Re: The Force Unleashed 2 trailer
2.) The console vs. PC split.
The problem with the console vs PC split is that it's still there, very much so. But what's happening is that very few developers are willing to spend the time and effort making an amazing game that's exclusive to PC. PC game sales aren't what they used to be.. blame it on piracy or lackluster games or whatever. So instead of catering to the (still) more powerful hardware, they decide "hey, we'll just make a game for every platform!"
Console fans don't like to hear that their games are the "dumbed-down" version of a PC game, but in many cases that's exactly what's happening. While the PC version of a game may still run at higher resolution, with better textures, better antialiasing, etc, the core game engine that it's running on is still meant to be run on X360/PS3, and so has to leave out some of the really advanced shaders and mutli-processor physics, etc.
We should see an example of this coming up later this year, I think, in
Crysis 2. People said the consoles couldn't push the original
Crysis, and I truly believe that they're right. So when
Crysis 2 comes out, one of two things is going to happen: The PC version will
far outstrip the console versions in terms of graphical performance, or the PC version will actually end up looking
worse than the original
Crysis.
See, with
Crysis, it wasn't about the overall presentation.. it wasn't
just high-res textures or fancy lighting effects. It was a hundred little things, all running at the same time. Texture shaders, water shaders, translucency, occlusion, dynamic lighting, physics, all of it
combined was what made
Crysis stand out, and why it still stands today as one of the best-looking games out there, two years after its release. Technically speaking, the consoles could certainly do all of the things that
Crysis did.. just not all at the same time. Which may be why
Crysis 2 takes place in a city, so that it doesn't have to.
The original
Force Unleashed is one of the worst examples of a PC port. I was thinking of "upgrading" to the PC version when it was released, until I read the reviews. That the game is basically the X360 version running inside of an emulator. There aren't even any options to change resolution, texture/shader quality, any of it.. it's all fixed. The only thing it can do is scale to fit your monitor. That's it.. no other adjustments. I've never seen a PC game that didn't have things you can alter to make it perform better or look better. And this is a game that would have looked amazing if they'd actually created a true PC version instead of just emulating the console version. I hope they don't make the same mistake with the sequel.