Should You Upgrade to Xbox One/PS4? A 'Call of Duty' Video Answers That

The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 are such fine machines that some 12 million Call of Duty players haven’t moved on yet. Who can blame them? Spending $400 to upgrade to the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 is ludicrous. The games barely look different! If this were 2013, anyway.

As we approach the end of 2015, current-gen games now flex so much more muscle than their predecessors, all you have to do is look to see the difference. Check out this video using Call of Duty: Black Ops III to illustrate the major differences between the Xbox 360 and the Xbox One in stunning detail.

I used to look at Unchartered on the PlayStation 3 and think, “How much better could it be than this?”Uh, a freaking lot, apparently.

It’s not just having more trees in the background, it’s the shading and “smoothness” of the environment. The differences are really stark in the GIF below, at a creek on one of the multiplayer maps. Look how awkwardly the water runs by the rocky ground.

The added mist and dust is just decoration, but their presence does a ton to inform atmosphere. The same effect can be found here, in the zombies map:

Look at that whack-ass blue fire! It barely glows. You call that atmospherics? The rain is also so much more awkwardly pronounced on the Xbox 360 along with less environment detail. The lack of color on the previous-gen version, once at the cutting edge of rad, is rendered dull by comparison.

Not convinced there’s much of a difference yet? This (office? lab? the Inverse party lounge?) should drive it home.

Wanna see some damn BIRDS? Of course you do. But you can’t if you still have an Xbox 360.

This cabin from the Evil Dead/where Inverse is having the corporate retreat might actually win on the Xbox 360. The sky is a little too blooming on the newer hardware, but the weak gardening on the 360 deducts some points.

Call of Duty: Black Ops III is available now on the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.