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A poster at GameFAQS has just come forward with this very interesting information:

Y35jd4 wrote:Watched the game running side by side on Xbox and PS3

On identical televisions with HDMI hookups:

Both versions look great. Sound great.

PS3 version looks *slightly* better, nearly negligible though. We had a single building pop-in in Winterrun on the Xbox. Screen tearing is negligible on both consoles thus far.

Xbox version runs *slightly* better, PS3 has what I would describe as "quarter second hangs" more frequently, say 1 an hour on Xbox and perhaps 3-5 an hour on PS3

We have encountered 0 bug so far on the Xbox, 0 on the PS3. 4 hour gametime on both consoles, no breaks.

Load times on both consoles are so close as to be nearly identical.

Looks like it comes down to personal preference as to which console you buy it for.

Enjoy Skyrim!

Here's a link to the thread itself.

Great, I'm happy that you won't be forced to chose either console. One looks a slight bit better but runs a slight bit worse and vice versa, would be lovely if they were identical, but whatever.

Hejerrick wrote:Great, I'm happy that you won't be forced to chose either console. One looks a slight bit better but runs a slight bit worse and vice versa, would be lovely if they were identical, but whatever.

Yeah, there are slight differences - but they balance out pretty much. Even then, you'll only really notice them if you're ever in the same situation that he was, comparing them side-by-side, because the differences are really that tiny.

I don't know about anyone else but I'm feeling really happy at the moment - I expected the worst

Well good thing I have my trusty 360 ready to play!
Only a week left until release and for those interested only 6 days for reviews to come out.

We have encountered 0 bug so far on the Xbox, 0 on the PS3. 4 hour gametime on both consoles, no breaks.

That's good, I remember recently a reviewer who had a problem with falling into invisible holes in the ground and dying. Good to see that fixed!

Glad to hear another confirmation on lack of screen tearing, woohoo!

We have encountered 0 bug so far on the Xbox, 0 on the PS3. 4 hour gametime on both consoles, no breaks.

does this mean the crime reporting chickens bug is fixed as well??

define "screen tearing" and "hanging". sorry noob here and not familiar with these terms.

hoodedrobin wrote:define "screen tearing" and "hanging". sorry noob here and not familiar with these terms.

Click this link for a good explanation of screen tearing. There's an image in the article you can click for a larger image that should help you understand the concept. You've probably seen it a few times before in various things as it's a very common issue.

Hanging is temporary loss of responsiveness. This usually happens when there's some heavy processing going on behind the scenes that causes the game/application to usually not respond for a short time. Hanging is not the same as crashing, although the two can appear to be very similar; a crash will not return to normal operation where a hang will. That's why if a game or computer system appears to freeze it's usually best to wait for a few minutes to see if it becomes responsive again on it's own.

In the case of Skyrim, the 'hanging' that's being reported is nothing more than the very occasional quarter-second here and there where the game doesn't appear to respond. Many PS3 games have this issue, so it's nothing major. Imagine something similar to how auto saves work in many games out there - you can't move your character until the auto save is complete.

Exactly, re: autosave. The hanging in Skyrim is apparently a side effect of the autosave. I've noticed it in videos from the 360 version as well, so this isn't a PS3 "exclusive" issue..

Though, it is something that can be patched easily, later on, you can disable autosaving if it becomes a bother.

gotcha, thank you guys for taking the time to explain it to me. i appreciate it.

Sounds like you're better off with the regular autosave from previous Bethesda titles, hanging isn't all that intrucive when it's only during a loading screen.

Yeah, I'm definitely setting mine to just save on sleep/travel like other Bethesda games.. I don't really enjoy envisioning an auto-save throwing a hiccup my way in the heat of a battle or something like that.. would totally throw off the mood.

dubq wrote:Yeah, I'm definitely setting mine to just save on sleep/travel like other Bethesda games.. I don't really enjoy envisioning an auto-save throwing a hiccup my way in the heat of a battle or something like that.. would totally throw off the mood.

The idea of it of course is that a crash during extended surface adventuring wouldn't be as disastrous as before, but all it takes to autosave is a visit inside a dungeon or a house, right?

Shouldn't be a big problem, since all reports on the games stability have been quite positive, as seen in the original post.