Are Reviewers Too Critical of PS3 Multi-Console Games?

Contributed by Andrew Weymes—It is understandable that if a professional reviewer—such as the people at IGN or Gamespot—believe that a game is superior on one console over another, that they should rate it accordingly.

An example being the Fallout 3 review from IGN. Fallout 3 apparently runs better on the Xbox 360, therefore the 360 version gets a 9.6, while the PS3 version gets a 9.4. I don't see a problem with this. People deserve to know which version is superior. What I do have a problem with is inferior Xbox 360 games getting the exact same score as their PS3 counterpart.

An example of this is Grand Theft Auto IV. Here is a quote directly from IGN, "While GTA IV is pushing the PS3 and 360 to the limit, it also runs amazingly well. Sure, there are framerate hitches here and there and (particularly on the 360) there is some texture pop in, but it actually runs better than I expected." If the technical problems of Fallout 3 for the PS3 are enough to lower the score by .2 when compared to the 360 version, why have we never seen a PS3 version of a multi-console game get a higher score for the same reason?

I'm sure many gamers have a lot of conspiracy theories as to why this is, but while I'm not going to accuse anyone of any wrong doings, I still find it odd. Imagine if the most over hyped game of the year, Grand Theft Auto IV, were to get a 10 on the PS3, but a 9.9 from IGN, or a 9.5 from Gamespot on the 360. Xbox Fanboys would erupt.

If GTA IV did receive higher scores on the PS3 than the 360, then I would assume that more multi-console owners would have bought Grand Theft Auto IV on the PS3, rather than the 360; regardless of any DLC that is almost irrelevant by now (but that is another topic).

In the first year the PS3 was out, developers were still getting used to the hardware, so many multi-console games were of a slightly lower quality than the 360 counterparts, and they were rated accordingly. Over the past year, however, we have seen most PS3 games get the exact same score as their 360 counterparts, but when I read that the 360 version has problems that the PS3 version doesn't, I can't help but wonder why there is no difference in the score as I feel there would be if it was the PS3 version having the exact same problems.