Multiplatform engines didn't do the Xbox360 justice

VGArabia: Let's face it. The PS3 has been kicking the Xbox360 ass in the visuals department in the last two years. But things are about to change now.

[movements]

I know, with Alan Wake, I'm starting to think the same thing. The game looks as good as Uncharted 2..

[LordMarius]

no it doesnt, it looks good, but nowhere close to Uncharted 2, KZ2, God of War 3, etc

[IrishRepublicanArmy]

poor ps3 owners forced to play last gen games just so they were equal on all platforms.

[Blaze929]

Yeah this is why Microsoft started work on that rumored 'X-Engine'. Hopefully they unveil it at E3 this year

EDIT:

what in the world did I say that someone can disagree to? Ulgh, only on N4G

[gaffyh]

The reason it looks so good is because it is using the "Turok" trick as I like to call it, Silent Hill 1 used it a lot too. They use fog and darkness to cover further away areas, so that the engine only has to render the immediate surroundings. That is why it looks fantastic, and I'm glad they did that, because if it was open world it would not look anywhere near as good as this.

Still, I personally don't think it looks as good as Uncharted 2, but I'm sure there'll be many many (many) people that disagree :).

edit: @ blaze, I didn't disagree with you, dunno why anyone would.

[ProjectVulcan]

What this article fails to note is that many multiplatform engines were originally lead and built FOR xbox 360. Unreal engine 3 was worked on immensely for 360's architecture and then ported across to other platforms. Epic built the engine and then built a 360 specific game with it, improving the SDK for other developers as they went along for Microsoft's machine. Only with sony's intervention was this engine better optimised for PS3 when they worked with epic on UT3. This is also not the only case...

[i3eyond the Circle]

Graphically alan wake takes the cake.

uc2 is plastic and cartoonish giving it its exclusive look not its real life look.

alan wake looks realistic and remedy did a damn good job on the textures of the environments.

god of war 3 is a script and slasher probably doesn't use realtime physics and has a fixed camera angle.

So while it is graphically better, it is not technologically better no matter how you slice it.

kz2.....no.

[Army_of_Darkness]

and all this time I thought multiplatform games were held back because of the 360?!?!
they're the first developers to EVER say this... so we should believe them rite??.... Rite???...:/

[divideby0]

^ did you really play UC2..
AW is on my buy list...but look at the vids...little to no DOF and the dark fog...I heard in one of new spoiler vids, there is a wider open space, but I dont wanna look to much besides whats has been shown in small bunches
sorry...dont compare the 2...if I can see AW clothes get wet like in UC2 than I might be impressed

[klashawnd]

With Alan Wake, I think people are confusing the cut scenes with the gameplay graphics. The cutscenes look damn good. Uncharted 2 good from what I have seen. The gameplay graphics are a step down though. That step down is what keeps the actual game from looking as good as God of War 3, Uncharted 2 and Killzone 2. If you ask me, Uncharted 2 is still the graphics king, and Killzone 2 is the technical king. God of War 3 was cool but it had some areas that were lackluster. But Alan Wake does look really good, probably the best looking 360 game to date.

[van-essa]

Microsoft is focusing a lot on multiplayer, that's why they can't compete graphics wise with Sony. Every multiplayer game has to have 4 player split screen, open world... (Fable, Reach, Gears, etc). Sony on the other hand wants to show the world what the PS3 can do.

[1-oj]

i3eyond the Circle done convincing yourself? :)

[Rock Bottom]

Well, Multiplatform engines didn't do the PS3 justice either, but for the 360, it is the exclusive that really didn't do it justice, until Alan Wake, which is looking better than anything we've seen on the 360 so far.

[StanLee]

A lot of criticism is leveled at the Unreal Engine 3 but Gears of War 2 is one of the best looking games this generation and it runs in splitscreen with no compromise to the games graphical fidelity. That's impressive. Uncharted 2 is the best looking game this generation, fact but I would love to see what the game would look like had accommodations been made for splitscreen play. Of course, we'll never know since none of the PS3's graphical powerhouses makes this accommodation. I'm still waiting for the visually striking game on the PS3 that offers splitscreen play.

[Pennywise]

This article has the potential to draw the most delusional comments on N4G EVER.

To anyone claiming it looks better than UC/GOW - Please let us know if you have actually seen those games on a HIGH-DEF TV. Based on the comments claiming that so far, I highly doubt it.

[ape007]

uncharted 2 with alan wake, cause uc2 looks like a dream, especially in motion, the effects, the animation and nate's movements are excellent, guys let's wait and see

even if alan wake did not beat uc2(wait till it comes, then compare), it's still has jaw dropping gfx as far as im concerned and the most important part is the game itself, alan wake look groundbreaking, it kinda reminds me when I first saw Resi4, Im shocked by alan wake's atmosphere, voice acting, cinematic feeling and the overall production values

can't wait for alan wake

[thewhoopimen]

The author is right on that exclusives will help shore up the 360's lineup, with better than multiplat visuals. But we're talking how many in-house 1st party studios in Microsoft's portfolio? 3? or is that 2 now that Bungie's separating? If it took Remedy 5 years to make Alan Wake and we see a similar trend with Sony's 20 1st party studios only churning out about 3-4 exclusives a year... Where is MS going to pour money to find that load of talent to make custom games?

The author is clearly delusional. Alan Wake doesn't even have full mo-cap in the cinematic parts. Not to bash Remedy but they simply didn't even get the the budget for that. Where are these loads of 1st party titles going to come from for Microsoft? Does the author know how hard it is to hire creative talent for a great dev team when there is no existing infrastructure? As you can see, we're not even talking about textures here. Just real world numbers.

[Icyhot]

Having seen the videos, no way does AW look as good as UC2. Call me a fanboy, but the animations looked so stiff as compared to UC2. Also, UC2 has some of the best detailing I have seen... Not only UC2, but GOW3 just pulls the PS3 even further.

If you thing AW pushes the 360 with 5 people onscreen, then go take a look at the initial level of GOW3... 20 people on screen on a TITAN!!!! And a Huge Leviathan that you gotta fight pulling stuff down and the levels dynamically shifting... Sorry, but a dark gloomy atmosphere of AW with 5 people onscreen at 30FPS doesn't even come close to GOW3s initial level running at 60FPS....

AW looks great and remedy has done a great job, but lets not compare it to heavy weights like UC2 or GOW3... Hell both the games don't use 'MORE POLYED CUT SCENES WITH POST PROCESSING EFFECT'.. Both use ingame CGI which even looks better than AW CGI....

[jden28]

The one thing we all know from every console generation is that the games will get more visually stunning every generation of software. So even though ps3 has been kicking x360 butt in the graphics department for the last 18 months it doesn't mean that we won't get x360 games that look better and better. Same goes for the ps3 they will get better and better. And for anyone saying this game is using tricks or that game is using tricks to look good. So far this generastion all of the really good looking games have used tricks to look really good. For example KZ2 used deffered rendering to only process things that were immediatly vivible on the screen, gears2 used a muted color pallette and low enemy on screen count, FFXIII used 3 different types of cutscenes to look better, UC1&2 use scripted events i.e mini ingame cut sceanes to look better, many games use tricks but who cares as long as the games look and play well let the developers figure out every trick they can to get them to look good and play better.

[ChozenWoan]

which is why it's a good thing Crysis is on the way to remedy that problem. Lets just be honest here, Cryengine 3 will be the best game engine on the Xbox360 and will make AW look blah.

[JonnyBigBoss]

No, it does NOT. It has good shadows and lightning. It's much harder to make a high quality game with bright lighting than the other way around. Alan Wake isn't even going to make the top 5 list.

[kalebgray92]

but took 5+ years to make lol

[AKS]

It's interesting that early in the PS3's lifecycle that everyone was saying the 360 was more powerful and a better game machine regardless of what game engines were used. Fast forward a few years, and now that the PS3 has the best looking games, the 360 is disadvantaged because it doesn't get custom engines for their best games or it only has a DVD9 to work with. What happened? It's true that there are certain disadvantages to multiplatform engines, but it's also true that multiplatform engine games can look much better than most games on the market. Crysis 2 and Gears of War game demonstrate this pretty clearly. Multiplatform games can be customized considerably. For example, Epic always makes sure their Gears games are great showcases for their multiplatform Unreal Engine.

Alan Wake looks great, but I haven't yet seen anything about it that puts it ahead of the most visually impressive games. But I'll wait to see the final version and play through it in my own home soon and can form my own impressions from first-hand experience.

[raztad]

I'm done watching AW second 10 mins video. Gameplay-wise that first section was a lot like HR, so it allows for comparisons. Game looks very good but not HR good. Dont expect it to reach UC2 levels.

BTW, who is Beyond the circle trying to fool. U2 cartoonish, GoW3 a script? LOL. Stop looking for dumb excuses.

[Chubear]

So ALL 360 exclusives have split screen and that's THE reason a 4yr old console is trying hard to match the graphics, lighting, physics etc of a 3yr old console?

Uhm, ok so all the online MP PS3 exclusives that match their SP in graphics and are better looking than a vast majority of non-PS3 exclusive SP graphics are that way because...?

Only on the PS3 do you have online graphics looking insane with 16v16, 20v20, 30v30 & 128v128 while a big accomplishment for online fidelity on the 360 is a multiplat game in BFBC2's 12v12

You mention games like Fable, Halo3/ODST and Gears, well lets have a look at their online co-op MP

Fable: upto 2 players - Demon Souls: upto 4 players

Halo3/ODST upto 4 players - Resistance2 upto 8 players

Gears2 upto - Uncharted2 upto 3 players

Look, if you want to talk about "teh features" well that's mute cause their are features on both systems that dont' exist on the other but when it comes down to high quality gaming experiences (online & offline) the PS3 delivers beyond what any other console is doing today and that's just plain as day obvious.

It's like some gamers just want to bury their heads in sand or stick their fingers in their ears going "lalalalalalalala!!!& quot ;

[xTruthx]

People tend to call people ps3 fanboys because they don't agree with them, but thats y the 360 extremest get call delusional. Because when you see a delusional 360 fanboy saying AW is just as technically impressive as God of war 3 it leads me to believe they haven't played the game. How can some 1 walking on an area all dark(where you can barely see detail in textures) match the scale of GOW3 ? where everything is almost daylight and huge detailed bosses are trying to kill you while the map is moving and changing + you can see other large scale titans climbing all at the same time be as technically as impressive ? I mean wow, thats called delusional. Then I see people talking for MS like if they worked there, Yeah its that they focus on this or that and not this. I mean really ? They don't know what to make up next. Another trend Im seing are lies, example

"N4PS3G"
Even more amazing is that Alan Wake doesn't use CG and RemedyPR confirmed that it was all in-game with post processing effects.

2 hours l8r an article came calming it did and he had posted 3 CG clips saying it was all in game and as you can see he said "RemedyPR confirmed that it was all in-game"

Another claiming the game was a sand box game and thats y they couldn't up the graphics, and we just saw yesterday it isn't a sandbox game.

Then people ask y we don't take many 360 fanboys serious.

Like chubear said on top of me, people claiming Sony doesn't focus on multiplayer and mS does. Really ? Sony doesn't even charge us and they have dedicated servers while we(or those who have 360's) pay for p2p on most of the games. Sony has 128 vs 128 players online fighting at the same time, 32 vs 32 on kz with those graphics which till this day are being compared with newer games and yeah people saying Sony doesn't focus on multiplayer or Sony's online sucks.

People saying MAG's graphics sucks on the PS? Oh yeah I had forgot 360 had a 256 player too, with better graphics right guys ? Until 360 gets a 256 player game, lets not talk about graphics. Because I would love to see a 256 player game on the 360 with those graphics and run on a p2p service. But hey if it lags with 8 vs 8, how bad can it be when we add 240 players?

[Pennywise]

xTruthx, I see why you have so many bubbles. I don't have the patience to explain it like you explain it.

I think half of these guy seriously do work for MS though. There is no way that anyone can believe the words they are typing when they compare a flash light game to God of freaking War.

[ABizzel1]

I think Alan Wake is the best looking 360 game to date, and one of the best looking games this gen. But it's in the same category as Heavy Rain, and Fight Night. The graphics look great because there isn't much else going in the game (although Alan Wake has the most effects of the previous 2 games).

The lighting and environments in Alan Wake are beautiful, and so is Alan's jacket.

The character models are good, not the best but good.

Animations are decent, not bad but nothing lifelike.

And finally effects are only used during combat which is supposed to be in dark places only, and from an earlier interview the game is suppose to be 67% dark 33% light which means theoretically the game won't be as action packed as many of the graphical juggernauts that hold the graphics crown such as Uncharted 2 (Best TPS), God of War 3 (Best Action Adventure), Killzone 2 (Best FPS), even Mass Effect 2 (Best RPG).

So PS3 gamers give the 360 gamers a break they finally have a game that truly surpasses Gears of War. The thing I'm concerned about however, is the story. Heavy Rain felt like playing a movie which was great. But after watching clips of Alan Wake it seem more like playing a book rather than a movie. There too much narration, and hearing Alan's thoughts about every little thing got VERY annoying after watching the first 20 minutes. I also want the game to be a nice length. Heavy Rain was a decent length, but I wish they took more time developing the characters involvement with one another ultimately producing a longer and more believable story.

After playing Splinter Cell, which also looks good in my opinion (not best of the best, but almost there), I hope the controls aren't over complicated. I hate having to do multiple button combination's just to go from cover to cover. Simple natural controls, great gameplay, and an amazing story are what make TRUE AAA games. And Alan Wake needs to make sure it has those three things checked off so my 360 can get Left 4 Dead 2 out of it's tray.

[2Spock]

Well i think AW looks astounding. And to the people commenting on how it's dark and blah f@#king blah. Go watch the video of the first 10 mins of the game then run your mouth. And after i play it i will let everyone know if i think it is the best looking game so far. And with what i have seen so far it could be a possibility.

[eliasg]

IMO!!It looks better than U2...

[mikeslemonade]

Everyone just read comment 1.5 again. Epic and Microsoft worked out a deal to make the 360 have hardware that is well suited for the unreal 3 engine. The xbox 360 is essentially like a PC anyway because it's the tripple core processor.

As for Alan Wake you can tell the game look pretty good on a 5 inch screen on your computer, but when it's on your 32 inch TV the game isn't going to look as good. Right now it looks just a step above GTA4 which is not that great.

Splinter Cell looks amazing on small screen footage but on a TV the game looks just average.

Also Halo 3 was 1st party with an exclusive engine but the game was below average. Bioshock 1 came out a month before Halo 3 and kicked its ass in terms of visuals. COD4 demolished Halo 3.

[ThanatosDMC]

^ HAHAHAH! They want it to look like PS3 games!

[Noob]

But the excuses I'm reading as to why PS3 exclusives look so good are really sad. Lol, some of you are just full of it. All of your post may as well say "PS3 sucks, 360 is better," or something along those lines.

360 may *finally* have a game that could be technically comparable to PS3 exclusives, but don't let it get to your head because it took a *very* long time.

[Consoldtobots]

so for 3 years all we heard was "multiplatz are made for teh 360ayyy"
"no on cares about the bluray playerrr" "hahaha PS3 fanboys wasted $600 on a movie player" yada yada yada

now that PS3 exclusives have been leaving everyone silent and wiping the floor with "360s tis teh multiplat home" we get "multiplats don't do 360 justice".

like xtruthx said, this is why 360 fanboys are the laughing stock of the industry.

[HolyOrangeCows]

LOL, we haven't seen any confirmed realtime 360 gameplay in HD of Alan wake but these fanboys still consider it the best looking console game to date.

[HolyOrangeCows]

http://www.gamezine.co.uk/n...

The "X-engine" is nothing but a rumored engine started by a credit-less "insider source"
So when you speak of the "X-engine" like it's factual, expect some disagrees.

[WildArmed]

I used to believe this will be a beast.
Especially that trailer i saw.
But then I found out that was all CGI/not real time

[Biggest]

2spock said:
"Well i think AW looks astounding. And to the people commenting on how it's dark and blah f@#king blah. Go watch the video of the first 10 mins of the game then run your mouth. And after i play it i will let everyone know if i think it is the best looking game so far. And with what i have seen so far it could be a possibility. "

The first 12 minutes of gameplay were in the dark. The second 10 minutes of game were cutscenes in the "day" with some gameplay, if you can call getting into your car that, in the "day". Then you were allowed into a dark bar. Followed by more cutscenes, which let you walk around in a dark house. I wonder what the next bit of gameplay will be. If 24 hours in Alan Wake is the same as 24 hours in every other game based on earth, I would imagine that more dark is to follow.

[DatNJDom81]

that allan wake can get hit by a house, tractor, and a car and not fall? Incredible physics! game still does look good, but nowhere near PS3 quality.

[tripewire]

Xbox fanboys are freaking delusional. The 360 is no where near as capable as the ps3 in the graphics department. The games are good and all (just about to fire up the splinter cell demo) but you guys need to let it go. If it's all in the engine, why does forza 3 still not compete graphically with gt? Maybe if the media and fanboys didn't give the xbox a free pass there would be more incentive to improve it.

[Wake]

To much nerd rage in this article so ama just say I think Alan Wake looks amazing. Does it look better then God of War 3? That's down to opinion.

Graphics and Graphic Styles are subjective and saying one is better then the other is a matter of opinion and your own personal choice.

Saying God of War 3 is better then Alan Wake as fact makes you a moron.

Saying Alan Wake is better then God of War 3 as fact makes you a blatant idiot.

So pick your side either your a moron or a blatant idiot. Or you could use your brain a little and look at them both in there own merits as completely different games.

[Philaroni]

It is not as good as Uncharted or Killzone, both of those games have lots of AI going and many many scripted events and other stuff happening in the landscape. AW looks good yes, but being there is next to no AI and very few physic like events (Big explosions with stuff flying all over) They can use that for textures and better AA and shading. When you see a shooter that looks as good as those two games and have a better ground for comparison then you might have an argument.

[The Lazy One]

Watch the trailer in the link. There is rarely fog at all. You can see the lighthouse from anywhere in the level and you end up running all the way there.

And there is gameplay in the article. It's a button click away.

Also, the unreal engine was developed on the PC before it was developed on the 360 or PS3.

iDtech 5 is also better looking than any engine to date and it's completely multi-platform.

[duplissi]

@baum

got enough beer to share?

[Therealspy03]

look at all the disagrees. you can tell the ps3 fanboys are out in droves. gotta do that damage control. can't allow anyone to comment on articles that might suggest the 360 can match ps3. lol..gimme a break.

as for the article: the guy makes some excellent points (points i'm sure 95% of you didn't even read before nearly having a heart attack) that never really occurred to me. less than a month now til we see what alan wake can officially do.

EDIT: I gave a bubble to every person with more disagrees than agrees to partially compensate for what the ps3 fanboys no-doubt did. it's not enough for them to blindly disagree with you, that have to take your bubbles too. so sad. must suck living such a lousy life that the only thing you can get fired up about is that gismo under your tv.

[LordMarius]

Dang 100+ agrees, new record(i think)

[ChineseDemocracy]

Uncharted 2 gives me an eyegasm.

[ProjectVulcan]

Seemed obvious to me unreal engine 3 has been crafted heavily around 360. It was epic who asked microsoft to increase 360's RAM. They consulted on the hardware design.

Gears of war was the first unreal engine 3 game i believe, closely followed by roboblitz and rainbow six vegas. These games only had 360 as their console platform at that time. Gears was hailed as the best looking game ever when it arrived late 2006 and it was only on one platform- 360. It then came out that epic had not delivered the engine for the PS3 platform on time for developers in early 2007, and that in the months leading up to the UT3 launch (which was delayed itself remember) to PS3 late that year, sony had been working furiously with epic to try and optimise UE3 better for PS3. Note sony didnt specify UT3, they said the engine itself- no doubt the SDK as a whole for the use of licencees too. It was indeed, a whole year after Gears that PS3 saw its first UE3 based game. If it was designed properly to be multi, why on earth did sony have to help epic 'optimise' it for PS3 long after the first 360 titles were out?????

Another example. Remember Fatal inertia? Remember how it was initially supposed to be PS3 exclusive, then announced as multi, and then SOMEHOW finally it ended up on 360 six months before it dragged its corpse onto PS3 in spring 2008? How can a game go from being an exclusive for PS3 to being out six months later than the 360 version? Guess what engine it ran on....

What about the upgrades shown on the engine in mid 2008 aka UE3.5. All shown on 360, all implemented for the first time ever in Gears of war 2, which is still a 360 exclusive of course. Its not rocket science to realise Epic had further refined the engine specifically for Gears 2 only on........360.

Sound like an engine that was developed with PS3 in mind equally alongside 360 from day one to you?

The truth is Unreal Engine 3 has been heavily built around 360 by Epic. To accuse it of being so multi platform it damages 360's potential performance isnt all that justifiable. Specifically Epic's history of the engine on 360 practically makes it a custom 360 engine in their hands.

[tripewire]

Edit: On conviction.... err... Yeah. No thanks.

[MNicholas]

Uncharted 1 came out years ago and has noticably better textures and shading.

http://www.youtube.com/watc...
http://www.youtube.com/watc...

There's no technical reason why Alan Wake shouldn't look about as good as Uncharted 1 but, sadly, it simply doesn't.

Killzone 2's dynamic lighting, physics driven smoke and particles, hit response, animation, etc... are simply on an other level. Watch the this in HD:

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[Therealspy03]

check my comment 2 hours later, buncha stealth disagrees and a lost bubble. what a joke n4g is. you can go into a 360 exclusive article, say a bunch of obvious ps3 fanboy garbage, and the comment stays up. but say anything even remotely anti ps3 (even in a 360 article) and get your comments removed.

the gaming community really is petty and pathetic.

@guy above me. go brag about your 6 hour linear snoozer in a ps3 thread.

[Pedobear Rocks]

are you on crack?

PBR

[otherZinc]

The PS3 is making games that are movies or linear, or have ZERO game-play options or all of the above!

Anyone can make a game look impressive when it severely lacks game-play options!

I always lead with this & no one has an answer but insults: Where is the PS3 exclusive that has the game play features of Halo 3: co-op campaign, 3 or 4 player co-op campaign, forge, saved films, flying vehicles, land vehicles, enormous environments, not scripted, not linear like Uncharted. I can go on for a long time.

Whatever, keep printing these ridiculous articles, consumers aren't stupid, thats why the PS3 exclusives are not selling like a 360 exclusive.

[Varodor]

Multiplatform engines can't handle prerender cutscenes??

[Therealspy03]

bubbles to you my friend. you nailed it. all those games they brag up are linear, predictable ai (due to lack of quality programming), immediate -- meaning that everything you do happens right in front of you, very little interaction with the environment (if any), no real co-op. i love the guys that say UC2 has a 4 player co-op. not really. it has tacked on filler. it's junk. it's just a quick, go point a to b, kill everything, no story.

i could go on about all the things these "great" exclusives lack, but what's the point. it's obvious (just like with everything else) that there has to be sides in gaming. everyone feels the need to pick a side and then blindly support that side regardless of quality. it reminds me so much of republican vs democrat. bottom line is, real gamers own both systems and play lots of games so they can actually speak on them. fanboys give blind support to a single company then talk out their @ss to help them justify their decision.

on n4g, the ps3 side dominates. but for those few of us in the middle, we know all that smoke they blow just makes their side stink a little more. i don't even bother with psn anymore, i'm completely turned off to the ps3 community. i'll still buy some of the games, but i won't dare play multiplayer with those zealots anymore.

as for alan wake. it really looks like this game will be worth the wait, and it looks like remedy is taking a chance and trying something new. so of course, we should have waves of ignorant people bashing it before it launches. lets discourage all developers from doing something unique so we can have more years of been-there-done-that like 2009. i can't wait for the day when every game is a modern warfare knock off. ...or a national treasure knock off ;)

[Traveler]

The PS3 is my preferred platform, but all the people saying Alan Wake can never measure up to PS3 games are morons, plain and simple.

Alan Wake, in fact, looks amazing and is easily in the running for best console graphics.

[vhero]

Oh god this crap again??? How many sites try to claim this with this game??? And how many games claim to be the uncharted 2 beater?? It's never gonna happen lets just get over it already... Honestly who cares I mean since when did having the best graphics becoming the reason to buy a console?? I mean ask Nintendo if graphics matter...

Graphics don't sell a game and graphics didn't sell uncharted 2. Gameplay sold Uncharted as it was a fantastic game.. It is the best looking console game of this gen but if it played like crap it would have sold terribly and wouldn't have got GOTY on just graphics alone.. Look at GTA it got 10's all over (not deserved) but it certainly didn't get that score based on graphics..

[kevnb]

they are comparable on both systems, ps3 exclusives being a bit better. If you really care about graphics that much, build a gaming pc.

[DigitalRaptor]

Part of the reason Uncharted 2 received so much acclaim from the industry was the graphics. Other reasons include the animations, story, characters. If Alan Wake's graphics are on the same level, why hasn't it reached the same level of public amazement?

[hardcore1912]

is the most impressive looking game I have ever seen technically and artistically.

[CadDad]

The game looks cool and I'll most certainly pick it up.....but I'm curious how it can be the most impressive game both technically and artistically from a compressed youtube clip. I can't see anything distinguishable from any other current gen game from a youtube clip.

Have you played the game? I'm only curious.

-CadDad

[hardcore1912]

Why we can't say that about Alan Wake which is a visually stunning game? Is it because it's a Xbox360 exclusive? Also from the article:

"From the real-time projected shadows produced by the essential flashlight, the total absence of aliasing (720p 4x FSAA), the breathtaking realistic lighting effects (the best I have ever seen), the epic scale of the environments, SSAO (Screen Space Ambient Occlusion), the atmospheric effects to the vegetation which interacts with characters and wind, and the absent of screen tearing. Truly impressive stuff."

Still not impressed? Do you know what SSAO means?

[SuperStrokey1123]

OMG SOMEONE DOESNT KNOW WHAT SSAO MEANS!!!!

Obviously that means he cant decide on what looks better at all. Its a well known fact that acronnym recognition is a sign of a person who can tell what has better graphics ...

/s

[Biggest]

I don't know what that term means, but I know what the individual words mean. And from the looks of the words you're hiding something with your ambience. The things you see with your line of sight, or in the case of Alan Wake your line of light (1), are the only things there.

[CadDad]

Even if I didn't know already what SSAO meant, I still asked a specific question or two that you failed to address with your nastiness. ;)

1. Have you played it?"
2. How can you call it those things from a youtube clip?

Never once did I discredit the article or the guy's opinion, or even yours. I asked because it doesn't distinguish itself at all with this particular video. The game could be the greatest ever, but until i see or play more than a youtube clip or discern tech specs from reality, I don't see how I or anyone else can make those claims.

I prefer to let reality run it's course, rather than postulate on the hypothetical. And As I said, I was curious, not trying to bring out your nasty towards me. ;)

-CadDad

[xTruthx]

lol hardcore you haven't played U2 or GOW3 and if you have then your fb is showing.

[Perkel]

@ hardcore1912

here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

it isn't new. Uncharted used it EVEN Gears 2 ...

[hardcore1912]

The first game to use this technique was Crysis. So yes, i know that Alan Wake isn't the first game to use it. My point is Remedy's in house engine has great features, it's almost perfect.

[Pedobear Rocks]

care to revise it since it ISN'T 720p but more like 547p?

[gillri]

cant believe this game is running on 5 year old hardware, thats why I stopped constantly upgrading my PC as its tech never gets utilised nowhere near as much as console hardware,

developers have the tech they use for all its worth and get every last bit of juice from it, then move on to the next generation where the jump is usually a huge one, IMO that how it should be

looks really good and I cant wait to get it, glad its out a week before RDR also

[xTruthx]

What ? have you even gamed on PC ? my 5 year old alienware laptop runs 70% of the games on max and you cant upgrade the vid card so if it was a desktop I would only have to buy a vid card

[jack_burt0n]

@gillri

you are spot on, pc hardware is gaping in how 90% of the tech is often not used in order to maximize compatibility and performance.

my rig is pretty upto date but there is hardly anything available to push it except crysis LOL but the benefit is everything older runs at 120fps.

[LTC]

LOL u Fanboys are real funny

[xaviertooth]

nothing will do justice to xbox360. the best comparison in a real gamer's perspective is to compare it to last gen consoles like n64.

[Blaster_Master]

Its all about the quality of said console's exclusives. And right now, Sony is far ahead in every category when it comes to that. So many brand new IP's from the ps3 saved gaming for me. I almost quit but everytime I find myself really into what new exclusive im playing.

Not saying the 360 doesn't have good exclusives, but they are few and far between. Im steadily trying to find time for already year old games, and I just keep getting bombs dropped in my lap. Its damn near overwhelming.

[avengers1978]

That's funny don't bots always say Multiplat games look and play better on there system...and now they don't do them justice?!?
Sorry but the 360 is stuck in the past, and as long as your happy with games coming out that compare to 2 year old PS3 games then you'll be okay.
Probably should go buy a PS3 though, you know to play really great games.

[LTC]

Nowhere near PS3 exclusives. Please dont kid yourselves.

[Convas]

You Lie.

[Obama]

It looks good but no where near UC2, and that's a fact. Some bots are delusional and they will lie to comfort themselves.

[Foxgod]

Best looking console game for sure, i wanna buy a beamer, just so i can play this on a giant ass screen.

Also, Ps3fans are so sour, a game arrives that blows everything else out of the water, and they all jump on their hind legs, to promote their shooters.

[-MD-]

Notice how whenever this game gets mentioned they list the exact same 5 games as a retaliation instead of giving remedy props.

[1-oj]

Sure if it'll help you sleep better tonight knowing that your precious console has a decent looking game. :)

[Cenobia]

lol, I assume you are from the UK. When you said "beamer" I thought you meant a BMW...which thoroughly confused me.

Anyway...I have no doubt that exclusive engines would make 360 games look better. It's too bad MS doesn't spend money on exclusive developers instead of just certain games/franchises.

[SuperStrokey1123]

Its simply not the best looking game at all, in fact i dont think its even the best looking 360 game. Thats not a bad thing cause it looks nice enough (although the game it self looks retarded imho but to each their own) and im sure lots of people enjoy it. Not every game needs to be the "best". Borderlands was far from the prettiest game last year and the same wiht infamous but those were my personal favs. Dont drag your personal opinion in as fact.

[The Wood]

project much...

anyway im with murda in terms of giving remedy their props because the game in motion looks a lot better than i thought. At the moment U2 is still the king

its funny to see how the graphics beast within those who claimed 'its about teh gameplayz' + 'teh salez' comes out once they smell a hint of a game that can battle any of the ps3 exclusives. Tailored engines is why the ps3 has always come out on top once it got going. Its why they invested in studios which produce these said engines. Its good to see the beast come out of you guys anyway....its been a while:)

[Pennywise]

Oh lord, same delusional spam every 360 game that releases.

[Biggest]

Murderdolls, you can't clean this mess up. It wasn't "Alan Wake" followed by "You're crazy! UC2, GOW3, KZ2, LBP, HR KILL IT!" It was, like the comment right above you, "Alan Wake eats cakes" and other random silliness. And it is plain silly. I know we all just saw the 22 minutes of gameplay. It's a revelation!

[Karum]

I'll surely give Remedy props, Alan Wake looks awesome both in gameplay and visuals.

Those 5 games you said other PS3 fans mention though, they do so with good reason which is that they are right, those games do look better.

Personally I'm just happy that some devs are finally starting to build engines solely for the Xbox 360 hardware and nothing else because as Sony have proved since the PS2 days, if you do this on a console the results are amazing. My biggest criticism of 360 exclusives is that they were always built on middleware engines and the 360 hardware has never been able to shine.

Hopefully this keeps changing because even though I do prefer my PS3 over my 360 I still don't care which platform an awesome game comes out on because I'm not gonna be left out of the fun.

[gamingisnotacrime]

so foxgod thinks the PS3 is a computer? sorry buddy but the PS3 is also a console and we all have seen what that little guy is capable of so far.
Lets wait and play Alan Wake, if the game is the best there is on consoles then gamers wont deny it, it will be recognize but all this hype and viral propaganda wont matter once the game is in the hands of gamers

[Optical_Matrix]

Foxgod, Alan Wake looks amazing. I'm getting it myself. The lighting is some of the best I've seen on a console and the atmosphere is fantastic. That said, It isn't even close to blowing EVERYTHING out of the water. Don't be so delusional. It's refinement graphically comes from the fact that it's enclosed, with little going on on screen, which is good for this type of game. But apart from artistically you simply cannot logically say it blows away Uncharted 2, God of War III or Killzone 2. Those 3 games do things that Alan Wake fails to do. Now i know I used them as an example but I used them as an example to tell Foxgod that Alan Wake doesn't blow everything out of the water, those are fanboy words. What I will say, to PS3 fanboys, is accept it, 360 is finally pushing the graphics it SHOULD be pushing. props to Remedy for achieving this

[corneliuscrust]

yelling just as loud about games like they were a part of the development team.

360 fans win this thread for sheer amount of stupid.. but the ps3 clan sure isn't too far behind.

There's a whole lot of stupid in this thread no matter what side you're on. And that is aside from the fact that this article is blindingly retarded in the first place.

Great time to be a gamer...
Bad time to be a gamer reading news online

[BannedForNineYears]

Same thing for PS3 though. -_-
No multiplatform engine ever utilizes console power correctly.

[happy_gilmore]

even alone in the dark had better graphics than this crap

[maxcer]

people need to stop expecting a miracle here, software improvements can only get you so far. what's wrong with accepting graphics won't get much better and concentrate on gameplay? 5years old tech is still 5 years old

[corneliuscrust]

Depending on coding techniques, you can achieve a LOT more than most people would expect. There are ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS ways to push hardware further and code mathematical processes more efficiently. Creative coders really can pull off miracles. Without creative coders we wouldnt have techniques like mipmapping, parallax maps, normal maps, bump maps, efficient shaders, cube maps or any host of advanced rendering techniques that save MASSIVE amounts of processor cycles.

Did they pull of a miracle with Alan Wake? No. The game looks great but it isn't going to redefine the way we look at the xbox like some would like to claim.

The bottleneck is MUCH more an issue of time, money and talent rather than hardware limitations. As soon as we can reasonably work our way into the realm of procedurally generated assets, or even break away from the traditional polygonal method of creating images (point cloud or other means maybe), things will change a lot.

It is obviously much easier to squeeze better graphics out of more powerful hardware that can do more maths. But advanced coding techniques leading to things like creative utilizations of frame buffers can add SO much that they shouldn't be downplayed.

Most devs are on fairly strict budgets, and have tons of politics to deal with regarding deadlines, production pipelines and executive interference (if it is anything like the visual effects in the film industry, MOST of the mistakes come from poor management and over reaching studio executives trying to justify their GROSS paycheques by sticking their fingers in the pie)

This means that even if they WERE to secure the right amount of funding and work out a generous production schedule, things can still go very wrong because of internal or external interference. All it takes is one wrong call and production could be set back months, or even years.

There is a lot going on behind the scenes that we just don't see when a studio goes through the process of creating a game from start to finish. It is easy to over generalize and say "if a company had x years and y dollars, they should be able to crank out something amazing!"

But we have to remember that it is a business like anything else and greed can turn a great studio's miracle project into a stinking lump of crap.

My point is that great software can make terrible hardware output something great. But no matter how powerful the hardware is, terrible software will output terrible results.

sry for the giant reply :P

[Rowsdower]

it would be great if their was an engine that took the most advantage of the 360 hardware, to this day I dont know why MS never funded such a thing, but any piece of software optimized for the hardware that it will run on will look good.

I do think its unhealthy to compare ps3 game and 360 games, simply because neither side will acknowledge that both consoles put out great looking games.

360 fanboys will ignore how amazing killzone 2, uncharted 2 , and GOW 3 look.

While PS3 fanboys will mock 360 gamers with stupid things like "sub HD console" (even though both consoles feature sub HD and HD games). The 360 has great looking games Gears, Alan Wake, Mass Effect 2.

The conversation grows pointless real fast cause the most vocal folks on both sides are also the most immature.

[SuperStrokey1123]

no common sense is allowed here. Be gone.

[BeaArthur]

Rowsdower..."The conversation grows pointless real fast cause the most vocal folks on both sides are also the most immature." They are also usually the ones that have no idea what they are talking about. The just spam the same insults over and over again.

[The Wood]

do as super says and be gone....shew

BUT yes, SOME of these same guys in here dont give props for anything the other side does. alan wake looks good but with every alan wake there are 2 maybe more ps that titles compete just because of the money sony invested in studios and relationships with them.

I think most sane people will agree that gt5p is the best looking driving game , Uncharted 2 the best 3rd p action adventure, God of war 3 the best hack n slash, killzone 2 the best fps mass effect 2 for best rpg/tps BUT some will never admit that so when when these comparisons favour one console over the other i think its fair to say that one side is being more unreasonable than the other. Just tally up the numbers to see.

Despite all of that props must also go to rocksteady for batman AA as that showed me the unreal engine still had life and it preformed very well on BOTH consoles

[ape007]

you are one of the best n4g users I've ever seen, you're completely logical and to the point

I salute you man, we need more n4g users like this

I always try to stay cool but sometimes these fanboys get on my nerves and force me to act like them

bubbles+ 1-up

[The Time Reaper]

"I do think its unhealthy to compare ps3 game and 360 games, simply because neither side will acknowledge that both consoles put out great looking games."

Agreed.

I also agree with you Bea, as always. Damn your logic!

[Dude420]

I think that Alan Wake is up there with those 5 PS3 games the PS3 fanboys keep mentioning. IMO, they're all equal. No, it doesn't blow any of those games out of the water but it sure showed that the 360 is capable of giving amazing graphics.

The reason Alan Wake seems to be wowing many people is because it has amazing graphics in a completely different setting. You have to ask yourself, why did GOW3 look amazing? It's because there are tons of details poured into making Olympus. Why is UC2 so amazing? It's because there are tons of details poured into the animations and the cinematic-like sequences. Why is KZ2 so amazing? Because there are tons of details poured into making a war-torn, realistic environments (lighting was great too). Why does Alan Wake look amazing? It's because there are tons of details poured into the environment and the atmospheric effects (lighting and shadows look phenomenal!).

Yes I know all the above mentioned games have more features than what I've just said but you get the idea. Those are the main draws of those games and are the reason you get sucked in.

Obviously this post isn't going to stop fanboys from bickering and bickering. However, in the case of Alan Wake, these dumbasses should at least give Remedy props for making such an amazing looking game from just a group of approx. 40-50 people and a budget not as big as Sony's 1st party devs.

"DUURRRR, R3M3DAY TOUK 5 Y34RZ DO M34K DIS' POS LAWLZ! DURR!"
- Typical dumbass PS3 fanboy

"DURRRR, T3H AL4N W4K3Z BL0WZ ALL PS-TURD GAMES 0UT T3H W4T3RS DURRR!!!!"
- Typical dumbass Xbox fanboy

[SuperStrokey1123]

Is this a joke? Cause multi plat games almost always look better on the 360, if anything this should be the other way around...

[JackBNimble]

Agreed, and that's because it seems that most multiplat games use the 360 as the lead console only to port over to the PS3.

To bad they don't use the ps3 as the lead console for multiplat more often.

BACK ON TOPIC:
I think you 360 guys are getting your hopes up.
I have no doubt that AW maybe a good game , or maybe even the best looking game on the 360. But I have serious doubts that it will top very many PS3 exclusives graphically , and there is one game I'm thinking of that I know that it wont top. It also has been in development for 5 years , "GT5".

I'm sure GT5 will set new standards in the gaming community.

[despair]

the game looks good no doubt. but the best looking game of this generation? No its not(for the HD first and second 10 min of gameplay vids). I admit I haven't seen the game in real(who has) so I'm ready to eat my words gladly if its that good looking but from what I've seen its very impressive but not the best.

I hope they do decide to release this for PC its annoying that Microsoft gets to dictate what PC games we get much of the time just to try and boost console sales, developers need to tell M$ to Back the F@#$ off sometimes.

[mattygamefreak]

Multi-platform engines didn't do the PS3 justice. The PS3 had to suffer time after time because developers were porting titles from 360 to PS3 knowing the PS3 had a much different architecture to the 360.

So by admitting that multi-platform engines didn't do the 360 justice either, you're admitting that the 360 initially held back the progress of both the 360 and PS3 and is only just hitting its stride now?

Maybe if Microsoft actually had some first party developers we would have seen games like Alan Wake sooner. Alan Wake looks amazing but I still don't think it's on par with PS3 exclusives.

I would buy a 360 to play Alan Wake, but what's the point when the console is out-dated and we will most likely never see a title take full advantage of the 360 like this again.

[frankymv]

Wake looks solid, but NOWHERE near MGS4, Killzone 2, Uncharted 2, or God of War 3. Wake is a very linear game (which allows it to look better than most 360 games) however, it achieves nowhere near the scale/visuals in U2 and GoW 3simply cannot be achieved on 360.

[ape007]

do you that "nowhere" means that alan wake looks like a wii game compare to them

lol

[ForROME]

All this is crap, who cares if the game looks good UC2, Alan Wake if they are linear.

Show me an open world with some real graphic power then I will applaud,

Games that are linear are smoke and mirrors built, not much interaction with enviornments but has a great TEXTURE? Oh wow cant wait

if not open world atleast sandboxed a little, RedRedemption, Oblivion those are real graphical beast games, one day when a game looks like alan wake and UC2 and you can go anywhere and do anything

Then were talking

[The Time Reaper]

"Games that are linear are smoke and mirrors built"

Every game is based upon using tricks, smoke and mirrors, regardless of system or genre. It's a basic fact of the industry.

[1-oj]

Halo 3 = 640p

Ninja Gaiden 2 = 576p

Splinter Cell Conviction = 576p

Star Ocean The Last Hope = 640p

..........

Of course they did, 360 is only good for UE3. :)

[happy_gilmore]

576p on 3 disc

replaying mgs4. that game hasn't aged. i haven't seen a 360 game that looks better than it. mgs4 definitely beats scc and alan wake.

[militant07]

halo reach which have way better graphic than halo 3 run at 720p, what are you gona say about that?

[mattygamefreak]

It's no surprise nor is it impressing that Halo Reach looks better than Halo 3 since Halo 3 was sub-par visually at it's release let alone now. It looks like a turd.

Problem is by the time Halo Reach hits that Alan Wake will be out and once again Halo will have sub-par graphics.

[Pennywise]

milliant, i say: We will believe it when we see it. Same goes for Allan whats his name...

[SuperStrokey1123]

Ill say its not out yet... and whats your point? One game does not make up for numerous problems before it. Also its not like reach is all that pretty as it sits right now either.

[Rowsdower]

http://forum.beyond3d.com/s...

if you scroll down a bit you will find a list of 360 and PS3 games and their native resolutions.

as you can see both consoles have games that are HD and sub HD

if you dont trust the list then get off your lazy ass and do some investigating, but please stop throwing around the same old cliches.

[JustTheFactsMr]

" http://forum.beyond3d.com/s...

if you scroll down a bit you will find a list of 360 and PS3 games and their native resolutions.

as you can see both consoles have games that are HD and sub HD

if you dont trust the list then get off your lazy ass and do some investigating, but please stop throwing around the same old cliches."

I have :)

PS3 has 40+ 1080p native games.
360 has 5+ 1080p native games

Sony 1st, 2nd party games are 720p and up.

Sony has little control over MP developers that are responsible for the sub-HD games on PS3.

Sony has kept up their end of the bargain on HD.

However not the case with MS.

1st, 2nd party exclusives is also where you find sub-HD. Even on their flagship product.

So your being a bit. Just a bit disingenuous by making such broad claims that paint a certain picture - OR - you haven't done the research your berating others for not doing :)

Disclaimer: It's been a few months since I last counted the listings.

[Rowsdower]

both machines have hd and sub hd games

both have games running at 1080p and 720p and both have games running under that.

According to that list (which I am not saying is definitive) the
PS3 has 41 sub hd games while the 360 has 28. If I miscounted then i would be happy to be corrected.

In fact it seems that the PS3 has more 1080p games and more sub HD games than the 360, while the 360 has more 720p games than the PS3. What does this mean? Nothing except that both consoles have HD and sub HD games.

how am i being disingenuous?

the claim that the 360 is a sub HD console is a false one, because if you hold both consoles to equal standards in this respect then the PS3 is also a sub HD console.

of course that sentence is false, since both are HD consoles that have games that are sub hd.

I am not trying to start a fight, but was attempting to discredit a false claim that fanboys use.

[JustTheFactsMr]

"both machines have hd and sub hd games"
Agree they do.

I think the point others were making was regards to the headline. MP have not been holding the 360 back. Exclusives after 4+ years haven't been doing much if any better than them. I think we can both agree that hasn't been the case with the PS3. Your statements kind of muddy THAT water even if that wasn't your intent. Which I don't believe it was given your acknowledgement of KZ2 etc..

"According to that list (which I am not saying is definitive) the
PS3 has 41 sub hd games while the 360 has 28. If I miscounted then i would be happy to be corrected. "

I think you miscounted but it's a PITA to do.

I count 37 for 360 and 39 for PS3 although we can quibble about the meaning of the R&C entries. And I'm a bit tired right now so maybe I completely bunged it.

"In fact it seems that the PS3 has more 1080p games and more sub HD games than the 360, while the 360 has more 720p games than the PS3. What does this mean? Nothing except that both consoles have HD and sub HD games."

The above "correction" aside the general statement is correct. They both have some of each.

"how am i being disingenuous? "

Because even though in general the statement is correct the picture it ends up painting isn't. While I undertand your point now IMO the *effect* isn't much different than the original topic you responded to.

40+ 1080p vs 5+ 1080p is not close to the same but by generalizing it for both your implying they are.

"I am not trying to start a fight, but was attempting to discredit a false claim that fanboys use."

Neither am I. Just clarifying the context/specifics of what is meant.

[hoops]

GTA4, Tekken 6, Street Fighter 4, Ghostbusters, MGS4, Tales of Vesperia,
Haze, Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty 4, and many more games to mention RUN in sub HD on the PS3.
Both the PS3 and Xbox360 have a hard time rendering most games at 720p.
You want true HD gaming, buy a PC.

[JustTheFactsMr]

"GTA4, Tekken 6, Street Fighter 4, Ghostbusters, MGS4, Tales of Vesperia,
Haze, Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty 4, and many more games to mention RUN in sub HD on the PS3."

MGS4 does not run sub HD.

The rest are MP except Haze which was clearly a company in difficulty. I'm pretty sure the PC world is filled with different tiers of game quality as well.

The actual sub HD games account for 20% of all PS3 games and they are pretty well all 3rd party/MP. 1080p games account for another 20% which means the other %60 are 720p on the PS3. For a total of %80 HD gaming. There is no need to ever play a sub HD game on the PS3 if it's beneath you.

Given the numbers above your claim below is simply false. Most games are 720p and up.

"Both the PS3 and Xbox360 have a hard time rendering most games at 720p."

"You want true HD gaming, buy a PC."

Been there done that. Painful and expensive compared to a console. Other people can knock themselves out and more power to them but it's not for us. We get plenty of true HD gaming on the PS3. We couldn't actually afford all the HD games on the PS3 even if we wanted to play them all.

[jetlian]

most of those games in 1080p aren't even true 1080p.

1920 x 1080 is the real deal not 960 or 1280 over 1080.

only real games on there are dl games or ones with limited movement like virtual tennis

[JustTheFactsMr]

"most of those games in 1080p aren't even true 1080p. "

75% of them are 1920 x 1080. So your wrong. Most of them are true 1080p

[jetlian]

tell me which are dude

[JustTheFactsMr]

"tell me which are dude"

Check the link the other poster already provided. Do your own work if your interested.

It clearly labels which are 1920x1080 and which are ?? x 1080.

[Sir_Ken_Kutaragi_]

"Let's face it. The PS3 has been kicking the Xbox360 ass in the visuals department in the last two years."

YEP!!! ;-P

"But things are about to change now."

NOPE!!! ;-D

+ I am still waiting for a game on the 'xBox 360' that looks better than...MotorStorm 1!!! ;-D
(that was more than 2 years ago...)

[CobraKai]

Multiplatform engines doesn't do any system justice.

[despair]

usually the PC is the biggest winner with the multi-platform engines (they're usually/always? made for it)

[gypsygib]

Alan Wake looks better than a lot of 360 games but it doesn't come close to GOW3, U2, and Killzone 2, but it does look very good.

[Dirk Benedict]

Someone has to tell me why the mouth movements in Alan Wake make it look like the character models are yawning when they speak.

And so it comes to pass, the bots, ms, remedy and the flopbox have all collectively failed in providing any competition to the heroic might that is the PlayStation 3.

Suck it good bots.

[BeaArthur]

I don't understand why something has to look as good as or better than something else. Shouldn't we be concerned about how well it plays? Avatar was a pretty movie but in the substance column it leaves a lot to be desired.

[The Time Reaper]

Again with the logic. It's an epeen waggling contest, instead of celebrating the achievements of tons of hard working devs, it has to be a pissing match by people who had NO hand in said development.

But hey, my toy is better than your toy. So now I'm better than you, right?

[BeaArthur]

The best part is that a lot of times they probably don't even like or want to play the game they are putting on a pedestal. They talk forever about how great Uncharted 2 is or how great Mass Effect 2 is but they don't ever bother to play the game.

[gamingisnotacrime]

PS3 keeps getting better and better while 360 promises get more ambitious but where are the results?
How is Alan Wake in animations? Gameplay? Does it have colorful scenarios or is it mostly night time? All these questions i dont know the answer, but i do know Uncharted 2 and GoW3, KZ2 and Heavy Rain make my jaw drop everytime im replaying them

[mattygamefreak]

You're definitely right. We are yet to see just how Alan Wake performs. In a game with a lot of darkness there is room to hide bad textures. Besides, we don't even know how steady the framerate is.

[mrv321]

The first next generation console, and an easy one to program for... sounds like excuses to me.

Alan Wake looks good, but let's face it, it's not as good as Uncharted 2 graphically.

[bjornbear]

but they do more justice to the 360 than PS3 so yeah...

[despair]

what many people have to understand and forgive a little is that many fanboys are single system owners (blasphemy to own the other console) so the only reference is the videos seen on the net which nearly always do not do a game justice.

So the only comments to believe are those of persons who have thoroughly played both games(UC2 and AW)to completion to give a review on graphics and since I'm sure no one here has played Alan Wake in its entirety all comparisons comments and this article serve one obvious purpose. Flame Bait.

[thehitman]

Where was this logic when the 360 released and they had no competition at all. What happen to those engines??

[biggame901]

I'll give respect where respect is due. Alan Wake looks very impressive, and right now is probably at the top of the 360 games in terms of visuals. The best on consoles? I won't go that far, but it does deserve to stand among the greats (but not above them).

[PStu'rd]

Like everything else they supported but ended up ''not caring'' due to xbox 360 doing it so much better, ps3s ''power'' is looking like another feature no one will end up remembering @ the end of this gen since even the sony crowd is just a month away from going: ''we never cared about graphics anyway''.

Sfags you truly are way bigger insecure hillbillies than gamecube era nintards ever were. Congrats.

[TaylorMade]

VGArabia do it for the luzls...

[liquidsnake]

It looks good, but imo, there are finer looking games on the PS3. Most recently GoW3.

[tudors]

"ps. the talon stands for talented "

Do you have any idea how ridiculous you sound when you say that, please don't use it as a chat up line.

"PS3 IS THE FUTURE AND THE FUTURE IS PS3"

Quit with the corny lines.

[yoghurt]

seriously, what are these people on? are they just trying to convince themselves?? alan wake is nowhere near on par with Uncharted 2, God of War or even Killzone 2

[Godmars290]

It s ashame that the 360 came out a year earlier than the PS3, yet in that or the current time span no developer has managed to bring out the 360's true power. What with PS3 launch titles still looking better.

I agree that Alan Wake looks like a good game, but unless there were actually audio sync issues with what footage I've seen, Uncharted 1 does better character animations. By a mile.

[shysun]

This game DOES NOT look better than U2, you guys need to stop lying to yourselves. With that said, I'm still going to buy the game if the demo sells me on it.

[jalen247]

This article is BS because multiplatform engines are 360 engines built from the ground up based off the 360's architecture.

This is common knowledge.

Once third parties got PS3 dev kits, they started to port their 360 engines to PS3 hence the bad PS3 ports.

360 fans are full of excuses. The 360 is essentially a PC with straight forward tools while the PS3 has an exotic architecture with not as straight forward tools. Things can be improved and optimized as new techniques are discovered. However, the 360 doesn't have as much potential for improvement as the PS3.

[keysy420]

not a super blockbuster

[blasian]

alan wake looks good but the bots are really riding alans junk pretty hard if they believe it looks better than uc2

[ReBurn]

I don't think that muliplatform engines to any games justice. They hold every console back. The PS3 and 360 are both capable of pushing some awesome visuals and solid gaming experiences, but the best games are those explicitly made for the platform that they're running on.

[GeoramA]

Give me a break.

One game isn't going to change anything.

[xg-ei8ht]

Lets be honest.

Wake looks good, how good? I don't know i have not played it.

It's dark and gloomy,so who knows.

But please don't tell me it does not have screentearing, every video from every site i've seen on the game has it.

And if lensoftruth checked it, it would be there.

For 5 years, it bloody better look good, because it is pushing the 360 to the max.

Lighting does look good, but it should, that's what the game is all about. That's the main pull in the game.

Killzone 2, UC2, GOW3, are all fantastic looking games. But they excel in different area's/

As for AA this gen. GOW3 is tight.

[jadnice]

PM
Track
Ignore
2 - 360 fanboys... CGI and actual gameplay is not the same....
HAHAHAHAHAHA idiots using the CGI to make stupid statements that this game blows GOW3 and Uncharted 2 out the water from a visual (graphic) perspective.... the actual gameplay takes noticeable drop in quality. I am not even going to start talking about the silly character animation (laughable).

Guys seriously... there is a clear difference between the story driven CGI and the actual gameplay. I will give you this... its the best looking 360 game and that is as far as it goes. 2 yrs and counting for anything on the 360 to look as good as even Killzone 2, I am not even going to insult the developers of Uncharted 2 and GOW3 with this inferior effort called Alan Wake.

[Socomer 1979]

Do they really believe this?

Popular opinion a.k.a the truth says Alan wake is Average!!!
Gameplay & Graphics.

Kiss the rings xbutts!!!
You guys are officialy hopeless & desperate.
LMAO!

I'm gonna bookmark this page. This is classic!

[Tobes]

Get a life

[RageAgainstTheMShine]

this game is done in 5 years.

[Dude420]

UC1 started development in 2005 and UC2 is the same bloody engine. ND had two years after UC1 to really improve on the engine. Oh yeah, plus they have over 100 employees and Sony's massive funding.

Alan Wake? Approx. 40-50 employees and their financial backing from MS is not as big as Sony. So instead of being an idiot, give credit where credit is due. Alan Wake looks amazing on top of that.

[radphil]

there's all this talk of how the 360 is surpassing the PS3 in terms of visuals and such..

People have this convenient way of COMPLETELY ignoring the idea behind the games on PC.

Better yet, the articles a while back on here about Alan Wake, were stolen screen shots of the canceled PC version 2 years ago.

[solidosito]

The games looks very good but not like U2, KZ2, GOW 3 and is just me but the character moves horrible.

[southernbanana]

I think this is my last time posting here and reading peoples comments... I'm tired of people fighting over which console is better. I own both the PS3 and Xbox 360, both are pretty even graphically. I havn't seen either system produce a game that is leaps ahead of the competetion. I guess there is still time for this generation to change my opinion. I will admit the only games I have for my PS3 are Uncharted1 and 2, and Killzone 2. So it is quite clear I think the Xbox is the better console for gaming. Disagree if you will, I own both so atleast my opinion is valid. Good Day!

[Cajun Chicken]

I've always said this about the 360, it's a fantastic liar.

[hoops]

Many also said that of the PS2....
Funny how fanboys change their stances now.
PS2 fanboys talked about GAMEPLAY and XBOX1 fanboys talked of graphics....
Makes you laugh at the hypocrisy this generation from both fanboy camps

[Biggest]

You missed the point, hoops. Sony didn't have their PS2 developers calling each and every exclusive game the next savior of gaming. They weren't touting their technical specs and light (1) engines. Microsoft is known more for their mouth than games lately. Alan Wake is supposed to set new bars for graphics, story, atmosphere, and religion. So far it is closest to the religion thing. Most of the "good" that I hear about Alan Wake are the buzzwords and rhetoric already passed down from the Microsoft talking heads. The light (1) is very important. But according to the Alan Wake lovers, it is one of the best lighting systems in all of gaming. But it's just a light (1). The story is deep and engaging according to those that wish to have Alan's baby. But here, have a flashlight and gun. Naruto has an axe. And I can't believe this bit*h wants me to write! That seems like an Oscar worthy story if I've ever seen one. Someone is not telling the truth. The recent videos show who it was. Here's a hint. It isn't the PS2.

[ALFAxD_CENTAURO]

Looks good in Graphics.

But the gameplay? ................... =/

[IWentBrokeForGaming]

but with that said... goes to prove the graphical gap isn't as drastic as most people would like you to believe...

Cause Alan Wake to me is indeed the 1st game on 360 that truely shows it can keep up with PS3 and now with PS3 games in my eyes, finally taking off visually... no better time to come up with damn near equal quality bar on 360!!!

Bout time my 360 gets more play!

[ImmortalLegend]

Bottom line. They need first party studios to take advantage of the hardware. That's why PS3 is having so much success as far as having games that 'push the limit' they have a lot of good first party studios and Microsoft doesn't.

[Bluemaster77]

No one can deny that this is an impressive technical feat

[cmrbe]

I have been saying since 2006 that MS needs to get their act together and hire more devs that will work exclsuively on the x360.

[ImmortalLegend]

I was just stating a fact. I own all systems so I couldn't really care less tbh.

[yamzilla]

and it runs at a blazing fast 15 frames per second....ouch...they need to lower the resolution to 576p...you know...like most 2010 360 games...then it could muster up to 20 frames per second...release this game on pc ( the one platform that would do this game justice) and you'll get a purchase from me...otherwise...PASS!

[karan8624]

I thought every graphical argument the 360 has was that multiplat games look better on it

[SKUD]

The Xbox360 doesn't do the PC justice.

[Xfanboy]

http://theavidgamer.files.w...

http://crazypumpkinsnest.fi...

at least AW has 4xaa.. it helps!!

Damn i wish this was still on PC!! I want to see it full hd!!!
If Alan wake, halo reach & Gears 3 is good then i might have to cop a box!!

[Xfanboy]

Flat textures!! UC2 ropes!! Aw car engine ugh!!

[Biggest]

Why are you calling that Uncharted rope an Uncharted 2 rope? I don't remember fighting Eddie's boys in Uncharted 2.

[OGharryjoysticks]

Multiplatform engines were originally created for the 360 and that's why early PS3 games were mostly ports that ran poorly.

[XxCYONIDExX]

The ps3 is going to have better graphics no matter what, but the 360 isn't far behind. The main difference isn't the multiplatform engine that many games use. It's the fact that sony gives their developers time on their games to make them look better. M$ just pushes games out the door without giving the developer enough time to fully polish the game and make it look as good as it can. I just wish developers could stop thinking that the only part of the engine we care about is what the water looks like.

[prettyboy1]

off topic will u silly fanbois please for the love of god almighty stop tryin to compare this to uc2 or gow3 hell kz2.why cant u jus be happy that u have a possible good lookin game and let it be.im no fanboi as u all kno but be seriuos aw is not going to set any kind of graphics bar.but what it looks like it does have is a griping horror feel to it so im bought.anyways stop with the silly comparisons didnt u fanbois learn from the whole sc.c fiasco.jus enjoy the damn game for what is is.peace and gaming

[bviperz]

And I can't wait to play it. I'll wait until I see it with my own eyes before saying anything.

[blakstarz]

This does look good...but his movements appear to be little on the clunky side...the way the character runs looks like he is doing the "running man" or something, a little stiff and the facial animations look a little mannequin side...sorry, but Uncharted 2 got the facial animations down pat..this is not knocking the game by no means so calm down 360 fans. The lighting is amazing, but I want to see how this game looks in the day light in motion.....a game set in darkness can easily hide imperfections...look at SC: Conviction with the demo...I own both consoles and I will definitely get this game...the horror genre is stale right now, so this looks to be winner, at least I hope so...so SC: Conviction, Alan Wake, and Halo: Reach are the only game I want on the 360 so far (this is why it great to own both).
People think that just because you point out the flaws in a game or something don't like, there quick to say you are hating or a fanboy, that has nothing to do with it, if you own both console, then hell, you can talk sh!t about a game all you want, it's your opinion and it doesn't mean the game is garbage, that the biggest problem with gamers on forums....all games have flaws not matter what some gaming review "expert" says...there are NO EXPERTS, only yourself.

[DigitalAnalog]

It's has one of the MOST amazing graphics, I have seen....

On a 360 console.

I'm not shooting down the console. Personally, Dead Space Extraction and Silent Hill: SS impressed me WAY more simply because I nearly refused to believe it was coming out of the Wii. I don't see why this can't be applied to the 360.... MORESO on the PS3.

-End statement

[Figboy]

when you have fanboys wanting games to look as good as PS3 exclusives.

it really does seem like only yesterday when people were comparing EVERY game to Gears of War.

now you have everyone comparing every game to Uncharted 2, or Killzone 2, or God of War 3, or Heavy Rain. ALL PlayStation 3 exclusives.

as for Alan Wake, i've said numerous times before that it looks amazing, easily the best-looking 360 game i think i've seen (based on videos only; i'll reserve full judgment until i have it in my 360; oh, i WILL be buying it day one).

i agree that multi-platform engines don't do the 360 justice. i don't think they do ANY platform justice.

since last generation is said and done, with very little room for argument, just look at the various exclusives for the PS2 and Xbox taht all used their own engines. KOTOR, MGS3, GoW2, Ninja Gaiden, those titles were not only exclusives, but used their own engines, built from the ground up for the PS2 and Xbox, and they looked better than ANY multi-platform title released on both platforms.

WHY would that have changed this generation?

multi-platform development means split resources. no matter how you slice it, or how talented the development team, the truth is simply that resources will be split when developing a multi-platform game, and a multi-platform game engine.

even though Unreal Engine 3 is overdone to death, the Gears games look FANTASTIC on the 360, and better than many other Unreal Engine 3 games (well, Batman: Arkham Asylum, to me, is probably the best i've seen of UE3). why though? because Epic spent full time and resources to optimize for the 360.

Uncharted, God of War, Heavy Rain, and Killzone would not have looked nearly as good as they did if Naughty Dog, SSM, Quantic Dream, and Guerrilla Games had to develop a multi-platform gaming engine.

i don't need to have Alan Wake look as good as PS3 exclusives to enjoy it.

i simply find it amusing that PS3 exclusives are suddenly the bar that other consoles and console game developers are striving to reach, when it was the exact opposite early on in this generation, before the PS3 devs got a handle on the platform (and even then, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune was the best-looking console game released in 2007, but didn't get the credit it deserved for various excuses and double standards the gaming media didn't apply to 360 exclusives like Bioshock and Mass Effect; the other two fantastic looking games of 2007).

[whateva]

oh boy would you looka here!

what was that they was saying about this looking better than UC 2?

[angelrebirth]

They say this because they never play it.

But just wait, this game will not earn the third of Uncharted 2 rewards.

[clarkdef]

He kept saying Mass Effect 2 was a good looking game? I have it on PC with everything pumped up to max, and I gotta say not only is it a very plain looking game/the levels look like they were made on a grid. But it also has a lot of bad textures, I mean really bad. I run it at 1920x1080p on my 46"TV. Does the 360version look better than the PC version I doubt it!

[booni3]

u made it just to obvious now that your a ps3 fanboy. on topic however, i agree that software tailored to the hardware has higher potential and im not sure how often the xbox has seen that. Ps3 exclusives render beautifully. every time i boot up LBP the textures shock me even further. but they say its the more powerful console...what can i say?

[clarkdef]

Believe what you want mate

[clarkdef]

I didn't say ME2 was a bad game I did enjoy it, I just don't see the visual appeal, if I did have to point out good visuals in that game, it would have to be the walls that light up with animated graphics in the cities.

[Michael-Jackson]

Xbox 360 is a Multiplatform machine, nothing more. I've seen early Alan Wake footage and the graphics aren't even that good. Maybe Uncharted 1 quality, that's it. It's too dark to tell to be honest.

[booni3]

i will. keep being a fanboy.

[clarkdef]

If I am a fanboy of PC and PS3 then so be it, have fun with your Sub HD machine

[jameelinus]

This is a funny article. Even Conviction doesn't look good. It has good gameplay mechanics but visuals? No.

Same for AW. It looks good but it's nowhere near UC2, GoW3...so on.

It's rude to even compare.

The 360 is limited by space--trust me, I burn games for a modded 360 system and mostly every game is at an avg of 6.8gigs.

Why do you think ME2 and FF13 have so many discs?

I have both systems btw.

Old MGS4 used 50gigs.

[jameelinus]

3D Dot Heroes look better than this game.

jk

[SRT4Chris401]

What's retarded about this article, is that pretty all multiplatform engines WERE designed with the 360 in mind. Hence forth no issues with pulling solid framerates and graphics. They had to convert them to work on the PS3. Alan wake is like KZ2 to me, if you know what you're looking for, you know there is alot corner cutting to get the lighting and 4xAA in there...

[Claudinho69]

if alan wake is such good graphics why they keep releasing cgi footage?....oh cuz they know the fanboys will fall for it?

[angelrebirth]

This game raised nothing but the illusion of a masterpiece.

It's sad because as a PS3 owner, it's good for everyone when a blockbuster is released.

The only challenger is the 360, and now we have to wait for Gear of War 3...

[labwarrior]

The scale and visibility are unbelievable, the water, charatcers and lighting unparalleled even by games on the strongest of PCs today

Amazing stuff

http://miladesn.webs.com/21...

http://img688.imageshack.us...

http://img688.imageshack.us...

http://img688.imageshack.us...

http://img688.imageshack.us...

[Meryl]

lol AW is not even up to uncharted 1 standards, it's one big blurry mess, the custscene's are the only good part about this game, and we all know how they cheated on that one as supposed to uncharted which uses it's own engine to do cutscene's (which was recorded and later played back lol)

[Jimis78]

Every one who has some idea about programming and game engines knows that this article is the truth. If the developers had been using the hardware of XBOX 360 for it's exclusives, the way the hardware of the PS3 has been used for the same thing, we know that there would be no PS3 in the console map and the PS3 fanboys would have been crying louder than they do now, when they see a 360 exclusive smashing their illusions.Well...guess what PS3 boys...get ready to JUMP IN!! hahahahahahah.....

[hiredhelp]

(Alan Wake is shaping up to be the best looking game this generation. From the real-time projected shadows produced by the essential flashlight, the total absence of aliasing (720p 4x FSAA), the breathtaking realistic lighting effects (the best I have ever seen)

OK LET ME GET THIS RIGHT. he states mass effect 2 ran this unreal engine 3.that was 2x discs.or 3 not sure. does that mean alan wake will be multiple discs. i agree unreal engine on 360 does get coverd with darkness.fog.BUT wot really takes the cake for me is this guy saying best lighting efects shadows.bloody hell how many games has he played.
tell me in what way does the ps3 owners have to be worried.and why does he state now that 360 is getting better...? after 3 years bit late in it.
i smell BS. crytek engine all the way

[clembo]

Why even argue between console graphical superiority when the PC trumps both?

If you only care about graphics don't bother with consoles altogether.

[labwarrior]

So, Alan Wake changes the PC superiority thing, you need a super PC and still you never get a game like Alan Wake, with that art and graphics

[hiredhelp]

This is true m8 i have a high end gaming rig but looking to build a i7. but this is manly to do with 360 wars against ps3 as always sad as it is

[awesomeperson]

*6 months later* "In other news, GT5 has just come out and obliverated the graphics of any game to date. Goddamit."

[Tzuno]

i want to see how sony manage to do a game with only 8Giga at disposal and to think of it microsoft did a great job until now with dvd9. maybe thats the ugly secret that sony isn't capable of doing a game visualy great on a 8Giga space and microsoft do. imagine microsoft on a 50Giga i bet they will kick sony real hard.

[labwarrior]

So, if you have low ram, even if the game takes up 1000000TB, you still get to see as much detail as you can load in ram

[C L O U D]

I must say, Alan Wake looks visually stunning!

[sasukeftw]

stop making this game seem like the biggest thing in the world!jeez!

[AngryTypingGuy]

I just wish that they didn't wait until now to use custom made engines for 360 exclusives. Oh well.

BTW, I hope Crytek's engine starts being used more for multiplatform games. I think it looks better than the Unreal Engine...unless games start looking like the latest Unreal Engine demo that was released a few weeks ago.