Ben-DutkaSee now, this seems "next-gen" to me.
Ubisoft's strategic shooter The Division won't be ready for a while, but we're willing to be patient, especially knowing the sheer potential of the game.
However, it's difficult to wait when we see trailers like this: The latest is called "The Division vs. Real Life" and it shows off the title's amazing authenticity. The virtual depiction of New York City is impressive, as it compares landmarks like the Brooklyn Bridge, The Empire State Building, and Madison Square Garden. Even in this post-apocalyptic setting, one gets the feeling that he or she is standing in a ruined NYC.
The game is slated to arrive some time next year for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. And if you're wondering why it's not coming to previous-gen consoles, well…you haven't watched the video yet, obviously.
Related Game(s): The Division
Looks impressive. Not fully photo realistic but damn close! Wonder how this makes Kojima feel?
Coool
Looks good but it's an Ubisoft game and after what happened with Watch Dogs I have to take any trailers they show with a grain of salt.
True that lol
still. it's processed on x86 so it SUCKS!
Yeah – it has to! :p
Who needs Highlander when we got you? 🙂
When I was younger I thought highlander was the coolest poster. Once he replied to my comment and said he agreed with me and I felt so happy. Yeah, laugh but I was 13 then. I miss his avatar.
What on Earth did he do?
Given Ubisoft's history of bogus trailers that end up looking nothing like the released product, it's hard to really think anything about this other than "meh".
The big thing about this to me isn't so much about the hardware. The hardware we have now can produce pretty much anything impressively.
But what stands out to me is the level of skill that goes beyond rasterizing images to the screen. Games now can look tremendously better simply by hiring specialists in various fields of expertise.
Hollywood calibur art and scene directors can dramatically change the wow factor of a game. As we can see the video makes the game look better than plain old reality. Where everything on display is made to look like hyper realism, sorta like how models in magazines are made to look better than regular people.
We're at a point in gaming where the amount of expertise in creating rigging and asset tools can go a long way into making things look very impressive.
All of this takes a huge amount of man power, which of course translates to a huge amount of expense. The biggest limiting factor about making games look "truly next-gen" isn't in the hardware but in the quality of the team and time span allotted to make things truly shine.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 8/8/2014 4:42:40 PM
Yeah, very true. But developers (and us as gamers – at least we SHOULD) knew this was coming too. As the hardware potential increases, the amount of work needed to utilize that potential also increases.
But on the bright side, developers don't need to spend any more time and computational rendering power making CGI scenes anymore. 🙂
But you brought up a good point – I wonder when we are going to see a bump up in game prices…
Because we all know it's not an 'if' but 'when.'
I don't think everyone knew it was coming. Many? Sure. I think there's a number of people who don't really think about what it takes to make a AAA game today. The kind of work that needs to be done. It's serious work trying to accurately recreate a place like New York. Everything from topological data to engineering schematics for proper dimensions etc requires a lot of man power. Smaller studios just can't afford to do this kind of work. To say, send out crews to capture photographs of all kinds of textures and materials.
The idea that simply upgrading to more powerful hardware translates right away to impressive never-before-seen experiences is off the mark. Sure, in the past, when graphics were so crude with thick pixels and very low resolution textures etc, any sort of increase in graphics performance meant for tangible improvement right from the get go. But those days are long since gone. Everything now is scaled so much larger with so much more going on with things like lighting it takes a lot more than pumping up resolution to make any real noticeable results. Even for the last gen there was a bit of that. It took until like Gears of War before I saw graphics that made me say "Wow, now that is way better than last gen"
EDIT: btw, as to game prices. I imagine DLC is one reason why we haven't seen baseline MSRP increases on major games.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 8/8/2014 7:17:56 PM
this makes me think about Gran Turismo. During the, what was it?, second ending video for GT6 it showed Polyphony out at various tracks doing live races and capturing all kinds of footage and data from around the world. It's one thing to just create cars in a 3D program and try to do everything from referencing existing stuff from the net etc, but it's another thing getting really involved and investing most of your work life into going where you need to go and doing what you need to do to really understand all the many elements that define such a sport. Those guys aim for ultimate realism, but that comes at a price and no wonder it takes PD many years to release a new GT. It's a heck of a lot of work
Last edited by Temjin001 on 8/8/2014 7:23:51 PM
Wouldn't developer tools and what not soak up the blow of all the extra work needed for the increase of tech?
At this rate we'll be able to take a virtual tour of NYC which would eliminate the need to travel out there and scan it first hand. The actual level and character creations should come with increased ease as game engines compete with each other for the developer's choice.
'
In other words if the lawn area to be mowed increase we we'll simply ditch the trimmer and go for a push mower and on to a rider or PTO tractor when the time comes.
I completely agree with you Temjin, and I remember developers and gamers having similar conversations as this when last gen hit since it was such a significant increase in power to the generation before it. But yeah, the jump to this gen is much more than poly counts and increased texture resolutions.
And you're spot on about DLC. I forgot that many developers (and publishers) see games as a platform through which to push more content. Momentary forgetfulness… 🙂
And Solid, yes developer tools help out a lot (A LOT) to get the base physics and lighting of the world going, but I don't think there's a shortcut for the painting of that world – you know, creating all those art assets like models, textures, animations, and buildings/structures of that world. And the bigger the world the more of that stuff there is to make. But hey, I could be completely wrong though – that's just my understanding of the process.
Oh, and there's really no substitute for going out and scouting your proposed location. If you really want to try and recreate the "feeling" that's there, nothing beats visiting. Pictures and maps only go so far.
With all these game delays, I think we are understanding how much time all those additional details developers can add really take. At least, I hope that's the case.
Last edited by SaiyanSenpai on 8/8/2014 10:13:09 PM
Still super pissed that when the game was first announced they said the PS4 was lead platform and it was being designed with the PS4 specifically in mind then they flop sides and give all the exclusive content to the X1 this was the next-gen game I was looking forward too and I have an Xbox but I am not going to buy the inferior version of game even if it does have bonus content and timed DLC. =S