There have been numerous visual comparisons between Bungie’s upcoming Halo: Reach and Guerrilla Games’ Killzone 2. Now it’s time to let the numbers do the talking and tell you for real which game looks better.
Victor Zuylen over at Killzone.com posted as far back as 2008 about the evolution of Rico Velasquez, an ISA sergeant in Killzone 2. He talks about the exact amount of design changes and rendering Rico underwent, before the final Killzone 2 version was done. His article contained this statement:
“Rico’s new, close-cropped head is comprised of over 4600 polygons, whereas in Killzone 1 it consisted of only 1800 polygons.”
We did some snooping and discovered some 3D character art by Gary Huang for Bungie’s Halo: Reach, which he’s been working on since January 2010 – and they look exactly like the same renders for the futuristic foot soldiers that Bungie has put up online as being featured in Reach. The head’s polygon count? A mere 1300 for the “hi-res” model. As added proof, the hi-res pictures are named “Ingame” and “realtime”, showing that they are indeed the models used in Halo: Reach.
Doing a rough calculation, it seems Killzone 2’s head polygon count for Rico, with no helmet or visor, is roughly about 72% more than the number of polygons for the Reach’s futuristic soldier – that’s a difference of about 3300 polygons. Factoring in total body polygon count may bring the percentage difference down, but not by very much given the amount of detailing models in Killzone 2 carry compared to Reach. It actually seems that even Killzone 1 has a higher head polygon count than Reach, with 1800 to 1300.
You can view Huang’s concept art below and Rico’s final head model for Killzone 1 and 2.
This is the Myst that doesn’t end, yes it goes on and on my friends… All jokes about the amazing resilience of Myst Online: URU Live aside, it appears that things are going well since Cyan Worlds brought the game back online. In a post on the official forums, it appears that the CAVCON (or Cavern Condition) is standing at 4, which — unlike DEFCON — is a good thing. CAVCON 4 indicates that they’ve gotten enough donations to cover the current operating expenses and are able to put a little to the side for the future. There have also been 13,997 accounts created, and 46,881 logins during the week ending Feb. 24th — very good news!
To celebrate the resurrection of MO:UL, the Guild of Messengers is reporting that there is going to be an enormous “Return to URU Block Party” held this upcoming weekend: March 5-7. The party is being thrown by the Guild of Maintainers, and is open for everyone to attend — from the old-school cavern-crawling D’ni scholars to brand new seekers fresh from the desert!
If you’ve ever wanted to try out Myst Online: URU Live but didn’t know anyone in the game, this is a great way to meet some new friends and fellow adventurers. So check out Sera’s great new player guide, strap on your Ki, and we’ll see you in the caverns!
This year has already been hugely beneficial for both Sony and Microsoft, though it currently tilts more towards the Playstation 3. Nonetheless, by the second week of May, each console will have three AAA exclusives to each call it’s own. Which is all well and good, but what next after that?
After Alan Wake releases for the 360/PC in May, there won’t be a single AAA exclusive for the 360 for about four months. The Playstation 3 has it worse, because after God of War 3’s release, it’ll be bereft of any exclusives for six months. This is not to say the appeals of either console’s exclusives will wear off very quickly – God of War 3, Alan Wake, Splinter Cell Conviction, Heavy Rain, Mass Effect 2 and MAG should all support their respective platforms for a good 2-3 months after their release. However, the number of people buying a 360 or PS3 to experience them will steadily drop as compared to pre-existing owners giving them a whirl. This is not to say the drop in sales will be sharp; just that a noticeable decline will follow for a while.
The Xbox 360 will quickly emerge from this slump in September with the release of Halo: Reach (with Fable III to follow by the end of this year), while the PS3 has Arc releasing in Autumn (there should be hopefully be word on LittleBigPlanet 2’s release as well, at E3). But both consoles will have to rely on third party titles like Lost Planet 2, Dragon Age: Awakening, I Am Alive, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, No More Heroes 2 and Dead Rising 2 to sustain interest over the next few months. The problem is more pronounced with the PS3 since there are currently no exclusives slated for release these coming months (The Agent doesn’t have firm release date; neither does most of Sony’s rumoured titles like Killzone 3 and Resistance 3, and no one in their right mind would consider ModNation Racers a big deal). This is not counting the proposed shortage of PS3 units during the same period.
This gives an advantage to Nintendo, the current leader in the console wars, which has five strong exclusives from March till July with Red Steel 2, WarioWare: D.I.Y., Monster Hunter Tri, Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Metroid: Other M. There’s also news that the new Zelda could appear some time at the end of 2010, so Nintendo has it’s Autumn-Christmas base covered too. And this is not even counting the casual audience that is currently the Wii’s strongest market – they have plenty of family titles planned to sustain them as well. Not only can Nintendo compete with Sony and Microsoft during their stronger months, but will ably pick up the slack while they’re out of the picture. Though The Forgotten Sands and No More Heroes 2 will also come to Wii, they most likely won’t make much difference to sales.
E3 2010 will be a big opportunity for both Microsoft and Sony to expand on previous rumours, announce new titles and generally get the hype ball rolling for Autumn and Christmas. While it’s easy to say Nintendo has been dominating it’s competitors since the Wii’s release, it’s my prediction that it’ll have an even easier time in the Summer till pre-Autumn, while it’s competitors planning their prospective futures.
An ertswhile Japanese wood-carver (yes, that same guy wearing the Jason mask) has created perhaps the most awesome – and only – life-sized carving of Bioshock 2’sBig Daddy ever.
The entire video tracks his creation of the carving, from selecting the initial chunk of wood to subsequent perfections. Check it out, and marvel at how some one with a chainsaw can be so artistic.
News came up yesterday on how David Jaffe felt about professional reviews being done these days. However, it’s capped with a headline – “David Jaffe: I don’t care about reviews” – that seems to quote something else entirely. According to Jaffe himself, at least.
Jaffe recently responded on his blog about exactly which interview it was, expressing confusion on a statement that wasn’t there:
“It comes from a phone interview I did with OPM UK.
“I have not read the article yet but just based on this piece- which is what most people are linking to- does anyone see any place where I actually say I don’t care about reviews?
“Hey, I have not read the actual piece so it COULD be in there (not the net story but the OPM-UK print story) but I don’t recall saying it and I sure don’t see it in the net recap. Check out the news story on the net, see if you can find where I say I don’t care about reviews.”
He then goes on explain the actual quote attributed to him,
“To me, this sounds like I DO care about getting good reviews BUT I’m not as vested in proper media reviews as I used to be because I don’t feel I connect as much as I used to to what mainstream game critics like/want/desire. That was all I was saying and I THINK I got that idea across. Perhaps Tim Ingham who wrote the piece can let us know in an update of his story if I actually said what the headline of his piece makes it sound like I said.
“That would be good.
“Like I said, perhaps I did. But I don’t recall. I can’t imagine someone would just make something up and attribute it to me…people don’t do that sort of thing, do they?”
It sounds to us like the entire comment itself was taken out of context. But you have to agree that there is a big difference between Jaffe not being “vested in proper media reviews as I used to be” and flat out not caring about reviews.
