Multiplatform engines didn't do the Xbox 360 justice.

[binary solo]

I read page one then skipped to page 6 so I don't know if this has been answered or not.

I've read a number of times about "the real-time projected shadows" and "the vegetation which interacts with characters and wind" as particularly noteworthy. But haven't we seen both of these things already in other games? What is it about this game that makes those specific features really stand out?

There's another game currently on the market where the protagonist makes extensive use of a flashlight and from what I can tell the real-time projected shadows look completely natural.

RE the main purpose of the thread which is to bemoan the efect multiplat engines have had on the gaming this gen: Multiplat engines are very important for multiplat games. If they are well designed then they ensure consistency of quality across platforms. This is a good thing, in fact it's an excellent thing. Cry Engine 3 is an important next step in multiplat engines because (if Crytek are true to their claims) this engine is optimised for all 3 platforms.

I utterly reject the notion that the 360 has been hard done by because of multiplat engines. That lays the blame for keeping the 360 from realising its full visual potential at the wrong door. Exactly who forced game developers who were making 360 exclusives to use UE3? No guns were being held to heads here. Developers chose to use the multiplat engine for exclusive games. They had excellent reasons for doing so (after all UE3 has produced good results, just not the best in gen). But it was the developers themselves who decided to go that route rather than build a 360 optimised engine. By and large 360 exclusive games haven't needed a 360 optimised engine to make the games look great. Whereas the PS3 has needed optimised engines to make games look great because the multiplat engines we've seen to date have had disappointing results on the PS3 compared to 360. Ironically having multiplat engines produce sub-par results on PS3 has helped the PS3 in achieving best graphics of the gen accolades basically ever since MGS4 came out

If 360 optimised engines are going to show that the 360 can take the graphics crown from the PS3 then this is the year for 360 exclusive developers to show it. If Alan Wake or Reach take the crown from PS3 then for the time being there doesn't seem to be much on the PS3 exclusive horizon that is likely to take it back.