Why Cross-Platform Games are Better on the 360

BeefJack writes: I didn't enter this console generation until October of 2008. Until then I made do as every poor college student does - I'd mooch off my friends by playing their games on their consoles. When the time came to make a purchase of my own the decision was not a difficult one; thus I became the proud owner of an Xbox 360. Despite the fact that Sony's product is now more enticing than ever, history would easily repeat itself if the decision were made today.

[mrwiggles]

I'm getting a PS3 for Christmas, can't wait tbh. I love to play online but unlike the writer most of my pals have a PS3.

I got lots of love for my (3rd)360 though.

[Noctis Aftermath]

You won't be disappointed, especially with the big names coming next year.

Also the reason why multiplatform titles generally look better on the 360 is not the fault of the ps3 but rather the fault of the developers who don't take the time to use the cell processors SPUs.

[iamtehpwn]

an educated article talking about technical differences.
Instead, it was "I liek da controller".

-___-

[Ju]

...written by a guy who doesn't even own a PS3 but boosts that he plays all MP games on the 360. Where else would he play them, given that he's got a 360 only ?

[kapedkrusader]

...because PS3 does everything.

[KillerPwned]

IT ALSO BAKES CAKE!!!!! ^_^

[baum]

Who cares? You don't know anything, you're barely old enough to drink (IF THAT).

[colonel179]

I don't get why people would get a 360 over a PS3. The PS3 has the most exclusive, which look great and there's something for anyone. I understand the differences between Xbox Live and PSN, but games in general have the same basic features that allow playing online with friends.

Last gen I chose an Xbox because I felt that the games I like were on it. Also, I didn't pay attention to the PS2, so I didn't know what was out for it. This gen, if you like multiplats, you could get them on the PS3 too, there's a lot of exclusives that you can play ONLY on the PS3. The differences are minimal, I actually haven't been able to notice them at all, and if there is an occasional game that looks waaay better on the 360, it is just one game, which there could be one game that look waay better on the PS3, so it's a trade off.

So, when it comes to chosing a console, I chose a PS3 this gen, because it has the most games, and I feel I would miss out on more games if I had a 360, than a PS3, since there are some 360 "exclsuive" titles that I could play in a PC if I wanted, where as I couldn't play a PS3 game at all.

It's all about tastes, I know, but for me, the PS3 makes better sense this gen. Maybe next-gen will be the other way around, but I don't see why people say 360 is better in value now...

[Real Gambler]

It's a totally useless opinion, which should go on Opinions for Gamers, not NEWS for gamers, but hey, at least, I had a good laugh!

First: The author didn’t enter this console generation until October of 2008 because he is poor college student.

Then he goes: "it is frustrating to pay for LIVE"

Sure enough, by waiting 3 years to buy a 360, he saved $150... Heck, now, he already paid $50 in 2008 and $50 in 2009 for Live. One more year holding before buying a 360, he could have got a PS3 for FREE since he would have saved $300. (And from then on, save another $50 a year).

Well, as he said, at least he can see what his friends are playing.

[tdrules]

meh most of the good online games on PS3 ARE NOT multiplat so who cares

[ApocalypseShadow]

360 came out first.easier to make games on.microsoft paid to have them first.

but as tdrules said,ps3 exclusives run over any third party game in production values.who cares.

when a company or dev cares enough to make an outstanding game for themselves and gamers,and use the system's advantages(360,ps3 or wii)they deserve my hard earned money.

if you are going to "phone it in",i'd rather "ignore the call."

[FishCake9T4]

Easier to develop for. Just like the PS2 and PS1. BTW Imtyping this comment on my PS3.

[Arnon]

It shows.

[KillerPwned]

Need we say more lmfao.

[JD_Shadow]

How does it "show" that he typed it on his PS3? I'm wondering how posting on the PS3 would be any different than on the PC. Please inform me.

Maybe some of you should think before you post!

@Soda Popinsky: For the THIRD time? Do you...remember how every third party exclusive was on the PS2? That and...how did games like Uncharted 2, MGS4, and the upcoming Agent get made if it's "too hard to develop for"?

Or are you really Gabe Newell in disguise?

[lordgodalming]

Dude, the PS2 was a serious pain to program for in the beginning. No one had ever seen architecture like it.

[DelbertGrady]

Easier to develop for? That explains why Sony had to babysit Bayonetta lol!

Kamiya: "I don't know how to put this but developing for the PS3 is as easy & fun as swimming through donkey crap."

Sony: "Please, Mister Kamiya san! We do an-y-ting for you. We even develop your game. Forgive us for making such lousy hardware architecture. For the third time."

[Arnon]

Probably due to the constant struggles that the PS3 browser goes through in general? It's not exactly up-to-date with current browser plug-ins, and usually doesn't fully load, which is why he most likely suffered from not being able to space some of his words correctly.

Or he could just have horrible punctuation. Who knows! I feel it's more logical to go with the first guess, though.

On to your other topic:

The Cell is an asymmetric CPU that's exclusive (gaming wise) to the PS3, and was already declared a waste of time by Sony pretty much since they're stating they wont use it for the PS4, and that it's completely dead in comparison to it's usability on PCs.

There's already CPUs that far outdo the Cell on a PC, so why would valve waste their time trying to work with asymmetric architecture (something a developer usually despises), that's already outdated?

They're not 360 biased, they're PC biased. If a console is like a PC, then they'll develop for it. If it's an obscure clusterf*ck, then why bother?

I guarantee you that if the PS4 has architecture similar to PCs, you'll see Valve games on it.

In conclusion:

Yes, it most certainly is a b*tch to develop PS3 games. Is it possible? Most certainly. Is it completely practical? Not so much. Especially when a developer can pump out good looking games on PC hardware in half the time, and contrary to what the people on this site say... yes, 360 games do look good, especially in-house games, which is expected. Maybe not on the level of Killzone 2, but that's because of Blu-ray and the Cell, which was pretty much proven with this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

The 360's GPU can handle much more than the RSX. Not only that, but it does that much more work simply because it has to uncompress textures from the crappy DVD-9, compared to the RSX working with a blu-ray disc that is 5x the size, and a cell processor that allows it to take the work load so the RSX can focus on other graphical features such as trying to produce good AA, or just simply trying to produce higher resolution textures.

[Arnon]

and this video, if it helps you guys feel better about the PS3's power over the 360, since I seem to be getting disagrees for absolutely no reason.

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[SilverSlug]

Read the same story by different sites like every other week. We get it, enjoy the hits.

[divideby0]

guess the author needs to play new games which are MP and than he will see there really is not a diff.....
sure this article was relevant,,,a year ago

[rawd]

Desperate "journalism" is desperate

[sashimi]

yawn every single site is just copy and pasting the same story over and over again.

[WildArmed]

It hits the spot every time though.
*fanboys* lol

[bigrudowsky]

Most multiplat games are the same now a days...
I would like to see ps3 multiplat games really excel but given the complexity of the console its doubtful that it'll happen.
If they had only made it similar to the ps2 with the same power as ps3 it would have been great

[Fishy Fingers]

Back in the day, many developers complained that the PS2 was difficult to develop for (early in its cycle), much like the PS3.

[lordgodalming]

Ha ha, seriously, Fishy. Back in the day everyone griped about how backward and difficult the PS2 was to program for, and that seemed to turn out okay in the end...

[ultimolu]

Failed article is fail. :<

People have this tendency to brag about multiplatform but when it comes to exclusives-hey that conversation goes out the window!

[Megaton]

Yeah, it's funny.

360 fan: Ghostbusters looks better on 360! 360 IS THE SUPERIOR CONSOLE!
PS3 fan: Why doesn't the 360 have games that look as good as Uncharted?
PS3 fan: ...hey, where'd you go?

It's like the "sales = quality" crowd vanishing when someone drops a Wii Sports/Wii Fit bomb.

[TukkerIntensity]

"The first thing that I do when firing up the Xbox is check to see what all of my friends are doing. If a couple of buddies are battling in Halo or L4D, then I’ll put one of those discs in even if the initial plan was to play some Dragon Age."

....

Yeah noobcakes - people do this on the PS3 as well (not with those old games of course - stuff like Uncharted 2 or MW2...but you get the idea). You get the feeling that you put games in the PS3 and are presented with a Linux command line interface the way some of these dips write articles about the PS3.

....

Beyond that I love how he talks about exclusives when the article is supposed to be a multiplatform games?!?! SMRT I am so smart.

[raztad]

It's funny when someone tries to justify his purchase using games everybody can play.

EDITED: I actually read the article. Guy is a xbox fanboy saying Live is awesome. NVM, I'm happy with PSN and its lag-less service. Move on.

[tatotiburon]

i bought my ps3 for uncharted 2, god of war and the lord of the rings collection on blu-ray...the rest of my gaming is for my xbox 360, multi games run better and XBL is so much better than PSN. I get the best for three consoles, the bets online plataform (Xbox Live) and the best BR player with great game exclusives.

[TukkerIntensity]

First of all the community aspects of the 360 work very well and are pretty realized. However; the PS3 community does benefit from MANY more games that support and utilize dedicated servers (i.e. Warhawk, SOCOM, Resistance 1 and 2, Killzone 2, MAG etc.) So in that regard - if big games and / or dedicated servers are your thing the PS3 kicks the 360's rump.

[baum]

I got my 60GB PS3 for backwards compatibility with all my PS1 & PS2 game collection, Blu-ray, exclusive games and most multiplatform games. I got a 360 only for the few "exclusives" that are never coming to PS3. I don't want to run the risk of getting my discs scratched, lossing my memory on (another) HDD failure, or having my gaming session's stopped, nor do I want to pay to play with a bunch of racist homophobic 14 year olds; it's not like I have enough time to take advantage of a paid online service as I have a job unlike most of those 14 year olds that do nothing but play games all day so when I game, I have long game sessions each month instead of the daily hour before school day. So basically, I don't play online with my 360, only with my PS3. It works great, whoever says otherwise just wants to convince himself that he's getting something for nothing.

[Alcon Caper]

It's just a one sided teen rant. Whoever approved this should be banned.

[Rowsdower]

if you can, they both have something to offer

most of my real life friends play online on the 360, so that is where I play most of my multiplats. so it has nothing to do with tech and all to do with community.

been trying to convince them to pick up a ps3 for uncharted 2, we'll see if anyone does after xmas.

my personal opinion is that this gen has been all about community and less about hardware specs.

and I think its a good thing, I havent played games this much with friends since I was a kid

[raztad]

I dont know about others, but my priority is a decent gaming PC. An Athlon 64 x2 with an ATI 4870. In that machine any multiplat would look so much better, with AA fully enabled and running at 1080pon my TV.

[Ju]

I've been on the fence getting a 360 a couple of times. But eventually I didn't buy it. Main reason is space (and all the cable clutter which goes with it). Another box laying around filling up my living room ? Not really needed when I can satisfy most of my gaming needs on one machine (even though I'll miss out on some real treads, though). Small trivial things more then anything else for me.

[baum]

Well first of all... I know more people with a Wii than anything else, but most of the time the ones that ONLY have a Wii don't know ANYTHING about video-games, they never play online, and they only bought Wii Sports, Wii Fit and the occasional Mario Kart.

I also know plenty of people with a 360 and/or a PS3, perhaps a bit more with a 360, but those that have a PS3 know a lot more about gadgets, are usually more tech savvy, and are more "hardcore". This population is mostly male (though I know a few chicks with a PS3 or a 360), but the 360 userbase is mostly ignorant, some of them just got fed up with RROD and LIVE so they decided to pirate most of their games. NONE of them bought it because of "teh LIVE" or "teh community". The PS3 user-base (that I know) has no choice but to buy all their games original, new or used.

Anyway, if anybody of these groups bought a console because "others have it", it's the Wii people that I know which are a bunch of people just trying to fit in and getting the new cool fad, and I'm sorry, but buying a console because "other's have it" is a very silly reason to buy a console.

I don't care if I play with my REAL FRIENDS or not online, because my REAL FRIENDS are there to do REAL STUFF, like, in REALITY. Hang out, go to parties, clubs, pubs, restaurants, weddings, social occasions, reunions... you know, actual community stuff and not a pretend community.

If there are many 360 owners that got a 360 to play with their friends (I honestly don't know any), then they must not have anything to do with their real friends in real life, which is sad. Also, if you want a huge gaming community, go to facebook. Now *That* is an *online community*.

If you want a community of hardcore gamers, sure, there's Xbox LIVE, but there's also PSN, and there's no difference other than the fee and the annoying kids, which is why I don't pay to play online.

[Rowsdower]

your a douche

I hate how when I come on here to just drop a note and give my thoughts some ass has to be all passive aggressive.

If you dont believe the gaming community on the console is an important aspect of this generation fine.

But dont insult me by implying that my relationships are somehow lacking because I play online with my friends.

In fact I'm surprised at how negative you took my comment. Your reaction drips with the worst of N4G.

You know what, F*ck it.

I've had it with commenting on N4G and the childish level of discourse. I'll leave you assh*les to it.

[Serjikal_Strike]

in the winter cuz it keeps me warm!

[ultimolu]

Oh snap. o.o

[cereal_killa]

So this is what journalism has become start off with a flame bait title on why 1 system is better than the other write some generic trash about own self experiences and POW!!! hits from the Muppet fanboys.

- Achievement system (actually works, unlike Trophies)

Funny don't know what games your playing but I haven't had 1 problem with my trophy's so there a FAIL

Xbox Live (see above, it also includes many more features)

As long as you PAY$$$$$ (forgot to mention that) silver members get jack sh1t and can not play games online.

Exclusive/Timed Exclusive DLC

Yup $50 million for useless DLC that no one buys. M$ has blind sided you to think that "We have exclusive DLC" is a huge thing when the money they waste could be used towards more games or more games developers instead of closing them.

Almost always better visuals, sharper, better colours etc.

As long as you wear these special fanboy goggles that allows you to count pixels and view games under electron microscopes.

Generally performs better, less loading times, less screen tearing

See answer from last line of BS.

no FORCED installs

Nothing big about this allot of games today are being developed by talented devs that can remove this all together. And I would rather take 5 mins to install a game then switch disks every other hour.

Wow Ali nothing but trash opinions that only your fellow Muppet's will agree with you The PS3 is a great system that has had it's problems in the beginning but so has the 360 even today the 360 is still have problems with reliability and last gen hardware (DVD9) that developers today are finally complaining about towards storage issues that has never been a problem with the PS3.

[Omega Zues]

beefjack.com, desperate much?

[KillerPwned]

Mr.Robotto is detecting fanboy alarm! Launching Nuke in T minus 10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3 ...2...1...goodbye!

[Antan]

Dreadfull ..dreadfull article.........This is the sort of article that doesn`t belong on here. Same for any "this is better than that" article.

"and I’m an Xbox fanboy"

Theres part of the reason.

[thief]

I guess the difference is that multiplats look marginally better on the 360, which hardly anyone would notice on most games, where in case of exclusives the PS3 is so superior, its difficult to believe the 360 even belongs to the same generation. Try comparing L4D2, Halo ODST to Killzone 2 or Uncharted 2, or Forza 2/3 (doesnt matter which one, practially the same) to GT5 or even GT5P.

And another thing which doesnt get picked up is that resolution / AA is just part of the whole picture - what really adds to the game is the post-processing, physics, animations, and it seems the Cell processor is a beast at all these things

[ZombieNinjaPanda]

I fail to see the value this had in making it onto the front page as an article.

"I am buying 360 games because I only have a 360."

Okay that's great. If that's the system you only have, then go ahead and buy all the games you like.

We personally don't care.

[Noob]

...Just give us hits.

[AliTheBrit19]

In general you're better off buying Multi-Plats for the 360 imho

- Achievement system (actually works, unlike Trophies)
- Xbox Live (see above, it also includes many more features)
- Exclusive/Timed Exclusive DLC
- Almost always better visuals, sharper, better colours etc.
- Generally performs better, less loading times, less screen tearing
- no FORCED installs

[mrv321]

Batman: AA anyone?

[Rocket Sauce]

Yeah, a lot of people think Assassin's Creed 2 is identical on both systems, but you can see dirt under Ezio's fingernails on the 360 version.

SUCK IT PS3!

[Armyntt]

Whatever. I have both and just have a preference for Multi's on my 360. My PS3 basically gets just the PS3 exclusives. Where as the 360 gets the multi's and the 360 exclusives. And the argument that the PC gets 360 games so the 360 doesnt have any exclusives is moot to me. I still call it 360 exclusive because more then likely you need windows to run it. But if im wrong on that i apologize im ignorant to PC gaming. But either way i dont care.

[Unicron]

But can they tell me why 360 exclusives are

1) Better on the PC
2) Also available on PS3?

[mrv321]

I know this... I know this...

Because they don't have many exclusives so they claim games like L4D are exclusive.

[redDevil87]

Seems very easy...

Play games on a console. Write about it. Then create an article that's going to attract fanboys and gets approved by fanboys on N4G (extra publicity). You then get more hits for your site. Job done.

[Evocation]

I just get which ever version has more content, often the PS3 for JRPG's as they're released later, or which one has a more stable frame rate.
Not into online so that doesn't effect my choice.

[MajestieBeast]

Was this article needed?

[Silly gameAr]

Articles like ths is why I come to N4G. A couple more articles about how great Live is over PSN and how people just love the 360 controller more than the dualshock, and my N4G news (ha ha) surfing is complete. Damn I love gaming this generation! Who's with me?!!!

[Armyntt]

How is L4D not exclusive to consoles? If its on the the PC good for PC gamers. But to me I will label a 360/PS3 game exclusive to that console if its on the PC still. Its like he PC is not in the argument. But thats my opinion and i will understand if you disagree.

[keysy420]

but for everything yousay its the same reason i play the ps3. i got all those game on ps3 and with premium service coming there is no reason to own a 360

[sashimi]

yeah L4D is a console exclusive(it's a port)...But it's not a true exclusive...Most people have a PC this day and age. The whole entire point of a exclusive is only being able to play that game on one "platform" therefore requiring you to buy said console. But most people have PC for school/work/media that you can pretty much bypass the 360 to play majority of their games. PS3 however, their exclusive you actually need to buy their console since that is the ONLY place to play their games, not on PC or any other platform. And Microsoft does not profit from gamers buying games for PC unless it is from their studio. Rant over and out