PLaystation 3 v/s Xbox 360
Playstation 3 or Xbox 360?? hmm…this is tough.
Performance
Here’s a tough one. On paper, the Playstation 3’s Cell engine is more capable than XBOX 360’s triple-core Xenon CPU. However, as our developer alluded to last year, the XBOX 360 is much easier to develop for. In other words, a lot of the Cell’s power is going to waste. Although that is expected to change eventually, as always seems to happen with Sony’s consoles (compare early PS2 games to current games, and the same goes for PS1), one year later we’re still waiting for someone to fully exploit the system. Another indication that the PS3 is harder to develop for is the fact that almost all multiplatform games arrive weeks – if not months – after their 360 versions.
As we said last year, we fully expect the PS3 to win this category – eventually. To what extent, we’re not sure (very likely it’s only going to be the blockbuster first-party titles that take full advantage of Cell), and when this will occur, we’re not sure either. Obviously, one full year wasn’t enough.
Graphics
This is a sticky subject for a lot of fanboys. A very common argument in most flame wars is that the Playstation 3 simply “has better graphics”. I’m not sure where that argument came from; Sony obviously did a good job of marketing the system. However, the argument is entirely false. The Xenos GPU on the XBOX 360 is superior the RSX on the PS3. This is one thing that didn’t change in the past year.
Xenos simply has more power – higher fillrate, higher pixel processing power, higher vertex processing power, and better memory architecture. If you look at multiplatform games and contrast the graphics on the two consoles, XBOX 360 almost always leads. Whether they use a higher resolution or higher quality antialiasing, games often look better and/or play smoother on the 360. We looked at a handful of multiplatform games a while back, and this was always the case.
Again, we have to consider that Cell has the potential to help with graphics on the Playstation 3. As developers become more familiar with the platform, they are going to come up with new tricks to help games run smoother, and allow them to look better. However, one year after its introduction we aren’t seeing huge leaps (or even baby steps) towards this, except on a couple exclusive titles.
Game Selection
This category has two things to consider; exclusive titles for each console, and which console is better to play multiplatform games on. I think we covered the latter issue with the graphics category; given the choice between playing a multiplatform game on either console, the XBOX 360 is almost always better. At the very least, games will look the same on both consoles. At the worst, games on the PS3 will run at half the framerate of the 360, and at lower resolutions with less filtering and antialiasing. Also, multiplatform games are often delayed by weeks or even months on the PS3 (a testament to the difficulty of working with the system). Case in point, The Orange Box. The 2nd best selling XBOX 360 game after Halo 3 in October, and it is nowhere to be seen on the Playstation 3. And by early accounts, it is quite choppy on the Playstation 3.
So what about exclusive titles? After all, graphics and performance notwithstanding, this has to be the most important decision to make for most gamers choosing between the two consoles. It has been a full year, and.. well… things aren’t looking too good for the Playstation 3. As ScrewAttack noted in their Top 10 Exclusives for PS3, there aren’t even enough decent games to make a Top 10 list with!
Author: Carl Nelson
Posted by srikanttowakel 
