8 games so powerful they pushed consoles to their limits. Or so they said

If a game isn't pushing the limits, it obviously isn't trying hard enough

Words: GamesRadar_MattCundy on June 2, 2010

Gears of War

They said: "We pushed the 360 to its limits." [source]

Justified?: Hang on. Isn't Gears of War 3 also pushing Xbox 360 limits to ensure that it is even better than Gears of War 2, which itself pushed limits to ensure that it was better than the original Gears of War?

I'm a bit confused. Do the limits that are being pushed change with each subsequent game? Are the limits themselves moving targets that are constantly patched and improved and updated and expanded? Perhaps it would be a good idea to get some kind of officially appointed authority that monitored and defined console limitations to ensure there is complete clarity on this matter.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

They said: "I remember saying three years ago that we wanted to create something revolutionary, but in reality we couldn't really do that because of the CPU. We're using the Cell engine to its limit, actually. Please don't get me wrong, I'm not criticizing the PS3 machine, it's just that we weren't really aware of what the full-spec PS3 offered - we were creating something we couldn't entirely see." [source]

Justified?: Good old Kojima. Only he could be so bold as to claim that not only did he take the PS3 to the limit with nonchalant effortlessness, but imply that the limits of the machine actually shackled the ambition of his true brilliance. And he probably said this while casually munching on a bag of salted snakes and looking sexy sharp in some daringly tight trousers. It's hard not to love the man. So I believe anything he says.

Red Faction: Guerrilla

They said: "Yeah, we’ve got it to the point where we can’t even put an extra vehicle into a world, because it’ll blow the memory. Every little change we make we have to be hyper-critical about it because it could just bring the whole system down. We evaluate every little change in the game, and then we run our tools on it to make sure it isn’t going to break the game and then we move forward, so it really is about pushing the engine as far as we can, and pushing the hardware as far as we can, and then looking at what is the next set of hardware that’s going to come out. Where can we take it then? You know we’re already thinking about if we had XYZ X number of years from now, what would we do with our engine?" [source]

Justified?: Memories blowing. Whole systems tumbling down. It's an intense picture that makes game development sound riskier than performing open-heart surgery in shark-infested waters whilst floating on a dinghy made of meat.

I'm sure if they worked a bit smarter, or spent a bit more time optimising, they probably could have squeezed a couple more vehicles in. Like a Segway. Or a pogo stick. But I think the quote is justified on the grounds that it is macho with big hairy bollocks and is arrogantly saying in more words than necessary: "Our game can F*CKING WELL DESTROY WORLDS!!!" And you have to respect that.

Splinter Cell: Conviction

They said: "We're utilising the full power of the machine. We're pushing it to the limit." [source]

Justified?: No. I enjoyed it and everything, but I just can't see how Sam Fisher's latest is getting every last drop of precious POWER juice out of the Xbox 360. But I'm no developer, so this assessment is entirely based on guessing. And the guessing is entirely based on me having played the game.

And, in all fairness, the quote was extracted from a mild-mannered looking white dude being interviewed on the HipHopGamer Show. He appears a bit awkward and uncomfortable with all the street speak being liberally thrown about, so probably wasn't thinking straight.

Are you impressed when you hear that a game is using 100% POWER or that is bravely pushing more limits than a strong-man towing a monster truck with his scrotum? Or do you think it's a lot of cheap sock talk that should be paid no heed because overworked processors and sweating game engines are no guarantee of game greatness? I believe in the latter.

June 2, 2010

Platforms:

Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii, PSP

Topics:

Console Wars , Kojima , List articles , Microsoft , Sony , Square-Enix

45 comments

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zoestone20 - June 4, 2010 3:04 p.m.

Who cares!!! My boyfriend thinks the same with me. He- is eight years older than me, lol. We met online at an age gap dating site[_www. A G E R O M A N C E com_]---a nice and free place for Younger- Women and Older Men, or Older Women and Younger Men, to interact with each other. Maybe you wanna check out or- tell your friends
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presc1ence - June 4, 2010 2:35 p.m.

Well gears may not have pushed all the limits, but why is it that a new gears game inevitably means my xbox dies? we are 2 for 2 now!Anything on unreal engine seems to have the ability to fry my bloody graphics card! I think red factions about as close as we'll get to using all the power, da fysiks be good!
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JohanLiebert - June 4, 2010 1:23 p.m.

I'm gonna go ahead and point out that what Fracture does (fucking with the ground) is done freely, and more rapidly, on a grander scale, and with more finesse in the Far Cry 2 map editor (with which I've spent considerable time on the 360) and that entire game looks better than Fracture.
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HardNoks - June 4, 2010 4:19 a.m.

no Killzone 2?
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Lilrockerdude - June 4, 2010 4:13 a.m.

Ok what I believe is happening here is developers are able to "push the limits" on the current firmware and hardware. Like my PC which is a POS compared to current gamer rig standards, I was running an Nvidia 8800GS and an AMD 4400+ then the beast Crysis came in. My rig was able to play the game at a slow 12fps...yeah it sucked and that wasn't maxed out. A few days later Nvidia updated the firmware and behold Crysis in 24fps(movie fps) on high. So what I believe happens is that firmware gets updated on the console and they are able to flex the consoles power with better working engines. Again going back to Crysis(since it still is a power house beast of a game to run) when Crysis Warhead came out the engine got a few minor updates and ran better on than the original because Crytek was able to work to get the engine to work better on what the current hardware was. So in plain english with every new game comes a better looking game engine that is able to work better than older games due to develops being able to use every bit of power they can getting better results because they get their engine to work better with the hardware and updates on firmware help push the hardware. For those who have a computer run the firmware disk your gpu came with and run some crazy game like Crysis or TotalWar Empire, for a couple examples and then write down the benchmark(s) then update it to the current firmware and see the game get a major boost. Also for better results on console cool it down with an out-take fan(s), or as I have done with my PS3 run the AC in your house and get in the "cold room of the house" then I put a laptop cooler that intakes cool air and pushes it up to the console. I may not be able to see results right away but I do know I can play longer without the fear of burning up the house(works for 360 and trust me look online for better methods than this). You may be surprised how hot a console can get and what the fan can do to keep you gaming longer.
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ihitthedrum - June 4, 2010 1:54 a.m.

There's no such thing as "pushing the limits." Yeah, you can push it with hardware (when I go into task manager and find that I'm using 100% of my processor and all of my RAM is being used, that's PHYSICALLY pushing the limits). Software, however, can't be pushed to the limits. No matter how good of a programmer you are.
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NightCrawler_358 - June 3, 2010 10:57 p.m.

If FFXIII needed 3 xbox discs, and one PS3 disc, then it proves that games like MW2 aren't pushing the PS3 to the max, because they need 1 xbox dic as well.
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Javv - June 3, 2010 10:19 p.m.

its not like they push the console to its limit but more like they push the current programing software to the limit.
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cindylei96 - June 3, 2010 3:27 p.m.

Who cares!!! My boyfriend thinks the same with me. He- is eight years older than me, lol. We met online at an age gap dating site[_www. A G E R O M A N C E com_]---a nice and free place for Younger- Women and Older Men, or Older Women and Younger Men, to interact with each other. Maybe you wanna check out or- tell your friends
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xXzamarXx - June 3, 2010 3:11 p.m.

Lets be honest, these games pushed the dev's to the limit not the devs pushing the game to the limit.
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Clovin64 - June 3, 2010 11:53 a.m.

I've just been playing FFXIII on 1080p HD for the first time, and that game just screams POWER. Before that, Gears of War was probably the most graphicly impressive game I'd played, or Assassins Creed. The developers probably arent really "pushing the consoles power to the limit", but its most likely that the they get better games developing technology inbetween releasing games, or else the Gears games would look identical. By the way, for PS2, God of War II and FF12 pushed the limits of the old console. Seriously, those games werent far from next gen graphics.
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NormanD - June 3, 2010 6:22 a.m.

It's funny because at this point if a developer ever says that their game is pushing the limits on the ps3 then I take a look at it and there's a very good chance that it's not, because at this point there is nothing more technically impressive out there than Uncharted 2, Not even FFXIII. Just considering the amount of stuff on screen, the pitch perfect frame rate, the physics engine, the amazing special effects, particle effects, stellar animation, humungous set-pieces, comepletely load free (after the game is started up), absolutely no pop-in or LOD problems....etc. etc. there really is nothing out there more technically impressive than that game...(maybe God Of War 3 in some ways) but I'm guessing though that the only contenders for that crown at this point would be games like The Last Guardian or Killzone 3, but then again, it depends on when Uncharted 3 is released because it'll probably just raise the bar again
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Cadavra41 - June 3, 2010 3:59 a.m.

About red faction guerrilla I believe it wholeheartedly because that game actually did blow up and brick my ps3 and I am now afraid to put that game in another system.
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SpEcTaCuLaR - June 3, 2010 2:16 a.m.

I think a console has reached it's limit when it spits a disk out and displays "This game is the shizzle" A console is like my fitness level. I get on the treadmill and the first time my limit is reached after 10mins but I pushed on....next day I get on again and my limit is reach in 15mins but I push on...etc So now lets put a console on the treadmill...
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philipshaw - June 3, 2010 1:36 a.m.

Sometimes it's true but when in your gears of war example where the developers start saying their first game on the system to the limits, it's stupid because you know the next game is going to look better
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theBlackKnight - June 3, 2010 12:58 a.m.

@TheVoid agreed
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GoodGuyWithACrappyJob - June 3, 2010 12:39 a.m.

Limits are meant to be exceeded. If one cannot accomplish this, they had better prove it some other way. Boasting about it may also prove true, but falsehoods lie by those who try to disprove the prover.
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cart00n - June 2, 2010 10:41 p.m.

Yeah, it's all pretty subjective when you think about it, since it all comes down to efficiency, really. If I just throw a pile of socks into a drawer, no doubt I could fill the space pretty easily. However, if I take the time to put the socks in neatly, I can pack in a few more. Actually, I sometimes get concerned when I hear that a game is pushing the console as hard as it can, because there's usually something that has to suffer; like frame rates, glitches, invisible walls, story, acting, etc. The only thing I'm ever really impressed with is how fantastic a game like Borderlands can be while taking up so little space on my HDD! Sure, it gave up all the RPG "frills" (like story, voice overs, engaging characters, variety of palette swaps) to do it, but it's an incredibly addicting game regardless; filled with oodles of fun and large, gorgeous expanses, and it doesn't even fill a single-layered DVD. That's impressive to me. Other things that impress me? Great writing, good production values, an immersive universe, and great controls. Don't get me wrong, I love great graphics just as much as the next guy, but they're simply the gravy - everybody knows a well-cooked bird can survive lumpy gravy, but even the finest sauce in the world can't save an overcooked turkey.
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MitsuharuSan - June 2, 2010 8:59 p.m.

Matt Cundy said: "Justified?: My instinct says absolutely no way. It's just lines and whiteness. To my brain it's very basic. But the swan analogy is so beautiful, I think it should be believed. So let's believe it." So, basically, you have no doubt that Call of Duty is pushing limits just because you love it, but you don't believe Echochrome is doing it (without the analogy) just because it's lines and whiteness? Ok...
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