For the past 2+ years I've done nothing but recommend the Xbox 360 to my friends that wanted to get into the new generation of game consoles. It's fairly easy to see why. The 360 had a more robust online component in Xbox Live, even if you ding it for its price tag. It had a solid list of exclusives, and the titles that were making their way to the PS3 were either delayed, buggy, or feature-stripped shadows of their former selves - sometimes all of the above. Why wait longer for what would likely result as an inferior product when you get instant gratification and play the better version on the 360? Beyond the cross-platform issues, the PS3 was lacking in truly compelling exclusives, which wasn't totally unexpected for the first year of the console's life. I argued against buying an Xbox 360 during its first year for the same reason. That's not to say that the PS3's exclusives were bad, just not capable of justifying $500 or more for a console with an inferior library. The Playstation Network was in its infancy. Blu-Ray was in a battle with HD-DVD over high-definition supremacy with the outcome still unclear.

Lastly, Sony hadn't found an identity with the Playstation 3. Their PR disasters that permeated before the PS3's release continued for several months afterwards, with Sony backtracking on statements about new SKUs and adding rumble, only to have their "surprise" announcements leaked before their proper unveilings by retailer ads or vendors demoing the product before they were supposed to (Dual Shock 3). The ever-evolving bundles, from the 20GB and 60GB, to now the 40GB and 80GB, all with varying levels of backwards compatibility made it impossible to recommend one to buy because you had no idea if your PS3 would be trumped by a new model just a month later. What is this, PC gaming? Things had to change at Sony, from top to bottom. Executives needed to be replaced, PR and marketing needed new strategies, and Sony needed to provide consumers a compelling reason to spend more on a game console than an Xbox 360, or take the easy route and drop the price. Thankfully, all of the above have happened and things are looking much better for the Playstation 3 in 2008. But is it worth buying yet? Should that $600 tax rebate coming in May be allocated for a PS3? Let's take a look.

The Cross-Platform Conundrum

The year head-start that the Xbox 360 got over the PS3 benefitted Microsoft to a wonderful degree, not necessarily from a market standpoint, but from a development standpoint. The extra year that developers spent with 360 dev kits before touching the PS3 meant that their programmers were better suited to coding to the 360s strengths, rather than the PS3's. They're only now getting to the same level of familiarity with the Playstation 3 architecture as the Xbox 360's, and it shows. Multi-platform games are no longer crippled on the PS3, as was the case with many of its early titles. They're hitting the streets on the same day as their 360 counterparts, with the same features, and clear of any alarming graphical disparities. The only argument that remains between the two platforms is the increasing necessity for annoying installations on the PS3 (thanks CAPCOM), but it's still too early to call that a trend so I can't knock the Playstation 3 for it just yet. In fact, some would argue that recent titles like Devil May Cry 4 and Burnout: Paradise are superior on the Sony console, especially once the Dual Shock 3 gets released in the US which will finally bring rumble to the PS3 and steal that feather from Microsoft's cap. Suddenly the 360's cross-platform crown has disappeared.