Hello,

First of all, I want to say I'm a long time reader but first time poster. So if I say anything incorrectly or I cross some sort of community guideline, my sincere apologies.

Second
***** THIS IS NOT A FLAMEWAR, THIS IS MERELY ME ASKING FOR SOME SOUND ADVICE AND LOOKING FOR GENUINE ANSWERS TO MY QUESTIONS, IF YOU CAN'T LEAVE THE URGE TO GO "OMG XBOX IS BETTER THAN PS3" LEAVE NOW PLEASE ****

Onwards to the issue at hand:
Fortunately I'm the owner of both a Playstation 3 and an Xbox 360. I own Skyrim on the Ps3 and I, like many others, have encountered the countless issues that the game brought(both domestic to the Ps3 and across the two platforms) like the freezing upon entering a body of water, etc.
However, since the 1.7 patch the gameplay on my Ps3 has become somewhat unbearable. I have frequent lags, something which is rather annoying(putting it mildly) and sometimes near-complete-freeze lags when I just venture outside of Helgen.
Needless to say that I only foresee worse problems if I continue venturing out into Tamriel.

Now when I look at my collection of Ps3 games versus those of Xbox(I only have 3 for the Xbox and nearly 4 times as much for the Ps3) I see that I don't play any of the games anymore. Though the will to play Skyrim again is still very present.
I was thinking of going to Gamemania, a gamestore in The Netherlands, where I can trade in my games get some store-credit for a new game or get cash instead. And with the store-credit I would purchase both Skyrim and Dawnguard(not a fan of the Hearthfire concept).
I haven't played alot on my Xbox 360, only some Witcher 2, but the way the game plays just isn't for me, neither is Fable or Section 8. And considering I'm a huge svcker for a game such as Skyrim(my first TES game, but boy they got me hooked on it from the get-go).

Also, I've been looking out for Dawnguard for a while now. There are some things in that DLC which would give me so much more immersion than the vanilla-base of the game. Such as the conjuring of Bone-men, which would be awesome for my Lich King-esque build that has been playing in my mind for months now.
Vampyrism isn't a bad thing either . I could go on and on, but you get the point.

That being said...

This is where you guys come into "play", I have a couple of questions which I would like to have answered.
Here's the list:

Graphics
- How are the graphics on the Xbox 360 in comparison to the Ps3? I've seen videos on Youtube displaying the difference, although the comments beneath it state that the difference shown is incorrect. Mostly stating that the graphics on the Xbox 360 are superior to what is actually shown.

- I've read that NOT installing the game allows the Xbox 360 to load the textures from the disc as opposed to having an installed game(which only slightly lowers loading times) but disables the Xbox from loading the game-textures. Is this correct?

Gameplay
- Aside from the fact that there's a different controller, how's does the gameplay feel on the Xbox 360? Are there bugs that you encounter on the Xbox 360 which are game-breaking, if so which?

Downloadable Content (DLC)
- Dawnguard in particular. How does it play? Do you feel it flows fluently, no major hick-ups, etc?

Loading times
- Again just like the graphics, I hear mixed opinions. Some say the loading times are longer than the Ps3 others say they are close or even shorter?
If there's a way to make these loading times slower, how?

Xbox 360
- Ring of Death, as some players put it elequently. What causes this and is this avoidable? I am not looking forward to sell my Ps3 copy of Skyrim only to find out that 3 months into owning the Xbox 360 version, my Xbox 360 stops "working".


Is there anything else that you feel that you should mention, something which I may have forgotten to ask or you feel is valuable to the process of forming my opinion wether to cross-over?

So these are my questions.
Thank you all in advance and I hope I get the answers I'm looking for.


Kind regards,

Lothalor


Edit: spelling errors

Well i swapped my copy of skyrim on playstation for skyrim on xbox. The reason being that on ps3 i found that as my save file grew the game become more and more unstable. Graphics and textures would come in later and later until the point i was pretty much stepping on textures as they were mapping. On xbox, there are similar issues but i find it to be much better. The game will crash occasionally but generally i find it to be more stable. Dawnguard seems to integrate quite well, no major hiccups so far for me. Its not on ps3, whether it will be or not i dont know. In my opinion, if you are looking to really get into the game then id say that you will have a better gaming experience on the xbox. There will probably be a thousand people who disagree with me, but ive put in hundreds and hundreds of hours on both consoles and i think the xbox is better.
Ive installed the game to the hard drive. There was an issue with texturing when running from the hard drive when the game was released but its been patched since then. Running it off the HD should prolong the life the xbox too.
And as for the red ring of death, ive had that and it was to do with the xbox over heating and cooking its motherboard. If you have a new xbox, one the black elite ones, you should be fine. If its an old one, then keep the vents clean and keep the console well ventilated and it should be alright. Just make sure it has can cool itself. Dont be piling stuff on it and around it.
Hope some of that helps.

I own the 360 version so I will simply tell you my experience:


Graphics are slightly better on the 360. The PS3 is bad about blurring everything. http://www.lensoftruth.com/head2head-the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-anolysis/


I recommend installing the game, it does indeed help load times and the texture issue was a bug that was fixed in a patch. I have noticed no difference in graphics by having it installed.


Since both have pretty much the same patches, bugs should be pretty much the same on both versions... a little more with Dawnguard installed. I never really had anything game-breaking. I only had lag in one area, which was during the thieves guild quest which is a known issue.


It plays okay, you can get through it... I didn't get any lag, but there are bugs.


Loading times for with the game installed was about 20 - 30 seconds I would say.


Which Xbox do you have? If you have the newer slim Xbox's you really shouldn't have to worry about this... the older Xbox's though are notorious for overheating. Basically the system does a bad job of getting rid of the heat when playing. Keeping it in a well ventilated area and clear of dust can help.

Yes.

I recently put Skyrim in my PS3 and really wished I hadn't.
Bugs everywhere, load times are awful, save times are ridiculous, game play is jerky as [censored]... etc.
360 may have its own issues, but they're certainly not as bad as the PS3's

We (my sister and I, sister doesn't use it anymore) got it last Christmas, the Xbox 360 that is

It is a black one

Is it a black xbox or a white one?

Weird, your post and my post shifted..

It should be a new one then. So dont worry abut over heating. The newer ones big ol fans that should keep them cool.

Ok, I'll pick up the Xbox 360 version tomorrow or Friday then. Giving it a shot

I think we broke time.

I have a xbox 360 slim, the black one, and I install all my games onto it. I also use usb flash drives to store my un-used characters onto it. I have no problems with the graphics, but I also have been using an hdmi cord. I also make it a habit to keep the cache cleared and have very little problems with locking up, and almost no problems with graphics. I never keep more than 6 saves going at a time on the xbox hard drive, so most of the time I usually have about 170gb free of the 250gb that it holds.

If I decide that I want to change characters, I just put my saved games from the xbox to the usb flash drive/thumb drive, what you want to call them, and transfer the character I want from the flash drive to the xbox. Then I always clear the cache after that.

The graphcs are sharp and clear, there is no lag, and only the loading times are a little slow, but I do not mind that. I have a friend who has a ps3, and he got so mad at it when playing his game, he said the heck with it, threw it out an got an xbox ad has been happy ever since.

The only thing I can say is get the game for xbox play it, and see for yourself. Everyone can give you all the advice in the world, but only you can decide what works best for you.

Hope that helps

Just to toss my two cents in, if you have a PC that can run it, get that instead. The modding community has done a great job patching bugs, and Bethesda has a history of not following through on fixes.

Highly recomend gettin it for 360. I keep seeing loads of posts about bugs on ps3 and honestly i never have any.

Once u install it to ur hd it works flawlessly.. Loading times are reduced but the difference is miniscule. I did notice once it was installed the game seem to run smoother aswell and if u got a hd tv and decent HDMI lead the graphics are amazing.

Plus xbox is first to get any DLC.
PS3 hasnt even got dawnguard yet
and dragonborn is out soon XD.

Red rings isnt really a problem anymore unless ur xbox is an old premium or arcade (white ones) in which case its just a matter of time, you cant predict RROD and there isnt any early warning signs it just.. happends. Ive got an old elite and ive had it for nearly 4 years now and its still purring like a kitten lol

If my pc was good enough id have the pc version anyday... with mods and a command console the Possibilitys are pretty much endless lol

If you need to choose from consols than definitly xbox is much better choice, personaly I would say the best choice is Pc if your computer can run it , mainly because fan patches, i personally played it on Ps3 and didn't have to much bugs but i finished everysingle,quest and got all trophys when there was still good patch rather than what Ps3 is gettomg recently

1. PC

2. 360

3. Anything else

4. PS3

If you have both consoles, you don't have to stop playing your larger library of PS3 games. I buy certain games on PS3, but knew about the PS3's issues with Beth's games, so I knew I wanted Skyrim on the 360. The 360 version does freeze from time to time, but I haven't had it do that in a long time. *Knocks on wood*

I'm very happy with Skyrim on my 360. I think it's a very good investment.

To the OP, yes. Though if you have a PC that can run it, you're better off going in that direction.

Either way, if you go with the Xbox, definitely install the game to the HDD first.

If you have a decent computer, I'd go with PC. The graphics will be better than either console. Further, mods can add a lot of content and/or visual upgrades as well. If neither of these apply or interest you, then go 360.

Lol so true.