The final retail Xbox 360 code is in the door and comes off comparatively the poorer...

Final retail code has just arrived in the building for the Xbox 'cut' of Final Fantasy XIII. Having just finished the game in just under sixty hours on PS3 puts us in prime position to note the differences in visual quality.

To our purely subjective eyes, we have noted:

• While facial detail appears largely unchanged, the characters' clothes appear at first glance to be lacking finer details, with notably lower resolution textures.
• Incidental environmental objects and enemies appear less detailed, both in texture and geometry.
• The game's CG is extremely compressed and pales alongside the stunning HD goodness which blu-ray offers.

Knowing that this is likely to stir controversy, we'd like to make it clear that NowGamer is a multi-format publication, with no leanings either way toward a particular console. These are just the observations of a few journalists who have experienced the game on PS3. It would appear Square Enix has had to make some sacrifices to cram the game onto three discs after all, particularly when it comes to CG quality.

Ultimately, no matter what you're playing it on we wouldn't discourage anyone from deciding to buy it if they're already planning to. However, if you have a choice, the PS3 version has the edge.