What game has Microsoft taken out large amounts of content so it would run on the Xbox?
If anything I've found it to be the opposite way around with games on the Xbox. It's always had far more content then all of the other platforms a game has been released on, especially with the ever expanding content over Live!
This actually includes games either ported from or to Windows.
This aside, you want a run-down of reasons why I (one of the few ACTUAL owners of the PS3 on this forum) don't like the console?
1. High-Definition Video. This was the main selling point of this console, as well as the 360. I was shocked and annoyed to know that a title I'd worked on for the 360 to take advantage of HD wouldn't even be able to run at the 1080p it had been designed for. This said the drop to 720p isn't that great so all-in-all the games still look absolutely amazing and only a small few (Kameo and Viva Pinata) show some frame jitter when running in these resolutions when the camera control is taken away from the player. For the 360 setting up HD was a breeze, plug-in wait a few seconds and bingo you're in HD. What's possibly more enjoyable is that I can switch between SD and HD with a flick of a switch while the machine is running, it automatically detects this and outputs correctly.
Unfortunately the same can NOT be said about the PS3. You change anything with the video settings then you HAVE to reboot the console. In order for HD to work it must not only be manually turned on, which requires you to first connect via an SD connection. Check to make sure you're TV will run Sony's HD settings (despite the TV I have running my 360 and PC at 1080p HD, the PS3 just gives me a blank screen for some reason) and repeat previous steps as required.
Oh and if only the problems stopped there, there are roughly 3 brands of HD Sound actually compatible with the PS3; so it's no surprise to find out that the 6 TVs I've tried it with, it has flat-out refused to support. What is possibly more annoying is unlike the 360, if you're using HD-Video you MUST use HD-Sound on the PS3. So basically I ended up having to connect my 5.1 Surround from my PC to my PS3 just to get sound output, round a few friends houses we've basically had to play without sound.
So, the first impression of the console just to get the bloody thing working was not grand to say the least.
Next came the games. After all this faffing about, getting the HD to work I wanted my games to run at the best possible resolution they could. Resistance did just that, it was nice.. I could see very crisply at 720p those amazing graphics of the consoles premier game. Only problem is that the textures really aren't designed for HD.. Sure from far way they look nice, but close up they're just very blurry basic colours more than anything. Kinda like Gears of War, when you press-X to skip a cut-scene and it takes a few moments for the high resolution models and textures to appear. Those few moments are exactly what resistance looked like.
Well after playing the game for about and hour with my mate it got put down. Not been played again since. It's not a bad game, just it isn't exactly a good game either. Totally bland really, only decent thing about it was the multiplayer; which the weapon balance is almost non-existant so there's definately a few weapons players will *always* use.
Next game I tried out was Ridge Racer. Hadn't played one of these since RR on the PSOne, so it didn't really need to impress me alot just a bit. Unfortunately I think Namco have been bitten by the "realism" bug with the game.. no more reverse 360 power-slides I loved to do in the original. Also no resolution past 720p, this we discovered on my mates TV that apparently supports more than mine. So that was a disappointment. The game looked quite nice, but it didn't exactly run as smooth as we had hoped it would.
2) Free Sony Playstation Network. This service is free for a reason... the reason being you need on HELL of a quick connection, the money you'd be paying for it breaks you. Now I've played it on a 2.5Mbit SDSL and 24Mbit Cable connection; on my lass' 2.5Mbit, lag was just ridiculous. Felt like playing on a 56k modem again.. on my 24Mbit line it finally began to feel like broadband gameplay.
What I don't understand though is my lass' connection generally gets lower ping (as it's limited from 100Mbit) and is an identical speed Up and Down. So all I can think of is the Sony server is sending you a crapload of data at once. In any case if you have "Slow" broadband I would recommend staying away from online play.
Something else that annoys me is the messaging system, people will send you things; things will finish downloading (oh yeah didn't I mention that it will continue to download anything even during online play, this includes the forced automatic updates), etc. Only you can't find out exactly what it is without dropping back to desktop. Very annoying. More so given no Mics work online yet, and rather than being able to type messages normally you have some retarded variation of T9-Mobile phone input system, with yup you've guessed it.. a built-in auto-complete word dictionary.
3) DVDs. Play them, watch them. Then realise that the only movies to get given the PureVideo treatment are those using BluRay. Normal DVD movies look pretty much like VHS tapes, even the PS2 did a better job. What is possibly more irritating is they've gone and bloody changed the control system for it all. Don't know who felt the SIXAXIS was a good idea but they should've been shot.
4) SIXAXIS. While we're on the subject, the motion control in the SIXAXIS was suppose to make up for the lack of DualShock. I think the only worth while examples of this are on the damn demo disc.
Carbon was the only game that used it in a way that made... some sense, even then it only reacts a little to give you that bit extra steering. On the whole, weighs the same as a DualShock and is identical in design. I wish to god I could plug my DualShock2 controller sometimes, just to feel something.
(for those wondering, I sold Carbon on eBay and bought the 360 version instead.. made $15 on it
)
5) XMB.. It works on the PSP. Quite innovative and easy to navigate. This might be because the PSP doesn't have over 2,000 bloody options though!! On the PS3 it's just annoying and retarded.
You can be scrolling for a good 5minutes if you have alot on you're hard disk, you don't even notice when you pass what you wanted half the time.
6) It's FREAKING HUGE. Sure it'll silently hum away with the occassional click and whirr from the hard disk, but the console is just a truely phenominal size. I thought the 360 was quite large, only being slightly smaller than the original xbox. Nope aparently Sony not only believed that the PS3 should look as much like some 50s futuristic video player as possible but it should be about the only thing you can focus on in the living room while it blocks out the damn sun.
7) Playstation & Playstation 2 emulation. If you have it attached to HD, go through the performance of putting it in SD otherwise you get a stretched picture. Also in SD is slightly easier to miss those jaggies, lack of bilinear filtering, mipmapping, and a whole host of other cool things that you're PS2 happily does; but this monster aparently either is incapable of (after playing Ridge Racer it honestly had me seriously wondering if it could) or feels that even thinking about doing them is a waste on it's awesomeness.
No matter what the reason, older games just look worse than the console they were originally intended for.
When all was done, after about a week of use my PS3 is sitting lonely in a cupboard at my brother's place waiting for MGS4, Killzone2, or Final Fantasy XIII to be released. While I still have my trusty old PS2 Slim connected up.
