Xbox360 vs PS3

Dateline 1983
The smell of warm plastic, and high current power supply fills the air. Beige permeates the room as the TV with a rotary channel changer is turned to channel 0. After much fiddling, the pride of my life is connected. Will it work? What will I be able to do with this magic thing? And what games can I program for it?

With a push of a button the Dick Smith VZ200 - a Z80 based machine like the Sinclair ZX80 fires into life. It's not the ZX80, but something close. To cut a long story short, I can remember the pixelated space ship firing at incoming aliens like it was yesterday. Seminal.

So, fast forward a few years and I'm playing games on PC's. Doom was a revolution. First person shooters became the must play items, and were wild! Fast forward some more and I purchase a playstation. (pre PSOne). That console served me well for many years but has now started gathering dust.

it's been a gap - 7-10 years while our kids have come along, but I need a bit of highly graphical, adrenaline filled game play. What console to purchase?

My sentiment goes to the PS3. It's the grand child of my playstation, so I want to buy it. But I also want to learn about that newest of motion devices on the scene following Wii, and PS Move - the Kinect!

The Kinect is revolutionary and takes out the controller. But what really grabs me is that there is now an SDK following an open source hacking community using the Kinect. It's a robot maker's dream, and for me, a data visualisation maker's dream. I want to experiment with it for work. So, I'm in a pickle - Go with Xbox (and betray the past) or go with what's attracting me back there even if it's not in keeping..?

further, I have 3 kids - 2,5, and 7. What will work for them? they've played a kinect at the State library here in Victoria, and just loved it. The PS platform doesn't quite seem to have as many kiddy titles as, say, the Wii. But then the Xbox is only marginally better? should it be a Wii?

I have ended up doing a spreadsheet of a PS3 and Xbox with their motion controllers and a selection of games I want. I want 2 players, and networking. PS3 comes in at $AUD800 or so, and the XBox $AUD600 or so.

That stacks it. The PS3 is done. Bye bye superior graphics, blu ray, and hello slightly less impressive graphics (but still way better than all my previous experiences), and an amazing Kinect.

What's your take? which did you pick and why?