As a potential Xbox 360 owner, I have a few questions for you fine folks!
First of all, I've been to my local Target and have felt the Xbox 360 controller. Actually, I played some Madden 06 (yeah, it was awhile ago), and I must say that the controller was great! However, from what I've read, there seems to be a general consensus that the D-pad stinks. What is so bad about it? For someone who plays mostly sports games and platformers (and mild action games), the analog stick is always used. I know there is a new controller coming out in the next day or two, but is the original really that bad with regard to the D-pad? Will it matter?
IMO the 360 has the best controller, and I've used them all (all as in the NES, SNES, Sega Dreamcast, Sega Genesis, N64, PS/2/3, and so on and so on). The D-Pad isn't that big a deal, yea I would take a standard 4 point D-Pad over the 8 point D-Pad on the 360 (because I have no use for the other 4), but it's not enough to make me want to buy the new controller with the switchable D-Pad.
Most every game uses the pad as a secondary thing, and most only use Up, Down, Left, Right points anyway. I wouldn't worry about the 360's D-Pad.
Next up, what are good exclusive 360 games? I'm not a big shooter guy, so Halo and such aren't a big draw for me, though I'll probably end up buying one to try 'em out. However, in basically any other genre (usually I enjoy the game if it's well put together), what are some good 360-exclusive games to consider? On a similar note, what are good games in general? I'm definitely getting NHL 11, NBA 2K11, and The Bigs 2. Outside of that, I'm a little lost, and frankly paying $400 for the system and necessary accessories seems like a waste for only a few games that I really want to play. What is really worth playing/what will blow me away?
Lastly, I'll admit that I'm leaning towards getting a PS3. What are the 360's advantages over it, especially with regard to gaming itself? (Please be objective and unbiased!) The PS3 has well-reviewed titles like LittleBigPlanet and the Ratchet and Clank series. What on the 360 rivals those titles that the PS3 can't offer me (try to avoid the shooter/war games here)?
What sort of games do you want? RPGs, Platformers, Racing? I'm not going to lie, the 360 is a very shooter heavy console. And not all of them are big time shooters like Call of Duty or Halo. You have others like Left 4 Dead/2, Dead Rising 2, Borderlands (multiplat), Red Dead Redemption (multiplat), and so on. Them are the more casual type shooters you play with friends. If you're into racing you got games like Forza 3 (very very good racer, it has real world cars and you can tune them the way you want, paint them the color you want, or do like me and buy image sets to make
stuff like this), Burnout Paradise (it's almost 3 years old, but if you're looking for lots of speed and love to crash things this game is still fun). If you're into RPGs try Fallout: New Vegas (shooter/RPG), Tales of Vesperia, Fable III, Final Fantasy XIII (even if I have this one for the PS3). If you're into fighters, Tekken 6, BlazBlue, Street Fighter 4. And the list goes on.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_games_exclusives_(seventh_generation)
If you want a list of exclusive games you can look at both the 360 and PS3 above. I can say games like Alan Wake, or Left 4 Dead, or Forza are good. But I'm not going to get into a war of "The 360 has 10 good exclusive games. | Just 10 games? The PS3 has 13 good exclusive games!", you need to look at them yourself and see what you want to play. You're the one spending the money so you need to take a little time to see what you'd like. People all day long can say "Well this game is good, and that game is good" but even being a non-shooter you might not like them.
As far as advantages go... the 360 has a 8 person cross game party chat, where I believe the PS3 doesn't offer any type of cross game voice chat (don't quote me on that one, you're going to have to ask that in the PS3 thread). Many people have said that the gaming community on the 360 is better (as in better game players), now I haven't experienced this for myself so not sure. If you're into sports it has ESPN, and with that I believe you're able to stream live games.
I saw you say "All of my friends have 360's anyway." in the PS3 thread. If your friends have 360s wouldn't you like to have the same system to be able to play with them? Don't look at that as a way to push you into getting a 360, it's just a question.
I know I wasn't much help, but I try my best not to lead people on, or say "Well ... system is better, go with that one", because I'm not the one buying it. Both the 360 and PS3 are good systems, you can't go wrong with which ever one you choose.
