For example, the PS3 version of GTA has much higher resolution if you are watching TV. The reason, is mandatory install. You can install the 360 version on the HD if you want, but it will not make the video resolution higher, because they could not guarantee it's coming from the HD. Even if this feature was out before GTA4, it would still look the same.

This is an example of HD mandatory providing a better experience. The speed of the BD vs DVD has nothing to do with it here, as both are vastly slower then the HD.

 Actually the advantages for the PS3 were better textures and lower (no?) pop in. The Xbox360 managed a higher framerate (With screen tear I must add) and a higher rendering resolution.

Wait... watch tv? I didn't play too far into that game before I got sidetracked... Btw I had some of the worst pop-in imaginable, the whole highway segment I was driving on "Popped in" So I was driving on air!

A HDD install negates the pop in advantage for the PS3, obviously textures stay the same and it might help the framerate slightly - even if it just eliminates screen tearing, it'd help.

One thing I was curious about, are the heavier textures in some PS3 games causing the games to need to be installed? Heavier textures take longer to pull off the disk... Well thats my interpretation anyway.

And so far probably the only one, most of the devs on multi dont care about that stuff or they don´t use it, they engine will load the textures, models and sounds, as fast as it can, and putting them on a faster media will only help to make a better experience...

And the option to install a game, will probably be used by more devs on the future, previous game will only gain load speed, but future games could use as well like the PS3 games...

Things are about to change soon. I found this little tidbit while browsing xbox.com

You're in the Movies is tagged as Hard Drive Required

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/y/yitm/

On multi-plat games, yes, Games like MGS4 would not be as good of a game of it was an optional install.

@Squilliam

Yes, in your apartment, you can watch TV. It's kind of cool. The TV on the 360 version is far lower quality then the TV on the PS3 version. It's a minor element to the game, but it's an example of something that could be not so minor in future games.

That's a milestone. There are now officially 1,000,000 reasons I will not play YITM. Congrats to this abortion of a game!!!

Im pro choice and I find that comment offensive... xD

Why do people have to rail on things that aren't to their taste? If I didn't like Burger King I wouldn't go into burger king just to tell people that I hate the food.

It's not that it isn't to my tastes. It's that I have no idea whose tastes it represents. It reminds me terribly of the Eyetoy, which we carried at the Gamestop I used to manage for years, and i think I could count on 2 hands the number we sold in total. It's a bunch of simplistic mini-games (which look like little to no fun in and of themselves) which then take the pointless footage and turn it into a "movie" which looks equally terrible. I guess I have technically adopted some "casual" tastes by now, but this game seems to have skipped "casual" altogether and gone directly to "disinteresting".

This new feature serves no benefit to the developer , It is different from mandatory HD installs.