That's obvious, and not my point. There is a big difference between "reduced FMV resolution and minor niggles" which would be expected, and the obvious technical beating the 360 version took - it could have been 720p, it could have better alphas, it would have used system bandwidth more efficiently, it could have had almost flawless, albeit not 1080p, FMV. Instead it is in pretty much every way except for frame rate clearly inferior.

I took a step back into the real world for a minute (I tend to get caught up in the bitch/whine fests that these threads become) and realized this: Who the fuck cares? Buy it on the system you like, for whatever reason you like. If you care about the best looking one, get the PS3. If you care about controller preference, buy it on the system you like the controller on. Unless you have a 2 TV set up or something, the only one you'll be able to see is the one in front of you, and according to this video comparison, no matter what it's going to be beautiful.

Indeed!

I have to really question motivations (and seeing temper tantrums thrown when FF13 was announced multi-plat, there is plenty of motivation to trash the 360 version more than is warranted) when people make a much bigger buzz about the FF13 port than pretty much any other HD game in history even though FF13's port is far from the worst. Bayonetta's port had performance issues whereas Digital Foundry found that the 360 didn't suffer from performance problems. This is not a reverse Bayonetta situation. This is a situation of grown men pledging allegiance to some large multinational corporation chomping at the bit until now that they have some sort of proof that the 360 version is inferior in some way. The 360 version doesn't look as good. But why is such a huge deal made about this port in particular when graphics downscaling is nothing new and nowhere near as bad as ports with horrible loadtimes and slowdown? (especially on the PS3. GTA4 was sub-HD on the PS3 too. Where was the big bad outrage over that? Final Fantasy doesn't hold a candle to GTA's popularity after all but yet FF13 is made into a much larger deal)

Not saying that everyone who is complaining about this port has a (not so) hidden motive. But when I see people with known Playstation bias take their licks in, come on, who are you trying to fool? And sadly, those who don't have a bias against the 360 are buying into all the buzz that the former group is generating (some delcaring a boycott even or going as far as threatening to buy a slim just so they can play the better looking version of ONE GAME. Come on, that is EXACTLY the reaction that the Sony Defense Force was looking for. Grown men who are obsessed with wanting "their" multinational corporation of choice to win some sort of silver medal. Seriously, step back and look at the situation, 576p isn't the end of the world. Your beloved MW2 and Halo 3 are sub-HD as well but it seems like 10 million+ each don't seem to give a damn. Square-Enix isn't the only dev ever to cut corners with ports and they didn't cut corners as much as SEGA and many other guys did). If FF13 on 360 played like Bayonetta, then yes, get out the pitchforks. But it doesn't. This situation is not worth buzzing so much about. How many long-assed threads have we had here on this subject? The Wii (who understand the ridiculousness of resolution obsession) and PC gaming crowd (who are well aware that graphics peen comparing contests on home consoles are a joke when a gaming rig can blow anything a console can do out of the water) must be having a laugh with a big bowl of popcorn watching these HD twin pissing contests.

No. the DF article is incredibly flawed.

First, it is wrote in the sense that the author is trying as hard as he can to make the 360 version look okay.

First points: He says you can use VC-1 for better encoding for the 360. FALSE. you can not. This is available for HD-DVD only, which is a dead format. The only way to make the CGI look even 720p on the 360 would be to add two more discs. for 1080p, probably 3-4 more discs. Remember, each disc needs to contain the entire game engine and at least some of the content. you'd be looking at matching 28GB of Video and need to contain all the other content required for the game, and a reasonable amount of game content on every disc.

His article is completely flawed. VC-1 is IMPOSSIBLE for a 360 GAME to use. Bink video is the best alternative. and this is what it produces.

He doesn't mention anywhere about the self shadowing. the 360 versions shadows just randomly stop working. He doesn't talk about serious texture loss, he doesn't talk about how the audio sounds off and weird in the background in most CG cutscenes. He doesn't talk about the true severity of the macroblocking, its so bad, the videos on the 360 version are almost appauling. They are distasteful to the eye.

This video should of shit all over the 360  version, its bayonetta 2.0, but he did not.

It was a lazy port, but it's a really _really_ bad port. Obviously it could look better, but not much better.

You talk about how its okay for him to say the faults are because of the developer and not the game, well why don't we do this for every game? if we did, we'd be saying it for every single comparison because the ps3 is capable of better graphics and better performance if coded properly for the system. 

It's a moot point, this is the game you're getting. If bayonetta was developed properly for the ps3, it would look better than the 360 version, fact. Doesn't mean its worth mentioning in the video!! 

The exact opposite? Are you saying the 360 version is 720p and the PS3 version 576p comes on 3 discs and has the better framerate. That's not the way they tell it.

It's the default codec for HD 360 videos on the XBLMarket place. It's also one of the base codecs used in Blu-rays.

Probably because the shadows are still there, they're just not as dark.

1, blu ray also have java backend, VC-1 was accepted later, but both formats are supported.

2, shadows aren't all there, some are indeed missing, and isn't only shadows, certain foliage in terrain were removed.

My interpretation of the furor surrounding Final Fantasy 13 is that the gameplay is terrible whilst the visuals are all that matters. Noone has talked about the gameplay, only the marginal differences between the Xbox 360 and the PS3 versions. Pretty much any time I've seen this happen, the gameplay itself has almost always been lackluster. So this does not give me confidence that FF13 is nothing but a dying breed of games, a throwback from the PS1 days when people in the west actually gave a damn. I put forward that FFXIII may be the last high selling Final Fantasy in the west and if nothing changes we will not see a Final Fantasy 15.

what's retarded is that they could have just used WMVs.