| d21lewis said: This post is getting long so I'll get to the point: The guy above me said we're reaching the limits of what the eye can see. He's right. To me, the fake digital fire from a Dreamcast game like Illbleed or Uncharted 3 looks like real fire. They cheated to get the effect but, to my eyes, it still looks like real fire. Let's say on the PS4/Xbox One, that fire is 100% real fire produced in real time using a ton of processing power. To me, it still just looks like fire. The calculations being done don't enhance the experience. Seeing an island off in the distance in Wind Waker and knowing it's just a 2D island doesn't take away from the effect. If it were a 100% 3D island won't matter because it's still off in the distance and it still doesn't effect the gameplay. I'm from a generation where they would show the revelation before the console even released. We were seeing the realistic punches from FIght Night Round 3 before the console hit the market. We were seeing Gamertags at E3 (remember Velocity girl?) before the console hit the market. We saw Pilot WIngs and F-Zero. We saw the analog stick. On the first day, we were wowed and the software wasn't released without a killer app on day one. I appreciate Wii U's off TV play. I love the Xbox One's snap feature. I like how the PS4 installs games in no time and offers great performance. I know the big stuff is coming. It's just that it's taking so long for me to be wowed and I love to be wowed! When you got a Wii , the motion controls wowed you the first time you tried it. When you got your Dreamcast, Soul Caliber blew you away at first glance. Same for N64. Same for SNES and Genesis. The justification was always there at launch. With the 8th gen consoles, it seems like we got hardware first and justification later. |
I don't believe we're getting near the limits of the human eye any time soon, especially with VR coming. As long as people keep complaining about the jaggies, we still have a long way to go. And sure a 2D fire bitmap looks like fire, I like Minecraft as well, yet I also enjoy a realistic version. A realistic fire fighting game with backdrafts and all could be fun. Fighting spreading fires in the ISS would be a cool challenge. Sure you can do that with 2D bitmaps like in FTL, but it would be a lot more immersive and organic when all the hot gasses are realistically simulated.
Seeing fully rendered islands in the background instead of 2D backdrops has other advantages as well. Less work for the developers. No need to add the extra artwork for different time of day and other changes when the render engine can take care of all that.
I get what you mean with killer apps. For me after doing most my gaming on ps3, the ps4 did blow me away with how smooth and fast everything operates. Especially after the WiiU launch with hours waiting for the day 1 patch and upto 30 second waits for the UI to do anything. But yes, that's just better hardware and OS. Still the games look pretty jaw dropping to me, but I'm spoiled playing on a 1080p projector. Native display res makes a big difference when you blow it up wall size, plus the sound design in KZ SF was really something new.
It has never been the launch games that persuaded me to buy a console. Crazy taxi was my Dreamcast game, ps2 can't remember, I guess it was hype, ps1 Tombraider 2, N64 I did buy for Mario 64 but disappointed me, GC can't remember, Nintendo legacy I guess, WiiU Rayman legends that then got delayed, XBox PGR, 360 first HD console, PS3 blu-ray, PS4 it's about time for an upgrade, XB1 pending.
The games that weren't possible before will come later. For me those were games like OOT, Windwaker, GTA3, Dead rising, TDU, Fallout 3. This first year is a bit lackluster. Transistor and Dark souls 2 are sitting at the top of the list for me this year, and I'm most excited to play GTA5 for the first time this fall.
