I agree that normal mapping isn't anything new (Doom 3 made great use of it back in 2004...were there any games that used NM prior to 04?), but just because PCs had the ability to normal map 5 years ago doesn't mean they were able to look as good as Gears of War 5 years ago, especially since normal mapping isn't the only thing Cliffy B and crew are using to make GOW look so good. For example, I don't believe HDR lighting (as we know it anyway) was available 5 years ago (wasn't supported until SM 3.0 in 2004 IIRC), and that's a big part of GOW graphics (as it is in almost any next-gen game for that matter). I'd love to see how 2001 PCs faired at physics simulations as well. If you want to say that the technology used in GOW dates back to about 5 years ago, and the refinement of said technology has allowed GOW to look so good, then I won't really disagree too much with that I guess (although I'm not sure if all the tech used in GOW dates back that far). I remember seeing GOW demonstrations like 2-3 years ago (mostly UE 3.0 demos), so that probably isn't too far from the truth when you consider when the game started development. You original quote didn't say that though, or at least I didn't read it that way. I read it as PC games literally looking as good as GOW (or better) for 5+ years, which I think is clearly not the case.
Back on track: 1 year later and 360 finally has the fabled "Killer App", if the reviews are to be believed.
GOW has more preorders than any other Xbox/360 game not named Halo (according to MS), so it was probably already a "killer app" before the reviews...from a sales-perspective anyway. I suppose you could interpret that to mean next to nothing without knowing what the 2nd most preorderd game was, but it certainly seems impressive given the differences in the userbases (~14M vs ~3M IIRC).
I'm very interested in the game but I have to find out if you can play co-op through the main campaign (online or offline). That will be the real seller for me. I may still get it either way, but co-op makes it THAT more appealing to me.
I called a Game Stop near my work and was told the game was only being given to those with pre-orders, BUT...If I were to reserve, say, Call of Duty 3, I could then walk out with GOW today. I was gonna buy COD3 anyways, so this is a win/win. Awesome. :big grin:
I just ran to Walmart/Target and Game Stop without any luck.. I asked about the Call of Duty3 thing, but without any luck... GS said they were expecting a shipment of 15 games around 2pm, but they had 40+ preorders.. Damn it, I really wanted to play tonight
OK, just found out that GOW has "over 300,000" preorders and is "on track to sell over one million copies this holiday."
I ran by the Game Stop in Pasadena and they had just received their batch of around 30 games. I was able to pick up GOW by just pre-ordering Call of Duty without a problem, although as I left there were around 10 people in line waiting on their pre-ordered copies of GOW. Doubt there will be any left by the end of the business day. First time I've been stoked about a video game in ages!
Yeah, but I had to drive into the ghetto to pick her up. I was quite worried about being "capped" and whatsuch.
i won't have time to play it until tomorrow so i'll just try my luck at frys for 10 bucks cheaper. if not i'm sure best buy or target will have them in the next couple days. the reviews are incredible if anyone hasn't seen them: gamespot : 9.6 1up.com : 10.0 ign: 9.4 i was debating believe it or not between this and fusion frenzy 2(the first one is addictive as ****) but i can't pass this game up.
After an hour of gameplay, all I can say is this game is INSANE! It could even give me the nightmares. The hanging, rotted corpses in the prison were friggin' sick as is using the chainsaw to kill. The kill graphics-Just, wow. Casual level is pretty damn hard, though. I hope I don't turn all fat and pimply like Cartman thanks to my new best friend. I love u XBox 360.
I got it! but the damn thing is overheating my xbox, it says this disc is scratched, which is impossible.
