I suppose I don't need to headline that I am doing non-scientific cross-platform analysis in my titles anymore, so I will just start placing game names in the title from hereon.
Skyrim is the long awaited follow-up to Oblivion. Bethesda claims that their "new" engine, the Creation Engine, features improved animation, draw distance, and AI.
Perhaps this is true from the programmer's perspective but from the consumer end this game looks largely the same as Oblivion. There are many big, beautiful vistas and lots of little details in foliage ... to a point. Pop-in is still heavily present, texture quality is still all over the place, and the animation is still as stiff and awkward as ever. It's not as very good looking game compared to Rage or even Red Dead Revolver Redemption but it's also a game that is much more complex than either of those titles. The game still looks quite serviceable but it's certainly not going to turn any heads.
The PS3 and Xbox 360 games look quite similar. The PS3 image has a slightly higher gamma setting by default but it can make the image seem a little washed out. I should stress the "little" in that last sentence and you may prefer the lighter image in order to see more detail. This is fairly typical across both systems and it's a common denominator in most games.
Textures seem to look a bit sharper on the 360. There is just a slight bit of softness on the PS3 version. Draw distance on the 360 is just a little sprint ahead of the PS3 as well. Some areas have a little less extra detail in the PS3 version as well; there are just a few less branches and patches of grass. I stayed in single areas and approached it from different areas to see if it was just a matter of detail not being loaded in but it seems like it was a deliberate omission from the PS3's engine.
The PS3 requires an HDD install of files while the 360 version can be played straight from disc. It should be noted that, currently, there is a bug in the 360 version which can prevent high detail textures from loading when you install the entire game. The bug is eliminated when you run the game from disc so I would suggest to forgo an install until it's address.
That being said, the 360 version wins the graphic contest. With it's slightly longer draw distance and textures it edges out the PS3.
For sound, we once again find that the 360 supports 5.1 Dolby Digital while the PS3 can support up to 7.1 PCM. Skyrim has good use of the surround channels so the PS3 wins this quite easily.
Gameplay is where there can be a fairly significant difference between the two versions. The 360 version can have a bit of screen tearing during very busy scenes while the PS3 version will keep itself v-synced but sacrifice it's speed. In general, I prefer a game to keep it's v-sync. I find the tearing distracting much like gamers used to find sprite flicker distracting. In this particular case, though, the slowness isn't smooth as the screen still tries to update when you're panning from side to side resulting in a jerky movement. This directly affects your controller response times. In a game with this kind of methodical pacing, it isn't that much of a detriment, but it's not pleasant. The 360 version edges out on gameplay here just due to having a more consistent performance.
In the end, I'd recommend the 360 version of this game. Even though it doesn't feature 7.1 PCM, the overall game experience is just a little cleaner and smoother. Just remember not to install the game onto your HDD until further notice.
