Don’t open The Box.

Game Info

Developer: Spark Unlimited
Publisher: Gamecock Media Group
Release Date: November 4, 2008
Genre: First-person shooter
Available Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC
Modes: Singleplayer, competitive online
Reviewer’s Experience: Played to the final level of the single-player game on PC. Multiplayer modes not tested due to lack of players and reliable servers.

Throughout the long and arduous process of building the latest iteration of my gaming PC, I discovered that I was building up quite a stock of free games. One of which was Far Cry 2, which is far too boring to even deserve any kind, taste, or flavor of review. The other was the (Arguably. -Ed.) legendary Legendary: The Box, henceforth referred to as Legendary.

Now, before I go on a never-ending rant, let me talk about some of the nice things about this game. The graphics are pretty good, I’d say a little bit below, oh, what’s a game that all of you peons who might actually read this would know? Let’s use BioShock, mostly because both games utilize Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 3. Now, BioShock was released upon the world in mid-ish-2007, whereas The Box was opened back in late 2008, so I will do my best to take into account the numerous engine updates that can come within such a timeframe. Either way, it’s still fairly pretty, albeit with no antialiasing, something that has always hurt my view of Unreal Engine.

The one main thing I’d like to point out about the graphics in this game is the astounding use of nVIDIA’s PhysX technology. Cloths sway in the breeze, buildings crumble as griffons fly into buildings to grab the nearest meal. Possibly the most amazing thing I saw throughout my whole adventure with this game is whilst fighting a massive Kraken in London, it grabbed Big Ben with one of its tentacles and ripped the building down. I literally messed my pants when I saw that. Cleaning myself up, let’s move on to the story.

Ahem, so, story, uhh, well, there’s this guy, he’s a thief, his name’s Charles Deckard, and he has to steal Pandora’s Box and do…something with it. Basically, upon this happening, the proverbial shit hits the fan, except the shit is made of mythological creatures. From there it’s up to Deckard and his random blonde girlfriend whose name I can’t remember to set off and save the world. There’s not much else, something about warring ancient secret societies and you go to London and…yeah. Listen, I won’t bore you with the details, the story is by no means what you should play this game for, as it definitely surpasses the qualifications of what the common folk call “retarded”.

OK, gameplay time. It is a first person shooter. It has guns, some grenades, and, oh, molotovs. Refreshing.

Is it blatantly obvious that I’m rushing through this review? Well to be quite honest, I didn’t even finish the damn game. As I discovered on the very last level, the elevator that’s supposed to take you to the top of the Combine Citadel in beautiful City 17, er, I’m sorry, the Black Order Tower in the middle of a destroyed and gleefully boring New York City, well…let’s just say that it doesn’t exist, at least for me. Upon entering the elevator, I immediately fell out into the nice, red, bloody skybox to my imminent doom. Yeah, this happened a couple times, so I happily surrendered to the bad game gods and started writing this piece of shit.

Overall, I’d have to say my favorite part of this game was the nap I took a few hours ago whilst trying to beat it. It’s buggy, it’s boring, but it would make a good tech demo if they boosted the quality of the textures and added some anitaliasing to this otherwise meh game. It has the makings of a quality cult-following kind of game, but it’s definitely understandable as to why it couldn’t compete in the bigger markets. In the end, I give this game a “meh (with nod),” sparking that I’d say it’s definitely not the worst thing I’ve played for a while and I’d recommend it if you’re impatiently awaiting some big release (as I know I am) and you’ve got an extra 10 bucks lying around.

And that’s the last time I’ll be using the full title.

As much as I’d love to do a full review of the title, I don’t have the time. So I’ll simply talk about it for a bit.

F.E.A.R. 2 is a solid current-gen corridor shooter with a high level of polish, beautiful graphics, and a bit of a convoluted story. That is all.

No, I wouldn’t do that. Let’s start by talking about graphics and aesthetics.

F.E.A.R. was something of an intermediary step in generations. Though it used parallax mapping and real-time effects well, we look on it today as having fairly low-resolution textures, along with aliasing problems and shadows too hard for their own good.

F.E.A.R. 2 is different. It’s a wholly current-gen game. The lighting model is well done, antialiasing works evenly, it runs well on computers of all specs, and the textures are basically all high-res. I do miss the flying concrete dust, and, as many have complained, the bullet holes seem significantly downgraded (in FEAR, they appeared almost 3D–here they fall quite literally flat); but these problems are insignificant to the whole picture of a beautiful game.

That’s the graphics for you. Now, let’s talk about gameplay.

FEAR2 is strictly a corridor shooter. There’s almost no puzzle solving, and a minimal amount of exploration. That being said, it’s a damn fun corridor shooter. I never finished the first FEAR. It never sucked me in. This one has, and I actually finished it. It’s pretty rare that I finish a game.

The guns feel like guns, here, whereas in the original I found them a bit flimsy. There’s also a few key incredible setpieces–like one sequence where you battle Replica forces on tram cars speeding through a miles-long cargo tunnel. If you like the introductory train sequence of games like Half-Life and the second, imagine battling another train car as you ride into Black Mesa. Only the train cars can pivot. It’s been done before, definitely, but here’s it’s done quite well.

The scares here, unfortunately, don’t return. Much like Condemned 2, much of the scare factor from the original game has been removed. Alma no longer scares me. There are a few jumps, but nothing compared to Condemned 1 or a few moments in FEAR (like the Alma-at-the-top-of-your-ladder bit). They try very hard to get a rise out of you, but mostly fall flat.

In brief, Project Origin is damn solid. It’s fun, if a bit heavy-handed, but with incredibly solid gunplay and a spit-shine level of professional polish. It took me about 10.6 hours to complete, from pressing play to the ending credits. I’d recommend it.

Also: about that ending. WT-royal-F. If anyone knows what the hell went on, email me.

Game Info

Developer: Kojima Productions
Publisher: Konami
Release Date: June 12, 2008
Genre: Action/Adventure/”Stealth”(HA!)
Available Platforms: PS3
Modes: Single Player (includes “Metal Gear Online” for multiplayer, which will not be reviewed in this article)
Reviewer’s Experience: Played through the Campaign

Metal Gear Solid is a long-lived Action/Adventure series developed by Hideo Kojima. The “4th” entry in the series, called “Guns of the Patriots”, puts you in control of Old Snake: a young soldier who has suffered the results of rapid aging, causing him to bear the semblance of an old man. Snake’s mission is to find the man called “Liquid Snake”, and to stop him from taking over the world! In between Snake and Liquid lies hundreds of mercenaries and a handful of massive mechanical foes who all must be dispatched for Snake to succeed.

Gameplay:

The game supposedly centers around employing stealth to reach your objective, but the need to use stealth is not really necessary at all past the first level. Soon after the start of the game you are awarded a tranquilizer pistol with infinite ammo. In one shot, an enemy will be snoozing on the floor. By some rare chance another enemy actually notices his unconscious buddy on the ground, he’ll stumble over to it and stare at it for a good 10 seconds before actually doing anything… which gives you plenty of time to put him to sleep as well.
If, for some reason, you don’t want to use this tranquilizer pistol on every enemy in the game, never fear, because old man snake is able to hold and use all kinds of different weapons: from M4s to Javelin Missiles. For an old man, he sure is able to carry a TON of stuff (quite literally) and still remain quiet. So, if by some miracle an enemy actually detects you, you need not worry because they are as dumb as a pile of bricks, and you have a massive arsenal to use on them.
If you actually want to use stealth, then you can do that too! Old Snake is equipped with a neat suit of camo which blends in with every environment, which can easily fool and confuse enemies. You can also use cardboard boxes and metal barrels to hind under, but be warned: enemies magically seem to know you are under them, and if they so much as breath upon your cover, it’ll disappear.
Beyond actual tactics, the game has fairly fluid controls. The cover system isn’t that great, but you’ll hardly be using it anyway, and it’s a nice addition. Gun controls work well, and character movement is responsive most of the time.

Presentation:

This game looks and sounds good. The sounds are all pretty realistic, and aren’t overused or annoying (save for Snake’s grunt sound when he gets hurt). The sound design really contributes well to the atmosphere of the game. Now the graphics aren’t quite as marvelous as the sound, but they are pretty good. The models look fantastic, but some of the textures are really flat and blurry. The graphics don’t hurt the game, but don’t utilize the full power of the PS3, either (see Uncharted).

Story:

This game has a touching and involving story with believable characters (most of the time) and a number of memorable scenes. I’m not sure why Kojima tried to include a half-baked backstory behind each of the mechanical bosses in the game, because they really did not contribute anything to the main plot, and seemed really uncreative and redundant. Some cut-scenes also seemed to be redundant and generally useless in supporting the main plot. At times, the characters seemed to ramble on about the same thing over and over again, and nearly put me to sleep. The plot, on a whole, is intriguing and clever, and is one of the best in recent video game history.

Overall Impression:

Metal Gear Solid 4 is a great, and much-needed game for the PS3 library, and should be enjoyed by anyone who plays it. The first couple of hours or so don’t really draw you in, but once you get past that the game is really addictive and enjoyable, and will excite you from start to finish.

Why, Sid, why?

Game Info

Developer: Firaxis
Publisher: 2K Games
Release Date: July 9, 2008
Genre: Turn-based strategy/God game
Available Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, DS
Modes: Singleplayer, cooperative and competitive online
Reviewer’s Experience: Played several games of varying difficulties on the Xbox 360, both singleplayer and multiplayer. Demo played on the PS3. DS version not reviewed at this time.
Editor’s Note: The screenshots on this page are from the official website, however, we can vouch for them–unlike Haze the game actually looks like this, when it isn’t lagging like a bitch.

Lately I’ve found myself caught in a rather interesting trend that I’m sure many others are stuck in as well. It starts out with a good idea, (port Civilization to current generation consoles), continues with anticipation, (”This is the game I’ve always wanted to make.”-Sid Meier), and ends with a hot, steamy plate of pure shit. If you’ve managed to put together what I’m talking about, get yourself a cookie, if not, slap your mother and go hide in a corner. What I’m speaking of obviously is the latest adventures of world renowned God-Game Civilization, and it’s newest incarnation, Civilization Revolution.

Let me simply start this bound-to-be-misguided rant by simply stating that I am a LONG time Civ fanatic, dating back to Civ 3, which I played at my sister’s boyfriend’s house because they were too busy making out on the couch to give a fuck what I was doing. From there I was hooked, and after the purchase of every Civ-related game under the Sun since, I decided it was only right to make with the purchase of civilization Revolution, especially after hearing the roaring reviews and praise from it’s own developers. What drove me to trust any developers word is beyond me, but otherwise the idea of it seemed sound…in the beginning.

Quickly as more and more information became available I came to realize that this new life-sucking demon about to enter my world was in fact, nothing like the warm, cuddly life-sucking demon I had come to know and love on my personal computer. It began with simple things, like a lack of workers, and swiftly erupted into “OMG WE’RE SO GONNA GET GAME OF THE YEAR FOR THE MULTIPLAYER”, to those who believe this, I simply say, no. If you’re on the hunt for this year’s hottest multipleyer strategy game, look elsewhere, I literally cried at how bad this game ended up. It’s buggy, confusing, and overall a bad experience.

Let me simply state how horrible the experience was (in terms of multiplayer of course) by pasting here the Skype chat that took place between Zac “Kato” North and I “2Lt. T. Hoffman [2nd AER]” prior and following our attempt at this game.

[3:51:40 PM] 2Lt. T. Hoffman [2nd AER] says: les go
[3:51:52 PM] Zac says: ready when j00 are
[3:51:57 PM] Zac says: we’ll use live chat, k?
[3:52:01 PM] 2Lt. T. Hoffman [2nd AER] says: k
[3:52:10 PM] 2Lt. T. Hoffman [2nd AER] says: no comp close enoguh anyway
[3:52:11 PM] Zac says: moving to living room
[3:52:16 PM] 2Lt. T. Hoffman [2nd AER] says: k
[5:26:41 PM] Zac says: jesus christ that’s a terrible game
[5:26:44 PM] Zac says: I might take it bvack
[8:42:22 PM] 2Lt. T. Hoffman [2nd AER] says: *sigh* why does everything being released lately just seem to end up a huge disappointment?
[8:42:43 PM] Zac says: dunno
[8:42:46 PM] Zac says: yuo seemed to play for a bit
[8:43:05 PM] 2Lt. T. Hoffman [2nd AER] says: i actually played through a whole game
[8:43:12 PM] 2Lt. T. Hoffman [2nd AER] says: gawd
[8:43:14 PM] Zac says: and did it suck?
[8:43:22 PM] Zac says: lol I wrote impressions at VN, leaving the review to you
[8:43:42 PM] 2Lt. T. Hoffman [2nd AER] says: not absolutely, but it definitely doesnt FEEL like civ
[8:43:56 PM] 2Lt. T. Hoffman [2nd AER] says: ya know what?
[8:43:59 PM] 2Lt. T. Hoffman [2nd AER] says: bts? [Ed: Referring to the current edition of Civilization 4, Beyond the Sword.]

If that doesn’t sum it up, I don’t know what does.

Before you say anything, you simple-minded hoodlums, let me state that, yes, I did play the single player, yes, it was boring, and no, I will not kill your dog for you.

Simply because I am required by law, I will state a few nice things about this game. It’s pretty (compared to Civ 4, which was released back in ‘05), has a decent control interface (it actually does compared to the crap I’m used to with strategy games on consoles), and it’s dumbed down enough for all the consoletards out there who wanna think they’re cool.

Overall, I give this game a resounding “*grumble*”

Please note that I only played the Xbox 360 version, and while I’m sure the PS3 version is about the same, the DS can go fuck itself [Ed: The DS versions sucks equally, although it is pretty for a DS game. There might be a short review of this forthcoming.]. Also, the term *grumble* is and always will be under my personal copyright of use it and I will kick your ass.

If you want more on the multiplyer I definitely recommend reading Zac’s article, as he basically covers all the feelings we had with several bugs in the game.

Game Info

Developer: Free Radical Design
Publisher: Ubisoft
Release Date: May 20, 2008
Genre: First-person shooter
Available Platforms: PS3
Modes: Singleplayer, cooperative and competitive online
Reviewer’s Experience: Played single-player campaign through on normal with co-op. Tested competitive multiplayer.
Author’s Note: The screenshots on this page are from the official website. Enjoy them while you can, because the game never looks like this. The textures are muddy, the particle effects bad, the characters last-gen. My guess as to why? These pictures were taken back when the game was running unoptimized on the PC.

What’s Great:

• Coop. They say co-op can save a bad game, and here it’s true. Co-op is fun when you’re playing with someone you like–but isn’t that always the case?

What’s Not:

This game never had a chance. The graphics are trash, the AI is trash, the dialogue is trash, the paper-thin competitive multiplayer is trash. This isn’t even worth a rental.

Approximately two hours ago I took the trip to my local EB Games to pick up the hotly anticipated (by me and my Civ-playing friends, at least) Civilization: Revolution on the 360.

Holy crap. That was the worst decision of my Civ career.

I decided a long time ago that I was going to give Revolution (hereby known as CivRev) a chance. Workers are gone? Alright, that’s acceptable, maybe it’ll streamline gameplay. The game I’ve played for years with a keyboard and mouse has been squeezed onto a controller? Okay, fine sir, I’m sure the fine people at Firaxis can make it work.

I decided about thirty minutes ago that giving it a chance was a waste of $60.

First, I tried the multiplayer. I’ve invested many a night in Civ multiplayer with my friends, and I was trying, really trying, to give CivRev a chance. So I figured multiplayer would be the best way to start it off. I invited my friend in, set a few (probably useless) options, put us on a team against (supposedly) two AIs, and started away.

At first, it all went well. Things were going good. Until I discovered Gandhi. Now, you see, Gandhi was a peace loving man. Why, then, did the only option available to me, dialogue-wise, take me to war with him?! A bug, I say! Oh. What’s this? Montezuma has found me (even though neither my ally or I have seen him)? Oh? He’s declared war on me? A bug, I say!

Oh, hello Napoleon. No–wait. There’s only–what the hell?! There was supposed to only be four Civilizations in this game! Yes, it’s true. In my very first multiplayer game I had encountered what I’ll now call a “ghost.” A non-existant leader whom every message he sends gets sent to all players. Yes, Napoleon. I know you’re talking to Montezuma. Why, then, must I read your message, you damn specter?!

Ugh. Okay. After about 45 minutes, my friend and I decide that the multiplayer is a buggy mess. Maybe single-player will be better, we hope, but at this point I’ve already suggested going back to a good ol’ Civ IV: BTS game. He convinces me to give single-player a chance.

Alright, I’ll play this game how it looks like it was intended to be played. I quit out to the main menu and press “Play Now.” I choose ol’ Honest Abe, my personal favorite leader, and jump in. Since I’m trying to give this game a fresh chance, I turn on tutorials. Maybe I’ll get their perspective. I also turn off the god-foresaken “Advisor Simlish” that has for some reason infiltrated this game (it’s not even a damn EA game!).

Everything goes (relatively) well for a while, until rival civilizations start demanding things from me. This is a RARE occurence in the other Civ games, and it happens about every six turns in the early stages of this game. It’s stupid and only serves to fan the flames of war. I like war, but only in the later stages, when I’ve built up my army and researched so many technologies that I can take down anyone. In the beginning, I like a lot of diplomacy, and that just isn’t an option in this game. Maybe that’s more realistic? I don’t know, but it ain’t Civ.

I’m incredibly dissapointed with this bastardization of Civilization that Firaxis has provided us with. It’s mostly a buggy mess, and when it isn’t, it’s just not Civ. However, this is only one editor’s opinion. Look for a full review, by fellow longtime Civver Tyler Hoffman, in the coming days. Personally? I’m taking mine back and buying the Titan Quest expansion at a nice budget price.

(Update: Tyler’s review went up, and I have to say that I agree with it entirely–if you’re a Civver, stay away from this pile.)

The Fallout games are best remembered as top-down turn-by-turn RPGs that blurred the line between fiction and reality. The dismal and decrepit worlds that the main character visited in his adventures were dark and gritty, but they had their fair share of humor and they were a blast to explore.

10 years after Fallout 2 hit stores comes Fallout 3, the newest installment in the series. Bethesda, the force behind The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, is developing the game. Bethesda is attempting to update the series to fit with the current generation of games, while trying not to mess too much with the formula that made the games so great in the first place.

The game starts you out in a nuclear vault, and introduces you to the new style that Bethesda has implemented in the game. Expect more creepy “uncanny-valley” chats with all kinds of NPCs throughout this game (a la Oblivion).

Fallout 3 seems to take familiar RPG elements from the old games, which is good for fans of the series. Bethesda even included area-specific damage, which is a series trademark.

Fallout 3 is due out Quarter Four of 2008, and I couldn’t be more excited.

Considering the 2-year turnaround time, I am really pushing for Treyarch to make this one good, I think they can do it and I would love them for it, but I’m still partially holding my breath.

(Thanks GameTrailers.)

After years of patient waiting and yearning, my dreams have finally come true. Avenged Sevenfold has released content for a rhythm game. Sure, Beast and the Harlot was in Guitar Hero 2… but that was a crappy cover. These are Master Tracks.

The two songs that were released were “Critical Acclaim” and “Afterlife”. While these aren’t my dream song choices, they certainly suffice. “Critical Acclaim” is easy enough. I five starred the Guitar portion and four starred the drums and vocals. Then I played “Afterlife” and suddenly the difficulty was ramped up to 11. Like, literally.

I five starred the vocals, failed the drums about 75% through, and failed the guitar about the same time. Before the solo hit me like a brick wall (bricks made of death and pure evil), the guitar was fairly easy, but offered up a fun bit of challenge. And then THIS happened:

This stuff is harder than it looks. All I can say is… if I ever expect to pass this crap, I’m gonna actually going to have to use Practice Mode. The good news is that I love the song, so no worries. Anyone interested in these songs can buy them for 160 MS Points, or whatever that equates to in Play Station points, or whatever the hell it is that they use.

Section 1: Introduction

Long since before the days of yore… many epics were created and passed down from generation to generation. These epics revolved around the lives of Gods, both good and evil, waging war against each other for dominion over the land. Many millennia have passed since the era of epics, and yet day after day “Gods” of all kinds continue to wage war against each other. Megadeth vs. Metallica… Republicans vs. Democrats… iPods vs. Every other Mp3 player… and, of course, Sony vs. Microsoft. In this article, Sony and Microsoft are going to be boiled down to PlayStation and Xbox, respectively.
As anyone of this generation of gamers should know, the two main “giants” of the day (when it comes to games) are the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. Fanboys of all shapes, sizes, and sexual preference engage in intense, visceral and verbal scuffles daily to try and decide which console is the “best” console.

Typical Discussion:

i_luv_snake13: “o hai, I just wanted to say that i playedthat halo game and it sucks and it’s not as good as the Ps3 cuz the graphics are better like mgs4.”
GearsGod007: “if you don’t like halo ur obviously a fag lol and the graphics aren’t better, that game sux, lol!”
gamer_z75: ^^lololol qft!
i_luv_snake13: shut up u guys u just wish that ur stupid grill culd run mgs4! lol! it’d prolly brake! plus it would need like 80 disk lmao. o wait, it’s probably already broken from the rrod! god luk wuth that lol.
GearsGod007: No ur dumb!

Ehem… obviously the public is really conducting some scintillating and productive debate over the matter, but, to me and many others, this simply isn’t enough. I need cold, hard, facts and an unbiased comparison of the consoles to sate my desire to know which console is truly the “best” this generation.

Section 2: Hardware

The three main aspects of a console these days are CPU, GPU, and Memory.

The CPU, or Central Processing Unit, basically controls the processing power of the console. With the introduction of the PS3’s “cell” processor, many Sony Fanboys rejoiced, and many Microsoft Fanboys were scared and intimidated by the alleged might of the device. The cell processor is divided into 7 equal parts, each capable of processing something separately from the other cores. For example, one core could handle particles, on could handle sound, and one could handle animations. And that’s just three of the seven cores! While this is an incredible feat, and seems like it would revolutionize gaming, the fact remains that the “cell” processor lacks something, and the Xbox 360 has what it lacks. The Xbox 360 has three general purpose cores, while the PS3 has one cell processor. This means that, even though the PS3 has one incredibly powerful performance core, it is still worse than the combined might of the Xbox 360’s three. If the Xbox 360 only had one core, then the PS3 would be able to process much more than it, but this is clearly not the case.

Moving on to the GPU, the Graphics Processing Unit, we can see that the Xbox 360 also has an advantage in this area, however slight. The 360 is able to render a bit faster than the PS3, and so the Xbox 360 has the edge when it comes to graphics. This, in conjunction with the fact that the Xbox 360’s memory system bandwidth far outweighs that of the PS3, means that if a game is made for Xbox 360 and PS3, the game will almost certainly look better on the Xbox 360.

Although I already mentioned Memory in the section above… I will use a couple of sentences to clarify why Memory is important. Most importantly, it allows the Xbox 360 to have a greater range of higher-resolution textures. The PS3 has generally lower resolution backgrounds due to the fact that it’s memory is smaller than the Xbox 360’s, and so PS3 games all seem to look a little muddier than Xbox 360 games.

Section 3: Pros and Cons of the Consoles themselves

Some of you reading this likely glazed over the technical mumbo jumbo in the previous section, and I don’t blame you. This next section deals with things that actually matter to most people, and so it could be considering more helpful than the last section. Without further ado, I present the list of the Pros and Cons of the consoles themselves.

System:
The General user interface (GUI) for both systems is fairly intuitive, and easy enough to figure out after a bit of use. The Xbox 360’s GUI is slightly bulkier than the PS3’s, but it isn’t terrible. It just seems that navigating through the items on the PS3 “desktop” is more organized than navigation of the Xbox 360 interface. Once you “figure out” the 360’s system interface, however, it really shines due to the convenience of most of the features. Devices are easily recognized, organized, and titled, and the contents are easy to view/listen to. In my experience with the PS3, when I connected my iPod to the console the contents were titled with random numbers and letters… making it impossible for me to discern one from the other, and making it a pain to shuffle through my music looking for the right song. Maybe I was the only one to have trouble with this. If not, then that certainly is a major flaw.

In-Game Features:
The PS3 cannot hold a candle to the in-game features of the Xbox 360. The 360 can (these are just a few features) play custom music while playing games, start voice/video chats with friends hassle-free at any time, and award achievements for accomplishments in-game. The PS3 cannot do any of this (Although the PS3 may begin to steal/implement an achievement system soon).

Online:
The PS3 offers free online to anyone with a connection, and also allows it’s users to surf the internet through a custom browser. The Xbox 360 offers two kinds of online services: Silver and Gold. Silver accounts are free, and Silver Members can do everything that Gold members can besides access multiplayer. For $0.13 a day, Xbox 360 users can access a Gold account, which allows them to experience Xbox Live in its entirety. Xbox Live is a service, which is why it costs money. It is a system that really makes the online experience on an Xbox 360 convenient, streamlined, and enjoyable. If Sony paid for dedicated servers like Microsoft did, then PS3’s online would cost money too.

Games:
Both consoles supply a large library of good games to be played, and so neither console really has a large advantage over the other in this regard.

Space:
Space is really where the PS3 shines… both in Hard Disk space and in the space available on a Blu-ray Disc. Blu-ray has 50 Gigabytes worth of space, versus the normal 14 Gigabytes worth of space. A game that would take four discs to play on an Xbox 360 would only need one on the PS3. Of course, due to Blu-ray’s sluggard read speed, mandatory installs are required for every PS3 game (which can take from 10-20 minutes). Sometimes multiple installs are required, which really begs the question of whether or not Blu-ray really has an advantage over 20 second disk changes every few hours.

Section 4: Graphics

The pictures provided should give examples of just what to expect from each console, in terms of graphics.

Both scenes are rendered in HD and upscaled (Xbox 360 to 1080p and PS3 to 720p), so they both look fairly nice at first glance. If one studies the pictures, though, they may notice subtle differences between the screens, which may not make one version “better” than the other, but certainly makes them look slightly different.
Both monkeys look pretty good, there’s no doubt about it, but the PS3 monkey’s model is much smoother and more detailed than the Xbox 360 monkey. Typically the PS3 is able to handle character models slightly better than the Xbox 360 can, and so the PS3 monkey reflects this fact. The Xbox 360 monkey has a higher resolution texture, though, and the normal mapping has more depth. Overall, the Xbox 360’s textures are a little higher res than than the PS3’s, which is most noticeable in the banner hanging from the rope.
One last thing you may notice is that the PS3 screenshot is a lot more jaggedy than the Xbox 360 screenshot, and this is because the PS3 usually has a harder time handling Anti-Aliasing than the Xbox 360. While this is not as noticeable in the character model, which you generally focus on the most in a game, it is very prevalent in the backgrounds, which may prove to be distracting at times.

Section 5: Conclusion

Hopefully this evaluation was able to guide you in your decision on which of this generation’s consoles is the “best”. You may come to the conclusion that both consoles are equally valuable, and that one is not better than the other. This is a valid conclusion because we are all, of course, entitled to our own opinion.