orange box: pc vs 360?

L

lagos

Weaksauce
Joined
Oct 22, 2005
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has anyone done a comparison on the pc vs 360 versions? id like to see how the graphics and image quality compare at the same resolution, on both systems.
 
The pc version has much sharper graphics and tighter controls.I have noticed that the xbox360 textures seem a bit washed out in certain parts compared to the pc version. Sound is awesome just like the pc version.
 
Naturally, it depends on how good your PC is, but the PC version at max settings is going to look better than the 360 version - not worlds better, but better.
 
The pc version is superior in all aspects graphically. Setting the resolution to 1600x1200 with 4xaa and 16xaf is impossable on 360.
 
i bought the 360 version instead of the PC one, because i was worried that my aging ati x1600 wouldnt be able to play it as well as it did EP1. but now that i have the 360version, im thinking i would have been just fine on the pc.

i did notice the textures being a bit more washed out. i wonder what settings are enabled/disabled in the 360 version tho.

on a positive note, the controls feel very natural on the 360. this is my first time playing halflife on the console, and i was very impressed with how well it felt on the 360.
 
Supposedly, according to, I believe IGN's review, they state that the graphics improve significantly from HL2 => EP1 => Ep2. They state that HL2 was not completely retooled for the 360, but rather updated from the xbox 1 version.

Take that with a grain of salt of course, but the reviewer had the same complaints until he got to the new titles, and then he said he was very impressed with the graphics. I can only imagine the sound being awesome. I'm going to play with it a bit this weekend as I have a friend staying with me who owns it on 360.
 
PC simply because they don't have a mouse with the 360.
 
HL series born to be a pc game, port to console to make some extra money
 
The OP isn't looking for what people's preference is, he's looking for a graphical comparison of the two. Leave the "keyboard pwns" comments at home.
 
I rented the 360 Orange box this weekend and dived right into EP2.....looks and plays beautifully and the framerate is steady no matter what is going on.
 
I've played both.

PC >> 360

The lack of AA and what appears to be lower resolution textures really makes a big difference.
 
actually, i figured out what the issue is with the washed out textures. there is a setting in the options menu to change monitor type from tv to pc monitor ( what im using). the defult tv mode is too bright, and washes everything out.

after changing this setting, the game looks amazing. it seems to be running with everything maxed out, except the AA. kind of seems like 2x at best. not a huge deal tho

the biggest surprise was with the original halflife2. it seems its been updated with hdr lighting, and motion blur, thats not currently on the pc port. it made for a pretty big upgrade to the visuals of hl2 and makes me want to run through it again.

i actually keep forgetting that im playing this on a console. normally im a die hard pc, mouse/keyboard guy, but they did a really great job with this port. the visuals and even the controls feel very natural.
 
lagos said:
they did a really great job with this port
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It's not that hard to port from PC to console compared to console to PC. ;)

Console - all HW are all the same and coded easily.
PC - different HW on most computers and difficult to code.
 
l3ender said:
The OP isn't looking for what people's preference is, he's looking for a graphical comparison of the two. Leave the "keyboard pwns" comments at home.
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A top end PC will be better almost all of the time. PC's have higher rez screens. By the time the console comes out, GPU tech has gone another generation or so and all a PC gamer has to do drop in a new card.

Until high def TV's catch up with monitors and they put a super advanced GPU that isn't portable to a PC (not sure how that would be) the PC will always be a generation or 2 ahead.

And I said mouse not keyboard :p
 
On a side note I've read that there are some major lag issues when it comes to the servers for TF2 as well, not very many clean ones for the X360 at this point.
 
FallenMystic said:
On a side note I've read that there are some major lag issues when it comes to the servers for TF2 as well, not very many clean ones for the X360 at this point.
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I've heard that too, but I've also heard they're finalizing a patch to correct the issue. If you're on the fence I'd suggest waiting a week or two.
 
BigDaddy85 said:
It's not that hard to port from PC to console compared to console to PC. ;)

Console - all HW are all the same and coded easily.
PC - different HW on most computers and difficult to code.
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in the past, consoles always got a very watered down version of the game. this is not the case with hl2. i was also very worried that the controls were going to be terrible on the 360. i have to say that they did a really great job tweaking the 360 controller.button layout and aiming are almost perfect. even better then halo.
 
another plug for the 360 version. The controls really are awesome, and all three games look absolutely amazing. The textures don't look lower-res at all to me.

If you absolutely can't stand playing FPS's on a console, don't even thing about it, but if you're equally entertained by console fps's as pc fps's, pick it up.
 
I dont really want to thrash the 360 version, but I doubt even 8xAF is being used. Maybe 4xAF, but I highly doubt 8x. But the lack of AA is really noticeable. For a console port it's great, but compared to the PC version (and the option of a Hi-Res pack which kicks the game up 2 notches), it's decidedly a step down.
 
KENNYB said:
I dont really want to thrash the 360 version, but I doubt even 8xAF is being used. Maybe 4xAF, but I highly doubt 8x. But the lack of AA is really noticeable. For a console port it's great, but compared to the PC version (and the option of a Hi-Res pack which kicks the game up 2 notches), it's decidedly a step down.
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thats why i would love Hard to do a full comparison of the 2 versions. because at this point we can only guess what AF and AA settings are actually being used.
 
As someone mentioned above, the Xbox 360 version of HL2 has added HDR and motion blur.

Those two features make HL2 a totally new experience!
 
lagos said:
thats why i would love Hard to do a full comparison of the 2 versions. because at this point we can only guess what AF and AA settings are actually being used.
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Actually, i was wrong. In HL2, the lack of AA and reduced AF is really noticeable. In Episode 2 (haven't tried Ep1) it isn't that bad. Overall EP2 looks great (after applying monitor settings, thanks to the person who pointed that out). It sure looks better than a certain overhyped shooter.
 
Why settle for a watered down version of the game, get the pc version lol
 
Conker said:
Why settle for a watered down version of the game, get the pc version lol
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For me my original decision was hard to make because I have to decide between playing it with reduced graphical settings at native resolution on my 24" monitor to get a good steady framerate, or playing a chopfest that looks very nice.

With the 360 version, I'd wager to bet that the frame rate runs near or at 60fps all the time, even as the graphics get better from HL2 => EP2, whereas with my system I'd have to keep knocking down settings to achieve the same result.

Those of us running larger monitors or less than newer systems have different ideas and requirements for what we judge to be deal breakers in terms of graphics with games. Anybody with an 8xxx series or maybe even a 1900XT has an easy decision to make, the rest of us have made concessions in our upgrade paths for whatever reasons which may be why we pull double duty with consoles.

As someone said earlier, the game plays very well, so as long as the experience is intact, thats really all I personally look for, I'm sure others off the cutting edge of hardware probably make similar decisions.
 
solideliquid said:
As someone mentioned above, the Xbox 360 version of HL2 has added HDR and motion blur.

Those two features make HL2 a totally new experience!
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i agree. i loaded it up just to see how it would look on the 360, and was really surprised to see that it had hdr and montion blur. its a HUGE boost on graphics to the original hl2. im going to play through the whole game again, just for the bump in visuals.
 
aramis said:
:rolleyes: It's a game. Get over yourself. :p
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no shit....that's what it boils down to. HL2 on the 360 doesn't loose any of it's gameplay, and graphics are subjective....someone may prefer hdr over aa, or aa over motion blur, etc.

Having played HL2 through a dozen times on the PC over the past few years, and countless hours of cs:s, & dod:s, this 360 version really doesn't disappoint.

On a side note, I'm playing on a 42" samsung dlp, and I rarely notice aa issues. I think the lack of aa might be more noticeable on plasmas or lcds.
 
PC because someway, somehow it will be modded, and it will even be MORE fun.
 
the graphics upgrades are in the PC version of HL2 and HL2:EP1 as well. If you notice they got patched the day Orange Box came out. Honestly, it was made for PC, and will always play better on PC imo. That said, if you are at all remotely interested in TF2, get it for PC. Reason is, on the 360 matches max out at 16 players. Whereas on the PC you can get up to 24 players. This is a HUGE difference. The maps are much more lively with 12 per side as compared to 8 per side. That and you will probably find much better servers for the PC version, no matter what Valve does for the x360 version.
 
l3ender said:
The OP isn't looking for what people's preference is, he's looking for a graphical comparison of the two. Leave the "keyboard pwns" comments at home.
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thank you, it's like every time someone mentions a 360 someone else is perched waiting to mention lack of keyboard and mouse.....which is pathetic, it's not a PC people!
 
Stick to the pc version i say again lol. The controls, the online mode, and the graphics are better on the pc. Mod support on the pc also so why settle for a watered down version of the game. The source engine is very scalable. It was designed to run on a Athlon XP system with agp. It runs and looks great on all computers now in days. Theres no reason not to play it on the pc now lol :cool:
 
Tripp17 said:
The pc version is superior in all aspects graphically. Setting the resolution to 1600x1200 with 4xaa and 16xaf is impossable on 360.
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This isn't entirely offtopic, but worth noting... I did a direct comparison on BIOSHOCK with a 360 and my e6300 w/ 8800 GTS 320...

I set the resolution as close as I could... Not only did the PC looks much crisper and not washed out, it was smooth.

And thats leads me up to a completely unrelated point that I figured I would throw in....

I had people bring a 360 and a PS3 and we compared the same game side by side...

same graphics on both, but on the PS3, framerates were always constant... 360 was choppy. (don't start a flame war... i'm just ADD)
 
nobody_here said:
thank you, it's like every time someone mentions a 360 someone else is perched waiting to mention lack of keyboard and mouse.....which is pathetic, it's not a PC people!
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The 360 is a PC, just as the Xbox was one. There is no reason not to give an option for mouse and keyboard.
Hell it has USB connectors, it's just the stodgy concept that a console should not have mouse and such that keeps it from happening. It's not cost, everything that you need is there besides a driver.


And yes the PC will always have better gfx. By the time a console comes out tech has moved on and new cards are ready to install in PC's while you would have to do a full re-design on the console.
 
Kendrak said:
The 360 is a PC, just as the Xbox was one. There is no reason not to give an option for mouse and keyboard.
Hell it has USB connectors, it's just the stodgy concept that a console should not have mouse and such that keeps it from happening. It's not cost, everything that you need is there besides a driver.


And yes the PC will always have better gfx. By the time a console comes out tech has moved on and new cards are ready to install in PC's while you would have to do a full re-design on the console.
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i would say the reason is people want a console, not a computer, to the average joe a 360 is not at all a computer, i personally like to break away from the M/KB
 
Nobody is forcing you to use mouse/kb. more options are always better. Using it or not is all up to you. sadly with microsoft, there is always NO OPTON. i am not talking about just mouse/kb.
 
calvieee said:
Nobody is forcing you to use mouse/kb. more options are always better. Using it or not is all up to you. sadly with microsoft, there is always NO OPTON. i am not talking about just mouse/kb.
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as much as i love the mouse/keyboard setup... i think microsoft is right not to include it, because it would totally ruin the experience that new players have coming into a game. you would have some people with a mouse, and some with a controller, and the game play would just be miss matched. same way if you had half the people playing counterstrike with a joystick on the pc. the game just wouldnt be the same because the playing field would be different.
 
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