THQ: PS3 Could Potentially Have Superior Graphics To Xbox 360

[BrewCityUpstart]

Ever since the launch of the PlayStation 3, Sony has been heralding it as the most powerful console available, although Microsoft would claim the Xbox 360 was equivalent in terms of potential. These days, though, it seems more and more developers are starting to uncover aspects of the PS3 that could be shifting the balance of power in favor of Sony. Take THQ's Jeff Carroll, for example.

In speaking to Videogamer.com at THQ's Gamers Day event in San Francisco this past week, Carroll said the PS3 has the potential to "achieve better graphics than the Xbox 360." Carroll is the associate producer of the upcoming Red Faction: Guerilla, and he believes that once devs decide to dig further into the PS3, they will "find a very powerful system underneath." If you're not aware of the premise in his game, we must inform you that THQ is changing the standard first-person format to a a third-person format for this new RF installment. It will enjoy a simultaneous release on the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC during THQ's fiscal year 2009, and we're certainly looking forward to it. When prompted, Carroll said they feel as if they're "doing rather well with the PS3."

"We have been getting the physics system, the Havok system and our own proprietary destruction system running on the SPUs, as well as our animations. We're seeing quite a decent speed improvement now that we've effectively got that running on the SPUs instead of the CPUs."

Of course, it was no secret that many developers were having serious trouble getting accustomed to the more complex hardware in the PS3. Obviously, it was no picnic early on for Carroll's team, either, but once they got into it, everything apparently started to gel. He said they "felt a tremendous pressure right at the beginning to learn as much as they could about the PS3," and they just had to expend more effort. In the end, when asked if he thought we'd see better graphics on the PS3 than on the Xbox 360, Carroll said-

"I think potentially you will. I think early on people are going to be struggling to figure out exactly how to make the PS3 work. But I think once they do they will see it's a very powerful system underneath."

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