November 13th, 2012
Posted in 
Head2Head
Welcome back for another exciting Head2Head! This week we take a closer look at Activision’s Call of Duty Black Ops II for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Come join us as we compare one of the most anticipate game release this year.
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96 comments from members, join the discussion in the forum >>>Pages: 1 2
Tags: *To ensure color accuracy from the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii U output, the PlayStation 3 has RGB Full Range set to "Full" and Super White "On", and the Xbox 360 has Reference Level set to "Expanded" and HDMI Color Space set to "RGB". Our capture card we have captured segments from the AVS HD 709 . Blu-ray, HD DVD, & MP4 Calibration suite.
As you will see, each system matches each other at the SOURCE LEVEL. No contrast or gamma settings are manipulated before or after capturing our images/videos. We strongly believe that these types of corrections are done on a individuals preference and should not be adjusted by us. Finally, washed out looking images that are due to contrast or gamma differences will not have any influence on our final verdicts. Please Read through our F.A.Q page if you have any questions or concerns.*
screenshots look better on my ass
PS3 all the way this time,because of the better Anti-aliesing,and the HD texture pack that Xbox dosn’t have! Good job Treyarch! Xbox are loosing a lot of wins this year
Poor Xbox lol
YES! PS3 has the bluray so they can have more space to use higher res textures.
PS3 WIN, again
I suspect FXAA vs 2xAA. MW3 had really good AA on the PS3 but it had terrible shimmering whereas the Xbox360 had slightly worse AA but less shimmering. This leads me to believe that the same thing is happening here. After all the PS3 seems to be more blurrier, especially vegetation. I don’t necessarily agree with less jaggies=better because these are static images. In motion there will be a lot of shimmering.
Are you a complete idiot? I own both console versions of the game to accomidate friend on PSN and XBL. 360 wins by a mile. Seriously what are you expecting. COD has always been developed with the 360 in mind first and foremost and this is no surprise.
It’s also no surprise that I see this washed out look in 90% of every gimped multiplat the PS3 receives.. Which is why I my PS3 is for exclusives only.
PS3 fanboys have been living in denial for 6 years now.. Just face it, our multiplats are superior to yours 90% of the time with few exceptions. Different day, another inferior version of a multiplat.. Blame sony, I put more responsibility on them than I do for these poor developers who PS3 fanboys claim are lazy.
Anyhow, get your eyes checked please.. Same thing goes for Rage, Both Bioshocks, GTA4, The Orange Box, Fallout3, Skyrim, etc, etc, etc.
@FLUFFY
i dont think FXAA was involve at all. I m playing on the PC, and with FXAA i do not see any jaggies at all. The problem comes with IDtech 3 engine is not very efficient once it comes to FXAA
Also the consoles version are on 540i upscaled to 720p with x2 MSAA, that explains why is so jaggy. On the contrary, PS3 had a buildin blur filter that helps in the jaggies.
I just need to ask, do you have any clue what youir talking about?
Obviously you don’t. The AA is the same on both versions(most likely, impossible to tell if the PS3 version even use AA due to the blorry shit it present it self with) of the game, fact.
However the little jaggies you can see on the Xbox 360 version is hidden on the PlayStation 3 version of the game. Fact.
It’s hidden behind blurring from another world that makes the game looks washed out. Fact
The Xbox 360 version looks crisp and the colors are a lot better, simply due to it not being blurred beyond sane amounts. Fact
I do not really give a shit, as I know my version is superior to all other versions, with my higher FOV, better textures, better resolution, and better everything else you can imagine on my PC.
@Y3IVAN yes, I know FXAA does a good job of removing jaggies but not shimmering. That was my point. Also, there is no way the consoles are outputting in interlace unless you specifically make them do so. That’s something from the past. It would actually be incredibly counter productive to make a fast paced game become blurry when the camera is moving because that’s exactly what interlace does.
@ZAKIHASHI people that say FACT sound like tools to me. Please don’t say that.
What version did LoT use for the PS3 version? 1.02 adds excessive blur compared to the unpatched version, then Treyarch released 1.03 that actually made textures sharper than the unpatched version.
Xbox 360 looks better no surprise there at all, although, i have been playing and there are some CGI on the Xbox 360 or am i wrong? another difference, on PS3 the soldiers of the guerrilla have Helmets and in the Xbox 360 version have red hats, why?
Anyway, lets wait for the analysis but i allready feel like which will be the better version.
A few shots were infact pre-render cutscenes. Comparison, both versions does had pro and cons, x360 has better texture mapping, and texture quality, but its jaggy (for some reason treyarch didnt apply any FXAA) Ps3 suffers from poor texture quality and texture mapping but gain extra blur filter and contrast adjustment.
Man, the engine is really old.
The soldiers could be randomly generated like in Assassin’s Creed which would explain the difference.
Xbox have a lot of jaggies
i just stocked the wii u version a few days early. will be interesting to see 3 way comparisons
Yeah in 1 week,Lens of truth will have to work on the 3 consoles,including thw Wii U for comparisons! Can’t wait
I’ve preordered mine in a EB games 
Keep up the good work LOT 
gamestop killed eb games where i live
EB games? are you two Aussie like me?
Ah good old EB, Game took them over in the UK but i still have my original EB loyalty card and the staff are always amazed to see it.
EB games is a family business. they are surviving well in Australia especially since GAME went into administration. I have one of the company’s owners in my FB friends list.
Third photo looks like David Beckham!!!!!
anyway, closer parity than in ANY previous games, but Imma give it to Xbox. Sharper. I dare say it will out perform aswell. Whats the deal with the hats & helmets being different?
lol u all know ur specs of ur rig determines witch looks better lol over the years ive came here im shocked im the first 1 to say it only way to tell is see both running on the same tv with ur naked eye
im on my ps3 right now and the 360 looks better lmao but onmy laptop 360 aways looks washedout except for games that use rockstars rage engine (i have no clue y)witch look the same as ps3 lol and b4 my desktop fried it favored 360 most of the time with that rideon 7000 video card i had in it
I think the grass of xbox version has more aliasing ,and at last ps3 tie with xbox in codbo2.
the first page was pretty much identical, then on the next page the difference was fairly obvious, on close-up the man’s beard is better on PS3 but all the textures lose some serious sharpness due to the AA the PS3 version is using (where it blurs everything) also textures of the soldiers in one of the last picks look much better on the 360. can’t wait to see the wiiU version XD
Our ” OVERPRICED INTERNET READY BLU-RAY PLAYER” is actually very very close to the CHEAP CHILDRENS DVD PLAYER!
Quite funny really as the game is optimised to the CHEAP CHILDRENS DVD PLAYER and is ported to our “OVERPRICED INTERNET READY BLU-RAY PLAYER” and doesn’t use the SPUs!!!
XBOX360 – KEEPING GAMING 10 YEARS OLD!
Ever had a feeling this site is biased and PS3 pics on here look much worse than they do on your TV?
http://www.google.co.uk/url?q=http://forum.teamxbox.com/showthread.php%3Ft%3D651774&sa=U&ei=ckyjUKquNtOS0QX3oIGQBw&ved=0CC8QFjAI&sig2=yHphW_HdRYZIEBkRR1sQTw&usg=AFQjCNEupohm4d8Bh1LVcyMbjfU5d7Y8XQ
No change here from previous cod games. Looks better on 360 for sure.
Another win on a big title in 2012 for the good old Xbox 360.
As we see that the ps3 has been destroyed, can the 360 continue it’s run of victories now that a new evil force has entered the arena(wii u).
Should be interesting.
I honestly can’t see a difference apart from PS3 version having a slightly higher brightness/contrast. Anyway, Regardless of which version looks better.. Treyarch have done an excellent job with the PS3 version of Black Ops 2 this time around compared to the first one, BO1.. That’s for damn sure. It runs so smooth & looks so good which is awesome, just like X360 version.
I especially love the ‘texture install’ feature, very handy for when you’d like to keep things quiet from constant disk reading & save your blu-ray drive from becoming dead/broken from over-use.. there’s also a little bit improved texture draw-in performance from using the option as well.
I’m really glad they’ve finally got both console versions pretty much looking on-par with each other now.
Where is this “texture install” on ps3?
Why is my comment with link proving you are biased towards 360 still not gone through i wonder…..
The texture quality looks the same,though there is indeed a big difference between brightness levels and AA handling.Good job nevertheless.Apart from the performance differences,the visuals will be personal preference it seems.I prefer sharper but slightly aliased look over less jagged blurry one.
At least single console owners have nothing to worry about.The both look well matched enough to play on any system.
i think the last pic is from the same console check it out
@ADMJ83 Good catch,it’s not just the same console,it is the exact same screen shot.
Epic Win for 360
Did anyone really expect these to be equal.. ? They never have been, and Activision are a lazy bunch who does not care for parity – they make a shit-ton of money anyway. And now, i can sit back and watch all the smug 360 fanboys wank all over this comparison… oooh wait, i think i might just go play this on my pc instead. Yeah, full HD, 60 frames pr. sec., high res textures and AA you say? Well that sounds ok, considering it’s built on an engine from the Napoleon-era….
And while i remember: PS3 owners, you lost this one. Accept that with dignity (or have a complete meltdown and delude yourselves – to each his own i guess)
Xbox-owners: try not to jizz in your keyboards when you’re doing the celebatory “my ancient hardware”-won spanking of the monkey
trololololololololol….. why do i feel like this comment might get me banned?
We alll know the 360 version will look better.I really think MS pays off to get their version to look better.If you are a Ps3 owner don’t buy this game,being a sheep is a bad thing.Assassin’s creed used to look better on 360 now its on par in both systems.This is just sad your telling me tyarch can’t use MLAA to free up the sorry ass Gpu used in the Ps3.It’s the best solution to get Ps3 games up to par.
Some developers are just lazy… they don’t care because it still sells. Activision and Bethesda being the worst sinners. Well, Bethesda is the worse of them all. Everything Fallout and TES is horrible for PS3, and frankly i don’t get why Sony would even allow them to publish such a load of crap on their system. But i digress, this game look terrible, but i hardly think MS is paying anybody. THe system specs are not too bad though, so if you want the full monty, go for the pc-version
@HUMLEREN
while I agree with activision forcing out shovelware I must disagree about bethesda, the main issue is that their engine is designed for the PC/360 (since it’s easier to port a game from PC/360 to ps3 rather than the other way around, especially when going from PS3 to PC.) the problem is that you get less efficiency from the PS3 when doing it this way (since it isn’t made to work with the memory constraints and processor of the PS3) it’s why the Skyrim DLC hasn’t been released yet for PS3 they’ve had to completely rewrite large portions of code for the PS3 release so that it runs well enough. the fact that they’re getting close to having it ready for release on PS3 just shows how committed they are to it.
@Bigburito: Well, yes and no. It’s called being a lazy bunch when they didn’t bother to write a separate version from ground op for ps3. They haven’t ever tried to accomodate their properly to ps3, and when everybody else can more or less achieve parity then there are no excuses. They sould develop or licence a proper engine, instead of trying to fix that broken old piece of crap they’re currently using. The ps3-version of their games are nothing but a cash in, and all their issues stem from not hiring decent ps3 developers…… They haven’t made a single decent working game for ps3.
Ps3 wins
Well.. no. The 360 version is clearly better looking here, but both look terrible. It’s just terrible vs slightly less terrible. And yes i know it runs in 60 frames, but really that is no excuse for something looking this dated.
fanboy wins
well, if you refer to me then no. I’m no fanboy, and I don’t even own an Xbox (it died, didn’t bother replacing it after new i got a new pc). But i do own a ps3, and this one is pretty obvious an xbox win.
Go to Team Xbox forums and look up CuTTingEdg3777, who is he?
A LOT staff member with over 13,000 posts and starts threads telling people how hes glad xbox won!
I posted the link but they haven’t put it on the site lmfao!
Now you know why PS3 always looks much worse here than it does on your home TV!
Definitely looks sharper on the 360. Could it be the AA causing such a blur on the PS3 or is it a lower resolution just like BO1? Either way I was surprised that Treyarch actually nailed the rock solid frame rate on the PS3 version in multiplayer. That’s what bugs me the most. The most important aspect of this game having frame rate drops when that’s really its main selling point. But even with such big maps, the frame rate seems to keep at a solid 60FPS on the PS3 at least a good 90-95% of the time (only very few specific places causes a very slight judder).
I felt like I made a big risk picking up the PS3 version looking at Treyarch’s history with the system but I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome. I lack XBL Gold and it’s not worth resubbing so I saw myself just going with the PS3 version. The game is actually pretty good. Not memorable. Not a must play but a HELL of a lot better than MW3.
The 360 fanclub can celebrate the slight graphical victory of “this year’s biggest game” all they want. The biggest game of next year seems to show signs of a PS3 win. :3
I always embrace a bit of fan baiting CernaML
‘The biggest game of next year seems to show signs of a PS3 win. :3′
Ps3 fanboys always bring up the future rather than the here and now:(
The ps3 for the last 3 years was meant to have pushed the 360 into last place, but it hasn’t happened.
For years sony fanboys went on about these so called xbox destroying exclusives(Agent etc), but where are they?
What it this biggest game of next year you speak of anyway?
Grand Theft Auto V of course. All this talk about the PS3 version being showed off and it being the lead platform, it won’t be much of a surprise to see the PS3 take that one home. Sure in the beginning Rockstar didn’t quite handle the PS3 very well but looking at some of their more recent titles such as LA Noire and Max Payne 3, I don’t see GTA V being any worse on the PS3 at all. And not only will that game have record breaking sales, I can also see it taking home almost every GOTY award for 2013 unlike the Cod series.
You want to talk about here and now? Okay, Resident Evil 6, Medal of Honor Warfighter, Need for Speed Most Wanted, Assassin’s Creed 3. But you guys got Call of Duty. WHAT A SURPRISE. lmao
Typical SDF playbook #7, mention some games that aren’t actually better on ps3
I’ll give you MOH warfighter though lol, although 360 owners will no doubt find COD and a certain halo 4 a lot more entertaining
As for GTA V, i think you’re getting far too carried away with that already. I’d be amazed if it ran better on ps3.
But what with the best game this year(borderlands 2)and black ops 2 amongst so many other victories on 360 in 2012, i’d say 2013 can’t come soon enough for sony fans.
At least they’ll be some exclusives to play
the ps3 has had probably its worst year other than release year, when you compere exclusives this year my 360 has trounced it, only journey has stood out for me, but I could of said the same for 360 last year when ps3 had uncharted, lbp2 and many other quality titles, but this year belongs to 360 no doubt. see android you can make a case for your chosen console without sounding like a neanderthal with his head up its arse, perhaps you should try it sometime, ( I won’t hold my breath)
Typical XDF playbook #6.5
Make up rules to a playbook that doesn’t even exist. lol
Let’s take a look shall we?
Quotes from DF
Resident Evil 6 – “That said, the difference isn’t enough to discourage you from picking up either version of the game, although for gameplay soloists the PS3 game’s slightly crisper response gives it the edge”
Most Wanted – “In terms of that crucial playability factor, the PS3 wins out by a close margin in our performance tests”
As for Assassin’s Creed 3, you claim the 360 won, when DF never actually says that in their verdict. Knowing you of course, you only ever agree with them if they downright say the 360 version “gets the nod.” Some sections perform better on 360, others perform better on PS3. It was a tie but you just can’t comprehend that. However, let’s not forget the fact that the PS3 version comes on one disc and includes extra content. Any so-called pros the 360 has over the PS3 is easily negated by what the PS3 has over the 360.
Oh, and have you forgotten that LA Noire, an open world RAGE powered game looked and ran better on the PS3? Sure they were different developers but after looking at Max Payne 3, I think they have their heads wrapped around the PS3 by now. It will at least be a very very close one. Seeing how big the world seems to be though, I’d be even more amazed to see it fit on one 360 disc. lol
Also, I don’t know why, but I don’t see any of the games you mentioned winning any GOTY awards.
Halo 4 winning would be the first for a 360 exlcusive in many years. lol
‘Also, I don’t know why, but I don’t see any of the games you mentioned winning any GOTY awards. Halo 4 winning would be the first for a 360 exlcusive in many years. lol’
It’s certainly not going to be little big planet karting for the GOTY win that’s for sure
Res evil 6: That said, the difference isn’t enough to discourage you from picking up either version of the game
Terrible game though.
^that’s the important bit
Most Wanted – I saw the part on the video where the 360 dropped to 24fps for 1 second, 30 fps all the way on both.
But DF did moan about a missing effect glitch on the ps3 version and terrible load times that are the real decider
A tie is fair but nothing more.
Ass creed 3 – I agree it was a tie, no complaints about that
But most of the top cross platform games on metacritic have actually won on 360.
Xcom, Borderlands 2, F1 2012, black ops 2(guessing). I don’t think the ps3 has actually won any game outright this year apart from MOH
@Android
“Res evil 6: That said, the difference isn’t enough to discourage you from picking up either version of the game
Terrible game though.”
^that’s the important bit
Isn’t that the case for just about EVERY H2H these days, regardless of who takes the win? Grow up tool.
‘Isn’t that the case for just about EVERY H2H these days, regardless of who takes the win? ‘
It’s all a bit of fun samchez
It is. as we all know, I’m known to go overboard a little.
What I find funny is how this whole thing started because you fell for my bait, Android.
He’s definitely refferring to The Last of Us and Beyond.
Did LOT install the texture pack before they did the screen shots? Quite a few people don’t know the install is hidden in Multiplyaer options. The install upgrades the graphics by quite a bit and is 1.8 gigs in size.
Texture upgrade install is on the PS3 only.
I highly doubt it’s a “texture upgrade.” Also it only seems to benefit multiplayer only.
It pains me to think that one day, this shallow and ugly pile of crud might eventually outsell Halo 4 (and I’m just talking about the Xbox 360 version alone…)
just got the ps3 version and it seems to play slightly better than black ops 1, I accept that it is unlikely to beat the 360 version, anyway it really would have to be fantastic to better halo 4 which has blown me away, but I like to keep multiplayer on my ps3 if I can, the important thing is that if you only own a ps3 and want this game you are not getting that much of an inferior version, it seems to look and run OK to me.
Let’s be honest people the 360 won this one.
But, who f’ing cares the game is so outdated it hurts to see this many people fighting over which version looks better.
I for one am skipping this game and moving my preorder over to hitman.
Are people really concerned about the graphics of a CALL OF DUTY game? It’s been the same crappy graphics since this generation started. No innovation whatsoever. Get over it guys!
No sense in comparing crap to crap. No matter which system you buy this game for, you’re not buying it for the graphics, trust me. You’re buying it on the system that has more online friends that you play with.
Where’s the Xcom or NFS most wanted h2h?
I picked up the 360 version of this fearing the worst – but I’m very impressed with Treyarch with regards to how even they look out of the box – at least (unlike the gutted Infinity Ward) they understand the concept of colour calibration – which was so bad on the PS3 version of MW3 that I’ve lost hope for that series on the PS3.
Anyways the 360 version of this looks a bit sharper – fine texture details can be seen more readily, HOWEVER, it DOES suffer screen tearing. This is tucked into the top 8th of the screen and isn’t so obtrusive, but it IS there.
I guess the PS3 is triple buffered like previous COD games?
I might pick up the PS3 version once prices drop as I don’t have live and would like to play all 3 parts of the game. So far though, so good. Awesome game.
Put http in front of this and check it out!!!
L.O.T Biased much!!!
://www.google.co.uk/url?q=http://forum.teamxbox.com/showthread.php%3Ft%3D651774&sa=U&ei=ckyjUKquNtOS0QX3oIGQBw&ved=0CC8QFjAI&sig2=yHphW_HdRYZIEBkRR1sQTw&usg=AFQjCNEupohm4d8Bh1LVcyMbjfU5d7Y8XQ
Relevant…how?
Well, as long that it helps you sleep better at night, Dr. Phil…
Same crappy graphics???? It’s because you didn’t saw it on PC.I have both versions,PC and PS3! PC’s graphics version of BO2 are great man and yes CERNAML,the Texture pack on PS3 are only in multiplayer and Zombie mode! Anyway who really care if the single player is blurrier than the Xbox version? You’ll play only once with the SP.It’s the MP and Zombie you’ll play the most and the Texture pack is exclusive to PS3! The SP is an Xbox win but not the MP and ZM for sure.Take your pill and accept it! Lens of truth will never talk about it.The most important of this game is really the multiplayer experience….
The framerate are solid BTW on both systems BTW so no worry there,but if you don’t care about the MP and you want this game only for the SP and have both consoles,then yes i say,pick up the 360 version,but as for the MP and ZM,you will have a great experience on both PS3 and 360!
Oups reapeating myself with BTW lol sorry
seriously don’t get why lot is using the prerendered cut scenes for most of the screenshots, only the second page has gameplay screens.
WOW, first time in the history of Call of Duty that we’re actually seeing some console parity, im surprised that after all these years finally COD show some love to PS3. That being said, Battlefield 3 All way …
WOW, first time in the history of Call of Duty that we’re actually seeing some console parity, im surprised that after all these years finally COD show some love to PS3. That being said, BF3 FTW !!!!
I still find MW2 to be the closest out of all CoD games. Sure there was like a 10FPS difference in single player but multiplayer performance held up very well on both platforms.
After looking at a pre analysis of Black Ops 2 on Eurogamer though… wow… well.. like I said, at least performance holds up nicely on the PS3 for multiplayer. lol
What the hell kind of bullshit AA did they use on the PS3 this time…?
It’s another bayonetta, on one of the biggest games of the year too.
It’s not been the ps3′s year
The high res texture pack install on PS3 is 1.8GB.You will really see the difference in MP.1.8GB dude,that’s huge and Xbox don’t have this feature! First time i see beautiful textures in a COD game as in this one.But without this texture pack on SP,i admit that the PS3 version look blurrier than 360 to hide jaggies!
Also,it’s Weird that you can’t install the pack for the sp??????
I live in Canada,as for the EBgames and Gamestop,we have both here hehe 5 days left for the Wii U
Zombie U FTW 
Im curious to see what Black ops 2 will look like too on the Nintendo system 
As explained to Joystiq by Activision representatives, the install option is reserved for the PlayStation 3 and is intended to reduce strain on the PS3′s Blu-ray drive during extended gameplay sessions. Unlike the option to install a texture pack in EA’s multiplayer shooter Battlefield 3, the Black Ops 2 install will not alter the quality of the upcoming game’s graphics. Ok,maybe but i definitely see less blur,smoother and the textures,colors are more appealing isn’t it? Or maybe it’s just me and i smoke some good stuff??? lol
As far as I know COD has always looked better on 360. Also, all the gameplay videos from gaming website all seem to be playing and reviewing the 360 version of the game. It makes sense that developers would give reviewers the best looking version of the game. Right?
That’s pretty much the way it is Snakepond – when buying a PS3 title the question is always one of “damage control” – not “how good is it” but “how much worse than the 360 version is it?”
More often than not it’s okay – differences are quite minimal.
Although which copy devs get REALLY depends on market – for instance here in Sweden, a lot of publications review PS3 code due to that consoles popularity here. Case in point: was in a kind of “Best Buy” the other day to buy BLOPS2 and ALL the ps3 copies were gone. Nada. None left. But the 360 pile was quite big – so I went with the 360 for once!
What a load of bs dude. 99 % of all games on either system the differences are so damn small that not even people with 20/20 vision would be able to tell any damn difference. Everyone once in a while there’s a real piece of crap ported over, but that’s caused by lazy devs; case in point Bethesda and Activision. And actually, sometimes it’s the other way aroun where xbox get’s the shitty port, and again that’s just lazyness. The consoles are matched in power but requires adaption by the software…..
the blurriness is a glitch from the 1.02 patch. Treyarch will short it out, here is an image from DF showing ps3 pre patch and with patch http://images.eurogamer.net/2012/articles//a/1/5/2/8/5/1/5/nopatch.png http://images.eurogamer.net/2012/articles//a/1/5/2/8/5/1/5/patch.png
880×720 res on xbox
So some reports are saying that the day one patch is what’s causing the horrible blur seen in the PS3 version. Gonna check that out for myself.