The Path of Neo: how could they do that?

Miscellaneous Topics
#1

I am playing Matrix the Path of Neo for the PC. I had read on the internet that the graphics are something to be desired, especially given by the minimum requirements they ask. But nothing prepared me to the crappiness of the graphics.

I had played it in my sister’s PS2 and I thought it looked bad. My surprise was to find the exact same graphics on the PC. The game don’t even have screen for enabling or disabling graphics features, all you can do is increase the resolution. Other than that the game is exactly like the PS2 one. It’s PS2 on the PC!!

Crap.

#2

Ah, so I have some thoughts to share here. This is a great example of the problem with building engines that try to scale across a wide variety of platforms with minimal effort. Shiny has developed their engines this way for years (Read Dave Perry’s comments about the goals of the Messiah engine here: http://www.dperry.com/archives/articles/dp_speeches/messiah_what_yo/) and they really do try to provide a single technology basis per title regardless of platform. I think the engine they developed for use in M:PON actually does an ok job of conveying the “feel” of the source material but, you are correct, it does not hit all the shader bells and whistles of a PC or take advantage of extra memory for textures etc.

What is interesting is that this is really no different than the GTA series for PC and PS2/XBox. Increased resolution and maybe some cleaner textures, but it is the same low poly, wonky controller game play and visuals on the PS2 and the PC. So why is it still considered a great game and most of these complaints are not mentioned? Is M:TPN still a good game? I believe so and good enough that I look past the port and what they could have done specific to the PC and recognize it for what it is: the best Matrix video game that stays true to the source material.

I am forwarding this thread to Dave and see if he can give some insight into the difficulty of developing a single engine for multiple platforms.

-Chris

P.S. For those that mention RenderWare, it’s not the same. A lot needs to be done to get the engine working on multiple platforms and while the developer is in there, they do a lot of cranking to make it work for each platform.

#3

[quote]So why is it still considered a great game and most of these complaints are not mentioned?
[/quote]
Maybe because I am not a console gamer. I didn’t have my hopes too high because of the reviews but I didn’t expect the game to be the same as of PS2.

EDITED: I think I should look for a priest, this can only be the work of the devil. Let me tell the story.

I bought some stuff in a store and I had a coupon of US$ 20,00. But I needed to shop at least US$ 100 (I am translating stuff to dollars) in order to be able to use it. The total sum of the stuff I bought was US$ 80. So I thought “let me pick some cheap game”. So I saw HL2: Episode One, for US$ 20. With the coupon I had it was for free. So I bought it. I know “episobe one, because HL started in the fourth episode and now these are prequels, they will tell Freeman’s childhood and at the third Episode he will turn to the dark side, blah blah…”, ok. I was all happy about the prognostic of destroying more crates and playing versions of my Atari 2600 games with improved graphics, but there’s a small problem, STEAM DOESN’T WORK!!! It doesn’t let me even install HL2: Episode One!!! Not even the files are copied!!!

VALVE!!! I HATE YOU!!!

Ok, that’s not the end of the world… let’s try the Matrix game. Well, I think they shipped the wrong game, because it doesn’t only have the same graphics as PS2, but also the same messages, such as “Press X to continue” (X is the X button from the PS2 gamepad).

I am going to watch some TV, better forget this game stuff…

#4

this lack of optimalisation and writing for the worsed is perhaps much more prominent in DB-interaction programs, ORM mapping the likes… And offcourse our beloved JVM? while initially it seemed impossible to bridge over the gab… etc

#5

Just FYI the entire steam system was offline on friday due to the massive power outtages, thats probably why you couldn’t install.

And also many console -> PC ports tend to be sub-par since they were designed for a console.

#6

But they can look just fine. Play Beyond Good And Evil. Looks lovely on PC even years on. And plays lovely on PC, come to think of it. One of the best games around, close to pure fun (or close to Zelda, in my mind the two are pretty much equivalent) and very ace on any platform.

Not the normal, unfortunately.