While IGN’s infamous review seemed to suggest Grand Theft Auto IV would be best played on PS3 (due to faster loadtimes, sharper graphics, and greater draw distances) the internet community is reporting that the PS3 version may have some serious flaws.
First, some of the diligent, obsessive or just plain hardcore who spent the evening waiting in line for a copy GTA IV got home and found they could not progress beyond the opening cutscene — the game just up and freezes. Several popular forums are flooded with complaining users, many of whom seem to have the 60GB PS3 version. Eurogamer notes that this appears to be an isolated issue, as there’s no word of similar freezing on the European PlayStation forums.
One PS3 owner reports that Rockstar suggested for him erase the GTA IV data from the PS3 hard drive and reinstall, which he claims solved the problem…
Posing as a unwitting victim, the ever-watchful Kotaku gave Rockstar’s tech support hotline a call, and was told that while they had indeed narrowed down the problem to the 60GB PS3 — and a few Xbox 360s, though we’ve seen few Xbox owners complain — Rockstar has no solution as of yet:
I asked him if wiping the harddrive and reinstalling the PS3 version would help, as seen on the PS forums, he said I could try but that he hadn’t heard of it helping a single person.
He ended the call by saying that they really have no idea when a fix will be coming because they can’t figure out what is exactly causing the problem and then once more apologized.
Meanwhile, the same gentleman who proclaimed that Halo 3 doesn’t run at 720p resolution has discovered the same for the PS3 version of GTA IV -- while the Xbox 360 runs the game at 720p, the PS3 only manages 630p (see post 513). However, resolution isn’t everything, as Kotaku and Eurogamer were quick to point out.
But don’t take their word for it: as far as visual quality goes, you’re probably best off judging for yourself, and there’s no better way to do that than with a nice head-to-head comparison. Me, I hate jagged edges; so as soon as Rockstar figures out the random freezing, it’s PS3 all the way.
UPDATE, 6:36PM PST: Ripten, continuing to track the Beyond3D forums, discovered an updated estimate — the PS3 is actually outputting GTA IV in 640p, not 630p. In retrospect, that number makes a lot more sense.
Leave a Reply