For those that haven’t picked up The Orange Box yet (shame on you!), IGN’s review of the PS3 version has come out and, while scoring well, seems to be a bit of a disappointment when compared to the PC or Xbox 360 versions of the game. It’s no secret that Gabe Newell has had his complaints regarding the PS3 architecture, but it’s not clear whether or not the performance issues are developer related or technology related. To quote IGN:
[...] Unfortunately, our complaints don’t stop there. The remainder of our criticisms are to blame for the discrepancy in scores between the PlayStation 3 version of the game and the 360 version (the PS3 version, after all, wasn’t handled entirely by Valve). The PlayStation 3 Orange Box performs far worse, and this fact just isn’t up for debate. While framerate issues aren’t as problematic in Half-Life 2 and Episode One, Episode Two suffers a great deal, especially during the episode’s larger battles. We regret to say that some sections border on being unplayable because of the stutters, which often cause your aim to be thrown off and timing shots to be very difficult. The problem isn’t persistent throughout, but when it hits, it hits hard.
More troubling still is the difference in load times. Almost all the PS3 load times are at least five seconds more than the 360, but loading a saved game/loading after death is particularly awful. These clock in at about two to three times as long as the 360 version, which slows down the gameplay considerably. Even though the PS3 Orange Box sports a quicksave feature, any benefit of this option is lost considering the overall abundance of loading.
Even in Portal, a short title that often requires a little trial and error, this problem is massive. The 360 version takes about three seconds to load your last checkpoint if you die. The PS3 version takes seventeen. It hurts.
We must also mention that during all of our Team Fortress 2 play sessions, there was a very startling delay when using explosive weapons like the Soldier’s rocket launcher or the Demoman’s grenade launcher. When you pull the trigger to fire, there’s a very brief but noticeable delay between the recoil of the weapon and the actual delivery of the explosive. This can seriously screw up your timing when trying to lead a rocket shot, or similar attacks. [...]
To be fair to Valve, it seems that portions of The Orange Box on PS3 was farmed out to another developer. It’s entirely possible that this little buddy that Valve used just doesn’t have enough experience with the Source engine and the PS3 in general to achieve optimal results. It truly is a shame, especially when you consider just how amazing the package is. Still, if you don’t have a capable PC (Source runs great on most setups), and you don’t have a 360, I’d still recommend picking the game up for the PS3. Just know that you’re probably going to run into some hiccups along the way.
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