Xbox 360 or PS3?

I was asked recently what is the best games system to buy?

Well putting aside PC and Wii, both either high end or novelty (in my humble opinion) the jury always is hung when it comes to Xbox 360 or Sony Playstation 3.

I'll nail my colours to the mast, I'm a lover of Xbox360, but here are the pros and cons I see of each system and who they are best for either young or old. By all means please chip in with your favourites and why you think one is better than the other.

One question I'd ask now on buying one is 'What have your friends got?'. So many games nowadays have a 'Live' or 'online' element lots of people want to play their games with their friends, share disks with freinds etc, so it's worth checking with your mates. But, also you need to think of the games you like playing too and the age range of these titles.

Let's deal with PS3 first. It's more expensive staright out of the box, but you do get a bluray dvd player in it, so if you have a high-def TV and like spending double on bluray dvds then this might be an added bonus. The other bonus is that you can play some of your old PS2 games on it and it has its online gaming offered free. The graphics can be better, but it depends on the game and your TV more to tell the difference over a 360.

Now that seems great.... mind made up already.... BUT... and this is where I'll kick off the dscussion... gaming is all about gaming, but the future is also all about entertainment. I'm not an owner of a PS3, the exorbitant price has always been a turn off, so too has the small array of great games, with many Playstation stalwart games makers moving over to the Xbox 360 to release 360 only titles, and you coukldn't get HALO on PS3.

I was an Xbox owner, I've been a many console owner too, but never PS ones. Xbox 360 brings with it the largest array of games, the best games, the largest online gaming community, free demos, free arcade games, free community made games, a sense of community, Sky TV, Zune - streaming movies, most old Xbox titles play on it still, Faebook, Twitter and what I'm most looking forward to the next gen upgrade Project Natal

My gripes with Microsoft is more over peripherals that you don't have to have, but can be expensive to locate, such as the wireless dongle for playing Live, but you can always just use a wire anyway, and you do have to pay £40 a year for 'Live' online gaming, but that's easily the best £40 you part with each year. Online games, either partenring or in adveristy with friends and even complete strangers just makes games so enjoyable with each one being different every time.

The NATAL peripheral is amazing, and is already on my 2010 Christmas present list, which is when it is to be launched.

Xbox has enough titles for both kids and adults alike, parental controls and the ability to hook your family PC or lappy to the console by wire or wireless to stream over movie files, play dvds and view pics or play your downloaded music, and yes even iTunes.

Parents wondering if online gaming is safe I'd answer in a couple of ways. First game content should be only played by those of the correct ages and above, yes some of the fighting and adventure titles are hardcore on language and visuals/gore, but use common sense. 11 year olds have enough to enjoy with racing games, Lego adventures, Viva Pinata, Sonic Smash Tennis, even FIFA or Tiger Woods Golf etc no worries, but Modern Warfare 2, Gears of War, Grand Theft Auto etc no way. Yes online you do find kids playing these games, they sound like mickey mouse on the headsets and mostly chatter insesently, a quick flick of the volume kills that, or better still you can choose to exclude players quite easily so you will never play with them online and block any messaging. I use that more for those online idiots that go round shooting their own team mates, racking up points and being a pain. If you play late into the evening, there are naturally less kids unless you end up playing on US servers. Most of the time though the online chit-chat is between friends playing together and you can even set up a closed party game chat so you don't talk with anyoen else, but your mates whilst you play teh same game or different ones at the same time.

So, which is best? If you don't want online play and a great range of titles then the cheaper Xbox is best still, my kids love it, although they use the DVD feature just as much as the Arcade games which cost only a few quid after upgrading from the free demos. All my mates have Xbox, some have PS3s, but as I said at the start sharing your games, swapping, playing together is what makes thinking about buying a console the first thought. For future entertainment value, well Microsoft is bigger than Sony and will be partnering with many more companies bringing new entertainment and socal media functions to the console so it stays my prefered choice, it guarantees longevity.

PS3? Nice graphics, if you have a high-end TV, still too expensive, not a lot of great games, I don't buy a high-end games machine to play last-gen games and not all that glistens is gold in my opinion.

I guess I'll get a lot of PS3 lovers on here, and I hope so too. Always open to a counter discussion on this and it does help others here to make up their minds, so if you are an owner of a PS3 please add your reply below.

One last note my friend Carl set up this site which always has the cheapest prices for any games whether Xbox. PC, PS3, PSP, Wii, DS, DSi etc, a great site http://www.gamecrawler.co.uk   - do check it out.