A look at the xBox 360 and the PS3

So, the new xBox 360 has been out for some time. There were tales of it crashing, locking up and more. Microsoft desperately needed this thing to work first time, and luckily some of the problems can be cured by a simple piece of string!

Some people are already saying that Microsoft have "won" by getting the console out in time for a Christmas release, but seeing as even all the pre-orders aren't fulfilled due to stock problems, and those that were sold seem to have appeared on eBay, is it all as rosy as it seems? Things are different now, as Sony finally got around to releasing the PS3. Is the xBox still worth getting, or did those who held out make the right choice?   Let's take a look...

The first main difference is in the storage method the consoles will use. Microsoft has played it safe and gone for using the common DVD format holding around 9Gb. Sony, on the other hand, have come up with "Blu-Ray" disks that will hold up to 54Gb. On the face of it, the Sony offering of course sounds better, but the newer technology disks will undoubtedly cost more to manufacture (at least at first) and there isn't much history to establish any kind of reliability benchmark. A lot of people also feel that 9Gb is going to be fine for now but there are already rumours of games for xBox that are going to come on four (count 'em!) DVD's...

Next up is connectivity. The PS3 has 6 USB ports, Memory Stick, SD card, CF card slots and possibly a port to connect a laptop sized 2.5" Hard Disk drive. In addition it has WLan capability.The xBox 360 is slightly less well catered for with a couple of memory card slots and 3 USB ports, but it does have the big advantage of being able to connect over a network to Windows machines to stream media. Both devices should come with RJ45 Lan connections.

What about speed? Both machines utilise processors running at 3.2GHz, but comparing the graphics engines will be a little like comparing apples and oranges - expect both to surpass their predecessors greatly but as for which is "best" may well remain rather subjective, and come down to how well coded the games are.

So which is best? At the end of the day the backwards compatibility may well mean that owners of PS2s with their expensive collection of games will upgrade to the PS3, and owners of the original xBox will plump for the 360. The churn factor of people swapping consoles (or new owners) may not represent a huge proportion of the sales compared to upgraders. Time will tell which is the winner.