It should be fairly obvious that a PS360 cannot outmatch a state of the art PC in pure grunt. Hell, my HTPC can out gun my PS3 in raw power... and yes it was more expensive, I am not trying to start a PC supremacy thread here.

However, rather than realise this fact, I either see fanboys claiming that the PS3 is the pinnacle of graphical acheivement (over PCs) and blasting DICE as a developer OR claiming that DICE mislead them by claiming that the PS360 versions would be identical to the PC version. Now, I don't see how anyone intelligent would think that a modern PC version would be merely identicle to a 5-6 year old console version - at least in terms of resolution and FPS if not graphic assets, and I don't recall DICE claiming that the render paths would be identical for all 3 platforms. Hell, that would be impossible unless the PC version was gimped.

Seriously, what is the deal?

Truth in advertising statement: I have no interest in BF3 at all, so I haven't followed the situation super closely. I just want to understand the hullabaloo.

idk man people seem obsessed though lol.

For some reason these days, Graphics = Gaming... Saddens me.

People seem invested in the idea that PS360 are immortal, or that the 10-year plan is a real thing for the next console (e.g. no PS4 until 2016), and i believe this fracas ties into that. DICE knows current gen is growing insufficient, and has made a game to testify to that fact, and the long-gen true believers are getting freaked out by it

DICE brought this on themselves!

DICE/EA have been really shady about the way they've handled the marketing for BF3. Their entire marketing campaign is based off the fact that the game is going to look next-gen and be the most graphcially amazing thing in the history of ever!!! All they've shown to prove this has been PC footage, but they did that with full knowledge that most of their customers will be coming from the console crowd. They are the ones that built up unrealistic expectations in consumers. Why are they marketing pc graphics to the console crowd? The game looks good but the reality is it will probably only looks slightly better than BBC2. Those are bait and switch tactics. They deserve to be called out! It may not have been false advertising per se, but you can't deny that their tactics have been shady.

I thought they already showed footage of the PS3.

@lostplanet

For the first couple of months all they were showing was PC footage. Then they made the statement that BF3 would look identical across all platforms. Maybe they meant ps3 and 360 but people could have easily interpretted that to mean Pc/ps3/360. It seems they wanted people to think that the PC footage would represent the final game on all platforms, so why are they now mad that people are disappointed with console versions? They are the ones that built up these unrealistic expectations.

@wilco: I believe it was fairly obvious since the beginning that the footage they've been showing is from the PC version - and if you expected the console versions to run at 1080p and 60 frames per second, identical graphics, well, you deserved your disappointment. I can't seem to find an exact quote where DICE would have said that all versions are going to look identical, although I did find several articles stating so. That said, several also seemed to state that the console versions will be identical with each other.

Well I don't understand the outrage either. Thought it would be fairly obvious that Battlefield 3 on PC was going to look better than the home console versions. Hell Battlefield 3 on the PC looks better than any home console games in general. And shouldn't blame them for showing off the better looking version first, as it is a new engine and they are "selling" it per se.

Hasn't bothered me as I will still get the game on 360 for Xlive play and I'll enjoy it. Won't look as good as the PC version but trust me, I'll be fine haha.

Yes I knew it was PC and I never had such expectations, but many people were not like you and I. The way that dice was marketing BF3 made it sound as if it would be a generational leap in terms of graphics. Now they are criticizing people for having the gall to think it would have better resolution/frame rate than other shooters. I knew it would never happen, but considering the marketing campaign, can you really blame some people for expecting 1080p or 60fps?

I hate to use the comparison but you don't see MW3 demoing the pc version of their game just to make it look better. That game will also look tons better than the console version but the pc gamers are a niche crowd so they stick to demoing the version of the game that most people are going to be playing... consoles. To be clear, I am NOT a fan of the COD series but atleast with them we know exactly what were getting.