ThaMaskedGamer
05-15-2005, 01:23 PM
A lot of people are speculating these games could have been made on the XBOX, and that they were stolen from XBOX. Now, of course, many people who are saying this are the usual MS haters many of whom do not even have XBOX. But, let's look at these games and see if they really can or can not be done on XBOX, ie, are they truly next gen. Let's start with the game drawing the most controversy, RARE's PD:0. Now, instead of pulling comments out my rectum, like others, I will post real data about the games straight from the developers.
Perfect Dark0:
This game will feature the ability to host up to 64 players online. I think that alone tells you this game is not an XBOX game. Now the graphics look like a really really late generation XBOX game, so far. But remember, these games were running on code not based on final hardware.
<b>Duncan Botwood (Rare): "When you're working on a new platform, you have extra challenges. As I like to say, the ground beneath you is moving like jello, because you never know what's working and what's not. These guys have done a lot of great work - right now we're working on these kits here, which are called alpha kits. So the alpha kit hardware allows us to keep going and get a lot of the game done, but it's not the final hardware...there are going to be differences between what we're running on now and what we get with beta hardware, and what we get with final hardware."</b> Now, that is straight from RARE.
In addition, it must be said. This game will allow you to play the story online cooperatively, in addition to this, real people can play the enemy in story online. This has not been done before ANYWHERE! The game to my eyes features huge environs, jet packs, 64 players, it was built for scale, not for graphics. But it still looks better than anything on XBOX right now, and remember it will be in 720p 60 fps. This game has 6 months to go, I remember people freaking out about the Forza demo. So categorically this game can not be done on XBOX, and judging it now based on alpha code is just unfair.
Ghost Recon 3
I don't know much about this game, in terms of how many people will be able to play online etc., but if you download the video of the game, it is damn impressive. It looks better than reality, it looks too good. Soldiers are walking down the street and a building explodes in fantastic detail, you can see a soldier get knocked down by the blast and the animation is too real. Then it cuts to a gun fight against opfor. Well, I've played just about every military shooter on XBOX. And there is nothing that looks remotely close, not even on the PC. This game is freakin gorgeous, and i'm sure it will feature those graphics plus about at least 12 people online. That will be an incredible feat. Plus we don't know anything about the game in terms of innovation. Oh and did I mention it was created on alpha kits.
<b>Robbie Edwards (Ubisoft): Microsoft has always been very supportive with developers. They offer us access to technical and creative experts during production that help us improve performance, improve usability and make the game an overall better experience. With GR3, we were able to have our technology up and running on both the Xbox 360 and PC within a few weeks. This allows for rapid development as developers are able to prototype content on their PCs before finally unveiling it on the Xbox 360. While I do not have a great amount of experience with the other platforms, I cannot imagine a level of support on any other platform that equals or surpasses the support we received working on the Xbox and now while working on the Xbox 360.</b>
MORROWIND
Well I haven't seen any video of this game yet. But I remember months ago the feature in Game Informer. The pictures were incredible and the scale was humongous, this game is absolutely next gen, and probably will be one of the more incredible looking games. The pictures were months ago, imagine what they have now, and what the final game will look like. Again, we don't even know the full features of the game. But thus far, everyone is just judging on graphics, will JUDGE THIS GAME then. I suggest everyone dig up that G.I. issue.
KAMEO
Ok how about this game. A lot of were correct, this was supposed to be an XBOX game, but for those believing the game has not changed since its been moved, well wrong, its basically a completely different game according to RARE, and certainly not possible in the wildest dreams of running on XBOX.
<b>Rare's fantasy action-adventure Kameo is finally coming to life as an Xbox 360 launch project, on a scale far bigger than originally imagined. The one-on-one monster battles envisioned for its GameCube incarnation are now massive melees with more than 2,000 creatures on-screen, each driven by its own individual AI. Meanwhile, Rare may not be the only former Nintendo partisan finding a new home at Microsoft...but we won't be able to talk about this until E3 properly kicks off next week.</b> Now, there you have it. At first the game was going to be one on one monster battles, now it will be 2000 creatures on the screen. If that isn't next generation, I don't know what is. Also, it was said on another site, even though they increased dramatically the number of monsters on screen, the graphics increased 10 fold over the XBOX graphics.
Now, this doesn't even cover Condemned, Gears of WAR, PGR3, and others. I watched video for all of them, except PGR3. These games look great, in GEARS of WAR, you had a giant monster ripping through a city attacking a squad of soldiers. I don't know if that in game footage or not. I hope so cause it looked incredible, if anyone thinks this can be done on current generation systems your XBOX must be a hell of lot more powerful than the two I have. And, once again, all these games are running on Alpha hardware, 6 months from release.
I'll post this little tidbit for those of you thinking PS3 might be capable of doing significantly better:
<b>Robbie Edwards (Ubisoft): The Xbox 360 is much more powerful than any entertainment component available to consumers right now. It's more powerful than the most powerful PCs, and the current generation consoles simply do not compare. Based on processing power alone, the Xbox 360 is the equivalent of 14 Xboxes.
Dave Hasle (Monolith): The CPU is about 5 times faster, and there are 3 of them, each with a dedicated custom vector unit and two simultaneous threads. There's 8 times as much memory with 3.5 times the bandwidth. We get significantly more capability than exists on either current gen consoles or home PCs, but it will take some care and feeding to nurse that power out. The GPU has 12 times as many shader pipes, each with so much flexibility they're not even really comparable to the previous hardware. With multiple shader pipes, we can do a vast number of overlays and effects in a scene as to, again, border on photo-realistic. Yes, it's really a generational leap.
...You'll often hear developers complaining about alpha and beta development kits, which are usually significantly different from the final hardware in a number of ways. With Xbox 360, for example, the current development kids are running on only two CPU cores, while the final hardware makes use of three, and the graphics chip is an off-the-shell ATI card, whereas the finished hardware contains a custom GPU.
Robbie Edwards (Ubisoft): If the PS3 and Nintendo consoles are released within the next year or so, then I seriously doubt the Xbox 360 will be viewed as the weaker console. Additionally, with the Xbox 360 releasing sooner, it will gain the advantage that the PS2 gained over the Xbox by allowing the developers more time to become accustomed to working with the console. We're also talking about a level of power here that's almost unimaginable so while the later consoles may technically have more power, it would be very difficult to be able to notice this power difference (unlike today's PS2 and Xbox comparisons).
Why so many people? Because the creation of a platform that strikes balance between hardware, software, and services is not an easy task. If wrong decisions are made, you could end up with a design that has pure processing power only at a CPU level cough*PlayStation 2*cough* Cell *cough*, or a console that has an excellent graphics chip but its CPU is inefficient. </b>
That's all folks. You can find the original articles in full at 1up, IGN, TEAMXBOX, GAMESPOT, these articles are not hard to find. But, I know its so much easier to try and slam the system and spread lies.
Perfect Dark0:
This game will feature the ability to host up to 64 players online. I think that alone tells you this game is not an XBOX game. Now the graphics look like a really really late generation XBOX game, so far. But remember, these games were running on code not based on final hardware.
<b>Duncan Botwood (Rare): "When you're working on a new platform, you have extra challenges. As I like to say, the ground beneath you is moving like jello, because you never know what's working and what's not. These guys have done a lot of great work - right now we're working on these kits here, which are called alpha kits. So the alpha kit hardware allows us to keep going and get a lot of the game done, but it's not the final hardware...there are going to be differences between what we're running on now and what we get with beta hardware, and what we get with final hardware."</b> Now, that is straight from RARE.
In addition, it must be said. This game will allow you to play the story online cooperatively, in addition to this, real people can play the enemy in story online. This has not been done before ANYWHERE! The game to my eyes features huge environs, jet packs, 64 players, it was built for scale, not for graphics. But it still looks better than anything on XBOX right now, and remember it will be in 720p 60 fps. This game has 6 months to go, I remember people freaking out about the Forza demo. So categorically this game can not be done on XBOX, and judging it now based on alpha code is just unfair.
Ghost Recon 3
I don't know much about this game, in terms of how many people will be able to play online etc., but if you download the video of the game, it is damn impressive. It looks better than reality, it looks too good. Soldiers are walking down the street and a building explodes in fantastic detail, you can see a soldier get knocked down by the blast and the animation is too real. Then it cuts to a gun fight against opfor. Well, I've played just about every military shooter on XBOX. And there is nothing that looks remotely close, not even on the PC. This game is freakin gorgeous, and i'm sure it will feature those graphics plus about at least 12 people online. That will be an incredible feat. Plus we don't know anything about the game in terms of innovation. Oh and did I mention it was created on alpha kits.
<b>Robbie Edwards (Ubisoft): Microsoft has always been very supportive with developers. They offer us access to technical and creative experts during production that help us improve performance, improve usability and make the game an overall better experience. With GR3, we were able to have our technology up and running on both the Xbox 360 and PC within a few weeks. This allows for rapid development as developers are able to prototype content on their PCs before finally unveiling it on the Xbox 360. While I do not have a great amount of experience with the other platforms, I cannot imagine a level of support on any other platform that equals or surpasses the support we received working on the Xbox and now while working on the Xbox 360.</b>
MORROWIND
Well I haven't seen any video of this game yet. But I remember months ago the feature in Game Informer. The pictures were incredible and the scale was humongous, this game is absolutely next gen, and probably will be one of the more incredible looking games. The pictures were months ago, imagine what they have now, and what the final game will look like. Again, we don't even know the full features of the game. But thus far, everyone is just judging on graphics, will JUDGE THIS GAME then. I suggest everyone dig up that G.I. issue.
KAMEO
Ok how about this game. A lot of were correct, this was supposed to be an XBOX game, but for those believing the game has not changed since its been moved, well wrong, its basically a completely different game according to RARE, and certainly not possible in the wildest dreams of running on XBOX.
<b>Rare's fantasy action-adventure Kameo is finally coming to life as an Xbox 360 launch project, on a scale far bigger than originally imagined. The one-on-one monster battles envisioned for its GameCube incarnation are now massive melees with more than 2,000 creatures on-screen, each driven by its own individual AI. Meanwhile, Rare may not be the only former Nintendo partisan finding a new home at Microsoft...but we won't be able to talk about this until E3 properly kicks off next week.</b> Now, there you have it. At first the game was going to be one on one monster battles, now it will be 2000 creatures on the screen. If that isn't next generation, I don't know what is. Also, it was said on another site, even though they increased dramatically the number of monsters on screen, the graphics increased 10 fold over the XBOX graphics.
Now, this doesn't even cover Condemned, Gears of WAR, PGR3, and others. I watched video for all of them, except PGR3. These games look great, in GEARS of WAR, you had a giant monster ripping through a city attacking a squad of soldiers. I don't know if that in game footage or not. I hope so cause it looked incredible, if anyone thinks this can be done on current generation systems your XBOX must be a hell of lot more powerful than the two I have. And, once again, all these games are running on Alpha hardware, 6 months from release.
I'll post this little tidbit for those of you thinking PS3 might be capable of doing significantly better:
<b>Robbie Edwards (Ubisoft): The Xbox 360 is much more powerful than any entertainment component available to consumers right now. It's more powerful than the most powerful PCs, and the current generation consoles simply do not compare. Based on processing power alone, the Xbox 360 is the equivalent of 14 Xboxes.
Dave Hasle (Monolith): The CPU is about 5 times faster, and there are 3 of them, each with a dedicated custom vector unit and two simultaneous threads. There's 8 times as much memory with 3.5 times the bandwidth. We get significantly more capability than exists on either current gen consoles or home PCs, but it will take some care and feeding to nurse that power out. The GPU has 12 times as many shader pipes, each with so much flexibility they're not even really comparable to the previous hardware. With multiple shader pipes, we can do a vast number of overlays and effects in a scene as to, again, border on photo-realistic. Yes, it's really a generational leap.
...You'll often hear developers complaining about alpha and beta development kits, which are usually significantly different from the final hardware in a number of ways. With Xbox 360, for example, the current development kids are running on only two CPU cores, while the final hardware makes use of three, and the graphics chip is an off-the-shell ATI card, whereas the finished hardware contains a custom GPU.
Robbie Edwards (Ubisoft): If the PS3 and Nintendo consoles are released within the next year or so, then I seriously doubt the Xbox 360 will be viewed as the weaker console. Additionally, with the Xbox 360 releasing sooner, it will gain the advantage that the PS2 gained over the Xbox by allowing the developers more time to become accustomed to working with the console. We're also talking about a level of power here that's almost unimaginable so while the later consoles may technically have more power, it would be very difficult to be able to notice this power difference (unlike today's PS2 and Xbox comparisons).
Why so many people? Because the creation of a platform that strikes balance between hardware, software, and services is not an easy task. If wrong decisions are made, you could end up with a design that has pure processing power only at a CPU level cough*PlayStation 2*cough* Cell *cough*, or a console that has an excellent graphics chip but its CPU is inefficient. </b>
That's all folks. You can find the original articles in full at 1up, IGN, TEAMXBOX, GAMESPOT, these articles are not hard to find. But, I know its so much easier to try and slam the system and spread lies.