The Syndicate 360 vs. PS3 Face-off

The idea of the classic real-time strategy franchise rebooted as a first person shooter may well upset die-hard purists, but the fact is that Riddick/Darkness developer Starbreeze has handed in an entertaining action game featuring solid gunplay and challenging AI. However, single- and multiplayer modes are distinctly fractured from each other, and there's a distinct sense that some of the best ideas are rarely explored to the fullest extent of their potential.

For us, the highlights are the DART 6 augmented enhancements which allow you to dispatch your enemies in a small variety of interesting ways, along with the striking visual style of the environments and the accomplished lighting model. But elsewhere, the experience feels uneven: haphazard boss encounters and repeated waves of enemies introduced to artificially lengthen the experience only serve to annoy the player rather than engrossing them further into the action.

[slavish]

why do we keep doing face offs again two completely outdated machines? Whats the point even handles have almost caught up with them. They should do High-end pc vs console to see how far the gap is!

[00185]

There definitely is a gap between a high-end pc and a console. But these "outdated machines" are still pulling off some of the most visually appealing games this generation.

[Reborn]

Personally, I think all the 'This is why PC is better than console' articles do just that. I don't think anyone needs that gap reinforced.

But I will say those machines have put out some great games.

[Jobesy]

@slavish, the whole point is for buyers who have both 360 and PS3 to find out which system they would rather purchase it on. Not everyone has a pc that can run games. Even if we did do a pc comparison, the range of specs from one pc to another is so broad that it would be useless.

@waynekerr below, when the 360 can make a better looking game than KZ3 or Uncharted 3 you'll have a valid point, until then you're full of it.

[Captain Tuttle]

Didn't read the article, huh?

[WayneKerr]

360 just keeps on giving, 6 years on its still beating the ps3 on a regular basis. 360 poor design but the best hardware choices without a doubt.

[lugia 4000]

You do know its easier to develop for the 360 so devs mostly do worse on the ps3 right?

And the fact PS3 has more power than the xbox, so they could do alot better if it were to be an exclusive.

[palaeomerus]

No they' couldn't do "a lot better". They still haven't.

a 10% power difference is not going to get you a lot better of anything. The PS3 is old and weak now and it was always pretty equivalent to the 360 despite all the goggle wearing fanboys telling themselves different. 6 symmetric threads is pretty similar to 7 asymmetric threads for most purposes and 512 MB unnfied is not that different from 256MB fast video and 256 MB slow system memory. The blu-ray storage lets you put more together on one disc than DVD but the memory will still only allow 512MB of stuff on either system. So they perform about the same, because they ARE about the same. And both are old and tired now. So the bragging about tech needs to end.

[MysticStrummer]

"goggle wearing fanboys"... Yup those would be the people who can't see that 360 is outclassed visually when it comes to exclusives. Sorry J-Blaze but the actual game of KZ2 looks better in some ways than that 2005 trailer, and very close in others. I hope you were as enraged about those MS Kinect "demos" two E3s in a row. Talk about trickery. lol

[Gazondaily]

@MysticStrummer

Okay I don't agree with a lot of the things being said here but this statement is a complete joke:

"Sorry J-Blaze but the actual game of KZ2 looks better in some ways than that 2005 trailer, and very close in others."

First of all, the CGI trailer was a whole different ball game. Whilst Killzone looks very impressive, it is no where near that standard.

Secondly, that isn't the point though is it? Sony essentially lied through their teeth by representing that CGI trailer of Killzone 2 as in-game. Then when asked a simple question about whether or not that was in-game footage, they gave cryptic answers.

Remember, they've done this before and they did it again with Killzone 2 and the likes of Motorstorm.

THAT is how much integrity Sony has. I'm not siding in favour of the 360 over this- I'm just saying that I, as a gamer, was insulted by Sony fooling us after all those years of anticipation.

So MystricStrummer, you and the 12 people who agreed with your statement really need to your fanboy goggles off and see things for what they are.

Misrepresentation isn't something you should commend. And I will say the same thing about Halo 3 and the original reveal trailer which almost did the same thing.

[_Aarix_]

Ill admit that the ps3 has more power than the 360 but te gap is smaller than the gamecube to playstation. Only an idiot can deny uncharted 3 looks stunningly amazing. But ive compared gears of war 3 with uncharted 3 very carefully and in many aspects gears of war 3 takes the cake. And the same goes for uncharted. They both look amazing but the difference isnt like the 2nd. And also consider gears is only 7gb and has a LOT of content.

[NeoTribe]

U keep counting pixels while the ps3 owners indulge in the best looking console exclusives to date. Ps exclusives put all multiplat looks to shame. Ill sacrifice a few pixels on multiplats for awesome exclusives.

[MysticStrummer]

Beating PS3 by such a small margin with multiplats that it takes pixel counting side by side comparisons to tell the difference. Meanwhile exclusives tell the real story. Best hardware choices... LOL You so funny. :D

[THESONYPS3]

PS3 is more powerful.... On multiplatform sure xbox looks unseeable better but no xbox 360 game graphics come close to ps3 exclusives like uncharted 3, killzone 3, the last of us, god of war 3

[TheXgamerLive]

you mean like Alan Wake, Halo Reach, Forza 4 and of course Gears of war 3 not to mention the soon to be released console exclusive "The Witcher 2",probably the best looking RPG every released to date. Check it.

Ps3 is "NOT" more powerful little man, lol.

As I've already stated in past post.
They both have their inherent strengths and weaknesses. ps3 can carry more game storage on it's media, the Xbox 360 delivers a more beautiful game with less money, manpower and time.
ps3 games are costing millions more just to get the same detail from them. Not profitable.

Haha look at Alan Wake American Nightmare, an xbla title and it looks better than most other games out there.

Listen, long story short, both again can make equally beautiful games, ps3 takes longer and cost more to do the same effects but both can look and play great with time.

Next new gen gaming systems in 2013 or so, this is when you''ll see some big differences. Unless of course, they (MS and Sony) both adapt the same core strengths and internal memory and storage.

Miss leading articles will be floating around for the next year or so about both development cycles but there just articles made up for hits. Can't wait til real official announcments are made.

In the end we all win, no loses here. Just gaming goodness for all.

[lover2012]

@xgamer
hahahahah wow dude did you just said
gears of war 3and Alan Wake, Halo Reach, Forza 4
looks better than ps3 exclusives UC/KZ/GOW3/IF2/GT/HR??

ok i will bite
show me where is the review that say that any one of those xbox games
are even the best looking xbox game
MOST sites give crysis 2/Batman the best looking xbox game
this is just sad

i know for a fact that uncharted 3 cleaned the consoles gfx awards last year
and was one of the top five most awarded and rated games in 2011
http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

i can show you more about the other years awards
for games like HR/GOW3/KZ
but i will wait for your answer

[THESONYPS3]

@XGamer No Xbox game comes close to uncharted 3, god of war or killzone. And the witcher 2 only looks good on pc moron and if we a re talking about pc yes sure ps wins but for consoles ps3 wins. alan wake doesnt come close to uncharted...... I know ps4 will probally be the powerhouse again next gen aswell. Your the only little man here......

[taijutsu363]

Hmph the matter of the fact is if this were a 360 exclusive I feel like PS3 wouldnt have missed out cuz outta my 100 friends 0 have actually picked this game up, including me. (Course im not tryig to speak for all PS3 users.)

Unless a different game came out on the exact date?
I think Asuras Wrath was.

[PirateThom]

I just didn't care about it. No one I know cares about it. It's just one of those games that comes out to little or no fanfare and is quickly forgotten...

Which may be a shame, I haven't even seen a review of it yet... not that it's going to swing me to buy it.

[taijutsu363]

Yea I feel ya on that.

[ZippyZapper]

You guys only stopped caring after the face off.

[PirateThom]

Yes, that's why I had the game on pre-order and it's here now but I'm not playing it because of this face off.

Or, more likely, I didn't care.

[Frankfurt]

It's fact - over 85% of multiplats are better on 360. That's all that matters. Keep your excuses and spinning to yourselves.

[Silly gameAr]

lol. You're spinning enough for everyone bub. I think you're a little too in love with MS to hear any kind of logic anyway, so why waste breath trying to "make excuses and spinning". You're facts are more like fiction too by the way. I guess you only see what you want to see like your bud Wanye up there.

But hey, makes you feel good, say it. I'm going back to play some Twisted Metal. have fun with your pixel counting for certain multiplat games there bro.

[AusRogo]

Just realised, majority of the 360 fanboys have 1 bub. not all developers are going to make the game look as good as uncharted, theyre lazy. Plus, wouldnt be fair having the ps3 one look waaaay better then the 360 one, kinda like ps3 exclusives look better than 360 exclusives.

[acdata]

99%

[MysticStrummer]

Ha ha ok... 85% of multiplats look 2% better on 360. You win that round. Too bad no 360 exclusives are that close to PS3 exclusives, visually speaking. I don't choose which console to buy based on games that can be played on more than one platform but if you do then congrats I guess.

[Anon1974]

Don't forget, it's not like multiplatform developers have much choice in the matter. Remember, Microsoft's content policy says:

"Titles for Xbox 360 must ship at least simultaneously with other video game platform, and must have at least feature and content parity on-disc with the other video game platform versions in all regions where the title is available. If these conditions are not met, Microsoft reserves the right to not allow the content to be released on Xbox 360."

Developers, if they want to make multiconsole games can't put out games that are overly superior on another system because Microsoft will pull the plug on their 360 version. Wanna bet then don't err on the side of caution? MS's content policy isn't exactly a secret, but what developer would bite the hand that feeds them by talking about it?

Of course MS lets this slide in some cases but if you don't think that's a factor for developers when it comes to making games on each platform - you're kidding yourself.

[svoulis]

These face off articles are really funny. At least this one was semi-informative. I play most games on my PS3 because of the controller. I play 360 exclusives on my 360...oh wait... that's right exclusives they are running out.

Point is, both sides can argue each other like its a religion and at this point console wars are on par with religious arguments. It's like the console of choice is your god and you will praise it and slander any who oppose.

[ironmonkey]

So u have 0.01% better graphics for multi plats, so what?, Free gaming is 100% times better.

[DeathAvengers]

Wow, cheap much?

[Transporter47]

lolz, you mean i can have that car for free? oh hell no i want to pay for it!!!

[hellvaguy]

A junkyard car might just be free, but no ty.

[ninjahunter]

XD as i was reading this i was like:
Why am i reading this? I dont own a Xbox or PS3...
Then I was Like Ooooh A PC section.

True story.

[gypsygib]

this whole debate is pathetic, the differences are negligible buy more importantly, most of the people getting into the fanboy debate wont even buy the game because it kind of sucks.

seriously, how many of the above posters plan on buying this turd.

[BEZZ]

Coll game!