Nick Laslett
Regular
I’d like to bring the forum round to discuss a current generation topic (if that is possible). 
I know the next-gen is just round the corner, but I’m so happy with where we are right now that the thought of upgrading seems pretty pointless to me, as I have mentioned here a few times already.
I picked up Haunting Ground aka Demento on Saturday and it fired off a few interesting thought in my brain.
Just to comment on the game for a moment. It is a pretty successful take on the survival horror genre building on games like the Clock Tower series, Ico and Silent Hill. The main gameplay mechanic is hide and seek, this is coupled with a buddy in the form of a dog called Hewie (a nicer representative of man’s best friend you’d be hard to find).
You have no real way to defend yourself, but Hewie can attack your pursuers from behind. Your only option is to run and find a place to hide, until the coast is clear. The character you play is very susceptible to fear and you have to be careful not to freak her out, a bit like in Eternal Darkness with the sanity effects, the more frightened your character becomes effects your ability to control her and the way the screen looks.
This is all done very effectively and I would recommend the game if you liked Ico, Silent Hill, Fatal Frame.
The reason why I wanted to talk about Haunting Ground is because of the technology behind the game. It runs in 480p and has streaming levels with no loading in-between, a bit like Jak2 and Primal.
In my experience very few Japanese titles play like this. Silent Hill 3, MGS3, Onimusha 3, Devil May Cry, they all have a pretty intrusive level loading mechanics. In Haunting Ground being able to move seamlessly from room to room has a real effect on the gameplay and it wouldn’t really work any other way.
But they don’t seem to have had to make any sacrifices to have these streaming environments. From a graphical perspective the game looks like a 4th generation PS2 title. The environments are much pettier than Silent Hill 3, with character models and animation being on a par. It has a good use of lighting with single source shadows for every character.
How hard is something like this to achieve? I appreciate that Sony have perfected the streaming technique with games like God of War, Jak2 and Primal and seem to share the technology internally.
What is it like on other platforms? Are there many examples of these continuous environments like the examples I mention?
I would be happy to see this used in more games, especially if the compromises are very limited in terms of graphics and gameplay.
I know the next-gen is just round the corner, but I’m so happy with where we are right now that the thought of upgrading seems pretty pointless to me, as I have mentioned here a few times already.
I picked up Haunting Ground aka Demento on Saturday and it fired off a few interesting thought in my brain.
Just to comment on the game for a moment. It is a pretty successful take on the survival horror genre building on games like the Clock Tower series, Ico and Silent Hill. The main gameplay mechanic is hide and seek, this is coupled with a buddy in the form of a dog called Hewie (a nicer representative of man’s best friend you’d be hard to find).
You have no real way to defend yourself, but Hewie can attack your pursuers from behind. Your only option is to run and find a place to hide, until the coast is clear. The character you play is very susceptible to fear and you have to be careful not to freak her out, a bit like in Eternal Darkness with the sanity effects, the more frightened your character becomes effects your ability to control her and the way the screen looks.
This is all done very effectively and I would recommend the game if you liked Ico, Silent Hill, Fatal Frame.
The reason why I wanted to talk about Haunting Ground is because of the technology behind the game. It runs in 480p and has streaming levels with no loading in-between, a bit like Jak2 and Primal.
In my experience very few Japanese titles play like this. Silent Hill 3, MGS3, Onimusha 3, Devil May Cry, they all have a pretty intrusive level loading mechanics. In Haunting Ground being able to move seamlessly from room to room has a real effect on the gameplay and it wouldn’t really work any other way.
But they don’t seem to have had to make any sacrifices to have these streaming environments. From a graphical perspective the game looks like a 4th generation PS2 title. The environments are much pettier than Silent Hill 3, with character models and animation being on a par. It has a good use of lighting with single source shadows for every character.
How hard is something like this to achieve? I appreciate that Sony have perfected the streaming technique with games like God of War, Jak2 and Primal and seem to share the technology internally.
What is it like on other platforms? Are there many examples of these continuous environments like the examples I mention?
I would be happy to see this used in more games, especially if the compromises are very limited in terms of graphics and gameplay.
