Digital Foundry vs. Gears of War 3
The smart money says we're nine months away from the reveal of brand-new Xbox hardware, that major advances in visual technology are being held back by the hardware limitations of six-year-old architecture. Gears of War 3 begs to differ. Developed in parallel with the hugely popular Unreal Engine 3 technology, the game looks absolutely remarkable: put it side-by-side with the last game, or even up against Epic's own Bulletstorm, and it's clear that the current gen is still capable of some genuine surprises.
Things are different in the new game: the team has utilised the Unreal Lightmass global illumination tech to excellent effect: light and shadow now have real depth and volume and work in combination with UE3 real-time effects such as the god-rays/sun-shafts we saw in the Xbox 360 and PC versions of Bulletstorm released earlier this year.
Another notable inclusion in the VFX toolbox is the excellent implementation of atmospheric rendering, giving a real sense of scale and ambience to a variety of levels. Alpha and particle effects in general are quite remarkable - a real improvement over what we've seen before in previous Unreal Engine games, and reminiscent at times of the gritty atmosphere evoked by Killzone 3 and Resistance 3. The fact that Unreal Engine 3 throw so many transparencies about while maintaining its performance level to the extent that it does is another feather in the cap of the Epic engineers.
In addition to all the visual eye candy we enjoyed in the game, the tech team also deserves kudos for the elements you don't notice. A case in point is the texture streaming system: it's long been a thorn in UE3's side - artwork appearing from nowhere during the Mass Effect era, resolved to a certain extent in Gears 2 with a new system whereby mip-maps are blended to make the arrival on-screen of new assets less noticeable. In the latest game, you'll be hard-pressed to find any kind of issue with this at all in-game, greatly enhancing the visual consistency of the game. In fact, the only really noticeable LOD popping we can recall seeing during the entire campaign occurred occasionally during the engine-driven cut-scenes.
It's safe to say that Gears of War 3 is one of the most advanced video games of this generation, and a ringing endorsement of what the Xbox 360 is capable of handling when the right people, the right tech, a lengthy development cycle and an inordinately large budget are in play. From a technological perspective, with just a few caveats that we've touched upon, the overall presentation is first class. However, there is a clear area where Epic has had issues in improving upon past performance: the video-driven cinematics.
In conclusion, it's safe to say that Gears of War 3 is an enormous success on many levels. At its most fundamental level, it takes the existing gameplay formula and refines it into an experience that just feels great: you're never at odds with the controls, the action is fluid and intuitive, and there's an immense level of satisfaction in all aspects of the core mechanics. This might not sound like a big deal, but in reality it's the end product of a huge amount of work at the Epic studios.
On top of this, the new Gears is clearly the most technologically advanced Unreal Engine 3 game to date, pushing the technology in exciting new directions. As our videos have hopefully demonstrated, the lighting and VFX work is nothing short of phenomenal, while the new camera and object-based motion blur systems are the most refined we've seen from any game utilising the Epic tech: this is a 30FPS game but, similar to The Force Unleashed II, it looks and feels smoother. On top of this, the art direction is simply superb - the quality is so much improved over the previous Gears titles that a return visit serves to remind you of how much progress Epic has made over the course of this console generation.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-vs-gears-of-war-3
In-depth analysis is a good 3 page read.
