I would like to pick up a copy of Skyrim today but am undecided if I should get it on PS3 or 360. IGN says that the 360 load times are lengthy and frequent and unfortunately their PS3 review is not up as they don't have a copy to review.
Does anyone have first hand experience with the load times on both platforms?
Since I don't know too many people who buy a $60 game for both XBox and PS3, I decided to compare load times using youtube vidoes.
Summary Table of Average Load Times (in seconds)
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Console New Game Saved Game Dungeon House Outside City Fast Travel
XBox 47 10* 21 9 22 20 28
PS3 22* 33* 17 7* 17 18 36*
*Low sample size (< 3)
Loading a new game:
Loading a new area (dungeon):
Loading a new area (house):
Loading a new area (outside):
Loading a new area (city):
Loading a saved game:
This article is all you need:
Loading: When we look at the loading times for each version, there is a clear cut winner here. In just about every instance the PS3 version managed to load at least fifteen to almost thirty seconds faster than its 360 counterpart. One can only help but feel that the PS3 mandatory install played a huge roll in this, as these times are made with the 360 running off of the disk. Sure you could install the game on your 360 to remedy the insane loading times, but by doing so you compromise the visual advantage of the 360 due to the streaming glitch that is still present on Microsoft’s console when run off of the HDD. When you look at all of these factors based on how the game CURRENTLY runs, there is little doubt that the PS3 commands a large advantage here.
PlayStation 3 Load Times Xbox 360 Load Times
Sample 1: 33 Seconds Sample 1: 59 Seconds
Sample 2: 38 Seconds Sample 2: 48 Seconds
Sample 3: 30 Seconds Sample 3: 45 Seconds
Sample 4: 34 Seconds Sample 4: 52 Seconds
Sample 5: 29 Seconds Sample 5: 50 Seconds
Sample Average: 32.8 Seconds Sample Average: 50.8 Seconds
Technically on xbox if you install the game to your hard drive the load times increase but it also scales down textures and makes the graphics look worse because of the xbox's cacheing system. PC completely depends on your setup and if your pc is more powerful than the xbox/ps3.
According to this
Another article says that xbox 360's gameplay is "smooth as silk" and ps3 has slow downs and lag.
also on ps3
I'm playing on xbox360 (not installed).
Most load times are approx 10 seconds. While in a load screen, they throw a 3d model viewer up that you can control with the sticks, which helps pass the brief time.
What is jarring, is the auto-safe every 15 minutes on menu activation. It completely freezes the game. This is approx 5 seconds, but it comes at a time when I open the menu for a purpose, and I can forget that purpose during the frozen 5 seconds. This feature can be turned off, but I haven't done that yet. Also, I'm auto-saving to a flash drive, which may be slower/faster than saving to the main drive.
I don't have first hand experience with any version of Skyrim - I haven't bought it yet.
However, searching on Google for "skyrim ps3 load times" gave this site as one of the results: http://gamingbolt.com/lag-issues-affecting-some-skyrim-ps3-owners
I'm sure you can find similar results (if not the same issues) for the XBox360 version.
My point is that both versions seem to have their issues. If you're looking for a definitive answer as to which is the best, you may be disappointed.
With any luck, Bethesda is working on a patch for both platforms, and hopefully the major issues will be straightened out. If not, perhaps you should base your choice on other criteria, or consider buying the PC version instead.
The Ps3 has immense slow down which ruins the game past 100 hours or so, the xbox doesn't, i know because i have the xbox version, and my friend ps3, he's been playing 130+ hours and i've been playing roughly 160 hours on mine, while he's slows down and becomes even unplayable at times, mine works fine and i'm still conquering and enjoying skyrim as much as 160 hours ago :)
