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Stupid Tech-Demo Nonsense


On 05/26/2013 at 11:21 AM by gigantor21

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Am I the only one who isn't bowled over by the minutiae devs use to promote next gen graphics?

Just look at how the Call of Duty engine was promoted. Arm hair? Bruises? Swimming fish? And then when they showed the proper trailer, the crazy camera angles and explosions meant that you could barely tell the difference half the time. And when you can, they still struggle with stuff like proper looking trees and plants anyway.

For the sake of fairness, you saw similar nonsense at the PS4 conference as well. You had the floating old man head and polygon counts from Quantic Dream, and then this:

OMG ALL THE CANDY D:

And then on the flipside, you have the tech demos that look amazing, but can't possibly run on either current or next gen consoles. Case in point? The Square Enix tech demo that they've beaten to death for over a year:

Looks amazing right? Wouldn't you just LOVE to be able to play a Final Fantasy game that ran like this on your PS4 or Xone at 60 frames per second?

Well, guess what? The PC used to run the demo had an i7 processor ($300) and a GTX 680 video card ($450). The Battlefield 4 demo was even worse, running on a Radeon HD 7990, a dual-GPU monstrosity of a video card that costs $1000. For reference, my PC and the parts I added later for gaming didn't cost that much in total!

So to the industry, I implore you: stop using random doodads like arm hair and brusing to get us excited about the shiny next-gen visuals. And PLEASE don't sit there and tell us the tech-demo running on PC parts that cost as much as entire consoles reflects real gameplay. As EA showed us during their EA Sports presentation, and Guerilla Games showed with Killzone 2 back in '05, console tech is more than capable of BS and smoke-and-mirrors.

You know the best way to get me excited about what consoles are capable of? Actual GAMEPLAY on the console in question. Guerilla managed to redeem itself after the KZ2 debacle with the genuine, playable demo of Shadow Fall, proving what the system was capable of delivering to gamers:

And that's the only way that console tech-demos should be handled. We're supposed to play these games, not just look at them.


 

Comments

Joaquim Mira Media Manager

05/26/2013 at 11:43 AM

I wholeheartedly agree.

gigantor21

05/26/2013 at 11:52 AM

Thanks. :)

Super Step Contributing Writer

05/26/2013 at 01:06 PM

I want to play Killzone 2 now. That fish video was amusing.

gigantor21

05/26/2013 at 04:48 PM

Damn, Miyamoto is a sage. He was able to see almost twenty years into the future! XD

smartcelt

05/26/2013 at 01:43 PM

That arm hair thing was puzzling to me. Who cares about stuff like that anyway? Besides,Adam Sessler made a comment recently about how graphics will not be the deciding factor,as both the PS4 and XBOX One will be capable of great visual presentation. That is why I'm looking forward to E3 so much. Maybe then we'll see gameplay rather than just specs and eye candy.

gigantor21

05/26/2013 at 04:50 PM

Not only that, but neither are going to be a massive jump over the best looking current gen games either. At least not visually. The main advance (hopefully) will be in the scope and scale of the gameplay, as there won't be as many tech restrictions on devs this time.

leeradical42

05/26/2013 at 02:23 PM

I want real life like graphics with proper shadows, wind , moving clouds etc that are in game not for show hell i can get a screen shot from my pc and post it on here and say look at Xbox ones new look and do you think in one would beleive it of course not were not stupid but apparently Microsoft thinks we are lol.

gigantor21

05/26/2013 at 04:52 PM

Using shady tactics to oversell new graphics tech is nothing new, unfortunately. You think they'd realize by now that we'll be able to see whether or not they were lying once we actually buy the games. :p

leeradical42

05/26/2013 at 07:10 PM

Hell we can tell before we buy the games one thing gamers know is what a pc vrs a console looks like, i mean you cant show me a pic of game on pc and tell me uts a console cause i will know lol.

Homelessrook

05/26/2013 at 02:25 PM

It is all about setting the hook in the mouth of a gamer. I just right now not faling for the bait and switch. I wish them the best but I can not get onboard right. No matter the graphics or how good the fish look.

gigantor21

05/26/2013 at 04:54 PM

I don't know man, that sea life moves pretty realistically. I know I'm tempted to play through those underwater segments just to see it. :p

Seriously, though. The people most likely to get the new consoles are core gamers, and many guessed right away that this stuff didn't reflect actual console gameplay. Who do they think they're fooling, exactly?

Matt Snee Staff Writer

05/26/2013 at 02:42 PM

but good fish are very important to a FPS!

gigantor21

05/26/2013 at 04:54 PM

And dogs. Don't forget the dogs.

leeradical42

05/26/2013 at 07:12 PM

Hey maybe there planning a fishing game lok!!

BrokenH

05/29/2013 at 12:51 AM

So far I've been like "Cool but uh,show me the gameplay!". lol. Don't get me wrong. I appreciate pretty graphics running at 60 fps but frankly, it's not super important to me. I can love a psp,indie, or snes game just as much as a next gen triple A title that dumped a ludicrous amount of money into its' own development cycle.

gigantor21

05/29/2013 at 08:31 AM

Good gameplay is priceless. You can still have fun with a good game that lacks polish, but no amount of money or manpower can make up for poor/lackluster game design.

That's why I want to see more practical applications for this stuff. Give me a reason to be excited about what devs can do with it that I can actually relate to. 

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