That's what the Lens of Truth said when they compared Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (PS3/2007) to Enslaved: Oddysey to The West(Xbox 360 version (The superior version)/2010):
“Does Enslaved: Odyssey to the West have what it takes to Climb with the big boys?”
Welcome back for another exciting Head2Head Analysis with two of the hottest looking titles released this generation. After doing our Enslaved Head2Head Analysis we were really impressed with the game’s visuals and thought it would be interesting to see how Enslaved stacks up against one of the industries best - Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. Although we contemplated which version of Uncharted to compare Enslaved against, we felt that the original Uncharted would make for a more interesting and fair comparison. So come join us as we explore the depths of Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and see if Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (Xbox 360 version) has what it takes to play with the big boys.
Graphics: Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune set the bar this generation for what “Next-Gen”graphics should look like. Naughty Dog was the first developer to take full advantage of the PlayStation 3 Cell’s microprocessor in the way it was intended to be used. Using the PlayStation 3’s multi-core chip composed of one “Power Processor Element” (“PPE”), Naughty Dog was able to generate dozens of layered character animations to portray realistic expressions and fluid movements, which allow for responsive player control. It’s also clear the PlayStation 3 was pushing some serious polygons considering Drake alone was around 30,000 poloys and enemies averaged around 15,000 poloys.
Here’s where Enslaved fell a little short, at fist glance Enslaved looked to be a challenger in the graphics department by having beautiful and vivid environments with highly detailed character models along for the ride. Unfortunately, Enslaved character animations couldn’t hold a candle to Uncharted’s countless queue of animations we encountered. As seen in our video, when controlling each character Drake’s fluid animations and movement felt more polished, which transitions over to the character’s control. Not that Enslaved had bad control, just that Uncharted controlled that good. On a positive side of things both games had comparable native resolutions with Uncharted rendering at 1280×720 (2xAA) and Enslaved rendering at 1280×720 (no AA).
Finally, Uncharted’s lighting system, and dynamic real-time shadowing, looked more polished throughout. Upon entering the first of many jungle areas you can see how kick ass Uncharted’s dynamic lighting system was going to be. For example, as you move up into the jungle’s canopy, you could clearly see multiple beams of light trying to penetrate through the jungle’s skyline as each beam of light forces its way to the ground.
On the other hand, there is no doubt that Enslaved’s environments looked stellar on its own, but when compared side by side to Uncharted’s environments we noticed why the series is considered the graphics king. For starters, Uncharted’s dynamic fluid effects for water looked unbelievable from the get go. When Drake walked through a stream or swam through a body of water, the water would ripple and move away in a realistic manner. Also, Drake’s cloths would interact with the water, this was never before seen in a video game. For example, if a section Drake’s body interacted with water, that section of his cloths would become wet and would take time to dry. Uncharted’s attention to detail was and still is very impressive, and only surpassed by its’ namesake and sequal, Uncharted 2.
Performance: Enslaved may have fallen short in the graphics department compared to Uncharted, but the performance category definitely goes to Enslaved. As seen in our analysis video found on the bottom of the page, Enslaved and Uncharted’s frame rate were comparable to one another sticking around 30 FPS for the most part, but Uncharted had some very distracting screen tearing throughout most of the game. Although Enslaved did have some screen tearing, Uncharted’s screen tearing levels were much higher and more noticeable than Enslaved. Below are the frame rate and screen tearing percentages our analyzer captured.
| Uncharted Frame Analysis | Enslaved Frame Analysis |
| Clip 1: Length of clip: 2225 frames Average FPS of clip: 29.95 Percent of torn frames: 0.17 |
Clip 1: Length of clip: 2225 frames Average FPS of clip: 25.06 Percent of torn frames: 8.36 |
| Clip 2: Length of clip: 3609 frames Average FPS of clip: 29.70 Percent of torn frames: 5.29 |
Clip 2: Length of clip: 3609 frames Average FPS of clip: 29.92 Percent of torn frames: 0.00 |
| Clip 3: Length of clip: 889 frames Average FPS of clip: 29.60 Percent of torn frames: 2.85 |
Clip 3: Length of clip: 889 frames Average FPS of clip: 29.86 Percent of torn frames: 0.14 |
| Clip 4: Length of clip: 5403 frames Average FPS of clip: 29.96 Percent of torn frames: 7.35 |
Clip 4: Length of clip: 5403 frames Average FPS of clip: 29.83 Percent of torn frames: 0.24 |
| Global percent of torn frames: 11.55 Global average FPS: 29.85 |
Global percent of torn frames: 1.90 Global average FPS: 28.98 |
Loading: Naughty Dog once more surprised the industry and proved to developers that with some effort, the PlayStation 3’s mandatory installs could be eliminated. There were two areas when Uncharted had load-times, the first was when you initially put the game into your system or if you decide to reload a previously saved game. On the flip side, Enslaved on the Xbox 360 build had some lengthily load-times that added up over time. Below are the average load-times we captured during our capture session.
*Note: We did not install Enslaved on the 360 due to the fact Uncharted does not have a mandatory install*
| PlayStation 3 Load Times | Xbox 360 3 Load Times |
|
Sample 1: 31 seconds (initial start up) Sample 2: 29 seconds (reload a previous area) Sample 3: < 3 seconds Sample 4: < 3 seconds Sample 5: < 3 seconds |
Sample 1: 32 seconds Sample 2: 32 seconds Sample 3: 35 seconds Sample 4: 31 seconds Sample 5: 30 seconds |
| Sample Average: 13.8 seconds |
Sample Average: 32.0 seconds |
Conclusion: Enslaved is a great looking game and the Unreal 3 engine can produce some great looking games no doubt, but when you sit down with any title this generation and put it up against Uncharted you start to remember how special this game really is. Although the screen tearing in Uncharted was much worse than Enslaved, its was easily forgotten when climbing a 100 foot mountainside while dangling over a huge huge ocean floor. One thing is for certain, PlayStation 3’s Uncharted series will live in infamy with gamers for years to come. Make sure to check back soon when we release another special Head2Head.
Source: http://www.lensoftruth.com/?p=25284
Wow... it's more amazing when you think about the huge difference there is between Uncharted 1 and Uncharted 2 O_o
Edit: if pictures don't show, go to the source to see them.
A banner stolen from some site xD
Release Final Fantasy Versus XIII nowwwwwwwwww!!! lol :P
