Patched to version 1.01, the results on PS3 are particularly shocking, and the worst we've seen on the console in recent memory. The crux of it is that entire passages of play unfold at 10-20fps, even while exploring Mordor's wastelands without a marauding Uruk in sight. Frame-rates are better on Xbox 360 by a regular 5fps margin, but both suffer from horrendous screen-tear, operating at a Vita-esque resolution of 960x540 to boot.
Each suffers from newly added bugs too, to an extent unseen on other cross-gen projects. Texture and shadow maps pop in (and out) while stood perfectly still, banding artefacts manifest across strong lighting, and Uruk generals even glitch to mid-air positions during battle (notably after Talion performs a vaulting move over an enemy's shoulders). Titles like Far Cry 4 understandably dial down textures, geometry and effects for last-gen editions - as is the case here - but it's clear that the last-gen versions could have benefited from a much more intensive QA parse.
However, the awful sound mix is the killer. Even with a mandatory 4.4GB HDD install, the music cuts out on PS3 (but not 360) during boss battles, as if struggling to process over ten enemies and the audio data at once. Our 40GB 'fat' PS3 is clearly bottlenecked with this choppy sound, but reinstalling the game afresh to a 320GB slim model produces the same stuttering playback at stress points. Simply put, added to drops as low as 12fps, the game is demonstrably a poor fit for Sony's older hardware, and only just about scrapes by on Microsoft's.