This is why you buy superior hardware. I remember the 'argument' of installing came up in a PC vs Console argument, and console players were talking about not having to install anything, and I thought to myself 'The time will come...', well, here it is. Maybe its not NEEDED for the PS3 version, but for the 360, with no bluray and thus worse hardware than the PS3, this is what you get. Old hardware cannot keep up with games meant for modern systems. A while back someone asked 'Will we need a new generation of consoles, I don't see why we would', here is why. They are that far behind its not funny. If every game could be like this, look this amazing on highest settings whilst still having some nice systems in place and solid gameplay, I would be happy. Unfortunately, most games are developed for consoles then ported to the PC, making this nigh on impossible, as the ports usually add in only minor changes, and sometimes completely forget that the PC has a more versatile control scheme to work with (*Cough* Mass Effect 2 *Cough*).
This is an example of consoles holding back the market. Yes, the gameplay may not be anything groundbreaking, but for anything groundbreaking, we'd need a number of things to change - hardware being one of the smaller, but no less important, things.
I personally hope more developers start stretching PC hardware limits, thought they should take the effort to downscale it enough to actually work well on consoles, regardless of how many less players it has to have, how much smaller maps and enemy counts may have to be, and how much worse the graphics may have to be. Trying to give consoles something that looks pretty but doesn't run well is a pointless venture IMO - if they truly wanted it to look that pretty, they'd spend the 2-500$ (Prices may vary dependant on regions) on upgrading their PCs. They don't, and you can logically dictate that gameplay is more important to them then graphics - as if it weren't obvious that it is that way for almost everyone...
I find it sad how a 1.5Gb graphics path can be this much of a hassle for Xbox users. I have used up over 320Gb on my main PC hardrive, and then more on my laptops harddrive, and 1.5 Gb is nothing.
If nothing else, this shows consoles need to move on to Bluray, and get larger harddrives. I'd also recommend a faster processor - a MINIMUM of 3.00 Ghz and preferably higher [My six year old processor was 3.00 at normal clock, my new one is 3.4. I see no reason why it should be lower] and a 2 core minimum with preferable 4 cores, and at least 4Gb of RAM, NOT shared between video and normal, but 4Gb normal, and at least 512 MB dedicated VRAM with a good card.
Yes, it will be an expensive upgrade for consoles, but it is much needed. I challenge the console creators however to do this without me being able to build a new PC from scratch with the same or better specs for a cheaper price. If they manage that, then without starting from scratch - having a case, a CD drive, a monitor, a keyboard and mouse, and a Chasis Fan to start with.
However, I doubt they will even reach those hardware specs - they want to make their console seem cheap to the buyers, and from their current pricing schemes, those specs would be beyond most people budgets, even though they are easily obtainable for a PC for cheap.
