The truth is, it’s easy to bag a few thousand hits if you simply play the Console War card – claiming one game looks better on one format over another and pinging that comment off to aggregators like N4G is a sure-fire way to get some easy traffic. And sometimes it’s justified, or, at least, reasonably true – there’s a few games that look superior on (say) the Xbox 360 than the PS3 and, of course, the same is often the case in reverse.
At the beginning of the month, though, IGN posted an article stating that the PS3 version is “not so great, unfortunately,” adding that the “performance is pretty underwhelming.”
“The framerate is frequently low and choppy. There are jagged lines everywhere, and shadows are especially messy. There’s a muddiness to the graphics that’s hard to stomach in the wake of the PS3’s other flagship showpieces, and worse, the variable framerate really hurts controller response.” Sounds like it’s definitely the Xbox 360 version for us, then. Right? Well, not according to Crytek.
Speaking on the PlayStation Blog, Crytek’s Executive Producer Nathan Camarillo replied to these statements, saying “if you stick PS3 and 360 side by side [he] would challenge anyone to find any meaningful difference.” Of course, he’s on the Crytek team, so it’s in his interest to be more balanced.
But he’s supported by PSM3 magazine who followed up IGN’s original article with a story disputing what the American site had claimed. “I’ve played multi-player with the maximum number of players,” said the magazine, “and noticed no slow-down, jaggies or screen tearing. The frame-rate held solid too. It sounds like the version others have been playing is a build that hasn’t been optimized and (possibly) several months out of date.”
But what’s everyone seemingly forgetting, including the rack of follow-ups hitting the web after the PlayStation Blog article? That the build IGN played was potentially, and admittedly, quite old. “This build could be a few weeks to a few months old,” it said at the end of the report, “and optimisation is often rapid and pronounced toward the end of a game’s development period.”
It is a curse then to get early access to a game that’s so anticipated? Why wasn’t IGN informed about the state of the preview version, and why would one day have made such a difference to the version tested? Is it really that big of a difference between console versions or should we all just buy the PC version and be done with it?
Whatever the truth is, the game’s out next week and we’ll be all over it.
Smallville2106
I will be picking this up soon. Never had any intention to buy it at release but will in the future.
As long as it looks good and plays well I don’t care if the versions are not exactly the same.
Mathematicool
Need to pick up the demo soon to pass judgement myself.
TSBonyman
Wasn’t there a older version leaked onto the internet recently – maybe IGN used that ;)
I want to try the game, especially to see how it looks but i’m not interested in multiplayer so i’ve given this demo a miss.
online4ntagonist
I would not mind if TSA did’nt spend any attention to this sort of uninteresting ‘news’. My only thought on this is: when is it going to stop?
Is there a certain age when one just stops caring about these silly comparisons and start to worry about all the riff-raff online, stumbling all over eachother because their console is better than someone else’s? I’m 34 and I don’t care.
jayjay119
Console wars have been going longer than I can remember, my first experience of it was between the NES and the Master System way back in the late 80’s, early 90’s. The last two generations saw a lull because Sony pretty much dominated them, but this gen has more power, and more facilities to exploit giving other platforms a chance again. To be honest I don’t see it stopping any time soon.
JesseDeya
I’m 35 and I do care :P
Well, I care enough to want to know whether a developer is actually bothering to optimise for a given console, and therefore whether I am going to bother with their game or not. I own both consoles, but I much prefer gaming on the PS3 so it erks me when devs don’t put in the effort to at least make it on par with the Xbox.
What I will concede is that if the differences don’t affect my gameplay then I don’t give a flying toss… however framerate issues in a fast paces FPS like Crysis 2 would be a big thumbs down from me.
Having said all that, I’ve just been playing the PS3 Crysis 2 Multi Demo and it looks and feels fine to me. Perhaps if I back to backed it with the Xbox I would notice a difference, but given I’m not going to do that I’m happy enough for now.
gamerindia
I tried the multiplayer beta ;it is perfct ; the only problem I faced was finding “full” sessions . Crysis 2 : COD = 6:1 . And Crysis 2 : Killzone 2 = 1:3/2
kill_zide
I was browsing the comments of the PS Blog post and I have to say that a lot of people are so uneducated and are practically claiming that crysis 2 looks worse and performs worse on the PS3 because of the demo. What i don’t get is how these people fail to see the demo part and who knows if its even the same build as the 360 demo until the retail version comes out all these little comparisons on youtube IGN Lens of Truth are invalid and irrelevant
Erroneus
Should get my Nano edition for PS3 tomorrow, so I’m looking forward to prove IGN wrong :)
gazzagb
Considering all the references you’ve got there where people have said the PS3 version is as good as or better than the 360 are all going to be biased anyway (PS Blog, PSM3), I don’t think anyone can believe them until they’ve played the game for themselves. And anyway, we don’t know what build they played, so comparisons cannot be mate at all.
PriceKitty
This bullcrap only happens because the developers either favor the 360, or they don’t know how to develop for the Ps3…or both.
No one can tell me they can’t do it after seeing what UNCHARTED AND KILLZONE CAN DO.
Idiots.
IOMDutch
IGN do seem to be a biased bunch towards the 360. Wait and see is the best bet. Slightly off topic though. With the usual crap been banded about, about this game hitting the PS3 ceiling. (Balls – imo) My question is this – How can games such as Crysis 2 not suffer from being squeezed onto a DVD for the 360. surely by now developers of AAA games are having to compress their titles in order to keep it all on one DVD. I would think that the PS3 would be reaping the rewards of blu-ray not to mention being 4 odd years newer than the 360. How can it not be the better system? No diss intended ;)