Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Trip to Jim Corbett

The pix are now up :)

Here's a slideshow...

Sunday, September 28, 2008

PS3 vs Xbox 360 - The RPG Shootout

Wow... Its been a month since my last post. I have had a busy month at work, and went to Jim Corbett National Park over one weekend (pix up soon, you can see some here)

In the meantime, Diwali is coming up and I am awaiting M$'s offers if any on the XBox 360. Meanwhile I have finished DMC 4 on my PS3 and having gotten a little annoyed with the all the action games which seem to be the only thing available for the system, decided to look a bit into the state of RPGs on the PS3

The result of this research is the table below. Sorted by release date, the table below shows both released and announced (i.e. yet to be released) RPG games color coded by console (information courtesy GameSpot - take the review scores with a pinch of salt accordingly). Green - PS3 exclusive. Red - XBox 360 Exclusive. Black - Both

Title Release Date Score
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion 20-Mar-06 9.6
Enchanted Arms 29-Aug-06 7.1
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 24-Oct-06 8.3
Phantasy Star Universe 25-Oct-06 6.8
Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom 13-Nov-06 6
Diario: Rebirth Moon Legend 8-Feb-07
The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles 26-Mar-07 8.6
Absolute: Blazing Infinity 29-Mar-07
Two Worlds 23-Aug-07 7
Blue Dragon 28-Aug-07 6
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Game of the Year Edition 10-Sep-07
Eternal Sonata 17-Sep-07 8.5
Mass Effect 20-Nov-07 8.5
Phantasy Star Universe: Ambition of the Illuminus 20-Nov-07
Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom 8-Jan-08 6
Alpha Protocol 9-Feb-08
Lost Odyssey 12-Feb-08 7.5
Tales of Vesperia 26-Aug-08 8.5
Infinite Undiscovery 2-Sep-08 6.5
Cross Edge 25-Sep-08
Fable II 21-Oct-08
Fallout 3 28-Oct-08
Sacred 2: Fallen Angel 8-Nov
Valkyria Chronicles 11-Nov-08
The Last Remnant 20-Nov-08
Monster Hunter 3 Canceled
Dragon Age: Origins Q1 2009
Dungeon Hero Q1 2009
Rise of the Argonauts Q1 2009
Divinity 2 - Ego Draconis Q2 2009
Two Worlds: The Temptation Q2 2009
Dungeon Lords 2 (working title) Q3 2009
Aliens RPG (working title) TBA
Angel Rings (working title) TBA
Big Huge Games RPG (working title) TBA
Bumpy Trot 2 TBA
Cry On TBA
Dark RPG (working title) TBA
Dungeon Explorer TBA
Elveon TBA
Far East of Eden Ziria TBA
Final Fantasy Versus XIII TBA
Magna Carta 2 TBA
Makai Wars (working title) TBA
Marvel Ultimate Alliance II: Fusion TBA
Mass Effect 2 (working title) TBA
Master Project (working title) TBA
Omikron 2 (working title) TBA
Project D TBA
Shin Megami Tensei (working title) TBA
The Lord of the Rings, The White Council TBA
Untitled Obsidian/Sega RPG TBA
White Knight Story TBA 2008
Final Fantasy XIII TBA 2009
Star Ocean: The Last Hope TBA 2009
Venetica TBA 2009

The results are shocking - well maybe not so much.
PS3 Exclusives - 13 (14 - 1 : Cancelled)
XBox 360 Exclusives - 22
Non-Exclusive Games - 18 (20 - 2 : Oblivion Editions)

However, lets remove the list of TBA/Q? 200? games and CrossEdge, which is JP only. Now the results are even more telling. This means games with a definite release date by end of this year.
PS3 Exclusives - 2
XBox 360 Exclusives - 12
Non-Exclusive Games - 8 (10 - 2 : Oblivion Editions)

BTW, of the Non-Exclusive Games, Oblivion is listed thrice so I have reduced the number by 2. FF13 VS is currently a PS3 exclusive. How many people want to bet that the big news at E3 next year will be that FF13 VS is coming to XBox 360? Also worth noting is that many of the Non-Exclusive games were released much later on the PS3, some as long as a year later.

No wonder XBox 360 is outselling the PS3 even in Japan... Japan is traditionally an RPG market and even has its own genre - JRPG :) From an RPG gamer perspective, its perfectly clear which console you should be buying :) (Wow I feel good having bought the wrong one!)

p.s. Yes, I know the layout is too narrow. I am using rounders3, but I have customized it - a LOT. I will switch to rounders2 when I get some time!