xBox 360 or PlayStation 3

[Chubbyrain]

As much as I hate to say M$ did something right, the 360 is the better choice right now. It's hot this year for games and has a better online system than the PS3. It's an easier platform to develop for and had the important head start on the PS3. The PS3 is still overpriced because it has the blu-ray player stuffed in it.

PS3 will never be the success story the PS2 was. In a year or two it may finally get a good enough selection of  software and momentum (and a more reasonable price) to be an attractive buy but not right now.

I know several people who bought PS3's and they have since bought 360's. One even sold his PS3.

As for Blu-Ray. It's not won yet by a long chalk. In fact it just got dropped by one film studio. HD-DVD may kill it on price like VHS did to Beta. There are $100-$200 HD-DVD players starting to appear. Plus Mr. Gates & Co are in the HD-DVD corner. You can never ignore that marketing muscle.  If you ask me, the smart people are still sitting on the fence waiting to see which format is the clear winner before they buy.

[Chubbyrain]

I bought the extended warranty when I got my 360 almost 2 years ago. Simply because I heard all the horror stories about the red rings of death.  I've had no problems with it whatsoever. Works like a charm and it's not noisy.

I've had 3 Sony CD players and 2 DVD players over the years and they have had a 50% failure rate within the first 12 months.

I had a Sony TV that had tuner issues so bad and went back for repairs so many times that in the end the dealer offered me a Panasonic.

Even my Wii had to go back to Nintendo for repair when the GPU became faulty.

So basically, your mileage may vary when it comes to reliability.

I'm not a big fan of M$ (I'm a Mac user) but I will admit that I think the 360 is a great console and the best choice on the market today.