 My personal preference is the Xbox 360 since I already own one, but I would like to purchase a PS3 in the near future. I also own a Wii, which is my least favorite of the next-gen consoles.
The pros of the PS3 include the fact that you can play online for free versus the 360's $50 a year Live subscription, which is not that bad. It is also a BluRay player, so if you are interested in watching hi-def movies, that would definitely be a plus. The graphics may be a bit darker and more jaggy, but overall they are very nice and very polished. You do have some mandatory installs for some games such as Metal Gear Solid 4 and Devil May Cry 4, which may create an annoyance because you will have to wait up to a half hour before you can even begin playing. All in all it is a powerful system with a lot of titles to offer with exclusives such as Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Resistance: Fall of Man, Killzone 2 (upcoming), Resistance 2 (upcoming), Little Big Planet, Heavenly Sword, and of course all of the Final Fantasy/Square games that will be released. Many of the PS3's heavy hitters are also released for the 360 as well. The system seems overall very fragile, and there have been issues with the previous SixAxis controller, but now that there is a DualShock 3, they should have been resolved.
The 360 on the other hand, is the cheaper system. The Pro, with a 20 GB hard drive (which you WILL need), just took a price drop from $349 to $299. So if you were looking to get one before, now is the best time. Online play does cost money, but $50 a year is a very good deal for what Live offers. You will be able to connect to the Live Marketplace to download games and other things with a Silver account, but to actually partake in multiplayer you will need a Gold account. 360s are notorious for the Red Ring of Death, of course, so that is something to watch out for, but Microsoft is good with covering that with their warranty so all you'll do is ship it off and get it repaired pretty quick. Many games for the 360 are exclusive or for the PC as well, such as the Halo series, Gears of War, Mass Effect, Viva Pinata, Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, Enchanted Arms, and Eternal Sonata. The wireless controller is spot-on and the batteries last a very long time. The system does have its share of freezing issues, but overall is an awesome gaming experience. I feel that out of all the next-gen consoles it is the gamer's machine. It is optimized for gaming, while the PS3 is more of an entertainment outlet and the Wii is a novelty system.
For both the 360 and PS3 there is a plethora of good games, so either way that you choose to go you can get games like Bioshock, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Soul Calibur IV, Call of Duty 4, Grand Theft Auto IV, Dead Space, and a ton of other awesome releases.
In the end it does come down to personal preferences but the short version is this:
For BluRay, movie, multimedia, and PS3 exclusives, the PS3 is the road to take. For an optimized gaming experience with the side option of watching DVDs, and a very polished (albeit priced) online program, go with a 360.
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