Seems to be a pretty level headed, non-fanboy comparison of Final Fantasy 13 on both systems. Its a pretty indepth article, along with a bunch of screenshots and videos.

The summary though is that during the gameplay, theres not much difference between PS3 and XBox 360 quality, despite the alpha on stuff like the hair, which really doesn't seem anywhere near as bad as had been shown in other screenshots, and is hardly even noticeable once everything is moving. No aliasing problems either, both platforms use 2x anti-aliasing. Frame-rate is also better and more consistent on the 360. However, the videos are noticeably lower quality on the 360, not necessarily due to the resolution difference either, more due to the fact that Square got lazy and did some horrible video encoding. When not much is going on in the videos, like closeups on faces, it looks almost identical to the PS3 version, but when a lot of stuff is going on, it goes to s***.

A bit disappointing, but it still doesn't make the decision entirely clear-cut for me, I'm not sure if pretty videos or solid frame-rates during gameplay are more important to me, plus I like Xbox achievements more than PS3 trophies :P Either way, really good article and worth a look.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-final-fantasy-xiii-face-off

Interesting stuff khel, PS3 is still my preferred version, higher quality videos, lack of having to swap discs as kind of important to us, i don't mind the frame rate dropping to 20 frames per second occasionally, i find most games on either console have this issue... Still bit bizzare that its the 360 with the more consistent frame rate over the ps3.. not what i was expecting.

Also ps3 trophies/360 achievements are near identical...

Yeah, I've got both systems but still going to get it on PS3, theres something about FF on a microsoft console that feels dirty.

the vids dont work for me :/

neither ^

Just remember that the game is extremely linear for the first 20 or so hours, then the game opens up for you.

Aren't all FF games like that though. They just open up, then open up some more then when you think you have accesses to it all BAM it opens up some more.

Yeah, but this is much worse. The first 6 hours have been mapped out into 1 huge jpeg image and pretty much you hold up on the controller and mash X. that will get you through the levels with a small S bend every now and then.

People said the exact same thing about having to run about Midgar in FFVII.

Just remember that the game is extremely linear for the first 20 or so hours, then the game opens up for you.

Even then its still pretty linear... most complaints stem from the fact that they don't have towns or shops and that all items are purchased via the save menu (much like crisis core on psp) But really the game is what you make of it.. towns in the ff series have always been pretty lack luster so in my eyes it's not a deal breaker.. infact ff games are pretty linear... people get use to this chose your own adventure style of western rpg's and forgot that the japs have kept people on set path since day dot.

Yeah when you think about it, towns = TONS of npcs who are all useless and never tell you anything with the odd side mission everynow and then. Only reason they exist is to give you more armor and weapons. Now also since the lot of people you play are considered terrorists (pretty much) it makes sense for them not to want to hang around towns all that much. I'll love this game though. I just know it

heads up, target at browns plains is selling the game for $85 early, both 360 and ps3 versions, eb are yet to sell prior to street date.

towns in the ff series have always been pretty lack luster so in my eyes it's not a deal breaker..

I'd say this is largely true of all FF games except the PS1 generation (i.e. FFVII, FFVIII, FFIX). They all had fairly varied, interesting and unique looking towns.

What about mini games? Like FF7 had Chocobo racing and bringing them up, and exploration and stuff.

Haha, f***! I'm in brisbane at the moment and I was just at Browns Plains, only just got home. Was looking for a game to pickup too so I'd have something to do over the weekend, but I didn't go into Target, I went into Gametraders and picked up Darksiders instead cos they weren't selling FF13 yet :(

Also ps3 trophies/360 achievements are near identical

Yeah, I know conceptually they're the same thing, but I dunno, theres just something about PS3 trophies I find entirely unsatisfying. Maybe its just the presentation, like on 360 you got your gamerscore and when you earn an achievement you can just hit the guide button and see exactly what it was and stuff, the PS3 implementation just feels a bit shoddy in comparison. I think for me it even comes down to the fact that I don't like the sound trophies make when you earn them or how the notifications display :P Yeah its picky and maybe a little bit OCD, I never claimed I had GOOD reasons for preferring achievements over trophies after all....

I guess on any other game, the quality of the movies might not be as important as the quality of the in-game stuff, but when its something like FF13 where its as much (or more) movies than gameplay, I guess the quality of the movies is a pretty important thing, I'm starting to lean towards PS3 now as well, but I really wanted to get it on 360 :(

Am I the only one that can't see the difference between the side by side comparisons?

I couldn't really see any difference, until the second set of movie comparisons, where a lot of action was happening, then you can see some blockyness and grainyness in the 360 version.

Purchased from carindale (brisbane) target for $85.. took it up to eb and showed them the reciept... they took a copy of it and forwarded it to head office while i was in the store with them... 2 of the sales guys ran down to target to try buy it before it closed.. lol.

khel, i cant explain it.. but i find ps3 trophies more rewarding.. i have a massive 360 gamerscore which i have gotten purely by playing a s*** ton of games.. not by achievement farming... but since ps3 trophies hit the scene ive farmed for trophies... i've never gotten 100% trophies for a game.. but if i see a trophie for something i know i can do it i go and do it.

On a related note, I just bought FF2 for iPhone. FF2 and 12 are the only ones I haven't played much of.

theres something about FF on a microsoft console that feels dirty.

What? That makes no sense.

theres something about FF on a microsoft console

I'm sure someone said the same when FF went from nintendo to sony

i find ps3 trophies more rewarding

Ditto. In my experience they are usually given to you for actually DOING something. How many games for the 360 give you achivements simply for playing the game for the first 10 min? I dunno maybe it's just that I prefer the PS3 over the xbox and i'm bias.

How many games for the 360 give you achivements simply for playing the game for the first 10 min?

OMG yes! It s***s me on Xbox how you get most of the achievements for a game by playing through it. Achievements should be something you have to go out of your way to earn. They're ACHIEVEMENTS, not 'milestones spaced out throughout the game that get handed to you for nothing'.

Simpsons game... On the title screen it says press start.. you press start.. you get an achievement.. comic book guys voice comes in "worst achievement ever" i laughed cause even the dev's thought achievements were lame.. they handed out achievements for doing double jumps and lame s*** like that.

i got ffxiii already, and only for $50

^ where do u live and ill come steal it

How many games for the 360 give you achivements simply for playing the game for the first 10 min?

OMG yes! It s***s me on Xbox how you get most of the achievements for a game by playing through it.

Yeah this kinda annoys me as well. Unless it's "10 points for completing the game on uber hard" or something. Not "20 points for completing Act 1", wtf?

There seems to be a large number of games out there that have three related achievements too:
- Complete the game on Easy difficulty
- Complete the game on Medium difficulty
- Complete the game on Hard difficulty

Then they make it so you just play through on hard and it unlocks all three. :S

Also, oblig

Been playing all morning, glad i got it for ps3, ive noticed zero drop in frames and it looks amazing, the cinematics are mind blowing, soo much detail with so much going on...

My only complaint is that there is so much backstory when you first start the game you have no idea whats going on and why you are doing it.. meaning you have to read the codex to get an understanding... that eases up abit 2-3hours in but i still find myself refering to it all the time.

other then that im loving it.

i got ffxiii already, and only for $50

Did you order it online?

My only complaint is that there is so much backstory when you first start the game you have no idea whats going on and why you are doing it

I prefer that in an RPG. To me it makes me feel like the world is much more real because you are put in the middle of something and you don't yet know why. Starting off with everything all nice and peaceful, then something comes along and changes all that is very damn old now.

Yeah.. not really kind of... It would be better if i atleast knew a little bit about my character... Literally the game starts off with you kicking ass.. you don't know.. you just are.. about an hour in some light starts shedding on whats going on.. even then its pretty vague...

In saying that.. all is revealed slowly... i just felt disconnected from the characters for the first few hours.

Well I guess I found out this tuesday. Then I get 2 days of non-stop playing until Yakuza 3 arrives.

i have wednesday off so i will be playing it all day then.

im liking this game alot :) graphics are really pretty and the story seems to be pretty good so far.

anyone else notice the independence day alien vs will smith fly scene in there? flying through the canyons looking exactly the same.

Gotta say that so far (about 8 hours in) that the game is bloody great. So far the linear path hasn't bothered me 1 bit at all. The graphics are mind blowingly good. I'd even go as far to say that these are some of the best graphics i've seen in a game yet. You can watch videos of it on youtube and such but there really is no way around it... you must see this game in HD, in person. Square have made a brutal engine that's for sure. While you can tell what is a cinematic and what isn't, that doesn't change how insane the graphics are. Just wait until you enter the frozen lake area about 2 - 4 hours in. Crazy.

Battle system is bloody awesome with such a fast pace happening. Switching paradigms is a cool feature and this is perhaps my favorite FF battle system yet. Large amounts of flexibility here too. The ability to switch from pure DPS to healer, then anything else you like is kick ass. I also love the fact that there is no MP anymore too and your class chooses what spells/skills you can use.

Story seems pretty good so far with lightning being a real bitch and leaving everyone if they slow her down. Hardly see a main character like that anymore so I like it. All the voice acting is pretty good with exception of vanille. Her accent is so strange that it's borderline annoying. First she's british, then american, then australian, then back to british again and all with a fake sort of pitch to it. That aside though the star of the show so far is Sazh. He has some pretty natural sounding lines that almost makes him seem like he isn't reading from a script, and he's funny to boot. Oh not to mention he has a chocobo chick live in his afro. HOW COOL IS THAT. Hope is annoying. We're talking tidus levels of emo here. If I could abandon him in the junkyard I would.

If you have a PS3 and like RPGs then you should own this game. No 2 ways about it.

sazh is seriously awesome, just wait for his story to open up more, you will really feel for him... also i hated snow at first, then liked him and now im back to hating him.

also dm, when you have full access to partys, hope fang and lightning aew the best trio, which sucks cause hopes such a pansy.

last edited by groganus at 13:02:04 10/Mar/10

im only 2 hrs in and loving it so far.

Yeah i'm starting to like Hope now as he is manning up and not complaining as much now. Good news for him as he wont be benched. Still don't like snow. He must of said the phrase "i'll protect..." about 10000 times already. Still not up to open party system yet. Gotta deal with what they give me. Should be getting around to unlocking it today sometime I hope.

Seem to be taking lightning's 1st weapon, through pure damage in the upgrade path. She always goes commando (lol) in my paradigms so that works for her. Hope is goin magic as he is always the healer/buffer/magic dps.

Tomorrow Yakuza 3 arrives so i'll take a bit of a break.

im up to that crystal lake. looks puurrttyyy

10 hours in exactly and am just starting to run around this forest place. Just when you think the game couldn't get any better look, along comes this. Jesus christ this game is good graphics. Best looking RPG ever.

In that case you are no where near unlocking your full party yet :S... got a long long while to go before you can even change your party members... i think it was about 23hours in.

DM: That says a lot about a game.


IT'S SOOO PRETTY!!!!!


...

the game itself is fantastic, but I can't get over how good the graphics are. Good graphics don't make a game sure, i'll be the first to admit that but the game is damn good even without the awesome eye candy.

Isn't ffxiv (the mmo) using the same engine.. i believe based on seeing the massive open area's in the game later on.. downside the grass had the same texture pattern over and over (which is pretty typical for final fantasy) but the massive beasts roaming the land and all the rising and lowering landscape made it pretty.. needed more bushes and shrubs though.. and maybe a tree.. or building of some kind...

Also with out spoiling it i can finally see how versus is set in the same universe...

Well actually from this site that i've found
http://www.lensoftruth.com/?p=18555
The framerate is pretty much identical, so my guess the ps3 version is a better option, since there are a few shadows missing on the xbox360 version, u actually noticce it abit on this site, and also the 360 version is 3 disks long, so imagining settling down on ur coach and enjoying an intense moment of ff13 then BOOM, next disk please...

The only thing the 360 does better is having a filter distance, so in my opinion its not pretty much identical at all. Im not a ps3 fanboy or nothing, its just this game was developed first for the ps3 so it only comes natural for the 360 to get a port version which isnt as good, there is heaps of games where the 360 version is far superior then the ps3 version to, due to it being ported over to the ps3.

So if ur looking to get the 360 version or ps3, its prob best to go for the ps3

The framerate is pretty much identical

I have noticed a few times (we are talking single didget numbers in over 12 hours of gameplay) where the FPS has dropped a tiny bit. Not a ton but enough to be slightly choppy. These moments only last like 5 seconds at max so that is no issue.

I've not seen a 360 version of the game playing so I can't comment on anything in that version by first hand observations but that site's pictures on the cinematics was pretty shocking. Snow's picture in particular, it makes him look like his face is made of plastic as the bad compression doesn't seem like it picks up the smaller, more intricate bumps and stuff on his face.

Well, I've been away for work, only just got home today and picked up FF13 this afternoon, and I ended up going for the PS3 version. Haven't tried it yet, but I figured since at least half the game is watching the cinematics, its probably worth having the version with the better cinematics. I really wanted to make it a 360 purchase, I just think there would have been something rather momentous about sitting down to enjoy the latest Final Fantasy epic on a non-Sony console, but at the end of the day, I just wasn't willing to sacrifice that bit of extra quality for the sake of my principles :P

But from what people who are playing it have said in this thread, looks like I made the right choice.

just got the shiva twins

this game is just gettin better and better. been playing for a while now and have a lvl 25 sword on lightnight and some other cool s***. very entertaining so far, even just watching the cgi inbetween playing is awesome. I hope there is a cinema option unlocked at the end so u can watch all the cgi's again.

If anyone wants to sell their 360 version when they are done or to get the ps3 version, gimmie a PM I might be interested in buying a 2nd hand copy.

I'm only about 3 hours in so far, but I dunno, its kind of bland so far. I mean it IS a final fantasy game so 3 hours in is still at the "you haven't really finished the intro yet" stage, but its yet to really impress me. Also, some of the dialogue is terrible, and the emotion is so forced, I don't really feel for any of the characters at all that I'm obviously meant to be feeling for.

im really digging the battle system. its like a cross between ffxii and x-2 plus the new atb gauge.

I'm only about 3 hours in so far, but I dunno, its kind of bland so far. I mean it IS a final fantasy game so 3 hours in is still at the "you haven't really finished the intro yet" stage, but its yet to really impress me. Also, some of the dialogue is terrible, and the emotion is so forced, I don't really feel for any of the characters at all that I'm obviously meant to be feeling for.

Agree! There feels like a lot of awkward pauses in all the dialogue between characters. Like one guy will yell YES I AM AN HERO and then it'll cut to another guy waits for ages who then yells YEH!!!!!!!!! I'm finding most of the characters pretty annoying actually. Except for black guy with chocobo in his hair, he's alright.

what you have described is pretty much every dubbed anime (i know this is a game) every sold outside of japan.

Yeah, it reminds me a lot of a dubbed anime. Is there a technical reason for it? Like is what they're saying longer in japanese than in English, so when they try to fit English words into the cutscenes it ends up with awkward gaps and pauses? Or is that just how japanese people think english is spoken?

pretty sure they redid all the cutscenes for english. thats why all the lips are in sync when they speak.

also just got odin. was kind of a tough battle since he owns you at the start, so you need to start the battle with lightning as the medic to withstand the onslaught.

last edited by ravn0s at 22:54:47 11/Mar/10

also just got odin. was kind of a tough battle since he owns you at the start, so you need to start the battle with lightning as the medic to withstand the onslaught.

Odin was a god damn monster of a fight. He destroyed me at least 4 times before I managed to kill him. Same goes for later on when you fight sahz's.

EDIT - So I just finished my play time for the night and am about 24 - 25 hours in I think. I unlocked party selection and access to all class trees but here comes a bit of a problem that i've eventually gotta come to deal with. Who to pick.

Right now my Lightning is set for mostly raw damage as a commando. This means she does kinda crappy (300 - 400 element damage). I can't really sub her out because she really has become my main. I can't figure out which other 2 I should bring with me. Fang/Vanille combo works wonders for raw damage (had an 11k stagger hit with this) but you can't rely on the debuffing power of them during every fight due to immunities. Hope/Sahz seems to work awesome too due to the insane amount of buffs between them (elemental weapons, protect, shell, haste, veil and a few other buffs) but hope can't heal like vanille can. Snow doesn't seem to be getting any action at all despite his insane amount of HP which is currently over 2.1k without any accessories when the rest of my party has only 1.2 - 1.4 at most.

Trying to decide wether I should drop Lightning as the main and instead use Fang or Snow because I like the idea of a defence capable character in the group. Wondering how the combo of Snow/Sahz/Vanille will do. Having 900 odd HP over all the other characters so far seems pretty tempting but perhaps I should just stick with fang and get her some maxed out levels Gold Bracelets since they would give around +400 hp each.

Arg so much strategy opens up the second you can pick your party members.

last edited by DM at 03:12:32 12/Mar/10

The best balanced party consists of lighting, fang, hope. (lightning as leader)

Between them they have the 3 best roles you have already invested in, there primary roles are the best for balance aswell. Delta attack com, sent and rav will be one of the most used roles later on and it works best with this three... you can then also use relentless assault, mystic tower, solidarity.. again most used para's.

Which imo sucks cause id rather be playing with snow, sazh and vanille. (which is also a good team, but a little bit weak when push comes to shove.

After getting my ass brutualy raped for over an hour straight, I've given in and admitted defeat for now to the boss in The Fifth Ark. He is just so god damn hard with his AoE blast which does like 900 damage AND remove all your buffs. I'll try again later with that group you got there grog. I thought having sahz and vanille for their super buffs/debuffs/small AoE heal would be good but without a sentinal to guide his attacks when he is in offence mode it's just too god damn hard to withstand his onslaught.

I'll give it a few hours and try again. For now, time to beat up some people in Yakuza 3

EDIT - Also I was looking through the Extras menu and it seems there are themes for the PS3 you can unlock by doing something with your characters. IDK what I did but I unlocked the Sahz theme. Also looking through the trophies and noticed I had the silver "Limit Break - Do 100,000 damage in a single attack" one which I thought was pretty awesome.

So far my single biggest hit I remember was 11k. 1 of those iron robot things, while it was in charge mode with imperil, deprotect and deshell on it, and I had bravery and enfire on.

last edited by DM at 13:26:21 12/Mar/10

Try it with lightning/hope/fang, switch between delta attack, mystic tower, soliditary.

yeah you get themes for different trophies you unlock, i think there is 8 in total.

wheres the extras menu? the only trophies ive got are the lame ones for completing parts of the story :/

also i think the fastest time you can win a battle is 3 seconds. battle report shows 2 seconds but then it ticks over to 3 :/

Extras menu appears when you unlock 1 of the themes. I have NO clue how you do it but I have 1 theme ready to go.

Also I did the fight with lighting/hope/fang and surpsing how well I did. Did it first shot too. Seeing him flail away on fang while she had her medistance thingy up was funny as she was just evading everything and taking no damage most of the time. I like her as sentinel. GOOD TIMES!

I've gotten trophies for scanning enemies over 1000 times (i think, that or killing over 1000 scanned enemies), doing over 100,000 damage in 1 turn, and 1 or 2 others I can't remember. says i'm 23% done with total collection rate and I have like 10 of them for the story alone.

last edited by DM at 16:26:18 12/Mar/10

The extras menu appears after you unlock you first extra on the main menu... all it is is themes... infact some of them you could download from psn a few months ago.

also
The cinematic at the start of chapter 12 is by far some of the best cgi action i have ever seen....

EPIC.

Created a separate save so i can watch it again and again and again.

just finished the story. ending was pretty epic however the last few bosses were super easy. guess its onto post game hunts and s*** now.

im about 10 hours in... is it all about fighting? ie because there is really 0 exploring, u have a thin map you just follow... does it get better?

when you get to gran pulse (around 20-25 hrs in), you can do as much exploring as you want. however because monsters are so powerful on pulse its best to leave the exploring until after the end of the game.

I play this on the PS3, my flatmate plays it on his xbox 360, the framerate on the 360 is crap. just watching him play and run around in gran pulse, it looks fairly choppy in comparison with the PS3 i'd have to say.

Weird thing about this game, im 60 hours in and loving it, but it feels like its been far too short.

I think thats due to the linearity of the game. Im running around Gran Pulse now doing all the missions & developing my char's, I can kill one of those giant creatures that stomp around without the horns, but the ones with the horns are too hard, 8k hit.

I found if you summon Vanille's eidolon it knocks out his legs but I still cant get enough dmg to get anywhere NEAR taking him out, 7 million HP or something.

Behemoth kings were a prick too, but i've mastered them now.

wheres the extras menu? the only trophies ive got are the lame ones for completing parts of the story :/

Pretty sure it's the "Loremaster" achievement.

EDIT: after looking at it, it looks like you get them from other trophies. I highlighted the theme I have and it says unlocked from getting the loremaster trophy.

last edited by Panda at 21:17:18 03/Apr/10