Firebird Studios: Dedicated Graphics Department for Xbox 36

richardhutnik

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richardhutnik on 10 February 2010

With this tidbit of news, assuming it is accurate, makes it look like Microsoft isn't pulling out of electronic gaming, but is moving away from the PC as a game platform, and more info consoles. This bit alone will likely cause the shio's of the world to get more angered at Microsoft than they are now.

CaptDS9E

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CaptDS9E on 10 February 2010

That's not really a surprise. Anyone following could tell that for a long time. They closed all their PC centric studios. Then opened up 343 for Halo, Spawnpoint, now Firebird, and Bought Big Park. they also seem to be hiring for some Natal team stuff as well.

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epicberserk

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epicberserk on 10 February 2010

Duh microsoft doesn't want pc gaming and doesn't want to be associated with it no more

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Strategyking92 on 10 February 2010

It seems they haven't played ME2 yet. Or Forza 3. Seriously, awesome looking games have been coming out.

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Masakari

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Masakari on 16 February 2010

huaxiong90 said:

Masakari said:
I can agree with Uncharted 2, that game has great, great graphics. But not Killzone 2, it's so stylized that it's like saying X cel shaded game has better graphics. The polycounts in KZ2 aren't anything special, the textures are lower res and blurry in a lot of spots, it's the art direction that makes KZ2 stand out. It's not in the same league, graphically, as Gears 2 or Uncharted 2 or GT5 or Forza 3, where everything is high detail, and doesn't compromise.

People also forget that these Xbox games have had, for the most part, 2 year dev cycles, while almost all the PS3 titles you can name (God of War III, GT5, Killzone 2, Heavy Rain) have had double that. It's like expecting that, I don't know... Serenity, the Josh Whedon movie, have cgi as good as Star Wars - it can't, it took less money and less time to make. If you give me 1 month to do a model, I will do it, but if you give me 2 months, I will do it better, it's just how it works.

Which just makes Naughty Dog even more relevant, they managed to knock U2 out 2 years after the first one. Of course, it helps that they had the funding to form the internal Sony ICE team, but still, very impressive.

There's a reason PS3 is particularly strong now, and that's because they took forever to release some of these titles. So now they are (graphically) very strong because they have had the time to understand the system, the flipside of that is that the PS3 catalogue was very behind the 360 one for the first few years of the gen.

I don't know what you're seeing, but ok, to each their own. For me, Killzone 2's lighting is what really stands out. I've seen a few poor effects here and there, and a few low res textures (which aren't even noticeable unless you get too close), but most of what I've seen in the game is second to only Uncharted 2, honestly (on consoles, of course).

I'm not "seeing" anything, I have Character Modeling 3, a book by Ballistic Publishing that details technical KZ2 character creation, as well as issues from 3D World which feature KZ2 heavily on modeling and lighting articles, and have read several web-based technical articles. I have a former workmate now working at Guerrilla. Furthermore, i'm a 3d artist and i'd like to think I know what I see and what I do, as it is my profession.

There's a lot of stuff in KZ2 that is very cleverly disguised, that's intelligent design and art direction. I'm not saying they aren't great. But it's so stylized that, like I said, it's like saying a cel shaded game has better graphics than Uncharted or Gears. KZ2 was done in a very, very specific way that you could only reproduce by going extremely out of your way with your engine and your development of assets.