PS3 Oblivion Approaching PC Quality Visuals

fistfullast33l writes "After taking a beating in Gamespot's side by side Comparison of Xbox 360 and PS3 graphics, Playstation 3 owners may finally have something to hold over the 360 fans. Both Gamespot and IGN have previews posted yesterday that talk up the graphics and performance improvements over the 360 version. Load times and texture quality and draw distance have been improved, as well as 'new shaders dedicated to rendering the foreground cleanly with sharper details, so rocky landscapes now have craggy appearances instead of smooth, non-distinct surfaces,' according to IGN. They end with the ultimate hype, 'screens from the PS3 version should approach those from high end PCs running Oblivion, which is an impressive feat.' How is this possible? Gamespot reports that 'Oblivion will make extensive use of the PS3's hard drive by caching multiple gigabytes of data, which seemed to help with load times from what we saw.' While there are no official reports of this making it into the new 360/PC expansion Shivering Isles, a rumor on the Gamespot preview says that 1up might have the scoop."

Comments

Re:PC quality... For now

[vadim_t]

1. Upgrade your Ram to whatever kind it is at that second in time

That's only needed if a board upgrade is needed for some reason. The main reasons here are: CPU too slow, and new bus (PCI Express) needed. Bus doesn't change all that often, and CPU upgrades can be avoided if you only want gaming performance.

2. Probably have to upgrade your motherboard as well

See above

3. Your hard drive will probably be on the fritz, or something more juicy will be out

If you have hard disks die that often on you, then you need a case with better cooling. There are plenty cases where the drives can be mounted behind the intake fan, which keeps them cool and working properly for a long time.

4. If you're playing video games, you probably have to upgrade your (MS) OS also

What the heck for? I play video games, and I still use Win2K. I haven't even really used XP yet, and have no plans at all to upgrade until it stops being supported. There's absolutely no need to hurry with OS upgrades.

That said, my main OS is Linux and upgrades are free there.

So all in all, your $250.00 graphics card costs you close to $800.00 dollars. But then again, you knew that didn't you? This isn't the first computer you've upgraded? Is it?

A computer is cheaper than a computer + PS3 + games you must pay for. On a PC you can quite easily get quite a lot of free entretaintment.

Or are you typing this post on your console?

Re:Took a beating?

[heinousjay]

I normally stay out of these contests, because it's a lot more fun to watch you fanboys piss each other off than to participate, but I have to let you know you've made the most subjective and picayune arguments I could imagine. Congratulations! You've achieved an asinine new low in the 'console war.'