Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare console showdown: PlayStation 3 vs. Xbox 360

By Adam Rosenberg Published November 11, 2014

With more than 150 million PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles sold worldwide, there’s still a whole lot of interest in playing the latest games on the older machines. And it doesn’t get much more new than Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, which arrived in stores on November 4, 2014.

Which version to get, though? If you only have a PS3 or Xbox 360, yeah sure, your choice is easy. But is one superior to the other? Check and see how they run side-by-side right here to judge for yourself.

Related: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare review

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Some context: Both games are running as-is, with no optional installations. The PS3 release is on one disc; you pop it into your drive and fire up the game, simple as that. The Xbox 360 release, on the other hand, comes with both an Install Disc and a Game Disc. The former loads a couple of necessary content packs onto the console’s hard drive before the game can be played. This likely has to do with the fact that the PS3 uses a Blu-ray drive, so its discs can store significantly more data than the Xbox 360’s DVD drive.

Related: Some tips to survive in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare‘s new campaign

Both play sessions were in “fresh” versions of the campaign, with no prior progress or saves, and the difficulty is set to normal in both cases. The Xbox version appears to be a little bit sharper overall, with slightly more detail in its textures and an edge in lighting and particle effects. The PS3 version, on the other hand, seems to run more smoothly. There’s a choppiness to the Xbox frame rate that isn’t exactly disruptive, but it’s definitely noticeable.

Obviously, the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of the game are the way to go. But much like the game released on the more recent machines, this pair of last-gen releases is close to identical, with no glaring flaws or advantages that clearly elevates one above the other.

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Previously, Adam worked in the games press as a freelance writer and critic for a range of outlets, including Digital Trends…

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