It has been decided, GTA IV is best on Xbox 360'¦. No wait!

Mike Bantick
Monday, 28 April 2008 07:21

Your IT - Entertainment

Start camping out; Grand Theft Auto IV will be released to retail shelves tomorrow April 29th.  Arriving on two platforms (for now), Xbox 360 and PS3.  Which platform will win?

Tonight is the night for GTA fans with the release of the fourth generation due to hit stores tomorrow.  True fans would have - in true Niko style - already broken into their nearest retailer and stolen a copy though.

Now if you were to steal a copy and were blessed with the option of grabbing the Xbox 360 version or the PlayStation 3 version, what would you do?

Over at Kotaku they have broken down the differences between the platforms for those well endowed console owners to choose – but it is a little difficult to split them.

At Microsoft they have invested heavily (rumoured to be US$50 million) in exclusive (downloadable) content for GTA IV.  Two paid-for packs of extra mayhem.  Without taking into account the possible differences in the new multiplayer experience, this content stands out as the main difference between the two.

Kotaku run through a number of other areas including frame rate, graphics, in game achievements and controller vibrations support without really splitting the difference.

The two platforms do differ at installation time, with the PS3 having one of those new trendy mandatory installs (3.4GB and around seven and a half minutes).  This HDD install helps later on with the streaming of data for the continual presentation of the GTA IV world.

Kotaku are not taken with the PS3 motion control implemented in the game, opting to instead turn this option off and going with a more traditional method of game-play.

The dilemma will be for current owners of both PS3 and Xbox 360 or those people thinking of purchase a console with their GTA IV pickup.

Wedbush Morgan.analyst Michael Pachter believes that as far as the GTA IV sales war is concerned, the PS3 will come out on top .  According to Pachter the game will directly spur sales of 2 million additional PS3s in 2008, versus 1 million Xbox 360s, "I think PS3 'wins' this battle," Pachter said

GTA IV will be great no matter what the platform, or version of GTA IV that you end up with, so rug-up its time to get inline for your copy.