Expert: Russell - 1/19/2009

Question
We’d like to buy a game console. We have narrowed the choice to two: Xbox 360 (maybe 60 gigs?) and PlayStation 3.

Here is a summary of what we were told:

Xbox: more game choices, good customer service, often problems with overheating which causes “3 ring of death” (and machine dies, if not under warantee you have a big problem), and this problem occurs often and so there is a high rate of return of the product to the store

PS3: less games, plays blu-ray (not important to us- we want to play games), bad customer service

If the purpose of buying a consol is to play many games (not films) and we want a consol that will last a long time, what would you suggest? Are we missing any information that we should consider?

Answer
It all depends on the type of games you like to play. The Xbox 360 has a much larger selection then the PS3 games. The Xbox 360 now has real turn based RPG games, the PS3 does not. Not sure if your into those games. The PS3 is between $400-$500. If the Blueray option is more important, then PS3 would be your choice, but if you want better games then I recommend Xbox 360. I would wait until the PS3 has a better selection of games. Xbox live is also faster and more stable then the PS3 internet. I don't think the new Xbox 360 overheat like they used to. Just make sure its well ventilated, you can even by a cooling fan, so that doesn't happen. You can also play many original Xbox games on the 360, the new PS3's that are out, took that option away. If you have any more questions feel free to ask me.