By John Stratman & Jason Werre, Lakeside Lutheran High School, Lake Mills, Wisconsin

PlayStation

For years, gamers have been debating over which console is overall better. 360 or PS3? Here are the facts.

The Xbox 360 is certainly cheaper as far as price goes, but one could also argue that the Playstation 3 is the better buy, since it includes a built in Blu-Ray player.

With the capability of the Playstation to be a Blu-Ray player as well as a video game device, it bring double the fun.

The 360 has less processing power.

However, since several cross-platform games run similarly on each system, this doesn’t seem to be a problem. There really isn’t that much of a noticeable difference in graphics between the systems

Most of today’s big game titles are released on multiple platforms, with the exception of system-exclusive games like Halo on the 360, or Uncharted on the PS3. It’s more of a matter of taste than of game selection

When it comes to online play, the Playstation 3 wins hands down.

You don’t need a gold membership to play online or watch Netfix or Hulu.

For motion gaming, Xbox was a true innovator with the Kinect. The Playstation Move is fun, but everything that the Move has done had been done before with the Wii.

The two systems are so alike in so many ways, but the Playstation 3 has free online multiplayer, better media playback, Blu-Ray support, and it’s more powerful. The Playstation 3 is the winner.

Xbox

The current champions of the gaming wars are the Xbox 360 and the Play station 3. Although both systems have been around for more than 5 years they are still the undisputed leaders in video game consoles. There will always be a place in my heart for the Nintendo Wii, but for the serious gamer the X Box 360 or the Play station 3 are the way to go.

Every comparison usually begins with price and in this area the Xbox 360 does have a cost advantage. Their basic 4GB bundle starts at a mere $199.99. Compare that with Sony’s Play station 3 with a 160 GB of stage and an intro price of $249.00. Of course there are endless possibilities for add-ons to you system.

Another advantage for the Xbox is its online multiplayer arena, Xbox Live. Although there is a Microsoft player’s fee, most all can agree that this online play is much better than on the PS3.

Something cool and unique to the Xbox is its Kinect, a technology with makes controllers obsolete with a camera, motion sensor, and voice detector. In other words, ‘you are the controller’.Playing games on Kinect is really an experience, while the PS3 just basically copied the Wii.

The biggest area of preference is game selection. Many of the major games such as the Call of Duty series, Elder Scrolls and the Madden Sports games can be played on both systems.
However, with the release of the Xbox 360 a year earlier, there are 100 more games than the PS3, naturally making for a better selection.