I personally, prefer the Xbox to the PS3, but, I have only ever played a PS3 for very short amount of times on games that I allready have on Xbox around my cousin's house who lives almost on the other side of the country to me, so, I haven't really played much PS3 at all.
I wouldn't compare the Xbox or the PS3 to the Wii though, since the Wii really does entirely different things. I don't go on the Xbox to play a game that is based the same way as say, Mario games, nothing... [retro?].
I wouldn't play the Wii if I wanted to play a FirstPersonShooter though.
I also play the Wii with my family, more often or not. I can play the Wii with my parents and not feel like I'm playing with imbeciles and have fun, whereas if I were to play the Xbox with my parents, they wouldn't know what they're doing, I'd have to continuosly re-teach them for every game and it wouldn't be fun for anyone.
That's where the Wii is good for family games as it's simple to understand and it doesn't take a lot of skill to play, considering my parents are kind of old-fashioned as far as gaming goes.
I unfortuantely, have not been able to play many PC games in my time. Unfortuantely, my family has never really had a high-quality brilliant computer that can play large name games on full quality or even very decent quality.
When I bought the OrangeBox for PC a year or so ago, I was looking forward to it. I enjoyed HalfLife 1 on the PlayStation and seeing HalfLife2 on the Xbox. My friend had gone on about how cool Portal was and I'd seen on here many times, how cool TF2 is.
Since my laptop isn't designed for gaming, it's extremely slow on all of the games on the OrangeBox. It can only play any of them with the absolute minimalist settings. It plays Portal ok on low settings, HalfLife just about if I take it slow and it can't stand a minute on TF2, not a chance I'd be able to play it online. It's not even worth trying.
I have also played Spore on my computer, and it plays reasonably well. Low settings, but it can go pretty well. Usually from Cell stage to the end of the Civilization stage without strong lag. It increases ten-fold once you hit Space stage though.
I've played Sims and Sims 2 many times on my computer as well, they play well and the PC doesn't have much of a problem with them, lest I play for pro-longed times.
However, even though all of the games have been reasonably slow and I've been forced to play on the lowest qualities (Other than Sims (I even have low quality on Blockland)) I've enjoyed them many more times than I have enjoyed games on the Xbox or the Wii or the PS2 or any other console I've played.
Customizabilty is also brilliant on a PC. So much more you can do. Blockland is just one example. The hundreds of Add-Ons I can get and how easy it is to customize it. If it were on a Console, I would have to have pre-defined Add-Ons, a limited number and most likely have to pay for individual or bulk selections of Add-Ons.
Games like Fallout3, which I have both on Xbox and PC. I can get as many Add-Ons for Fallout as I can find. But only on the PC. I can't get any on the Xbox, only the DLC's which cost money. (Yes, they cost money on the PC too, but it's rather the fact that DLC's are the only modifications available for the Console versions.)
Online play wise, I guess, PC comes out top as you'd expect. I can play as much as I want for no cost other than the actual InternetServiceProviders. Unless of course it's a subscription style game, but that's different.
On Consoles, It's different. PS3 and Wii, sure, it's free. That's good, fantastic. Xbox though, well, you unfortuantely have to pay for the "Gold Membership" in order to actually play online with other characters, but it still gives you the ability to talk, send messages, download things and all other things that come with XboxLive other than OnlineGameplay if I have a "Silver Membership".
I can't compare the communities on PC and Consoles, since they clearly vary between each individual game and then between each individual session on those games.
Generally though, I like PC communities more since I can have full control over whether I want to play with individual people or see them at all, and whatnot.
Generally though, after this long winded post, I can't say one Console is better than another nor can I really say that the PC is better than the others. It all depends on your opinion. My PC is terrible, so therefore, my consoles work much much better and can provide better entertainment for me.
I can't choose between consoles though, since they're all better and specific things, and I'd use certain consoles for certain types of games.
I'd go to my Xbox for a good 'Shoot'em up', my Wii for an 'Old-School' style game and Family games, and I'd play a PS3 if what I wanted was a racing game or something. I'm not too sure on what the PS3 really has to offer, since I don't have one.
Trust me, much more fun than sitting at a TV.
Personally, I'd prefer a Console game on the Sofa with some mates, than a LAN party on seperate computers.
It just seems much more social and more fun to be playing with a bunch of mates in the same room being able to shout and laugh with each other.
Some of the best multiplayer experiences I've ever had, have consisted of going around my friends house with some other friends, playing Halo 3 against each other for hours, 3 people in a DM with 5 people wanting to play.
We'd have 3 people playing, 2 waiting, if you died, you hand your controller over to one of those waiting and we'd all take it in turn to play, no care for score or who we're playing as, just having some fun and shooting at each other showing off our "mad skills".
