Corey | 
February 11, 2009 | 
Shockingly close.
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| Digital Extremes |
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| FPS | 4996 mb | n/a |
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| Release: 10/21/08 | 12 sec | 12 sec | Release: 08/21/07 | |||||||||
| ESRB: Mature |
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Head2Head – Bioshock We go in-depth and get to the bottom on which version you should be playing. Wow, that was deep. |
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Bioshock was released on the Xbox 360 in August of 2007 to much acclaim. The game offered a unique under-the-sea atmosphere, creative weapons/abilities and a great storyline for a FPS. Not to mention it was one of the first non-Epic Games title to be developed on the Unreal 3 engine. There was much to rejoicing in the Xbox camp on this exclusive title for the Xbox 360 as they stood on the bow of the boat and exclaimed they were the king of the world. (Gets pulled aside) What? Excuse me? Its coming to the PS3? Yeah right…
And sure enough, the planets aligned and fourteen months later Bioshock was released from the harbor on the PlayStation 3. But not everything was smooth sailing for this late comer. The game took on one of the PS3’s nasty habits…the hard drive install. A whopping 4996mb hard drive install to be exact which took close to 15 minutes to complete. I will have to be honest, my patience was thin after waiting that long. I thought, “This game better not have a seconds worth of load time…”. But to my surprise, the game had the same load times as the now year old Xbox 360 version. That is unexecptable in my book.
Load times aside, Digital Extremes did a great job with this port(wait for the pun)…after a slight hull repair(here’s that pun!) in the form of a patch(more to install). The patch fixed a few low resolution textures (wrench, Big Daddy corpse) that were present when the game shipped(kind of a pun). Other than that the PS3 version preforms quiet nicely. The frame rate is consistant, only stuttering a little, and the textures are great. The textures are slightly lower resolution than the Xbox 360 version and some areas feel slighly more aliased. But the differences are not major like some of the ports we have seen.
Roll over image to see the differences. Notice the PS3 textures are slightly lower resolution.
Roll over image to see the differences. Notice the PS3 has slightly more aliasing.
Overall, if you own both systems, I would recommend picking up the original for the Xbox 360. You can get it for a good price nowadays and it wont give you scurvy(we’re not sure if the PS3 does either, but we’re just playing it safe). But if you only own a PlayStation 3 do yourself a favor and buy this game, you will not be disappointed(but there may be scurvy). Just make sure you have something to do during the insanely long install time, like swab the deck(we couldn’t find a better place for that pun).
| G R A P H I C S | ||
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Digital Extremes did a fantastic job making the PS3 version look like the Xbox 360. Unfortunately, the PS3 textures are slightly lower resolution and some areas suffer some aliasing. |
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| P E R F O R M A N C E | ||
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Once again, very close. We did witness some frame dropping on the PS3 version. When tested on the Xbox360, in the same area, the 360 was running smooth. |
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| C O N T R O L | ||
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Controls are a tie. Both perform equally as well. |
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| L O A D I N G | ||
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Loading…oh the loading. This one easily goes to the Xbox 360. I am sorry, if you have to take up 15 minutes of my time and close to 5 gigabytes of hard drive space to load at the SAME speed as the Xbox 360…something is wrong. |
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| O U T C O M E | ||
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The Xbox 360 offers the definitive experience for Bioshock. But even if you pick it up on the PS3 you won’t feel like you boarded the Titanic. If you haven’t gone out and purchased this game, would you kindly? |
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Ehm you have forgot to patch the PS3 version of Bioshock, and you forgot to say that the PS3 versione even with the “unlock framerate” option doesn’t have any sort of tearing.
Try the patched version with the 360 version and the gfx will be on par.
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Well about Killzone, so, if Killzone has such good graphics in Playstation 3, just imagine how superior would look if it was to come out in Xbox360.
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What the hell is that supposed to mean? Now, THIS is a bullshit comment. Why the hell would you say something like this. Are you trying to get the PS3 fanboys on your ass? You know damn well that the 360 can’t even push 1/2 of the graphics for Killzone 2, that’s why it is something called a PS3 exclusive.
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Says the guy with the Killzone avatar
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doesnt matter the game has impressive visuals but mediocre gameplay.
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bull shit comparison…
i own both versions and have played both versions extensivly
on a sony lcd 40in 1080 model
the ps3 version is far better and the frame rate is much improved
as far as the harddrive is concerned its no issue.. you can replace a 40gb hard drive with a 320gb model for less then 6 dollors.. and its very easy to do… space is no issue…
this head to head is unfair and baised..
give a truecomparison using a 1080p streamed video with the latest updates from both versions…
.. i am a proud owner of all current gen systems… but i am a fanboy to dreamcast..
do not follow this head to haed.. its a bad comparison.. us your own eyes and judge
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wow, I didn’t think doing a Head2Head on this game would get such a rise out of people. First off, we were comparing both versions with the latest patches. As for frame rate, the PS3 did have a few hiccups. It wasn’t major, just worth noting. And enabling “unlock frame rate” simply removes v-sync, which gives a higher frame rate at the cost of some tearing. I would rather see some dropped frames than tearing personally.
I used my own eyes and the Xbox won.
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lol, waht was that point of saying that? lol, I guess your right, but I’m on to you buddy…lol.
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[quote]as far as the harddrive is concerned its no issue.. you can replace a 40gb hard drive with a 320gb model for less then 6 dollors..[/quote]
Wait… what? Where are you buying your hard drives at? Let me in on your secrets! I’ll gladly pay 6 bucks for a 320 gig drive.
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I disagree. I also own both consoles and I would have to say that the 360 version looks better, if only slightly. Check your settings and stuff. Make sure that it is correctly set up.
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is the RBG Range on full for the ps3 version? because when that option is not turned on, it gives the games that more washed out look that is present in these images and makes me question the legitimacy of the comparison. I owned the 360 version, and I’ve played the demo for the ps3 version, and I do not recall it being so washy and lit up like that.
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Yes, we use the same PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 to do all of our captures and the settings are correct. Typically the 360 has more contrast than the PS3.
yes, I noticed that. It’s a good thing your useing the same consoles fo rthis ,but they might wear and tear.
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Try callibrating your tv for ps3 and not just use the xbox setup!
Most of the washed out look can be sorted with RGB full om! then turn down the brightness to get correct black level which in turn gives more pop to the colours and a 3-D effect.
Either that or your ps3, tv or HDMI (you are using HDMI ?) is knackered!
Mine looks nothing like that and if it did I would want my money back!
How can anyone take these seriously when any fool can see the visuals on your comparisons are clearly not right! Can we see true comparisons not rigged and biased ones? There is obviously some reason you do this.
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My shit don’t look like that either… Lazy for not adjusting the TV for the PS3…
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I’ve noticed that the PS3 usually has a more muted looked. Xbox usually comes off as contrasty, which helps push the normal maps.
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What do you mean by push the normal maps?
Yeah, but I agree that the Xbox 360 usually looks more contrasty. I still haven’t decided whether that is a good or bad thing. Probably good.
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Yeah, it’s good. I guess it gets a more poliched look. I also don’t know what “push normal maps mean” Explain please.
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John just means with the higher contrast it helps the normal maps stand out more. You see more definition in the details.
Also, it is our policy not to factor in DLC for any game. In the future we will mention exclusive content, like Bioshock’s Challenge Rooms, in our articles but it won’t affect scoring in any way.
Yeah, I agree. You guy are not comparing which one has more content, you guys are comparing quality.
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Well yeah. This is a great decision. Wait, what is challenge rooms? Is it DLC? Is it out yet?
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Having played and completed both versions, this article is pretty much spot on, with the possible exception of the framerate issues regarding the PS3 version, which I didn’t actually encounter, that or I simply didn’t notice due to the immersive experiance I took away from Biohock.
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Yeah, this head2head is great. You guys on this site do a really good job. Bravo!
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Yeah, go xbox 360.
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When is the next bioshock coming out? That game is going to be awesome.
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nothing has even been announced about a next bioshock. It is only a rumor.
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Actually Bioshock 2 has been announced a few months ago. You can download the trailer on Xbox Live or PSN. The sequel is called Bioshock 2: Sea of Dreams.
ok, thanks for clearing that up. I think I saw that tailer, but I think I forgot about it because it showed nothing about the game.
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Wht the hell is wrong with the developers!? Why does the PS3 constintly get screwed?!
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My experience of Bioshock on my PS3 was very good and from the comparions above, the Xbox 360 does look cleaner but when you’re in an underwater city that’s been ravaged by crime and weirdness, I prefer the grittier look that the PS3 presents.
However the only downside to Bioshock on the PS3 I found is the large amount of HDD space it requires (just under 5Gb) which for my 40Gb system, that’s quite a lot. I should be upgrading to 320Gb in the future though so then again, it’s not that bad.
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I finished this game recently and I’m happy to say this was really a great game. The story was pretty original and 2 different endings are pretty neat. I wonder if that will tie into the next bioshock. If you haven’t played this game by now you owe it to yourself.
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Bioshock uses a modified version of Unreal Engine 2, not 3.
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thsi amkes me sad for Bioshock 2 on PS3. hopefully they can make that game the same. Didnt they have like 4 teams doing this? why couldnt they get it closer than?
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We just added that feature today. The countdown timer is how long you have to edit a post, 5 minutes. It should be saved instantly.