"We asked GTA IV developer Rockstar to set the record straight on the relative resolutions of the various versions of the game, but it did not respond to our calls"

They are all in the pub, and quite right too!

dead bird - cos the pigeons get it tight in GTA IV!

(BTW can we get a Niko icon for random slaughter and mayhem?)

http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=46242&page=25

And the general consensus, including from the Rockstar co-founder too (http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=3&cId=3167500#two-consoles), is that the PS3 has a warmer, softer feel than the Xbox's more clinical look.

But its all pointless tech willy-waving from fanboys looking at still screenshots. There is very little difference at ALL when you play the thing, something that lots of comparison videos already show.

http://www.gamevideos.com/video/watch?video=18625&largeFormat=mov

That's low man, really low. It can't be for any reason other than either a tight budget, tight schedule or complete laziness.

i think the 'gamer' needs to ditch his sony tv and buy a proper one - panasonic, tosh, philips or samsung. lcd of course.

Not yet played my copy, have to wait till tomorrow!

However, the PS3 case says resolution 720p, 1080i or 1080p!!

Surely anything less is an infringement of trades descriptions?

Well the back of the box says it runs in 720p, which then gets upscaled to 1080p.

Also it's obvious why it looks slightly blurier on the PS3 shots. The PS3 version is antialiased, whereas the 360 is not.

I've got the PS3 version, and played a bit of the 360 version, and the PS3 looks slightly better. The LOD range is longer, the lighting is better, and the texture load is quicker (because of the install for PS3)

"For example, one gamer wrote on his blog" - thats your cue to ignore anything else thats written.

Surely it would take more processing power to produce a "630p" image and then go to all the trouble of upscaling it, than it would to just produce a 720p image in the first place? Upscaling is very processor intensive. I smell cowdung, guv. Where's the "Steaming Pile" icon?

Wasn't GTA4 delayed for quite a while cause they struggled to get the performance out of the the PS3? As far as I recall, the 360 version had been ready to go since about June 2007, but the PS3 just couldn't cope with what was being asked of it. I suppose that in lowering the resolution they overcame that .. as well as asking you to install stuff to your PS3 HDD, without a choice apparently.

That, coupled with the ridiculous bundle price for the PS3 version (£320 for PS3, £200 for 360), means that the 360 version is far superior.

Cue flames.

The "fuzziness" was probably intentional. Smoothing edges for atmosphere. Don't mistake features for flaws.

Bias can be assumed on the part of the source of this information "xboxer".

anyone actually looked at this on PS3 ? - its 1080p which the 360 isnt capable of - maybe they have it the wrong way round .

anyway 630p and 640p are custom resolutions not resolution standards, i highly doubt they have produced the game to this resolution as it would not look right on ANY tv's there would always be boarder or stretchin.

wot toilet fodder, are all the GTA stories basedon rumours ? ref the stabbing one yesterday - lHAA

When I bought the copy of GTA for PS3 , it was shown on an xbox in the store. I had 5mins on it - couldn't resist. When I got home looked identical.

The only thing I can confirm is the frame rate is reasonably solid on the ps3.

Graphics are good, but its no GT5.

However, I expect the xbots are happy. V Small 1up for them.

An upscaled image could meet those resolutions, no problem. Not entirely honest perhaps, but not a lie.

i've been playing the ps3 version since last saturday and it looks fine to me

to be honest, yes, i could see that perhaps it's displaying in 1080i or similar - but it still looks kickass great

as Joe K says - when you're actually playing the game, you're not going to know the difference. besides - i'd rather play it in slightly lower res on the PS3 without the game hanging and freezing as it's doing on the 360 version

ps. a Reg article that mentions Sony and Microsoft together - let the flame wars begin!!!

What'll that do though...

...if it comes out...

:'-(

s'not fair.

Do we need more of the system wars rubbish?

Both versions are absolutely lovely and you can't go wrong getting either.

If you are lucky enough to have a choice then get the version more of your mates have as multiplayer looks like it could be great fun.

Looks lower res than 720 on my 360!! I've got a pretty big (50") but only 720p native tv, its glaringly obvious when games are scaled up (like cod4 halo3 pgr3) and this is the worst I've seen for it, stuff in the distance looks awfully aliased AND blurred!! Still a great game though

The original claim of 630p has long since been discredited, as it was taken from a screenshot on IGN, that had been cropped to fit the webpage. It's now 640p, less than the 360 version, but the PS3 version does post-processing and results in a better overall image.

http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=46242&page=25

I would be more worried about the hideous load times and really bad object pop-in that the 360 suffers, as that is a REAL problem, not a made up one, like this "news" item..

Ok, so when a game says it supports 720p, 1080i, and 1080p that just means it upscales and supports those modes for your HDTV.

What we really need to know is the rendering resolution. Many games render on the 3D card at a lower resolution (usually to keep fps up) and then scale to the native res.

That's fine if they have to do that but they should have to DISCLOSE the rendering resolution then on the case!

As for those who say it doesn't make a difference, trust me, 1080p at 120 frames per second looks better then 720p at 24 frames per second. And in a couple years we'll all have 4K HDTVs that will make 1080p look horrible.

Since when has an LCD TV been a "proper one". LCD's are for cheapskates who can't afford a plasma.

Plasma are less blurry, more vibrant, last longer and and have a much better viewing angle.

Sorry..

If buying a console primarily to play GTA (as I just did), bear in mind that the XBOX will get two exclusive extra episodes via XBOX Live, something that Microsoft paid Rockstar $50m to secure.

Knowing that there will be GTA content that is only available on the XBOX was more than enough to swing me towards a 360 purchase; beyond that, the comparison between the two seemed largely academic (though the 360's lower price helped too.)

Buy the platform that has the games you want to play.

Personally, PS3 has pretty much all the games I want to play. Never judge a console on the basis of a cross platform game, as compromises will have been made, judge it on the platform exclusives.

Take a look at:

Ratchet and clank (PS3)

Unchartered Drakes fortune (PS3)

MGS4 (PS3)

Killzone 2 (PS3)

Little Big Planet (PS3)

Unreal Torunement (PS3)

Gran Turismo 5 (PS3)

Paris, as she likes shiney things like the PS3.

...or even 630P as this report appears to have started out on the InterWeb.

Tosh, I say.

I have GTA4 on PS3.

Well to me it just looks 'Hi-Def'. It looks good. My TV reports it is in 720p when playing. I cant say it looks any less sharp than, say, Assassins Creed.

But then I've not payed much attention, and are ACTUALLY PLAYING AND ENJOYING IT instead of bitching and being a pedant.

But from what I hear, the PS3, being newer and technically more powerful, is supposed to be doing a better job of view distances over the XBox version, i.e. seeing miles off into the distance with better detail.

I havent seen the XBox one so I couldnt say myself.

However I am ever so slightly disappointed about drop-offs of frame rates during 'busy' scenes and action. This makes playing it during such moments a little more difficult because you are likely to have missed some action due to the drop out.

Its not a serious thing at all tho as its not as bad as it could be.

All in all, I love GTA 4. Its a pinnacle title from the games industry - even El-Reg featured 4 or 5 stories about it in one day! I mean what other title can achieve that status!?

I'm just wondering why the BBC wrote an article about GTA 4 going up against the Wii-Fit!! That may be, in terms of sales, but in terms of technical achievements - Wii-Fit sucks donkey balls in relation! What with its 5 to 10 year old style visuals.

you will find that a lot of game which are 720p scale up, but dont look as good as true 1080p games.

Maybe its coze of disk access huge city means that they will need to have a lot of data duplicated.

However a lot of reviews are stating that the PS3 has a more stable framerate and a lot less (and less severe when it does happen) pop-in than the 360.

What he gives with one hand....

Paris as I've seen her popping a few things in!

Neither of them look that much better than the GTA San Andreas I have on my PS2 & since the game play is effectively the same, why would anyone want to by a "next gen" console just for this?

Wow. Never mind whether gameplay is any good or not in modern games, let's all get bent out of shape over a few percent difference in an already pretty high resolution which most normal people will have trouble noticing.

Does it make *any* difference to the gameplay? Does anyone even *care* about gameplay any more? Am I some sort of dangerous radical retrotard for not giving a damn about sound or graphical quality as long as the game is, you know, FUN?

Mine's the pyjamas. Wake me up when the games industry does something new and exciting please thanks.

PS3 is better - why? because I've got one

just play CoD4 multiplayer and GT5 - like I do.

... WHO. CARES.

All this silly arguments over some minute difference of resolution reminds me of the same old silly arguments over frame rates back on the Super NES and Megadrive and it was as pointless then is as is now.

I mean apparently the 360 GTA IV has a minutely higher resolution than the PS3 GTA IV but the PS3 looks better overall. Do sane 360 owners really care? Do sane PS3 owners really care? Nope.

Move along, nothing to see here.

There is almost noticeable difference between the two, especially when you are hooning about at speed shooting anything and everything that moves...

If you are buying a console primarily for GTA IV, one thing to consider is the downloadable content which is stated as being XBox exclusive, and comes out late summer (I think). It will require an XBox Live subscription.

This is supposed to be extra story and stuff to do, about 10 hours of game play.

Paris as she appears in low resolution too.

My <insert name here> is far better than the rubbish <insert name here>

Choose from the following list :

Vic 20

Dragon 32

Spectrum

C64

BBC Model B

Atari St

Amiga

Sega Saturn

Gamecube

X-Box

PS2

*YAWN*

Paris coz I believe she knows something about inserting things here

You're all missing the point!

The difference between the two versions is really pointless. The only real difference is the size of everyone's e-penis here...

It doesn't matter if you're a PS3 or a 360 player, the point is - atleast it's not a Wii.

(oh yeah, I went there.)

Both consoles are now a good few years old. Pretty antique by IT standards. I'll wait for the PC release.

I don't care if I have to run at 640x480 either, I just want to play it for the game!

...you might be playing it now, but the laugh will be on you when us PC gamers get hold of it.

In eighteen years.

At least we'll be it at 1920x1200x32 with full draw distance, x16 AA, x16 AF, maximum texture resolution, particle effects, full post-processing, no slowdown, blah blah blah...

:)

I have the 360 version of this and it IS fantastic. I've had minor issues but only once or twice where banisters don't appear or a car pops into view or the skyscrapers just appear in the distance.

None of this has detracted from the joy of the game. I've seen the PS3 version running and it looks awesome and by all counts there's a lot less of the very minor things I've experienced.

Anyway, the worst thing about the 360 version is that fkn fan in the 360. It really is obtrusive and more so that for any other game I've noticed - if I didn't have friends who have the 360 version I would be swapping it for the PS3 one.

"But there's no such thing as 640P...

Anonymous Coward • Thursday 1st May 2008 16:55 GMT

...or even 630P as this report appears to have started out on the InterWeb."

Yes there is. There is such a thing as <any number>p

All 630p is saying is that there are 630 rows of pixels and it is progressive (Not interlaced)

So if your TV was a 16:9 display, you would have (630/9)x16 = 1120 columns of pixels

If your TV was 4:3, the resolution would be 840x630 : (630/4)*3=840

for i (interlaced) modes, halve the y for the true resolution, so 1080i on a 16:9 is not 1920x1080 but effectively 1920x540.

Ahh, 720p, how cute. I play PC games in 1200p (16:10) with an additional 768p (4:3) display to the side.

Reminds me of the days you would buy a speccy game based on the screenshot on the back, only to load up some monochrome pap and read "Screenshot from Arcade, actual graphics may vary".