Thursday 20 February 2014

Xbox One: Delivering the Games, not the Numbers

Post by Robert (A Virtual Duck), Week of February 17th 2014

Xbox One has been ridiculed on many gaming sites and by the notorious PS fanboys as being a less-than-1080p delivering console. Despite many games (FIFA 14, Forza 5, and Need for Speed Rivals to name a few) rendering natively in 1080p, a few games have failed to reach the mark. Some did it conciously, like Ryse: Son of Rome, deciding to focus on the effects and picture quality rather than the resolution (hitting 900p 30fps), or Dead Rising 3, which decided to donate CPU and GPU power to produce over 1000 individual sophisticated zombie AI onscreen, which is currently a best for either console.



Others notoriously failed to hit the mark, quoting the fact 10% of the GPU is reserved for Kinect (now 2%), there was an inefficient SDK (fixed, but we won't see benefit for a while) and saying that the system simply wasn't powerful enough. Some can be put down as lazy devs *coughCoD:Ghostscough*, but others could be a valid concern. However, Xbox users, don't pick at the numbers, as it has been proven that next-generation upscaling on Xbox One can produce a picture of almost equal quality from 720p to 1080p as a 1080p native game. Sure, numbers are nice, but what do they really mean?




Here for instance, it is proven Xbox One's 720p to 1080p upscale is better quality than PS4's 900p to 1080p upscale. Other comparisons have revealed little difference in graphical quality in every game except CoD: Ghosts. And IW is lazy, we all know that.




But Xbox One delivers on far more than just graphics, and the best AAA exclusives of this generation so far (as well as some indies not coming to PS like Super Time Force and Roundabout) have been delivered at launch, and many more are due in 2014. The competition had a generic shooter and a less-than-attractive platformer as their primary exclusives for launch, and await just a few more AAA exclusives in 2014, one of which had a graphical exposure on Twitter (including shadows not existing dynamically from streetlights), and another will fill your screen with QTEs and black bars.

Xbox One awaits exclusive titles from Remedy, Insomniac, previously a PS only developer (which made many angry and me very happy), Respawn Entertainment, Team Dakota, 343 Industries, Rare, Capy, Lionhead Studios, Turn 10, and possibly even Playground Games, as well as two confirmed Black Tusk projects (Gears and something else). I'm probably missing some.


PS4 gets the hype as the gamer's machine while simeltaniously not having any worthwhile games other than multiplats, a rip off of Gears due in 2014, and a game that seems to have had its graphics downgraded from E3, also not out yet.. Xbox One catches all the flak while having multiple worthwhile exclusives such as Forza with laser scanned tracks, Dead Rising 3 with a big open world and some big 'ol crowds of zombies, and Peggle 2. OK, Peggle 2 won't be exclusive forever, but I just love it so much.


Even PS4 gamers shouting "We have innovation! We have indies!" will soon be disappointed. March is expected to see the first batch of ID@Xbox titles, and I for sure will be picking up Roundabout. Whoever thought that game up deserves a medal. 

Massive Open Worlds, Time Manipulation, FPS Parkour, 1000 Zombies Onscreen, Laser Scanned Tracks, Unicorns and Pegs, Jetskiing and Wall Climbing, World Creation and a Custom Game Tool, a Top Down (shooter), another Top Down (not a shooter), a Fantasy RPG, 
a competitive FPS, another competitive FPS, possibly an open world car game, and multiple unannounced projects. If Xbox One hasn't got it yet, it's getting it damn soon. Exclusive.



If you ever get sad from looking at your TV playing Titanfall and saying "That picture is 900p upscaled to 1080p", remember this: Xbox One has the best exclusives around, and that isn't going to change anytime soon.

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