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Dec 1 / Ozymandias

More Comparison Video

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Amazing how a little reality throws cold water on some folks. Wink Anyway, some folks thought the 1UP stuff wasn't of sufficient quality to draw any conclusions, so I thought I'd share a few more high-res side-by-side comparison videos gametrailers.com put together. As you'll see, PS3 and 360 are basically identical, and the Wii struggles to compete graphically (though the controller has a lot to offer – more on that later). Enjoy!

Motor Storm – Target Render vs. Gameplay Comparison

Call of Duty 3 – Xbox 360 vs. PS3 vs. Wii Gameplay Comparison

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance – Xbox 360 vs. PS3 vs. Wii Gameplay Comparison

I'm hoping they do more as this is about as close to factual, unbiased information as anyone will ever be able to agree on in this industry. Wink

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  • chigzilla

    The sad part is that the mainstream media and a LOT of people still believe that the footage shown by Sony at E3 2005 represented actual gameplay footage.  Maybe on the PS4 but never on the PS3.  Sony should face fines for grossly misleading the public and their investors.  

    I can’t wait until KillZone is released and someone puts together a comparison video like the one for Motorstorm put together here.  I’m sure KillZone will be one of the better-looking PS3 games but it won’t come close to looking like the E3 "Target Render".

    Does anyone know why the gameplay footage in these comparison videos almost universally appear darker on the 360 than they do on the PS3?  That is the only difference I can see.

  • Porktree

    I watched the CoD3 thing, the only difference I noticed was the horrible darkness on the 360 during some of the side by sides. I’ve noticed this on some games also, where I adjust the gamma for one thing and when I get in the dark, I have to readjust so I can see anything (FEAR is a good example).  And the Wii didn’t look that bad for not being HD.  

    Off topic, but, even though I click remember me, it never does :(  Is it because I’m a philistine using Firefox?

  • Anonymous

    Yeah, I’m not sure why they didn’t calibrate the monitor for the 360… but it’s still an interesting side-by-side.

    As to the "remember me," you got me. Have you tried IE or Safari? BOth remember my account – haven’t tried Firefox.

  • Trellium

    I use Firefox and it remembers me. Only thing I can think of is to check that cookies are on for this site.

  • Porktree

    Hehehe – Safari ;) , I’m using XP, I might fire it up in IETab and check.  

    The side-by-side made me feel good about 1-sitting in line all night and getting a 360 at launch, and 2-not sitting in line all night and getting a ps3.  I remember way back in 05 when there were dire predictions of the ps3 being 8-10 times more powerful than the ps3, heady days indeed.

  • http://www.wii60.com/forum Drew

    I’ve posted this in several places already, but the reason that the Xbox 360 gameplay appears darker is because of the GPU it uses. ATI has always been known for a more vibrant and less-washed out render than nVidia, in addition to having a better lighting solution. That’s why on the PS3 CoD3 you can note the lack of self-shadowing on the weapons, and the overall washed-out feel, whereas on the Xbox 360, you can actually tell if it’s night, and the self-shadowing looks amazing.

  • http://kalroy.blogspot.com Kalroy

    I’m going to say that the PS3 looked marginally better, and that I had to look hard for it.  Not very impressive considering how much more time for polish the PS3 versions had.  With the extra six months to a year they should have looked one hell of a lot better than simply "marginally better."  Makes me think that the 360 version will probably look better when dealing with games that have the same development time.

    Kalroy

  • http://blogs.artinsoft.net/ocalvo Oscar Calvo

    Kalroy:

    I tried to look hard for an scene where PS3 looked better that 360, can you point at the time frame in the video?

    Also which video did you see?

    Thanks,

    Oscar

  • Epsilon

    The 360 looked better in all of the videos. Being darker than the PS3, it was easier to see the details and effects. Graphically, there didn’t seem to be any big differences (besides the brightness levels) but the PS3 framerate on the Marvel game was atrocious.

  • ThoroSOE

    I think the X360/PS3 comparison of the Marvel game at 1:30 pretty clearly shows that the X360 has the edge lighting wise…

    Apart from that…what the MS people said what seems like an eternity ago (not surprisingly) turns out to be true: "Basicly it’s a wash". For the most part it is hard to see any quality differences – and then often they are in favour of the X360.

    This clearly is far from enough to meet the hype Sony created – and they cannot even claim the "these are only launch games, don’t compare them to what the X360 does now" excuse; the PS3 was announced at the same day as the X360. And back then Sony claimed it would blow the X360 out of the water, no matter what it might have to offer then…somehow I missed the water splashing ;-)

  • Ivan

    The more I see these videos, the more disappointed I get with the lack of visuals the the PS3 is providing. I only say this because I spent almost two years listening to PS fan boys claiming victory over all humanity and this is what I get?! I love the MotorSport comparison because it’s such a slap in the face to anyone who has claimed this superiority!

    Unfortunately, this lack of upgrade won’t hit Sony until next generation, when (I believe) consoles will need to take a different direction (ala Wii) and not only upgrade visuals but gameplay alike.

    Anyways, X360 is the clear winner in terms of graphical abilities when you add in the online and price value that is currently offered.  The only thing Sony had riding on this generation was its name and "processing power", which they’ve shown none.

    The Wii IMO shouldn’t even be considered here as it was NO competition throughout the videos. Impressive gameplay with the new controllers and other features, but no comparison between visuals. I believe this system is more of a complimenting purchase than anything else (which I own) and if you need your daily dosage of ‘graphic whoring’ then hit up a X360!

  • imaginedbug

    Although I’ve favored the Xbox 360 for quite a long time, mostly due to the negativity Sony fanboys have been puking since the release of the 360, I do wonder if the color differences in the games aren’t also due to the developers’ way of working with the software and hardware for the different systems.

    After all, you can have a great system but if developers don’t do their jobs correctly you’ll get crap games on them, like Eragon, but that doesn’t make the 360 a bad system.

    The PS3 and Xbox 360 are, according to all industry insiders who’ve spoken up about it, equally powerful when it comes to games. So why can’t we just look at the games as they’re released per system and then judge those, opposed to judging the systems based on the games they get?

  • http://kalroy.blogspot.com Kalroy

    Oscar,

    I’m going to have to take it back. Sitting here looking at it on my laptop I thought the PS3 looked marginally better on CoD3.  There was a lens flare that I thought looked better.

    Downloaded to the home PC and streamed to the TV via the 360 was a whole different matter.  Watching it on the television made everyone in the room go Oooooh, and comment that the PS3 version wasn’t as good.  There was one comment about how dark the 360 version was in one scene compared to the PS3.  We watched it again and realized that it was a night scene that, as a night scene, looked awesome on the 360 and looked like a washed out daytime scene on the PS3.

    So I have to bite my words regarding that.  Though it does emphasize even more my thoughts about how six extra months (to a year) of development time for the PS3 software shown didn’t make as much difference as it should have.

    Kalroy

  • Joseph

    I’m glad that someone did a much better comparision.

    Even though these,COD and alliance, are ports there is actually enough information to tell somthing from these images.

    Drew- The GPU it self has little to do with how much contrast is in the images. It’s not an inherent limitation,at least I hope. There is a well known,in cg VFX circles and TV sales circles, preference towards greater contrast. Given two identical, or almost identical images the one with greater contrast is considered better.  The same goes for more color vibrance. The more the better.

    ThoroSOE- 1:30 seconds into the Marvel video shows the Wii :)

    The test it self has some issues. I don’t know how these were captured or compressed. I’ll assume that a HD frame grabber was used and the differences you could see were due to system limitations.

    The 360- The images look stunning but have  so contrast that on my display you loose to much of the screen to black. 1:43 seconds in to the marvel video  with a 3 way comparison it looks awful. At the same point 40 seconds in ot the COD video it works very well. When you freeze frame it looks like a undergraduate CS student wanted to show off bump mapping, in motion the extra contrast works well.

    The PS3- The images look realisitic but lack punch, especially when side by side with the 360. There also seems to be  a bit more detail on screen. It seems to handle opacity well. The best place to see the realisim is 41 seconds into the COD video clip.

    The town is supposed to be lit by the sun behind the player to their left near noon time. That means the faces of buildings you see shouldn’t have that much contrast. The brain decides what time of day a picture was taken at by the contrast range of an image. Bright daytime images have less contrast.  At 1:08 into the Alliance video the detail really stands out. The ligting effects seem proper with glare shining off the floor. The images hold detail from the bright area the way into the shadow. Nothing seemed to get lost. Also again at 56 seconds in the COD video the gunsight and gun were amazing. The metals looked distressed, the cross hatch in the sights had great detail. The point at the end of the muzzle also also blurred exactly like they do in real life. BIAS NOTE: I have spent more time behind the sights of a real rifle than a virtual one, and th egun I used was very much like the BAR.

    The debris clouds in the same scene 58 seconds in to call of duty also show a sense of depth. No only can I see the one closest to me, I can see how far away each rolling cloud seems to be.

    Wii- Hardest to judge because that interlace just wrecks the image. Also by far the most supprising.

    Contrast wise it splits the difference between the PS3 and Xbox360. It has a supprising amount of detail. At 1:14 in the Alliance video the detail hold up very well. You can note  you do not see much mesh floor but enough was put there to give it depth. You can also see where they cheat with the shadows. The shodows are a direct projection of the mesh onto the floor.Compared to the PS3 at 1:08 you can see what they should look like if they were made more naturally. You can look at :52 in the marvel video to see how the smoke it generates only has 2 or 3 layers of opacity. Also very noticable on 1:13 at the COD trailer.

    All 3-

    Looking at 1:24 in the COD trailer shows that graphical modifications were made to the game on each platform. It’s clealy a night shot on the 360 while it’s a dusk on the PS3 and the Wii. This shot shows off each of the systems strong points.

    The 360 shows it high contrast dynamicaly lit images. The backgrounds are very pixelated though. There is a lack of rendering precision in the dark areas. I imagine it’s a tradeoff to for the high dynamic range.

    The PS3 shows off how well it handles semi opaque objects. The beams of sun look gre

  • Joseph

    I appologise to all who bothered to read my last post for the grammar errors. I hope you could decipher it.

  • JackFetch

    The sad thing is that the hype worked. I talked to a soccer mom that waited 17 hours to get a PS3. I tried to tell her it wasn’t worth it, but she didn’t believe me. After I told her how almost all of the games for it have been out for months on the 360, she said it can do things the 360 can’t like the online. I just threw my hands up and walked off.

  • http://www.wii60.com/forum Drew

    For those of you who are still convinced that the PS3 version looks better, check this out:

    http://www.wii60.com/uploads/2192.jpg

    Now tell me that the difference isn’t obvious. For one, the models on the ’360 are much more detailed, and there are more objects just lying around – check out the background. The ’360 version has much higher texture quality and clarity. The textures that look sharp and vibrant on the ’360, mainly the helmet, face, and uniform, are dull and muddy on the PS3. Not only that, but the ’360 version appears to have a much broader color palette.

  • Xar77

    i think the Xbox360 has the edge right now, I think PS3 will have the edge in the future.  Everyone loves throwing the price thing around, but just keep in mind that the PS3 has the Blu-Ray Player (which now that it uses the proper codecs) compares with HD-DVD perfectly.  Take a 60GB PS3 vs an XBOX 360 Premium and the price is identical if you want the HD-DVD, (Which many people will).  The blu-ray used for games WILL improve the games later IF the developers actually utilize that feature (but that remains to be seen).

    Again, WITH the blu-ray and HD-DVD for both consoles, the price is IDENTICAL.  (Keep in mind that the PS3 still includes a larger hard drive AND built in Wi Fi, while the Xbox 360 includes HD cables and headset).

    So I wish people would quit focusing on the PRICE of the consoles.  

    I personally have both systems, I think the Xbox360 has the edge for the most part, I think Motorstorm looks great and Resistance looks amazing (as does Gears of War).  I DO think that the PS3 has the greater future potential as it has the franchises I like, MGS and Final Fantasy, plus the tech involved.  I think next year you MAY see differences between the consoles like you saw with Xbox / PS2 (except PS3 will be like Xbox), where a reviewer will say for a title that is in BOTH consoles, "if you have a chance, pick up the PS3 version, but if not, Xbox 360 version is pretty good".