Is the next generation really that exciting....really?

[Conker Live]

Maybe I need more convincing.....but after playing Doom 3, Conker Live (Demo of course) and others using great lighting and normal mapping, I'm left wondering will the next generation BE that much greater? I have seen all the Unreal 3 engine demos...and the latest ATI demos but...it just doesn't blow away the current stuff. And for a reminder of the definition of blown away:

GT2

GT4

Now if EA's estimates are right and this is accurate:

Madden 2004 on Xbox

Possible next generation Madden

Then the next gen will blow away the current stuff...but you all know how much faith we can but into non-real time images:

and

So what do you think? I know its always exciting to talk about next gen stuff...but I think we are going to be absolutely shocked with the next gen or very disappointed...nothing in between.

Cheers!

 

[Johnny Awesome]

I think the next generation will be amazing, especially for HDTV owners and home audio enthusiasts. My main curiosity revolves around gameplay though: what will the surprises be? Halo, GTA3, and Splinter Cell all came right out of nowhere and impressed with fresh gameplay. I'm sure other people will have different games that did this for them, but these are examples that stand out for me.

What will the new gameplay innovations be to go along with those graphics? I have a feeling it will revolve around online communities in some way...

 

[GwymWeepa]

Next-gen machines will be powerful enough to take a crap on most current generation games...buuuuuuuut I think development costs will keep most games looking very similar to current PC titles. Though there will be gems, square always pushes technical and artistic boundries, I can't wait to see what Retro can come up with, considering the Prime series destroys most other FPS titles in terms of art design (especially Halo, I'm sorry I just had to say it).

 

[GwymWeepa]

I think the next generation will be amazing, especially for HDTV owners and home audio enthusiasts. My main curiosity revolves around gameplay though: what will the surprises be? Halo, GTA3, and Splinter Cell all came right out of nowhere and impressed with fresh gameplay. I'm sure other people will have different games that did this for them, but these are examples that stand out for me.

What will the new gameplay innovations be to go along with those graphics? I have a feeling it will revolve around online communities in some way...

Oh yeah, the biggest boon for gamers next-gen is high resolution gaming for consoles, woot! Anyway, concerning gameplay innovations, I'm more curious about what the enhanced AI and physics will do for games, not the graphics.

 

[Megadrive1988]

next gen consoles: Xbox Next, Revolution, PS3 have the potential to do the stuff that was fantasised about for this gen PS2, Cube, Xbox. we should see games in 2006-2007 that rival 1990s CG television shows like Transformers Beast Wars and PS1 CG, well, at least that is my hope anyway. gameplay could also be tremendously exciting if developers come up with more fun ways of doing things. with motion tracking, voice, touch, analog control all combined, the possibilities are tremendous.

 

[Snyder]

This is should not be seen as a flame, please.

But why is it that GT4 screenshots always look waaay better than the real thing? I've played it for a while at a games fair here in Vienna - and the above screenshot is quite flattering, even for a hi-res shot. (Which always will look far better than a shot taken at original res w/o FSAA)
I've only tried the Nuerburgring Nordschleife though - maybe the graphics are scaled down at this track due to its size.
But the aliasing in the game is almost unbearable.

 

[jvd]

This gen you get nice image quality in small scenes . You never really see more than a few things on the screen at once.

It be like comparing Half life 2 to everquest 2 . Sure half life 2 looks better and runs faster. But at the most u get 10 or 12 chars on the screen at once. IN eq2 your running around with a 100 people all in view and then the bad guys in large open areas .

In the next gen instead of being confined to games like half life 2 with a few chars to get good looking images , we will have games like unreal engine 3 but on the scale of eq2 .

THat is my hopes for the next gen .

 

[GwymWeepa]

This is should not be seen as a flame, please.

But why is it that GT4 screenshots always look waaay better than the real thing? I've played it for a while at a games fair here in Vienna - and the above screenshot is quite flattering, even for a hi-res shot. (Which always will look far better than a shot taken at original res w/o FSAA)
I've only tried the Nuerburgring Nordschleife though - maybe the graphics are scaled down at this track due to its size.
But the aliasing in the game is almost unbearable.

Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't the GT games up the graphics quality when in a replay, and no AI is being processed, and also, GT4 introduces a photo mode that increases resolution dramatically...that may help explain things.

I expect that GT4 pic, with better environments all in real-time all the time with dozens of cars on screen at once.

 

[Inane_Dork]

Exciting? Not especially.

For me, it's more a relief. High resolution is WAY overdue on consoles, and I feel it almost every time I play my Xbox. Don't even get me started on 480i split-screened. Blech. And I hope for there to be more default PC to console functionality next gen too, though probably only for the X2.

 

[add n to (x)]

Higher resolution is nice, but it's not the be all and end all graphically. Staying at the same resolution and being able to spend more gflops/pixel should give a much more "realistic" result, if that's what you're looking for. At the end of the day, it's technology enabling content creators. It's all about the art.

 

[GwymWeepa]

Higher resolution is nice, but it's not the be all and end all graphically. Staying at the same resolution and being able to spend more gflops/pixel should give a much more "realistic" result, if that's what you're looking for. At the end of the day, it's technology enabling content creators. It's all about the art.

More realistic? When I look outside I don't see everything blurred, unless I have my glasses off lol, I'd rather be able to clearly see what the artist is making.

 

[ultimate_end]

I think jvd summed it up perfectly. Thanks to him, I'm now expecting UE3-like MMORPGs .
But it has always been my thoughts that a game like Dynasty Warriors will see the greatest improvement. Those games will come of age next gen IMO, especially when you consider the impact of better AI and animation on this type of game. I can't wait!

 

[add n to (x)]

Higher resolution is nice, but it's not the be all and end all graphically. Staying at the same resolution and being able to spend more gflops/pixel should give a much more "realistic" result, if that's what you're looking for. At the end of the day, it's technology enabling content creators. It's all about the art.

More realistic? When I look outside I don't see everything blurred, unless I have my glasses off lol, I'd rather be able to clearly see what the artist is making.

Does standard definition TV look blurry to you? I should have been more specific. Of course you can spend more gflops/pixel doing super/multi-sampling to enable a higher effective resolution. Many a time I've been playing a racing game, only to have a car jump out of nowhere because the resolution wasn't high enough to resolve it in the distance. But standard definition TV proves that higher resolution isn't neccessary to create more realistic looking images, but more effort per pixel.

 

[GwymWeepa]

Higher resolution is nice, but it's not the be all and end all graphically. Staying at the same resolution and being able to spend more gflops/pixel should give a much more "realistic" result, if that's what you're looking for. At the end of the day, it's technology enabling content creators. It's all about the art.

More realistic? When I look outside I don't see everything blurred, unless I have my glasses off lol, I'd rather be able to clearly see what the artist is making.

Does standard definition TV look blurry to you? I should have been more specific. Of course you can spend more gflops/pixel doing super/multi-sampling to enable a higher effective resolution. Many a time I've been playing a racing game, only to have a car jump out of nowhere because the resolution wasn't high enough to resolve it in the distance. But standard definition TV proves that higher resolution isn't neccessary to create more realistic looking images, but more effort per pixel.

Standard resolution TV does indeed look blurry to me, I'd rather have HDTV resolution with a game engine that can't do quite as much than a really fancy game engine that's limited to standard TV resolution. It would be even nicer if I had a choice of resolutions.

 

[PC-Engine]

480p with good AA is rather nice if you have the right kind of display.

 

[GwymWeepa]

480p with good AA is rather nice if you have the right kind of display.

And 720p would be rather nicer lol. I know not too many people have hdtvs, but plenty have decent monitors, I would love the option for various resolutions, maybe not to the 1600x1200 that videophiles crave, but to have some choice would be nice.

 

[Fox5]

That picture of GT2 looks surprisingly better than I remember GT2 looking. Guess it's the angle.

BTW, I think part of what makes next gen not look so great is its reliance on 'faked' detail with bumpmapping/pixel shaders and what not, since the underlying framework isn't much better than we have today, just with added layers of shininess.

CG television shows like Transformers Beast Wars and PS1 CG

Ugh! Those looked so nasty, and that would probably be a step back for games except for the 160000x AA. I don't even think Beast Wars even used textures more complex than what a voodoo could do.
I wanna see Diablo 2 level CG.

Seriously, does that look all that good?

The later seasons did look better though.(same thing happened with Reboot, went from solid color textures to some rather detailed textures)

 

[wco81]

Well my console is 4 years old and my PC is even older. So I'm ready for a change.

Beyond that, resolution is a good start. When you have a HDTV, there is a big gap between HDTV programs and SD content. So to have another HDTV source helps justify that investment.

Resoluton can hide a lot of ills. Madden for the PC, which is not exactly pushing the state of the art, looks better at 1024x768 on my Pentium II 350 Mhz PC with a GeForce 2 MX card than on my PS2. It may not push as many polygons on the PC version but the smoother borders give it a clearer appearance.

I too am looking for better physics. As for better AI, I would be more for better online so that you don't need to play against the AI. This generation transitioned to online for consoles. Next gen, it should all be online from the start, except for the Nintendo box. Of course, the kind of online "innovation" they're looking for involves making money, like micro-transactions and more subscriptions nonsense.

 

[_phil_]

too many time i hear about nextgen being the same old games + cosmetics...I hope for more in new approach of gaming and gameplay/mechanics inovation than more poly and more bump .

The most modern top notch technical media is also the less creative ,very ironic.

 

[hey69]

that GT2000 demo you posted there was not a prerendered movie.
it was a souped up GT2