Over this weekend, I’ve spent a significant amount of time with both the 360 and the PS3 versions of Soul Calibur. Since I own both an X-Box 360 and a Playstation 3, I wanted to see which version was worth getting.

I have to admit, both version were better than I expected and pretty close one from the other. It more or less boils down to what you’re looking for in this fighter.

So what were the differences? Read on!

Graphics

To be quite honest, the two version had identical graphics. I couldn’t tell them apart as both looked simply gorgeous.

Winner: Tie

Characters

The only difference in characters was that Vader was only available on the PS3 version while Yoda was only available on the X-Box 360 version. I’ve stated before how, even before game play footage was show, I thought Vader was going to be the better character and I was right, even though it wasn’t for the reasons I expected. Yoda is outright broken. Most attacks don’t even hit him and you can’t grab him at all while he can easily grab you. Vader, on the other hand, is pretty slow and near useless. He doesn’t break the game and that’s what counts in this case. If Yoda was powerful but not broken then it might have been a different debate but as things stand, I’d rather face off against Vader than Yoda and I wouldn’t like to use either.

Winner: PS3

Loading Times

The PS3’s loading times are much higher without a game installation and just shorter than the 360’s by about a second (I kid you not) after an install. Normally, I don’t have too many qualms about install times but when they don’t actually improve anything compared to a system that doesn’t have an option to install, they feel unjustified. It’s true that the characters in the character select screen pop in slower on the 360 version than the PS3’s by 1 or 2 seconds but that’s hardly a real issue. On top of that, the X-Box 360 will soon have an option to copy games onto the Hard Disk that would take about 10 minutes (the same amount of time) and will most likely put it on par with the PS3’s character selection load times.

Winner: X-Box 360

Online play

Although the X-Box 360’s live service is undeniably superior to the PS3’s PSN in all ways but the cost, in this game the difference is not as dramatic. With the incorporation of the PS3’s 2.41 update, players can now send each other messages from in-game and invite each other that way. It’s a step closer to the 360’s “invite to game” feature but still fails in that regard unfortunately. The ability to join a lobby seamlessly and to invite a player to a game no matter what game that player has in his tray with just a couple of button presses is still unrivaled in the Console World. Still, the PS3’s lack of a Yoda and the over-population of Yoda fans on X-Box live is a real hit to the 360. Push comes to shove, the PS3’s online play wins if you don’t have many (or any) friends to play with online and the 360’s LIVE wins if you do.

Winner: It’s pretty much a tie in this case.

Achievements

Unfortunately for PS3 owners, Soul Calibur 4 did not come with any trophy support. This is a clear win for 360 owners as Achievements are a sure thing on that console. No contest.

Winner: X-Box 360

Controllers

I found myself using the D-Pad on the PS3 controller and the analog stick on the X-Box 360 controller. Although I didn’t have a hard time with either controller, I found the PS3’s controller lends itself better to this game (and fighting games in general).

Winner: PS3

In the end, if you only own one system, get the version for that system with the assurance that you really won’t be missing that much from the other version. If you own both version, just look at the above comparisons and make the call based on what you care about most. Or better yet, buy the one most of your friends have. This one is too close to call…

Related posts:

1. Characters that should have been in Soul Calibur 4!
2. Next Gen Games Compared.
3. Sony drops the ball on 2.40
4. MGS4 Comes with a mandatory install!! WHO CARES?!?!
5. PS3 delays: A sign of things to come?