Console pushing?


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Is there a name for way that especially towards the end of their lives, a games consol's graphics improve without any hardware upgrade (with a few exceptions like the in cartridge processor of Virtua Racing) by using little tricks and hacks to push the old hardware to the extreme, I have seen is on the many systems, like on the SMS (Sonic Chaos) the SMD (Vectorman) and the Playstation (Medal of Honour, GT2). Its the reason I was partially interested in Seeing Wipeout Pulse come to the PS2, the first PS2 wipeout game came when the PS2 was new and then there was nothing untill right at the end of the PS2's life.

What improvements do you think we should expect from the current generation?

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Developer optimization? When developers are given a brand new system to work with, they usually have a steep learning curve especially in the case of the PS3's Cell Processor. As the years go by (like many things in life) when you work with a system day in and day out, you learn the quirks, what you can and can't do and are able to optimize your game that way. For example, look at the transition from Uncharted to Uncharted 2 or from Mass Effect to Mass Effect 2. Both were new IP's that had sequels come out that defined the words polish/optimization.

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Indeed, consoles are like a puzzle for developers. They have to unlock them to use them properly. Developers aren't really hacking or anything, they are merely discovering better ways to implement something by understanding the architeture better.

That's one of the reasons why games usually get better in sequels, and why games that initially look advanced tend to look dated as time goes on, even if it's the same console (GTA4). People see the developers getting smarter!

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You'll see a fair bit of improvement with the PS3 when people work out just how the hell you use the CELL.

Same with the 360, but not as much (It's not a large departure from previous hardware really)

And with the Wii, you've already seen it (It's basically an upgraded Gamecube, so people already know the tricks)

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A name? I don't know. It's simply a matter of developers learning to utilize more of the console's potential. They do so with time. You see, as time goes by developers learn tricks and methods of getting more out of a console. With this generation, I'd say it's nearing the end. Developers have learned or gained access to most of the console's potential and I think it's time that the new generation shows itself.

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Its always to do with fully understanding the architecture of the console, from the processor architecture to things like memory bottlenecks. When developers work out how to work with these they get better looking games, and the further into the console's life the more understanding developers will have of those things.

As said above, I think the 360 isn't going to get much further due to having a pretty normal architecture for developers, but I could see the cell's potential still being unlocked...

Developers have gotten further this generation, but I think this generation will be extended for the 360 with add-ons like Natal instead of much more graphical progress. There are already big problems with the 360 not having enough disc space on one DVD (Forza 3, Mass Effect 2 and the reported lower quality FMVs in FF13)

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Just developers reaching a plateau with what they can push out the system.

I think the PS3 will win the graphics award this gen, two main titles it's already pushed out exceed everything else and GT5 looks stunning. Remember it's only in it's 3rd year, and GoW3 will no doubt blow minds.

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Is there a "name" for it? I am not sure there is a specific name. It ends up becoming familiarization of the hardware at hand. A great example of how the PS2 was pushed would be GT4 vs. GT3. PD got familiar with the hardware and was really able to make is shine before they moved platforms.

The PS3 and 360 are equally powerful machines with plenty of wiggle room. Both have put out equally powerful looking titles, and both will continue to do so for the next 6-7 years, with some great improvements.

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You'll see a fair bit of improvement with the PS3 when people work out just how the hell you use the CELL.

Same with the 360, but not as much (It's not a large departure from previous hardware really)

And with the Wii, you've already seen it (It's basically an upgraded Gamecube, so people already know the tricks)

:unsure: A complete change of architecture from X86 to PPC, multi-core CPU, unified memory architecture etc etc etc ....

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