PS3 vs Xbox 360: Doom creator calls it.

Friday 21st October 2005 - 17:00


John Carmack helps you decide which to save for, plus anti-games lawyer calls for arrest of Penny Arcade cartonists



PS3, Xbox 360, PS3, Xbox 360... which to go for? It's a tough decision but help is at hand from a man who knows, and must surely be trusted - id Software's John 'I invented FPS' Carmack. Previously he has been singing the praises of the 360, but it's not so simple, it appears.

'I prefer the symmetric approach that MS has over the asymmetric Cell approach, but you can do great games on either one of them.' He has said in a television interview shown on US channel G4tv. 'I make fundamental decisions based on development tools and depth of documentation, which Microsoft has been superior on. PS3 is probably marginally more powerful, in terms of raw flops and graphic operations. [But] that's not really the best way to look at things. When you look at these development cycles that stretch over years and years, being 20 per cent easier to develop on is much more important than being 20 per cent more powerful.'

So, the PS3 is a better machine, but the Xbox 360 will have better games. Kinda.

Meanwhile, this week has seen anti-videogames lawyer Jack Thompson in a storm of controversy that has ended in him calling for the arrests of the guys behind the marvellous Penny Arcade. It all started when he sent an open letter suggesting that developers should make a game where the videogame industry was gunned down rather than the police, offering $10,000 to charity if someone did it. When they did, he refused to pay out and Penny Arcade stumped up the cash for him.

Thompson then claimed that the site 'Decided to commence and orchestrate criminal harassment of me by various means,' saying that he'd send evidence to the police to have the cartoonists arrested. The police say that they have no refefence of any complaint. Penny Arcade are said to be unconcerned. It all sounds very silly to us.