Adam Sessler's: On Xbox One and PS4's Resolutiongate, and Day One Patches

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This is the big problem with gaming "journalism" compared to, say, film or literary criticism. Gaming is waaaay too centralized amongst a few major corporate players. Piss off even one of the big ones and you lose all of your access and effectively your ability to be a "journalist" at all. If you get on Microsoft's shit list, you've just lost your ability to cover a massive amount of the industry. If you're a film critic, though, getting on, say, Universal's shit list only cuts you out of a handful of screenings and still leaves thousands upon thousands of other films to cover (and you could still cover Universal's stuff, too, you'd just be a couple days later than some of the guys with top access).

Because of this you have everybody in the gaming media scrambling to do their best CNN impression to try and act like Microsoft doesn't have obviously and demonstrably inferior hardware in most respects despite all the evidence to the contrary. Nobody wants to bite the hand that feeds them.
 
Iorv3th said:
It matters to everyone. Some people act like it doesn't because they are invested in live, or they prefer the controller or something. Which is a legitimate reason to get the xbox one, but don't act like suddenly the power does not matter, if that where the case we wouldn't need to upgrade consoles at all.
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More like for the people who want an Xbox because of those things, those perks outweigh this significant power difference. At the end of the day it will get games, new games, exclusive or otherwise. People want those games and they want to enjoy them through their gaming ecosystem of choice which just so happens to be xbox. Just the way it will be for many. I won't say the power difference doesn't matter, but I will say it's simply not a big deal to many so long as they get their games.
 
Iorv3th said:
It matters to everyone. Some people act like it doesn't because they are invested in live, or they prefer the controller or something. Which is a legitimate reason to get the xbox one, but don't act like suddenly the power does not matter, if that where the case we wouldn't need to upgrade consoles at all.
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Does not matter to me. I've PC gamed on a 720p monitor for years now. I've had a Wii. I will be getting a Wii U this year and I retro game a lot.

I don't give two shits about power or resolution. Please don't speak for me.
 
Azriell said:
I can't tell if Sessler is being an apologist or if he actually believes this shit.

Sessler blames the attention being paid to the resolution discrepancy on companies for using "1080p" as a buzzword, and states that in the past nobody cared about resolution (I suppose this is true since there were different resolutions for PS1 games and I never heard anybody mention it back in the day). The fact that we have a name for this problem is not a bad thing, and it is not the source of the fervor. The speculation (and I say speculation only because we haven't seen the final game running side-by-side on final hardware yet) is that you will see a noticeable difference between the two versions of CoD (and others, but this is my focus for the moment). Back in the day we would have said one version looks crisper/clearer/sharper/better or blurrier/blockier/jaggier/shittier. A lot of console gamers probably weren't aware of exactly what resolution was (I distinctly remember being confused by the 16:9 option in Goldeneye and why anyone would want to play with half the screen blacked, and also learning about aliasing and AA in Game Informer), but that doesn't mean they couldn't see the shit on their screen. Similarly, I remember some people were impressed and excited when certain games starting doing 480p on PS2 (I was again confused).

Sessler then goes on to say how resolution doesn't really matter, it's all about games and game design and more subtle things like AI. I completely agree, but it's not like Sony put a useless 1080p chip into their console. It's doing 1080p because the hardware is more powerful, and the hardware will always be more powerful, and it will probably always cost the less or the same as the weaker XB1. And as for game design and aesthetics and such being the real important things: third-party exclusives are only a thing at launch anymore. Just about every PS4 game will be on XB1. Just about every XB1 game will be on PS4. Sessler's assertion that resolution doesn't matter is poorly informed, because in a few years most games are probably going to be the same on both consoles except for higher fps/resolution on PS4. If everything is the same then resolution is literally the ONLY thing that matters.

This isn't an issue that's going to go away. MS is stuck with weaker hardware for this generation, and they have to make the best of it. But what's worse is all the mixed messaging people are getting as they get ready to go out and buy their $400-500 console, probably the only one they'll have this gen (Nintendo says please buy a WiiU as well). Games press should be representing this issue better so as to better inform as many people as possible.
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You did well there understanding his point because I couldn't the way he put it across in such an unintelligible way.

His point about blaming the media for the 1080p 'buzzword' falls flat on its arse when he has previously said these consoles need to output at the resolution.
 
MetatronM said:
This is the big problem with gaming "journalism" compared to, say, film or literary criticism. Gaming is waaaay too centralized amongst a few major corporate players. Piss off even one of the big ones and you lose all of your access and effectively your ability to be a "journalist" at all. If you get on Microsoft's shit list, you've just lost your ability to cover a massive amount of the industry. If you're a film critic, though, getting on, say, Universal's shit list only cuts you out of a handful of screenings and still leaves thousands upon thousands of other films to cover (and you could still cover Universal's stuff, too, you'd just be a couple days later than some of the guys with top access).

Because of this you have everybody in the gaming media scrambling to do their best CNN impression to try and act like Microsoft doesn't have obviously and demonstrably inferior hardware in most respects despite all the evidence to the contrary. Nobody wants to bite the hand that feeds them.
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This is apples to oranges really. A film critic will gladly pay the money to watch and review a film if they aren't allowed into a screening. It seems gaming websites/critics are deathly afraid of doing the same. Then again, a game is much longer, yadda yadda.
 
Perkel said:
It isn't really only that. With more time PS4 games will be able to do simply more things at better resolution.

For example PS4 has waaaaaay better GPGPU capabilities with time gap will just widen instead of closing.

10% boost via firmware upgrade on ~2Tf hardware is moer than 10% boost via firmware on 1,3Tf hardware.

Tools will get better, devs will start to use GPGPU and gap will be bigger with each year.
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Isn't that what I'm saying ? :)

azriell stated what I wanted to say more eloquently than I did.
 
Rekkapryde said:
Are there any unbiased sites nowadays who won't sell their soul for dollars and speak the truth (other than GAF of course).
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I like RPS, I believe they don't get pre-release copies of anything, which in my mind is pretty important. I don't care about someone having a review up on release day, I'd rather hear from someone who paid for the game with their own money and spent their free time on it, even if it is a few days or weeks late.
 
Nymphae said:
I like RPS, I believe they don't get pre-release copies of anything, which in my mind is pretty important. I don't care about someone having a review up on release day, I'd rather hear from someone who paid for the game with their own money and spent their free time on it, even if it is a few days or weeks late.
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RPS mostly covers PC games though, they don't really give a shit about consoles or giving scores to games.
 
I really hope he doesn't read this and somehow gets the idea that everyone here thinks he sucks ... because that absolutely isn't the case.

He is great for the industry and is a joy to watch.

Also, claims of him being a lying hypocrite of low character are borderline outrageous, I mean really - try to imagine a life in which every appearance you make and speech you deliver was digitally recorded forever - even the best are bound to make a mistake here and there, either by saying too much or forgetting what they said.

Yesterday, he made a mistake... and all this thread offers is an endless stream of complete strangers piling on and making the call that not only is he an intentional and deliberate liar, but he is a lousy person too; someone who's opinion can be bought.

Yikes. Thanks for the membership. Peace out. Enjoy the next generation.
 
Regardless if resolution is exaggerated or not. Or if gameplay matters more, which was never the argument to begin with. I just don't see how a journalist can call himself credible when he says...

"They are next gen consoles, they damn well better run 1080p/60fps."

to

"I've seen games not running at 1080p, and I can't tell the difference. It's not that big of a deal."

All in less than a 6 month time period. I used to really like sessler, all the way back to his G4TV days. But you can't defend this shit.
 
waypoetic said:
Sessler's comment on this thread and subject:

"@AdamSessler: well @kanaye_ I've been doing this for 15 years. After the first 10 years of irrational hate you just say "I don't give a shit"

Irrational hate? Whu.. What? That's not how you spell criticism.
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There's a difference between criticism and lynching.
 
Sess is an alright guy. Sometimes I agree with him, sometimes I do not. I think most people put him on a high pedestal like he is some game judging god. That is just idiotic in my opinion..
 
lifeexpectancy said:
Yes you can play 30fps shooters, and quite well. But you can play 60fps shooters BETTER. Maybe it doesn't matter in the context of more 'casual' play (I use that term loosely, I hate the "casual vs hardcore" debate). But for someone that is serious about skill and performance, 60fps does actually make a discernible difference. The faster the action, the more players playing, and the more precise the controls, the more you're going to WANT 60fps if you've experienced it before.

The thing about draw distance, AI, physics, geometry, player count, and npc count is that all of these things have to occur simultaneously with the rendering. If the XB1 is bottlenecking bandwidth-dependent compute tasks through the eSRAM at the same time that it's trying to pass frame buffers through that same eSRAM, there's going to be a traffic jam somewhere. Something's got to give. So either 720p is going to be the norm for the entire generation, with a few 900p and 1080p flareups, or we're going to see other areas of games suffer so that devs can push out higher resolution/framerate. And worst case scenario is that we're going to see a combination of both on the most demanding mid-to-late gen 3rd party titles (i.e. 720p/30fps AND reduced AI/physics/etc).

I'm not a developer. Hell I couldn't code my way out of a wet paper sack, but these are concerns that a lot of gamers have, and they are concerns the media is completely ignoring and instead labeling us all as a bunch of whiny fanboys.

I will play DR3. I will play Halo 5 and 6. I will probably even play Spark. But there aren't too many other titles that I'll be playing on XB1.
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I really agree with most of the points you're making, you're just articulating your points better than I could.

upJTboogie said:
So far that makes it Adam, Ars Tech and DF getting caught in a major double standard when it comes to how they treat the importance of resolution. I expect more to follow.
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What did Digital Foundry do? Or is that Richard Leadbetter specifically?

Static Jak said:
There's definitely people out there who'll be a-holes on youtube comments and twitter that will just fling insults at Sessler and others like him and that'll wear down anyone after a while. It helps no one.

But, for example, you just know Sessler will try and make a snarky comment about peoples reaction to this in either another video or on twitter. And that's simply fueling the fire and it pisses off everybody.

The issue is that there's plenty of us who want to talk about this, who want to have the real points laid out there and not ignored. We don't have the soap box that people like him have where we can state our own single opinion and expect thousands and thousands to listen to it.

The only real option is to be part of a louder voice, of a large group like NeoGaf or Reddit or whatever. But then your opinion looses its finer details because it's more of an overall basic opinion shared by hundreds or thousands.

So it can sound like it's only about resolution but if you looked more at the individual instead of the group, you'll see it's about what that drop in res represents and could mean.

We have to be loud about things to even get a fraction of that attention and that can get very frustrating when it's drowned out or waved aside as "whining".
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I agree, and it pisses me off how GAF's voice is often dismissed as a whiny fanboy mass. Sure, there are some on here who just want to laugh or rant (I'm sure I fall into that category at times), but many make good points and we're for the most part very informed about our hobby. A lot of the time there seems to be a blanket dismissal of NeoGAF and I think that's a tremendous disservice.

Shahed said:
The thing I don't get is why is there a need to downplay the difference? Stating that the PS4 version of a game has the edge isn't wrong, but it also doesn't mean that journalists are telling gamers to get the PS4 version since it's better.

If you look at it in isolation, getting a version of a game that performs better at a cheaper entry cost seems like a no brainer. Doesn't mean you should get that version though. While these are objective facts that can't really be disagreed with. PC games run better than consoles, something that's widely known and there's no harm in letting people know that. The same should be true of the difference between PS4 and XB1. Because while these differences exist, they don't really detract from enjoyment of a game, and there's more important things to consider.

If say your friends and family are on the XB1, then there's no harm in getting it instead of a PS4. If you prefer the line up on XB1 compared to PS4, you'd be silly to pick the one with less games you'd like. If you own both platforms but get games one XB1 because of the controller, that's fine. Just like it was perfectly okay to get PS3 versions of games this gen, getting XB1 versions won't really impact your enjoyment. These subjective reasons are why you should pick what console to get, or if you own both which version of multi platform games.

Both of these statements are valid reasons for making a choice on the consoles coming out, and should be communicated as much. You can acknowledge the performance gap and then state the gap while maybe important, isn't significant enough to outweigh other factors based on personal preference. But the thing I don't get is why there is a need to downplay the former and pretend it's meaningless? You can write a balanced article that's useful for everyone without needing to obfuscate matters
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I agree with that. What's wrong with being completely honest about the technical capabilities of each console and then letting the consumer make an informed decision? Instead they're glossing over and making light of the issues. It's incredibly unprofessional. I agree that ultimately it's about games, but all the media seemed only too happy last gen to tell us when a 360 version was better than the PS3 equivalent, yet this time around based on what we know, they're hesitant to suggest that the PS4 will be the better choice for multiformat games, instead obfusicating the issue by talking about firmware, changing development kits, blaming the developers and then stating the most obvious thing about any console, "it's the games that are important".

Loch Doun said:
Oh please, Sessler has criticized Microsoft plenty of times.
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Such as?
 
Nymphae said:
I like RPS, I believe they don't get pre-release copies of anything, which in my mind is pretty important. I don't care about someone having a review up on release day, I'd rather hear from someone who paid for the game with their own money and spent their free time on it, even if it is a few days or weeks late.
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RPS does get some pre-release stuff iirc but..

sirap said:
RPS mostly covers PC games though, they don't really give a shit about consoles or giving scores to games.
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He's right. They don't really give a shit about that sort of thing, I know that Alec, Jim and John do play consoles though, Jim was tweeting and TLOU when that launched.
 
Sessler blames the attention being paid to the resolution discrepancy on companies for using "1080p" as a buzzword, and states that in the past nobody cared about resolution (I suppose this is true since there were different resolutions for PS1 games and I never heard anybody mention it back in the day).
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Just for fun...

Most PS1 games operated at 320x240 with variations simply losing a few pixels here and there. A few others ran in an interlaced mode which resulted in sharper visuals at the expense of flicker.

Either way, these games were designed for CRT displays which have no fixed resolution. It could display all sorts of different resolutions without ever introducing scaling into the mix.

With modern displays, however, we're stuck with fixed pixel grids. 1280x720 does not evenly scale into 1920x1080 so you end up with some artifacts as a result rather than perfectly sharp pixels (ie - pixel doubling doesn't work here). This is one reason, no doubt, as to why PS Vita used a screen that was a perfect multiple of the PSP screen (pixels could be doubled in each direction without distortion). When this past generation began 1080p was very uncommon, though lower resolution flat panels still had to upscale. Either way, with 1080p being the norm in 2013, it's fair to want 1:1 pixel mapping in our games. Eliminating scaling artifacts is really the thing that's most exciting about it.

Matching resolution to the display makes a huge difference. Go check out 360 or PS3 hooked up to a native 1280x720 display (rare as they may be). The picture quality is so much cleaner than what you might be used to on higher resolution displays. It looks really nice.
 
Philthy said:
I think it has more to do with the people in the thread not having much criticism other than some expletive expletive Sessler xplay bloobloo expletive sell out Morgan Webb was hotter expletive bloo bloo.

Bandwagons on an internet forum are always a mess. You can't give a shit at that point. None of it is legit beyond a few rational posters.
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I very much doubt he has read a single post in this thread.
 
So, to summarize:

Adam: "New Consoles had better be 1080"

PS4 Game: 1080
XB1 Game: 720

Adam: "Resolution doesn't matter"

GAF: "Doesn't that sound hypocritical?"

Adam: "Stop the irrational hate!"
 
dark10x said:
Just for fun...

Most PS1 games operated at 320x240 with variations simply losing a few pixels here and there. A few others ran in an interlaced mode which resulted in sharper visuals at the expense of flicker.

Either way, these games were designed for CRT displays which have no fixed resolution. It could display all sorts of different resolutions without ever introducing scaling into the mix.

With modern displays, however, we're stuck with fixed pixel grids. 1280x720 does not evenly scale into 1920x1080 so you end up with some artifacts as a result rather than perfectly sharp pixels (ie - pixel doubling doesn't work here). This is one reason, no doubt, as to why PS Vita used a screen that was a perfect multiple of the PSP screen (pixels could be doubled in each direction without distortion). When this past generation began 1080p was very uncommon, though lower resolution flat panels still had to upscale. Either way, with 1080p being the norm in 2013, it's fair to want 1:1 pixel mapping in our games. Eliminating scaling artifacts is really the thing that's most exciting about it.
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so if I play a 1080P native game on a 720P only tv, I will get artifacts rather than sharp pixels..?
 
Not entirely sure what mental gymnastics Sess is doing these days.

I mean he probably isnt getting paid by MS to spout this BS so it has to be something else.

I have noticed that the American media in general things good journalism and reporting isnt just telling the truth as it is but is actually saying everyone is equal all the time. If the Democrats are doing something dumb then the Republicals also have to be doing something equally dumb. All polls have to be super close. You cant say something to make the other side look bad without doing the same for the other.

Maybe Sess is in that mode? He fell asleep watching CNN a few months ago and it broke his mind?

Maybe its a fear of MS losing its strong hold over the US market and changing the way US outlets cover games by going back to a time when Sony was the one who called most of the shots. MS ran a good ship for the Press. You got plenty of free shit and they treated you really well. Sony hasnt dont that as much.


Also the issue of 720p really shouldnt be just tossed away as fanboys being fanboys and shitting on the other side. While Yes there is a good amount of that stuff going on "1080p" was ALWAYS the great hyped up next gen thing. Everyone wanted it. Now that one of the consoles is struggling to not only get near that but is actually running a large chunk of its games at the same resolution of the 360 its not hard to see why people would be disappointed in the next xbox if not pissed of at MS for shipping a underpowered machine.

Not acknowledging that is a little disheartening and yet another example of why the old guard of the games press is increasingly out of touch with the wider audience as they continue to think its more important to act like PR for games companies rather then inform the audience with the facts.
 
Pillville said:
So, to summarize:

Adam: "New Consoles had better be 1080"

PS4 Game: 1080
XB1 Game: 720

Adam: "Resolution doesn't matter"

GAF: "Doesn't that sound hypocritical?"

Adam: "Stop the irrational hate!"
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Sounds about right. Except I would change GAF: "Doesn't that sound hypocritical?", to "You hypocrite."

It's not even a question anymore.
 
Others things being more important isn't a good argument. It's not as if the PS4 isn't doing those other important things + higher resolution, is it?

"Better A.I" isn't so much a power problem as much of a skills problem. Game studios generally don't have the money or skills to dedicate to proper A.I. More power certainly helps, but it is far from a guarantee that we'll get better A.I. There is no "turn A.I up to 11" dial.
 
dark10x said:
Just for fun...
hooked up to a native 1280x720 display (rare as they may be). The picture quality is so much cleaner than what you might be used to on higher resolution displays. It looks really nice.
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I can confirm this. I regularly play my 360 and PS3 on a 720p plasma and the PQ is godly. TLOU looks particularly amazing on a HMZ-T1 (dat oled!)

On a 1080p/1440p screen though? ehhhh
 
EGM1966 said:
It's important to understand MS did not get into game consoles simply to sell games consoles and games. The move was a Trojan Horse (and an open one it's not like they didn't discuss this in interviews and there have been plenty of articles on it) to get into the living room with their devices, software, standards, etc.
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I understand that but they've either played their hand too early, too late or completely wrong. A $500 games console is not a Trojan Horse for anything nowadays. You can play Netflix, Hulu, HBO Go, etc on devices that are $50 or less.

Also with people spread across all kinds of services and devices there is less and less of a reason for someone to want a closed box all-in-one solution.

Besides hardcore gamers it's really hard to see who this system is for.
 
Vagabundo said:
Does not matter to me. I've PC gamed on a 720p monitor for years now. I've had a Wii. I will be getting a Wii U this year and I retro game a lot.

I don't give two shits about power or resolution. Please don't speak for me.
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This is an unbeatable and un refutable defence, like the Chewbacca defence before it, it's bullet proof.
I am hoping someone comes and take this argument even further and claim that all his/her TVs are 480p and those are still good enough for them, thus he/ she doesn't need to upgrade to 720p/1080p

ymmv said:
She survived and kept talking even after the face kick.
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Good to know, that hurt just by watching
 
Zombie James said:
He criticized MS on not getting their message across on how good DRM is. "They're not getting the messaging right" was a common defence when MS was going full-on with DRM; heard a lot of that from Giantbomb, too.
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That's actually hillarious!

Sess : "MSFT is being dumb in not telling us how sweet getting screwed is!"

Sycophants : "Wow, he really kicked MSFT in the balls!"
 
EGM1966 said:
It's important to understand MS did not get into game consoles simply to sell games consoles and games. The move was a Trojan Horse (and an open one it's not like they didn't discuss this in interviews and there have been plenty of articles on it) to get into the living room with their devices, software, standards, etc.
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Basically exactly the same with Sony. Do you really think PS2 was a DVD player and PS3 a BR player because of the added value it brought to gaming? I don't know why people keep bringing this point up as though it makes MS unique here.
 
funkystudent said:
Not entirely sure what mental gymnastics Sess is doing these days.

I mean he probably isnt getting paid by MS to spout this BS so it has to be something else.

I have noticed that the American media in general things good journalism and reporting isnt just telling the truth as it is but is actually saying everyone is equal all the time. If the Democrats are doing something dumb then the Republicals also have to be doing something equally dumb. All polls have to be super close. You cant say something to make the other side look bad without doing the same for the other.

Maybe Sess is in that mode? He fell asleep watching CNN a few months ago and it broke his mind?

Maybe its a fear of MS losing its strong hold over the US market and changing the way US outlets cover games by going back to a time when Sony was the one who called most of the shots. MS ran a good ship for the Press. You got plenty of free shit and they treated you really well. Sony hasnt dont that as much.


Also the issue of 720p really shouldnt be just tossed away as fanboys being fanboys and shitting on the other side. While Yes there is a good amount of that stuff going on "1080p" was ALWAYS the great hyped up next gen thing. Everyone wanted it. Now that one of the consoles is struggling to not only get near that but is actually running a large chunk of its games at the same resolution of the 360 its not hard to see why people would be disappointed in the next xbox if not pissed of at MS for shipping a underpowered machine.

Not acknowledging that is a little disheartening and yet another example of why the old guard of the games press is increasingly out of touch with the wider audience as they continue to think its more important to act like PR for games companies rather then inform the audience with the facts.
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I think sometimes people can just get bored of the minutiae of things. However, when that occurs, I think the more productive path is to just bow out of the conversation and realize that you have no dog in the fight. I think sometimes people mistake their own apathy for things as being something that is ideal, when in reality it's just a difference in perspective. One isn't above the fray for not caring about specific facets here, even if there is some temptation to strive towards a "games first" philosophy as being the ideal end game. Mind you, there is some truth to that. But as others have noted, it's not a very insightful sentiment and reads more as disinterest than wisdom, where I think there is a desire for the latter.
 
It's going to be interesting this gen. It seems like maybe 30%, possibly less, of the established gaming outlets have suggested that they will be able to consider issues competently and without hypocrisy.

You have to wonder how much readership is actually valued at some of these places. Clickbait will only last so long before people get tired of arguing and just brand you an idiot, before walking away altogether. I've pretty much already done that with Sessler, Polygon, IGN and Marcus Beer over the last couple of days, since it's fairly obvious the content they're putting out there is nothing I'd be interested in.

As an aside, there are good people reporting at the moment on this kind of stuff, and most of the ones that frequent GAF especially seem to at least be somewhat reasonable and try to consider alternative points of view. I really hope that these people aren't lumped together with some of the real idiots that are showing up the games press right now.
 
What is strange to me is that there are arguments in favor of the xone, you could say it's more expensive but comes with kinect, has a better launch lineup, system level chat, cable box pass thru.

It's like they refuse to even lay out the differences and make arguments for both. They just say "welp, they are pretty much the same! PS4 *maybe* a little more powerful but no one can tell the difference."
 
Remember back when Microsoft hadn't really noticed how badly their pre-order numbers were doing compared to PS4? And they were all like 'It's only a small loud minority that are upset about this CRM thing.' because they literally couldn't understand how anyone could care about needing to always be online so much.

It took the cold hard reality of sales figures to demonstrate to them that however hard it was to understand, a LOT of people cared very strongly about it.

The press right now remind me of that. They seem to genuinely not understand the sizable reaction these stories are getting. So they write another story, or throw out another quote along the lines of 'Stop getting upset about this. It doesn't matter! Forget about it! People who will buy the consoles when they're hundreds of dollars cheaper won't care about this stuff, so why should you?'

I think they have been genuinely shocked by the fact that people want 1080p native content for the TVs they spent hundreds, even thousands of dollars on. Instead of taking a step back and recognizing that their beliefs were wrong, they're doubling down and holding onto their version of how they think things are.

Which is not going to end well for them if they keep it up, as it's only making them look like a bunch of stupid shills that don't understand (or look out for) their audience.
 
Flo_Evans said:
What is strange to me is that there are arguments in favor of the xone, you could say it's more expensive but comes with kinect, has a better launch lineup, system level chat, cable box pass thru.

It's like they refuse to even lay out the differences and make arguments for both. They just say "welp, they are pretty much the same! PS4 *maybe* a little more powerful but no one can tell the difference."
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You know how some people think that a fair or constructive review is one where you make sure you pay at least one complement for every criticism you throw out?

I think we're seeing a LOT of that.
 
It's really difficult to hear Adam Blitzer keep this narrative alive. It may be his opinion that resolutions do not matter now(even though they apparently did matter to him earlier), but that doesn't mean that they don't matter to the rest of the planet. Constantly referring to 720p as up-ressed 1080p is just extremely annoying, as anything can be up-ressed.

Wolf Sessler says to not really worry about buying a Blu-Ray player, as you can just buy an upscaling DVD player instead. Both are still 1080p. It's the movies that count.
 
EmptySpace said:
it doesn't. it's the gaming press who are saying, "they don't matter". they do. a game is the sum of its parts. both versions are the exact same experience so that's out of the gate in terms of comparison. now, there are graphical differences (bf4 having lower resolution and lacking global illumination system, plus running at a lower average framerate). that's where comparisons come in because that's where comparisons can be made. and why are comparisons being made? because these are both valued at $60 no matter what console.

it's the constant and massive downplaying of these differences that is such a copout. remember when all these "journalists" pointed out every damn difference the ps3 version of a multiplat had in their reviews? "the ps3 version looks washed out. the ps3 version had some hiccups. the ps3 version had less vibrant colours. you are better off playing the xbox 360 version if you want the best version out there outside the pc.


this takes the icing on the cake:
http://www.g4tv.com/videos/43049/mx-vs-atv-reflex-playstation-3-review/
"Get the lowdown on the PlayStation 3 version of MX vs. ATV Reflex in this review. Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb discuss the drawbacks of the PS3 version of MX vs. ATV Reflex and reveal the game's lower score."

360 version = 3/5 stars
ps3 version = 2/5 stars for being graphically inferior

or this:
http://www.giantbomb.com/reviews/bayonetta-review/1900-249/?review_id=249
Much of the potential of Bayonetta--potential that's realized on the Xbox 360--is lost to technical issues on the PS3.
(yes, that's the subtext of the review).

or what about this?
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/247305/red-dead-redemptions-sub-hd-ps3-display-analysis/
"Its resolution is 640 by 1152, compared to the Xbox 360's 720 by 1280 pixels. At first glance you might say that this is only a difference of "80 pixels," but in reality, when the missing area is calculated, the PS3 suffers an 184,320 pixel deficit - or 20 per cent lower than the Xbox 360 version. This rendering resolution is then upscaled by the PS3 to be displayed on your screen."

or how about this, arstechnica?
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2010/05/read-dead-redemption-360-vs-ps3-our-thoughts/
"This is non-scientific, but after playing an hour of both games, and switching back and forth between the two systems on our display, it's clear that the 360 version has quite the graphical advantage. It's sharper, with much less aliasing. The faces of the characters were clearer in the opening section. Gameplay sections likewise looked better, with smoother graphics across the board. The PlayStation 3 version looked impressive, but there was a noticeable jump in quality while playing on the 360.

Keep in mind that the game doesn't look bad on the PS3—not by any stretch—but based on our time with the game and direct comparisons, the 360 version looks better. If you purchase the PS3 version of the game you're not going to be let down, but if you have the choice, pick up a copy for the 360.

Here's another reason to buy the game for the Xbox 360: if you dislike playing with strangers, there are 16 Ars Technica members in the game's thread playing online with the 360 version, compared to three on the PS3. If you're going to be playing, sign up!"


hypocrites.
Click to expand...

You'll find a lot of these examples in early current gen reviews. Point reductions because of technical differences. But there was also a lot of botched comparisons. I remember GT was caught red handed with their Grid comparison, in an attempt to show the 360 version look superior, they used PS3s.

http://kotaku.com/5008547/gametrailers-blows-it-with-ps3360-footage

Funny how such a big deal was made for 50-80 pixels last gen, while 180-320 pixels difference on next gen is now being downplayed.
 
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