Bungie article/presentation

[Tagrineth]

I'll take Halo's 30fps graphics over TimeSplitter 2's 60fps graphics ANY day of the week.

You mean Halo's inconsistent 30fps with stunning visuals versus TS2's reasonable looking but more playable, highly consistent 60fps except when playing excessively large MapMaker levels?

 

[marconelly!]

I'll take Halo's 30fps graphics over TimeSplitter 2's 60fps graphics ANY day of the week.

Halo's framerate has been pretty bad at some points in the game. Way below 30FPS, especially if you kept your flashilight on. At few points on the last level I honestly thought the game froze, when it slowed to a stop for a few seconds.

That being said, I too prefer that kind of graphics to smoother framerate in TS2, but that is because graphics in TS2 are *really* sub par. If the graphics can look impressive AND keep up at 60FPS most of the time (like for example in PDO, ZOE2 or MGS2), that's what I like the best. Just IMO, of course, and it doesn't necessarily apply to every genre - action adventures and other games with slow moving camera can look just fine with locked 30FPS - it can even give them a cinematic feel.

 

[chaphack]

What does this mean?

Halo 2 = GOTY 2004.

Best graphics on a console.
Best story on a console.
Best use of audio on a console.
Best level of interactive gameplay on a console.

 

[marconelly!]

Story? I just hope Halo 2 will rectify some of the mess in the Halo's story, just as I hope MGS3 will do for it's predecessor :\

 

[Pete]

Believe it or not 30fps actually gives a much better cinematic feel to a game (like a movie which actually runs at 24fps). 60fps completely robs a game of that kind of feel.

This makes no sense to me. Explain to me how a lower framerate makes a game feel more cinematic, or how 24 non-motion-blurred fps are comparable to 24 motion-blurred fps?

 

[LogisticX]

EDIT: Apologies for the off topic post.

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Mess with MGS2's story? That's always up for debate.... I liked it, even its 'weirdness' factors intrigued me, Kojima tried to get you thinking. The problem to most people is that they don't/didn't want to believe or think about the fact that they ARE playing a videogame. The wacky parts of the story only rectify this fact...people get too serious with that sort of thing.
Most people want to be completely engrossed in a character and storyline to a point where they will believe its apart of themselves until they are finished with it. By stopping this in MGS2, that created a lot of friction with some people I suppose.

Also, I had no qualms playing as Raiden as long as Snake was still apart of the story.

Nice to see chap staying within the bounds of reason

 

[marconelly!]

Believe it or not 30fps actually gives a much better cinematic feel to a game (like a movie which actually runs at 24fps). 60fps completely robs a game of that kind of feel.

Not necessarily. During the gameplay, MGS2 runs at 60FPS but keeps that cinematic feel all the time (although it's cut scenes run at 30FPS + blur to make it even more cinema-like looking). Most 30FPS games don't feature any kind of motion blur like movies do, and when they feature it, it's not the same kind/quality of motion blur. That's why 30FPS alone won't make the game any more cinematic looking. You do have a point, though, as some of the games that run at 30 FPS which have well implemented motion blur (like Ico) do look very cinematic in their appearance.

LogisticX, as far as I can see, I basically share your opinion about MGS2 story, as I also find that it wasn't taking itself seriously all the time (although it's central message was pretty thought provoking and definitely took itself seriously). Heck, some key moments in the game are obviously jokingly set up, to make characters 'aware' they are in the videogame. It's just that at some moments it really left an impression that things could have been handled with more logic. The whole 'hand taking over Ocelot' scene was just completely ridiculous, for example. There were dozens of better ways to present such transformation without placing it completely in the WTF arrangement...

 

[Phil]

30 fps in inexceptable IMO. Halo to was far too slow - sure the graphics were nice, but I'd rather have a more playable game (like TS2) rather than a shiny one which lacks the response time. Certain games require fast responses - double framerate gives double the response and precision. In first-person-shooters, this is very noticable. Same goes for platformers and racing games. RPGs and slow-paced horror/adventure games are an exception.

BTW; TS2 is a bit an extreme example. How about just reducing HALO graphics to something that would give a constant 60 fps framerate.

 

[Gubbi]

It's not just the graphics. Physics and AI would also have to be scaled down.

Halo is just a much better game on so many levels than TS2 that it's ridiculous to compare the two.

Cheers
Gubbi

 

[Tagrineth]

Mess with MGS2's story? That's always up for debate.... I liked it, even its 'weirdness' factors intrigued me, Kojima tried to get you thinking. The problem to most people is that they don't/didn't want to believe or think about the fact that they ARE playing a videogame. The wacky parts of the story only rectify this fact...people get too serious with that sort of thing.
Most people want to be completely engrossed in a character and storyline to a point where they will believe its apart of themselves until they are finished with it. By stopping this in MGS2, that created a lot of friction with some people I suppose.

MGS had some silly moments too.

I want to meet the three people who didn't laugh when Psycho Mantis made your controller move.

 

[fbg1]

I'll take Halo's 30fps graphics over TimeSplitter 2's 60fps graphics ANY day of the week.

Second that. I enjoy playing Halo more simply b/c half the time I'm admiring the pretty visuals - the reflections and bumpmapping on MC's armor, the snow, and the vehicles, etc. 30fps locked for a console game on my CRT TV is fine by me. Now, an fps on my high-res 100hz PC monitor is another story...

 

[jvd]

I'll take Halo's 30fps graphics over TimeSplitter 2's 60fps graphics ANY day of the week.

Second that. I enjoy playing Halo more simply b/c half the time I'm admiring the pretty visuals - the reflections and bumpmapping on MC's armor, the snow, and the vehicles, etc. 30fps locked for a console game on my CRT TV is fine by me. Now, an fps on my high-res 100hz PC monitor is another story...

eh i didn't care for halo at all .

 

[marconelly!]

I want to meet the three people who didn't laugh when Psycho Mantis made your controller move.

That was one of the greater moments in the game. The whole Psycho Mantis scene was absolutely awesome from the beginning to the end.