Wow! This generation of gaming has seen the harshest and most heated console war ever. The words “fanboy” and “bias” have been over used strenuously by both gamers and the media. Fans of the PS3 shout the word “bias” more than anyone else. However, I usually can find myself agreeing with the majority of their logic. I feel that sometimes these levelheaded PS3 fans get lumped in with all the fanboys in the comment section. I honestly don’t know how they can be called fanboys when they defend what they say with evidence as to what they believe, why they believe. And you know what else I’ve discovered? I too am a PS3 fan, because I’m also sickened of the media’s double standards and oversights, though they are subliminal. I will try to make some of you see things from the PS3 fans’ perspectives. Read more for the full article.
I would like to touch on why PS3 gamers call some websites “biased”, so I’ll start with IGN first. IGN recently scored Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 on PS3 (8.4), lower than the XBOX 360 version, Ninja Gaiden 2 (8.7). Now I know many of you will say that games have progressed since the release of Ninja Gaiden 2 and you are correct, games should be judged against the progress that has been made in the market. However, when the situations were parallel like they were with Virtua Fighter 5, the PS3 version of VF5 (8.8) scored lower than its 360 counterpart, Virtua Fighter 5 (9.0) which included online. Also, to prove even more how the situations are parallel, both Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 and VF5 with online were released after their previous versions on the opposing console and both had graphical tweaks and added online elements. However, if you read both reviews, the 360 review of VF5 mentions all the graphical improvements made to the game over the previous PS3 version; things like improved lighting, clean lines (better anti-aliasing), better environmental effects, and better gameplay tweaking. Now look at the PS3 review of Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, they hardly allude to any of the benefits the PS3 version holds over the 360 version; things like: increased resolution to native 720p, improved lighting, and better texture detail. So again, this raises red flags amongst some PS3 fans when you mention graphical improvements in a 360 review of a re-release and don’t do the same for PS3 re-release of a game. Also, how do you explain the scoring differences, though minor in both cases? I mean are not both of these games situations parallel? Yet, VF5 with online on 360 scored higher than the PS3 version of Virtua Fighter 5. Now when the situation is parallel for the PS3 then the rules change and Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 scores lower than the previous 360 release of Ninja Gaiden 2, despite being a clearly superior game. I’m not saying IGN was wrong; I’m just pointing out the double standard here folks. IGN needs to be clear across the board with gamers going over the site now with a fine toothed comb in this heated console war.
Reason for Being Considered Bias: Scoring Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 on PS3 lower then Ninja Gaiden 2 on XBOX 360 despite it being a superior experience and then in a parallel situation they scored Virtua Fighter 5 with online on 360 higher than VF5 on PS3 when it was a superior experience. So IGN don’t be IGNorant and get your review discrepancies ironed out.
Next, I want to look at another site that has been called biased against the PS3 and that was GamesRadar. The months leading up to the release of Killzone 2, GamesRadar was running lots of negative or cynical pieces about Killzone 2 and many of the fans on NeoGAF were ripping on their articles and calling them biased. So one of GamesRadar’s editors asked the forum members why they were ripping on their articles and one of them took the bait, Private Hoffman. Private Hoffman showed in great detail as to why forum members considered GamesRadar biased. To be honest, their coverage of Killzone 2 was atrocious at best and reeked of cynicism. I definitely could see how Sony fans could start to think that GamesRadar was biased. GamesRadar’s coverage of Microsoft’s games, Gears of War 2 and Halo 3, was fairly positive and helped show those games in a good light; however, this was in stark contrast to their coverage of Killzone 2. Here is the link to the conversation.
Reason for Being Considered Bias: Lopsided and atrocious coverage of Killzone 2, in comparison to rival shooters on Microsoft’s platform.
The last gaming site I would like to mention that many PS3 fans feel are biased is GameTrailers. The site had a blunder when they did their video comparison of GRID. GameTrailers accidentally submitted the PS3 footage twice in their comparison video. Now, while this is funny, things got sketchy when the PS3 footage that was labeled on the 360 side of the head to head comparison had better crash scenes, as if someone purposely chose better crash scenes with the intent of having them showcase the 360 version in a better light. Also, another thing that led to PS3 fans growing weary of GameTrailers’ head to head videos was the fact that they never turned on the PS3’s Full Range HDMI settings which was known to improve contrast in the images. Once they enabled Full Range on the PS3, it eliminated the washed out look that many gamers believed to be inherent of the PS3 itself. Also, another thing that made PS3 gamers feel like GameTrailers’ was biased is when a video editor name D-Block went on a rant about how the 360 is better than the PS3. The thing is, all the stuff he was saying was subjective and juvenile at best.
Reason for Being Considered Bias: Botched up video comparison where they put the PS3 version of GRID running side by side; however, somehow the side that was mistakenly labeled XBOX 360 still had better crash scenes. How is that possible if both are from the same game? Then another thing that killed their credibility with PS3 fans was letting D-Block spout off at the mouth about his love for Microsoft. You know what’s even funnier? Where is this guy’s love for the PS3 now? Because their exclusive content this year has vastly outstripped Microsoft’s exclusive offerings this year. Where are you at D-Block?
Also, just to gloss over a couple more reasons why PS3 fans feels gaming journalism is somewhat biased towards PS3 is because reviews don’t add up sometimes from sites like EDGE, who have also been considered bias by PS3 fans. The reason that they are always called into question by PS3 fans is because their review scores for high profile PS3 games like Killzone 2 (7/10) and MGS 4 (8/10) both garnered scores lower than similar games on the 360 like Halo 3 ( 10/10) and Gears of War 2 (9/10). While I’m not questioning their review methods because everyone is different, I feel like a review is more than any person’s opinion. It should be an objective analysis by one or more people. When you review a game, you take on a certain responsibility to the gamer. So even if, say a game may not be your style, but you can tell that it’s still has the production essentials (intended example: good graphics, great control, great story, good multiplayer, etc…) to get a high review score, then you should set your preference aside and acknowledge what the game does well. Reviewers need to take their own opinions more serious because their reviews have an effect on the perception of a game to the masses, and if it is bad, well it could be detrimental to the developer, who may lose their job if the game doesn’t score well. That is why I feel that it is a reviewer’s responsibly to balance out his opinion, while still maintaining an objective viewpoint. I feel at some point you have to acknowledge what’s in the package as well because developers still put in time to polish all those modes. In the case of Killzone 2 and MGS 4, their production values were at the very least equal to those of Halo 3 and Gears of War 2.
Well, I hope I have illuminated some of the reasons why PS3 fans are the one’s shouting “bias” most of the time. I mean how can they not, with such double standards and oversights going around? I gladly support the death of these discrepancies in the media and to be honest, these discrepancies are why I started writing in the first place. One thing is for certain, the media needs to straighten up its act. These discrepancies in the media almost always end up with the PS3 gamer on the short end of the stick. I’ll challenge the internet to find me an article where a major publication is being biased against the 360 where the double standard is apparent.
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written by fatman01923, October 07, 2009
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written by thechad, October 07, 2009
The fact that I don't let the fanboyism affect me. Doesn't matter what review the game gets or what color of apple they're comparing to your green one or even what pixel-f'd version of the screen shot they're comparing because no matter what junk is tossed around the internet, one thing stays the same. The games you love and play are gonna be the same bad ass games at the end of the day. And you'll be (from the looks of it) hours ahead of yourself if you just learn to ignore it. And with that, I think i'm due for a birthday party with a few grunts. Anyone wanna trash their soapbox and join me?
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written by jukins, October 07, 2009
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written by LukaX23, October 07, 2009
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written by Luis Ortiz, October 07, 2009
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written by saminseattle (PSN:gamesnskate), October 07, 2009
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written by BiasedMediaSuck, October 07, 2009
Even when Kotaku manages to say anything good about the PS3 (rarely), they almost always close with a "jab" of some sort against the PS3. They don't do this for any other console.
But the biggest by far was the retard that does the comparison videos for GameTrailers who went on the record saying that he didn't like Sony. He had a whole rant about it. How can the have any credibility?
Then there was the whole comparison video thing where the guy doing them refused to use the proper settings on the PS3, even after hundreds of comments informing them of this mistake they still wouldn't compare them evenly. Back in the day where the comparison videos made the PS3 very look desaturated, when it clearly wasn't.
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written by Corchadog, October 07, 2009
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written by meatbag_, October 07, 2009
Final Fantasy VII
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
DOOM
Super Mario 64
Super Metroid
Metal Gear: Solid
Goldeneye 007
Elite
Street FIghter II
Chrono Trigger
The Legend of Zelda: a Link to the Past
What do all of these games have in common? they are all at LEAST two generations old and ALL repeatedly show up on lists of top 10 best games EVER MADE. technology is only one small facet of a game, both the PS3 and the 360 have several orders of magnitude more power and performance than neccisary to run any of those games above. Stop looking at the console, look at the Title.
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written by Louie Villalobos, October 07, 2009
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written by thenleashed666, October 07, 2009
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written by Indigo, October 07, 2009
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written by K.O, October 07, 2009
regardz,
K.O
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written by Lord, October 07, 2009
These are some metacritic scores of PS3 exclusives:
Uncharted 2 - 97
Killzone - 91
MSG4 - 94
You still think there's bias? The media is giving very good scores to these PS3 exclusives. PS3 fanboys are crazy because they get up in arms when any website does not give a 90+ review for their beloved AAA titles. Who cares if one website gave Killzone a 7? Its metacritic is 91 which means the majority of the sites think it is a great title.
PS3 fanboys need to get a life.
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written by Shamarri Miller, October 07, 2009
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written by Touchy sonyfanboys, October 08, 2009
The 360 dominates the ps3 on...
Texture resolution
Screen Resolution
Frames per second
1080p gaming, the 360 wipes the floor with the ps3 in this department
Post Processing (Anti Aliasing for instance, the ps3 often falling back on upscaling to blur the image output)
Scene detail
The ps3 has a crippled architexture... it's the INFOERIOR machine
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written by UDreamz, October 08, 2009
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written by Non Bias, October 08, 2009
You should do an artilce on Microsoft's advertising practices, and who they have investments with.
Until recently MS owned 150 million shares of Comcast which in turn ownes G4 TV which is often sited as being xbox biased which would explain much of there lean toward MS consolessoftwware. I'm pretty sure if you dug deep enough you'd find some very interesting evidence of playing the game below the belt. It's funny how blantaly ignorant xbox fans knowledge is on corporate MS. There is a reason why MS is so dispised around the world. Actually there are many. Again great article!
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written by Tchock, October 08, 2009
In the case of Killzone 2, what you're suggesting is a blatant lie. Killzone received boatloads of attention. I don't own a PS3 yet from the time of that first CG trailer through its release, I didn't stop hearing about the game. And only positive things. I rarely heard or read a critical remark concerning the game.
If you want to point out isolated incidents that caused the collective loud mouthed fan base on Sony's end get their panties in a bunch, that's fine. But don't treat this like an objective justification for why nominally intelligent people can become blathering idiots because their favorite console sometimes isn't favored by the press.
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written by seven times, October 08, 2009
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written by Guy, October 08, 2009
Let's deconstruct all the arguments:
Argument 1: A site is biased because they gave NGS2 a score lower then NG2
Fact 1-1: NGS2 does not contain some of the features NG2 contains (for example blood and gore level) so it's not just improvements over an older iteration (which sells for much less now), hence the lower score in some websites. And still NGS2 has a higher metacritic average.
This is not a similar case with VF5 online, which is a vast improvement in all areas over VF5
Fact 1-2: UT3 for the X360 was an improved versions with more modes, maps, tweaks and better graphics then the PS3 version of UT3. It came about half a year later and receives a lower score in most reviews (metacritic 82 vs 86).
No X360 fanboys complained. Nobody even cared. That's because Xbox fanboys are not a bunch of whinning dumbf*cks like the PS3 bunch we see today.
Argument 2: Gamesradar is biased against Killzone 2 and favors X360 shooters.
Fact 2-1: There's not even a reasonable way to back this argument. On the contrary: Killzone 2 Recieved 90 in Gamesradar, which is as close as it gets to its metacritic average.
Fact 2-2: Halo ODST which came out in the same year got a 70 from Gamesradar. That's 15 points below it's metacritic average and the lowest score by far from a major gaming website. Again, Xbox fanboys didn't bitch like the PS fanboys always do, they simply moved on and played an excellent game.
PS3 Fanboys will bitch about any grade Killzone 2 gets. They even bitched about Xplay giving it 5/5 because the reviewer didn't sound "enthusiastic enough"...
Argument 3: GT is biased because they mislabeled a picture of X360 GRID video as a PS3 GRID video.
Fact 1-1: This was just a typing error and was quickly corrected
Fact 1-2: GT didn't even imply that the X360 version looks better than the mistakenly labeled PS3 version. It's just the PS3 fanboys that decided that the crush on the X360 "looked cooler" than the mislabeled PS3 version. This has nothing to do with the quality of graphics and only with the low self esteem of those PS3 fanboys.
The bottom line is that GRID does look better on the X360 with better AA etc. like most multiplatform games. And you don't need shoddy videos from Gametrailers (who were never a professional source) since you have the in depth analysis of Eurogamer to verify that:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/x360-vs-ps3-face-off-round-12-article?page=3
Argument 4: Edge is biased against the PS3 because MGS 4 and Killzone 2 recieved lower score than the perfect 10 Halo 3 got and the 9 Gears got.
Fact 4-1: Demon's Souls was just released and got a 9 from Edge. LBP was the *only* game to get a perfect 10 from Edge in 2008 and the GOTY awards. Both are PS3 exclusives. How can someone claim they are biased against the PS3?
Fact 4-2: IGN usually gives PS3 exclusive games higher scores than other outlets and higher scores than X360 games. Do you hear any PS3 fanboy bitching about them and how unbalanced their reviews are? That's the finest example of PS3 fanboy hypocrisy for you: Dismiss any magazine that gives a PS3 game a lower score as "biased" and then forget about it on the next time a PS3 game gets a high score (for example: Gamespot before and after the perfect 10 for MGS4)
So, while there are many rants from PS3 fanboys, when deconstructing these "arguments" one by one we actually see that they don't really make any sense. The fanboys go for quantity, but they don't realize that 10 illogical and flawed arguments don't add up to even a single logical argument
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written by Shamarri Miller, October 08, 2009
Argument 1
Fact 1-1
Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 on PS3 is = Virtua Fighter 5 online on 360.. You say the removal of the blood docks the score..But, doesn't the increase in resolution,the increase in texture quality,the inclusion of online-cop, and layout changes in the stages make this game as big an upgrade as VF5 online
Fact 1-2
UT3 did run better than the PS3 version, but the reason it wasn't rated as high as the PS3 version was the removal of the customization features. Things like having community created maps added infinite replayabilty that the 360 version could clearly never match thx to microsoft's strict network poilicies. So I don't really see how Xbox fans could complain.
Argument 2
Fact 1-1
I never claimed anywhere in this article that Gamesradar was biased. I merely gave an example of why some PS3 gamers might call them Bias.. I'm not saying PS3 fans were right but if you actually click on the link then you will see how private hoffman clearly pointed out discrepancies in their coverage of killzone 2 in comparison to a game like Gears of War 2
Fact 2-2
With Halo ODST review score it was somewhat of a toss up and to be honest I think gamesradar nailed their review. Now for what was in the package it was great if you were a newbie, however, if you were a Halo fan then it was clear that Microsoft was taking you to the bank because the value of the map pack is vastly diminished for most Halo fans because they already owned thos maps.. So how do you justify the $60 price tag to them? It was clear Microsoft wanted to take them to the bank because the Campaign and firefight mode in ODST should have been DLC, at the very least , because Halo 3 fans shouldnt be forced to rebuy content they already have. Also check out my article coming later about ODST
Argument 3
Fact 3-1 you're right GRID did turn out to be better on the 360, but gametrailers behavior still seemed fishy, with their selection of crash animation. I mean it was the same game yet the crash scene of the side that was labeled 360 were clearly better. I guess we will have to agree to disagree
argument 4
4-1 im not saying Edge is biased, again I merely point out examples as to why PS3 fans feel they are... And you can not honestly tell me that the production values of MGS4 and Killzone 2 didn't at the very least match Halo 3 and Gears 2?? I mean come on bro be serious... I'm not saying that edge is wrong for their scores.. I just feel that there was too much opinion in the review... As a package..content wise all those games are about equal and offer equal levels of polish.. Now I agree reviews are opinions but only to an extent.. I may not like the way Halo 3's pacing is yet as a reviewer I feel it is my job to discern that the pacing just doesn't work for me but the game still works in the confines of what a triple A title is supposed to have and I need to acknowledge that.. Cause my review is supposed to be an informative piece, otherwise a proffesional review is an oxymoron, cause how can one opinion be any more proffesional than yours or mine?? That's why I feel like reviewers have a responsibilty to take themselves out of the equasion some times.
Argument 4-2 IGN usually gives high scores in general so i fail to see the point. Also I just used IGN as an example, and gave an example as to why some PS3 fans say the suck..and you're right their are some fickle PS3 fans out their and I wont defend those guys
Thx for taking sometime out of your day to have this discussion.. I'm glad we could have a civil debate. Oh and their logic is naw flawed whats flawed are the Discrepancies I pointed out..I'd like to hear your opinions on those later
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written by PikminGuts92, October 08, 2009
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written by Knarf Black, October 08, 2009
Also, all the talk of media bias is making it harder to distinguish fanboy discourse from Republican. I guess that makes sense; the console wars basically amount to nerd politics.
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written by Phoenix_Junior, October 08, 2009
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written by Shamarri Miller, October 08, 2009
Yea Pikmin I agree that games have moved on since NG2's release. I even mention taht in the part where i say progressed.. The odd thing is that gaming had also moved on since the release of Virtua Fighter 5 yet, VF5 online still scored higher. The circumstance are similar for both games yet u get different results..and maybe this is down to all the reviewers being different people, but it still doesn't necessarily make it justified what IGN did.
and Knarf you sir are right lol the Copy & paste function I used i forgot to change Bias to BIaseed lol guess thats why cats dont have wings anymore lol
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written by Soh Knee, October 11, 2009
Halo ODST outsold Killzone 2 in less than 24 hours. And while their online playing their favorite, if not over-hyped game, you Sony PS3 fanboys sit here in forums whining and making excuses for why your console is in last place and your games sell in poor numbers.
My advice to you is to logoff this PS3 Fanboy site, go to your local retailer and purchase 5 of the top PS3 games right now. Support your retailers and support your console developers. And quite being fanboys. Seriously, you are the worst part of the PS3 experience, hands down.
Let's make an official "The www.ps3gameraccess.com" website challenge, shall we? Let's see which console sells more copies of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. Does anyone even remotely think it will be the PS3?
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written by Zac, October 12, 2009
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