Noah Balmer

My roommate has a ps3 and an xbox360. I recently purchased a game called skate. It is available for both systems. The ps3 graphics might look about 5% better. Going from my computers 19" screen to sitting 4 feet from a 42" 1080p screen I am blown away by either. Hell, even the wii looks pretty good to me and thats just 2 gamecubes duct taped together. Through having to decide this I realized that the industrial design of the game controller was the most important difference in the two systems.
For a racing game, i would rather use the xbox 360 controller because the accelerate button is usually r2 which when depressed is easy to hold down because it is more of a trigger shape. On the ps3 controller when the r2 button is depressed you are pushing on a rounded surface, causing your finger to slide off.
for a fighting game i would rather have a ps3 controller because of the analog depressing of the right thumb buttons. The xbox360's right thumb buttons are either on or off.
The casual gamer would not really see the difference in these two controllers. Looking deeper i realized that the playstation controller was designed for Asian hands which are generally smaller. The first xbox controller that came out was made for American hands and was much larger. Asians couldn't play it! conversely, the ps3 controller hurts my hands after a while and the xbox 360 doesn't.
However, having said all this my favorite way to play a game is with a wasd and mouse. Its more comfortable and accurate than either console. PC gaming for the win!