DmC PS3 Frame Rate Grumbling

[sanfordmay]

At least a couple of reviews are a bit harsh over DmC's frame rate on the PS3. One points out that it's a common issue of Unreal Engine games on PS3. Well, no doubt. Unreal Engine, despite being the king of publicly available console game engines across platforms, is, being an Epic product they use for in-house development, optimized for their cash-cow IP, Gears of War titles. If critics haven't noticed, there are no Gears of War titles on the PS3.

I watched my son play the demo. I just didn't see it. I thought it looked great. The whole fluid integration of interactive gameplay and cinematic sequences, etc. Granted, I'm terrible about these things. I hear people talk about a game, graphics barely acceptable by early console generation standard, and if I like the gameplay, I tend to think it looks just fine.

Anyway, http://www.lensoftruth.com/head2head...-comparison/1/

Seems to show that, possible frame-rate issues aside, the PS3 version certainly looks a lot better in texture and model detail, and elements of art direction, like color, etc. Note that some of the PS3 images look kind of dark. That site doesn't apply any changes to in-game gamma or contrast settings, so that accounts for darker PS3 images and can be adjusted to the player's preference.

I'm not taking sides. Really, I'm not. I have an Xbox 360 and I have a PS3 and I tend to go through long runs playing one or the other but I don't have a pattern of overall favoring one above the other -- save for PS3 exclusives; I think the body of PS3 exclusives is better than the body of Xbox 360 exclusives when you consider all of them. But from the image comparison it's pretty obvious there are unique advantages to the PS3 over the Xbox 360, too. And I think calling attention to one platform's particular shortcomings begs the game critic to point out the other console's flaws as well. I'd have expected something more like, "While overall graphical presentation on the PS3 is more detailed, somewhat more robust and appealing, the Xbox 360 version excels at maintaining a steady frame rate with little screen tearing, which may be an important factor for some players, especially heavyweight action gamers."

[TGO]

People on Gaf said its nothing to grumble about, it's mainly screen tearing

[DarkVincent07]

I think it's not as bad as people say.

The ign review in the comments said that its no where near as bad as bayonetta on ps3, and I played that fine. So I'm fine with buying the ps3 version


Via Tapatalk

[StevenW]

Mmm. I've played the first 10 levels and can honestly say that frame-rate doesn't affect the gameplay at all.

[Mike_Harradence]

We published our review today and from my experience with the game it was fantastic, only some very minor hiccups like annoying load times, the odd hiccup when cut-scenes played etc.

[Forcedme]

I'm sure it will be noticeable, but not game-breaking. Enslaved stuttered on the PS3 as well, but that didn't stop it from being one of my favorites of this generation.

[Cybertox]

Lack of optimization may be one of the reasons why the frame-rate suffers. It sucks cause the frame-rate is one of the most important technical aspects of a game.

[radgamer420]

I played the demo on PS3 and didnt really notice it. These things get greatly exaggerated alot of times. DF made FC3 sound like a train wreck framerate and screen tearing wise and it wasn't nearly as bad as DF led me to believe. And yeah I've heard all over the net that the PS3 version of DMC looks better than the 360 version. I haven't played the 360 version demo myself though.

[TGO]

I played the demo on PS3 and didnt really notice it. These things get greatly exaggerated alot of times. DF made FC3 sound like a train wreck framerate and screen tearing wise and it wasn't nearly as bad as DF led me to believe. And yeah I've heard all over the net that the PS3 version of DMC looks better than the 360 version. I haven't played the 360 version demo myself though.

Does it? And its Unreal engine too

Sent via Codec

[radgamer420]

Does it? And its Unreal engine too Sent via Codec

I dont know. Thats just what I've been hearing around the net.

[AaronSOLDIER]

Very few devs actually manage to pull off a flawless UE game on PS3, but this'll be the first DMC game I don't buy anyway.

[TDbank24]

From what i saw on the demo, the PS3 version of Devil May Cry is just fine.

[radgamer420]

From what i saw on the demo, the PS3 version of Devil May Cry is just fine.

The PS3 demo played just fine for me too.

[Sir_Scud]

I really saw no issue when I played the PS3 demo. It played pretty well, at least I think so. Not sure if I'll buy it though.

[LastManDancing]

Whoo, good thing I checked this thread because after hearing some of the reviews I was worried. I like playing these type of games on the ps3.

[Acid Snake]

No problems with the demo. Sounds like hater talk.

[sanfordmay]

Whoo, good thing I checked this thread because after hearing some of the reviews I was worried. I like playing these type of games on the ps3.

Yeah, that's why I started looking into it and started this thread. I'm in a heavy PS3 phase -- I'm even playing Black Ops 2 on PS3 -- and if I weren't I'd still want DmC for PS3, and my son wants it for PS3, too. There are some truly broken PS3 ports out there but mostly from the early days when formerly near PC-only studios believed the Xbox 360 was the perfect little god box they'd been waiting for and even dedicated porting shops hadn't much bothered learning how to handle PS3 development. And I guess I don't really blame them. They were engineering PC games for Windows operating systems and the Xbox 360 was built on the same software platform and for many things used either versions of or the exact same schemes they were already familiar with. Porting a PC title to 360 was an adjunct project rather than a whole other development cycle, and developing for 360 as the lead platform was so much like what they'd been doing for years.

Now, though, PS3 clunkers made out of top-tier games are rare and those haphazard studios aren't crazy enough to pre-release playable demos of those messes to the general public. IGN gives me a headache. For starters, though almost all games reviewers at any publication are guilty of doing it, I'm not sure how much if anything calling out fine-grained technical flaws in strongly narrative games like DmC does for games criticism overall. Especially if it doesn't affect gameplay. Dead saves and checkpoints, frequent console freezes, extended audio dropouts or persistently garbled graphics, things you're constantly aware of, sure. But things that more or less amount to tech specs? That's so ridiculously superfluous.

Anyway, what really got me was the issue of overall graphics presentation, those model and texture and color details and what they mean to the intended art direction of a game experience like DmC -- very, very reliant on its art direction. And these elements clearly superior in the PS3 release. I would not advise someone avoid the Xbox 360 version based on it but if you're going to write about flaws you've really got to cover the strengths and weaknesses of ALL platform versions. Or edit that trivia out, which, as I've mentioned, I'd prefer. Tell me if it's flat broken, but review the GAME, not the PLATFORM I choose to play it on. I've already read all those hardware reviews a long, long time ago.

Sorry for going on about it. But it really bugs me. Games as entertainment media are very important to me, very important to my kids. Around my house they get the same creative credibility as films, music, comics and even books. I can't imagine we'll ever get very far in writing or otherwise communicating about games when we fill up magazines and websites with this kind of eye-glazing stuff. Stuff that wouldn't get a so much as a footnote in criticism of other forms of media. It'll turn people off really good games they'd likely love, games that perhaps deserve breakout appeal and the attendant sales boosts that keep those studios going.

A lot of us own two or more platforms for which a game is available and we can choose versions based on minutiae if we wish. But many, surely most, gamers own only one console. For those gamers a few negative and unbalanced remarks about a game's version for their one and only platform means they skip it. They skip something they should have played, that's equally flawed in other ways for the console they don't own.

[Foraeli]

You want to know a game with game-breaking framerate problems? Try Last Story for the Wii. That is all. Also why is it that every current generation game has no decent anisotropic filtering and no vertical sync? :\

[IWAO]

Hmm it sounds like it's not a big deal. So I'm getting it anyway.