The Digital Foundry ME2 analysis has been put up.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-masseffect2-demo-analysis

Recent news that Mass Effect 2 on PlayStation 3 is running on a newer, enhanced engine and may even be the "definitive" version of the game raised more than a few eyebrows. While performance is close, Unreal Engine 3 typically favours the Xbox 360, and it's safe to assume that BioWare's prior customisations to the tech were carried out very much with the Microsoft platform in mind. So, is the PS3 version genuinely enhanced and improved?

Based on the demo code released last night, our conclusion is that the PS3 version of Mass Effect 2 is different as opposed to definitive, and while nobody is likely to be disappointed with the game, a direct comparison with the Xbox 360 version suggests that while some elements are improved, others have been downgraded and the effectiveness of some of the aesthetic changes will all come down to personal taste.

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Mass Effect 2 on Xbox 360 ran at native 720p with the nerfed 2x multi-sampling anti-aliasing implementation common to many Unreal Engine 3 titles. Regular Digital Foundry readers will know that in this scenario, the AA effect appears to be carried out relatively early on in the rendering process - as lighting and post-processing effects are added, the MSAA is gradually removed from much of the scene. The PS3 version doesn't seem to run with any anti-aliasing at all, but looks very similar overall.

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The performance profile has undoubtedly changed though - significantly. Similar to Halo: Reach, Mass Effect 2 on Xbox 360 can tear a little at the very top of the screen in stressful scenes, but otherwise it operates just like a double-buffered, v-synced game. A consistent sub-30FPS frame-rate therefore manifests as a locked 20FPS. There are many instances in the game of that drop down to the lower frame-rate, especially in the cut-scenes.

The PS3 game is completely different. Like most games on Unreal Engine 3, when it slips below 30FPS, v-sync is turned off completely and noticeable tearing kicks in. Also, rather oddly, the frame-rate appears to be completely unlocked. To get a better idea of what we're talking about, here's a performance analysis covering off a range of different scenes from the intro of the game.

So there's good news and bad news here for the new PS3 version. On the plus side, a great many of the drops to 20FPS in the cut-scenes appear to have been ironed out, running nicely at the default 30FPS. The minus side is that the tearing is much more apparent in the new game - both in-game and in the cut-scenes.

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Something which is rather strange in the sampler code is that the PS3 version appears to have issues streaming the FMV sequences, dropping frames and even tearing. Based on what we're seeing in the demo, these low-quality, macroblocking scenes do not appear to have been improved over the Xbox 360 version (where at least they streamed OK) and we would hope for a better showing in the final Blu-ray based game.

Regardless of the changes, improvements and minor graphical differences, PS3 gamers should be genuinely excited about this game. After all, it's Mass Effect 2, one of the most beautifully realised action-adventures ever made and a hot candidate for Game of the Year 2010. The demo proves conclusively that the magic is still there, that the game hasn't aged a jot since it's original release and the fact that the Mass Effect trilogy will now be seen out on both major HD consoles is simply brilliant news.

I wasn't particularly impressed by the PS3 demo. Then again, I haven't played the 360 version to compare, but it seems to me the version to get is still the PC version.

I'm confident I should get ME2 on the 360 now so I can continue with my save from the first game, I can live without the extra content.

I predict that the PS3 retail version is superior to the Demo version, because IGN has the retail version and has done the comparison. And they are usually never factually wrong.

There won't be any real changes to the retail version from this demo, there's too little development time in between. And IGN don't go into detail like Digital Foundry does. If you want to know how two versions of a game compare, you go to Digital Foundry, because IGN measures nothing and shows you no details.

This analysis makes sense, although I guess it's not clear if it uses final code.

ME1 was a bit flaky on the 360 (and PC) and there was the sense of Bioware getting to grips with the Unreal engine and - as is usual - struggling a bit to get the results out of it Epic can (but few others manage).

ME2 was much better, although it did have a few issues.  But the codework for ME2 was almost certainly 360/PC centric and would have formed a poor base for PS3.

Therefore Bioware seem to have taken the novel - and sensible - approach of developing a better version of their Unreal engine for ME3 and using it as the foundation for the PS3.

However, this is the Unreal engine we're talking about, which simply works better - or rather easier - on the 360.  I'll bet that ME3 on 360 remains a bit better than ME3 on PS3, while with the transition of ME2 assets to the new engine for ME2 on PS3 we've got a decent - almost certainly better than porting ME2 codebase directly to PS3 - version, and one which here and there - thanks to the newer engine - does look a bit better.  However... clearly a few concessions were made too, with the result some stuff's better, most is the same and a few elements are a little worse (PS3 vs 360).

I think Bioware have taken the right approach and it's one that probably gave the PS3 the best result sensibly possible starting with a title that would likely have made for a poor direct port.

Its not like the demo was completed yesterday and uploaded today. There won't be any noticeable changes though, and the demo does look a bit different to what IGN showed in comparison.

Of course not, and I'm not going to check the demo vs. IGNs footage, but I would be amazed if the Digital Foundry analysis doesn't apply with 99% accuracy to the retail version of these sections in the game.

Here is the screenshot comparison from Lens of Truth.  The pictuers tend to reflect what DF has written. This comparing the PS3 demo to the 360 demo.

http://www.lensoftruth.com/?p=25602

Ehhh. I'm just going to stick with having the M.E. series on 360. I may rent the PS3 versions for trophies though.