide which one is actually "better."

(On a geekier note, this reminds me of the Marxist idea that "choice" in capitalism is mainly illusory.)

Does anyone have any final thoughts as to how I should decide on which one to get? In the end, I know it's my decision alone to make, but perhaps there's something that will make it easier to decide.

Thanks again!

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Bman

I am about to buy a 360 Elite, and just read this, the content of LIVE is different for Canadians? Oh please explain this, how so, how much? That is a main reason I want the 360.

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indyjones

I would not worry, I live in the UK and we get half of what you get over the pond, but despite this we still get all the important stuff on xbox live. So in Canada I am sure you will be fine

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Bman

Anyone know of a place to get the 360 for cheaper then 399.99cad, and not ebay....

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vern

Sounds like you are buying Sony's PR. I remember reading some time ago a Sony exec saying the exact same thing. If you don't need it, wireless is really the only thing missing and you can buy a bigger hard drive on eBay for real cheap.

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tdinc

Jasper's are still having RROD it does not matter its the luck of the draw and the chance you have to take and deal with. M$ still cannot figure out why its happening. 3 out of 5 friends I know have had RROD. and 2 had it happen twice. no lie and 1 was an elite system.

@vern

Show me a 360 HD for cheap? 20gigs is hardly enough for media content. and the HD alone 120 gig is so overpriced. and "buying" into Sony's PR is hardly what melon is thinking.

He needs to outweigh his choices between the two. how much money he intends to spend.

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melon

Well, frankly, I think I'm leaning back to the PS3 again. I just saw the Killzone 2 trailer, and I'm really very pumped for that. I can live without the Fallout 3 DLC, I guess. And if FF Versus XIII is PS3 exclusive, as rumoured, I'll have to get this anyway.

I will also likely get an XBox 360 Elite console someday, as there are a few XBox exclusives I'm quite interested in, mainly because of the hard drive size and the fact that the 120 GB hard drive costs $150, which more than negates any cost "savings" on the Pro console with its paltry 20 GB drive. I'm just going to wait for a price drop and for the theoretically more stable 65nm Jasper CPUs to proliferate more. I hear that they haven't reached the Elite end yet anyway.

By the way, while I intend to get an HDTV someday, how are these consoles when it comes to playing on an old-fashioned SDTV?

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tdinc

I have pre ordered Killzone 2 I can't wait to get my hands on it. You have to remember it depends on the type of games you enjoy playing. the 360 has many great games. Fallout 3 for the PS3 is just as good in my opinion. At first it had some issues but a game update cleared the issue.

the PS3 had a rough start with games. and developers are finally getting in the groove and are coming out with some fantastic games. uncharted 2 will be killer. along wih many others. Yes I am a Sony fan boy because I never cared for Halo or other 360 games. plus i wanted a blu-ray player and more ability of a all in one gaming system that was upgradable. I just added a WD Scorpio Blue WD5000BEVT 500GB HD for cheap. you cant beat that!

as far as you SDTV if you have a decent brand you should be fine. but to experience the full graphic capabilities of the system and games a good HDTV is choice.

oh yeah one more thing free online playing don;t forget and FOLDING baby!

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melon

Well, here's a complete twist in my story. I've got an XBox 360 Pro unit now!

What happened is that, with my $100 Rogers Plus gift card toward the purchase of a game console that I could only spend there, when it came time to buy a PS3, they only had 40 GB consoles with the old SIXAXIS controllers (instead of the DualShock 3 controllers you get now) and--get this--were priced $100 more than the regular market price in Canada--i.e., down the street at Future Shop, I could get an 80 GB console for $100 less! Their XBox 360 bundles weren't priced in such obsolete terms, and all they had were XBox 360 Pro bundles. One of them was old; it advertised GTA IV as "coming soon in 2007," while the other was a quite recent 2008 holiday bundle, with a console manufactured in August 2008. So, it's not a Jasper CPU, and it's not a PS3, but I think I fared pretty well here. Now I'll get to play "Fallout 3" with the extra downloadable content, plus I picked up "The Last Remnant," a Square-Enix RPG that is horrendously delayed for the PS3, but already out for the XBox 360. And, oddly enough, it cost $10 less at Rogers Plus than at Future Shop. I'm probably going to get a PS3 later this year, and, hopefully, it'll be $100 cheaper with a larger hard drive and (dreaming here) restored PS2 backwards compatibility.

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technokid88

oh that sucks.. but
The Last Remnant for Xbox = Crap lol

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tdinc

enjoy your new 360 melon. just for being curious, double check to see if you have a jasper you will know by 2 things if you dont know already.

1) it has the internal 256 built in memory

2)

12V is a jasper but not to rain on your fun, just keep on mind that Jaspers are also getting RROD's just not as high as the others like the falcon etc....

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melon

It's also 12V, but it's 14A, not 12.1A, which I think is the determining factor for the Jasper CPUs.

So far, so good, though. I was expecting the console to be "louder," based on complaints, but I don't think it's all that bad. And I've got a 60 GB hard drive with this one, which I'm hoping will be enough. Either way, it's much better than the days when they only had 20 GB drives.

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vern

@tdinc ... I got a 120GB from eBay for $90 dollars. There are places to get bargains if you are willing to look. Even with a wireless adapter, that still turns out to be less than Sony's PS3 with more HD space. Considering that he has been thinking this purchase through for a while, I'm sure he certainly has the time to shop around for bargains. New PS3s however are almost never seen below retail prices. The new jaspers have enough memory for gaming. IF he decides he needs more space, he can get an HD. IF he decides he needs to do wireless gaming, he can get a wireless adapter. Choice is a good thing. Making an argument that the 360 does not come with all the hardware the PS3 has and that somehow cripples it is definitely buying into Sony's PR. The only thing that pushes the argument towards Sony's favor is Blu-Ray. They can't make the argument for cost, for hardware, or software. I just want to make clear that I DO HAVE both consoles. However, I am extremely miffed about Sony giving me so little to do with my hardware. Sony has become almost Nintendo-like ... I go there for exclusives ... nothing more.

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zeke_mo

new models do not have them

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Tuffgong4

I have a 2006 Xbox 360 and a ps3 (and a wii but that is not relevant).

Huge pluses and minuses to both but I am forcing myself to buy multiplatform games for the ps3 because it has started to collect dust. For all media uses I use the 360. It seems that the codec support is much better and just feels better.

I had an original 20GB and with the most recent NXE I was upset with the fact that I wouldn't be able to install any of the games onto my hard drive since it was so small. Well a little searching and I found a firmware hack (which some ofyou may know about already) and the WD 120GB drive in my mobile external drive is now a fully functioning 360 drive...so I get to install the games to the HDD and never hear that awful howitzer of a 360 drive.

i love them both but if I had to have one my 360 would be it. But I both FF XIII games so I'm glad I have my ps3 as well. Blu Ray player is nice but I notice myself not using it very often on my 50 incher.

Also I've had to return my 360 once and my ps3 once (drive stopped reading discs)

so it's a crapshoot on the hardware reliability.

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melon

I'm enjoying it quite a bit, so far! I had a really hard time with the controller, at first, which made me wonder if I was getting too old for gaming (heh...), but it only took a couple of days for me to get a great handle on it.

Since this is the first console I've had where I've actually used the online capabilities, I've already found myself having downloaded about 10 demos already. I must say that this is absolutely great. I've admittedly been a bit guilty in previous generations of just buying what I'm familiar with, and not being adventurous at all. Of course, it's always come down to price. I'm not about to fork out ~$50 bucks for a game I'm not sure I'm going to even like. Now I can experiment with all kinds of games, and I've already got a decent list of what I want to buy in the future!

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Shamus MacNoob

Rent before you buy ..blockbusters here rent games by the week so I say rent before you buy!

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