GTA V: Better on PS3 or Xbox 360?

The Grand Theft Auto series is one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed game franchise of all time, and the release of the long-awaited latest game in the series, GTA V in September 2013 only helped elevate the game to cult-like status amongst gamers around the world.

Since the first GTA game was released on the PS1 in 1997, fans around the world have eagerly awaited the next game, buoyed by the promise of better graphics, better user experience and more complex storylines and missions. But how can playing the latest game on an older games console change the view of the player? Can playing GTA V on PS3 make the game look and feel as good as it would on an Xbox 360 or a PS4?

The good news is that unlike GTA V’s predecessor, GTA 4, where there was a noticeable difference between playing the game on a PS3 and Xbox 360, both consoles register the game with almost identical graphics quality. If you’re playing on a PS3, then you’ll probably notice that GTA V looks much, much clearer than GTA 4 did on the console.

There are some minor differences between playing the game on PS3 and Xbox, but these really are very small. For example, when we played the game on the Xbox 360, we noticed that there was slightly more detail in the trees featured on the game, whereas on the PS3, we noted that there were some slightly lower-quality mirror reflections during the game, but this didn’t detract from the overall experience.

Some users have noted that there are noticeable texture-streaming issues on the Xbox 360, which is possibly down to bandwidth limitations, which are known to cause blurry and less clear textures in the game. Both consoles perform well with GTA V, and a lot of the PS3’s earlier issues with GTA 4 have been rectified, and overall visual quality is much higher on the PS3, because of the above texture-streaming issues. So, if you didn’t manage to get a PS4 for Christmas, don’t panic, playing GTA V on PS3 is still fun and enjoyable, and you’ll still get 30 frames per second for your money.