It seems there's something strange in the PS3-hood. Who you gonna call?

Despite originally being touted as the lead platform for the development of the HD version of Ghostbusters: The Video Game, it would appear that the PlayStation 3 version of Terminal Reality's Ghostbusters sequel may not be all it's Xbox 360 counterpart is cracked up to be-- at least, where the image resolution is concerned.

Speaking to VideoGaming247, Mark Randel, the President of Terminal Reality said:

"Personally, I want to show off our PS3 technology. We're one of the few developers who love the PS3 and have a great time with it. We have great technology for the PS3 and we want to show it off.

"We're running the same game for both platforms but if we made a PS3-only game, for example, you could double the amount of objects on screen that you're seeing. The PlayStation 3 has seven processors and the 360 only has three, so seven versus three means you can do a lot more on the PS3. We're keeping the game the same over both platforms so we don't want to take out any features," Randel added.

However, Lens of Truth ran an article comparing the two versions, determining that a number of differences put the Xbox 360 version ahead. Such differences included a "mysteriously blurred image" and lower texture quality.

"What the Lens of Truth were confused about was the resolution of the game," reports Gamezine.co.uk. "Was the PlayStation 3 version really running in high-definition at 720p? The answer is 'No.' We can confirm that the PS3 version of Ghostbusters is natively rendered at 960 by 540 pixels (three-quarters the resolution of 720p) with quincunx AA. The Xbox 360 version is actually rendered at 720p (1280 by 720 pixels) with 2xMSAA."

MazingerDUDE of the Beyond3D technical forums provided the screen at the top of this article, as well as the following image, both of which can be clicked to enlarge for comparison. Gamezine.co.uk says that these offer proof of the PS3's rendering resolution after referring to high-definition Ruliweb footage.

The top image provides the horizontal resolution, while the lower one provides vertical.



"If the PlayStation 3 was able to render so many objects on screen, it certainly appeared to come at a cost to Terminal Reality," says Gamezine.co.uk. "It doesn't look like they ever had the time to refine their PS3 engine and instead heavily compromised the game to get it out the door. We must certainly question whether it was their 'lead platform.' We know how good PS3 games can look at 720p; you've all seen the incredible gameplay footage of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves."

They suppose the reasoning for the mix-up might be alluded to in an interview given with PlayStation Universe:

"Sony and the talent were adamant that before they got involved with a Ghostbusters game, the tech had to be capable of providing an authentic Ghostbusters experience, and that required graphics and physics tech," Terminal Reality Executive Producer Brendan Goss told PSU.

What baffles me in all of this is that they've had all this time to polish the game, after the publishing fallout last year. Could they not have fixed this in the meantime? Or might these comparisons simply be based on an earlier build than the one which shipped this week?