Furystrike
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2004
- Messages
- 1,535
There are so many subjective views about the next gen consoles, so here's an objective take on the debate. I tried a similar list a few months back but it had several flaws both in presentation and explanation that made it less useful than was intended. All numbers are taken from metacritic for both the PS3 and 360 with downloadable/arcade games deleted.
Lets start with multiplatform titles:
Grand Theft Auto IV 98
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 94
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, The 93.5
Orange Box, The 92.5
Rock Band 92
Burnout Paradise 87.5
Soulcalibur IV 87.5
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 87.5
GRID 87
Virtua Fighter 5 87
NHL 08 85.5
skate 85.5
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 85
Fight Night Round 3 84.5
Unreal Tournament 3 84.5
Civilization Revolution 84
Devil May Cry 4 84
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock 84
Battlefield: Bad Company 83.5
DiRT: Colin McRae Off-Road 83
Madden NFL 08 83
NBA 2K7 82
NCAA Football 09 82
College Hoops 2K7 81.5
College Hoops 2K8 81.5
Condemned 2: Bloodshot 81.5
FIFA Soccer 08 81.5
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 81.5
Call of Duty 3 81
Darkness, The 81
NBA 2K8 81
Assassin's Creed 80.5
NBA Street Homecourt 80.5
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 80.5
LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga 80
Virtua Tennis 3 80
Above 80: 70
Above 85: 13
Above 90: 5
Above 95: 1
Now for the PS3 Exclusives:
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots 94
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction 89
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune 88
Ninja Gaiden Sigma 88
Resistance: Fall of Man 86
MLB 08: The Show 85
Warhawk 84
SingStar 82
MotorStorm 82
Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds 82
Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection 82
Gran Turismo 5 Prologue 80
Above 80: 12
Above 85: 6
Above 90: 1
Above 95: 0
On to Xbox 360 Exclusives (360/PC titles are denoted by *, PS2 titles are denoted by ^):
BioShock* 96
Gears of War* 94
Halo 3 94
Guitar Hero II*^ 92
Mass Effect* 91
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter*^ 90
Forza Motorsport 2 90
Call of Duty 2*^ 89
Burnout Revenge^ 89
Project Gotham Racing 3 88
Project Gotham Racing 4 85
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent*^ 85
Dead or Alive 4 85
Dead Rising 85
F.E.A.R.* 85
Viva Pinata 84
Need for Speed Most Wanted*^ 83
Crackdown 83
Test Drive Unlimited*^ 82
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance* 82
Hitman: Blood Money*^ 82
Football Manager 2007* 82
Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars* 82
Condemned: Criminal Origins* 81
Tony Hawk's Project 8^ 81
Football Manager 2006* 81
Saints Row 81
LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy*^ 81
NCAA Football 08 81
Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis 81
Ninja Gaiden II 81
NBA 2K6^ 81
Perfect Dark Zero 81
WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2007^ 81
Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation 80
Bully: Scholarship Edition^ 80
Madden NFL 07* 80
Tomb Raider: Legend*^ 80
Peter Jackson's King Kong*^ 80
Moto GP 06* 80
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 80
UEFA Euro 2008* 80
Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2007*^ 80
FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage* 80
Titles available on 360 and not PS3:
Above 80: 45
Above 85: 15
Above 90: 6
Above 95: 1
Titles that are only on the 360 and not the PS3 or PC or PS2:
Above 80: 14
Above 85: 6
Above 90: 2
Above 95: 0
How to interpret these results:
Its up to the reader to decide where they draw the line for quality games. Of course, there are bound to be several games that you would buy despite being lower than this standard. Likewise, there are several games you would NOT buy despite being above. I'm making the assumption that these fringe games more or less cancel out for the majority of folks (note- not all).
IMHO, any game scoring above 90 is a good candidate for my time and money and I'd feel comfortable buying them without much thought. That said, some of the games that I enjoy the most fall short of this number. Viva Pinata, for example, has occupied me for many hours despite scoring 84. Nonetheless, I wouldn't lower my standard to an 84; I would NOT feel comfortable buying any game between 84 and 89 without serious thought. This feeling is mainly due to the number of games that score an 84-89 relative to the games that score above 90 - I simply cannot afford all the games above 84, while I can afford the ones above 90.
While I understand that reviewer scores are just numbers, I want to point out that the way I view the scores are in relative terms. In general, I believe that a game that scores an average of 90 on metacritic is going to be relatively better than a game that scores 80. Of course there are exceptions, but I believe that this trend is generally true. If you disagree with me here, you won't get much out of this comparison.
One other factor that is hard to correct for in such an analysis is the factor of time: If Gears of War was to be released this coming quarter instead of last, would it have scored as highly? The same goes for PS3 games - would Resistance have scored as well as it did if it was not the only decent game on the system at the time of its release? This kind of goes along with the whole 'relative ratings' philosophy - its hard to give a relative score to a game when it has no peers. For the sake of retaining objectivity, I'm not going to bother with this - adjusting for release time is way beyond the scope of this analysis.
Comparisons:
Good news for both sides: multiplatform games come out on top in all score blocks. From this, its fairly safe to say that you're going to be a fairly happy gamer no matter which console you end up going with. Exclusives show themselves to be a bit more complicated. While the 360 trounces the PS3 in every block, many of those 360 titles are also available on other platforms such as the PC. Once you adjust for this, the number of exclusives in each block are more or less equal to one another.
Some general conclusions can be made:
If you must have the 360 exclusives, then get a 360.
If you must have the PS3 exclusives, then get a PS3.
If you must have access to every game and have the $$$, get both!
If you don't have a decent PC, like to get your shared 360/PC games months ahead of time, or simply prefer to play your games on consoles, you're going to tend to be in better shape with a 360 given that you have no preference for the exclusives over one another.
If you have a decent PC, don't mind getting the 360/PC games a few months late, and don't mind or prefer to play your games on your PC, then get whichever console has more appealing exclusives. If the blu-ray player is important to you and you don't already have one in your PC/elsewhere, put some extra weight on the PS3.
As a side note, I'd like to add that these lists inevitably have a few mistakes in them. I ask that you point these out in a civil manner and I'll correct them ASAP. I just want to make it clear that I'm not trying to cherrypick. For example, I'm not really sure whether or not Ninja Gaiden Sigma belongs as a PS3 exclusives considering that its just a remake. Also, I don't know whether GH2 should be considered not playable on the PS3 - I know it is backward compatible, but don't know if you can use the PS2 guitars on the PS3. Your help with issues like these is appreciated.
Lets start with multiplatform titles:
Grand Theft Auto IV 98
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 94
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, The 93.5
Orange Box, The 92.5
Rock Band 92
Burnout Paradise 87.5
Soulcalibur IV 87.5
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 87.5
GRID 87
Virtua Fighter 5 87
NHL 08 85.5
skate 85.5
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 85
Fight Night Round 3 84.5
Unreal Tournament 3 84.5
Civilization Revolution 84
Devil May Cry 4 84
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock 84
Battlefield: Bad Company 83.5
DiRT: Colin McRae Off-Road 83
Madden NFL 08 83
NBA 2K7 82
NCAA Football 09 82
College Hoops 2K7 81.5
College Hoops 2K8 81.5
Condemned 2: Bloodshot 81.5
FIFA Soccer 08 81.5
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 81.5
Call of Duty 3 81
Darkness, The 81
NBA 2K8 81
Assassin's Creed 80.5
NBA Street Homecourt 80.5
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 80.5
LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga 80
Virtua Tennis 3 80
Above 80: 70
Above 85: 13
Above 90: 5
Above 95: 1
Now for the PS3 Exclusives:
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots 94
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction 89
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune 88
Ninja Gaiden Sigma 88
Resistance: Fall of Man 86
MLB 08: The Show 85
Warhawk 84
SingStar 82
MotorStorm 82
Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds 82
Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection 82
Gran Turismo 5 Prologue 80
Above 80: 12
Above 85: 6
Above 90: 1
Above 95: 0
On to Xbox 360 Exclusives (360/PC titles are denoted by *, PS2 titles are denoted by ^):
BioShock* 96
Gears of War* 94
Halo 3 94
Guitar Hero II*^ 92
Mass Effect* 91
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter*^ 90
Forza Motorsport 2 90
Call of Duty 2*^ 89
Burnout Revenge^ 89
Project Gotham Racing 3 88
Project Gotham Racing 4 85
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent*^ 85
Dead or Alive 4 85
Dead Rising 85
F.E.A.R.* 85
Viva Pinata 84
Need for Speed Most Wanted*^ 83
Crackdown 83
Test Drive Unlimited*^ 82
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance* 82
Hitman: Blood Money*^ 82
Football Manager 2007* 82
Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars* 82
Condemned: Criminal Origins* 81
Tony Hawk's Project 8^ 81
Football Manager 2006* 81
Saints Row 81
LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy*^ 81
NCAA Football 08 81
Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis 81
Ninja Gaiden II 81
NBA 2K6^ 81
Perfect Dark Zero 81
WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2007^ 81
Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation 80
Bully: Scholarship Edition^ 80
Madden NFL 07* 80
Tomb Raider: Legend*^ 80
Peter Jackson's King Kong*^ 80
Moto GP 06* 80
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 80
UEFA Euro 2008* 80
Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2007*^ 80
FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage* 80
Titles available on 360 and not PS3:
Above 80: 45
Above 85: 15
Above 90: 6
Above 95: 1
Titles that are only on the 360 and not the PS3 or PC or PS2:
Above 80: 14
Above 85: 6
Above 90: 2
Above 95: 0
How to interpret these results:
Its up to the reader to decide where they draw the line for quality games. Of course, there are bound to be several games that you would buy despite being lower than this standard. Likewise, there are several games you would NOT buy despite being above. I'm making the assumption that these fringe games more or less cancel out for the majority of folks (note- not all).
IMHO, any game scoring above 90 is a good candidate for my time and money and I'd feel comfortable buying them without much thought. That said, some of the games that I enjoy the most fall short of this number. Viva Pinata, for example, has occupied me for many hours despite scoring 84. Nonetheless, I wouldn't lower my standard to an 84; I would NOT feel comfortable buying any game between 84 and 89 without serious thought. This feeling is mainly due to the number of games that score an 84-89 relative to the games that score above 90 - I simply cannot afford all the games above 84, while I can afford the ones above 90.
While I understand that reviewer scores are just numbers, I want to point out that the way I view the scores are in relative terms. In general, I believe that a game that scores an average of 90 on metacritic is going to be relatively better than a game that scores 80. Of course there are exceptions, but I believe that this trend is generally true. If you disagree with me here, you won't get much out of this comparison.
One other factor that is hard to correct for in such an analysis is the factor of time: If Gears of War was to be released this coming quarter instead of last, would it have scored as highly? The same goes for PS3 games - would Resistance have scored as well as it did if it was not the only decent game on the system at the time of its release? This kind of goes along with the whole 'relative ratings' philosophy - its hard to give a relative score to a game when it has no peers. For the sake of retaining objectivity, I'm not going to bother with this - adjusting for release time is way beyond the scope of this analysis.
Comparisons:
Good news for both sides: multiplatform games come out on top in all score blocks. From this, its fairly safe to say that you're going to be a fairly happy gamer no matter which console you end up going with. Exclusives show themselves to be a bit more complicated. While the 360 trounces the PS3 in every block, many of those 360 titles are also available on other platforms such as the PC. Once you adjust for this, the number of exclusives in each block are more or less equal to one another.
Some general conclusions can be made:
If you must have the 360 exclusives, then get a 360.
If you must have the PS3 exclusives, then get a PS3.
If you must have access to every game and have the $$$, get both!
If you don't have a decent PC, like to get your shared 360/PC games months ahead of time, or simply prefer to play your games on consoles, you're going to tend to be in better shape with a 360 given that you have no preference for the exclusives over one another.
If you have a decent PC, don't mind getting the 360/PC games a few months late, and don't mind or prefer to play your games on your PC, then get whichever console has more appealing exclusives. If the blu-ray player is important to you and you don't already have one in your PC/elsewhere, put some extra weight on the PS3.
As a side note, I'd like to add that these lists inevitably have a few mistakes in them. I ask that you point these out in a civil manner and I'll correct them ASAP. I just want to make it clear that I'm not trying to cherrypick. For example, I'm not really sure whether or not Ninja Gaiden Sigma belongs as a PS3 exclusives considering that its just a remake. Also, I don't know whether GH2 should be considered not playable on the PS3 - I know it is backward compatible, but don't know if you can use the PS2 guitars on the PS3. Your help with issues like these is appreciated.