Halo 3

Mmmm, I definitely don't think Bioshock would be considered for the best looking Xbox title. I played the pc version, which most people agree is a little sharper than the Xbox version. While the graphics are indeed excellent, I didn't think they were that good.

Of course the art direction could be influencing that opinion as well. While the graphics in Bioshock are top notch, I'm personally not a big fan of 1940's decor.

Well, that makes it a subjective matter, huh? I don't think there's that much of a difference between the Xbox 360 and PC versions of Bioshock, judging from the screenshot comparisons I have seen. Of course, the PC version will support higher resolutions, which will start to matter if you have a huge TV screen.

Gears of War is excellent for the character models and animation. The in-game cut-scenes are particularly awesome. It's a lot darker and grittier and doesn't have the bright colours of Halo 3, but it suits the atmosphere. If you want to see nice Xbox 360 graphics in action, check that game out.

In general, I think we're just now starting to see what this "next-gen" is really capable of. When I saw Doom 3, it was nice and all, but I was a bit underwhelmed by it all. Recent games have great cinematic effects and camera tricks that make cut-scenes a lot of fun to watch.

The problem I have with Bioshock is that while the overall graphics are very good, there seemed to be little variety between levels. By the end of the game I was tired of seeing the same colors over and over again. The city of Rapture didn't change much from beginning to end, and the same run down water soaked rooms started to get on my nerves.

I'm also not that impressed with the Unreal 3 graphic engine in general. While it runs very smoothly, I don't think it looks nearly as good as the Source 2(Half-Life 2) or F.E.A.R. engines did when they were first released. I'm not talking about a direct comparison between the engines, but rather how they compared to what was out there at the time.

Well the E3 trailer that's on the UT3 web-site is pretty impressive by any games standards. Gears of War was the first game to use the UT3 engine? How does that look on the 360?

Addition: I don't think other games using Source (i.e. non Valve) look as good as Bioshock does either, and I'm guessing Epic's release will look even better. HL2 still looks decent today though and Source will be updated shortly with EP2 arriving shortly. I guess if you're after a lot of graphical variety Bioshock isn't going to give you that.

Yeah, I agree with you on Bioshock… that was a little disappointing. But the first time you swim out of that crashed airplane, that was great. The fire and its reflections on the water, the wet stones on that small island… overall, the first few hours of Bioshock were the best, which made it all feel a like a bit of an anti-climax.

As for the others, maybe that was because my PC at the time couldn't run them smoothly. They looked awesome, but it felt a bit like the older engines just with better lighting and more detail. No, that's not right, there were some really cool effects… let's just keep it at we're getting there.

Originally Posted by woges
Well the E3 trailer that's on the UT3 web-site is pretty impressive by any games standards. Gears of War was the first game to use the UT3 engine? How does that look on the 360?

Not sure if it was the first… but the style is very distinctive, which I think is also a consequence of the current generation of graphics engines. As possibilities and feature-set increase, designers are able to pull off more diverse stuff. I was starting to feel that every 3D game looked alike.

Gears of War is a lot of greys and browns, which does fit the setting. Some of the bigger monsters look awesome and like I said, the animation in this game is top-notch and the character models look like they have huge polygon counts (don't know if that's a trick), which really shows off in the cut-scenes. This is also the first game (but it's probably been done before) where I've seen shaders used for things like rain pouring down the trunk of trees, and that looks awesome, too.

Originally Posted by Thaurin
That sounds completely like someone made that up to start a riot among Halo fanboys!

…but entirely true!

Originally Posted by JDR13
I'm also not that impressed with the Unreal 3 graphic engine in general. While it runs very smoothly, I don't think it looks nearly as good as the Source 2(Half-Life 2) or F.E.A.R. engines did when they were first released.

I don't think that Bioshock is "real" Unreal 3 tech. As far as I know and remember from various interviews, they began to use the Unreal 3 editing tools at some point rather late in development, i.e. they ported their 2.5 engine-based project (they started from what experience they had with SWAT 4 which was an Unreal 2.5 game) to the Unreal 3 editor and framework but that should hardly be enough to qualify it as a genuine Unreal 3 game. I have to admit that I'm not familiar with the "killer features" of Unreal 3 technology that would have to be found in Bioshock if it were "real" Unreal 3 all the way but from all I've read it's basically 2.5 with only a few minor sprinkles of U3 features here and there.

I'm not sure about a 2.5 engine, but all the previews\articles I've seen say Bioshock and Gears of War use the Unreal 3 engine.

Very rarely does a graphics engine look as good in an actual game as it does in the promotional trailers. Does anyone remember some of the trailers for Half-Life 2? As good as the game was , I was still a little disappointed that the models did not look exactly the way they did in some of the promotional material.

Originally Posted by woges
HL2 still looks decent today though and Source will be updated shortly with EP2 arriving shortly.

So then the original Half-Life 2 and Episode 1 are going to get graphical updates as well?

Bioshock was made based on a mish-mash of Unreal 2-3 tech. They started modifying the engine a good while before Unreal 3 tech was done, and they implemented it step by step as it became available.

Back on topic

Originally Posted by Thaurin
…but entirely true!

I knew this was more than a rumour. We just had to wait it out.

So what does Bungie do now? Who does MS license out to make Halo?

How does a company just leave its biggest investor? The only way I know is for the employees to leave and start a new company.

Another rumour: is the movie going to be called Halo 4: Blah Blah Something Yada?

Originally Posted by Lucky Day
Who does MS license out to make Halo?

Bungie.

Microsoft Game Studios president Shane Kim said that Microsoft would support Bungie's "desire to return to its independent roots," but made clear that the move didn't mean an end to the Halo franchise.

"We will continue to invest in our Halo entertainment property with Bungie and other partners, such as Peter Jackson," said Kim, "on a new interactive series set in the Halo universe. We look forward to great success with Bungie as our long-term relationship continues to evolve through Halo-related titles and new IP created by Bungie."

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/new…hp?story=15755

Originally Posted by JDR13
So then the original Half-Life 2 and Episode 1 are going to get graphical updates as well?

Sorry, really need to look at this forum more. Well EP2 is out now and I don't have it just yet but I doubt HL2 and HL2:EP1 engines will be much affected - I don't think the level design work can be just upgraded. You probably could do this but the people at Valve probably don't want to look at one of those levels ever again I suspect.

Still haven't got around to playing halo 2 yet either.

But the HDR updates and other engine updates *have* tricked down through the games as they have been released, which you would see happening when updates come through.