**Did an overall evaluation of the difference in experience between XBL and PSN. **
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XBL: When I play online I find a definite amount of green connections and always have a green NAT dispalyed. Green connections pretty much have near zero rollbacks even with 0 GGPO delay unless something crazy happens. Yellow connections are still pretty solid. Usually yellow connections end up being the case with west coast players. Haven’t tried against any European players yet. Get some slight rollbacks here and there as the best case scenario with a yellow and at the worst case it feels like an orange or red connection. Oranges and reds are usually not that great with multiple ports. Sometimes just like PSN you’ll get oranges that feel like yellows.
In lobbies I’ll definitely find green and yellow connections regularly. The lobby system allows you to see a larger list of lobbies if you scroll down.
The only immediate downsides to XBL is the patch to fix the long wait times still isn’t available yet. Yet…if you noticed in the video I didn’t really spend that long finding matches and sometimes I’ve only waited about 5 to 7 seconds before someone came up in ranked. The other downside would be the fact that youtube uploading uploads to a direct foreign youtube account and not your own. Which is fine cuz I have a camera that can record and upload to my own youtube any way.
PSN: When I play online I find a definite amount of yellow connections and NAT is always yellow. Greens are extremely rare to zero to the point where I’ve only fought 2 people that I got greens with on PSN. Yellow connection is hit or miss. Sometimes you’ll get the really good yellow connection that doesn’t roll back much and then sometimes you’ll get the yellow that’s choppy. You kinda just have to take the yellow and hope it ends up more like a green. Players from a distance tend to change up from yellow to orange. Oranges and reds are pretty similar to XBL oranges/reds.
In lobbies I’ll definitely find yellow connections but there ends up being weird issues where after a while the yellows will all start to turn orange or red. This doesn’t really affect the connections but it’s just kinda tacky looking seeing everybody turn orange and red eventually in a lobby even if it’s not a real reflection of their connection. The lobby system on PSN strangely only allows you to see 8 rooms no matter what.
PSN definitely has the better youtube uploading feature with the ability to upload directly to your own youtube. Quality isn’t that great of course but at least it’s easier for people to find your vids by going through your youtube channel rather than a huge list on a special channel.
I mainly did this cuz I finally ended up getting both (only will have XBL for a short time ATM) and people have shared their opinions on what GGPO is like in general and blah blah. In general green connection on XBL is the ideal playability. Green on XBL pretty much can just play like its offline and even on zero GGPO delay it just runs pretty smooth out unless something weird happens. Yellow on XBL/PSN is still pretty good but depending on the player you’ll run into teleport hiccups occasionally. Then from there it just gets more random and I noticed on PSN that yellow connections can end up acting weird at times more often or switch to oranges/reds in lobbies.
**Overall definitely like XBL over PSN as far as overall connection quality with zero GGPO delay. **Always have green NAT and can find green connections often on XBL and yellow connections aren’t really the end of the world either. Yellow may not be ideal for the grand finals of a tournament situation but definitely playable unless it hiccups really bad.
Well…that’s what I’m trying to figure out. Unless you don’t have to open up your ports as much for the Xbox version or something…I dunno. I’ve talked to other people and they say they also get green NATs on Xbox and the people I’ve talked to about PS3 say they get yellow NAT.
The Xbox comparison is in line with my online experience. I get mostly solid matches. If my opponent has their delay set to 0, I find that I get more hiccups.
Only way I get NAT1 (Green NAT) is plugging directly into my cable modem instead of the modem to Linksys router to PS3 and my PS3 is in DMZ (Thanks ManRightChea for helping try to get NAT1)
Yeah…it’s not like having green NAT will help you get a bunch of green connections all of a sudden any way. I don’t even remember all the specifics on it. Only thing I remember hearing is that it supposedly allows you to match up with people more easily in ranked. Not sure what else it clears up. I just noticed that on Xbox my NAT is green on my wired hookup to router but whenever I change to PS3 it’s suddenly yellow.
Nicely done. Though, I think the reason you find more Green connections on XBLA may simply be because there’s more people who own 360’s over PS3’s rather than overall network quality.
If you could play the same person on 360 and then on PS3 that would be the ultimate judgement on which is better.
Yeah…either that or find people that have it on both systems and see if there’s any rollback differences and generally what color connection I get with them. I have the feeling that someone I would get a green connection with on XBL I’ll most likely only get a yellow connection with on PSN. Like with west coast people they would fluctuate between yellow and orange but on Xbox west coast players usually are more constant in a lobby. Like if they’re yellow they’ll stay yellow etc.
The thing I generally like about the green connection on XBL is that it’s a pretty much smooth ride no rollback game. On PSN you gotta roll the dice on the yellows. That’s the main thing I don’t like about PSN. There’s no color that almost guarantees you’ll get a rollback free match unlike XBL. This is why I would prefer ping numbers like the PC GGPO has. GGPO without ping numbers is weird.
The strangest thing is definitely the NAT being one thing on one system but different on another.
I have a feeling on PS3 that it for some reasons just says most is a yellow connection by default or something. Maybe DevilJin can confirm if that some PS3 yellow connections are green quality.
Saying colors is making me feel awkward, why can’t they just give ping numbers?
I feel like it’s just because of the difference in the network quality of PSN vs XBL; in my experience, PSN is typically a little slower than XBL. The ping ratings come from each user’s connection to the game’s server rather than their connection to each other, so on the slower network, it wouldn’t be surprising for it to have higher ping ratings across the board. The problem is, it doesn’t really give you an accurate representation of what your actual connection with each other will be like. Hence, you encounter people who have their ping turn red in the lobby, but it still plays like a yellow ping in the match.
Pretty much had the same experience when I got my Xbox recently…
I play both consoles almost every day and can easily tell you that Xbox 360 has the superior online experience. I’ve been playing on GGPO for about 4 years, the 360 kills it. Unfortunately for the PS3, this isn’t the case. Yellow connections are pretty much as explained from the OP, hit or miss. Played a buddy of mine on GGPO last week and can say without a doubt that we had an easier time on there then we did on PSN. You get what you pay for. PSN is free, cant complain there, but you wont get the experience you will find on XBL.
My 360 is going to be locked away inside my Astro City candy cabinet when it comes. I have no plans on buying any other game for it, it was simply for 3soe, so I’m not just being a fanboy.
