Tech Analysis: Halo Reach Beta

You may remember that we did an initial tech analysis on some of the first in-game screenshots of Halo Reach way back in February, in which we discovered that the underlying engine behind the game had been completely reworked, and overhauled in such a way, that there was a large noticeable jump in quality over both Halo 3 and ODST.

Certain things still eluded us however, such as the game’s final rendering resolution, or whether or not Bungie could still afford to keep their trademark high-end HDR lighting system firmly stamped in the final build. The beta we said would finally be the place in which we could get a tangible look at the tech behind the game. And so today at IQGamer that’s exactly what we’ll be doing, ripping apart the engine behind Halo Reach and revealing just how far it’s come from its early Halo 3, and original Xbox beginnings.

The first thing to say, is that the engine powering Halo Reach is more of a giant evolutionary step forward rather than a brand new revolutionary driving force. That said it is a vastly superior beast in every way shape and form compared to the engine used in the previous two games. Boasting numerous improvements, from rendering resolution, texture work, lighting, shader effects, and character modelling, everything has seen an overhaul. Some areas have only been subtly enhanced, while others have been completely changed, making for not only a large boost in image quality, but also a smoother looking game as a result.


One of the main complaints in Halo 3 and ODST besides the lack of any anti-aliasing, was the game’s sub-HD rendering resolution. Both titles rendered at 1152x640 in a dual framebuffer, which came together to form the final 640p image. For Reach Bungie have upper the game’s resolution, albeit ever so slightly, just enough it seems to be able to be loosely qualified as 720p. Reach basically renders in 1152x720p, keeping the horizontal resolution the same as Halo 3 and ODST whilst upping the vertical res - which is the one that the human eye is most sensitive to, thus the most important to increase.

It is also likely that the developers opted for this 1152x720p resolution in order to keep the framebuffer firmly fitting into the 10MB EDRAM, which is something that seems to be a priority for Reach. Even with all the enhancements and additions made to the game engine, they still want to avoid tilling.

In addition to this increase in resolution, Halo Reach also retains the unique HDR lighting implementation from the last two games. The effect has been reduced somewhat, appearing to be of a slightly shorter range compared to the ultra wide range lighting on offer in the last game. However it has been bolstered by the use of far more local lights, and a brand new differed dynamic lighting system featuring dozens of individual lights on screen at once.


This new lighting system means that there can be upward of thirty or more light sources on screen at once, given off via weapons fire, explosions, and environmental lighting, such as the glow given off from lights inside buildings. All of these light sources are real-time, and interact with their surroundings. So a gunshot, or rounds from a Needler will light up surrounding areas, and change the shadows created by moving objects. Each individual projectile from the Needler also has its own light source, as do many other projectiles in the game, which is a first for the series and is exactly what you’d expect from next-generation lighting techniques.

Shadowing is a mix of pre-baked and dynamic. All the environmental shadows in the game are baked shadow maps, stationary and un-reactive. Moving objects however, are given the proper real-time treatment, with full dynamic shadows to complement the use of multiple light sources in the game. Shadows on these react to both other objects and the environment, with neighbouring light sources affecting how they are displayed.


SSAO (screen-space ambient occlusion) is also present in the beta, though it is only visible on indoor areas, and isn’t used anywhere else. It’s implementation is pretty much artifact free, and blends almost perfectly with the baked shadow maps in the dark areas which use it. Bungie had originally stated that it wouldn’t feature in the beta, but clearly, its here for all too see, if very subtle at this point. We expect that the use of SSAO will extend to the outdoor areas in the final game, if only for the single player campaign.

In terms of texturing, detail, and filtering, Reach has seen a massive improvement over Halo 3 and ODST. Texture detail has been significantly increased, with better use of normal and environmental bump mapping creating a depth and detail that simply wasn’t there before. Texture filtering, one of the main complaints with the last two game, has seen a huge boost. Reach uses what looks like a combination of anisotropic (AF) and trilinear (TF) filtering for all of its textures, meaning that detail is now visible for longer distances than before. You can see this at work in the screenshot below.


The other main complaint from the last two games, the lack of any anti-aliasing, has also been approached, though not completely dealt with. Reach uses a form of AA known as ‘temporal anti-aliasing’, which works by blending two separate frames together whilst combining them during a time delay, creating a 2xMSAA look on certain objects and geometry when the game isn’t moving. However, the down side is that when there is any movement this form or AA causes a distinct blur effect, not unlike the motion blur encountered on a old LCD TV, and one which is highlighted by the game’s use of a post process motion blur effect.

Also, another downside is that certain objects, such as the 2D foliage, aren’t affected by this form of AA, leaving them with noticeably jagged edges. This doesn’t blend in too well with parts of the game that do benefit from the temporal AA, and just showcases another problem with using this technique. A proper MSAA solution would have been far more beneficial, though Bungie would have then have to use tiling to fit the framebuffer into the 10MB EDRAM.


Despite these issues, Reach in beta form is still a great looking game, and features some impressive high resolution particle effects, debris at lower resolution, good use of transparency effects, tessellated water, and a nice bit of bloom lighting to top it all off. The whole visual range feels a lot more organic than before, even with the Halo series’ typically clean lines and smooth industrial look.

All this is backed up with an accurate post-process motion blur effect, one that is even more impressive than the one created by Namco for use in the PS3 and 360 versions of Tekken 6. Reach’s motion blur technique, like in Tekken 6, works on an individual object basis, and is incredibly accurate. Unfortunately, it so obviously interferes with the temporal AA used in the game, creating some unwanted ghosting and being pretty intrusive when you least want it to be.


Like with Halo 3 and ODST, Reach aims to maintain a constant 30 frames per-second at all times, without breaking the v-sync that’s in place. Occasionally it does do this creating some mild screen tearing, but this is usually relegated to one or two frames appearing at the top of the screen. The game does slow down however, mainly in busy scenarios, but that scarcely seems to affect the amount of tearing that appears to any great extent, meaning that the v-sync is working as it should do.

In many ways Halo: Reach is simply using the backbone of the previous game engine, reworking and enhancing it along the way, using it to blend in new graphical improvements with tried and tested old ones. At the same time it still manages to work in the tight constraints of the 360’s EDRAM. Not so surprisingly we don’t get a proper 720p (1280x720) rendering resolution, or multi-sampling AA. However the game’s cleaver new LOD system allows the screen to be filled with dozens of detailed objects and light sources, whilst retaining most of the HDR lighting from the last two games, and still include some excellent texture filtering.

So far the multiplayer beta has certainly impressed, especially with its use of effects that we thought would probably just feature heavily in the single player campaign. Instead Bungie have seen fit to try and include all of the technological improvements the revised engine has to offer for both single and multiplayer modes. The game is clearly visually superior to its predecessors in nearly every way, minus the blur caused by the AA, and still has a good couple of months to go before its done and out the door.

It should be interesting to see just how far the main campaign has come along, and whether they have managed to further improve on the foundations laid down in the beta. Certainly, what we’ve seen today looks better than the early screenshots of the single player gameplay, and no doubt that the final code will look even better. How much better though, will largely depend on how much they insist on pushing the engine for the multiplayer side of things.

All things considered, Halo Reach looks like every bit the next-generation Halo game that it predecessors should have been. Of course, the sparse slightly bland look that comes with the Halo universe isn’t going to go away. After all, that IS the look and feel of the series. But at least, for the first time the franchise has actually transcended its old Xbox roots into something that actually feels it belongs, from a visual perspective anyway, on Microsoft’s 360.

Tech Analysis: Super Street Fighter IV (PS3 vs 360)

With nearly every big release here at IQGamer, it is almost a given for us to have our trademark technical analysis to go along with our in-depth review. But with Super SFIV we were considering skipping over the whole tech thing seeing as the differences are so small between the two versions, that whilst the game is running (at the preferred 60 frames per-second) it is almost impossible to tell the differences apart.

That would however, in our humble opinion, be doing our loyal readers a disservice. So instead of simply glazing over the technical aspect with our enthusiastic review, we are going to put Super SFIV through its paces as per usual for the full tech treatment.

Okay, I’ll start be saying that the same things which applied to last years Street Fighter IV, on both PS3 and 360, applies to this Super edition too. Everything from texture work right down to how the shader effects work, are handled in exactly the same way, although rendering resolution is the same on both platforms this time. This means that if you know about how the last game performed on both systems, then you know for the most part how Super SFIV performs as well.


Super Street Fighter IV is rendered in 720p (1280x720) on both PS3 and 360, with the 360 getting the usual 2xMSAA (multisampling anti-aliasing), whilst the PS3 version once again features no AA solution of any kind. This lack of AA only really manifests itself in scenes with high levels of brightness, in which such high contrasting areas create a slightly jagged look to the edges of polygons in the game, along with a small amount of edge shimmering too. Most of the time it is barely noticeable at all, and the only benefit is that the 360 game looks slightly cleaner at all times.

During performance of any Super and Ultra moves, along with the real-time pre and post fight intro and ending sequences, the PS3 game no longer drops resolution down from 720p to 1120x630 unlike in SFIV. It seems that through optimisation, that Capcom have managed to solve some of the bandwidth issues that may arise from the fact that PS3’s RSX GPU has access to less overall bandwidth than either the 360, or the Taito Type X-2 board the original SFIV runs upon. Essentially, all the transparency effects that are displayed onscreen during a Super or Ultra move vastly eat into each system’s bandwidth. However, it just so happens that this time around, that capcom have found a way of maintaning full 720p resolution on both platforms at all times.


In addition none of the normal transparencies or special effects have been rendered at lower resolution either, instead solidly maintaining 720p throughout. Quite clearly this increase in resolution isn’t the most noticeable change when comparing the two versions side by side, and especially whilst in motion at a constamt 60fps, in which they both look identical.

Perhaps the most noticeable difference comes in the form of texture detail, or more specifically, from the observation that the 360 version has slightly more detailed textures, which are used in some of the background scenery found in the game. These, along with some of the background objects are indeed rendered in 1120x630 instead of 720p on the PS3 build. You can see this happening clearly in the screenshot below, just look at the trees in the top right hand corner.


At worst, these lower resolution textures and objects make some of the background details appear a little fuzzy when comparing the two in real-time 60fps, though nothing particularly intrusive. Whilst at best, it is barely even noticeable at all, unless of course you switch between seeing the two versions on the fly. But this isn’t something that people usually do when playing games, so it really isn’t an issue, just another observation.

Texture filtering on the other hand looks to be identical on both versions of the game, which is somewhat surprising, considering the PS3 usually gets the exclusive advantage of having almost free use anisotropic filtering. This time around, both PS3 and 360 versions feature equal amounts of AF, with detail being visible far off into the distance. Yet another sign that the game isn’t perhaps pushing the 360 as much as it is the PS3, with all its use of alpha transparency effects sucking away potential performance.


Last time with Street Fighter IV, we noticed that in terms of shadowing on both systems, it was the 360 game that had the obvious advantage. Microsoft’s version featured not only softer shadows than the PS3 game, but also had exclusive use of self-shadowing not found in the Sony build at all.

For Super SFIV this has changed. Now both version feature self-shadowing – where a character casts their own shadow over themselves - as so evident in the screenshot below, while the 360 version also features the use of more natural soft shadows. The PS3 game on the other hand, uses a sharper more conventional shadowing method, although this isn’t visible during fast 60fps gameplay, and is barely visible when the characters are in their ‘standing’ positions.


When it comes down to it, Super SFIV is pretty much equal on both platforms, with the PS3 game becoming even closer to the 360 one compared to last year’s SFIV. Some differences remain, like the lack of any anti-aliasing on the PS3 game, along with one or two missing effects and the occasional lower resolution texture. The use of self-shadowing on the PS3, and equal amounts of texture filtering balance out any differences to the point that when seeing the game in motion it doesn’t really matter at all.

You have to remember as well, that in screenshots the differences are more pronounced, as they also are when you pause both games and view them one after another on the same telly. Of course there is still a small image quality advantage given to the 360 game, but really, this is only visible at certain points throughout the game and not all the time, making it a factual, but somewhat moot point.

In terms of recommendations, both come equally recommended, with your choice most likely to be dictated by what controller options you have available, and not by the very minor graphical differences on offer here. People without a separate arcade stick or specific fighting game control pad would be better suited with the PS3 game, as the Dual Shock or Sixaxis controllers both perform better than the 360 one. On the other hand, 360 owners can still get the same polished experience with the aid of a separate pad or stick.

Either way, both versions are visually superb, and the overall game itself is perhaps the best beat’em up available on current-gen systems. Whichever console you happen to own, Super SFIV is well worth the asking price, especially for fans of the series and people who missed out on the original game. All I’d say is that to get the most out of the experience, then you really need either an arcade stick or USB Sega Saturn pad, and that goes for anyone regardless of the version you happen to end up buying.

Review: Samurai Shodown Sen (360)

This isn’t the first time that SNK have gone down the 2D into 3D fighting game route. They have done the very same thing numerous times before, once in the mid nineties with the launch of their Hyper Neo Geo 64 arcade board, and a second time a few years back with King Of Fighters Maximum Impact for the PS2 and later on for the 360. Samurai Shodown and Fatal Fury both made an appearance on the Hyper Neo Geo 64 in Japanese arcades, and whilst maintaining the very familiar gameplay of the 2D instalments, neither series in 3D reached anywhere near the quality or popularity of the original Neo Geo games.

Samurai Shodown Sen (or just Sen) is the latest folly in the new SNK’s revitalised plans for their hit franchises, a spin off which not only adds another dimension to the proceedings, but also a different style of gameplay as well. It’s hard not to cast down an early judgement against Sen for doing such a thing, considering the less than stellar quality of SNK’s other 3D versions of popular titles. But sadly, my initial gut feeling was utterly correct. Samurai Shodown Sen isn’t a particularly good game at all. In fact it is decided average in most respects, and poor in others, being playable, just about, but at the same time completely forgettable in every way.

First impressions are rather poor. Graphically the game looks very much like a last-gen title briefly polished over in order to justify a 360 release. The conversion is perfect from the game’s original Taito Type X2 arcade release, though that isn’t exactly saying much, considering Sen is awash with low resolution textures, basic lighting, smooth but almost blocky looking characters, and an absolute minimum of visual effects required to be considered a next-gen (or should that be current gen?) title.


Animations are stiff, and various body parts are rather disproportionate, even for a series on which things were always a little far-out in terms of reality. A good example would be the comparison between the reasonable, and quite nice artwork, and the actual in-game models themselves. They just don’t match up at all, which is jarring to say the least.

SNK Playmore however, have seen fit to include a few 3D renditions old classic backgrounds from the original 2D games released on the Neo Geo platform; including the flagship ‘beach stage’ from the first two games, which features some wooden temple beams scaling off into the sea, whilst the waves gently stray upon the rocks; along with the ‘fields of long grass’ from Samurai Shodown II. It’s a pretty cool touch, especially for long-time fans such as myself, although their implementation is technically basic at best. Visually they look blocky like the characters, and come across as rather empty and stale, instead of lively and vibrant like in the original games.


The presentation fares a little better, and does retain some of the ‘that’ Samurai Shodown feel through authentic looking artwork, and cool old-style on-screen counters and life bars. It’s not perfect, and sometimes a little rushed, but feels at the same time, a whole lot more polished than the game’s meagre graphics offering. To be honest, this part of the game shines the brightest, feeling like a true Samurai Shodown title, music included.

In terms of characters, Sen features a total of 24, 13 of which are taken from previous games, and 11 of which are brand new creations for this latest instalment. Each one of the game’s characters fall under a Power, Skill, Speed or Tricky style of play - with Power being given to characters who favour slow, hard-hitting individual attacks; Skill for ones which favour the tactical approach to combat; Speed for quick nimble types, and Tricky for those that don’t come under any of the other play-styles on offer.

It’s nice to see so many old favourites on show, including cover star Haohmaru, the evil looking Genjuro, and French swordswoman Charlotte, all of which look a little too bulky, move rather stiffly and lack most of their trademark special moves from past games. They are still, along with the rest of the original crew, the best of the bunch, as the 11 new characters are as generic as they are bland, not holding a candle stylistically to the traditional roster.


There are four buttons to use in Sen, a horizontal slash, vertical slash, kick and one button reserved for special attacks. Pressing two of these buttons together unleashes a strong attack, much like in the first two games on the Neo Geo, whilst pressing three performs an unblockable move, which although slow to come out, is deadly if it connects. Sadly I found it to be of not much use, relying on specials, combos and Super moves in order to battle my way through the game.

So far it doesn’t sound too dissimilar from the likes of Soul Calibur or Toshinden, and the similarities don’t end there. This latest Samurai Shodown game, doesn’t actually play anything like the 2D fighters of old. In fact it plays very much like a cross between Toshinden and Dynasty Warriors on Psone, mainly being based around short three to four hit combo-strings, and a few one off powerful special attacks. Most of your time is spend juggling together a combination of vertical and horizontal attacks ending in a special for added damage.

These special attacks for the most part, also look and feel completely different to the Street Fighter style gameplay which featured in the old games. Some characters do have some of their old moves, which react very similarly to how you’d expect them to, but also have a command-list of completely new Soul Calibur-esque dial a combo style sequences. Overall, the game is much more about stringing together different normal and ‘special’ moves (if you can call them that) in the same way as you do in pretty much all modern 3D fighting games, than being a modern reference in the way of a 3D visuals, 2D fighting game.

Unfortunately it really isn’t very good in that respect, with combat being rather stiff and pretty basic at all times. Certainly, this isn’t anywhere near the polished level of Soul Calbur, in which its likely to be judged. And furthermore feels largely rushed and slightly unfinished as a result.


However, Sen isn’t a total loss. There is almost some fun to be gained from the game’s somewhat stale combat system, mostly from discovering the combinations or moves which work in delivering the greatest amount of damage, or in which can counter certain moves in certain situations. Despite this, though, the game feels old and clunky, a far removed experienced from the vastly polished fighting games of the last ten years or so. You could say that Sen would be an alright PSone launch title, but for the 360, and up against Street Fighter IV, Soul Calibur and Tekken, it just doesn’t cut it.

Fans may be pleased to see the return of the ‘POW gauge, which when filled right up allows you to power up your chosen character by pressing all four buttons, saturating them in a red glow and allowing you to pull off a character specific Super move. These like in most games of this type are a series of flashy moves stringed together into an extended combination attack, although here they are pretty uninspired, and wholly devoid of any uniqueness the series is known for.

It’s also possible to pull off a series trademark ‘finishing move’ which depending on what weapon-based move you use for a well-timed heavy blow, can result in either chopping off any one of the opponent’s limbs, decapitation, or even slicing them in half. Having these included in the game helps it feel at least like it’s trying to be a Samurai Shodown title, and does add something extra to the otherwise bland experience on offer.


More importantly SNKP have added a range of modes to keep you busy, including Story, Versus, Practice, Survival, and lastly, Online. However it is only the Story and Survival modes which are likely to hold your attention (for a short while), as there is hardly anyone playing this game online. When actually getting a match, the connection is solid enough with minimal lag (on my 1meg connection, something of a running joke here at IQGamer), to have an enjoyably serious standoff, or just a few casual matches. Finding a match however, is a problem, as there is few people online playing this game.

There’s not much to recommend about Samurai Shodown Sen. It’s not the fact that they’ve changed the way the game plays to match modern fighters like Soul Calibur or Tekken, but rather, how they’ve managed to balls it all up with a lazy, under-developed rush job of a game. I imagine that SNK was simply keen to have another famous franchise out there that wasn’t King Of Fighters or Metal Slug – both of which have been overused these past few years – and thought that a wholly different, quick release version of a fan favourite was the way to go. Sadly that isn’t the case at all, and I would rather have them spend a few extra months creating a proper 2D sequel to the franchise, or perhaps look at revisiting The Last Blade instead.


Samurai Shodown Sen isn’t a completely terrible game overall, but a decided average one instead, with poor gameplay being the main spoiling factor. It’s also the most important one too. In every regard SNKP’s latest fails to excel in one area over another, being the perfect example of a playable (barely) piece of mediocrity. The basic combo system and move set, stiff animations, and blocky graphics make Sen utterly forgettable, and a resounding disappointment to all concerned. Long time fans won’t be pleased with what they find, and everyone else is far better off with the usual alternatives.

With Super Street Fighter IV finally available, it’s pretty obvious which one you’re gonna choose. Capcom have shown just how to revitalise a dead 2D franchise, using up to date 3D visuals and a refined faithful return of 2D hit-box based gameplay. All in all, making Samurai Shodown Sen completely redundant and a laughing stock of a game.

VERDICT: 4/10

Review: After Burner Climax (PSN & XBLA)

Before wanting to be a videogames journalist, or before that a palaeontologist, I have always wanted to become a fighter pilot, shooting down those pesky Migs just like in the 1986 movie hit Top Gun. No rules, no regulations, or training required, just some awesomely cool dog fighting action. As it so happens, I got my first taste of this first-hand in one of my local seaside arcades when I was about five or six years old. I had encountered Sega’s mid-eighties spectacular After Burner, a jet fighting, rip-roaring, aerial action game complete with a really, really, cool moving cabinet.


I only had one go. That was all I was allowed. But it would be an experience I would never forget, a rush of excitement and exhilaration that few games today have delivered in such a concentrated dose. And despite never making it past the first stage, I yearned for more, not ever having the chance to properly sample delights of such similarity again… until now.

In 2006, Sega unleashed upon a dying arcade world the little known After Burner Climax, one of their first next-generation arcade outings. Running on their newly formed Lindbergh arcade board, it brought to the screen fast-paced aerial action and a hint of 1980’s excitement, all at the pre-requisite sixty frames per-second with a slew of smoke and particle effects. Finally my chance to sample once again my childhood delights had arrived, except for the fact that a scarce one or two go’s would be my only chance of salvation. As per usual, Sega had decided it seemed, to completely overlook such a title for an early next-gen console launch, instead relegating it to the ranks of forgotten arcade gems.

Today, all that has changed, and Sega, in combination with Sumo Digital (their usual porting house) have seen fit to release this nearly forgotten arcade non-hit to both PSN and XBLA. Get Ready to re-enter the danger zone, Kenny Loggings style!


Graphically the game is pretty much arcade perfect on both platforms running at the expected 60fps, featuring basic but fairly detailed texture work, with bump-mapped and shiny (specular and diffuse effects) surfaces, and plenty of smoke and particle effects expected for a 2006 game. As with Virtua Fighter 5 on PS3 and Lindbergh, no AA is present on the PS3 version although at least 2xMSAA is used on the 360, but then again, the game does render in 720p on both formats.

The 360 version however, seems to feature slightly better lighting than the PS3 one, matching the arcade version like for like, whereas on PS3 the lighting is ever so slightly less intense. It’s not even an issue for me, and despite with myself being just a little bit of a graphics whore, decided to make my final purchase of the game for my PS3, to go along with OutRun Online arcade and Tekken Dark Resurrection (amongst others) in my growing collection.


The premise of the game is the same as in the 1986 original; flying around at varying speeds above and below the clouds, you are tasked with blasting enemy planes and ground vehicles into obliteration, whilst relying on just a few well-aimed missiles and an unlimited use of a paltry machinegun to get the job done. Along with your limited assortment of weapons, you also have the ability to out-manoeuvre enemy craft using the series trademark ‘barrel roll’, mixing it up between all out shooting, and cleverly skilled avoidance of the impending doom heading your way.

Did, we also mention, blue skies, bright white clouds, and a variety of different environments, each making little sense in the grand scheme of things when it comes to aerial combat. But they sure as hell look really cool, an infusion of colour in an increasingly drab modern videogaming world, just what we need to see a lot more often.

The dossier on the game reads something like this: three selectable aircraft, check; skilful but simplistic gameplay; check; cheesy 80’s rocking arcade soundtrack, check. And so on. It’s After Burner through and through, and one of the last truly decent games created by Sega geniuses at Sega-AM2, minus Virtua Fighter 5 of course.


Staring off by selecting one of three planes, the F/A-18E, F14D Super Tomcat and the F-15E, and then choosing the colour, the game has you flying through a multitude of different, beautifully colourful environments, barrel-rolling and blasting your way through hordes of enemy aircraft and resistant ground forces. Twice along the way the game’s stages branch off to create two separate routes to take, each with new stages and a different second set of routes to take. Should you meet hidden objectives set out for you by the game, you might also encounter a secret stage or two, usually absent from your somewhat short progression to the end.

The experience as a whole is pretty short and really very linear, much like Star Fox 64 or any on-rails shooter worth it’s salt. There’s not much more to do once you’ve completed all the routes available and seen the end credits a handful of times, not even all that much in the way of added depth, or hidden skill to master outside the basic ‘roll and shoot’ and ‘Climax Mode’ mechanics.

However, mastering the basics (is there anything beyond?) isn’t quite as easy or straightforward as it might seem, though lacking the depth of say, OutRun or Sega Rally, but having more to do than the likes of Virtua Cop, or Ghost Squad.


Your basic machine gun fires off rapid shots used to take down most close range enemy aircraft, whilst your missiles are used primarily to initiate an early strike against forces yet to reach your position. Missiles have to be locked-on, much like in the movie Top Gun, and you can target up to a handful at any given time. For each one to be launched you have to push down on the fire button, rather than hold, hit, and fire, which simply will leave you firing off a single missile against one target instead of the group you’ve just locked-on to. This, along with the game’s titular ‘Climax Mode’ brings some much-needed depth to the experience, regardless of how light it actually is, making you learn and remember enemy attack patterns, before blasting them down seamlessly for that barely obtainable ‘100% rating’.

Movement, as with most on-rail shooters, is restricted to flying around between all for corners of the screen, flying into the screen and the oncoming environments and enemies. It’s possible to perform a ‘barrel roll’ using a quick flick of the analogue stick in the opposite direction to which you are moving, whilst the camera automatically pushes you down a fixed course.

Unfortunately, I found it all too easy to accidentally initiate the ‘barrel roll’ whilst attempting to quickly move and target enemies on the opposite side of the screen, rather than change direction and shoot em’ down with some missiles. Maybe it would have been better to have a ‘button and stick movement’ system to activate such a move, thus avoiding the issue from ever coming up. Saying that, the current control set up does make the game feel more like you are flying an unwieldy fighter jet at a fast and frenetic pace, for better or worse.


Moving on, the titular ‘Climax Mode’, activated when the ‘Climax Gauge’ fills up to its maximum position, basically slows down time Matrix stylie, allowing you target and takedown a multitude of enemies far more easily than at high speed. A small counter also appears telling you the amount of enemies that are on screen, which if you manage to destroy all at the same time, you’ll receive an added increase in your score outside that given for simply taking down enemies.

It’s all as simplistic as it gets, with most of the depth and replay value coming from trying to get a perfect ‘takedown’ rating, or by achieving the highest score on the leaderboards - the game’s only online option. It’s also pretty hard, and very chaotic at times, sending a screen load of adversaries at you at any one time, repeating the process over and over until the game ends. Certainly you can tell, that like the 1980’s original, this next-gen sequel was also designed specifically to keep you pumping 50p pieces into the machine.

Challenging, and sometimes unfair, especially later on, is how I would describe After Burner Climax, though never to the point where the wild ride on offer becomes just another bag of stress rolled up and ready to be thrown across the room. Authentic, yes, but expected all the same. After all it’s in the series heritage to be this way.


If you are finding the whole experience a little to hard for your liking, then the game features what can only be described as a ‘dip switch’ style ‘EX Options’ mode, in which you can customise everything from the amount of continues on offer, to powering up your weaponry and allowing an auto lock-on function. It is also possible to change the parameters for how the game’s scoring system works making it easier to gain higher bonuses and other such extras. These ‘Ex Options’ only work in the game’s ‘Arcade Mode’, leaving ‘Score Attack’ free of any unwanted tampering for competitive online play, or rather rankings, as there is no multiplayer on offer.

After Burner Climax is a rather short but reasonably sweet dose of vintage arcade gaming, delivering the quick thrills and spills of such great 1980’s hits like OutRun, Space Harrier and After Burner long since forgotten by the general gaming public. It is also extremely short and pretty repetitive compared to the likes of OutRun 2, in which mastering your drift, and replaying every route in the game can become an obsession. Still Climax offers you a similar feeling, just in smaller doses and with unrelenting fury, without the substance inducing style addictiveness to be found in Sega’s 2004 drifting arcade smash.

Sadly, it also seems like part of the experience is missing without ‘that’ trademark hydraulic cabinet so firmly ingrained in our minds from twenty years ago. Surround sound we may have, and that works brilliantly, but really, having the full-on moving cabinet throwing you all around was part and parcel of the enjoyment behind the game.


For anyone looking for a slice of childhood gaming goodness, or those who perhaps spent too many hours playing through Panzer Dragoon, OutRun or even Star Fox on the N64, will find a highly enjoyable albeit short slice of aerial action, let down by its lack of additional modes, and its strict devotion to its late 80’s roots. For me, and I suspect a few others at least, After Burner Climax could be one of the most played PSN or XBLA releases this year, drenched in blue skies, beautiful artistically designed environments, and quick-fix shooty action.

This game is probably the last solid arcade title to come out of Sega’s dwindling development studios since OutRun 2, and the continuing instalments of the Virtua Fighter series. It’s not perfect by any means, being a little too short for its own good, and rather chaotic, but worth picking up for fans, and perhaps people longing for some more arcade action.

VERDICT: 7/10

Review: Splinter Cell Conviction (360)

Sam Fisher’s latest exploit is a very different beast to past Splinter Cell titles, and after five years of waiting many fans of the series trademark gameplay may not be happy with what they get, especially compared to what they might have expected. ‘Conviction’ in many ways seems more driven by its personal narrative and characterisation than by providing players with a wholly realistic setting and story in which to sneak their way through. It is however, a much more exciting game as a result.

Instead of a highly polished and mostly grounded title, in which extreme stealth and careful planning are required, what we have here is a something which has been turned into more of a 24 style blockbuster, in which cleaver use of stealth and cunning are blended into a more action-based approach to the series traditional gameplay values. Call it ‘heightened cinematic realism’ if you will, rather than the previously cold, harsh and somewhat sedate style inspired by the Tom Clancy novels.

The same thing can be said about the forthcoming ‘Ghost Recon Future Solider’, a title which although keeps its squad-based gameplay mechanics intact, also brings to the table a faster paced, more action oriented adventure, dependant on thrills rather than the familiar steady and tense action most people associate with the franchise. At the same time this more accessible nature allows the developers to widen their games audience along with providing a more interesting story outside of the ‘provide target and execute’ nature cemented in previous games.


‘Splinter Cell Conviction’ starts much like previous games, in slightly confined and larger partially lit areas, having Sam Fisher sneaking around avoiding all enemy sentries whilst looking to accumulate his intended target. Even in these opening moments ‘Conviction’ familiarises players with its fresh approach to the series trademark gameplay, seeing them take a greater role in engaging the enemy, silently if not aggressively at the same time. It’s no longer a case of waiting around endlessly for patrols to clear giving a window of opportunity to move freely around, or killing them and dragging their bodies away. Instead, the aim here, as in many places through the game, is to use a combination of invisibility and distraction to your advantage.

At first the game’s use of light and darkness, along with stealth and silent aggression works rather well, and is not too dissimilar from other titles in this series. However ‘Conviction’ isn’t a game that you can play in the same way as say ‘Chaos Theory’ or even ‘Double Agent’, instead it requires you to be a lot more proactive in your choices and abilities in taking down the various guards set around the course of the levels. The game always keeps you moving towards your next intended target, driving along the story and Sam’s thirst for revenge. In many ways, despite still being driven by stealth, the game is no longer solely held back by it, with the way you approach certain obstacles being very different, and sometimes much louder and more brash.


The way the new stealth system works is a good example of this. No longer are you waiting around looking at on-screen cues to determine your status as hidden from your enemies. Instead the entire screen turns progressively more black and white as you become more and more camouflaged from potential foes. It’s an idea that works so much better than the meters used before in previous games. You can know instantly, and subtly tell exactly how hidden you are, and move/adapt accordingly on the fly almost instantly to your situation. This real-time feedback makes sneaking around and being avoided a faster paced affair, allowing you to move through guard-infested areas much more naturally if you have the skills to do so.

Another area of the game which also aids in this ‘quick stealth’ ideology is the game’s all new cover system, which it has to be said is the most intuitive and useful cover mechanic that has been implemented in any game so far. It’s surprisingly simple. Holding down a single button is all that is required, the ‘left trigger’, which sees Sam Fisher immediately squeezed up against a wall still able to move freely around. Pressing the ‘left trigger’ when your near an object, and you’ll take cover behind it, whilst releasing it frees you from your cover point instantly, after which Sam will instead crouch down whilst traversing around his environment.


When approaching an enemy silently and unseen, the game provides you with the option of making ‘hand kill’, a mostly quick and instant kill manoeuvre which when timed correctly is one of the games most useful tools in dispatching of your foes. Be a little too impatient however, and Sam may not be quite as successful, with his attempt at quickly executing a guard becoming a small but noisy scuffle, ousting your presence and forcing you to take alternative action. It’s this element in particular which feels most like a traditional Splinter Cell game, having you carefully approaching targets with a well thought out plan; who you’re going to deal with first, how to get around any potential obstacles that stand in your way, and at what point do you finally execute all you’ve been planning for.

Of course all this takes place in a matter of seconds, requiring quick thinking on the fly, along with a constant change or adaptation of tactics as the scenario plays out. This is what ‘Conviction’ is really all about, especially when you cam combine these tactics with the game’s new ‘mark and execute’ system.

The use of the new ‘mark and execute’ system is perhaps the series freshest addition since removing the trial and error nature of missions found in the first two games. This sees you mark a handful of targets for a quick and lethal attack, which if successful, won’t get you noticed by surrounding guards in the area. Failure to pull it off smoothly however, and the ruckus this will cause can immediately backfire on you, sending a squad of angry guards your way. If you do run out of attempts to ‘mark and execute’ you simply have to perform a few manual stealth kills in order to bring them back up again. It’s a system which keeps you from getting too trigger happy, and allows the game to force back some of that old Splinter Cell gameplay back into the mix.


Also playing out the always active approach taken by the game, the ‘last known position’ mechanic essentially finds you initiating contact with the enemy, through either noisy distractions or mostly, if you’re anything like me, via the ‘mark and execute’ system, in which after getting their attention you have to run away and find a good cover spot or position in which you are completely hidden. Whilst running away or reassessing your cover, the game presents you with a white icon on screen dictating your ‘last known position’, and it’s from here that enemies will start actively searching for you.

After this happens you can use their change of position to your advantage, by either being able to sneak past using a route once heavily guarded, or by gaining a better position to take out a few of the primary guards which properly hinder your progression.

Sadly, on numerous occasions, I found myself resorting to cheap Metal Gear style tactics in which I would take cover whilst pot-shooting at the enemies, moving around into other dark areas before repeating the process once more. It’s in this regard that many long time fans will be pretty disappointed, that you can, when familiar with your surroundings, get away with this when all else fails. Thankfully, upping the difficulty setting makes tactics like these impossible, and the reward for clearing heavily guarded areas that much more desirable. You have to, in essence, play the game like a Splinter Cell title, and not like a duck-and-cover shooter.


In addition, the game has also been overly simplified compared to previous instalments, lacking the ability to pick up and move downed enemies, or creating a distraction by whistling, knocking on objects etc. This in particular makes the whole experience a little by the numbers at times, with on many occasions the game making you do exactly what it wants you to do, and how it wants you to do it. This does in essence help create a more exciting game as a result, being geared towards specific action scenes and story-based segments.

However, in the same respect, people like myself who have never quite gelled with the series stubbornly harsh gameplay ideals will enjoy the fact the having the odd, or regular shootout makes the game feel far more exciting, as well as being more manageable than the previous games. At the same time, the game requires you to be stealthy in your actions, as you can only get shot three of four times continuously before falling dead on the ground. It’s this mix of quick pacing, forward-moving action, and a heavy hand of stealth, that makes ‘Conviction’ such a refreshing game to play, whilst also reworking the series for next-gen audiences. The game also never descends into Metal Gear arcade style action in the stealth sections, instead providing a wholly more grounded approach to such scenarios.

Later on in the game however, you’ll be confronted with sections which amount to being nothing more than a pot-shot cover shooting gallery, in which you lure your enemies into a position where you can easily take them out one at a time. These sections are filled with trial and error gameplay, in which one mistake will see you failing, or at other times dying quickly until you get the gist of how the game wants you to handle the situation. A far cry from the cleverly thought out level design, and thought provoking tactics so strongly featured in the series standout ‘Chaos Theory’ instalment, and a blemish on the solid stealth sections that make up the bulk of the game.


Visually, a lot has already been said about the game elsewhere on this site. Our tech analysis of the demo revealed the slightly disappointing 576 sub-HD nature of the game, and the issues that prevails as a result. The final game however, in many places, doesn’t seem to suffer as much as the demo did, with those ‘issues’ being mainly scenario based. Mostly, the game has a clean and smooth look throughout, with detailed texturing (though sometimes low resolution), and some really nice dynamic lighting and shadowing. Occasionally the upscaling leads to shimmering edges and jaggies being visible on objects far away from the screen, but it really isn’t that much of a problem. However, one thing that is always noticeable, it that the colours are somewhat less vibrant due to the upscaling (looking washed out), and the game also never looks pin-sharp as a result of its sub-HD resolution, with small details sometimes looking fuzzy.

However, Tom Clancy’s latest is perhaps the best looking 576p game so far compared to others released on either the 360 or the PS3. In many ways, the 360’s superb internal scaler makes the game almost indistinguishable from some native 720p rendering games, especially when viewed on a softer looking Plasma display screen. Whereas uber sharp LCD screens and CRT PC monitors tend to show up the sub-HD nature of the game far more frequently. Either way, the fact that the game isn’t native 720p is far less of an issue for most of the final game than our initial tech analysis made it out to be in the demo. So it still holds up pretty well, and looks pretty good overall, though not particularly impressive.


‘Splinter Cell Conviction’ isn’t quite the defining game in the series I hoped it would be. In fact, whilst the game on many levels works to create the most intuitive stealth and espionage experience yet, it’s also let down by its own admission into becoming more of a blockbuster thrill ride centred on action and pseudo-sneaking rather than the hard-edged real deal the Tom Clancy franchise is known for. In one way, it’s a better game for it, allowing the title to have an intriguing edge of your seat style storyline in places, whilst also providing the player with some of the most accomplished gameplay mechanics seen in this type of game so far.

However, the sometimes overly action-based nature, and increased simplicity, of the game derails the experience, especially in sections designed solely for the purpose of providing players with elaborate shoot outs, and tension through trial and error mechanics, which we haven’t seen since ‘Pandora Tomorrow’ on the original Xbox. Other sections also find you instead taking the aggressive route to finding a solution, flushing out guards and silently disposing of them, rather than attempting to seamlessly move past, without so much of a trace left behind. This was of course the intention of the development team all along though, and they have (mostly) nailed it, minus a few stages in the second half of the game, which turn into an all out shooter.


Despite a few criticisms, ‘Conviction’ does a lot right, bringing the franchise up to modern day standards with regards to the controls and intuitive gameplay mechanics so taken for granted by other titles. In this aspect the game almost never fails to captivate, providing a fresh look at the stealth genre, and a much-needed change of pace, making whole game flow a lot more smoothly. The hard-edged gripping realism of past games is gone, as is the use of show-stopping generation defining visuals. But their absence doesn't harm the game quite as much as you might think, instead only alienating the most ardent of Tom Clancy videogame fans.

So in the end, what we have here is a pretty successful re-envisioning of a classic franchise, lacking in visual clout, and some of the important depth found in previous instalments, but not without plenty of excitement along the way. Old fans may be disappointed, but everyone else should find Sam Fisher’s latest exploits more engrossing than before, despite being a little more flawed in its execution.

VERDICT: 7/10

Revealed: Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 Is Coming!

If you thought that Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom represented a hardcore comeback for the ‘Versus’ series then you ain’t seen nothing yet, as for yesterday in the early hours, Capcom officially announced the arrival of Marvel Vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds. The game pretty much is the first proper instalment in the original ‘Versus’ series since Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 was released some ten years ago, and is one of the most exciting things to come out of Capcom’s Captivate 10 games event.

Like with Street Fighter IV and Tatsunoko, MvC3 is coming to both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in all its 3D high definition glory, packing an estimated 30 or more characters – the amount depends on how much Capcom get done in the time limit they have – and all the series hallmark off-the-wall, hyper intense, super-combo busting action you’ve come to expect from a franchise with such larger than life icons.

So far Capcom haven’t disclosed the whole line up of characters that will make it into the game, although we do know that this bunch will at least be making an appearance. Confirmed via the trailer of the game and additional promotional art, faces shall include Ryu, Wolverine, Iron Man, Hulk, Morrigan and Chris Redfield. Whilst the artwork hints at the inclusion of Chun-Li, Captain America, Super Skrull, Deadpool, Felicia, Dante, Frank West, Mephisto, Black Widow and Doctor Doom. We have also been told to expect an end boss that Marvel says fans will appreciate.



With plenty of new franchises released between MvC2 and this game, it will be interesting to see how many new or unusual faces make an appearance in the game. Hopefully there will be some really cool surprises in the way of hidden characters, or supped up ‘evil’ versions so popular with fans with the ‘Versus SNK’ series of games. Perhaps we’ll find some of the lesser known, but far darkly and intense Marvel characters rarely seen outside the comic book universe. That would be an awesome treat for us 2D fighting fans.

MvC3 will see the return of the tried and tested system of ‘hyper combos’, ‘aerial raves’, and the return of the 3-on-3 tag-team mode that powered MvC2 all those years ago, along with new moves and another combo system. Capcom are calling it the "Evolved VS. Fighting System", although we think that its naturally par the course for a series such as this, and we expect some of the most successful elements from Tatsunoko to be included in this system as well. Capcom have also said that they haven’t quite decided on whether the main game will use and 2-on-2 or 3-on-3 system for the main game, and that way the assists work is still being tweaked.

Currently there’s no word on how simple or complicated the control set-up will be, how many buttons will be used, or whether a system similar to TvC will be in place. Seeing as this IS the next fully featured ‘main’ instalment of the original ‘versus’ series I would expect there to be a four or six button system of either light, medium and heavy, or light and heavy, punches and kicks, in additions to specials, hypers etc.

That game will fashioning the latest in Capcom 3D inspired 2D fighting, using what they are calling a "living comic-book" art style, which apparently will blur the lines between 3D and 2D graphics in a way which SFIV never could. From the trailer it looks like the series will feature a slightly more realistic and shiny look to the characters, stylised with the painted hand drawn effects used for SFIV. Different then, from both SFIV and Tatsunoko, whilst being a faithful re-envisioning of the franchise classic animated look, brought fully up to date.

The series will also mark the first time that a Capcom 2D fighting game has used their proprietary ‘MT Framework’ engine featured in Dead Rising and the original Lost Planet, and not the MT Framework 2 used in Resident Evil 5. The engine has been modified for use specifically for this game, and was no doubt chosen over the one used in Street Fighter IV in order to allow that ‘living comic-book’ style hinted at earlier on. I guess it would be easier to adapt an engine with certain features they are interested in using rather than to rework and incorporate them into the simpler one behind SFIV.

With regards to the artwork, it looks like the main cover-art for the game is being done by Shinkiro, which bares a striking resemblance to the one used for TvC, whilst the overall character art, which you can see on this page, is being done by the same artist responsible for SFIV and SFIII Third Strike. It’s not yet known just who will be providing the in-game artwork for the title, though I’d wager that the SFIV artist will be used for most of it, with perhaps Shinkiro being reserved for the box art and instruction manual work. At this point however, this is all speculation and we won’t really find out until the first playable build of the game, or gameplay trailer arrives.

All the music and sound effects are being updated, with the music in particular getting a full reworking, starting from scratch and avoiding the jazz-infused eclectic nature of the score behind MvC2. Taking you for a ride, not this time I’m afraid. Instead we’re hopeful that Capcom will take inspiration from the first three games in the series, bringing together that feel of Marvel, Street Fighter, and that uniquely stylised sound from hits such as Mega Man and Bionic Commando, all blended into one seamless ‘clash of the heroes’ type musical mash up.

Lastly, it is promsed that a more prominent storyline shall feature in MvC3 compared to previous games, which always were lacking in that department. We don’t for one minute expect a deep or epically driven narrative, but we are getting proper endings for all the characters in the game, along with SFIV style introductory cut-scenes.



Capcom will be showing off much more of Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 at this years E3, which runs from 15 – 17 June at the Los Angeles Convention Center. We are expecting the first proper gameplay trailer, or hopefully an early playable build sampling the delights of the new engine.

IQGamer will be covering the event in as much detail we can, and of course will be bringing all the latest on MvC3 from the event.

Review: Final Fight Double Impact (360 & PS3)

Two retro themed reviews in as many weeks, eh, not something you’d expect from a site calling itself IQGamer. However, I thought that it would be a nice alternative from the sometimes non-stop barrage of technically charged writing which can usually be found here. Also both titles were not only recent releases available on either Nintendo’s, Microsoft’s, or Sony’s online networks, but also franchises which we at IQGamer have fond memories of. So it made complete sense to cover them. Of course we’ve still managed to put in a little technical charm here and there, so overall it’s not without relevance.

Our latest retro escapade takes us back into Capcom’s world of street pugilism and swords and sorcery for Final Fight Double Impact, an XBLA and PSN release of both the original arcade version of Final Fight, and a little known title called Magic Sword, which explains the swords and sorcery bit.

The collection not only features both titles replicated arcade perfectly, minus unfortunately the original rendering resolution, but also comes complete with various display modes and online network options bulking out a rather basic arcade package.


When you first start up the collection you are presented with an online mode by default, it’s actually the standard mode of play just like in a real arcade. Although you can obviously start off by playing a game by yourself another player can randomly join in at anytime, just like if they were to plunk in a couple of pence into the local arcade machine. If you’re not a fan of this wholly arcade free-for-all nature at hand, then you can customise the game to allow for a single-player only experience. Or matches via invites only, like a private game session just for friends.

The arcade experience is pretty cool either way you slice it, and makes the package really feel like a proper arcade conversion in the home.


Another thing, which does just that, are the opening menu screens you are presented with for both games, which show off the games original arcade cabinet along with some artwork created for this XBLA and PSN release. When you go to play the game for the first time the camera zooms in on the cabinet with the screen becoming the central 4:3 picture, and the artwork on the cabinet becoming the boarders that usually fill out a widescreen picture for these old titles. You can of course start playing right away, with the screen warped like an old arcade CRT monitor and the game upscaled within that screen. In addition this mode also creates scanlines and a fake monitor glow to make it look like your playing the games through a camera filming the action or something.

Whilst being pretty cool, it is possible to select a whole range of image options to change the way these games look; from soft focus upscaling, to a nice sharpening effect much like in the XBLA and PSN release of Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, or even have the visuals untouched in what can only be described as a basic pixelated upscale. Personally, the full-screen ‘original’ option looked the best on my Plasma screen, and on my old Sony CRT (240p/480i native) in 480i looked the most faithful, although for LCD screens the games ‘sharp’ scaling option would clearly look better, as it does also on progressive scan HD CRTs.

Unfortunately there is no option to play either game in the original 240p resolution supported by standard def CRT TVs, and the Nintendo Wii for VC games. Neither the 360 nor the PS3 can output something that low, with PSone games on the PS3 via scart being interlaced out at 480i instead, just like what happens here with Final Fight DI. It’s not a major issue, but purists like myself will certainly feel like they’re not getting the entire experience as it should be.


Like with most Live and PSN releases of classic titles, there is an unlimited save anywhere option along with infinite credits also. This does take away most of the challenge from the game seeing as you respwan at exactly the same point in which you died when you choose to continue. It would have been better to have started off with something like five credits and having to earn more via playing the game repeatedly instead of giving infinite lives by default.

Alternatively it would a been a good idea to grant the option of infinite lives, but with fixed respwan points through the levels, making you do a bit of backtracking when you die. This wouldn’t have been ‘as in the arcade’ though, so it’s understandable why the option isn’t there. Also in Final Fight, it’s pretty damn clear as day that certain parts of the game was designed intentionally to suck up the last of any spare change you might have had. Not something that bodes all that well for a home conversion.


In terms of the games themselves, the first one on this collection, Final Fight, needs no explanation. It’s a side-scrolling 2D beat’em up, in which you walk along a path both horizontally and vertically through varying locals punching, kicking and smashing your way past a range of thuggish enemies, and tough end bosses. Weapons can be picked up and used, such as lead pipes, swords, knives etc, and health is obtained via eating turkey legs scattered around on the floors on each level. It’s basically just like Streets Of Rage or Double Dragon, but with a different cast of characters and better graphics.

Magic Sword on the other hand, is slightly different. The game is a weapons and magic based platform action game, stroke beat’em up, owing more to the likes of Shinobi than SOR or Final Fight. Using your trusty sword, you slice and dice through various enemies such as dragons, the undead, mummies etc, whilst throwing a few magic fireballs to even up the odds. As you progress along any one of the game’s 51 stages you pick up keys that free the many prisoners to be found locked away in the game. After they have been released they join you on your quest, helping out in taking out the hordes of monsters that lie in wait. Each of these prisoners has their own unique abilities useful against certain types of enemies, however you can only have one in your party at any given time, the last one that you freed.

It’s Magic Sword which proves to be the most interesting game of the collection, not least of all because this is the first time that I’ve played it – a rarity seeing as I’ve played most Capcom arcade titles released over the years - but also because Final Fight is a game that has been seen far too many times in the past, and Magic Sword is a refreshing discovery of an old style gameplay design so popular back in the 16bit 2D era. Both are completely worthy or your attention, Final Fight is still an excellent scrolling beat’em up, though not as accomplished as the last two SOR games, and Magic Sword is something different, but nicely familiar all the same.


Final Fight Double Impact is one of the best XBLA and PSN releases of a classic arcade or home title. A wealth of display options are available to suit the majority of tastes (again, sorry purists no 240p), along with a fully customisable online mode and a unique approach at recreating ‘that’ arcade atmosphere from some twenty years ago in your living room. Sure we have seen one of the games a little too much in the last ten years or so, a bit like with Street Fighter II on those many retro collections and VC releases. However this ranks up there as the most complete conversion yet, and comes packaged with another great title lost in the history of time, available for the first time at home.

If you’re looking for the definitive home conversion of Final Fight, and are intrigued by the inclusion of the unrelated Magic Sword, then this downloadable release is certainly worth picking up. Purists like myself might object to the lack or original resolution support, whilst everyone else will be more than pleased to see a fan favourite given so much care and attention. Playing side by side with a friend, or over Live or PSN, on games like this is a rarity, and one which Final Fight Double Impact does so well.

Resolution and slight display issues aside, there’s no reason not to recommend picking this up. Both games are as fun to play as ever, and the co-op online system is a great inclusion. More retro re-releases should be produced with this much thought and attention to detail in mind.

VERDICT: 8/10

Tech Report: Alan Wake Not Rendered In HD

Earlier this week we sighted Remedy Entertainment’s Alan Wake as one of our top five technically accomplished games for 2010, a position backed up by the game’s impressive use of dynamic lighting, particle and transparency effects, whilst of course having 4x multisampling anti-aliasing adding to the already impressive technical prowess held the title.

However, that statement is looking partially shaky, particularly because the game has now been confirmed to no longer be running 720p high definition, but instead in an unimpressive sub-HD resolution, actually lower than what some standard definition DVDs are presented in.

Yesterday, some direct feed screenshots were released by Dutch site Videogameszone believed to be from a compressed video source, and showing the game as having a 547p resolution (960x547 to be exact). However, the screenshots in question show scenes not actually in the compressed video they were believed to have come from, instead originating from what looks like compressed framebuffer grabs directly from an Xbox 360 console.



Earlier today, these screenshots were properly identified as compressed framebuffer grabs from an actual 360, and have also been confirmed to be rendering at 960x540, and then upscaled to the full 1280x720 standard HD resolution.

So the question is, why is the game’s resolution so low, and why did Remedy change it from rendering in their originally intended 720p?

Well, it may just come down to their use of A2C for certain transparencies and their need to use 4xMSAA in order to make them look good. According to Remedy the use of 4xMSAA is vital for decent ‘alpha blending’ of the A2C transparency effects, which is required to reduce texture shimmering and transparency dithering caused by using A2C instead of the more traditional, and bandwidth heavy ‘alpha coverage’.

“We like 4xAA. Due to the alpha-to-coverage feature on the Xbox 360 GPU, it's one of the key reasons we can render a lot of "alpha test" foliage like trees and bushes without them starting to shimmer or dither (as alpha-to-coverage with 4xAA effectively gives us 5 samples of alpha "blend" without actually using alpha blend).”


In addition to this, using a lower resolution like 540p allows the developers to continue to use 4xMSAA along with all the intensive framebuffer effects, and geometry hungry tessellation features which usually put a strain on rendering performance, not to mention bandwidth (tessellation excluded). And since the game was already suffering from bouts of terrible screen tearing, it could have looked like the best possible choice in order to secure relatively decent performance from the game engine in demanding scenarios. After all, having the screen tear does less for reducing image quality than a constantly fluctuating framerate, although somewhat more distracting to some people, myself included.

Essentially, rendering at 960x540 with 4xMSAA would allow then to gain a lot of performance back from when they were still rendering in 720p with either 2xMSAA or 4x. This way they could ensure a smooth 30fps update most of the time whilst reducing overall screen tearing, although recent videos confirmed to be using this new rendering resolution still have a lot of tearing going on.

By using 4x anti-aliasing Remedy have reduced the jagged look associated with sub-HD resolution upscaling, and instead provided the game with a much smoother, blended appearance. Sharpness however, is lost as a result, and although some have said that this new blurrier look adds extra atmosphere to the game, it also makes a large dent in overall image quality. Certainly, compared to the clean looking 720p direct-feed screenshots of the past, these recent sub-HD ones make the game look much less impressive in stills. Hopefully in motion, and using the uncompressed video output of the 360 console, they won’t look quite so poor.

IQGamer will be taking a closer look at the technology used in Alan Wake around the time of the game’s release. Until then we shall keep you fully updated on this story, and shed light on more details as soon as we know about them.

The original 960x547 resolution was first discovered by MazingerDUDE on NeoGAF late last night, and the final 960x540 resolution was confirmed by Quaz51 earlier this evening.

Tech Report: Gears Of War 3 Teaser Trailer

With the Gears Of War 3 trailer finally unveiled yesterday, along with a splattering of pre-release information and interesting technical facts, we though it was time yet again to bring about another tech report. This time we’ll be focusing on this week’s teaser trailer and talking about the visual enhancements planned for the title, what they mean and how they could be included when it comes to the final game.

Currently there isn’t all that much to go on. Outside of the trailer - which we’ll be analysing in a moment - only a handful of new graphical features and visual effects were mentioned, and of course the intention to further optimise the title for the 360 architecture. However today’s IQGamer report will be just the first of many, and we shall be updating you every step of the way as new information surfaces. It will be interesting to see how the first in-game shots really stack up to Gears 1 & 2, and how many of the cut visual effects from the second game make it back in, if they in fact do so.


In terms of new graphical effects, Epic Games plan to include a global illumination system in Gears 3, along with indirect lighting, an intentional side effect of GI, and increased amounts of particle effects and specular highlighting. Other undisclosed improvements to the overall game engine are also being coded into the latest version of the Unreal Engine 3, mostly in the way of optimisations with regards to existing features found in the tech.

The first of these, a form of global illumination, is a technique in which a single light source reflects and bounces off every surface it comes in contact to. And whilst something that advanced isn’t going to be possible on the 360 in its entirety, a semi-real-time, pre-calculated approach is certainly on the cards.

The second is that as a result of the inclusion of GI, we can expect there to be a lot more in the way of indirect lighting, a side effect from the light bouncing off one source and providing lighting for another. This in turn will create better ambient lighting relying less on pre-baked shadow and light maps, more dynamic in nature, hopefully being done in real-time, of half real, half pre-baked for an effective but cost saving (resource wise) approach.

Both of these effects should go a long way to increasing the sense of depth and realism into the experience, at the same time complementing the use of baked ambient occlusion and shadow maps nicely.


Looking at the trailer itself it’s pretty clear that a few of the new effects, such as indirect lighting and improved specular highlighting are visible. Although there doesn’t appear to be any sign of the GI solution they mentioned.

The trailer seems to be rendered using in-game assets and the actual in-game engine, though it doesn’t appear to have been done in real time. Much like with the first Gears 2 trailer there appears to have a higher image quality compared to both of the first two games, with better texture filtering and less noticeable aliasing. However the trailer also shows off a few low resolution textures and still doesn’t feature a useable MSAA anti-aliasing solution, meaning that in all likelihood it is a genuine in-engine rendered, which could well be matched in the final game. The trailer looks like it’s being rendered in 1080p and downsampled for AA, rather than having actual MSAA for jaggies reduction.

You can also see much greater texture detail as well compared to before. Characters now have facial hair which has a sense of depth about it rather than being just a flat texture. This is done through the use of shader techniques in combination with normal mapping, which seems to also have been improved over Gears 2. Geometry counts looked to have been upped slightly too, which would explain, along with the shaders, how a lot of that extra detail has been included. I would imagine that whilst some elements have less geometry than in previous games, due to better shader usage, other areas of the game would have benefited from a slight increase in order to give more detail.

The use of shadow maps and baked ambient occlusion appears to be present, with the AO looking to be more prominent than before, and the shadow maps creating contrast to parts of the environment not being directly affected by the game’s lighting system.


The above screenshot shows off clearly most of the new graphical effects that were mentioned earlier on. For example there is an abundance of particle effects on screen being kicked up the giant Locust boss character, and everyone from the Gear’s themselves to the standard Locust enemies have more sheen and a smoother look generally provided by better specular and diffuse maps.

Like with Gears 2 the gunfire lights up the environment surrounding the characters, although this time its reach is greater than before, reacting with increased intensity with environmental specular and diffuse maps. In addition the lighting from above the clouds also creates subtle light and dark areas on the ground, encasing characters in shadows and light as the clouds move and pass over them.

Whilst it isn’t possible however, to see any of the indirect lighting that Epic has stated would go into the game, the overall basic lighting and shadowing model has seen noticeable improvement over the first two games. With GI and indirect lighting it should look even better, even though the implementation is likely to be a simple one in order to maintain engine performance.

So far, whilst it looks better than previous the early trailers and tech demos for Gears 2, this Gears 3 trailer only scratches the surface of the improved lighting, although both the particle effects and shaders have seen significant improvements. The GI solution that Epic are working on for the title should make all the difference, and as long as they keep the image quality increases shown in this trailer we should be expecting another technical showcase for the 360.

Well, that’s all we know for now, and everything we can establish from the very short and hardly revealing teaser trailer for the game. Some of the things we pointed out weren’t exactly new to the series, but simply refinements to an existing graphical base of the Unreal Engine 3. As development progresses we expect to see much more in the way of improvements, mainly in the form of the GI lighting, and hopefully a proper anti-aliasing solution as well.

Either way this short little demo already looks to have better tech than in Gears 2, and all that remains to be seen, is how well Epic will do in keeping all the features introduced in forthcoming trailers in the actual final release build of the game.

IQGamer will be following the progress and development of Gears Of War 3 closely, with more tech news and analysis as it breaks.