The Next Generation Console Thread

[Raiden]

I have decided to buy a system this Christmas, although I still haven't settled on which system to get (but the fact that PS3 accepts laptop HD does sound appealing). I hope Sony and M$ will lower their systems price before the holiday season to boost sales, and that will help me save some money for games.

 

[hippie_hunter]

I have decided to buy a system this Christmas, although I still haven't settled on which system to get (but the fact that PS3 accepts laptop HD does sound appealing). I hope Sony and M$ will lower their systems price before the holiday season to boost sales, and that will help me save some money for games.

Well there are rumors that Microsoft will end up doing an actual price cut, offering the Xbox 360 Arcade SKU for $199.99 and the Elite SKU for $399.99.

 

[Brainiac 8]

I'll be getting a 360 toward the end of the year...mostly for SFIV though.

 

[hippie_hunter]

I'll be getting a 360 toward the end of the year...mostly for SFIV though.

Why the hell would Street Fighter IV be a reason to get a 360 when it is coming out on the PS3 as well?

 

[StrainedEyes]

Why the hell would Street Fighter IV be a reason to get a 360 when it is coming out on the PS3 as well?

because the 360 also has Dead Rising. t: And Banjo!

 

[Raiden]

If I get 360, it'd be for games like GOW2, Ninja Gaiden (although I heard the game is extremely tough), and for Unreal engine-powered games like that new Batman game. If I get PS3, it'd be for games like God of War, Resist 2, and MGS4. I will get GTA4 and RB2 or GH4 since they appear on both systems, and maybe Infamous. Also, blu-ray and changeable HD are other appealing features for PS3.

 

[Brainiac 8]

Why the hell would Street Fighter IV be a reason to get a 360 when it is coming out on the PS3 as well?

That is not necessarily the only reason. Price is a factor, especially when you pay for a family. It's just cheaper. Don't include me in the silly fanboy war camps you all get kicks out of.

At some point I would like to get another PS3 also, but for other reasons. It's just when I'll have the money to get another system, it will be around the time of SFIV, and the 360 will be within the range I can afford.

 

[Havok83]

I'll be getting a 360 toward the end of the year...mostly for SFIV though.

I hope you get an arcade stick or a least get a chance to try out the 360 controller with some 2D fighters/2D games bc it absolutely sucks with them due to the placement of the d-pad so close to the face buttons

 

[hippie_hunter]

If I get 360, it'd be for games like GOW2, Ninja Gaiden (although I heard the game is extremely tough), and for Unreal engine-powered games like that new Batman game. If I get PS3, it'd be for games like God of War, Resist 2, and MGS4. I will get GTA4 and RB2 or GH4 since they appear on both systems, and maybe Infamous. Also, blu-ray and changeable HD are other appealing features for PS3.

Seriously, just get a PS3 since it sounds more like what you want.

 

[hippie_hunter]

That is not necessarily the only reason. Price is a factor, especially when you pay for a family. It's just cheaper. Don't include me in the silly fanboy war camps you all get kicks out of.

I'm not including you in the fanboy category. I was just curious on why a multiplatform game is the reason to get a particular console.

At some point I would like to get another PS3 also, but for other reasons. It's just when I'll have the money to get another system, it will be around the time of SFIV, and the 360 will be within the range I can afford.

Meh, I find that with most games going multiplatform these days and with how costs are these days, it's probably best to just simply stick with just the PS3 or 360 and a Wii.

 

[Raiden]

Seriously, just get a PS3 since it sounds more like what you want.

It is, but Gears of War, Ninja Gaiden, and other 360 exclusives are the reason why I'm still delaying my decision until when I'm ready to buy, which is this Christmas season. Also, I heard that GTA4 for 360 has DLC (and PS3 doesn't) makes the decision a bit difficult.

 

[StrainedEyes]

It is, but Gears of War, Ninja Gaiden, and other 360 exclusives are the reason why I'm still delaying my decision until when I'm ready to buy, which is this Christmas season. Also, I heard that GTA4 for 360 has DLC (and PS3 doesn't) makes the decision a bit difficult.

The 360 has 2 exclusive DLC episodes for GTA.

 

[hippie_hunter]

It is, but Gears of War, Ninja Gaiden, and other 360 exclusives are the reason why I'm still delaying my decision until when I'm ready to buy, which is this Christmas season. Also, I heard that GTA4 for 360 has DLC (and PS3 doesn't) makes the decision a bit difficult.

Rockstar has hinted that the PS3 will also get DLC for GTAIV. Plus the PS3 has plenty of exclusives as well.

 

[Addendum]

No one has ever said that the PS3 wouldn't get DLC for GTA4, just that the PS3 will NOT get what is exclusive to the 360.

 

[Arkady Rossovich]

Hard drives are becoming more and more important. PS3 let's developers add installs to the harddrive to cut down on loading times, and the 360 will start doing the same soon if I understand correctly. So let's say you have a 20GB hard drive, and you have 5 games with 4GB installs, that's your entire hard drive there. If you want more you'd have to delete things to fit the next game on. This also doesn't include if you want room for pics, movies (PS store now has a video section as well), demo's, music (PS3 can rip your cd's onto your hard drive), save data, and so on.

I think that's a big reason the 20GB was done away with, no one was buying it as they were buying the 60GB version. Then they upped the 60GB to an 80GB, and came out with a stripped budget version which was the 40GB. They then just decided to do away with the 40GB and just release the 80GB.

Even at that ppl still buy extra hard drives and hook them up to their PS3's because hard drive space can dissapear quick if you're not careful.

So,it's not by memory card..but by how much bytes a game has? Sort of like the console itself is a memory card and a game can't excede the limit? If this is true,then I don't know why such a thing has been done in the first place.

But if I was going to buy one of the next gen consoles,I would have to have a pretty good idea about how the whole hard drive issue works.

 

[Havok83]

So,it's not by memory card..but by how much bytes a game has? Sort of like the console itself is a memory card and a game can't excede the limit? If this is true,then I don't know why such a thing has been done in the first place.

But if I was going to buy one of the next gen consoles,I would have to have a pretty good idea about how the whole hard drive issue works.

game saves are very small. For the most part under 1 MB. I dont see how anyone buying either system even with the smallest HDD would ever run into an issue of running out of space for game saves.

Theres no need for a memory card bc of the HDD. But if you want to move your saves around, you can use a USB stick to do so by transfering your saves onto one and using that a "memory card"

 

[StrainedEyes]

So,it's not by memory card..but by how much bytes a game has? Sort of like the console itself is a memory card and a game can't excede the limit? If this is true,then I don't know why such a thing has been done in the first place.

But if I was going to buy one of the next gen consoles,I would have to have a pretty good idea about how the whole hard drive issue works.

Keep in mind that those 4GB or so mandatory installs for some games are only on the PS3, They don't exist on the 360. Which is why when you get a PS3 you should get the biggest HD, it will fill up with mandatory installs if more games keep with the trend. The 360 can last forever with just it's 20GB HD, because you're only required to use it for game saves.

Obviously the 360 is getting the ability to install games onto the system to shorten load times, but it's not mandatory.

 

[Edmund Blackadder]

 

[hippie_hunter]

Keep in mind that those 4GB or so mandatory installs for some games are only on the PS3, They don't exist on the 360. Which is why when you get a PS3 you should get the biggest HD, it will fill up with mandatory installs if more games keep with the trend. The 360 can last forever with just it's 20GB HD, because you're only required to use it for game saves.

Obviously the 360 is getting the ability to install games onto the system to shorten load times, but it's not mandatory.

The PS3 also gets optional installs like with SoulCalibur IV.

 

[imdaly]

The PS3 also gets optional installs like with SoulCalibur IV.

Sometimes the PS3 game installs are optional. Often they are mandatory.

XBOX 360 installs are never mandatory.

 

[Nightmare]

The loading on PS3 for MGS4 was ridiculous.

 

[Fading]

game saves are very small. For the most part under 1 MB. I dont see how anyone buying either system even with the smallest HDD would ever run into an issue of running out of space for game saves.

Theres no need for a memory card bc of the HDD. But if you want to move your saves around, you can use a USB stick to do so by transfering your saves onto one and using that a "memory card"

Didn't realize he was talking about memory cards, ya Havok's right that game saves themselves are small. I was talking about some games have installs similar to computer installs. Game saves take so little space it's barely noticeable. Also before Havok I meant the same thing you did, I didn't mean Sony pulled the 20GB because of hard drive space, I meant the same as you that it was a gimped PS3 and hard drive space probably played into some ppl's minds when choosing inbetween the 20GB and 60GB.

 

[Fading]

BTW, not saying this to start an argument, but I find all the negative comments (implied or not) about the PS3 mandatory installs kinda odd. There's a thread in the 360 section about MS letting companies use their own descretion on doing hard drive installs, and it was hailed as genious. Despite the fact that not all 360's have hard drives and some ppl would be left in the dirt, you guys just said they were stupid for buying 360's without hard drives. However when it's mentioned that PS3 has mandatory hard drive installs it's talked about like a negative, that they should give us an option, but MS doing it is pure genious?

Like I said I'm not knocking anyone, I just find it odd.

However the installs are not a bad thing. There's a reason hard drives are mandatory on PS3's, and why you can easily tack on more hard drives with very little hassle. The PS3 GTA4 has less pop ins and faster loading times according to many websites, a large part of this is due to installs letting the PS3 grab from the hard drive.

 

[imdaly]

BTW, not saying this to start an argument, but I find all the negative comments (implied or not) about the PS3 mandatory installs kinda odd. There's a thread in the 360 section about MS letting companies use their own descretion on doing hard drive installs, and it was hailed as genious. Despite the fact that not all 360's have hard drives and some ppl would be left in the dirt, you guys just said they were stupid for buying 360's without hard drives. However when it's mentioned that PS3 has mandatory hard drive installs it's talked about like a negative, that they should give us an option, but MS doing it is pure genious?

Like I said I'm not knocking anyone, I just find it odd.

However the installs are not a bad thing. There's a reason hard drives are mandatory on PS3's, and why you can easily tack on more hard drives with very little hassle. The PS3 GTA4 has less pop ins and faster loading times according to many websites, a large part of this is due to installs letting the PS3 grab from the hard drive.

You answered your question yourself.

Installs are cool to have as an option. If you so wish to use up a chunk of your HDD to save wear on your disc drive and to quicken load times, you can do so. If you just want to be able to use that HDD space for something else, you don't have to install them.

Manual installs are lame, cause you don't have the choice. You wanna play the game? You better be prepared to give up some of your HDD space. And with the PS3, unless I'm mistaken, doing so doesn't allow your disc drive not to have to spin and wear while you're playing the game...the disc still spins the whole time, right?


Optional Installs are a matter of convenience.
Manual Installs are a matter of necessity.

 

[StrainedEyes]

BTW, not saying this to start an argument, but I find all the negative comments (implied or not) about the PS3 mandatory installs kinda odd. There's a thread in the 360 section about MS letting companies use their own descretion on doing hard drive installs, and it was hailed as genious. Despite the fact that not all 360's have hard drives and some ppl would be left in the dirt, you guys just said they were stupid for buying 360's without hard drives. However when it's mentioned that PS3 has mandatory hard drive installs it's talked about like a negative, that they should give us an option, but MS doing it is pure genious?

Like I said I'm not knocking anyone, I just find it odd.

However the installs are not a bad thing. There's a reason hard drives are mandatory on PS3's, and why you can easily tack on more hard drives with very little hassle. The PS3 GTA4 has less pop ins and faster loading times according to many websites, a large part of this is due to installs letting the PS3 grab from the hard drive.

The differences from the mandatory installs have only been minimal, maybe cutting load times in half (Load times which are already very short. 3 second load time is now 1.5, neither is long at all to wait.) And like you said less pop-ins in GTA, but it doesn't solve the pop-in problems, nor are the pop ins that big of a deal on the 360.

I think the main reasons people complain about the mandatory installs, is how little they do when they take up so much room, and how they can not opt out of it. I'm sure a lot of the people with the 60GB or 40GB PS3, who would much rather save those 4 or so GB for a movie, then losing a few seconds here or there on load times. I remember the days when load times were like 2-3 minutes, 5 seconds is nothing compared to that, I don't want to lose an ipod's worth of HD space just to make the load time slightly better.

Add on top of that, how the PS3 is supposed to be way more powerful then the 360, yet it requires an install which doesn't show that much of an improvement over the 360 version. Then you have Kojima refusing to compress MGS4 and forcing like 4 lengthy installs over the course of the game. It's a little ridiculous. The size of the blu-ray discs were supposed to make it so that games would not fall on multiple discs, yet 5 minute installs between chapters isn't exactly a huge improvement.

The 360 is implementing the optional installs, for the people who want it. Which is how it should be on the PS3. PS3 developers seem to be using it as a crutch, and if more and more games start forcing them, it's going to cause a problem for the people who bought the 40GB because they didn't have the money for the 80GB, and therefor probably don't have money for extra hard drives.