GTA IV PS3 fights off resolution woes in the UK

Gamers from the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 camps rejoiced when it was confirmed that Grand Theft Auto IV would be available on both consoles. But fans have begun complaining that the game’s resolution on the PS3 is lower than it is the Xbox 360. It’s been claimed that GTA IV runs at a resolution of 630p (1120 x 630) on the PS3 …

[Stef]

do you know why?

"We asked GTA IV developer Rockstar to set the record straight on the relative resolutions of the various versions of the game, but it did not respond to our calls"

They are all in the pub, and quite right too!

dead bird - cos the pigeons get it tight in GTA IV!

(BTW can we get a Niko icon for random slaughter and mayhem?)

[Anonymously Deflowered]

This might help me choose

I am currently umming and ahhing on the 360 vs PS3 debate because I plan to buy a console especially to play this game. It's about 50-50 at the moment so this might just swing it in the Xbox's favour!

Do any Reg readers have strong opinions either way? (he asked hestitantly in case this turns into an anti Microsoft thing)

[Joe K]

Its 640p actually

http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=46242&page=25

And the general consensus, including from the Rockstar co-founder too (http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=3&cId=3167500#two-consoles), is that the PS3 has a warmer, softer feel than the Xbox's more clinical look.

But its all pointless tech willy-waving from fanboys looking at still screenshots. There is very little difference at ALL when you play the thing, something that lots of comparison videos already show.

http://www.gamevideos.com/video/watch?video=18625&largeFormat=mov

[Jason Croghan]

WTF?

That's low man, really low. It can't be for any reason other than either a tight budget, tight schedule or complete laziness.

[richard]

tv?

i think the 'gamer' needs to ditch his sony tv and buy a proper one - panasonic, tosh, philips or samsung. lcd of course.

[Chris Procter]

Gahh!

Not yet played my copy, have to wait till tomorrow!

However, the PS3 case says resolution 720p, 1080i or 1080p!!

Surely anything less is an infringement of trades descriptions?

[Paris]

360 vs PS3

The word that goes around is that the 360 has a slightly crisper look while the PS3 has less pop-up and smoother frame-rate.

Personally I've seen both run side by side and didn't notice any difference. Maybe I wasn't looking hard enough.

[Chris]

Not lower res

Well the back of the box says it runs in 720p, which then gets upscaled to 1080p.

Also it's obvious why it looks slightly blurier on the PS3 shots. The PS3 version is antialiased, whereas the 360 is not.

I've got the PS3 version, and played a bit of the 360 version, and the PS3 looks slightly better. The LOD range is longer, the lighting is better, and the texture load is quicker (because of the install for PS3)

"For example, one gamer wrote on his blog" - thats your cue to ignore anything else thats written.

[Jim Coleman]

Hmm...

Surely it would take more processing power to produce a "630p" image and then go to all the trouble of upscaling it, than it would to just produce a 720p image in the first place? Upscaling is very processor intensive. I smell cowdung, guv. Where's the "Steaming Pile" icon?

[Jon Brindley]

Delays

Wasn't GTA4 delayed for quite a while cause they struggled to get the performance out of the the PS3? As far as I recall, the 360 version had been ready to go since about June 2007, but the PS3 just couldn't cope with what was being asked of it. I suppose that in lowering the resolution they overcame that .. as well as asking you to install stuff to your PS3 HDD, without a choice apparently.

That, coupled with the ridiculous bundle price for the PS3 version (£320 for PS3, £200 for 360), means that the 360 version is far superior.

Cue flames.

[Liam]

hmm

ffs - making fuzzy could also mean the edging has been anti-aliased better...

i need to have a bit more of a play as ive only racked up 2 hours since i got it on release day :( bloody girlfriends lol

and rockstar will most likely be getting wasted. my mate worked on the game and for the last 6 months has been working 6/7 days a week!

@ chris - i know for fact the game isnt 1080 on the ps3 - as my tv wont let me use 'exact scan' (lovely tosh HD beast :))

@richard - yeah - sony crt were great - but the recent 1080p sony my mrs' dad just bought is nowhere near as good as my tosh... although the spec on my tosh is much better (but sony was more expensive)

[Anonymous Coward]

Hmmmmm...

http://www.penny-arcade.com/2008/04/30/

4th paragraph

[Ainteenbooty]

don't be tarded

The "fuzziness" was probably intentional. Smoothing edges for atmosphere. Don't mistake features for flaws.

Bias can be assumed on the part of the source of this information "xboxer".

[Anthony]

Hmm,

anyone actually looked at this on PS3 ? - its 1080p which the 360 isnt capable of - maybe they have it the wrong way round .

anyway 630p and 640p are custom resolutions not resolution standards, i highly doubt they have produced the game to this resolution as it would not look right on ANY tv's there would always be boarder or stretchin.

wot toilet fodder, are all the GTA stories basedon rumours ? ref the stabbing one yesterday - lHAA

[paul]

I couldn't tell much of a difference

When I bought the copy of GTA for PS3 , it was shown on an xbox in the store. I had 5mins on it - couldn't resist. When I got home looked identical.

The only thing I can confirm is the frame rate is reasonably solid on the ps3.

Graphics are good, but its no GT5.

However, I expect the xbots are happy. V Small 1up for them.

[Giles Jones]

PS3 is harder to program

Sony has not learned from the PS2 where you have a slow-ish CPU and a couple of math units, plus GPU.

On the PS3 you now have slowish CPU, about 8 or so math units and the GPU.

All a programmer really wants is a fast CPU and 3D acceleration.

The XBox and XBox 360 provide a familiar DirectX API to programmers, therefore it's easier to develop for.

[Ru]

@Chris Procter

An upscaled image could meet those resolutions, no problem. Not entirely honest perhaps, but not a lie.

[jai]

can't really tell the difference

i've been playing the ps3 version since last saturday and it looks fine to me

to be honest, yes, i could see that perhaps it's displaying in 1080i or similar - but it still looks kickass great

as Joe K says - when you're actually playing the game, you're not going to know the difference. besides - i'd rather play it in slightly lower res on the PS3 without the game hanging and freezing as it's doing on the 360 version

ps. a Reg article that mentions Sony and Microsoft together - let the flame wars begin!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

PC Version...

What'll that do though...

...if it comes out...

:'-(

s'not fair.

[Marc Goldman]

Nooooo!

Do we need more of the system wars rubbish?

Both versions are absolutely lovely and you can't go wrong getting either.

If you are lucky enough to have a choice then get the version more of your mates have as multiplayer looks like it could be great fun.

[Rob]

blurry

Looks lower res than 720 on my 360!! I've got a pretty big (50") but only 720p native tv, its glaringly obvious when games are scaled up (like cod4 halo3 pgr3) and this is the worst I've seen for it, stuff in the distance looks awfully aliased AND blurred!! Still a great game though

[Dominic Tristram]

Even if true, who can tell?

We have run the XBox and PS3 version here. The consensus is that there is no perceptible difference in resolution. Maybe there is, but if you can't tell on a 50" plasma, who cares?

@Anonymously Deflowered - if you don't have any games for either, I'd go with the PS3. Fanboyism aside (I tested both before deciding and the resolution is the same to my eyes), the network play is free, GTA has less 'popping in' and load times are faster, and your console won't sound like a jet engine when it's running. And wifi included, BluRay, etc etc...

[Anonymous Coward]

More useless Register FUD.

The original claim of 630p has long since been discredited, as it was taken from a screenshot on IGN, that had been cropped to fit the webpage. It's now 640p, less than the 360 version, but the PS3 version does post-processing and results in a better overall image.

http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=46242&page=25

I would be more worried about the hideous load times and really bad object pop-in that the 360 suffers, as that is a REAL problem, not a made up one, like this "news" item..

[Mad Hacker]

We need standards, they must print render resolutions on games!!!

Ok, so when a game says it supports 720p, 1080i, and 1080p that just means it upscales and supports those modes for your HDTV.

What we really need to know is the rendering resolution. Many games render on the 3D card at a lower resolution (usually to keep fps up) and then scale to the native res.

That's fine if they have to do that but they should have to DISCLOSE the rendering resolution then on the case!

As for those who say it doesn't make a difference, trust me, 1080p at 120 frames per second looks better then 720p at 24 frames per second. And in a couple years we'll all have 4K HDTVs that will make 1080p look horrible.

[Mark]

@richard

Since when has an LCD TV been a "proper one". LCD's are for cheapskates who can't afford a plasma.

Plasma are less blurry, more vibrant, last longer and and have a much better viewing angle.

Sorry..

[Tom Jobbins]

Which console to buy for GTA

If buying a console primarily to play GTA (as I just did), bear in mind that the XBOX will get two exclusive extra episodes via XBOX Live, something that Microsoft paid Rockstar $50m to secure.

Knowing that there will be GTA content that is only available on the XBOX was more than enough to swing me towards a 360 purchase; beyond that, the comparison between the two seemed largely academic (though the 360's lower price helped too.)

[Anonymous Coward]

re: Anonymously Deflowered

Buy the platform that has the games you want to play.

Personally, PS3 has pretty much all the games I want to play. Never judge a console on the basis of a cross platform game, as compromises will have been made, judge it on the platform exclusives.

Take a look at:

Ratchet and clank (PS3)

Unchartered Drakes fortune (PS3)

MGS4 (PS3)

Killzone 2 (PS3)

Little Big Planet (PS3)

Unreal Torunement (PS3)

Gran Turismo 5 (PS3)

Paris, as she likes shiney things like the PS3.

[Anonymous Coward]

But there's no such thing as 640P...

...or even 630P as this report appears to have started out on the InterWeb.

Tosh, I say.

[Stu]

Hmmmm

I have GTA4 on PS3.

Well to me it just looks 'Hi-Def'. It looks good. My TV reports it is in 720p when playing. I cant say it looks any less sharp than, say, Assassins Creed.

But then I've not payed much attention, and are ACTUALLY PLAYING AND ENJOYING IT instead of bitching and being a pedant.

But from what I hear, the PS3, being newer and technically more powerful, is supposed to be doing a better job of view distances over the XBox version, i.e. seeing miles off into the distance with better detail.

I havent seen the XBox one so I couldnt say myself.

However I am ever so slightly disappointed about drop-offs of frame rates during 'busy' scenes and action. This makes playing it during such moments a little more difficult because you are likely to have missed some action due to the drop out.

Its not a serious thing at all tho as its not as bad as it could be.

All in all, I love GTA 4. Its a pinnacle title from the games industry - even El-Reg featured 4 or 5 stories about it in one day! I mean what other title can achieve that status!?

I'm just wondering why the BBC wrote an article about GTA 4 going up against the Wii-Fit!! That may be, in terms of sales, but in terms of technical achievements - Wii-Fit sucks donkey balls in relation! What with its 5 to 10 year old style visuals.

[Mark Broadhurst]

Chris Procter

you will find that a lot of game which are 720p scale up, but dont look as good as true 1080p games.

Maybe its coze of disk access huge city means that they will need to have a lot of data duplicated.

[Sam]

Not uncommon

FANBOYS HEAR ME!!!

Halo 3 wasn't true 720p.

Neither was CoD 4.

It happens alot.

[Matthew Davies]

Swings and Roundabouts...

However a lot of reviews are stating that the PS3 has a more stable framerate and a lot less (and less severe when it does happen) pop-in than the 360.

What he gives with one hand....

Paris as I've seen her popping a few things in!

[BatCat]

PS2

Neither of them look that much better than the GTA San Andreas I have on my PS2 & since the game play is effectively the same, why would anyone want to by a "next gen" console just for this?

[Tom Adair]

Re: Gahh!

It will upscale to those resolutions for display on your telly, but the game itself is rendering at 640p (most games render at 720p on both 360 and PS3) before the upscaling.

[Steve Barnes]

IGN

hmm, got nothing for comparison as only have ps3 version, but it looks great. IGN favoured the ps3 version in their review..

[Anonymous Coward]

Missing the point

Wow. Never mind whether gameplay is any good or not in modern games, let's all get bent out of shape over a few percent difference in an already pretty high resolution which most normal people will have trouble noticing.

Does it make *any* difference to the gameplay? Does anyone even *care* about gameplay any more? Am I some sort of dangerous radical retrotard for not giving a damn about sound or graphical quality as long as the game is, you know, FUN?

Mine's the pyjamas. Wake me up when the games industry does something new and exciting please thanks.

[Anonymous Coward]

A PS3 Developer's Feedback

I'm a PS3 developer, just finishing off a PS3 project now so I've been through all this already.

First resolution: The 360 & PS3 versions are both 720. The PS3 (for your benefit) upscales to 1080p better than the 360 - it's blindingly good with normal DVDs too.

The PS3 version of GTAIV is probably blurring the image, or rendering it onto a smaller framebuffer and scaling that up.

PS3 memory is rubbish, and it needs a lot of work to run at full whack. Bear in mind the PS3 version has delayed the release of the 360 version as is, so I wouldn't be suprised if they had to cut a few corners to get it running well...Sony wouldn't let it go out running slower than the 360, no chance.

All of that said, if you like it then what's the problem? Personally, I kinda like the slightly softer render - although the bloom is annoying sometimes.

[Anonymous Coward]

lets make this easy...

PS3 is better - why? because I've got one

just play CoD4 multiplayer and GT5 - like I do.

[Sam]

@BatCat

I'm not quite so sure about that, there is plenty of detail and the city is very 'busy', cars get dustry etc etc. And the physics system is very cool.

Plus wasn't say locked at a max 30fps?

But I hear ya there a little man, I am enjoyed this Gen, but i'm starting to think that the GC, PS2, XBOX generation was the golden one (at least for me).

[Test Man]

You know what...

... WHO. CARES.

All this silly arguments over some minute difference of resolution reminds me of the same old silly arguments over frame rates back on the Super NES and Megadrive and it was as pointless then is as is now.

I mean apparently the 360 GTA IV has a minutely higher resolution than the PS3 GTA IV but the PS3 looks better overall. Do sane 360 owners really care? Do sane PS3 owners really care? Nope.

Move along, nothing to see here.

[Anonymous Coward]

@This might help me choose

There is almost noticeable difference between the two, especially when you are hooning about at speed shooting anything and everything that moves...

If you are buying a console primarily for GTA IV, one thing to consider is the downloadable content which is stated as being XBox exclusive, and comes out late summer (I think). It will require an XBox Live subscription.

This is supposed to be extra story and stuff to do, about 10 hours of game play.

Paris as she appears in low resolution too.

[Rob]

hmm

I didnt actually see any arguing..

[Graham Lockley]

My dads bigger than your dad

My <insert name here> is far better than the rubbish <insert name here>

Choose from the following list :

Vic 20

Dragon 32

Spectrum

C64

BBC Model B

Atari St

Amiga

Sega Saturn

Gamecube

X-Box

PS2

*YAWN*

Paris coz I believe she knows something about inserting things here

[Anonymous Coward]

My e-penis is bigger than yours.

You're all missing the point!

The difference between the two versions is really pointless. The only real difference is the size of everyone's e-penis here...

It doesn't matter if you're a PS3 or a 360 player, the point is - atleast it's not a Wii.

(oh yeah, I went there.)

[Tim Bates]

Who cares....

Both consoles are now a good few years old. Pretty antique by IT standards. I'll wait for the PC release.

I don't care if I have to run at 640x480 either, I just want to play it for the game!

[Stephen Nicol]

PS3 it

I have the 360 version of this and it IS fantastic. I've had minor issues but only once or twice where banisters don't appear or a car pops into view or the skyscrapers just appear in the distance.

None of this has detracted from the joy of the game. I've seen the PS3 version running and it looks awesome and by all counts there's a lot less of the very minor things I've experienced.

Anyway, the worst thing about the 360 version is that fkn fan in the 360. It really is obtrusive and more so that for any other game I've noticed - if I didn't have friends who have the 360 version I would be swapping it for the PS3 one.

[Clive Galway]

"no such thing as 640P" / it's 640P not 630P

"But there's no such thing as 640P...

Anonymous Coward • Thursday 1st May 2008 16:55 GMT

...or even 630P as this report appears to have started out on the InterWeb."

Yes there is. There is such a thing as <any number>p

All 630p is saying is that there are 630 rows of pixels and it is progressive (Not interlaced)

So if your TV was a 16:9 display, you would have (630/9)x16 = 1120 columns of pixels

If your TV was 4:3, the resolution would be 840x630 : (630/4)*3=840

for i (interlaced) modes, halve the y for the true resolution, so 1080i on a 16:9 is not 1920x1080 but effectively 1920x540.

Ahh, 720p, how cute. I play PC games in 1200p (16:10) with an additional 768p (4:3) display to the side.

[Andy Worth]

Pointless willy-fights

I do love the way any discussion about consoles leads to a guarantee that people will wave their cock in the comments and challenge everyone else to prove theirs is bigger. Of course, we could just play the game and enjoy it instead.

Honestly, why print something without properly checking the facts first? I sometimes think that the Reg just want to start another "cock-war" for the sake of it.

The likelihood is that the PS3 version is anti-aliased and the 360 version either is not, or less so. Either way, without being totally anal about it, I don't think there is enough difference to be worth me worrying my fucking day away about it. It's a fantastic game, regardless of console - my only regret being that 360 and PS3 owners can't play on the same online servers.

[Neil]

Nothing new

Reminds me of the days you would buy a speccy game based on the screenshot on the back, only to load up some monochrome pap and read "Screenshot from Arcade, actual graphics may vary".

[Liam]

hmmmm

it says 1080p on the back of the box BUT my TV refuses to let me choose the 1080p setting for this game (works on other 1080p games!)

i would suggest its a 720p - im going to fire off an email today to rockstar as saying 1080p on a box and not being able to display this is false advertising. and yes, i can tell the diffence :)

@Mark - what bollocks. i have a a top end toshiba LCD and apart from the £3000 panasonic plasmas nothing touches it. and with lcd you dont have a highly reflective glass screen - meaning im not in the dark all the time. PLUS the massive savings on electricity and the fact that after 6mths most plasmas have a noticably worse display. plasma burn anyone? and the viewing angle of my tv is great - i cant get a bad picture wherever i stand in my room. it simply depends on the QUALITY of device you buy (i.e if you get a samsung, lg etc then yeash it will be pants)

i certainly dont see any popup on the ps3 version and its as smooth as a babies arse to play :) - and driving is much more fun than in previous versions :)

@BatCat - looks LOADS better than san andreas - believe me mate! plus the driving is much more fun - and the cars look loads better too :)

@Missing the point - yes the gameplay is good mate :) good gameplay now with good graphics too :) driving round the city is a joy :) plus there are some new additions to gameplay which are fun...

@My e-penis is bigger than yours - noooo dont bring the wiiiiii into this. imagine using that controller to play this game... <shudders>

[Martin Huizing]

@Mark

eh... what planet are you from where mice weigh heavier than elephants?

Paris because she looks soooo much better on the new generation LCD screens.

[Nexox Enigma]

720p?

I thought these next gen consoles were powerful. My 2+ year old mid-range desktop can play even the newest games at 1280x720, with 70+FPS. And it will play older ones at full 2304x1440 at 80FPS. I could never stand many console games because of the low res (4 player halo on a standard tv? I can't tell the difference between a rock and a player at 12 feet) and I thought the HDTV thing would make it all better. But it seems that they just bumped the pixel count a little bit.

Guess I'll stick to playing games like Rockband (Works great on a crappy tv) on my friends' equipment. No need to have another set of consumer electronics draining my wallett anyway...

[Cavan]

As a Console connoisseur my 2c

I have not played GTA IV on the PS3; I did play GTA IV on the 360 for about an hour; and my main concern wasn’t the resolution; nor was it the excitement of smashing up my newest girlfriends’ car; without her even mentioning the event or yelling at me (something only achievable in the gaming world). It was the fact that I’ve played this game before … again and again and again … GTA was the only original game .. running down those Hare Krishna’s; There was just something cool about it. (I have not felt the need to run down a group of Hare Krishna’s in real life).

In reality if you have friends and they have a console; it’s probably the 360; if you don’t have any friends they would probably have a PS3.

I have all 3; (I Think I have friends, they all have 360’s; I thought said friends would come round and play; so I bought a Wii; turns out in fact I have no friends, so I bought a ps3.)

Network gaming is a real pain in the ass when it comes to the PS3 it’s great if you have no friends, as joining a random online is painless. But if you want to talk to them, or invite them to your game, it’s not going to happen; unless you and they are out of a game; or you give them a call and arrange it; harks back to PC days.

The 360, you are always online, in game, in movie (if you wish), you can invite or be invited to the game you or they are playing, and you can message in game, or chat in game.

Storage is another issue, 20GB (120GB if your lucky) or 40GB (bear in mind it’s simple to swap out the PS3 hard drive and slot in a 320GB baby no such luck with the 360).

In Essence don’t buy a console on the strength of a game that being said I bought a PS3 because I could import Rock Band before the UK got it; On the other other hand I did play WiiFit last night with some friends, and that was pretty good fun.

Discuss

[Mark C]

@Graham Lockley

Abso-bloody-lutely .... this is tedious bollocks that got dull many many years ago

[Anonymous Coward]

@Paris

"The word that goes around is that the 360 has a slightly crisper look while the PS3 has less pop-up and smoother frame-rate.

Personally I've seen both run side by side and didn't notice any difference. Maybe I wasn't looking hard enough."

I've also played both versions, the PS3 version does look smoother and the frame-rate is better over the 360's sharper, slightly laggy version.

Either way though it's a great game! The 360 version would've benefited from installing data to the HD like the PS3 version does but oh well.

[Tim]

PS3 games are always misrepresented on the box.

The backs of the boxes for GTAIV and GT5 prologue are both wrong.

GTAIV Does NOT upscale to 1080p (as my telly doesnt allow me to exactscan as it does with all the other 1080p games i have. Also it says there is a 3000KB HD requirement, not a 3GB one that is actually installed.

Same with GT5 Prologue (though that DOES run 1080p), the 6 GIGABYTE install shows as 300KB on the box. Good job i have enough room.

Still wouldnt trade for anything made by Micro$oft so its a moot point.

[Dirk Vandenheuvel]

PS3 in weaker version shocker?

Why am I not surprised?

It is always good when hype falls flat on its face. In the case of the PS3 it seems to be flat as a pancake.

[Alex]

@AC Comparing e-size

It's not the size of your e-penis, it's what you do with it. Lolololol Wii ftw etc. etc.

It's baffling, isn't it? Presumably, people are being offered an inferiority complex alongside the warranty when they buy a new console.

Your Xbox 360 is better than my PS3? That's nothing! My Zanussi dishwasher wipes the floor with your Hotpoint!

[DrXym]

The screen is still pretty good

Most reviewers prefer the PS3 version for its look. It seems that while the 360 has a higher resolution it is using some kind of weird jitter / dither filter on the screens for reasons unknown. It means that while the screen looks general sharper, a lot of screens have a weird fuzzing that doesn't look so good against the PS3 screen. I think it's highly subjective which you prefer.

Otherwise the game seems mostly comparable, although the PS3 has less popin and possibly higher quality sound due to the HDD install and extra space respectively.

[Pondlife]

GTA4 is worth every penny

Whilst you losers have been whining about pixels, comparing rumours and making rubbish up I've jacked your car, stole all your bases and driven off with your girlfriend.

[Anonymous Coward]

As always..

The nonsense that the Microsoft robots spew all over the net, bears little resemblance to reality.

Check out the screen grabs in this thread:

http://forums.highdefdigest.com/showthread.php?t=53913&page=3

Even IF the PS3 version renders lower (which from what I can tell, we can't really be sure, as pixel counting from 1 person is not realy credible), the screenshots above clearly show the PS3 version having the better visuals.

In addition, the total lack of popup and faster loading times on the PS3 version put is significantly ahead of the 360 version.

Microsoft are in damage limitation mode right now, and have their FUD spreaders out 24x7 spreading the interweb with their lies and deceit.

[Anonymous Coward]

So when can we expect the articles:

"360 fights off colour dithering woes."

As the reason the PS3 version looks better, is becase it uses 16bit colour dithering rather than the XBoxs 10bit dithering.

"360 fights off horrendous popup woes that make the game unplayable at times."

or how about:

"lack of mandatory install on 360 makes for long load times."

Of course, you won't do any articles about this, as you are all Xbots at El-Reg

I'll get me coat..

[Anonymous Coward]

@Anthony

"its 1080p which the 360 isnt capable of "

Not entirely true, the 360 is capable out outputting a 1080p signal. Has been ever since M$ enabled it in one of the early updates.

[Shane McCarrick]

Of even more concern

Of far greater concern to me that anti-aliasing blurring/blooms, upscaling etc are the reports of periodic freezing, and occasional bricking of PS3s with this. I love my PS3, and while I'm not a big FPS fan, GTA4 is on my shopping list as soon as I can find a bricks and mortar store that has a copy (anywhere.....)- but the stories of consoles getting bricked is very offputting......

Re: Plasma versus LCD argument- I use both- there are pros and cons with both. For general usage, I prefer LCD.

[Anonymous Coward]

Im really with the guys that say WHO CARES!

The whole point about a console is the GAMES and how well they play.

Not the screen size or the colour or any other bollocks

If the game is no good then what's the point of really top of the range details?

I have a 360 and a friend of mine a PS3, and its nice that we both have a game we can talk about good and bad points, and generally have a laugh at it.

All this fanboi bollocks really is getting old!

./* Mines the one with the extra large folder up GTA map in the pocket to slap FanBoi's around the head... Nicco Style!

[Anonymous Coward]

Proof that it's 640p

Please go here to see how the 640p (not 630p) number was reached for the PS3 version. It's a very detailed analysis which you can also do yourself to pick out the native resolution.

http://catisfit.blogspot.com/2008/04/grand-theft-auto-4-ps3-v-360-comparison.html

For info, Halo 3 was 640p and Call of Duty 4 was 600p native resolution on both platforms.

[Anonymous Coward]

@Anonymously Deflowered

"This might help me choose

Anonymously Deflowered • Thursday 1st May 2008 15:23 GMT

I am currently umming and ahhing on the 360 vs PS3 debate because I plan to buy a console especially to play this game. It's about 50-50 at the moment so this might just swing it in the Xbox's favour!

Do any Reg readers have strong opinions either way? (he asked hestitantly in case this turns into an anti Microsoft thing)"

/flamesuit ON!

Firsly...for the sake of openess...I'm a 360 owner...this opinion is based on that, and conversations with several PS3 owners....

If you are after the cheapest GAMES CONSOLE, with the best online experience. Go for the 360. True...you have to pay for XBoxLive...but it is faster, more reliable and the games integrate better than the PS3 alternative.

If you want to pay more and are more concerned with owning an ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE...BlueRay and all the bells an whistles then go for the PS3. Anecdotal (and first hand) evidence tells me that the online experience isnt as good as XBOX live. Actual gaming-wise (ignoring online) there is very little difference, except for the platform specific games.

[Liam]

hmmmm

@ - Nexox Enigma

its comments like yours that confuse people. yes im sure your old mid-range pc can PLAY the games. can it antialias them (to say 8x)? can it add all the soft shadows? whats the anistropic like on your gfx card(16x??)? there is a diffence in display and eye candy. simple things like dynamic shadows and edge smoothing take LOADS of power to do. i bet your 2 year old pc cant play 1/2 the modern games even at medium settings can it?

and i bet you spent over 300£ on that pc too didnt you? im not knocking pcs but i bought a new one last xmas (custom built) - £1200 on cpu, audio, ram, mobo and gfx card - that runs every game all maxxed out settings - something i bet your machine cannot do - and let me tell you the difference between a screenie on that pc and your pc will amaze you.

the thing is most people dont know about the extra processing going on behind the scenes to make things look so nice. i spent more on a gfx card for the pc than i did on my ps3! to me the ps3 is amazing value when you consider what it does

@ ooFie

"All this fanboi bollocks really is getting old!" - well said mate. i have a ps3 - im happy with it. it costs more than the 360 but i prefer it over a 360... why the hell do people feel the need to make us all justify extra expenditure etc - i earn plenty enough to buy a ps3, i did and im very happy :)

mine's the one witha CND logo on the back :)

[Anonymous Coward]

Fanboys as art critics

Cézanne: "It's a bit blurry."

Lowry: "The picture looks stretched."

Lichtenstein: "You can see the individual dots."

I've played both the 360 and the PS3 version and I prefer the PS3 version. The 360 version does look sharper but it looks more like a game, and the PS3 version looks more like a film with some nice lighting effects. All in all, it's a matter of taste.

[Tom]

@Mark

Since when has a plasma TV been a "proper one". Plasmas are for cheapskates who can't afford an OLED.

OLEDs are less blurry, more vibrant, (admittedly don't last longer) and and have a much better viewing angle.

Sorry.. ;-)

Or, of course, you could take price vs benefit into account and just go for an LCD that is significantly cheaper than a plasma without being greatly inferior. And to be honest i very much doubt a plasma would out-last an LCD anyway.

[Liam]

@ Tom

bollocks mate - sorry! when you can get a 42" OLED i will get one but i will wait at least 2 years before they are available! its new tech. they havent even managed to get past 20" to my knowledge - i was waiting for 2 years for them and got bored :)

i have oled on my cordless phones at home :)

[Adam Foxton]

@A Baird

Not only the higher resolution and picture quality on the PC, but it'll have:

* higher frame-rate,

* faster loading times

* the potential for far better lighting/physics/AI (though this is a bit of an unrealistic dream)

* the ability to stream your game across the 'net to play it on a PDA, another PC (WooYay! GTA:IV at work!), or laptop,

* Stereoscopic gaming

* True multi-monitor widescreen views available

* User mods

* Potentially, better sound- or at least better surround effects

* Almost certainly, Microsoft-secured extra content from the 360 version

* To wait another year, 18 months to play it. But that's a trade-off I'm willing to make!

Yep, for e-penis size, the PC is still the John Holmes (without the Aids) of the gaming world. Hell, even a PS3-equivalent-price PC (especially built from parts) when this is released will be able to out-do the PS3 or 360.

Pirate logo because PCs also have DVD-R drives...

[Alex]

Well...

..seems as thought it depends what you like. The Xbox seems to be 'harsher' where as the ps3 seems to be "softer". prefer the PS3 to be completely honest, but the Xbox has the elusive additional island.. But then, once i've completed GTA4, I doubt I'd want ANOTHER island to explore.. I'd probably be sick of it :o)

Either way, I think the console community is in a win-win situation. Good honest game play with a good honest game. Roll on the post!

[Anonymous Coward]

Who gives a shit

I'm playing it on the PS3 and loving every minute, no FPS drops, no freezing, looks fantastic.... Bloody brilliant game.....

p.s. isn't there a rumour flying around that rockstar are going to become a sony exclusive developer..... GTA5 on PS3 only, that'll piss off the xblot fanbois...

[Iain]

@Tony Chandler

GTA4 allows you to control all the options with colour saturation, brightness and other effects that the game uses for different effects. The PS3 defaults are (for some reason I don't understand) different to the 360 ones, but you can play with either version to make it look like the other.

@whoever it was that said that Sony LCDs are rubbish, but that Samsung were a better option, they're clearly being wrong. The two brands share panel manufacture, so the only difference is that the electronics that Sony bolt onto them are far superior, with better control over scaling effects and backlight levels.

Plasmas are fine and dandy, once you get up to 50" and lay down the several thousand it costs to get a decent 1920x1080 panel. At those sizes you've got to really look to find an LCD at any price, but for the smaller sizes LCD normally sells at you won't get as sharp an image because the resolution just isn't there.

[Tom]

@Liam

Sorry, mine was a tongue-in-cheek reaction to an earlier comment regarding Plasma vs LCD. I wasn't actually suggesting buying a 42" OLED, mainly because no-one has made one! I was arguing that although plasmas have their advantages over LCDs, the price increase probably isn't worth it for modern LCDs.

[Liam]

@ Iain

i think it was me that sony werent that great - but i certainly didnt say samsung were great! and btw sony and sansung share some panel manufacturing factories but also differ for certain size screens (stupid i know)

"but for the smaller sizes LCD normally sells at you won't get as sharp an image because the resolution just isn't there." ?? a 1080p tv will have the same resolution whatever screen size!!! this is the point lol!

@Adam Foxton - but console type games never work well on a pc! i know my pc should be able to whack out insane FPS rates but i work on pcs and dont wanna spend my evenings sat at a monitor... i like chilling with a fatty infront of a 42" screen and surround sound from my nice speakers.. :) fps games are far better on a pc i admit...

you also forgot:

the pc version will

most lkikely crash a lot more than the console versions. and online will be full of cheats (sad fact about pc online gaming)

[Liam]

@ Tom

doh! sorry mate - im half asleep today awaiting a lovely 3 days off :)

[Matt Bridge-Wilkinson]

Ps3 is better at upscaling dvds? hardly

Someone said "The PS3 (for your benefit) upscales to 1080p better than the 360 - it's blindingly good with normal DVDs too."

I have both and yes Bluray looks awesome, but the 360 is far far better at upscaling to 1080p for dvds. The ps3 gives odd distortions around edges of peoples faces or some odbjects I have noticed. I'm not going on specs, or technical knowledge, just the evidence I see with my own two eyes.

I had hoped this would help me decide which version of GTA to get, I think its going to be 360 for its extra content in the pipeline.

[Leo Davidson]

Correction about 360 load times and pop-in/pop-up

There's a lot of unfounded bullshit in the comments here from people saying the load times and pop-in/pop-up on the 360 version are "horrendous."

I've played 50 hours of the 360 version of the game and I can tell you that I've noticed pop-in only a handful of times and it has never caused an issue (e.g. I have not ONCE ran into something invisible that then appeared as in previous GTA games; in the rare cases that things do pop-in it's usually a higher res version of them replacing the original a split second after the object is on screen, and it's always been peripheral things for me).

Second, the load times are not horrendous. They're about 5 seconds max while the PS3 version is reported as having about 3 seconds max according to the reviews I've read. No big deal either way. You won't be staring at a loading screen on either version.

I haven't seen the PS3 version in action so I can't comment on how the visuals compare. As most sane people say, both versions are bloody excellent and virtually identical so let your decision be based on which console you own already, which controller you prefer, which console your friends own if you're interested in multiplayer, whether you care about the features of Xbox Live (and/or whether you care about having to pay for those features), and whether you are interested in the 360's exclusive downloadable content later in the year (which is supposed to be big, but nobody knows exactly how big yet).

I pre-ordered the 360 version long ago and considered getting the PS3 version as well, but after playing the 360 version I realised that every single reported downside it has versus the PS3 version is as tiny and unnoticeable as the (sane) reviews say it is. Unfortunately fanboys get hold of those comments and blow them completely out of proportion, as if an extra two seconds is "horrendous."

[jay019]

@Xbox 360 Exlusive Content

You do realize that the exclusive content will be a paid for add on. Also the ps3 will get extras down the track, no doubt after the $5b time exclusivity deal is done.

[Iain]

@Liam

Yeah, I kind of worded that badly. What I was trying to get at is most 40"+ LCD screens are a full 1920x1080, but the smaller Plasma displays are lower resolution; typically 1360x768 or even 1024x768 in the case of the popular Panasonics. There are full 1080p plasmas out there, but they're pretty painfully expensive.