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Feature Article: Graphic Glitches 101

Wed May 14, 2008 at 01:00 PM ET
Tags: High-Def Gaming, Wayne Santos (all tags)

Editor's Note: Columnist Wayne Santos is a dedicated gamer from the infancy of the medium. He is a contributor at IGN and associate editor of Southeast Asian gaming publication GameAxis. In this new, semi-regular column, Wayne will be discussing a broad range of topics related to High-Def Gaming.

By Wayne Santos

High-Def Digest already has a rigorous system in place for evaluating the picture quality of movies, documentaries, and concerts that are presented in High Definition. Over the course of the mainstream transition to HD, this has given a lot of neophytes to the world of visual fidelity a good grounding in what they should look out for to discern the difference between a quality transfer and ones that sport minor or even major flaws. With a little information, more and more people can now make out the distinctions in picture quality for themselves, and make more informed decisions about which movies really make the most of their televisions. The same also holds true for games, although the criteria for judging the visual quality of a game does differ. Movies have issues such as artifacts, banding and color. Games have their own issues like frame rates and collision detection, for example.

For many years, the graphical quality of games was severely hindered by the constraints of the hardware, and this was particularly true for consoles, where earlier hardware such as the Nintendo Entertainment System – or even the original Playstation – while considerably more advanced than the clumsy, colored squares of consoles in the 70’s (like the Atari 2600), still required a lot of imagination on the part of the gamers to create a sense of realism and suspension of disbelief that film found so easy to instill in audiences. This is gradually changing now with the introduction of more powerful consoles into the home and the transition into HD gaming, but that doesn’t mean that gaming is anywhere near achieving a degree of photorealism that will instantly fool the human eye. While the visuals in games get more polished and refined, with developers getting a better understanding of the machines they work on, or developing new graphics engines, there are still things that can – and frequently do – slip through the cracks of visual presentation. In this article, we’ll look at the deficiencies or “glitches” that can separate top tier graphical work from more functional efforts. This is meant to be a general introduction, so nothing will get too technical here, and it should help those new to gaming as the result of obtaining a 360 as an HD-DVD player, or a PS3 as a Blu-Ray player, get more familiar with the interactive aspect of their machines.

Frame Rate

When it comes to film, the accepted convention very early in the inception of the medium was 24 frames per second. That is to say, the illusion of movement was created when 24 images were played back in the space of one second. For years this has been the standard, although in recent times with the introduction of HDTV broadcasts, this is starting to change to rates like 60 frames per second. In games however, the frame rate is nowhere near the universal standard that film has enjoyed for decades, and this is chiefly because of the limitations of the technology. While film generally manages to create a sense of movement from 24 frames per second, or fps, that illusion is maintained because of the consistency; except for deliberate camera choices such as slow motion or fast forward, a viewer can generally expect the film to run at 24 fps without ever noticing a dramatic change.

The same however, does not hold true of games. Unlike a digital disc, film reel, or tape, which is used as a playback device, a game console takes the data of the game and must virtually recreate that information as objects and environments that the player can interact with. As a result, the processor of a console is constantly “creating the world” around the player, and depending on how intense the action is – or simply depending on how well the game has been programmed – there can be some variance from the 30 fps or 60 fps that are generally accepted as the standards for the gaming industry today. For example, Grand Theft Auto IV the game which recently took the record for best selling piece of entertainment in a 24 hour period, normally runs at 30 fps. However, the scale of the world the game is trying to create, or “render” can be quite taxing on consoles, and if things get too hectic, for example, causing a gigantic firefight with helicopters, police teams, S.W.A.T. vans, explosions and screaming pedestrians in the virtual equivalent of Times Square, with neon, lights and the occasional explosion from rocket propelled grenades… this much chaos can occasionally strain the 360 or PS3 and will have a noticeable drop in its frame rate, though this doesn’t carry on for very long. On the other hand, games with fewer variables to consider, such as Gran Turismo 5: Prologue have an easier time with more controlled conditions. In the case of GT Prologue, the fact that its resources are devoted to simulating only a track and the behavior of the cars on the track means that it was optimized to display at 60 fps during gameplay and it never drops from this. .

Spotting a drop in the frame rate is one of the easiest glitches to identify as the human eye immediately notices the change in movement. One moment everything is relatively smooth, but as soon the frame rate drops, the eye sees the change as a “stuttered” motion. Depending on the severity of the drop in frame rate, this can even be as serious as the movement no longer appearing to be movement, but instead bearing closer resemblance to a slide-show, with images present for a second or more before moving onto the next. Games today rarely – if ever – experience a drop in frame rate this serious, although in the infancy of gaming, some games actually functioned at far lower frame rates – as low as 6fps – for the simple reason that that was all the retail processors of the time were capable of.

Screen Tearing

Screen Tearing is a relatively recent phenomenon for consoles, although PC gamers have been familiar with this particular glitch for a number of years. The glitch gets its name from the effect it has on the visuals, such as the shot of the original Halo: Combat Evolved shown above. Take careful notice of the area between the player’s gun and soldier to the left. What should be a view of the shore with the water washing up has a section that doesn’t match with the rest of the image, as if the individual section has been shifted or “torn” from the fabric of the rest of the image and isn’t aligning correctly. Screen Tearing is related to frame rate issues in that it’s a conflict between one image and another. In this case, the glitch occurs when a new image is being displayed, but the older image is also still being displayed.

This issue is normally addressed by a technique known as Vertical Synchronization, or Vsync, which is essentially a “gatekeeper” that ensures one image is fully rendered and ready to discard before another image is rendered. However, the dynamic nature of games can still occasionally cause screen tearing to occur, particularly if the action on screen forces the processor to make a choice between keeping the frame rate smooth and displaying some screen tear, or eliminating the screen tear at the cost of dropping the frame rate. This can happen to varying degrees on graphics intensive games, indicating that either the software is pushing the hardware to the limit, or the hardware itself is not being fully utilized. For example God of War 2 on the Playstation 2 had moments of screen tearing, but it was widely accepted that this was simply because the Sony Santa Monica team had pushed the PS2 about as far as it could go, and were using nearly all the resources the machine had with little leeway left for flawless Vsync. On the other hand, early launch efforts like the Xbox 360 First Person Shooter Perfect Dark Zero showed screen tearing simply because the technology was new and the game was rushed out in order to release in time for the launch of the console. It’s usually normal for the first wave or generation of games on a new console to display the most obvious graphical flaws because of the lack of familiarity with the hardware at the time. However, it all rests in the hands of the developer, their understanding of the hardware, and how hard they push the boundaries when it comes to this issue. Even today there are still some high profile games that are occasionally prone to this glitch, such as Gran Turismo 5: Prologue, which has extremely rare occurrences of this glitch, while other games such as the critically acclaimed Mass Effect on the Xbox 360 suffer from it on a regular basis.

Pop-Up/Draw-In

This is a graphical glitch that will probably remain an issue for this generation of gaming and beyond. The simple fact of the matter is the current hardware, while impressive, is not all-powerful and it will still hit definite limitations in terms of what it’s capable of displaying. In order to not tax the resources of a machine, developers will normally set a “draw distance” which – in virtual world terms – is the area that game is instructing to the console to display or render. After all, if a player is only going to see, say, the first 30 yards of the environment around him, it’s more economical for the hardware to concern itself with only creating that 30 yard radius the player sees to the fullest possible detail, rather than creating the whole environment to that intricate level for miles around.

This is also where the problems come in. Once again the understanding of the hardware, the quality of the programming and the dynamic nature of games all conspire to make the issue of draw distance a less than straightforward affair, and when things go wrong, that is where pop-up or draw-in can occur. Put simply, this glitch occurs when players are interacting with the world too quickly for the game to keep up, and when the game does finally get back on track with where the player is and what they are doing, the game must suddenly make up for lost time and start rapidly populating the area with the things that are supposed to be in that environment. The clearest example of this is something like Grand Theft Auto IV where the world is truly massive. If players manage to get a good run in a car, hurtling down roads at breakneck speeds, they can be traveling so fast that elements of the game world no longer gradually appear in the distance and get closer as the player approaches. Instead, objects – like trees, lamp posts and even pedestrians – can magically appear out of nowhere as the game finally “catches up” with the player and starts populating the area once it realizes where the player is. Obviously with the previous example of a high speed race, this can mean the player colliding straight into buildings or other obstacles that weren’t there a split second before and have seemingly “teleported” into place before the player’s very eyes. This is pop-up. Draw-in is a similar glitch, which works at a slower pace. Instead of magically appearing in front of the player with no warning, draw-in usually works somewhere in the distance, where the environment actually appears to be quickly “drawn in” before the players very eyes, as if a construction crew were rapidly building up the world a short distance away, trying to finish in time before the player arrives.

Here’s a good example of pop-up courtesy of GameSpot, from the game Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

For the example above, imagine that the player has just teleported into the area, and this what they see when they first arrive; a hut and a fence. However, a second later, this happens:

The world has suddenly become more populated with trees, horses, even a sign on the hut. The game has finally caught up with the location of the gamer, and in a hasty effort to get back on track with what the player is supposed to see in this area, it has made all the extra objects instantaneously appear. This is not a problem that is going to go away any time soon, as developers are constantly pushing the hardware to create bigger, more detailed and expansive worlds. Pop-up and draw-in can be hidden to some degree, something that racing games excel at, by hiding the places where these glitches occur thanks to natural obstacles such as turns or even mountain walls that can obscure the objects normally viewable at a distance. But as consoles get more powerful, developers will be constantly encouraged to push the limits of that hardware, and as such the pop-up and draw-in issues will likely still be with us for a while until developers either truly master the “cheats” to hide it from players, or else hardware becomes powerful enough that it’s feasible to simply render everything in high detail within the viewable distance in real time.

Aliasing/”Jaggies”

The above screenshot is from 1998’s Ridge Racer 4 on the original Playstation and is an extreme example of an issue that still occasionally crops up in games today, aliasing or “jaggies.” This is the clear, “stair step” effect that registers on our eyes when we see something displayed at lower resolution. Of course, higher resolutions have helped clean this up considerably in recent years, but the feature most responsible for giving us cleaner images is called Anti-Aliasing, which is simply devoting more processing power and specific programming techniques to “smoothing out” those edges and giving images a more naturalistic look in line with what we’re accustomed to seeing in real life. Compare the above image from 10 years ago that had no Anti-Aliasing on the original Playstation with Gran Turismo 5: Prologue on the PS3 to see what a difference “AA” as well as increased polygon counts and a host of other graphical upgrades can have on a game’s visuals.

Aliasing is another glitch that has become less pronounced in this new HD generation of games, although, surprisingly, it can still crop up. AA, like everything else about a game, will demand certain resources from the system, and as a result, sometimes developers will deliberately choose not to maximize this feature for a particular game if it means compromising the game in some other way, such as dropping the frame rate as the hardware struggles to smooth out everything on screen. It is this delicate balance between all these graphical considerations that forces developers to perform a juggling act of sorts, deciding on draw distances, AA and many, many other considerations to keep the game playable versus keeping the game beautiful. Games with longer draw distances and little pop up or draw in might suffer from more aliasing issues. Games with smoother frame rates and lots of anti-aliasing might suffer from smaller environments, etc, etc. In a sense, aside from the actual monetary cost of developing the game, the game developers have the additional worry of a “technological budget” where they must consider what sacrifices they make – and to what degree – in order to create a game that the audience will find both visually pleasing but also fun to actually play. Frequently they fail to strike the right balance, as evinced by the wealth of games that don’t meet up to either playability or graphical quality, whereas games that successfully do both are rare indeed.

Collision Detection/Clipping

The final glitch is one that doesn’t necessarily detract from the overall quality of the visuals, but has a tendency to break immersion more noticeably when it occurs. One of the fundamental rules of Newton states that – at least on the level of reality we’re familiar with – two objects cannot occupy the same space. Poor collision detection ( or “clipping” a nick name picked up from the game Doom from a built-in developer cheat called “No Clip”) is when for reasons of time or simple neglect, developers release a game in which virtual objects break this fundamental law. If you look closely at the above screenshot from famed online virtual reality Second Life, you’ll see a few examples of this in action. The man with the sunglasses has his right hand passing into his thigh, and to his left, the Smurf’s TNT is actually sinking into his thighs as well.

Poor collision detection is a fairly common glitch because it requires an enormous amount of time and care to properly address it. Usually game developers simply don’t have the luxury of that time or attention to detail because it would mean delaying a game that people are already screaming for in order to address what most would regard as a small nit-pick. These days, the most common times you’ll see poor collision detection in action is during shooters where players must kill other opponents. Usually collision detection is spot on and works as expected when everyone is alive, but when characters are killed, it’s not unusual for the game to no longer regard the victims as “objects” and often heads, legs and other extremities will now pass through walls in ghost-like fashion, since the game no longer deems it necessary to pay the same amount of attention to detail to an essentially “finished” asset of the game. It’s not the kind of thing that normally interferes with gameplay, at least not to the extent that a drop in frame-rate can, which is the most serious glitch, but poor collision detection is the one that most pulls the gamer out of the world the developers are trying to immerse people in, and remind them of the artificial nature of the game they are playing.

As with movies, these visual flaws are normally very minor things that don’t necessarily detract from the overall quality of a game, unless they reach serious levels. It wasn’t even until the last two generations that Anti-Aliasing was even a practical feature for console games, and plenty of games received critical acclaim without AA. But, as with film, the additional technology can enhance the gaming experience and contribute to the sense of suspension of disbelief, provided that the fundamentals – that is a strong game, with a compelling mechanics – is there to begin with. Like film, games are a marriage of elements, and if the gameplay isn’t there, the character isn’t there, and the story isn’t there, then all the visual fidelity in the world is not going to save that game from being a critical and commercial failure. Glitches such as the ones listed above can either be minor blemishes to an otherwise masterful game, or be more damning flaws in an already poor one.

Wayne Santos's opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of this site, its owners or employees.

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Feature Article: Four Games For Your Surround Sound Setup

Wed Apr 30, 2008 at 01:00 PM ET
Tags: High-Def Gaming, Wayne Santos (all tags)

Editor's Note: Columnist Wayne Santos is a dedicated gamer from the infancy of the medium. He is a contributor at IGN and associate editor of Southeast Asian gaming publication GameAxis. In this new, semi-regular column, Wayne will be discussing a broad range of topics related to High-Def Gaming.

By Wayne Santos

Sound occupies a funny place in both games and movies. On the one hand, it’s something that few people can readily appreciate or examine in the way they do graphics or cinematography and special effects. On the other hand, audio is absolutely crucial to conveying the emotion of a moment, whether it’s a stirring piece of music or a visceral sound effect. Although sound lacks the same “punch in the face” that overwhelming visuals immediately have, they can make or break the verisimilitude of games, and quite often don’t have the impact they should. As an example, cinema has for the most part embraced the importance of having good, believable dialog delivered in an effective way, whereas delivery in games is more often than not considered unimportant.

Lately though, the audio side of games has been changing, due in large part to technology that has improved dramatically in the 30 years since games first entered the public sphere. The earliest games could only sport electronic “beeps” and “boops,” whereas modern games have voice acting, and in some cases, full blown orchestral accompaniment gracing their audio environments today. Another factor is the rise of the home theater. Whereas it was almost unheard of the 60’s and 70’s for all but the most dedicated movie lover to have a set up at home that approximated the movie viewing experience, by the 90’s it was possible to buy surround sound packages at retail electronics stores that approximated the theater experience to a reasonable degree. Obviously it’s the quality of the individual components such as amplifiers and speakers that determine the overall clarity of sound, but in the 21st century, buying into a basic multi-speaker set for the home is not the huge expense it once was. And eventually, as the prominence of these more elaborate audio set ups grew, the game industry finally took the plunge and developed games capable of taking advantage of this kind of cinematic audio.

In this article, we’re going to look at just a small offering of four games. Each one is multi-platform, so both owners of either the Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 can take advantage of them. The actual quality of the gameplay isn’t quite as important here as what these games do to take advantage of sound systems for today’s consoles. All of them use sound in unique ways and showcase how audio in games can be vastly different, and in some cases more immersive, than what’s found in conventional films. The chief strength of audio in games is the very interactive and dynamic nature of the medium of games themselves. When you watch a movie, you are going to have the same audio experience every single time, with music, sound effects, and dialog all played out in linear sequence. Games do this as well, but can add a random element thanks to the unpredictable nature of the players taking matters into their own hands, so that no battle or other gaming experience necessarily is identical to the previous session. These next few games are the ones that show off this trait in their own ways.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare has, at least on the Xbox 360, done what many thought was impossible. It has dethroned the mighty Halo series as the king of console multi-player first person shooters. Up until this point the COD series was highly regarded as a quality World War II first person shooter, but with this latest addition, the development team at Infinity Ward finally decided to bring the realistic combat they’d been praised for into the 21st century.

As a first person shooter, or FPS, COD4’s chosen genre is the one that perhaps benefits the most from the modern surround sound experience. An FPS puts the gamer squarely in the point of view of the game’s protagonist, allowing them to see and hear the world from their fixed viewpoint. Because of this, sound is at its most dynamic in this genre of gaming, constantly adjusting to the actions and position of the player. When bullets are flying and explosions are rocking the ground from heavy artillery fire, the modern surround sound home theater fills the room in all directions, completely immersing the player in the environment in a way that even the fixed first person view itself can’t quite match. Where the first person view traps the gamer in a “window to the world” through which they must constantly turn to see things on their left and right, the surround sound set up constantly assails the ears from left, right front and behind in a constant, convincing way.

COD4 is currently one of the best examples of this quality in gaming today. Infinity Ward’s reputation for immersing gamers in the environs of WWII combat was almost universally praised by critics. Their attention to detail on weapons of the era, the vehicles such as the lumbering panzer tanks and their coverage of major WWII turning points such as the Normandy landing had made it clear that the developer was dedicated to a realistic portrayal of combat and war, rather than the usual celebration of chaotic, lone wolf destructive rampages that characterized most games in the FPS genre. When COD4 was released, this same attention to detail carried over to the modern era. Now instead of M1s and M1911s as standard arms COD4 puts players in a post Gulf War world of M16s, laser sights and anti-tank guided missiles. As you might imagine, the soundscape of a combined arms battle in the 21st century can be devastating and COD4 ratchets up the noise to take full advantage of this. The guns sound authentic, the explosions from grenades and collateral damage reverberate through the room, the intensity is kicked up by the radio chatter and high frequency hum if you’re standing too close to a grenade detonation, and all of this is accompanied by a score written by Hollywood composer Harry Gregson-Williams.

The combination of all these elements – some scripted, some spontaneously generated as a result of the players actions – creates an aural environment that will rock a home theater system with music, explosions, and combat chatter that rivals any action or military movie. The key difference is that the dynamic nature of COD4’s audio firmly puts players in the center of the action as a participant rather than a viewer, allowing them to sow their own mayhem and experience the earth shattering bass as they take out tanks and helicopters. Aside from its quality as one of the best FPS games currently available – particularly as an online experience – COD4 excels in surrounding gamers with an intense audio experience.

Condemned 2: Bloodshot

Games are a fairly young medium, and as such, they have rarely managed to evoke the same sophisticated emotional responses as more mature arts like literature and music, but there is one emotion that games effectively created in gamers: Fear. And a large part of that comes from the use of the sound. Condemned 2: Bloodshot is the latest example of this.

Published by SEGA and developed by Monolith Productions, Condemned 2 is a multi-platform sequel to the original Condemned: Criminal Origins, an early Xbox 360 exclusive title available when the console first launched. Although it wasn’t a huge commercial success it was judged favorably by critics for its gritty story about Ethan Thomas, an investigator with a serial crimes unit who gets tied up in a case with some mystical elements. At the end of the game, Thomas is apparently traumatized by the events he’s experienced and the sequel takes up almost a year later, with a broken, alcoholic Thomas dragged back to his old job because of a new wave of psychosis taking over the homeless contingent of the city, much like the first game. As to be expected, this return to duty is neither simple nor straightforward, and takes a turn for the irrational as Thomas investigates further.

Condemned 2 has the unique distinction of being the only horror game series currently available on this generation of consoles. But like previous generations, it does what most horror games in recent years have excelled at, creating an audio experience that is absolutely vital to the creation of fear. One of the most basic of human reactions is the anxiety caused when you know something is coming for you, but you don’t know what it is, or where exactly it is. In this respect, sound is the critical element. The graphics go a long way towards portraying broken down, decaying streets and buildings, but the sense of the chase comes from the foot steps, the sounds of moaning from pain or sadistic pleasure, and the eerie use of acoustics to create echo effects or give an immediate sense of distance or proximity.

What owners of a surround sound set up can expect from Condemned 2 is the exact opposite of COD4. Where the military FPS relies on a wall of sound to immerse gamers in the middle of the battlefield, Condemned 2 will often use silence punctuated by specific directional sound effects to achieve its goals. The game experiences long moments of relative quiet, where it is only the sounds of Ethan’s own movement that keep gamers company until an assailant seemingly appears out of nowhere, screaming, or sometimes laughing, before attempting to bludgeon players with a pipe or some other weapon. Here, the audio experience is much more intimate, relying on a more measured pace of audio contrasts to frighten gamers. The use of sound effects is also far less conventional than guns firing and helicopters flying overhead. Music here is less melodic and much more dissonant, mixing raw noise and electronics to further inject paranoia into the atmosphere. Spatially sound is even more important than in COD4 for the simple fact that much of the game takes place in darkness, often with only a single flashlight or weak light bulbs as your sole source of illumination. The game uses sound to great effect to hint at coming threats or simply make you aware of where they are when they’re about to pounce on you. This is probably used at its most chilling in the doll factory level, where Thomas must navigate a massive, decaying factory populated by small automated baby dolls that make noises and explode. The sound of their wind up walking, the flames around the factory as it’s consumed by fire and the genuinely disturbing first boss encounter all make this an exceptional audio experience for people looking for something beyond merely large, loud explosions. Like horror movies, games like Condemned 2 are sometimes better enjoyed with friends as the solo experience can often be a bit overwhelming for people with more delicate sensibilities.

Rock Band

Of all the games listed in this article, it is only Rock Band that has proven to be a regular source of contention around North America, bringing the police down on households for being too loud and disturbing the peace. Hailed by many critics as the ultimate party game, Rock Band has found a place with both casual and hardcore gamers as a game where everyone can come together and have a good time working with each other instead of against each other.

Rock Band is the latest product of Harmonix, the company responsible for the giant pop culture phenomenon that is Guitar Hero. It operates on exactly the same principal as their previous franchise, except that it now throws in virtual drums and vocals to accompany the lead and bass guitars for a full band experience. Harmonix created the game after a split with their original partner, peripherals manufacturer Red Octane who was purchased by the publisher Activision when Activision was interested in acquiring the rights to the Guitar Hero name and franchise. As a result, Red Octane continued to manufacture guitar peripherals for the GH franchise while actual creation of future games was handed over to Neversoft, a company best known up until this point for their work on the famous series of Tony Hawk skateboard games. Harmonix, meanwhile, was purchased by MTV with Electronic Arts signing on to handle to distribution duties. Since then, both Rock Band and Guitar Hero have been battling it out in homes and bars for the title of best music game in this generation of consoles.

Rock Band is the only game on this list where sound is not simply important, it is the absolute crux of the game. As a “music simulator” designed to give players the feeling of playing musical instruments, it relies squarely on its ability to play back recorded audio from bands, but brings in the interactive nature of games to track successful “hits and misses” of the various instruments to give players the feeling of playing well or performing badly during songs. The game takes recordings of each individual instrument and assigns them to lead guitar, bass guitar, drums and vocals so that each player has their role to fill in a virtual band, performing before a crowd that measures the quality of their performance based on how accurately they follow on-screen cues that substitute for standard musical notation. Surprisingly, only a handful of songs in Rock Band are covers performed by other musicians. The rest of the varied playlist in the game – and in the downloadable songs that can be purchased in the game’s music store – are master tracks provided by the original artists, giving music lovers the chance to not just hear, but play along with legendary bands such as The Who and Rush.

Graphically, Rock Band doesn’t compare to the other games on this list. The visuals are functional, and have some nice effects such as the fireworks and smoke erupting on stage as one would find in a live concert performance, but the real showcase here is the music. Rock Band may not have the same dynamically changing soundscape of a first person shooter, but it utilizes sound to its advantage in many other noticeable ways. It’s one of the few games that allow players to play with the sound themselves, making real-time alterations to the music through effects such as echo or “wah-wah” during guitar solos, and rewarding players for good performances with gratifying audio cues such as the audience clapping or singing along with the lyrics when the band is playing well. The combination of the crowd cheering and singing from other speakers as singers and other musicians blast out from the front speakers of a surround sound set up goes a long way towards giving an uncanny feeling of performing at a big concert before a virtual audience screaming for more, and the game itself just begs for surround sound systems to be cranked up LOUD. This is a game that, when played in a party situation, can literally wake up the neighborhood on a high end sound system, and gives players broad, possibly educational exposure to styles and genres of rock music they might otherwise never had had the chance to appreciate. In the 21st century, no party is complete without Rock Band blaring out of the television and speakers.

Prototype

Prototype is the only game on this list that isn’t currently available on the market. Due for release sometime in the 3rd quarter of 2008, there’s still not too much known about this title being developed by Radical Entertainment, with Sierra as the publisher.

What is known is that it will be a 3rd person action title set in contemporary New York. Players will take on the role of a man known as Alex Mercer an amnesiac who is now gifted with shape-shifting abilities thanks to a sentient virus overtaking New York known only as The Infection. Alex’s abilities range from being able to “consume” enemies and take on their likeness and memories to more drastic morphing similar to that of the T-1000 in Terminator 2 where he can literally reshape his limbs into blades to cut through entire mobs of enemies. The game is also making claims to being an open-world, “sandbox” style game in the vein of the Grand Theft Auto series, with players being able to roam throughout New York and explore the city when they’re not following the storyline.

While all of this sounds promising for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 owners, what makes the game worthy of inclusion is a recent feature that has been announced for it. Prototype is going to be the first game of the current generation that will fully utilize Neural THX 7.1 Surround Sound, making it THE videogame to own for surround sound enthusiasts looking to get the most out of their 7.1 set ups for gaming. Up until now, most games used the more common 5.1 configuration, except for a few Playstation 3 exclusive titles, so this will be a new milestone in the proliferation of high end gaming audio. This doesn’t actually say much about the actual quality of the game itself, but a contemporary setting with police and military action as well as a sentient virus promises to give a real work out in the sound department for explosions and gunfire. For people that own a 7.1 audio system and are looking for a game that makes the most of it -- questions of game quality aside -- this wil undoubtedly be a must have.

This is just a small sampling of the kinds of games that can give surround sound systems a good workout. As a general rule of thumb, it’s usually safe to assume that 3rd person action games and first person shooters are the genres most likely to make full use of the audio environment, although music games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band are also good exercises in pumping up the volume. Games have certainly come a long way since the simplistic beeps of the 70’s, and thanks to the proliferation of home theater systems, they’re now in a good position to overwhelm gamers with dynamic audio experiences from all directions. This is definitely shaping up to be one of the best times to be a gamer and an audiophile.

Wayne Santos's opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of this site, its owners, or employees.

See what people are saying about this story in our forums area, or check out other recent discussions.

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Feature Article: Five High-Def Titles For Your Game Console

Mon Apr 14, 2008 at 01:00 PM ET
Tags: High-Def Gaming, Wayne Santos (all tags)

Editor's Note: A dedicated gamer from the infancy of the medium, Wayne Santos is a contributor at IGN and associate editor of Southeast Asian gaming publication GameAxis. In this new twice monthly column for High-Def Digest, Wayne will be discussing a broad range of topics related to High-Def Gaming.

By Wayne Santos

The Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3 have brought HD gaming into the mainstream. After years of High-Def in the living room being a hazy concept that really only affected A/V aficionados, the more technologically inclined, and the affluent, these videogame machines have made HD Gaming as simple and affordable as “plug n’ play.” But as with any consumer device, the hardware, for all its potential, is just that — untapped potential. What really brings out the true worth of the machine is the software that goes into it, and how it utilizes the power built into its system architecture.

That’s where this article comes in. Most people who have a High-Def set-up in their homes aren’t afraid to show off what their systems can do. The same applies to HD consoles that may be integrated into these set-ups. When it comes to having the friends over, or just trying to demonstrate the virtues of HD to the uninitiated, it’s usually pretty easy to give a taste of the best HD movies have to offer. A recent special-effects laden summer blockbuster is an easy sampler of what High-Def can do, but here we’re going to look at games. Movies on Blu-Ray are almost uniformly a 1080p transfer with variances in individual quality due to the transfer of the source material to disc. Games, however, can run the gamut from “near HD” such as Halo 3’s upscaled 640p to the full 1080p of Virtua Tennis, and just because a game runs at a particular resolution does not guarantee an equivalent jump in image fidelity due to issues like frame-rates and other graphical glitches/inefficiencies based on the way the game was coded.

I will be providing you with a look at five games for the two HD consoles -- all exclusives -- that can act as demo material for your respective console. The actual quality of the game itself isn’t as relevant here as the fidelity of the graphics, though mention will be made of the title’s overall value. The main focus is on the “wow factor” that greets your friends and guests when you fire up one of these games and show them how much gaming has progressed from the days of the Super Nintendo or the original Playstation. For each console, we’ll be looking at two games that are currently available and three that are in the scheduled for future release.

Xbox 360:

Gears of War

Epic Game’s Gears of War will forever occupy a place in the history of the current generation of HD consoles as being the first undeniable “AAA” blockbuster title. Up until this point, the Xbox 360 — still the lone HD console at the time — hadn’t really produced a title that screamed “This is the next generation of gaming.” Then Gears of War came out. Running at 720p with an option to upscale to 1080i, A post-apocalyptic wasteland was rendered in stunning detail that had never been seen on a console before, and it immediately upped the ante for what gamers would expect of visuals for the rest of the generation. This was the poster-child for the Unreal III Engine, which has quickly become the graphics engine of choice for many developers in the industry today.

Of course, Gears of War isn’t perfect. Some bemoan the fact that this 3rd person science fiction shooter once again uses drab browns and grays, like many SF-themed games over the last several years. Others take issue with the number of actions tied into the “A” button. Still other criticisms could be leveled at the focused, linear level design. But one thing is undeniably clear — the game perfected the “cover and shoot” system pioneered by Kill.Switch three years earlier, and provided a polished, intense experience that finally justified moving away from an Xbox or the PS2. The game was the first of this new generation of consoles to make gamers say “Wow,” and it still holds up as a brilliant example of technology married to art design.

Bioshock

In August of 2007, 2K Boston (formerly Irrational Games) released a game that would pull in a string of awards for that year, even more than Halo 3, the juggernaut of the Xbox 360. That game was Bioshock, and it was both a commercial and critical success for the Xbox 360. Like Gears of War before it, this was also another result of the Unreal Engine, but now utilized for its “optimal intent,” a first person shooter. Running once again at a native 720p, Kevin Levine’s spiritual successor to his disturbing science fiction opus System Shock 2 took players into a nightmarish Objectivist experiment gone wrong. Bioshock introduced players to an undersea utopia originally built to house the great minds of the world, to create a paradise of the best and brightest… and it failed. The society had devolved into genetic cannibalism, though the remnants of the ambitious art deco architecture and brimming optimism for the future remained in the decayed environments.

Bioshock was one of the most highly rated games of 2007, pulling in a string of awards for everything from best game to best art direction from various media outlets. It balanced a stunning use of light, art and level design with some of the most intelligent writing and strategic gameplay seen in an FPS. A tour of Rapture, the undersea city, reveals sights both astonishing and repulsive depending on where you go, or what happens. From a pure art design perspective, it’s one of the most impressive looking FPS games of this generation and easily makes an impact on viewers when shown on an HDTV.

Upcoming 360 Exclusives:

Alan Wake

New intellectual properties are always a risky gamble in any medium, but in gaming, with such a dedicated and incredibly vocal, critical and internet savvy audience, the double edged blade of risk and reward becomes that much sharper. Already games that have been heavily hyped such as Assassin’s Creed, Lair and Blue Dragon have fallen short of the lofty expectations set for them before their release. But for every failed new IP, there is also a Shadow of the Colossus, Halo, or Jet Set Grind Radio that drips quality from the get-go and lives up to its promise. Alan Wake is striving to fall into the latter category. A combination of Grand Theft Auto in terms of open world gameplay, and Silent Hill for surreal horror, the title promises to place gamers in the shoes of a struggling novelist who finds a therapeutic break in the wilds of Washington turning into a nightmare as his latest horror novel in progress plays out in the real world.

Already, one of the most notable things about Alan Wake is the visual ambition of the game. Simulating a fictional 36 square miles of the state of Washington, day and night cycles, weather and full volumetric shadows are just some of the tools Remedy Games is using to immerse players in their Twin Peaks-inspired horror game, all in 720p. As with a few other titles, Remedy is also following the trend of using a real actor as the model for the in-game character, much like Star Wars: The Force Unleashed will be using Battlestar Galactica’s Sam “Crashdown” Witwer, Alan Wake himself is modeled on Finnish writer/actor Ilkka Villi. The result — at least in these early preview stages - is an authentic looking world and main character that are achieving impressive levels of verisimilitude. This one may be a serious contender for showing off the 360’s visual power in 2008.

Too Human

For many gamers, this title is an almost mythical curiosity. Too Human started its long road to release back in 1999, originally envisioned as a 5 CD experience on the original Playstation. It then migrated — mid-development — to the GameCube in 2000 when Silicon Knights, the developer, began an exclusive partnership with Nintendo. Then in 2005, the game, still not complete, migrated once more to the Xbox 360, and now, 9 years later, it is slated for release later in 2008. Already confirmed to be 720p, the game, formerly being developed using the now ubiquitous Unreal III graphics engine, is being created with a proprietary engine developed by Silicon Knights in the wake of their infamous condemnation of the Unreal III Engine and its creators, which is even now in the first steps to litigation.

Touted as a mix of adventure and Diablo-style fast, easy combat and loot-based gameplay, Too Human is another title that has earned cautious optimism from the industry. While no one doubts the pedigree of Silicon Knights the lengthy development time has still shown some minor hiccups, such as choppy frame rates and bad camera control, that have blemished otherwise promising previews. However one thing that most who’ve previewed the game agree on, is that actual gameplay and technical merits aside, the art team has done an astounding job of creating a fictional, science-fiction coated treatment of Norse mythology. The cutscenes show a subtle range of facial emotions, and the story seems to be living up to Silicon Knight’s reputation for creating one of the most memorable games of the GameCube. Denis Dyak, head of Silicon Knights is claiming that Too Human is a trilogy that he is determined to see to completion on the Xbox 360, promising that the remaining two titles will be released much faster than the first.

Tales of Vesperia

This is the only game on the list that attempts to make a break away from a more photo-realistic look. Tales of Vesperia, the latest iteration of Namco-Bandai’s “Tales of” series of Japanese role-playing games, is set to bring another taste of anime-inspired art design to the Xbox 360, in the wake of earlier titles like Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey. The story centers on the adventures of Yuri and Estelle, two young adventurers thrust together on a quest when Yuri is imprisoned, meets Estelle, and takes her out of her world of castles and formality to see the world of Vesperia. The most surprising thing about this title is that so far, previous versions of the “Tales of” series have only appeared on Japanese machines such as the PS2 and Nintendo DS. Tales of Vesperia marks the first time this beloved Japanese series will appear on an American console.

At this stage, the only things known about this 720p game can be gleaned from the single trailer that has been released, and the announcement that famed production house Studio I.G. would be involved in the opening anime introduction. No story elements have been released, but even from the brief teases in the trailer, one thing makes itself abundantly clear — this is a game that manages to immerse gamers in their own 3D, interactive anime world. The fantasy settings and unique anime character designs all give the impression of finally allowing gamers to inhabit a world out of a Studio Ghibli feature, with clean, colorful art design in contrast to that stark, grim science fiction aesthetic that dominates the majority of art design sensibilities in western game development. The game is scheduled for a Japanese release in 2008 with a Western announcement still in the offing.

Playstation 3:

Heavenly Sword

While it wasn’t a critical or commercial hit as widely hoped by the PS3 fanbase, Heavenly Sword was the first real showpiece for what the Playstation 3 was capable of graphically. Created by Ninja Theory, Heavenly Sword was an early entry into the 3rd person action genre whose shoes had been filled in very large capacity by the PS2 hit God of War. The game centered on Nariko, an alienated chieftain’s daughter who took up the forbidden Heavenly Sword her clan guarded to fight against the despot king annihilating her people to possess the blade. The game was heavily hyped as one of the big contenders for a hit title before the PS3 had even been released, and much was made of the exquisite graphics and wide array of combat animations given to Nariko. It was also heavily touted for its cinematic production values, with Ninja Theory even going so far as hiring Andy “Gollum” Sirkis as a consultant to help direct the motion captured performances for the cutscenes, as well as voice the villain of the game.

While reviews were generally kind, the game wasn't a complete success, with most critics agreeing that it fell far short of the bar established for playability by God of War. However, the 720p action game was almost universally praised for the high quality of its environments, characters, animation, and cutscenes. The acting, dialog and writing of the game lived up to the cinematic promise and threatened to overwhelm the underutilized combat mechanics, somewhat limited level construction and incredibly short length of the game. But as a demonstration of the PS3’s potential, it definitely had the visual “wow factor” to impress viewers, even if it failed to engage them completely as gamers. It’s still one of the best showcases for the PS3 graphically, though it failed to achieve AAA blockbuster status as a game itself.

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune

After string of misses and near misses for the PS3, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune became the first legitimate blockbuster for the console. Hailed for its tight gameplay, beautiful graphics, and enjoyable story, it managed to push all the right buttons with a user-base that wanted some quality gaming to go with their HD visuals. The story, ripped straight from the script of an Indiana Jones movie ,was about Nathan Drake, a direct descendant of privateer Sir Francis Drake. His adventure took him to exotic jungle locales where he would find some answers to the disappearance of his ancestor and stumble on an ancient curse that threatened to unleash itself on civilization once more.

Uncharted did everything right, with its gameplay borrowing heavily from the Gears of War school of shoot-and-cover, to a smattering of Tomb Raider style environmental and archaeological puzzle solving. But one of the big stand outs was the lush jungle environments, rife with movement and detail all rendered in a native 720p resolution with — surprisingly — an option to output in 1080i for those with older HDTVs with no 1080p mode. The cutscenes themselves were also highly cinematic and a joy to watch, full of quality acting, dialog and an old fashioned contemporary adventure plot that most fans of Raiders of the Lost Ark could jump into. There were also little details, such as the fluid transitional animation, the fact that Drake’s shirt got wet when he swam, and the little flinches visible as bullets chipped away at his hiding place that all added up to a game that didn’t just look beautiful, it moved and immersed beautifully as well. Uncharted assured itself a position as one of the first must-have titles for the PS3 when it finally hit stores in November of 2007.

Upcoming PS3 Exclusives:

LittleBigPlanet

In the same way that Gears of War became an immediate sensation with the gamers and the press even before it had been released, the same magic anticipation is bubbling around LittleBigPlanet, a creation of Media Molecule, which itself consists of refugees from Peter Molyneux’s Lionhead Studios (Fable, Black & White). Slated for a September 2008 release, the game has been making waves ever since the first trailers hit, and as the press has gotten more and more hands-on time, the reception has continued to be favorable. Like Gears of War, this is one title where the odds seem good that the game will live up to the hype.

LittleBigPlanet is, on the surface, a simple concept. It’s a 2 dimensional “platformer,” in the same vein as “run and jump” games like the Super Mario Bros. series, but with 3 dimensional graphics. You and your friends control a character known as “SackBoy” who can be customized to your liking as you attempt to reach the end of the level. However the game really stands apart from its predecessors in three fundamental ways. It’s cooperative multi-player, allowing for both offline and online play, it’s built with a “construction kit” allowing users to create their own levels and share them online with others to download, and finally there are the graphics. Of all the titles released thus far, LBP is the one that comes closest to finally making good on the phrase, “It’s like being in a Pixar movie.” The amazing environments — no doubt helped by limiting the camera to 2D movement — have created a world that looks like something straight out of Toy Story and the game is practically guaranteed to make jaws drop from people unaware of how far graphics have advanced in the last several years. For sheer visual fidelity and charm, LittleBigPlanet seems destined to be a game talked about in the years to come.

Killzone 2

Of all the titles listed thus far, Killzone 2 is perhaps the most controversial. Like Heavenly Sword and Lair, Killzone 2 was touted by Sony itself as a “killer app” - a game so incredible it would become a new, iconic franchise, similar to what Halo did for the original Xbox. To prove their point, they ran a trailer showing what was supposed to be footage of the game in action, and any and all who viewed it were blown away by the level of realism shown on the screen. In later months, it was disclosed that the footage shown was what Sony referred to as a “target render” in that it was actually pre-rendered CG footage meant to show what the game “should look like when it’s done.” Fans on both sides of the console war went into a frenzy of attack and defense over the revelation, but in 2007, new footage — this time confirmed as being actual, in-game graphics — was finally shown… and it came pretty damn close to that earlier “target render.”

There’s still a lot of speculation — and outright doubt — about the eventual quality of the game itself. Guerilla Gomes’s previous title, the original Killzone on the Playstation 2 was heavily criticized for poor artificial intelligence and choppy framerates, though the game received high marks for audio and visuals. There is a lingering curiosity within the industry about whether Guerilla Games is set to repeat the mistakes of the past. Early trailers of the game once again show a title that is a powerhouse of visuals — cables strung across poles actually wave in the wind, columns riddled with gunfire break into particles and the detail on every character and environment is stunning. Whether the game is actually going to be any fun is still something of a mystery. But one thing is certain. Even if Killzone 2 fails to live up to expectations as quality gaming experience, it’ll definitely be the kind of game you’d want to show off to friends to demonstrate the visual fidelity of the Playstation 3.

Aqua

This is probably one of the most unconventional choices made for this list. With a working title known only as Aqua, the industry still isn’t even sure exactly what kind of game it is, if, indeed, it could be considered a game at all. There’s one hint, however — the company developing the game, a Japanese studio known as ArtDink - was responsible for a title on the original Playstation called Aquanaut’s Holiday which simply involved SCUBA exploration of the ocean environment, building a reef and trying to attract all variety of marine life to it. Aquanaut’s Holiday was praised for the bold, non-violent originality of its concept, as well as groundbreaking 3D graphics early in the Playstation era. In fact, it already has a spiritual successor on the Wii in the form of the virtual diving game Endless Ocean.

What makes Aqua distinctive is the move to a High-Def console. If the game is in fact a diving simulation meant to convey the wonders of marine life, then the burden of the task rests largely on the visuals, and from early images of gameplay, on that level, Aqua so far delivers. In the same way that some retailers prefer to have scenes of tropical fish swimming about to convey the color and clarity of HDTVs, Aqua is an interactive example of the same, showing an incredible use of light, depth, and color to bring the ocean and its depths to gamers in a way they’ve never experienced before. For fans of the BBC’s Planet Earth and Blue Planet documentaries, Aqua offers gamers a chance to actually explore the depths themselves, get up close to whales, sharks and other mammoth specimens of marine biology and explore the dense labyrinth of life in the reef. Whether this kind of relaxed, non-violent, exploratory gameplay will be hit is a whole different matter, but as a demonstration of range and versatility of HD consoles, it’s shaping up to be a breathtaking example. There is still no concrete date of release for this title.

There are, of course, many other titles that could be considered here. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is another upcoming PS3 title with a lot of expectations, and Mass Effect for the Xbox 360 has already garnered notice for the strength of its graphics. But the titles listed here give a good, broad range of games that will make a strong, first visual impression on both gamers and non-gamers alike. They run the gamut from the enormously popular science-fiction aesthetic to more colorful anime and Pixar-style visuals. But this is just a start. HD console gaming is still very young and if it follows the history of past generations, then these earlier titles are just a taste of some the visual splendor that awaits gamers in the next three years.

Wayne Santos's opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of this site, its owners or employees.

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Feature Article: The Long Road To High-Def Gaming

Wed Mar 26, 2008 at 03:00 PM ET
Tags: High-Def Gaming, Wayne Santos (all tags)

Editor's Note: With this article, we're pleased to welcome Wayne Santos as a columnist here at High-Def Digest. A dedicated gamer from the infancy of the medium, Wayne is a contributor at IGN and associate editor of Southeast Asian gaming publication GameAxis. In this new semi-regular column, Wayne will be discussing a broad range of topics related to High-Def Gaming. First up: an overview of on the current state of HD gaming, and how we got here.

By Wayne Santos

It's a good time to be a gamer.

It used to be only the home theater enthusiast who could fully take advantage of advances in audio/video technologies. But in the 21st century, the improved image and sound of High Definition is just as effective - if not more so - for the gamer. Surround sound can actually form a crucial component of gaming, while the combination of increased resolution and much more powerful consoles have given modern games a fidelity of image that equals the pre-rendered cut scenes viewed in games just 10 years ago.

In short, games have truly entered the realm of HighDef, and since it's obvious that many in the High-Def Digest community play games as well as watch movies on their set ups, it only follows that this site begin to expand its focus to HD gaming. To kick things off, this article will provide an overview of where High-Def gaming is today, as well as an in-depth look back at how we got here.

The Road To Gran Turismo

The upcoming Gran Turismo 5 Prologue is, without a doubt, one of the highlights of HD Gaming for people thinking in purely visual terms. Aside from the GT franchise's reputation as being one of the most realistic and unforgiving race simulations around, the series has also been widely regarded as a high watermark for visuals. The upcoming release of the latest version of the game - a preview of sorts since it sports only 6 tracks and a smaller number of cars - has already been making waves among fans of the series for its stunning images in full 1080p resolution. Many are already confident that this newest game will once again set the standard for visuals in racing, only to be toppled by the proper version of Gran Turismo 5, whenever it finally debuts.

But while owners of the both the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 regularly enjoy HD games piped through an HDMI connection, that interface is a relatively recent addition to the world of High-Def, and even before the introduction of HDMI - or the 360 or the PS3, for that matter - the first steps towards HD gaming were already being taken. And surprisingly, the first real step into HD gaming is a case of the wheel coming "full circle" with a Gran Turismo game being an early pioneer. But let's go back to the beginning.

The First Step: Enhanced Definition

Standard definition images had been the default resolution of consoles for the majority of gaming's lifespan for two simple reasons: the consoles themselves weren't up to the task of putting out anything more complex than that, and the majority of televisions weren't capable of outputting in higher resolutions themselves.

This all changed in the 21st century with the coming of the 6th generation of consoles and the growing proliferation of better televisions. High-Definition wasn't yet a mainstream concept, since most HDTVs were still enormously expensive, but "half-steps" were being taken by some manufacturers in the form of TVs capable of outputting images in what would be known as Enhanced Definition -- in this case, 480 progressive scan. By and large, most gamers didn't have televisions capable of taking advantage of this, but some game developers saw that the ability to upgrade visuals was now there, and pioneering steps were made to take advantage of this increased power. The Playstation 2 was the first of the 6th generation consoles to flirt with both Enhanced and High Definition graphics.

One of the earliest games to make this leap was a light gun game for the Playstation 2 known as Vampire Night. A collaboration between arcade and software giants SEGA and Namco, the game was originally an arcade game equipped with wired, plastic guns that had players shooting at the vampires of the title. The 2000 arcade game saw a 2001 version for the PS2 and the creators of the game saw fit to allow players to enable 480p resolution for televisions cable of ED imagery. While they didn't include an option for the more cinematic 16:9 aspect ratio, this is one of the first times in gaming history when a software developer allowed gamers to take greater advantage of their component cables. It was a signal to both gamers and the industry that things were beginning to change -- consoles were not just toys kept in the basement for kids to use on the spare TV, there was an acknowledgement that some higher end television owners were more than willing to keep a console hooked up to their primary TV and wanted to utilize its improved capabilities.

Vampire Night itself wasn't particularly a hit, as the game was limited by its genre (shooting anything that moves with no ability to control your own movement gets old fast) and the actual quality of the game was questionable. But for the first time, gamers could see a visible upgrade in color and clarity when they played the game on TVs that accepted component cable connections.

From here, more and more games would utilize ED resolution, although often - because such set ups were still a rarity - this resolution wasn't always easily accessible and required inputting specific "secret" actions, such as Electronic Arts SSX3 which required savvy gamers to simultaneously press the triangle and "X" buttons during the game's initial load to activate the menu that would give the option to upgrade to enhanced definition.

But as time passed (and as the Xbox and GameCube brought more intense competition to the field of graphical presentation), more and more games began to embrace the idea of allowing Enhanced Definition resolution to be displayed. And eventually, that led to High Definition.

Getting HD Ready

While HDMI still wasn't around (it wouldn't make its retail debut until 2003), component cables were capable of outputting in - by today's standards - "basic" high definition, meaning 720p or 1080i. However, few games were actually capable of outputting in those resolutions. This was now slowly starting to change thanks to the late introduction of the Xbox, but even the flagship title of the console, Halo: Combat Evolved, only played at 480p with no adjustment for widescreen televisions. HDTV was still considered primarily a luxury item for the rich, and most developers didn't see the need to cater to such a small number of gamers.

However, that doesn't mean ALL developers were like this.

Surprisingly, one of the earliest games to make the jump all the way up to 1080i in 16:9 wasn't a high profile game, at least, not by the standards of the gaming enthusiasts. In 2002, the first 1080i game was released on the Xbox, and it was, of all things, a remake of an 80's arcade classic. Ubisoft released Dragon's Lair 3D for the Xbox, and it was the first game to actually utilize all the bells and whistles of burgeoning HD presentation. The game came complete with 1080i graphics, 5.1 sound and anamorphic 16:9 widescreen. The next year, XS Games brought out Syberia, which had originally been released on the PC, and was ported over to the Xbox. It too sported 1080i graphics and "not quite" 16:9 widescreen since the game - though clearly going beyond the normal 4:3 aspect ratio of televisions - still sported black bars on the left and right side, a telling sign that its journey to High Definition hadn't been a complete success. These were curious choices for technological testing, but they weren't the only games that would garner question marks from gamers.

Despite utilizing older technology, the Playstation 2 still managed to surprise gamers in many ways when it came to dipping its toe in the pool of high definition gaming. The first game to actually go up to 1080i with widescreen support was a children's game. SpongeBob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom has the honor of being the first high definition game on the Playstation 2 supporting 480p, 720p and 1080i. Game developers, it would seem, were exercising an almost surreal sense of priorities when it came to deciding which games deserved the high definition treatment.

But finally, in December 2004, a franchise with a highly regarded pedigree stepped into the ring. The Gran Turismo series had been widely praised as the final answer to driving simulation for console owners, and it was Gran Turismo 4 that finally took the plunge and showed off - for the time - the limit testing graphical demands it placed on the aging Playstation 2. Despite the older hardware, it managed to still render the game in widescreen at 1080i for those who desired it.

HD gaming had finally arrived.

The 7th Generation The Ups And Downs

By this point, new consoles were on the horizon, but the last years of the 6th console generation saw many high profile games come out on either in either ED or HD resolution. God of War, Shadow of the Colossus, Tony Hawk's Underground and FIFA Street are just a few examples of the games on both the PS2 and Xbox that were capable of outputting to 480p or 720p in the case of Xbox titles. But this would be the last gasp for the 6th generation. Putting games out at such resolutions made demands of the consoles that pushed them above and beyond what they could comfortably handle, and it was starting to become more apparent as graphical bugs like screen tearing became more prevalent.

But with the advent of the Xbox 360 in November of 2005, the world of high end visuals finally entered the realm of HD gaming once and for all. With this new generation of consoles fully optimized for High Definition, such glaring weaknesses in graphical ability were a thing of the past. Games were going to be seen in gorgeous 720p, 1080i and one day, 1080p.

Or so went the theory.

Microsoft made certain omissions to the Xbox 360 when it first launched as a combination of its imperative to keep prices down, and its own error in estimating the speed at which HDTV adoption rates would rise. Though the 360 was the first HD gaming console out of the gates for the 7th generation, it lacked an HDMI port, and didn't output at 1080p. Microsoft's initial snubbing of these features was, at least on record, a belief that HDMI and 1080p were unnecessary in the still young life of HD gaming. Sony, still nearly a year away from releasing their own console, the Playstation 3, used this as bullet point for the virtues of their upcoming console, going so far as to now make a distinction between 720p and 1080p, with 1080p being called "True HD." These arguments vanished a year later when Microsoft-unwilling to look like they were lagging technologically-incorporated 1080p output as a software upgrade, and built HDMI ports into later models of the 360 console.

Once the Playstation 3 debuted in 2006 - curiously omitting the HDMI cable despite touting this output as an advantage - the stage was set for two of the three console manufacturers to finally show the world what HD gaming was all about. Gamers were expecting to have their socks blown off on a regular basis by games so realistic they would make men weep.

They didn't quite get it.

The Tricky Proposition Of High-Def

While this is the first generation of consoles designed from the ground up to present games in HD resolutions, that doesn't mean that these consoles have necessarily mastered the art. The Playstation 1 was the first console to present 3D graphics, but few would say today that it was final word in how to present 3D graphics. The same seems to be holding true of the current generation of consoles.

Both consoles have had their fair share of developer ambitions proving to still be too much sometimes for the technical limitations of the current generation. Microsoft flagship title Halo 3, for example, was a hotly debated talking point for gamers obsessed with numbers when Bungie confirmed that it didn't quite run in HD. It was outputting in 640p instead of the usual 720p that most consider to be the minimum qualifier for high definition, and then scaled up to 720p. This decision was made in order to keep frame-rates smooth as well as maintain the integrity of the dynamic lighting. On the flipside however, the Playstation 3 introduced one of its first hypothetical blockbusters, a game called Lair that tasked players with riding a dragon while causing untold amounts of mayhem in full 1080p. However, that native resolution did little to help the poor gameplay and serious graphical bugs like choppy framerates, screen tearing, clipping (that is, when solid objects pass through each other) and other assorted hiccups that made the game's "maximum HD fidelity" moot. Just because gamers now have consoles that CAN output in high definition, it doesn't necessarily mean that the task of creating quality HD experiences is an easy one, though a better understanding of these newer consoles is improving the quality of newer games.

At the moment for those obsessed with facts and figures, the PS3 seems to be "winning" the HD race. In terms of native 1080p games, the 360 sports only three, while the PS3 currently sports 26, many of those titles being smaller, casual, downloadable games on the Playstation Store. Of course, graphical fidelity has no bearing on either the established pedigree or the actual quality of the game, and this brings us back to Gran Turismo 5 Prologue.

While driving games may not be preferred genre of every gamer, there are few who can argue with the level of graphical beauty each new GT game brings to the fore. For years now the GT series has pushed forward what gamers thought was visually possible on a console, and with the latest iteration, already available in Japan since December, the game sets new standards. Surprisingly, however, the lush visuals come at a cost. While the certain portions of the game such as the garage and virtual showroom run at the accepted convention of 1920x1080p, the actual game itself plays at 1280x1080p, with upscaling to make up the difference. In one sense, the current contender for establishing new visual standards is actually a "hybrid" of custom and full 1080p resolutions. But that small sticking point aside, Gran Turismo Prologue is almost defacto demo material for HD gaming, and is one of the few games likely capable of fooling the casual eye at glance. To the average consumer, from a distance, when there are no impossible camera angles or HUD displays to give it away, it's easy to initially mistake the game simply as race footage. With the North American retail date slated for April 17th, Gran Turismo Prologue is set to do what every GT game has done before it; get the attention of not just gamers, but car lovers, expanding the audience with a new level of visual realism.

Of course, this is just the start. For lovers of HD Gaming, both consoles are still relatively young with lots of room to grow. In just a few months, Metal Gear Solid 4, another graphical powerhouse will lumber onto the scene, while the 360 has already confirmed that Gears of War 2 - precursor to the former champion of best graphics, Gears of War - is on the way. And there are other untried, "dark horse" titles also on the horizon that could turn out to be brilliant (like the first Gears of War) or surprising failures (like Lair) such as Alan Wake for the 360 and Heavy Rain for the PS3.

It's an exciting time for gamers. High Definition has brought graphics to an astounding new level, but with even with this dramatic jump in fidelity, gamers should keep in mind one thing; progressive or interlaced, HD or SD, the visuals only make up one component of a game. It may be great to look at, but the real test comes when you pick up the controller and actually PLAY it. That's when the true worth of a game makes itself known. HD gaming just makes that "worth" prettier to look at.

Wayne Santos's opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of this site, its owners or employees.

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Digital Leisure Grounds 'Space Ace' HD DVD

Fri Mar 14, 2008 at 09:00 AM ET
Tags: Street Date Changes, High-Def Gaming, Digital Leisure (all tags)

Citing Toshiba's "cessation of support for the format," Digital Leisure has pulled the plug on its planned HD DVD port of the arcade classic 'Space Ace.'

As previously reported, Digital Leisure had announced a dual-format release for 'Space Ace,' with both the HD DVD and Blu-ray due to touch-down on April 8. The company's decision now leaves only the Blu-ray still on track for release.

Also blasted like an asteroid is the "head-to-head" online gaming feature that was to be an exclusive to the HD DVD version. (At press time, Digital Leisure says the Blu-ray version of 'Space Ace' will not be BD-Live enabled. Whether the company plans to reissue the title in the future in a Profile 2.0-compliant version that includes the online gaming component remains to be seen.)

Although the company says it does not plan to issue an official statement regarding its HD DVD support, a company rep tells us that with the cancellation of 'Space Ace,' Digital Leisure is no longer planning any future titles for the format. That leaves 'Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp' (which the company had previously indicated in press materials would see a dual-format release sometime in 2008) also DOA on HD DVD.

As always, we'll keep you posted on all future Digital Leisure announcements as they come to us.

In light of the nixing of 'Space Ace,' we've removed the title's listing from our HD DVD Release Schedule. You'll find complete specs for the Blu-ray version in our Blu-ray Release Schedule, where it's indexed under April 8.

Discs mentioned in this article: (Click for specs and reviews)

Space Ace (Blu-ray)

Dragon's Lair (Blu-ray)

Dragon's Lair (HD DVD)

Earlier on High-Def Digest:

'Space Ace' Rockets to Blu-ray, HD DVD (Feb 06, 2008)

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'Space Ace' Rockets to Blu-ray, HD DVD

Wed Feb 06, 2008 at 11:00 AM ET
Tags: Disc Announcements, High-Def Gaming, Digital Leisure (all tags)

Digital Leisure is making a return trip to the '80s arcade, announcing an April Blu-ray and HD DVD release for the videogame classic 'Space Ace.'

Following the company's high-def success with 'Dragon's Lair' (which it released on blu-ray and HD DVD last year), Digital Leisure is now readying its 1986 successor, 'Space Ace,' for a simultaneous April 8 release on both high-def formats.

Utilizing the same gameplay format as 'Dragon's Lair,' 'Space Ace' combines hand-drawn 2-D animation from the Don Bluth Studios with disc-based technology, allowing gamers to pilot the heroic Ace on a series of adventures using simple joystick commands.

Fully remastered for high-def, 'Space Ace' will be presented in identical 1080p transfers on the Blu-ray and HD DVD, with the option to play the game in both the original 1.37:1 aspect ratio as well as recomposed 1.78:1. Audio options include remixed English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, plus subtitles in English, French, Spanish, Italian and German.

Extras shared across both versions include a picture-in-picture video commentary with game creators Don Bluth, Gary Goldman and Rick Dyer, additional interviews excerpts, as well as a "Watch Mode," which allows you to view the game's complete animation without playing.

Exclusive to the HD DVD version will be "Leisure Online," a format-first online player experience that includes "Head 2 Head" gaming, allowing multiple web-enabled users to play simultaneously.

Digital Leisure has set a suggested price of $29.98 a peice for the Blu-ray and HD DVD.

As always, you'll find disc details for 'Space Ace' linked from our Blu-ray Release Schedule and HD DVD Release Schedule, where it's indexed under April 8.

We've also set up dedicated threads for Digital Leisure's latest in our Forums area -- click the following links to discuss the 'Space Ace' Blu-ray release and the 'Space Ace' HD DVD release.

Discs mentioned in this article: (Click for specs and reviews)

Space Ace (Blu-ray)

Space Ace (HD DVD)

Dragon's Lair (Blu-ray)

Dragon's Lair (HD DVD)

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'Space Ace' to Race to Blu-ray, HD DVD in 2008

Fri Oct 05, 2007 at 08:00 AM ET
Tags: Disc Announcements, High-Def Gaming, Digital Leisure (all tags)

Following up its next-gen success with 'Dragon's Lair,' Digital Leisure has announced plans to bring 'Space Ace' to Blu-ray and HD DVD in 2008.

There are no details or even a street date yet, but the distributor has confirmed that next-gen versions of the arcade classic are a go for "sometime in the first half of 2008," following a new PC version (due this fall).

As was the case with 'Dragon's Lair,' Digital Leisure says it has gone back to the original audio and video elements of 'Space Ace' and produced a brand-new 1080p video master, as well as a 5.1 multi-channel surround mix.

Specs for the PC version of the game also indicate new making-of material featuring original creator Don Bluth and his animation team. We can only expect that this material will find its way to the next-gen versions as well.

As always, we'll let you know as soon as release dates for the Blu-ray and HD DVD editions are announced. In the meantime, we've added 'Space Ace' to the "Release Dates Pending" sections of both our Blu-ray Release Schedule and HD DVD Release Schedule.

We've also set up a dedicated threads for Digital Leisure's latest in our Forums area -- click the following links to discuss the 'Space Ace' Blu-ray release or the 'Space Ace' HD DVD release.

Discs mentioned in this article: (Click for specs and reviews)

Dragon's Lair (Blu-ray)

Dragon's Lair (HD DVD)

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Sony Confirms Plans to Phase Out 60GB PS3

Tue Jul 17, 2007 at 02:05 PM ET
Tags: PlayStation 3, Sony, High-Def Gaming, High-Def Retailing, Hardware (all tags)

After days of rumors, Sony confirmed Monday that it plans to cease production of its lower-priced 60GB PlayStation 3.

The company had received accolades from gamers and Blu-ray enthusiasts alike when it announced a $100 price cut for the Blu-ray enabled 60GB PS3 early last week, but that enthusiasm has been somewhat tempered as it was slowly revealed that the company plans to phase out the $499 60GB model after the new $599 80GB PS3 hits store shelves in August.

A Sony representative told Reuters that the company would sell the 60GB version until "supplies of that unit are depleted," estimated to be months after the August debut of the new, pricier model. "We have ample inventory to meet the immediate needs of consumers [in the US] for several months to come," said Dave Karraker.

Although the company is feeling some heat for not announcing its intent to cease production of the 60GB console at the same time it announced the price cut, industry analysts believe that the price of the 80GB PS3 will be lowered to $499 once supplies of the 60GB have been depleted.

Sony, for its part, remains tight lipped about any future pricing plans. "We won't be making any further announcements regarding our PS3 model hardware strategy in North America until the 60GB model is exhausted and market conditions are evaluated," said Karraker.

See what people are saying about this story in our forums area, or check out other recent discussions.

Related links:

Sony confirms phasing out of cheaper PlayStation 3 [Reuters]

Earlier on High-Def Digest:

Sony Confirms PS3 Price Drop; Announces New 80Gb Model (Jul 09, 2007)

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It's Official: Sony Confirms PS3 Price Drop; Announces New 80Gb Model

Mon Jul 09, 2007 at 02:21 AM ET
Tags: High-Def Retailing, High-Def Gaming, PlayStation 3, Hardware, Sony (all tags)

After several rounds of rumors and denials, Sony has officially announced via press release that the 60Gb model of its Blu-ray enabled PlayStation 3 will be reduced to $499 as of July 15.

In addition to the $100 price cut, the company also says it will introduce a new 80Gb edition of the console retailing for $599, which will come bundled with the flagship PS3 racing title 'MotorStorm.'

"As we move into the next phase of PS3, it's important that we continue to evaluate our product line, offering consumers the technology and features that meet their growing needs for new forms of media and the way in which it is delivered," said Jack Tretton, president and CEO of SCEA.

"The introduction of the 80GB PS3, the new pricing for the current 60GB model, the availability of more than 100 new software titles this fiscal year and, finally, the expansion of services for PlayStation Network, will provide even more options for users and will help bring new consumers into the PS3 fold," he added.

Today's announcement comes at a crucial time for the PS3. While more than 3.6 million units have been sold worldwide since launch, PS3 sales have lagged behind Nintendo's Wii and Microsoft's Xbox 360, which are both more competitively priced. Sony is clearly counting on this price cut to help level the playing field for the PS3 among its game console brethren.

But the move could have even greater ramifications for the high-def format war. Already responsible for catapulting Blu-ray software sales to a reported two-to-one lead over HD DVD since the beginning of 2007, the lower price tag for the PS3 can only help the Blu-ray format as it introduces yet more uninitiated consumers to the wonders of high-def disc.

Although it's still a good two hundred dollars more than the least expensive stand-alone HD DVD players, with its new competitive pricing, the 60Gb PS3 now shares honors with Sony's second-generation BDP-S300 Blu-ray player as the least expensive Blu-ray player on the market.

See what people are saying about this story in our forums area, or check out other recent discussions.

Related links:

Sony Computer Entertainment America Introduces New 80GB PlayStation 3; Announces New Price on Current 60GB Model [Press Release]

Earlier on High-Def Digest:

Retailers Report PlayStation 3 Price Drop Imminent (Jul 06, 2007)

Sony Launches BDP-S300 Blu-ray Player, Drops Price to $499 (Jun 04, 2007)

Rumor Patrol: Sony "Won't Rule Out" PS3 Price Reduction (Jun 06, 2007)

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Rumor Patrol: Retailers Report PlayStation 3 Price Drop Imminent (UPDATED)

Fri Jul 06, 2007 at 07:55 AM ET
Tags: High-Def Gaming, High-Def Retailing, PlayStation 3, Hardware, Sony (all tags)

At least one retailer says that Sony is on the verge of announcing the first official price drop for its next-gen console, but Sony this morning is denying the reports.

News of a possible pricecut first hit when a scan leaked onto the web of a Circuit City advertisement touting an upcoming PS3 promotion. The normally $599 60GB version of the console would be getting a $100 price slash, pushing it down to $499. (Which, if combined with the recent "Five Free Disc" offer announced by the Blu-ray Disc Association, makes for a doubly good deal for Blu-ray fns).

Though there was no indication whether the new price for the PS3 was direct from Sony or just specific to Circuit City (raising an eyebrow is the fact that the promotion is only scheduled to run from July 15 through 21), it was still enough to get the rumor spreading like gangbusters.

Now, GameBizDaily is reporting that they have received direct confirmation from one of the "world's biggest retailers" (albeit unnamed) that the $499 PS3 price is indeed a retail-wide, permanent price cut instituted directly by Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA).

The site goes on to say that the source also stated that the new price point is scheduled to go into effect beginning July 12, with most advertising reflecting the change set to begin circulating on July 15.

Should this news prove to be true, it comes at crucial -- and very opportune -- time for the PlayStation 3. While more than 3.6 million of the console have been sold worldwide since launch, sales for console still lag considerably behind Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft's Xbox 360 and even the six-year-old PlayStation 2 -- with most pegging the PS3's higher price tag as the culprit.

The rumor also comes only a month after Sony's own president Ryoji Chubachi hinted at a possible discount in the PS3's future, telling the Japanese press that the company "does not rule out the possibility of lowering the price" of the PlayStation 3. He went on to elaborate that Sony was "planning to assess" the current market before announcing any decision.

UPDATE: (10:50am ET) In a just-published interview with Reuters, Sony President Ryoji Chubach denied these most recent rumors of a pricecut, saying "at present we have no plans" to lower the game console's price.

So which is it: A pricecut? No pricecut? A Circuit City-only price cut? Time will only tell... Stay tuned.

See what people are saying about this story in our forums area, or check out other recent discussions.

Related links:

Report: PS3 $499 on July 12 [GameDailyBiz]

PS3 Price Slashed to $499 -- At Least at Circuit City [Engadget]

Earlier on High-Def Digest:

Rumor Patrol: Sony "Won't Rule Out" PS3 Price Reduction (Jun 06, 2007)

Blu-ray Disc Association Offers "Five Free Discs" Player Promotion (Jun 27, 2007)

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MORE HIGH-DEF DISC NEWS TAGGED "HIGH-DEF GAMING":

• Digital Leisure to Unleash 'Dragon's Lair' on HD DVD This August Jul 02, 2007
• Sony Signs Earnhardt, Jr. For New Blu-ray Marketing Push Jun 26, 2007
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