It didn’t used to be like this, did it? I’ve been playing Mass Effect and Oblivion recently, both released in basically the first year of the system’s life, and both games seem to be absolutely pushing the system to its limit. Terrible framerate issues, lots of pop-in, things like textures popping in even during cut scenes, constant loading screens, and both games sound like they’re just chewing through the disc the entire time.
What’s up? It seems like in the past, it was only toward the end of a system’s cycle that developers really started absolutely maxxxxing out the available resources to them. This is year one! And now Lost Odyssey comes on four DVD’s…geez.
Heh, one of the reason I love my PC. It’s a bit expensive to keep up, but I can run Oblivion at settings that the XBOX 360 can’t and at a much better clip
I do agree with you on the difference in trend. Maybe the hardware wasn’t fully ready to deal with the higher Hd gaming resolutions?
I think Mass Effect just shipped without optimization or polish, it is not the fault of any 360 limitations. Mass Effect, although a great game, is filled with areas and functions that should have “under construction” stamped across them. It’s a Bioware problem, really, they write great stories but can’t code worth crap. Knights of the Republic is graphically outdated and simple, but my newer PC with high-end graphic card still chokes and slows down on it.
Developers haven’t been maxing out resources, they have been publishing within resources that they don’t have the experience to fully exploit and optimize yet.
FWIW, every 360 game I have appears to spin the disk constantly. It never shuts off. Even Top Spin 2, which presumably never has to load anything once you’ve started a match.
Wasn’t Oblivion one of the first XBox 360 games? It isn’t that it is pushing the 360’s limits, it is that the programmers had no clue how to get things to work properly in the 360. Definitely an optimization issue - one which I doubt that they will patch.
Probably this is the issue. If you were just coding for the XBox, you could target a certain disk read speed and RAM space. Once that becomes variable, by adding in desktop limits, you’re less likely to optimise for the lower abilities so long as it runs “good enough” there.
I do also think it has something to do with lack of optimization as well, which is directly tied to the ever shorter development times studios have to deal with now. Studios need more time to get it done right, publishers want money now.
