You can’t really go wrong with either one. It pretty much comes down to what games you want to play, and what your friends already have (assuming you wish to play online with them). Many triple-A titles come out on both systems (Assassin’s Creed, Call of Duty, Resident Evil, Prototype, GRiD, Grand Theft Auto, etc.) and are basically identical on both platforms.
I buy most of my games used, and my local Gamestops, EB Games, Microplay, etc. all have much more 360 titles on offer (about 2-3 times more) than PS3 titles. They also tend to be cheaper. For some reason, I’ve seldom seen a used PS3 games under $30, but there are a lot of 360 used games at $20.
Having a 360 myself, I’ll tell you what I don’t like about it:
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Rinky-dink hardware. Haven’t had any issue with the 360; no heat or RROD or anything, but if I compare the DVD loading mechanism to my Wii, why can’t the Xbox have a nice slot-loading mechanism like the Wii and PS3? That ugly plastic tray coming out of it is so 2001. Also, the DVD is noisy; it spins at 12x and is very loud if you’re playing at night with the sound down. I work around that problem by installing all my games to the hard drive.
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Vendor lock-in. Speaking of hard drive, you can only used those sold by Microsoft (ok, that’s not entirely true, but sticking a 3rd party drive in there is enough of a hassle that it’s barely worth it). MS also overcharges for their peripherals vs. the current market price. The PS3 lets you stick your own HDD in it and you can by it off-the-shelf from Egghead or wherever.
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Nickel and diming everything. MS tries to extract a profit from everything they have online. There is the occasional “freebie”, like a song for GH or Rockband or maybe a car or map for a racing game, but the rule is that any DLC you get for a game will cost you something. Hell, they even charge for background images; the very same images you can find online, download to a USB stick, and put on your 360 for free. Assholes. I don’t much mind the $50 a year for Xbox Live Gold (you get Silver for free with the Xbox), the service works well and is well integrated in every game; but many of their other on-line offers stink.
That said, if I had to buy either system NOW, I’d still go with the 360. That answer might be different in 6 months, but Sony has been pushing back (again) games that were expected this year to 2010; so for now, there are more exclusives I want on the 360 side.
In fact, my only console “regret” right now is that I caved in to the wife and kids and got a Wii. For about $100 more, I’d have a nice PS3 instead. Snif.