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OK, I must preface this rant by admitting to one of my guilty pleasures.  As cheesy as it may be, I enjoy Pro Wrestling.  Its not really the actual wrestling I am a fan of, but the ridiculous storylines crack me up.  I know it is fake, but the fact that there are actually people that believe it totally blows my mind.  That being said, I should also add that I enjoy wrestling video games.

The Smackdown vs Raw series has always been fun for me.  My friends and I will waste hours playing multiplayer matches.  With Smackdown vs Raw 2008 coming out, I knew it was a “must have” for my library.  Owning all three next gen systems, I had a choice to make.  Way back in August, I had to make a similar choice with Madden 08.  I clearly made the wrong decision.  The 360 version was a bit faster and looked a lot better.  I traded my PS3 copy in and bought the 360 version. It cost me an extra $20, but I now owned the best version.

Since then, I have had more success with PS3 versions of multi platform games. I got COD4 for the PS3 and was pleased with the performance.  Also, the PS3 exclusives I have played have been amazing. Uncharted and Ratchet and Clank were both amazing. Needless to say, my PS3 had fallen back into my good graces.   

So it was decision time.  The Wii was eliminated from contention immediately. The game simply doesn’t look as good on it.  I decided to go with the PS3 copy, mostly because the system is quieter and I get better battery life with the PS3 controllers.  Well, I get home and popped in the disk with the thoughts of chairs shots and haymakers swirling through my brain.  I went straight to the “create a superstar” mode. It is my opinion that the character creation mode in Smackdown vs Raw is the best in the biz.  Anyhow, an hour and a half later, I was satisfied with my digital self and started my wrestling career.

What a steaming pile of reindeer shit!! Let me start off with the actual gameplay.  Pure garbage.  The frame rates slow down so much when more than two wrestlers are on the screen.  Now I am not talking about just choppy animations here,  I am saying the game slowed down to the point where I thought my PS3 was broken.  Basically, it is unplayable.  I have been playing THQ wrestling games since the Nintendo 64, and this was by far the worst playing experience ever.  Let’s move on to the cut scenes.  They are broken.  How do you mess up cut scenes?  The audio is at least three seconds ahead of the video. The video in the cut scenes is easily the choppiest I have ever senn as well.  The slow motion clips are embarrassing.  I have seen more fluid animations on those old flip books.  I am being serious.  It blows my mind that they let this game go out like this.  DO NOT BUY THIS GAME FOR PS3. You have been warned.

This game was so bad, I just had to see if the game itself was terrible, or just the PS3 version.  I went back to Game Stop a few days later and picked the 360 version.  Guess what?  It was infinitely better.  No frame rate issues, no audio/video timing issues. It was everything I expected from the Smackdown vs. Raw series. 

I want to love my PS3, I really do.  I believe it is a superior piece of hardware.  But if 70 percent of the multi platform games out there are SO much better on the 360, how long can I defend the PS3?  I know it is the developers fault for the game’s flaws, but ultimately I, the consumer, am punished.  I feel so burned again.  I am now at a point where I will NEVER buy a multi platform game for my PS3.  It just isn’t worth the risk.

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