Defending old games: The Shenmue Passport effect
It's the same with Crysis Warhead---actually the custcenes often looked worse due to terrible filters. Not to mention the bad animation which is more obvious when you're watching gruff marine guy jumping around than when you're blowing people up.
Edited: Mon, 18 Jul 2011 05:36:54
And in some RPGs there are three art assets per character head. The pixelated one on the character, the CGI one for cutscenes and then a third, usually hand drawn one that comes up next to their dialog box.
I would also like to point out my disdain for the:
"My cell phone is more powerful than" comments.
For a start, the cell phones people are comparing to games consoles or portables are usually android phones, which are monstrously expensive. IF they say they got it cheap, they are usually locked into a 24 month contract and by the end of 2 years they have spent PS3 Launch price money on it.
Secondly, cell phones don't launch once every 5 years, they can release whenever they want and hence use the latest technology.
I don't want to hear rich guy comparing his cell phone that costs as much as a laptop to consoles.
"My cell phone is more powerful than" comments.
For a start, the cell phones people are comparing to games consoles or portables are usually android phones, which are monstrously expensive. IF they say they got it cheap, they are usually locked into a 24 month contract and by the end of 2 years they have spent PS3 Launch price money on it.
Secondly, cell phones don't launch once every 5 years, they can release whenever they want and hence use the latest technology.
I don't want to hear rich guy comparing his cell phone that costs as much as a laptop to consoles.
Good points man.
I have been bothered a long time about the difference in graphics between FMV, cutscene, and in game....or the way people like to use spruced up screens for system war purposes.
PS1 was notorious for this stuff in many games, simply because PS1 was the 1st console to do it all extensively and you didn't get much of it on N64 due to developers using mostly in game graphics on the machine.
BTW....I thought Shenmue Passport was the coolest thing back in the day.
I have been bothered a long time about the difference in graphics between FMV, cutscene, and in game....or the way people like to use spruced up screens for system war purposes.
PS1 was notorious for this stuff in many games, simply because PS1 was the 1st console to do it all extensively and you didn't get much of it on N64 due to developers using mostly in game graphics on the machine.
BTW....I thought Shenmue Passport was the coolest thing back in the day.
It was indeed, I spent ages watching it and playing around with the lighting and angles. Loved the hair separation too.
Why did the Shenmue games achieve such a cult status?
Edited: Thu, 28 Jul 2011 16:42:34
Have you seen the sailors video?
This is why:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQa3yGXzGls
This is why:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQa3yGXzGls
Forklift racing.
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robio (6m)
I'd like to make a brief pit stop here to discuss what I've coined as the Shenmue Passport effect. For those that never owned the game, the Dreamcast version of the game came with an extra disc. On this disc you could select a few interactive cutscenes. Essentially it would be a high poly version of a game character, who would talk about the game and mechanics; and it had superior face animation and detail.
It was all in real time as the camera rotated about the face and you could zoom in or out and change the lighting. As I said, it was all in real time and it was so detailed some of it still looks great compared to todays modern games.
But, in the actual game it never looked anywhere near as good.
Some games have a game engine and a cutscene engine - which superficially look similar; where the cutscenes are still real time - as in generated by the system directly and not FMV, but they still aren't using the same in game engine with the same restrictions and considerations as the actual game itself requires. It leads some gamers to claim that some older games or systems had superior technology based on an essentially skewed, perspective. Shenmue Passport is a perfect example, superficially they look the same, look again and you can see that those visuals were only possible because it was one character filmed from the shoulders up in a very small room, with all the processing power of the machine dedicated to it and it alone. Cutscenes which feature a fixed camera are even more suspect as the machine doesn't have to render what it doesn't see. I was almost fooled by RE5 which does have great visuals, but if you pay attention the cutscenes are still superior. They feature such a regimented artstyle its hard to tell at times, but you do cotton on to it.
I'd also like to briefly talk about screenshots of older games - firstly I don't like it when people present PC captures of games or screens from the PC version of older games and claim how great it looks. Today if you post HD Dolphin shots of WIi games, it's perfectly clear that it was taken with Dolphin and everybody knows and acknoledges that. Way back in the Xbox era there were screens shown at resolutions the Xbox 1 just could not do. Whenever a Black fanboy posts an HD screen of the game and claim that that is what the PS2 version looked like, I facepalm. Halo 2's pre-release shots and some Ninja Gaiden screens floating about are also rendered at a resolution the Xbox 1 could not do.
On the other hand I want to point out, for the people that say the games only look good because they are HD shots, I would also say that the graphics do look like that, on a good TV, SD or otherwise, only (with) jaggies around the edges. They haven't had any effects added or photoshop manipulation or shaders or new assets, they are presented as screens from the actual game just with smoother jag free edges.
I realise that this may be a pointless blog for you to read, but I had to get it off my chest.