A solid year's gone by since we ran our last Xbox 360 vs. PlayStation 3 graphics comparison. The differences between the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 have diminished with every passing batch of games, but some variation still exists between the two machines. Our first graphics comparison between the two consoles showed that the Xbox 360 looked better on most of the games, oftentimes drastically so. The second graphics comparison showed that the PlayStation 3 looked nearly as good as the Xbox 360 in some games, and actually looked better in a few as well. Now with both consoles well into their respective life cycles, developers have had plenty of time to figure out the nuances required to code beautiful games. With our third batch of games, the two machines seem evenly matched. The two trade blows on various games, each with its own set of advantages.
We've upgraded our capture equipment since the previous installments in the series. We captured all 720p images through an HDMI connection and then resized them for use in the article. The fullscreen shots are, of course, shrunk down to fit onto the Web page. The pixels in the zoomed-in shots are 1:1 representations of the original image captures, but cropped to fit our page width. We compressed the images slightly to make them more palatable for the Web, but they haven't suffered too much in terms of quality for it.
Assassin's Creed
Assassin's Creed is a great example of what a next-generation game should look like, with well-rendered environments that are nicely shadowed and filled with intricate details. The game looks beautiful on both systems, but we did notice that the Xbox 360 has sharper textures with better 3D-depth simulation readily noticeable in the flat cobblestone streets. Edges look great in both games, as do graphical effects such as shadows, smoke, and lighting. The extra time it takes to install the game on the PlayStation 3 doesn't seem to give the console any benefits over the Xbox 360 in initial or subsequent loads of the game.
Xbox 360 Versus PlayStation 3 Graphics Comparison: Round 3
Check out how the latest games look on both the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360.
