I'm spoiled with a 6800 GT. I've seen EA's screenshots and while close to photorealism, it's not the real thing. The Xbox version of Fight Night 2, looks pretty damn good already. Going by screenshots, the Xbox 360 looks like it can make three times as many models with the same details. With GPUs comprable to the 7800 (or ATI's yet to be seen competitor), those consoles should exceed their PC brethren because it's specifically optimized for those consoles instead of random computers. The 7800 alone is close to making CGI graphics close to FF: Spirits Within. Console optimization is why a game that looks like Halo 2 or a port of Doom 3 is possible on a Geforce 3/4 variant. I'd be super disappointed if it didn't look amazing. I'm disappointed because I don't see that great a leap when comparing with past console launches.
Sometimes, I just have the urge to just pop in Virtua Tennis and play the Dreamcast. If you have ever played Shenmue on the DC, just play Shenmue 2 on the XBOX, then return it...I still haven't played that due to the lack of XBOX.
The majority of EA's next-gen screen shots are terrible. They probably have some of the worse next-gen graphics. The Fight Night demo at E3, the Madden they showed at E3 (not the commerical, but the one behine closed doors), and a little bit of the NBA Live shots have looked nice to me, but the rest...not so much. If all you have seen is EA's stuff, you seriously need to check out screenshots and clips from other developers. Also, when you were talking about people not noticing a graphical leap, are talking the general gamer, or the ones who spent $1200 in order to have a SLI 7800 GTX setup? Because I could sort see why the latter might not see a leap, but that makes up a very small portion of the gamer population. $300 consoles can't keep up with gaming rigs that cost several thousand dollars to build. But considering their price point, there really impressive. And for a short time, they offer the best graphics around. I'm not sure what to tell you if you are disappointed by the graphical leap. I've been pleasantly surprised for the most part. When you see games like Heavenly Sword or Gears of War, and then realize that these games are barely even using the full power of the CPU's AND GPU's of each console, I would think you would have to get excited. From a technical standpoint, there are so many new and great things that developers can do on these consoles that were previously impossible. If nothing else, just wait until Hideo Kojima shows MGS4. That should convince you that there has been a great leap in graphics.
I'm talking about the gamer who plays Halo 2 and possibly Half Life on the PC. Call me jaded. In my defense, the companies do a great job hyping up their systems. The N64 was said to have the power of a workstation able to render a dinosaur from Jurassic Park. The PS2 and their 70 million polygon boast was supposed to have CGI movie graphics. We're a generation or two late... You'll love Resident Evil 5.
To be fair to those companies, those statement were somewhat true (or at least the PS2 one was to my knowledge). I'm guessing the N64 could render a dinosaur from JP....it would probably need to be hooked together with 100 other systems and require 5 hours to create one frame, but it could do it. And the PS2 was capable of putting out 70 million polygons...its just that those were plain polygons with textures and other effects. And could produce a bunch of computer generated images. As long as Capcom follows the RE4 plan, RE5 should be great. I wish they would have held back on showing a trailer so soon since it looks little bit too much like RE4, but the clip of it was impressive. The lighting was great, IMO, and the animation wasn't too bad either. Just wish I had a higher resolution clip of it instead of the crappy IGN clips.
Thanks for all the info...I think I'll be keeping it...I could always use a game system in my living room, plus it was free...I agree with waiting until the bugs are worked out and a possible price drop...I'll definitely be getting an XBox 360 vs. a PS3...
That's up to EA. I believe that Microsoft has stopped producing the console and has 7-8 million consoles in storage, so the most they can sell is 25-30 million consoles worldwide. If EA thinks they can still get some decent sales by releasing titles for the Xbox, they can keep making them for quite a while. Just guessing here, but I would think they would still come out with sports games for the Xbox at least up until next year. I would guess that many publishers, along with EA, may stick with current-gen titles for a good while, especially with the amount of consoles out there. The PS2 alone will be appealing enough for publishers to continue supporting it for a few years, maybe even more than the PS1. I don't know if this means that it will be easier to support the Xbox as well, but there should be a nice supply of current-gen support well into life of the new consoles.
