Own both, read for unbiased answer
This question is pretty much almost useless to ask in a Mac forum, primarily due to a lot of Mac owners hating Microsoft. And someone already stated that 360=I'm a PC.... which is funny because there are more games out for Windows than Mac, not to mention games perform better on Windows than Mac even if by a little bit. (Why do you think most Mac owners who want to game load up boot camp? Haha). Anyway, that's off-topic.
I own both systems. If you ever want to get an unbiased answer, you should ask someone who has both systems. Both the 360 and the PS3 are great systems, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. And before reading further, you should ask yourself what you specificaly need the system for. Also please don't worry about graphics. I have played many games on both systems on my 50" HDTV, HDMI and everything.. they are both pretty much equal.
First I'll start with the PS3. This is more like an entertainment center. True, it started off slow but it's finally starting to get more serious about gaming and its lowered price makes it so much better. The PS3 has its own exclusives that you cannot get on the 360, and you must ask yourself if you like those games or not and if they're worth buying one system for. Besides gaming, the system also comes with a Blue-Ray player, you can surf the net, etc. The PS3 also has FREE online gaming...... and it shows.
Now, the 360. This is a GAMING machine. No Blue-Ray player (although you can watch DVDs on it), no web surfing. The 360 was made with gaming as the main focus. Like the PS3, the 360 also has its own exclusives.... and again it's up to you if you think these games are worth buying one system for. Xbox Live DOES cost money (~$5/mo), but it is money worth spending.
The choice?
If you want a system where you can play games, watch Blue-Ray movies, maybe even surf the net if you desire... if that all sounds good to you then the PS3 is the way to go. Although, and I'm chuckling right now as I'm typing, if you want to play online.. you do not want to get the PS3. All the games that I have played online for the PS3, either NO ONE communicates with each other (which is half the fun of online gaming)... and A LOT of the people that DO talk are KIDS. You'll find a lot of teamkilling, and pretty much a lot of behavior that would go against any "online etiquette" guidelines out there. In short, the online community for the PS3 is pretty much the worst you can find.
If you want just a gaming system, without the need for the other stuff.. that's what the 360 was made for. Its crown jewel is XBOX Live. I thought that there were a lot of kids in XBL, but not as bad as it is on the PS3. The online performance is so much better on the 360, the online community as far better as well. That's where the $5/mo goes to, is to ensure that online quality is great. In online games, you will find so much more communication involved.. and if there's an annoying person, it's really easy to mute them and make sure you never play with them again.
Singleplayer, go with PS3. After a lot of experience with PSN (I gave it many chances, believe me) I only used PS3 to either play singleplayer games, or PS3 exclusives, and Blue-Ray movies. If you just enjoy singleplayer games, I really recommend the PS3. There's nothing wrong with the 360 offline, but then again if you're not going to play online you might as well get a PS3 and get the best of so many worlds (games, movies, etc)... besides online gaming, of course.
Online gaming, I strongly recommend the 360. Sure, the PS3 will definitely come out with more patches to improve onlien perfomance... but its community will never improve. The 360, from the vey beginning, did a great job in its online features. It is so much easier to build a strong party (that is, finding players, sending them a friend request, talking to them for a little bit, then playing some games together, which opens up to better in-game communication whether it's game-related or just messing around) all without the need of finding or starting a "clan," which is pretty much the best and only way to get good communication going in PSN. I know that PSN had a patch a while back to be able to access the dashboard in-game, and being able to read and send messages without having to exit games... but it does not do it as great as XBL does.
I hope you read all of that, haha. I'm sorry if I may have seemed biased, and leaned more towards the 360. Somewhere in there, I started ranting. It's because I do like to play online games. But I did my best to even it out. Really, both systems are equal. It all depends on what you want a console for. And of course I'm not telling you what to do, I'm just making recommendations based on my own experiences. Hope this heped out, they're both great systems. And whichever one you decide to get, just send me a message on Macrumors with your PSN ID or XBL GamerTag.
. Also addicted to Brawl. No other game has really held my attention for a long time, but I'm very picky when it comes to games.
