This is the first time in a long time that a GTA game has debuted on multiple platforms, and of course, people are going bananas trying to dissect every little difference they can. From my time with both versions, I found the PS3 version to run a little smoother, though neither version is immune to drops in the frame rate when things get crazy. The PS3 version installs up front and seems to load and stream a little better as a result. The 360 version’s loading and streaming is entirely dependent on the quality of your hardware’s DVD drive. On one system, I had no problems, the loading seemed perfectly snappy, and it generally wasn’t a thing. On the Xbox 360 Elite I have at home, though, I could hear the disc thrashing about as it tried to load, and occasionally objects and roads would appear a second or two too late, causing me to ram my car into invisible objects, in one case. Thankfully, I had another 360 at my disposal, but if your drive is already a little iffy, just know that you might run into some occasional streaming issues.
Of course, the 360 version has achievements and will apparently have downloadable content down the line, so if I were choosing, that’s the direction I’d lean in. But the story is just as great on both platforms, and you really can’t lose either way.
