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3D Dot Game Heroes
Demon's Souls
Disgaea
God of War
Theatgamecompany games
inFamous
Journey
Killzone series
LittleBigPlanet
MotorStorm
PixelJunks games
Rachet & Clank
Resistance series
THe Last of Us
The Last Guardian (please still come out and be good)
Uncharted
Valkyria Chronicles
White Knight
WipeOut HD
Digital PSOne, PS2 games. + HD collection releases

Xbox 360
Rock Band - Rock Band Network
Kinect (other than Dance Central/knock offs its mostly used as party/kid games or voice add on for AAA games)
Fable
Halo
Gears
Lost Odyssey

A handful of Xbox games as digital purchases. Makes me sad since there was some great games on Xbox (Crimson Skies, Phantom Dust) that MS does not care about the old games plus what make them great was Online Play. Due to infrastructure restrictions and not wanting to support
it anymore Xbox online was shut down. People would still being playing Halo 2 today if given the choice. One great thing about the PC. People can still play CS, UT, Quake. Hell I can still play Heroes 3 online (thank you GameRanger).

And as mentioned, Wii has good library of unique and exclusives, but you can do more with the PS3 while still having a good set of games to play.

I used to have a PSP before it got hosed. The only few worthwhile games that I could think of in that platform was Monster Hunter, Disgaea and Lumines. And possibly Patapon. Why Capcom won't release MH on the Vita is beyond me. I mean, it has the perfect control scheme to play the game, two sticks and they still would rather release the game on the 3DS. Not that I have anything against the 3DS but really...

I honestly like the Xbox exclusives a lot more than the theoretically more diverse PS3 exclusives, but then I'm not a fan of a lot of Japanese games and actually like Halo for what it is, despite having a PC to play "real" shooters with a mouse. Also, Forza (which is much better than GT, IMO) and Viva Piñata are awesome, and the Fable games are good too (not the best games ever but they're fun). The exclusive Xbox lineup does have a lot of action titles and mediocre JRPGs, but claiming it's just Halo and Gears of War is unfair.

To me the reason to get either of the big consoles for games is about 50-50 which is why I eventually ended up with both. They have both good and uninteresting exclusives, Xbox often had better performing cross-platform games but then loses out when games like Final Fantasy need the PS3's BD storage capacity for more pre-rendered cutscenes. PS3 games need the option to install to HDD in the game I think, and many don't have it - Xbox games can all be installed from the dashboard for improved loading times. The PS3 has no regional locks on games, but inexplicably on DLC. The Xbox is mostly the other way around, plenty of games and I think all DLC are region-free, but there are still a bunch of games which are not.

To me all the advice about backwards-compatible early models is misguided because you'll get otherwise inferior hardware (loud, hot) and European models only ever had crippled BC in the first place (until the first "slim" refresh removed it completely). Don't bother with that, if you want to play PS2 games get a PS2 or PCSX2 or buy the made-for-PS3 re-releases. Xbox 360 has software-based backwards compatibility for a bunch of Xbox classics, at least.

Regardless, the big thing to me is the PS3 is generally the more customer friendly option. Sometimes it decides to bite you in the ass with stuff like regional DLC pricing and -availability if you import, but you can otherwise import without care. Sometimes cross-platform games like Bayonetta run like ass because porting is hard. But you can use it as a BD-player and online is free. You can buy DLC directly with a credit card (for regionally inflated prices, but still) above a certain threshold, wireless controllers can be recharged with a mini-USB cable, and the console takes any 2.5" SATA HDD. It has backup functionality (never tried that so I don't know how well it works with all the DRM on savegames because of :achievements: these days) for user data/savegames built in.

Microsoft on the other hand just loves to suck their customers dry. Then make the console dashboard an ad-filled nightmare anyway. Having to pay a monthly fee to get full access to your 60$ games for peer-to-peer matches is an abomination and hiding even the most basic online stuff (like using the player marketplace or downloading gifted cars in Forza, or sharing your characters for the full game in the Saints Row 3 Initiation Station which is like the whole point of the character creator) behind that paywall is a massive dick move. Their marketplace works off funbux you have to buy in bulk, hiding the real price and leaving customers with leftover points often. Play and charge kit for controllers and bigger harddisks are way overpriced, as well, and a transfer kit if you want to move to a new harddisk costs money.

I really love my Xbox 360 games but without XBL they are always gimped and actually love to rub it in my face all the time. Prominently presenting online functions and -news, even if I can't use any of that to play with friends, can't even use basic online functionality. Just because I'm not paying another 1-2 games worth of fee every year to be allowed to host a game for myself and friends on my console with my bandwith. It's insulting. No Microsoft hardware for me next generation, that's for sure.

hot shots golf and hotshots tennis (both amazing games) ,Jeanne d'arc, puzzle quest, patapon, final fantasy 7 on psx emulator, maybe kingdom hearts, castlevania and outrun.
Good for hundreds of hours of entertainment on the go.
Tip: stay far away from shooters and console like games on psp, they are all shit. There are enough portable games that are good (listed above).

Make sure you jailbreak the psp and put the games on a memory stick, loading times are extremely fast on the memory stick, UMD loading times suck horribly.
Jailbroken psp with a library of games on flash memory and a few emulators installed is amazing, I would have killed for one when I was a kid.

Modern consoles on the other hand I wouldn't want to burden my younger self with.

I'd recommend a PS3 for two reasons: God of War 3 and it doubles as a very capable blu-ray player you don't need to buy a separate wireless adapter to hook up to your network. Microsoft also charges monthly for their online service so that's a massive black mark on them.

Xbox does have Live Arcade which has a selection of indie titles, but many of those are making the leap to PC as well so it's difficult for me to find any real reason to have one these days unless you don't plan on ever having a PC powerful enough to run The Witcher 2. Shame on you in that case.

Don't buy any console as media player, if you want to watch movies just get a HTPC... ps3 doesn't even support subtitles or mkv.

MKV is only just now starting to get recognized by blu-ray players. It's not a popular format right now, so I wouldn't make a decision on whether that alone.

I bought mine for the two reasons above: I wanted a blu-ray player and I figured God of War 3 was a nice bonus. When I watch movie files they're usually not 1080p because hardly anyone encodes them that high so watching them on my TV is probably sub-optimal. I use my PC much more than my TV anyway.

Don't buy any console as media player, if you want to watch movies just get a HTPC... ps3 doesn't even support subtitles or mkv.

I've got a PS3 and an HTPC, and BluRay and Netflix are a lot easier to work with on the PS3 (using a remote). Not sure the Netflix API is even available outside the U.S. and Canada, so you'd be forced to browse Netflix in a browser on an HTPC.

Personally, owning the lot (360 & ps3, had a wii for a while, but sold it cos it's that bad, and thanks to dolphin the three wii games I wanted to play I can play at 2560x1440 and with AA & AF), I'd get a ps3. 360 has given me some good times over the years, but now, it's long in the tooth.

Five years ago I'd have told you to buy one for gears of war alone, now, ps3 stomps in terms of exclusives. Sure the shooter playerbase isn't 'there' for multiplayer like on xbox, and xbox arguably has the better of the console racing sims (But then PC has the best ones, it's like asking if you'd prefer cancer or aids, so, moot point). But shooters are best on PC, so xbox has ... trials 2 I guess.

As for playing media, you can use PS3 Media server for ps3 or xbox, bear in mind that it can be a piece of crap sometimes, I'd just skip it, and get something along the lines of a WDTV, a Roku, heck, even a raspberry pi & xbmc (my current preferred choice) for consuming mkv's. ps3 media server is ok, just it's wonky sometimes.

As for the important bits, the games. My PS3 gets fired Up probably once a week or fortnight, my xbox, when I feel like playing trials. Pretty much in the last year that's the only game i've played on my xbox, trials. PS3 has the exclusives, the awesome japanese games that only come out on it, the wicked little downloadable games (Journey, nuff said), The okami HD re-release (wiiicked game). Free Multiplayer (Screw Xbox gold and paying for p2p multiplayer, sure, if it was dedicated servers & was optional, i'd be all for it for better pings, but pay money for p2p matchmaking? Hell No.)

PS3 just flat out wins. Not to mention, whilst backwards compatibility might suck a bit on them (it's ps1 or don't bother basically), the 'decent' ps2 games have been re released in collections. God of War 1 & 2, Ico & SOTC etc, etc.

you can use a bluetooth keyboard if your room is not 25 meters away from the living room.

If you're PC is playing a netflix movie in the living room you can't use. At least you can't have audio and when doing stuff that doesn't require audio you always have a chance of screwing up the stream.

I don't know if anyone's mentioned this yet, but a big thing to ask yourself when choosing a console is: How much will I be using the internet with it?

If the answer is "a lot," then your best bet is always the PS3. It doesn't require a monthly fee for gold to use subscription services like Netflix and if you're only playing one online game at a time, it's pretty much like paying a subscription to play that game online when you could get it free on other platforms.

I've got a PS3 and an HTPC, and BluRay and Netflix are a lot easier to work with on the PS3 (using a remote). Not sure the Netflix API is even available outside the U.S. and Canada, so you'd be forced to browse Netflix in a browser on an HTPC.

The Netflix API isn't available in Europe, but the service has been released in the UK, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. We pay for the service and have some local content, but cannot use the Netflix API, so XBMC Flicks doesn't work, can't even download the Netflix plug-in for Plex. Windows Media Center on Windows 7 supposedly has a Netflix plug-in that can be downloaded, but it doesn't work outside the U.S.

i have a wii,360 and ps3. at first i would have favoured the xbox for its exclusives and eventually bought the ps3 for its. i only use it for netflix now but just bought gold again just for halo 4. but for best exclusives...go for the wii. mario galaxy is pretty much gamin perfection.