I have seen a couple of sites stating that the Xbox 360 is holding off the Playstation 3. All this speculation started arising when Uncharted 2: Among Thieves came out on the Playstation 3. Yes we have played Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and it got a spectacular 4.9 from 5 stars from us. I will agree that Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is perhaps the best looking game out and might be one of the best of all time. But what has the 360 got to do with it? As far as I know the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3 both have very different architectures and both use different coding languages for programming the game. The Xbox 360 has able to give us some really spectacular looking games like Gears of War 2 and Fable 2. In my opinion they are still one of the best looking games out there, and both are on the Xbox 360. Last year we had a very visually stunning game in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots which was one of the first Playstation games that utilized dual layer 50 GB blu ray discs. Now I have two questions. The first one is a obvious one: Is the Xbox 360 getting old? The next one is, are developers being a bit backward in their skills to utilize the power of the Xbox 360?
Uncharted 2 has raised ther bar very high which might take some time to break!
If you guys remember back in 2006 and 2007, the media were criticizing the Playstation 3 for being inferior to the Xbox 360 and not able to generate visuals like Gears of War 1, all of that has now bitten the dust. I see both of them as equal competitors till now as both have great games and mind you most of them are mind blogging. To name a few:
- Alan Wake
- Heavy Rain
- Splinter Cell : Conviction
Sony's main strength: Blu Ray Drive
These are some of the great games that are expected to be released in 2010. Now some one might say that “Hey man , Uncharted 2 looks way better than Alan Wake”. I will reply ” Yes it looks better” , but there is reason to why it looks better. The Playstation 3 has bluray and Cell processor which are hands down an advantage. So why did I mentioned those Xbox 360 games? The reason is that whatever restrictions the 360 has, a game like Alan Wake is made within those restrictions. Mind you the 360 has a powerful processor and a better GPU memory than the Playstation 3. The only issue comes around the topic of blu ray. Now how can 360 counter attack? The Xbox 360 reads dual layer 8 GB games. Normally the Playstation 3 games use single layer blu ray discs, which is about 25 GB. Now by basic math that should mean a total of 3 disc for a single game, which is not all bad. Some are just against the idea of multiple disks , but they don’t have enough reasons as to why they don’t like multiple discs for a single game. I mean come on guys if some 360 exclusive gives me the kind of gameplay and graphics that Uncharted 2 gave, I will be picking up that game on Day One. Now some one might counter attack my point and say” Hey dude, don’t you know multiple discs will make the game cost more?”. Well I find the question quite baseless. Tell me guys what’s the cost of 3 DVD and a single layer Blu ray discs. Its almost about the same.
This beast has still some way to go before we say Adios!
So if the 360 can do it than why are the developers not doing it? The reason is simple: Time. Clients are normally on their backs to get things ready for launch and having multiple discs means more time for compression, longer production process and in the end a delay. So in the end the non technical gamers think that the 360 is getting OLD and it has no legs left, so that’s why 360 is holding the PS3 back. Tell me one thing readers. Many of you would have been present in the last generation of gaming. During those times did u ever read ” Xbox is holding back the PS2″. I don’t think so. In fact the Xbox was a more powerful machine than the Playstation 2. And we saw great visuals on the Playstation 2 more than so on the original Xbox. So the argument of Xbox 360 holding back the Playstation 3 doesn’t hold any substance. I will tell you guys again, if the developers start using multiple discs or Microsoft announces a blu ray drive, Uncharted 2 visuals can be bettered. And than Sony will raise the bar higher again with another new game which will have even more jaw dropping visuals. So folks its not the hardware (always) that puts restrictions on how a game plays and looks, some other issues like developer inability and production process hold a game from reaching perfection.
Please let me hear you out in the comments below.
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