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I'm amazed at what 8 year old Hardware can do

Uncharted, Forza Horizon, Halo 4 and even Sleeping Dogs to a lesser degree all show there's still a lot of life left in the current consoles. I don't personally want their to be a lot of life left in them, but these games prove there is.
 
Yeah, that's what I meant, I don't know how to put it. It looks good, but there's nothing that made me go "wow, this shit looks amazing". I agree that it's just the way they wanted to make that game, no spectacular scenes but pretty solid overall.
I think the beginning of the game was plenty spectacular, and some points later on as well, but there were parts that were not that interesting looking as well. That's what I meant by having a compromise. They've put a lot of effort into some parts and not as much in others.
 
iHPSqU839KOvt.gif


Yeah, archaic. O_O

I love her eyes. Hollywood could learn a thing or two from these guys, so many human CGI characters in movies fall head 1st into uncanny valley coz the eyes just don't look alive.
 
Hmm, the great thing about PC is that you don't have to make a game that only runs on high end PCs to have a game that looks great on high end PCs.

And I didn't say 2003 game, I said 2003 Hardware running 2005 game. You can just look at modded Oblivion running on $1000 PC vs 360 Oblivion.

I said that in response to people who was speaking as if the next gen games wouldn't look as good as the games they are playing now on PC.
 
I feel it was absolutely tremendous. Way better effects, shadows, resolution, smoothness, textures. The 360 version is despicable in comparison imo.

it's all relative. There is a difference, of course, but it's not a 7 years old / several hundreds $$$ worth difference in the slightest.
A better IQ and higher res textures on a machine that's 10x+++ times faster/more powerful ?
that won't make me say wow, at most that will have me saying "is that it ?"
 
it's all relative. There is a difference, of course, but it's not a 7 years old / several hundreds $$$ worth difference in the slightest.
A better IQ and higher res textures on a machine that's 10x+++ times faster/more powerful ?
that won't make me say wow, at most that will have me saying "is that it ?"

That's way enough for me, if they begin to take full advantage of the hardware no one is going to follow. Next-gen graphics will come in due time I have no doubt about that.

For now I'm happy about what I get on my PC, it looks way better and runs better than either console struggle to achieve as well. No reason to be upset unlike some gamers with beastly rigs.
Whether or not the cost for those bells and whistles is justified is not for me to decide objectively, everyone is going to have a different opinion on the matter.
It's perfectly fine if you don't see the point of spending that amount of money to get better graphics, I know I do and to be fair the games I'm currently playing make it worthwhile. I genuinely believe the difference between the console and PC versions of a same game is enormous, the IQ alone makes a big difference I think and yes my investment pays off when I see how the console build fares in comparison...No, thanks my 1080p/30fps is where it's at as far as I'm aware.

Feel free to think otherwise no one is going to have a problem with that.
 
Uncharted, Forza Horizon, Halo 4 and even Sleeping Dogs to a lesser degree all show there's still a lot of life left in the current consoles. I don't personally want their to be a lot of life left in them, but these games prove there is.
I'm sure someone can do something amazing with the SNES that we have never seen before, given the time, know how and budget. At some point though you just have to cut it off and move on.

Forza Horizon and the Uncharted series did impress me. They are beautiful games, but nowadays when I see impressive games on PS3/360, it just makes me wonder how much more impressive it will be on a PS4/Xbox3.
 
Anyway, like i said somewhere else, it's somewhat natural that graphics keep improving, and they will / would regardless of the hardware.

When developing games there are 2 learning curves; one is hardware related and one isn't.
Devs do get to know the hardware better, at the same time though they can rely on general CG knowledge that isn't hardware specific and keeps growing, on libraries that keep growing, on new techniques. They'll have stronger basis to work on and refine.

CG (in movies) gets better every year. That's only partially hardware related, i'd say it has more to do with artists' experience, availability of huge libraries to borrow from, not having to build everything from scratch etc

That's not to say devs haven't gotten better at putting consoles specific resources to good use, but that's only one side of it. The good thing is the experience gained and the work done on current gen will help when the next rolls in. Devs won't have to start from scratch, a lot of what they learned about optimization will still hold true on xbox3 and ps4.

And the point is...i forgot.
 
For what the developer's have to put up with, sure it's cool. But like any generation that goes on for a long time, the wow factor gets stale and you can see what sacrifices they made to get there (i.e streched textures, lower polycounts, worse IQ).

Hence, last time I truly appreciated a PS3/360 game was in 2010.
 
This is because when the hardware is so specific, developers can push the hardware to the limit, they can optimize their games much more and make the most out of the hardware's potential.

Compared to PC, where everyone has different graphics cards, ram, CPU's, they have to focus on making it playable to so many different specifications, that they may never be able to optimize their game to make the most out everyone's hardware.

Let's remember this when we talk about next gen specifications, comparing it to PC specs is not really that accurate. :)
 
Well after God Of War 3.... I don't think I'll play another god of war ever again. That game was just terrible.

Yeah I have no real interest in the game due to being a prequel and more MP focused, but the point was it's likely going to be another top of the line game as far as console graphics and IQ goes.
 
I've been thinking the same thing as the OP recently.

In the past month Need for Speed Most Wanted, Forza Horizon, and now Halo 4 have all left me quite wowed on the 360. This is the best part of games arriving late in a generation. You are seeing the best of what that hardware can accomplish, and all the tricks that have been learned over the years.
 
Feel free to think otherwise no one is going to have a problem with that.

This isn't a PC versus console thing, mind you and we shouldn't let it turn into that.

There's no problem in finding different things impressive of course.
Objectively speaking, PC games, even ports, are on a different technical level, but I still find the way devs tricked an x360 into rendering something we thought shouldn't be possible a lot more impressive.

Project Cars is doing incredible stuff under the hood, you might find it impressive from a purely technical standpoint, but that doesn't impress me as much as what Polyphony achieved with GT5 (and actually, GT5 just looks 1000x better regardless of the hardware it's running on :P).

In short, you look at what the hardware is actually pushing, at this point i'm more interested in the work and talent men put into what i'm seeing.
 
After Killzone 2, no other FPS has impressed me visually.

Great looking game, but it's a few notches too close to 'blurry.' Actually I like the aesthetics of KZ2 a lot, but KZ3's clarity by comparison is equally appealing. I'd take a middle ground if it existed.
 
Agreed. This is why I love late-generation releases on any system. Developers learn over the years to make the most out of the hardware they're given, squeezing every last ounce of power out of them, and finding tricks to eke even more out through other technical wizardry (much like the demoscene mindset). Crazy to go back and look at first-gen games on just about any system. Having fixed hardware architecture makes the comparisons so clear, too.
 
Which parts are "BS"?

They didnt write about features it lacks in comparison to Reach or just mentioned them in one sentence and then call it improvement.

Reach had motion blur, SSAO, anisotropic filtering, full res particles that were light sources and better shadowing system.

They havent even mentioned that shadows disappear in close proximity of Your view
Like here
http://i.imgur.com/wV9rt.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/T6edq.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/K8Y0i.jpg

Or here
http://i.minus.com/i0STdtiesrHrP.gif

How low quality they are
http://i.imgur.com/l5HFk.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/aofX6.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/f1BNw.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/P0fKv.jpg

They havent talked about shadows that are mostly baked in environments and dont even interact properly with geometry, but instead they change whole object from light to darker and dark or vice versa, like in Gears of War 2.
http://i.minus.com/ibzsloJU9CuofO.gif

--
They wrote that image quality is good, when its at best decent
http://i.imgur.com/gVKwE.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/k7Frs.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/4HVYt.jpg

They completely omitted fact that water physics are low precision in SP and completely disabled in MP
http://i.imgur.com/P8WyU.jpg

They havent done coop analysis or lag input analysis.
 
Were the consoles fairly dated even when they came out? I mean I know it's easier to say that the hardware is X years old and label it since launch, but when would say the 360's tech been...um, new and exciting for a lack of a better term.
 
I'm amazed at some PS3 games, when programmed right. Most of the times devs don't know how to program for it, and games look and run like ass.

I think the highlights are the uncharted games, god of war 3. That's why I think this generation could go on for a few more years yet. And Ni No Kuni looks beautiful.
 
Yeaah it looks good

iHPSqU839KOvt.gif

Wheres the gameplay... ooh.

Honestly I dont find much impressive on consoles anymore, I know I can't mention another platform here.. but AA, 1080p 60fps go a hell of a long way and make going back to my console pretty damned hard.

I feel like you can only be impressed if you are ignoring what stuff could look like.. not just on the platform that will remain nameless but next gen consoles and such.

Also its pretty clear that developers are pushing consoles beyond their limits to wow gamers.. but honestly fps, depth and gameplay are suffering for it.
 
Wheres the gameplay... ooh.

Honestly I dont find much impressive on consoles anymore, I know I can't mention another platform here.. but AA, 1080p 60fps go a hell of a long way and make going back to my console pretty damned hard.

I feel like you can only be impressed if you are ignoring what stuff could look like.. not just on the platform that will remain nameless but next gen consoles and such.
Well, the PC, as a platform, hasn't really shown us much of what "could be". At this point, most PC games deliver visuals very similar to those on consoles with a higher level of fidelity (better image quality, sharper assets, etc). That makes a nice difference but doesn't feel like a leap forward.

I'm still waiting for the next big leap.
 
halo 4 is incredible visually, the same is true for forza horizons too.

I think the next god of war game will be stunning visually, so will the next gears of war game.
 
As I said before, that little scene does happen during gameplay. The camera swoops into her for a moment and then moves away to show the larger scene that you are playing in. That's not from a regular cutscene.

The joke is knowing the developer it wont have much gameplay at all.

Not a big QTE fan myself..

I love her eyes. Hollywood could learn a thing or two from these guys, so many human CGI characters in movies fall head 1st into uncanny valley coz the eyes just don't look alive.
Isnt most their art done out of house? I am sure they still would love to take credit for it though :P.
 
Halo 4 looks really good and the art reminds me of Metroid Prime in a way, which is fine by me. Too bad the game's boring, though.
 
The joke is knowing the developer it wont have much gameplay at all.

Not a big QTE fan myself..

It's more involved than Heavy Rain supposedly. You control that ghost or whatever the thing is that follows ellen page around and using that ghost you have some freedom on how to affect things. Like when guards come after her on the train you can choose to find a way to block them or let them capture her and free her later. It's not exactly going to change the whole story for most of the game, but the point is it's not going to be like Heavy Rain where it's 100% QTEs.
 
Well, the PC, as a platform, hasn't really shown us much of what "could be". At this point, most PC games deliver visuals very similar to those on consoles with a higher level of fidelity (better image quality, sharper assets, etc). That makes a nice difference but doesn't feel like a leap forward.

I'm still waiting for the next big leap.

Hopefully CDPR will have us sorted. Witcher 3 or the cyberpunk game...

Crysis really was the last amazing PC powerhouse game :'( Built my PC in 2010 and three years later that still blew me away and nothing has really touched it since. I mean it's been bettered graphically but nothing that's such a major leap. The real kicker is the fact it's such a damn good game too. Damn you Crytek for moving away from that...
 
My pc doesn't break a sweat running anything good looking out there maxed out at more than 100fps, but Halo 4 still managed to impress. End of generation console development is so fascinating with these talented devs pushing the old hardware to the absolute limit.

edit- ^ Maldo textures Crysis 2 or rainy nights Sleeping Dogs looked next gen for me.
 
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