It seems I can’t go near any gaming websites these days without feeling like I’m wading into a full-on firefight. Fanboyism is unfortunately something of a recurring problem in the gaming consumer population, seemingly driven by those who for whatever reason are either willing or able to buy only one console, and once they’ve done that, feel they have to shore up their own purchase by pissing over everyone elses. They’re egged on by corporate marketing departments of course, who are somewhat economical with the truth most of the time, but at least they have an excuse – talking trash earns their company money. The fanboys gain nothing but a bilious taste in the mouth and some miguided sense of helping their ‘tribe’ by discrediting the ‘enemy’. It’s ludicrous – I just can’t fathom how a box of plastic and electronics can instill such unswerving, borderline murderous loyalty in some people. It would make sense just to put them all in a cage match and watch them beat each other senseless – at least we could sell tickets for that. I happen to own a 360 right now, but I would hardly consider it a ‘life choice’, or something I should have emblazoned on a pennant that I carry proudly into battle against the evils of the Sony empire. For a start, my TV is made by Sony, so my gaming is always a twisted congress between the two companies. Secondly, I don’t exactly love Microsoft, the 360 just had more games I wanted to play. In fact, I can’t say I really like any of the 3 console companies (even Nintendo who are ‘doing a Switzerland’ and staying out of it while making a ton of money), and certainly none have my allegiance. They’re just boxes, dudes, you shouldn’t be going all patriotic over them.
The release of GTAIV is perhaps what has brought it to a head, as each company fights to be considered ‘the’ platform for the game, with people, game sites and companies going to extraordinary lengths to differentiate the basically undifferentiatable. Slightly higher resolution, softer post processing, marginally different frame rates, small popping differences – but who cares if they both feel the same in practical terms, as everyone seems to be saying? Stop talking about it already! Key single-platform titles also poke the hornets nest pretty regularly – Halo 3 did it, MGS4 and Gears2 are doing it right now, and no doubt we’ll see more before the year is out – the result being a fairly equal balance of ‘this game sux!!1!’ and ‘best game EVAR!11!’. It’s all very tiresome, and it seems to me to be getting worse.
Why can’t these people just be happy with what they bought, enjoy their games, and not pour cold water on everyone else? And if you’re insecure about the console you bought, then shut up or go buy the other one, it’s not like you’ll burst into flames if you touch a different console. Just for once I’d like to be able to read about game news, read some balanced opinion, and move on happy instead of having to wade knee-deep in gamer bile. It’s the one area where print magazines still win – at least editorial on the letters pages means the signal to noise ratio is much higher.
May 14th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
It will always be the same story I guess – many people only have money to support one console, and they need to justify their choice by making themselves believe the other options are completely worthless.
The reason why the current console war is reaching such ridiculous levels is because there is actually so little difference between the Xbox 360 and the PS3. Fanboys now have to magnify the tiniest of details to epic proportions, in order to feel good about ‘their’ machine.
The debate is also fueled by the fact that it is now the Wii that takes the crown, making these technological comparisons even less significant than they already were. Thus, fanboys have to work harder to make their arguments seem legit.
To be honest, I am talking from a luxury viewpoint now. I got my Xbox 360 for free in a contest two years ago, and I’ve got money for a PS3 laid aside for nearly a year now. During the last generation, I only had a PS2 and while I never considered myself to be a fanboy, I was pretty adamant about it being the best machine (against better knowledge).
The only reason why I don’t have a PS3 at the moment is because a) MGS4 is just about the only reason for me to get one, which isn’t out yet, and b) when you have 400 euros in cash, it suddenly seems like a LOT of money to spend on what’s essentially a toy.
May 14th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
I couldn’t agree more with your sentiments.
It seems that just about every site these days has a comment section which immediate spirals into a flame war whenever the PS3 of 360 are mentioned in the same breath. The GTA comparisons of late are by far the stupidest comparisons I have seen so far. It looks damn near identical on both systems!
Generally I have found that with most games the difference between the 360 and the PS3 are not even worth mentioning. The Orange Box was panned heavily for the PS3, but I still got it and enjoyed it. Yes it stuttered a few times, but maybe two or three times in the entire time that I played through HL2 and episodes 1 and 2! It certainly wasn’t the broken game that some reviewed and other sites suggested.
People just need to accept that both systems are good gaming systems. They each have good exclusives and generally most multiplatform games run at a reasonably similar level.
I do have to mention one thing though Steve… On Monday when Jim came round and saw us playing Gear of War and asked “Is this Metal Gear Solid?” The immediate, “no this is much better” (without even a pause for breath) did come across a tad fanboyish
May 14th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
@Baz: Haha – I thought you’d realised I was just deliberately provoking you
I wasn’t being serious – I’m sure MGS4 will be great, just not likely to be my cup of tea, since I never got on well with the series. Gears is a much, *much* shallower game but I enjoyed it nonetheless, but in all seriousness I wouldn’t even try to compare them, they’re completely different. MGS and Splinter Cell maybe, but then I never played those. I did prefer the early Thief games to the early MGSs though, that’s a fairer comparison, but then it’s just preference than an absolute better/worse.
May 14th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
In other news, fire is hot, rain is wet, and most people are morons.
I spend a lot of my time listening to the pleasant and intelligent people I know gibbering with incredulity over the titanically stupid opinions and actions of the rest of the local human population.
Myself, I am ensconced in a warm mantle of cynicism, and the only thought on this matter that I entertain is the idle hope that someday the entire lemming demographic will just stampede off a high cliff.
Wheeeee!
May 14th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
I don’t own a ps3 or xbox, but from the video I saw on the page you linked (http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=137829) I would say the game looks better on ps3. As a big example, around 1/3 through the movie, you see the main character turn the motor bike ignition and hop on. The red light on the back comes on, and you can see in the ps3 version the light actually reflects on the bike parts and riders clothes. In the xbox version the light comes on but everything else is still black.
Not that it matters a whole lot, most the differences are small.
May 15th, 2008 at 8:30 am
I think you’re seeing things that are not there – the lighting engine is identical on both versions. The main visual difference is that the ps3 version has a ‘softer’ post filter because it’s running at a marginally lower resolution, which can allegedly make things look more appealing at times at the expense of a little detail, whilst the 360 has a tiny bit more resolution and ‘paint grain’ postfilter that can work well sometimes, but look a bit too speckly at other times. In both cases you have to be quite anal to notice much difference.
May 15th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
It all comes from things being said like “the next generation only starts when we say so” by various company reps (http://www.joystiq.com/2005/12/13/sony-exec-hd-era-starts-when-we-are-on-the-market/)… so it’s only encouraged
Sad thing though is magazines like T3 actually buy in to that more power thing 
Glad to see you on Live though!
May 15th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
@frenetic
couldnt agree more. aaah, the warmth a good dose of distanced cynicism can give you….
May 16th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
I definately saw it, and paused the video and remembered it. Maybe the video itself was tampered, but I’m not making things out of nothing, I definately saw lighting effects in the “PS3″ version vs the “XBox” version. Its around 29 seconds into the clip, I just checked again. The main reason I saw it is because my connection here at work can be slow at times, and it happened to rebuffer at this time.