Bayonetta: PS3/360 demo showdown Comments by Richard Leadbetter

The same old story...360 always seems to win in these showcases. You would think after almost three years, the developers have got the ps3 under their belt, but it still isn't so. Well, I have a choice, so it will be 360 format (again) for me.

Hopefully Microsoft wil do some 360 Bayonetta bundles at release. I'm gonna need one. :(

DO YOU WANT TO TOUCH ME?

FUCK YES I DO

it seems like the devs take the easy way developing for xbox primarily and then just putting the PS3 version somehow together wiht no regard to uniqueness of PS3 hardware :-/ It is too similar to what happens with Xbox to PC conversions where the devs just ramp up texture resolution for high end machines but do not think about controls

Perfect example of a cash in, why not just make the game 360 exclusive??

Oh yea because they need the Japan sales also...a lazy job all round imo.

notsoslim: my idea exactly...

this' been a quick port. move on, nothing to see here...

/Battens down the hatches

Could be my eyes but I do struggle to see the differences on these comparisons. Luckily I have a 360 for the most part its not an issue and am really looking forward to this game

Well, tables have definitely turned this gen. I remember when multiconsole ports of games for the PS2 stifled the original Xbox (and even early 360) development. Now PS3 is getting all the hand-me downs. Oh well.

@Thunderbolt!

If you're watching the first side-by-side comparison and you can't tell the difference, you may have issues with your left eye ;)

For PS3 only owners - I doubt it will spoil the game play, although awareness of this comparison might.

jynxce : "Well, tables have definitely turned this gen. I remember when multiconsole ports of games for the PS2 stifled the original Xbox (and even early 360) development. Now PS3 is getting all the hand-me downs. Oh well."

That would only work if the PS3 version was identical in every way to the 360 version, just not up to the standard of other PS3 games. As it is, this is a very poorly done port and only reflects badly on that process, not either hardware as such.

You missed out the critical point, the PS3 is using 5 of the 7 CPU core's to allow real time weapon changing. The Xbox version has a load screen when you switch between attacks (I presume).

is this Demo out on the 360 yet or am i just blind? :/

@steve,

Both demo's are out in Japan only. For PS3 you need a japanese PSN account. For Xbox I believe you can find the demo available to download on an assortment of sites. Download, burn, play.

I'm definitely gonna have to try the demo now to see if it's worth me buying.

@Pirotic

If you're talking about switching between the guns and the sword it's in real-time on the 360 demo.

It's disappointing to hear there are performance problems on the PS3, but I don't think it's fair to blame Sega's developers for being lazy/untalented. They've been given an unfinished game, full of code they haven't written, that has been designed to run on a different platform. Any development team would struggle with that as they will likely not have had much input with the 360 version's programmers about how to structure the game to make a PS3 port easier.

"it seems like the devs take the easy way developing for xbox primarily and then just putting the PS3 version somehow together wiht no regard to uniqueness of PS3 hardware :-/"

First, it's not the devs but the publishers. Second, you can hardly blame them as there's no incentive to do a more than adequate job. Now that ports are mostly outsourced, there's little professional pride on the side of the developers, they just have to get the job done within a tight budget given to them by the publisher. And for publishers the only thing that counts is the bottom line and an adequate PS3 port adds more to that than a really good, thus more expensive, one.

Pirotic: the PS3 is using 5 of the 7 CPU core's to allow real time weapon changing

The PS3's Cell processor does not have 7 CPU cores, rather it has 1 physical CPU core that runs two Symmetric Hardware Threads (SMT) and is ergo 2 logical CPU cores; the Xbox 360's Xenon CPU has 3 physical CPU cores that are also SMT and it thus has 6 logical CPU cores. Whereas both CPUs are PowerPC derivatives the PS3's Cell has 7 SPE and developers can use 6 of them, these are a type of SIMD (vector processors), whereas the Xbox has a VMX128 per core which are also a type of SIMD.

^^ ... eh?

Hmmm... another multiformat PS3 disappointment but so long as the machine has games like Uncharted 2 and Ratchet & Clank A Crack in Time then I can live with it; it's one of the benefits of being a multi-platform gamer. :)

I didn't actually think much to the demo myself... Devil May Cry with an odd-looking female lead (small head, big body, unsexy glasses) and seen-it-all-before gameplay.

Wow, some scenes really look blurry on the PS3.

While the excellent captured vids are always interesting to see, I think the 'technical analysis' written part is rather iffy.

There are once again loads of assumptions made without any reference or proof, assumptions that are really doubtful to begin with.
For example the bits about the use of X360's "DXN/3Dc+" texture compression and X360's unified memory architecture being the reasons for X360's better looking textures.
Unless Digital Foundry has been on both PS3 and X360 development teams, I think such statements bear absolutely no technical credibility whatsoever and is basically just a lot of blahblah.
Especially the unified memory architecture bit is doubtful to say the least.

In my opinion, DF should really stick to what they're good at (preparing good video captures and providing clear statistics) and stick to the facts.

In the end, what matters to gamers is that the X360 version once again looks better than the PS3 version (which can help in making choices), but nobody benefits from ill-informed technical assumptions and guessing.

Been waiting for this, don't even have a 360 and I did enjoy the demo, but even without the comparison I noticed the tearing and frame rate dips (not the lower textures though). It's not the PS3's fault, it could easily handle this game, as nice as the 360 version is Uncharted 2 blows it (and dare I say just about every other game this gen) out of the water .......... its just a shite port. Part of me almost wish's this was a PS3 exclusive and the 360 version didn't exist, but buying the PS3 version would be like giving Sega a pat on the back for a "f*** it, it'll do" port. Shame I don't have a 360, I might pick this up when its insanely cheap, as much as I hate Gamestop giving them money instead of Sega for something like this would be the lesser of 2 evil's.

For PS3 owners this might have been a tough pill to swallow.
Might have been, were it not for the existance of Uncharted 2 to show off the machine's lovelynes at its best (and give fanboys something to smugly fawn over), and more importantly DMC4 - showing how a game of this type can be ported just fine across the machines.
Which makes me think... if Hideki Kamiya had not left Capcom, PS3 owners might have gotten Bayonetta running as it should on the MT Framework engine, but then again, we might not have gotten Bayonetta at all - such is the nature of corporate dealings behind closed doors.

@Darren
I have to disagree with you on the game play. Either you just button mashed and was statisfied with the results or you really did not try to flesh out the gameplay mechanic. The game is a lot of fun to play and if you get involved with the gameplay mechanic, it opens up even more.

Anyway, I guess you have to either like games like this or not. I am believing you swing to another tune.

Cant really go slagging off the ps3 on this one over lazy developers. Its obvious the PS3 can do better than that, theres no need to list the titles to prove it. Either way I wont be getting this game on either format probably and if I did... it would probably still be the PS3 version.

But yeah if they are that shit at making PS3 games they really should have made it a X360 exclusive. Sony would probably pay them not to make it on their console considering their skills lol

Its obviously rushed port ready for Xmas release. PS3's a bitch to develop for lack of unified memory sucks.

Can these DF comparisons not appear in the general news column please?
They're not news.

WAHHH WAHHH the incessant cries of the fanboy.

its always blame the developers, publisher, the commonality in all these things is that sony should make their console more accommodating for developers, especially new startups like PG. you cant blame microsoft for making and aiding developers with great tools and support, sony should strive for the same.

also i'll admit that the ps3 does some things better than the 360, why cant people ever admit the opposite. ps3s strength is in deferring shading/effects to the cpu, a game thats 60fps requires fast throughput which limits usage of cpu cycles since it would cause delay. It makes 360's hardware a better candidate to render a game like this which is a gpu bottleneck.

Ultimately, you have to wonder why Sega didn't stick to v-sync'ed 30 fps.

Of course the 360 version looks better. MS pays EG to say these things!!!

/sarcasm

I think the same thing as what @Les said... it's got everything to do with the bottom line.

Lead on 360 (because the skills are cheaper and the tools are familiar/easier to use) then pay a third party to do the port (as cheap as possible). As long as the results are about the same to the untrained eye then... quids in... why should they spend months re-engineering the PS3 version to suite the hardware.

In that respect 360 is going to win out on 3rd party development (generally speaking).

"It's disappointing to hear there are performance problems on the PS3, but I don't think it's fair to blame Sega's developers for being lazy/untalented."

No, but you could blame them for hiding things in the demo that would really show how well it was made.

/reads tachometers comment, looks at Uncharted 2 ad at bottom of page. Laughs.

Thank god the ps3 has some decent exclusives(as all machines do to be honest), because it's a pretty lousy machine for the majority of games that are released.

90% of software released is probably multiplatform, ps3 fanboys have to face up to the fact that it'll never change.
They'll always get the worst ports.
There's always bluray i guess, or the constant hope that the cell will actually cure world famine one day.

PS3 Porting Issues Continue...

This guy here has a point (He was talking about the demos of both Bayonetta & Lost Planet 2). Also, from 6:45 to 7:43, he also said that the Demo really reflects the final product about 95% of the time, among other things.

My views on PS3 porting issues, Professor Bond & the myth of PS3 users buy more variety.

He talks about how hard it is to develop games for the PS3, etc.

it seems like the devs take the easy way developing for xbox primarily and then just putting the PS3 version somehow together with no regard to uniqueness of PS3 hardware.

Guess what? Even if games were developed first for the PS3, or if games were ported from PS3 to the 360, they'll still come out playing, running, & looking better on 360. The 360 can also easily push out the same kind of graphics, etc., from the PS3 with less development time & money. 360 also has a slightly better GPU, & is more easier & less costly to develop than PS3. Developing games first for the PS3 takes a lot of time & money. The reason why 3rd party developers hate developing games for the PS3 is because it's too damn difficult. It's even more difficult than the PS2. So difficult in fact, it would take many people just to work on the PS3 version while it would only take less people to work on the 360 version of a certain game, like Far Cry 2. Take that for instance when it was ported from PC to both 360 & PS3. It only took at least 3 people to work on the 360 version, while it took about 14 people just for them to work on the PS3 version. Fourteen. That's a lot of people just to be either developing or porting games onto a single console with that certain version. That's the bottom line.

I also had a topic talking about this & you can see it if you want, or just view those videos above.

My opinion of why PS3 versions of multiplats almost always turn out to be inferior.

"They'll always get the worst ports."

I wouldn't say always, we do get the odd one in our favor ( Bionic Commando, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, Star Ocean etc) . 9/10 Multiplatform games as of late are virtually identical or the difference is so minor its not worth mentioning. DMC4, RE5, Soul Calibur 4, UFC, Batman AA, Wolverine and so on. Ever Multi Platform game Ive wanted for the last 18 months got a good PS3 port (please note "Ive wanted")

After learning the hard way that I suck on this type of game (DMC4), I knew from the beginning Bayonetta was going to be a hard sell for me. Then I heard the music of the game and every bit of doubt vanished. Just to damn annoying...

The comparison tell us the usual tale of a 360 native code being rush-ported to the PS3. We can't blame anyone: the guys who did the 360 version did their job well (except the guy in charge of the soundtrack, he should be buried alive), the guys at SEGA did their job (it was said before, most likely the order was "make it playable and decent enough, do it fast and cheap").

I wouldn't say always, we do get the odd one in our favor ( Bionic Commando, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, Star Ocean etc) . 9/10 Multiplatform games as of late are virtually identical or the difference is so minor its not worth mentioning. DMC4, RE5, Soul Calibur 4, UFC, Batman AA, Wolverine and so on. Ever Multi Platform game Ive wanted for the last 18 months got a good PS3 port (please note "Ive wanted").

That's only because they were ported from the 360, & because of more development time & more money. Clearly, the 360 has the power to have games in Native 720p. As a matter of fact, there were more games in Native 720p on the 360 than PS3 (we've seen that many times before; check through here if you don't believe me), & that it's much easier & less costly to make games for than the PS3. Is that the system's fault? No, it isn't. It's completely Sony's fault for gimping the dev tools and forcing the developers to jump through hoops to get the PS3 to produce something approaching acceptable. This is Sony's modus operandi for consoles, they don't want it's "full potential unlocked" until much later in the consoles life. They've done this by design with the PS2 and the PS3 and more or less accidentally with the PS1 and have even said as much on various separate occasions.

wow these lame ass devs need to make a trip to naughty dog or guerilla. epic fail lol.

Um, why triple post?

This just shows that PS3 Bayonetta is so awesome even with fps drops...it is that good
At least its trying to be a 60 fps game,unlike lesser 30 fps wannabe games(99.9% of other games including Uncharted(s))

Best game in years,so crazy and flashy...pure awesomeness

My feeling is it's down to the developers. Cross platform programming is complicated and this isn't restricted to gaming. There are a lot more game developers familiar with the Windows platform and that knowledge transfers easily to Xbox dev. These examples show how those same developers struggle porting the code to the PS3. I would imagine if you took a PS3 only house and ported a PS3 exclusive to Xbox, you'd run into the same issues. The reason that isn't as common is because there are more game developers out there with Windows knowledge. It's an easy article for fanbois to target and blame the hardware but I honestly dont think that's the case.

Simple solution, have both consoles and be a true gamer. The rules :

1. Small developer, low budget, or not enough time or expertise, then XBox version is always better.

2. Always get LAN suppported games (system link) on Xbox (why cant Ps3 do LAN system link ??)

3. Ps3 exclusives are so much better - UC, UC2, MGS4, Ratchet. Nowt on Xbox can come close.

4. All unreal games look like pants, low numbers of enemises, poor animations, just flat bump map - look like cut outs.

5. Jasper Xbox with NXE install make no noise. Ps3 slim is quiet. Old Xbox and Fat Ps3 were both crap noisy hair dryers.


There, thats better.PS I have 2 of each consoles so am no fanboy, and have more xbox games than Ps3. But Ps3 top end is better.

Meh, same-old same-old, the only real difference is colour saturation and contrast. All fixable through your TV settings.

Slightly lower resolution textures, and a bit more blurry in some points (probably to do with a different smoothing filter used instead of AA). Brightness and saturation can be compensated for either console by any TV, so that's not a significant difference.

The PS3 version is a bit below the 360 one, but hardly the disastrous difference we were led to believe before.

The graphical differences wouldn't change my mind if I was interested... which I'm not.

@teabagger, "Meh, same-old same-old, the only real difference is colour saturation and contrast. All fixable through your TV settings."

Precisely. Also those other differences, like some missing foliage, lower res textures, blurriness and a framerate that runs at just over half the speed. All fixable through your TV settings too.