These sections stood out in the two articles I have provided
Article 1 Extract: regarding Graphics of both consoles.
Graphics
"This is a sticky subject for a lot of fanboys. A very common argument in most flame wars is that the Playstation 3 simply “has better graphics”. I’m not sure where that argument came from; Sony obviously did a good job of marketing the system. However, the argument is entirely false. The Xenos GPU on the XBOX 360 is superior the RSX on the PS3. This is one thing that didn’t change in the past year.
Xenos simply has more power - higher fillrate, higher pixel processing power, higher vertex processing power, and better memory architecture. If you look at multiplatform games and contrast the graphics on the two consoles, XBOX 360 almost always leads. Whether they use a higher resolution or higher quality antialiasing, games often look better and/or play smoother on the 360. We looked at a handful of multiplatform games a while back, and this was always the case.
Again, we have to consider that Cell has the potential to help with graphics on the Playstation 3. As developers become more familiar with the platform, they are going to come up with new tricks to help games run smoother, and allow them to look better. However, one year after its introduction we aren’t seeing huge leaps (or even baby steps) towards this, except on a couple exclusive titles".
Article 2 Extract: regarding multi-platform titles.
"Let’s take a look at some familiar multi-platform games of 2008:
* Fallout 3 - looks essentially the same on both, but PS3 version lacks antialiasing. The PS3 version initially had bugs, but they have since been patched.
* Bioshock - Despite coming out a year later, the PS3 version of Bioshock was pretty much a mess at first. Some of the textures are noticeably lower, and the framerate stutters often. A patch improved things, but the framerate is still lower.
* Dead Space - The developers have been quoted that working with Sony is “challenging” so the old mantra of the Sony and Playstation being tough to work with hold true to this day. Thankfully, they were able to manage a good experience on both consoles, and both versions play about the same.
* Soul Calibur IV - The 360 version runs in a 960p frame buffer, but Namco-Bandai decided to downsample the 360’s resolution down to 720p to smooth the image rather that utilize AA. However, the difference is not significant, so both versions look pretty close to the same (the 360 does have some extra lighting effects). Since you can download both Darth Vader and Yoda on either version, even that has become a moot point.
* Devil May Cry 4 - Remember this one? It came out in 2008 as well. Unlike most games, this isn’t a port from one console to another. Rather, Capcom develops their games on a tri-platform engine (Framework MT), then compile them for PC, PS3, and XBOX 360. Antialiasing is present on the 360 version, since it is essentially ‘free’. To keep it running at 720p with a decent framerate on the PS3, Capcom utilized a pseudo-AA effect by shifting frames and creating a blur effect. It does smooth things out, but during fast moving scenes it tends to stand out.
In the end, I think we can say that multiplatform gaming is getting closer to parity, but it’s not quite there yet. The 360’s superior graphics power is especially applicable to multi-platform games
that do not get a lot of development time to make full use of Cell architecture,
and the XBOX 360’s GPU allows it to run at higher resolutions while eliminating jaggies with “Free” Antialiasing.
Furthermore, Playstation 3 titles tend to ship with bugs that get patched at a later time. This is nothing new to PC gamers of course, but definitely quite new to console gamers (and not exclusive to PS3 either - plenty of XBOX 360 games get patched as well).
You should also consider that many games require a mandatory installation on the Playstation 3, and in many cases load times are still about the same as a DVD would be. With the XBOX 360, you have the choice of installing a game to the hard drive, and when you do you will instantly notice faster load times and quieter operation. Comparing DMC4 load times
on an installed PS3 version to an installed XBOX 360 version is quite significant".
