Rod Fergusson, franchise senior producer for Gears of War at Epic, has said that he believes the "upper end" of what the Xbox 360 can do is being reached.
Speaking in an interview, Fergusson said, "all I know is that with the two to three more years of optimization that we've had, we're much further along than I think, three years ago, we thought we were going to get.
"So I think we're certainly approaching the upper end of it, as far as what developers are able to do with it, but just looking at all the demos we saw today -- ours and others -- it's clear that all the games just keep improving, and keep pushing that bar." (He was unclear on what "the demos we saw today" were).
Elaborating further, Fergusson said, "I think it's just a matter of, you know, it's a slow cycle; you only get a kick at it every couple years, and so it takes a while for people to see that progress.
"There will be games in development that won't ship until 2010, and I'm sure they'll look killer, just because, again, they'll have more time with it, and learn from mistakes and optimizations of others. So, I don't know; I think we're getting up there, but I still think there's room to grow."
Hedging his bets a bit, isn't he? Still, it wouldn't do to send the message, 'we're delivering all we can technically deliver with Gears 2', would it? He probably wouldn't love a bitch-slap from Microsoft PR, either.
It should also be noted that he uttered the words, "I mean, I'm not the technical guy..." If that's the case, you're probably not doing yourself any favours by making proclamations about what the hardware's upper limit is, are you? That said, you presumably don't get to be one of the senior producers on a AAA game without knowing what you're on about...
Source: Gamasutra
Speaking in an interview, Fergusson said, "all I know is that with the two to three more years of optimization that we've had, we're much further along than I think, three years ago, we thought we were going to get.
"So I think we're certainly approaching the upper end of it, as far as what developers are able to do with it, but just looking at all the demos we saw today -- ours and others -- it's clear that all the games just keep improving, and keep pushing that bar." (He was unclear on what "the demos we saw today" were).
Elaborating further, Fergusson said, "I think it's just a matter of, you know, it's a slow cycle; you only get a kick at it every couple years, and so it takes a while for people to see that progress.
"There will be games in development that won't ship until 2010, and I'm sure they'll look killer, just because, again, they'll have more time with it, and learn from mistakes and optimizations of others. So, I don't know; I think we're getting up there, but I still think there's room to grow."
Hedging his bets a bit, isn't he? Still, it wouldn't do to send the message, 'we're delivering all we can technically deliver with Gears 2', would it? He probably wouldn't love a bitch-slap from Microsoft PR, either.
It should also be noted that he uttered the words, "I mean, I'm not the technical guy..." If that's the case, you're probably not doing yourself any favours by making proclamations about what the hardware's upper limit is, are you? That said, you presumably don't get to be one of the senior producers on a AAA game without knowing what you're on about...
Source: Gamasutra
Read More Like This
Comments
SuperSaiyan4 2 Sep 2008 13:59
1/9
With any console spend enough time with it graphics will improve, Gears 2 is only slightly an improvement over the first.
But if we look at last gen like the PS2 look at God of war 2 for example its an incredible game graphically and gameplay wise.
Looking at Xbox 1 games like Half Life 2 and FarCry looked amazing.
Same with the 360 in another 2-3 yrs time it will have games that look even more incredible.
But if we look at last gen like the PS2 look at God of war 2 for example its an incredible game graphically and gameplay wise.
Looking at Xbox 1 games like Half Life 2 and FarCry looked amazing.
Same with the 360 in another 2-3 yrs time it will have games that look even more incredible.
schnide 2 Sep 2008 15:08
2/9
SuperSaiyan4 wrote:
With any console spend enough time with it graphics will improve
And presumably the PS3 too? There you go, you CAN praise the PS3 if you try!
So if the 360 and PS3 are neck and neck now at these stages into their life cycles with the PS3 being newer, then in three years time..
:D
.
more comments below our sponsor's message
SuperSaiyan4 2 Sep 2008 15:28
3/9
Actually no the PS3 and 360 are not neck and neck, I can mention many cross platform games that look very bad and run poorly on the PS3, also if we look at the exclusive content that is available on some games and collectors edition the Xbox 360 has the upper hand.
BUT if we start looking at the kind of games coming out now on both machines the PS3 is showing a bit more what it can do visually with games like Resistance, LBP, MGS 4 other games, of course FF 13 would have been up there too but now has gone multi.
The main gripe with the PS3 is the installations which do not seem to help improve the load times and the worst being MGS4 with having to keep installing to do certain points in the game when reloading etc.
I think next year will show a bit more what the 2 machines are capable of as the blu-ray disc may infact help along with developers perhaps understanding the CELL better.
BUT if we start looking at the kind of games coming out now on both machines the PS3 is showing a bit more what it can do visually with games like Resistance, LBP, MGS 4 other games, of course FF 13 would have been up there too but now has gone multi.
The main gripe with the PS3 is the installations which do not seem to help improve the load times and the worst being MGS4 with having to keep installing to do certain points in the game when reloading etc.
I think next year will show a bit more what the 2 machines are capable of as the blu-ray disc may infact help along with developers perhaps understanding the CELL better.
deleted 2 Sep 2008 17:23
4/9
Thank god for that i was just getting sick and tired of seeing newer and prettier graphics!!
OptimusP 2 Sep 2008 17:30
5/9
Am I the only one who is scared that Epic means by "pushing the bar" they just found out 50 000 types of new shades of grey and brown to use in their tech-demo's, i mean games...
Why can't the go like "We just found a way to make rainbows in games look even more brightier!!! whiiiiii, lollypops for all!!" hmmm?
And i want a free lollypop
Why can't the go like "We just found a way to make rainbows in games look even more brightier!!! whiiiiii, lollypops for all!!" hmmm?
And i want a free lollypop
config 3 Sep 2008 12:34
6/9
SuperSaiyan4 wrote:
Actually no the PS3 and 360 are not neck and neck, I can mention many cross platform games that look very bad and run poorly on the PS3
That can readily be laid at the feet of sloppy conversion coding or, to give it its technical name, a shovelware port.
Tis not an indication of one system's prowess over the other.
See: Amiga versus Atari ST
SuperSaiyan4 3 Sep 2008 12:45
7/9
config wrote:
SuperSaiyan4 wrote:
Actually no the PS3 and 360 are not neck and neck, I can mention many cross platform games that look very bad and run poorly on the PS3
That can readily be laid at the feet of sloppy conversion coding or, to give it its technical name, a shovelware port.
Tis not an indication of one system's prowess over the other.
See: Amiga versus Atari ST
We all know the CELL in the PS3 is supposed to be the super awesomeness of any processor BUT the CELL in the PS3 is in fact a downgraded version of the actual design and specification but still yields a lot of processing power.
The graphics chip in the PS3 however is where its weakness is however I will admit we have still been able to see some games that are almost on par if not had to tell the difference from a 360 version like say Burnout Paradise however the game was infact coded on the PS3 first so this game be argued if the 360 version was infact downgraded a bit to look on par to the PS3 version.
But then I guess we can look at a game like UT3 on the PS3 and even though the 360 which came out later has some slight graphical enhancements it is clear that the indeed yes the PS3 is capable only in the right hands.
I guess down the line we will see further improvements as are expected in hopefully gameplay and visuals but even with the Xbox 360 its not the case of the power has not been fully tapped yet the power with all consoles is always used with what is available at the time.
It all depends on developers on how they make their games using the software they have for example even with the new update I find Ninja Gaiden 2 to have slow downs and its not got many enemies on screen, yet with another game say Too Human with lots of enemies on the screen and bigger environments it runs super smooth.
schnide 3 Sep 2008 16:02
8/9
SuperSaiyan4 wrote:
I think next year will show a bit more what the 2 machines are capable of as the blu-ray disc may infact help along with developers perhaps understanding the CELL better.
You do realise that you just said something positive about the PS3, don't you? You must surely be melting.. meeeeeelting..
When you've tidied up the mess then, do please explain to me how storage space is going to help developers understand the central processor.
OptimusP 3 Sep 2008 22:44
9/9
schnide wrote:
SuperSaiyan4 wrote:
I think next year will show a bit more what the 2 machines are capable of as the blu-ray disc may infact help along with developers perhaps understanding the CELL better.
You do realise that you just said something positive about the PS3, don't you? You must surely be melting.. meeeeeelting..
When you've tidied up the mess then, do please explain to me how storage space is going to help developers understand the central processor.
More loading times because of uncompressed data on the Blu-Ray...because you know...only casual gamers do not wait for their game to load...so it must be hardcore to do wait!
That or more bloatware on blu-ray...