Face-Off: Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

**Soldier 95B** · 02-20-2013

Looks like the 360 demo got updated in the final release:

As such, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is designed from the ground up through Platinum Games' in-house engine, and as with Vanquish, PS3 serves as the lead platform here. Our tentative analysis of the demo code showed great promise in taking this approach, with the only notable differences between the PS3 and 360 versions being the higher quality video assets on Sony's platform, and the lack of v-sync for the Microsoft sampler. Other contrasts included the use of a percentage closer filtering (PCF) technique on PS3, resulting in rougher looking shadows from a distance, but otherwise it turned out to be a close call indeed.

To see if the margin has narrowed at all in the ensuing months of development, we put the final PS3 and 360 releases to the test, each with the launch day 1.01 patch installed. To focus on the image quality side of the equation first, we compare the two versions with matching clips in our head-to-head video below, supplemented by a hefty comparison gallery.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance - the Digital Foundry verdictAll in all, credit is due to Platinum Games for salvaging the most intriguing ideas from Kojima Productions' original E3 demonstration and delivering a Metal Gear title infused with its signature brand of over-the-top action. Though we'll have to wait until Ground Zeroes to see the much-touted Fox Engine put to practical use, there's plenty to admire in the tech at work here. The Zan-Datsu mechanic works just as it was pitched four years ago with everything from bridges to Ferris wheels collapsing based on the momentum and angle of your slice, and with a potentially infinite number of ways to divide every enemy and object.

The pressing issue remains that the game's physics engine takes a major toll on current console hardware. When pushed too far, frame-rates on both the 360 and PS3 come tumbling down to 30FPS at points - and potentially lower once we dice up more than a single object in one go. As a result, we rarely get a look-in on the 60FPS dream during combat. Although the 360 consistently betters the PS3 from a performance standpoint, both versions are ultimately stuck in the juddering 40-50FPS no-man's land - albeit with v-sync thankfully engaged on each.

As far as image quality goes, the gap between the PS3 and 360 releases has narrowed since the demo first landed, with identical textures, native resolutions and effects on showcase for each. The differing approaches to shadow filtering brings out unique rough edges on either platform, but the nature of this is variable and dependent on the positioning of the camera during gameplay. Crucially, however, the PS3 offers the highest quality cut-scenes, owing to superior video compression afforded by the Blu-ray format. These are perceptibly clearer, and sidestep the evident macro-blocking we see in motion on 360.

In the final call, both versions of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance are well worth considering, with each fronting unique advantages. Call it a tie overall: the performance nod goes to the 360 rendition of the game, often running with a 10FPS lead, while image quality purists are strongly advised to seek out the crisper PS3 version.

Glad to see the improvements made, and the performance increased.

**radgamer420** · 02-20-2013

So PS3 version is better looking (crisper) while the 360 version has a slight 10fps often times. And the cutscenes still look better on PS3 as well.

**Soldier 95B** · 02-20-2013

Yes the Xbox has better performance and the PlayStation 3 has better looking graphics. The cool thing is how much they improved the 360 version since the demo.

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