One game, three platforms: Which is best?

With all eyes trained on consoles (and the predicted winners of the so-called console wars), PC games have taken a beating in recent years. Some industry watchers (and insiders) have even gone so far as to proclaim the PC game to be all-but dead.

Recent quarterly results indicate that the old boys’ way to play is still kicking, thanks in large part to massively multiplayer online role-playing games like “World of Warcraft” and the just-released “Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar.”

Like the decades long religious war between Mac zealots and Windows users who don’t get what all the fuss is about, console and PC gamers don’t generally see their worldviews through the same rainbow-colored glasses either. Twenty years of playing and writing about video games have brought me to the conclusion that the pluses and minuses of both ways of playing are determined by the games in play rather than the platforms themselves.

One game, three platforms
To illustrate, consider “The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion,” from Bethesda Softworks, which made its simultaneous debut for PC and Xbox 360 early last year and recently arrived for the PlayStation 3.

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I first dove into the role playing game’s insanely huge world with my Xbox 360, loosely following the main quest and getting lost in myriad side quests and dungeon crawls I found along the way. The game is so open-ended that I was at once overwhelmed and bored.

So I put “Elder Scrolls” aside for a long stretch, only to return to it a few weeks ago, when the first full expansion pack, “Shivering Isles,” became available for purchase in stores and for download from Xbox Live. I was drawn to the fact that the expansion takes place on a single island that becomes discoverable after installation. With a more focused main quest I have vowed to stick with it until completion (an estimated 50+ plus hours), and then return to the main game’s main and side quests (an estimated 250+ hours of play).

Living room advantage
My initial experience with the 360 version was pleasant, thanks in large part to one of the biggest pluses consoles have over PCs: The ability to play crashed out on the sofa in the living room or den before a huge, widescreen HDTV. Sure, PCs can connect to HDTVs, but do I really want my PC in the living room?

My living situation has since changed, and now a Gateway 24” HDTV widescreen monitor pulls quad-duty connected to my Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, and Windows Vista PC in my bedroom. Though I miss the living room setup, I don’t mind the closer, cozier arrangement of sitting before the monitor in a comfortable, reclining leather office chair with sidearms for resting my elbows while working the wireless controller.

Curious about the other platforms, I turned to the PS3 version of “Oblivion” and created a new character and game. Though Shivering Isles and most of the other downloadable goodies are not yet available for the PlayStation 3 version of “Oblivion,” Bethesda says those add-ons will come later this year.

Sharper graphics, faster load times
Right away I noticed two things: Sharper graphics and much faster load times. The PS3’s great graphics owe much to the fact that the console is plugged into the Gateway monitor’s DVI port (via an HDMI to DVI cable), which provides considerably sharper graphics over the Xbox 360’s VGA connection. (My new Xbox 360 Elite offers the same kind of HDMI-out connection as the PS3, but "Oblivion’s" graphics look the same to me whether I used the Elite’s HDMI port or my original Xbox 360’s VGA connection.)

Otherwise, the PS3 version felt and played pretty much like the Xbox 360 version, save for one significant difference: Achievement points. Or more accurately, the lack thereof. Unlike the 360, the PS3 does not currently track each game’s progress and achievements. This may sound minor, but I, like many of my gaming friends, are addicted to that joyful moment when we’re rewarded with achievements points for unlocking certain challenges and completing levels in a360 game.

What’s more, the Xbox Live service lets me carry on a conversation with a friend while I’m crawling in a dungeon – and then accept his or her invite to quit “Oblivion” and jump into a fast-paced multiplayer game like “Gears of War” or “Quake 4,” all without a break in our chatter.

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