Lazygamer Investigates: The PS3 comes up short with COD5
Earlier this week, Videogamer.com posted up a 720p comparison of Call of Duty 5 on the PS3 and Xbox 360. I saw the video and started noticing differences between the two that I felt couldn't be ignored. So what I did is, I took a screengrab of the comparison to show you. Comparison videos always cause a general ruckus between the different console owners and this one is obviously doing the same. Truth be told, the Xbox 360 version looks significantly better and what bothers me the most is that I picked up the differences in the introduction cut-scene, which is a controlled environment that doesn't really have that much complexity to it. So why I ask, does the PS3 version look significantly worse?... 
You can click the above image to see it in full resolution, although take note that there is a little bit of compression on the image.... When you take a closer look you can clearly see that the texturing on the man's clothing and even the little badge on the bottom right is significantly lower and more "jaggy" or pixelated than the one on the Xbox 360. Not only that but you will also notice that the guy all the way in the background has some missing models on him. Now I have seen Uncharted and Metal Gear Solid 4 running on a PS3 and the graphics were phenomenal. So why again is the PS3 getting the short end of the stick. Why on earth, in a cutscene so simple, would Treyarch have to resort to lower texture resolutions and less geometry. I can't even see such small changes making a large difference to the framerate anyway. At the end of the day, small differences like this won't completely change a gamers experience but really, this doesn't make any sense because we know that the PS3 should be able to handle graphics like this without any issues. I ask again if it is just down to developer laziness because regardless of which was the lead platform, it can't be that damn difficult to make the graphics look equal in quality on both.
Treyarch, the developers of Call of Duty 3 have been under a lot of fire from gamers and critics who said that they were never nearly as talented as the big boys from Infinity Ward (Creators of the COD franchise and developers of the first, second and fourth installments), The truth is that they only had 8 months to work on COD 3 while Infinity Ward had two years to pump out COD 4. So now that Treyarch have been given a decent amount of time to develop a title they have been given a chance to show their true potential.... Gameplayer.com.au has had a chance to test out the 4 player online co-op and from the sounds of things, Treyarch is proving that they are a becoming a force to be reckoned with. Just last week I was able to get some hands-on time with some early code of COD 5 and I was impressed with what I had seen.... My opinion changed after my experience with the first level of COD 5 but in the end I realised that I had not seen nearly enough to get a solid feeling of the games worth. Gameplayer.com.au has been lucky enough to get some time with the games 4 player co-op and their impression left me thinking that my initial excitement was justified.... As we’ve come to expect from the Call of Duty series, you really do get immersed in the world through a non-stop barrage of sound-effects, explosions, bullet-fire and well executed action set-pieces. Yeah it plays straighter than Ron Jeremy’s ****, but it is sensory overload of the highest order and it facilitates such tension that your butt cheeks will creep ever forward, clinging onto the edge of your couch as a clam would latch onto a diver’s ankle.... Gameplayer does go on to describe that their are definite differences between the two, saying: it is a different type of game. The weaponry is old-school, and while new additions like the flamethrower provide plenty of comedic value – that’s right kiddies, watching foes light up like kerosene covered hay bales is worth the price of admission alone – if you love your red-dot enabled M16A4, you might be more than a little put-off.... Both games may use the same engine, but very few assets were able to transcend from modern day to the forties and the attention to detail, as well as the sharpness of the A.I – where Infinity Ward’s talent really shines – aren’t as impressive.... So the big question is, which of the two are going to be better when we finally get to compare them. While the upgrade from COD 3 to COD 4 was a lot larger and left us blown away by its improvements, it lacked any form of co-operative play. COD 5 will have to have an incredibly strong multiplayer package to take players away from COD 4 and move them back into the worn-torn maps of World War 2.... Infinity Ward delivers nothing short of spectacular in terms of its titles and to even match them will be proof enough that they are not what all the nay-sayers thought they were.
