Benchmarking with cutscenes -- what's your opinion?

[OpenGL guy]

My stance is if you can't accurately reflect gameplay, don't bench with it. I understand that readers want more games and a wider variety of genres in reviews, but I think you do more harm than good if your tests aren't reflective of the true gameplay experience.

There are some other issues that cut scenes can cause as well. For one, many of them go for a letterbox look which can cause them to render things differently than the normal fullscreen mode. This can adversely affect performance.

 

[Brandon]

There are some other issues that cut scenes can cause as well. For one, many of them go for a letterbox look which can cause them to render things differently than the normal fullscreen mode. This can adversely affect performance.

Yes, NOLF2 is a perfect example of that.

 

[jb]

the true gameplay experience.

Keep in mind thats a touchy subject. NOLF2 is a good example. You could play the game stealthy..or you could good nuts out. So please keep that in mind as not every one plays the same.

 

[Brandon]

Well I guess the bottom line is we won't be expading our benchmark suite too much, if any at all before the NV38 article, as cutscenes are generally agreed upon to be the wrong way to go. This also cuts out Halo (another letterbox cutscene bench in its current form) until multiplayer recording is enabled with the upcoming patch.

 

[Dave Baumann]

You can alwasy use Tomb Raider!