The recent Sony price-drop on the PS3 provoked me to finally shell out the cash for my own system, something I'm sure makes the suits at corporate all warm and tingly inside. It arrived a few days ago and now sits in peaceful cohabitation with my Xbox 360, even though the two eye one another suspiciously. After giving the PS3 an exhaustive workout, I thought I'd share some general observations about each system, shedding some positive and negative light on their respective strengths and weaknesses.

Mass Index

Pulling the PS3 from its box revealed the first impression: it weighs a ton compared to the 360. The PS3 is easily the heaviest console ever created and doesn't really allow for one-handed mobility like the Xbox. This extra weight serves the purpose of making you think it's a well-built and solid machine, though it probably has more to do with the PS3 not having an external power-brick, as it's secreted away inside, which is nice. The Xbox 360 power-brick is a mockery of subtle design.

It's Ugly

The look of the PS3 hasn't grown on me at all. I find it to be a genuinely ugly machine. Something about its aesthetics makes it seem as if it was designed in the 70s. Perhaps it's that front disc-loader that reminds me of an 8-track player. Its rounded top prohibits any other components from being stacked on top of it, including game cases that just kind of wobble back and forth. At least its black and not cream-colored.

Lights & Ports

The placement of indicator lights on the PS3 is a little chaotic. Power and standby lights are clearly visible, but hard-drive access and network indicators are buried underneath the central ridge, making them impossible to see from an elevated angle. Four USB connectors are also under the ridge, making it problematic to plug anything in without essentially looking under the hood or feeling your way around. Granted, the Xbox 360 buries its ports behind a flap, which isn't much better.

Silence is Golden

The PS3 is nearly silent, which is a godsend. You don't even know it's on unless you look at the power light, whereas the 360 constantly makes itself known by bellowing out a constant stream of fan noise and disc-accessing that dwarfs my PC.

The Cringe Factor

I'm currently on my second Xbox 360, having lost the first one to the Three Rings of Death. As such, every time I power on my 360 I cringe inside, dreading every reboot for the potential disaster that lurks around the corner. Nice to know Microsoft has my back with a 3-year warranty, but really, a recall of faulty hardware would have been the best resolution. When I power on my PS3, I do so with no reservations, no apprehension. I assume it's just going to work and won't be giving me any grief.

Interface

Some people may like the XMB interface of the PS3 but I personally can't stand it. I find it needlessly cumbersome, requiring far too many button presses and left-right flicks of the controller in order to navigate. Worse yet is the text entry, which is simply mind-numbingly ridiculous. I like the ability of the 360 to support themes so I can keep the look fresh, whereas the PS3 has you locked in with no recourse. You get the odd smoke effect in the background which isn't very appealing and there's no way to change the color or add a background photo. I suspect Sony will open up this feature down the road, but it's still an odd omission.

Controllers

There's just no contest here: the 360 controller is superior in every respect. It feels better in my hands, has a solid feel, better button-placement and the left-right triggers have a great response for racing games. The Sixaxis simply feels cheap and the triggers have no response whatsoever, making them next to useless when crusing around in Gran Turismo HD. The much touted “tilt” feature has yet to establish its importance in terms of gameplay and ultimately feels tacked-on as a way of stealing Wii's thunder, which it has obviously failed to do. Going from the constant force-feedback of the 360 to the void of the Sixaxis makes games feel less immersive, though now that Sony has settled with Immersion, I suspect I'll be upgrading the controllers in the near future.

The Games

The PS3 lineup remains a ghost town. With very few exclusives, most of my options consist of games I played on the 360 six-months ago. Ninja Gaiden Sigma is excellent, even though it's a port of an original Xbox game, but the fantastic new graphics make it the ultimate version by far. Resistance: Fall of Man never succeeded in grabbing my attention and Motostorm, while visually appealing, is lacking long-term gameplay. That leaves me with Super Stardust HD, a game I couldn't be happier with. It shows off some of the power of the PS3 and delivers a metric-ton of gameplay, easily positioning itself as the best thing available on the system.

Streaming

Prior to acquiring a PS3, I used to use the 360 and TVersity for streaming media from my PC. This was never an optimal solution, fraught with errors, hassles and inconsistencies. I decided to give the PS3 a shot and was pleasantly surprised to find that it's superior to the 360 in dealing with TVersity. I have yet to suffer a playback error and startup time is much faster. The 360 would periodically pause during streaming for no particular reason, but the PS3 just hums along with no concerns.

Complexities

The Xbox 360 is clearly designed for more casual gamers, as all of its system options make sense and don't require much manual reading. The PS3, on the other hand, is far more complex than it need be and I suspect Average Joe will be doing a lot of head-scratching. The system settings on the PS3 are packed with technical jargon and just the Blue-Ray settings alone are overly confusing. Worst of all is the inability for the PS3 to properly detect video connectors and adjust itself accordingly. Going from component cables to HDMI isn't much of a hassle, but god forbid you go from HDMI to component. Currently, the only way to get the PS3 to output properly after a cord-swap is to reset the machine. Why this hasn't been addressed yet via a firmware patch is beyond me.

After All is Said and Done

After spending some quality time with the PS3, I can't help but feel that Sony was in a hurry to get it on store shelves. The interface just feels like an unfocused mess that needs some serious patching and options need to be streamlined for the less technically inclined gamers. There's nothing on the PS3 that can't be fixed, except for its physical appearance that will never grow on me. In the end, it all comes down to the games, and it's this aspect that is hurting the PS3 more than anything. But this will change in the near future and when it does, the war between consoles will finally be in full swing.