Review: Vanquish (PS3)

Vanquish is an awesome game, there’s no doubt about that. Platinum Games have created a masterpiece of a shooter that blows away any other modern day title that remotely tries to replicate the same blend of intense action and screen-filling chaos, of which there are next to none. Comparisons with Gears Of War may be drawn initially, as the game appears to be a more hectic variant of the duck & cover shooter. However, Vanquish is instead is more like a hardcore, three-dimensional homage to the 16bit run and gun shumps of old, and is as definitively thrilling as it is exemplary.

The best way to describe Platinum Games’ highly stylish, and overly intense homage to classic side-scrollers, is to say that it is like a warped version of Gears Of War on a speed trip. Though such limiting connotations just don’t really do it justice. Sure, you can play Vanquish like a simple Gears clone on easy mode, and the game does have plentiful spots of cover in which to park your backside against, though in doing so you’d be missing the point completely. And by a very large margin.

Perhaps with its use of high-powered, though grounded special abilities, and the instantly cool, but somewhat fiddly to implement weapon cancelling system, the game owes as much to classic, over the top beat’em up romps such as Marvel Vs Capcom as it does to any other contender to the third-person shooting crown. The sheer intensity of the combat; the amount of enemies, effects, and carnage on screen rip apart any misconceptions you might have taking you on a journey into one of the most satisfying action games that I’ve played in a long time.


Starting out initially, the game sees you taking on a few handfuls of enemies using the many walls and concrete cover points in order to take a few second breathers in between the more fierce battles for territory. This is pretty much like every other third-person shooter you’ve experience before. However, very soon after it finally starts to dawn on you that sticking in one place for any length of time isn’t a very good idea; you’re unlikely to stay alive for long doing this, especially as the game ramps up its foe count dramatically the further you push on.

Instead you have to keep moving, whether that be from point to point, or by trailblazing past scores of enemies using your jetpack. It doesn’t matter. The thing is, combat is meant to be fast, furious and often chaotic. The constant change-up between slower enclosed affairs, with wide-open faster paced sections is like the constant ebb and flow of pace in a fighting game.

However, unlike in those kinds of titles, you’ll be constantly facing a barrage of bullets, laser beams, artillery, and powerful rockets as the stage quickly turns into an all out battlefield. It’s hectic, but stylistically cool. And this is exemplified by Sam Giedeon’s use of a specially engineered suit giving him a small range of enhanced abilities.


Sam’s Augmented Reaction Suit (ARS) not only makes our futuristic American hero more agile – you can dodge, flip and cartwheel yourself past most heavy enemy fire, but also allows him to glide across the floor’s surface with the aid of a jetpack, plus conveniently upping his perceptive skills, delivering a slow-motion, bullet-time type effect to the action.

The jetpack, and in particular in combination with bullet-time is something that you’ll no doubt be needing to use throughout most of Vanquish, especially on the Normal and hard difficulty settings. Seeing as enemy fire usually comes from all directions, the game conveniently pushing you to move from place to place, and back again, using your suits impressive abilities in order to leverage any vantage point you can.

I found it distinctly refreshing running in head on, constantly repositioning myself the heat of battle, boosting around enemies before going in for the kill. The sensation you get is far more exciting than just by simply hiding behind various walls and other objects, occasionally popping up for a few quick shots before ducking back down again. Instead cover gives you a few quick seconds to grasp your bearings before you jump full-on back into combat, blazing past enemies, before spraying a mountain of bullets their way.


Often boosting past multiple targets, before turning around in full bullet-time action, whilst cartwheeling past an incoming barrage of projectiles is a common way of not only staying alive, but also positioning yourself for the perfect assault. Once in full slow mo you then can unleash your own sneaky counter attack. This is unmistakably what Vanquish is all about, and is something that you should frequently be doing all the way through the game. Sometimes though, the action becomes just a tad too overwhelming to handle, and the end result is being on the receiving end of some near-fatal impact damage.

Your suit may make you fast whilst being incredibly durable, but strong and built to withstand epic bombardments it is not. In order to give you that fighting edge, when you are mere seconds away from death the game automatically slows down into bullet-time, whilst your health quickly recovers. This then allows you to easily take out the most offending foes from halting your progress safely in the knowledge that a short represeve is only a few seconds away. It’s a nice touch, one that frequently helps you out just when you think you might be near the end.

Of course, your ARS abilities can be used independently from each another; activating the bullet-time mechanic to gain a better shot when needing to hit a crucial weak point for example, or boosting away to get out of tough situations in which there is no time to sensibly avoid conflict by more normal means. Chaining these abilities together however, is really where the game’s skill and subsequent depth really lies.


Take for example the weapon system. You have four weapon slots in Vanquish, and these can be toggled through via the d-pad (one for each direction) – you usually start with the assault rife, heavy machine gun, shotgun, and some grenades. However, weapons can be cancelled out mid-fire by simply pushing down on the d-pad to select another. This means that it is possible to lunge toward an enemy in slow-motion whilst emptying a whole assault rife clip into them, before cancelling into a shotgun for a decisively final, close-range blast to the head. It’s moments like these which really, really deliver that “oh yeah” factor, but without the need for any cheesy Americanised comments found in a certain other shooter.

It is up against the bosses in which these feats of brilliance are best served, although due to the sometimes fiddly nature of the controls, such events rarely go quite as planned. And this is perhaps the biggest issue that can be laid out against the game; that with so many button combinations to remember, and the d-pad to consider in higher-level play, Vanquish sometimes feels like it’s more inaccessible than it perhaps should be.

I really like the idea of weapon cancelling – it brings much dept to the table. But when it is so finicky to use, it can feel redundantly absent. You can of course still manage to utilise most of your acrobatic, Matrix influenced arsenal despite some minor qualms with the controls. And the range of impressive bosses, and sub-bosses - which become normal foes once you’ve encountered them for the first time – is exactly where this tatic is best reserved. Imaginatively designed, screen-filling, and scenery destroying in nature, these awesome encounters are some of the best parts of the game.


Forget the blazing gunfire found right in the regular battlefield, because when up against one or even several bosses at once, you’ll be bombarded with scores of incendiary projectiles, and numerous other tools of war. And as if taking these behemoths down wasn’t difficult enough, every one features its own signature one-hit-kill attack, giving out an instant death sentence if you’re not quick enough to move out of the way.

Such moves are rarely of continued annoyance. And although later bosses use this quick kill manoeuvre far more frequently, the game does give you adequate toolage in order to deal with them successfully. It’s just a case of memorising each boss’s specific attack patterns, avoiding the lethal blows, and constantly boosting, dodging and countering all the way through to the conclusion, in which you should witness a lovely cataclysmic explosion, filled with layered smoke and loads, and loads of awesome particle effects.

Spectacle isn’t just contained in these encounters however, Vanquish features a fair few dramatic set pieces and lavishly scripted events. One of which is a very, very cool train section, which sees you situated on one train while firing on another that twists and circles your carriage on a intertwining track way. Another segment will see you taking on several mini-bosses at once, up against a range of powerful fixed weaponry amongst some stunningly lavish visual carnage.


Elements like these, and the many large-scale battles to be found through the game all flow nicely into each other. There’s never a moment where Vaquish feels disjointed, or where certain sections come out of nowhere. Perhaps the only thing which occasionally tends to intrude, is the game’s use of brief cinematic interludes during gameplay, which break up some very short shooting sections just as they are getting started. Quite why this was done I’m not sure – the plot isn’t expanded in any meaningful way that’s for sure, and they simply break up the feel of the game.

The rest of the cinematics though are a very welcome inclusion. They are a blend of the same OTT action as found in the gameplay segments, complete with the same electronic, trippy music that encompasses the entire game. And whilst these cut-scenes don’t really flesh out the story, they are amazingly well directed, and act as an impressive companion piece to the highly-stylished gameplay.

Effectively, the plot is only a sallow device used to set up the next elaborate action sequence, where by there is lots of shooting, lots of cool set-pieces, even more shooting, and then more short cinematics, followed by even more of the same. And since it is this rinse and repeat nature of play which makes Vanquish feel like a modern-day re-envisioning of classic 90’s shooters like Contra and Metal Slug, rather than just a Japanese take on Epic’s GOW, that is exactly how you should view it.


Vanquish blends tried and tested old-school arcade methodology with modern day, western sensibilities into a ride of highly intoxicating, choreographed chaos, complete with large scale intense action, and short little cinematic interludes - Quantum Theory this is not. The game then is a stellar example of Japanese madness meeting crazy over the top gunplay, delivered in a familiar form, though strikingly fresh and original at the same time.

If there are any complaints to be had, then it’s the somewhat stiff animations, and slightly complicated controls which mostly come to mind. Although neither really put a dampner on the experience, and you’ll be hard-pressed not to forgive such issues considering the level of polish to be found throughout.

Vanquish may well be a little too hectic for some, with the near constant bombardment of multi-directional action threatening to disengage anyone unaware of the sheer apocalyptic mix contained within, but it also provides some of best slices of arcade style gaming in recent years. The fact that it does this so well, means that Platinum Games latest is quite possibly one of the best games I've played this generation, and is in my view, utterly essential.


VERDICT: 9/10

Tech Analysis: Vanquish Update (PS3 vs 360)

Created by both the legendary Shinji Mikami, and the visionary Atsushi Inaba, Vanquish is one of the most exciting and intense shooters to come out of any software house in recent years. Although, it is only from the minds, and indeed talent, nurtured in the land of the rising sun in which such an exemplary form of high-octane, and beautifully staged gunplay could have originated. Coming out of nowhere Vanquish is an amazing game, and one of the most impressively modern, though staunchly old-school examples of run and gun mayhem you’ll find on any console, let alone the PS3 or 360, and is well worth the price of entry.

The demo release way back in August showed that Vanquish was more or less a match on both PS3 and 360, but the finished game now solidly confirms that. Like with the demo Vanquish looks to be almost completely identical across both platforms, having just one or two extremely subtle, but barely noticeable differences, with performance being the most defining factor between both versions.

What we have here is a stark contrast to Platinum Games last release, Bayonetta, which was seriously gimped on the PS3. Running with its framerate bitterly halved, along with lower resolution textures and alpha effects it was perhaps one of the worst cross-platform releases I’d come across thus far. But unlike that particular title, Vanquish was completely developed in-house on both platforms, with the PS3 game being the lead platform.

We took an in-depth look at the demo in an earlier tech analysis, so there’s little reason to spend a huge amount of time re-treading old ground, seeing as pretty much most of our findings back then still ring true now when it comes to the final retail copy. Instead what follows is a recap of sorts with updated comparison shots and an extended look at performance across both formats – arguably the deciding factor when it comes to Platinum Games’ latest.



Vanquish comes to both PS3 and 360 with a high contrast, heavily stylised look rendering at 1024x720, and with 2xMSAA (multi-sampling anti-aliasing). Sharpness is like for like, and polygon edges are reasonably clean given the circumstances, with jaggies mostly being kept successfully under control despite the high contrast nature of the game – due no doubt to the title’s extensive use of post-process, per-object motion blur in addition the standard MSAA implementation.

However, the game does appear a little soft in places due to the slight sub-HD framebuffer being upscaled to 720p on both consoles. Although this never manifests itself in any meaningful way, and the overall look is still that of being mostly sharp and clinical despite the amount of screen-distorting effects on offer.

Given the huge amount of stuff being rendered on screen at once; plenty of particles, transparencies, and geometry, it is surprising to see that absolutely nothing has been paired back on either build of the game. Alpha buffers are rendered in full resolution, and both texture detail and filtering are an exact match across both platforms, with tons of beautiful shader effects adorning the display. The fact that the developers have been able to almost reach 720p in its entirety (1280x720) is impressive to say the least.

The use of a 1024x720 resolution framebuffer with 2xMSAA means that the game’s graphical make-up on a frame-by-frame basis manages to work comfortably with both systems differing memory bandwidth limitations – on the 360 in particular the FB fits into the system’s EDRAM without tiling, while PS3 owners get something that isn’t too bandwidth heavy overall. The result of which is basically image parity on both platforms, with only some shadowing quirks and mild gamma differences.



Of course such oddities are hardly justifiable as plus or minus points against each version. Shadowing has slightly different implementations on each platform, with occasional differences here and there, though in motion they look basically the same. This was also apparent in the Enslaved demo we sampled a few weeks back for an another tech analysis, and like with that particular title, in Vanquish it barely impacts on the overall look of the game.

There also seems to some small gamma differences between the two versions. Contrast seems to be slightly boosted, and brightness reduced on the PS3 giving some textures a mildly more washed out look, along with darker shadowing. Detail levels remain the same however, and a quick, and very slight re-calibration of my TV's video settings then yielded near identical results.



One thing that stands out as much in the final game as it did in the demo, is the title’s use of a range of screen-distortion effects and per-object motion blur. Individual parts of the scenery, along with enemies and projectiles become warped and blurred with fast movement and large explosions, in what can only be described as a bonanza of post-processing goodness.

Like with pretty much the rest of the game, both the PS3 and 360 versions are the same in this regard, with levels of post processing effects usually only found in either high-end PS3 specific titles, or in the PC space where technology is always rapidly moving ahead of the consoles. It’s an impressive feat to behold, especially given the demanding circumstances the game engine regularly finds itself in.

Interestingly, the use of motion blur actually helps in making the game seem smoother than it actually is. In Vanquish blur is used not only to distort images on screen, but also to simulate (if not accidentally) a smoothening effect, though without any artificial framerate enhancement.

The Force Unlreashed II demo demonstrates this perfectly, often feeling smoother and more fluid than a 30fps game, and the same thing can be found here in Vanquish as well. The result is that even when performance takes a brief nosedive, it never quite looks quite as bad as it sometimes feels, which I guess is actually a good thing because Vanquish running at 60fps would be an impossible feat.



So far things have been pretty much identical across both platforms, sans for some shadowing/lighting quirks, both of which are barely even noticeable. Instead, what actually separates the two builds apart from each other is performance, in which we see the PS3 command an overall lead, with no screen tearing, and mix of fewer and heavier framerate drops than its 360 counterpart.

Effectively, overall performance between both versions of the game is exactly the same as in the demo. The first section of the final game IS basically the demo, but briefly expanded upon both at the beginning and at the end. In which case we can see that the same scenario displays the same results as our earlier findings; that the PS3 version tends to drop framerate a little more during the large-scale boss encounter, whilst doing so less often during regularly combat situations.

Moving on past the first mission and into further stages of the game, and we can find largely the same results yet again. Sadly, I don’t have any hard way of confirming actual framerates outside of using my own eyes, but it does appear that the 360 build has a small advantage during most of the game’s boss battles, though admittedly I’ve not played both versions all the way through to completion.

Vanquish targets a 30fps update, and manages to successfully maintain that with only a few dips in between, and some heavy drops when the engine is stressed. Most notably the PS3 version seems to be ever so slightly smoother in normal circumstances, whereas the 360 drops the odd few frames more. Though it has to be said that the differences aren’t earth shattering, barely registering at all when immersed in the action. However the PS3 build does feel ever so slightly more fluid as a whole.



So framerates are basically very similar, with one platform ever so slightly favouring heavy load scenarios, and the other more regular encounters. However, in terms of dealing with screen tearing the results are remarkably different, and this appears to be down to each version’s implementations of v-sync – the 360 version happily loses it in order to keep fluidity, whilst the PS3 benefits from having additional support from being triple-buffered.

Triple buffering means that for every frame being displayed, the game renders a total of three. If the first frame is torn, then the next is selected, and so on, until a clean frame is found. Screen tearing is only really noticeable when multiple frames are torn, so by having more frames rendered for each one displayed, means that you are less likely to be using a final frame that isn’t clean.

For the PS3 it means that Vanquish never tears a single frame. Like in the demo its performance is rock solid in this regard, never faltering even when a cataclysmic event is kicking off right in front of your eyes. By contrast the game 360 game doesn’t feature any kind of continuous v-sync, and unlike hinted at in our demo analysis, doesn’t feature any kind of frame buffer technique (as tearing was barely visible I thought that it could have used the lesser doubled buffered approach), leading to regular, though mostly unseen bouts of tearing.

However, the tearing is so mild on the 360 that it is barely noticeable at all. In fact, during play I only noticed it for a split second or so when there was lots of stuff on screen at once; a clear sign that despite the PS3 being the lead build of the game, that the 360 version is still thoroughly optimised. Instead, screen tearing mostly rears its head during the large boss battles, and rarely in normal combat.

Of course there are both advantages and downsides to either approach. The controls for instance feel a touch more responsive on the 360; a common trait found when comparing games featuring frame buffering, and those without. In order for the PS3 to maintain its stellar v-sync performance (in reality it could be dropping it) triple buffering adds an additional rendering cost into the mix. The amount of time it takes to display a frame goes up, and with it comes additional controller latency.

However, this additional latency only subtly manifests itself, and Vanquish never feels laggy or unresponsive outside of when large framerate drops occur. Interestingly, when both versions are put under strain during a boss encounter, they feel pretty much the same, with the 360 just about coming out on top overall.

Even when taking this into account, there’s no doubt that the PS3 build takes the performance lead by the smallest of margins. All things considered; framerate drops, screen tearing, controller latency, it is clear that the Sony game demonstrates a subtle advantage in most of these areas. Although, with the exception of screen tearing, both are a pretty even match, making Vanquish an enjoyable, and downright awesome experience whichever platform you happen to own.



Compared to Sega’s PS3 port of Bayonetta, Vanquish is sensational. Platinum Games have clearly balanced out the intricacies of their graphics engine with the limitations of both platforms in mind, whilst also taking advantage of similar core strengths, thus benefiting the PS3. And the result is nothing but an impressive showing of parity across both formats.

Sure, the 360 game may well tear a few frames every so often, and the PS3 build’s use of triple buffering adds additional controller latency into the mix, although neither really takes away anything from either version, or the game as a whole. For the most part, all in all Vanquish is virtually identical across the board on both platforms, with any subtle differences being mere curiosities than ranking marks on a scorecard.

In short, Platinum Games’ latest is an essential purchase regardless of which console you happen to own, and is in no way a repeat of the travesty that was Bayonetta. Although, the blame for that one lies solely in Sega’s court.

For a more complete look at the tech powering the game, and a nice companion piece to this somewhat lengthy follow up article, why not check out our earlier demo analysis. That is, if you haven’t already.

Thanks as always to AlStrong for the pixel counting, and to Cynamite.de for the screens. Check out the original gallery here.

Tech Analysis: Vanquish Demo (360 vs PS3)

We all remember the travesty that was the PS3 version of Bayonetta. It was hardly the best example of solid multiplatform development, instead representing exactly what happens when a publisher chooses to take a game perfectly designed around the advantages of one platform’s unique specifics, and converting it to another without doing the same.

On one hand you had the sublime 360 version of the game, complete with full resolution alpha and particle effects, detailed, vibrantly coloured textures, and a fluid 60fps framerate. On the other, there was the distinctly sub-par PS3 game, with its washed out textures, lower resolution effects buffers, and a framerate that was for the most part cut in half.

The game’s lavishly detailed nature, in combination with so many high res alpha effects was ideally suited to the huge amount of bandwidth provided by the EDRAM situated on the 360’s GPU, but was a poor fit for the PS3’s bandwidth starved RSX in its original form. Of course this shameful port was nothing to do with the game’s original creators Platinum Games. Instead it was converted and shipped out by a team at Sega, who wanted a PS3 version of the game out shortly after the 360 game’s release in Japan.

Thankfully for Vanquish, Platinum Games are at the helm of both versions of the game, and have developed it from the ground up – using the Bayonetta engine no less – optimising it in a way that takes advantage of both platforms without being more tailored for one than the other. In short, they have achieved an impressive example of platform parity, in which the PS3 build is every bit as solid and technically accomplished as the 360 one.

Arguably, there have been some noticeable changes in regards to what the engine is rendering on screen to make this happen; not least of all the slightly sub HD resolution of the game, along with the toned down use of alpha effects. Although this in it self is no bad thing, and is required for parity to be reached without large differences between builds. What is commendable, is that the development team at Platinum Games not only understood what needed to be done for their next venture, but that they have achieved it whilst still creating a visually impressive experience with plenty of intense action.



Seeing as Vanquish features a wealth of more advanced shader effects and post processing than Bayonetta, the game effectively renders in 1024x720 on both platforms in order to keep performance up, with edge smoothing being available through the use of 2xMSAA (multi-sampling anti-aliasing).

What is impressive is the fact that Platinum Games have managed to get anti-aliasing up and running on both platforms to an equal standard, and that the vast majority of alpha effects are rendered in full resolution matching the framebuffer – fire being the only one which sticks out as being slightly lower. And that’s also on both PS3 and 360.

The use of 1024x720 with 2xMSAA means that the FB just about squeezes into the 360’s 10MB of EDRAM, and that given the tweaks made to the underlying engine doesn’t put too much of a strain on PS3 performance, other than in heavy load situations, in which both versions suffer. In fact, as you will find out later, it is the PS3 game which initially fares a little better in this area.



As you can see in our screenshots, both versions look pretty much identical with only very subtle differences between them. The PS3 game appears to be a tad sharper, whilst the 360 version appears a little more pristine overall. Though most of the time they really do look the same in motion. It is likely that the ever so slightly cleaner look of the 360 build is down to the machine featuring a better scaler contained within its GPU, compared to the relatively poor horizontal scaler found PS3’s RSX, which simply features a bilinear solution. Although in this case there’s hardly anything between the two.

Brightness levels also appear to be slightly different on both versions, as does the look of the shadowing. Although it isn’t a case of one looking better than the other, with any differences being down to the way both machines respective GPU’s deals with certain effects. For example, in terms of the shadowing, both the PS3 and 360 versions actually use the same type of filtering, though it does seem to be implemented a little differently.

You could also point out that the lighting looks a tad washed out on the PS3 game, however that is as much due to the gamma differences between the two consoles video outputs than any technical limitations. In any case the precision of the lighting is the same on both versions, and adjusting the RGB settings for HDMI on PS3 and 360, along with your TV settings, helps bring this into line.

Either way it is safe to say that Vanquish looks as good on the PS3 as it is on the 360, with no glaring differences to be found like the ones so easily apparent in Bayonetta. Things like texture detail and filtering are the same across both versions, as is the use of post processing effects and alpha buffers for transparencies, so it’s basically like for like.



In our early tech report of the game we found that some of Vanquish’s pre-release screenshots had huge amounts of post-processing visible, some of which we thought would never make it into the actual game. Well, as it turns out most of it is in fact correct and present in the demo, although without being enhanced specifically for supersampled PR bullshots.

Here we have some impressive screen distortion effects, coupled with per-object motion blur rarely seen outside of the PC space, but that is becoming ever more feasible on consoles as developers find new ways to optimise their engines even closer to suiting the hardware.

Like with the rendering resolution and use of AA, post processing looks identical on both PS3 and 360, with the cool motion blur effect helping in making the game’s 30fps update appear smoother than it actually is.



So far what we’ve discovered about Vanquish is par the course for parity, with pretty much every area of the game looking the same on both platforms. Impressively, the PS3 version has had nothing in the way of visual cut-backs, even having proper MSAA and full res alpha buffers, which is a testement to Platinum Games’ resolve about getting their flagship engine working identically across both platforms.

Interestingly, the developers were actually quoted as saying that the PS3 was the lead platform for Vanquish, and that they were optimising the engine to ensure that any differences would not be detrimental to the overall experience – something they have managed to achieve in a very short space of time. But is there anything that points to that fact being apparent in the way Vanquish as been built up to operate?

Nothing conclusive, I have to say. Although we can see that texture detail has been paired back from Bayonetta; no doubt to save on memory in order to keep things the same on PS3, and that the use of alpha heavy effects has also been cut down on slightly. However the game’s the use of far more advanced shaders and lighting, with some computationally heavy post process effects (per-object motion blur) clearly circumvents this, providing a more impressive visual range but in vastly different areas.

Also, by rendering in 1024x720 with 2xMSAA, and at 30fps, in addition to the changes made with regards to particle and alpha buffers, Platinum Games have allowed for their engine to comfortably fit in with the bandwidth and processing requirements of both consoles, and especially the bandwidth limited PS3, and have built upon these limitations by enhancing the game’s visuals in ways that work within these constraints.



Going back to our comparison of the game itself, we can see that performance across both platforms is far more closely matched than with Bayonetta. In fact, it’s pretty damn near identical most of the time, being one of the best examples of cross platform development we have seen so far alongside Dante’s Inferno and Burnout Paradise.

For Vanquish Platinum Games has targeted a 30fps update rather than going for the more preferable, eye-blazing 60fps found in many Japanese titles, and the decision was definitely the right one. In the case of Vanquish, where the engine is throwing around all kinds of advanced effects and heavy amounts of post processing, having the game maintain a smooth 60fps update would have been next to impossible, and the extra work would have almost certainly impacted on the PS3 version of the game.

Going for 30fps means that not only do both versions maintain a smoother framerate for longer, but also that the developers have managed to implement v-sync on both platforms with differing methods of preventing screen-tear.



Indeed, both versions hit their target framerate for most of the experience, only slowing down slightly when there is an over abundance of stuff happening on screen at once. Although throughout the demo, in the busier sections before facing up to the boss, it is the PS3 version which manages to drops less frames than the 360 one, appearing slightly smoother during general play as a result. These drops are pretty small on both platforms, mainly going down to around 25fps or so for brief moments, or maybe even less for the most part.

During the boss battle things appear to be reversed with the 360 build commanding a slight, but noticeable lead over the PS3 game. In this section the framerate drops down to at least 20fps on the PS3 when the action is at its most intense, whereas on 360, the framerate, although dropping down noticeably is slightly steadier.

Without using video capture equipment we cannot be any more specific, but overall it definitely feels like the PS3 version was slightly smoother for the most part, and that the smaller drops in framerate were less noticeable than on the 360 - the boss battle aside of course.


We mentioned earlier than Platinum Games had managed to implement v-sync across both platforms for Vanquish, and the results are very impressive; the game practically never features any screen tearing on the 360, and absolutely none on the PS3. Interestingly, the way both games deal with screen tear also has a small, but barely noticeable impact on how each version controls.

I’m pretty certain that some kind of frame buffering technique is being used here, especially on the PS3 build which not only demonstrates ever so slightly more controller lag, but also nothing in the way of tearing.

For those who don’t know, triple and double-buffering is a method of rendering multiple versions of the same frame, which are then held in reserved just in case one of them is torn. When this happens the torn frame is replaced with the next one, which should hopefully be clean. As tearing is really only visible when multiple frames are torn this results in an effective method of reducing screen tear altogether when failing to maintain v-sync. In the case of triple buffering, you hold two frames in reserve rather than just one.

My best guess is that the PS3 game is being triple buffered, and that the 360 is using the slightly lesser double buffered approach seeing as it has less lag and practically no visible screen tear. Using double buffering would also consume less memory, which would be better suited for the framebuffer being limited by the system’s 10MB EDRAM.

Saying that, any screen tearing that occurs in the 360 game is so minor and incredibly hard to spot – even when looking for it, that it’s practically not worth mentioning. I could only see it for a fraction of a second on occasion, and that was when carefully looking for it.


In the end both versions perform largely identically with only small differences between them. The 360 game drops less frames in the most intense situations, whilst the PS3 game is more consistently smooth overall, only faring worse in heavy load areas, such as the boss battle. Screen tear isn’t an issue for either build, and the PS3’s use of triple buffering doesn’t affect controller responsiveness to any noticeable degree during regular play. In fact it is the PS3 version of the game that actually just pushes ahead, looking slightly smoother, and sharper overall, though without commanding anything more than the subtlest of leads.

There’s no doubt that Platinum Games have really taken the time and effort to get both versions of the game looking and operating near identically, to the extent that either one is well worth picking on release regardless of platform preference or past experiences.

Perhaps all that’s left to say is that this is just the demo code of the game, and that there’s still over a month to go until the final release build is shipped. Seeing as I’ll definitely be buying at least one copy of the Vanquish upon release, I will endeavour to get a hold of both versions at some point soon after launch for quick look at what, if anything has changed. Until then it looks like both versions will come highly recommended, whilst also representing another stellar example of multiplatform parity that few developers manage to achieve.

Thanks to Mr Deap for our comparison screens, and AlStrong for the pixel counting.

Tech Report: Vanquish - The Resolution Game

Recently, over the last couple of weeks various direct-feed screenshots have surfaced of Platinum Games’ Vanquish, with each batch seemingly being rendered in different resolutions to the last, and with varying amounts of anti-aliasing. Some of these screenshots came directly from the developers blog, looking like authentic framebuffer grabs off an actual 360 or PS3 console, whilst some appeared to be of almost bullshot-like quality without going the whole hog of supersampling.

The question is, what resolution is the game really running at, and which platform did the framebuffer grabs come from? IQGamer takes a brief look a few days ahead of the game’s demo release attempting to set the record straight.

Vanquish, the latest action game from the mind behind such hits like Resident Evil and Devil May Cry - the legendary Shinji Mikami - is being developed using a modified version of the same engine which powered Bayonetta for Xbox 360 and PS3, with the PS3 version sighted as the lead platform this time around.

Like with Bayonetta, Vanquish’s engine clearly has its eye on delivering lots of alpha heavy particle effects and transparencies on screen during combat, which usually causes problems for the bandwidth staved PS3, especially without further optimisations or multiple resolution render targets for different graphical effects. Although compared to Bayonetta Vanquish doesn’t seem to be anywhere near as alpha heavy on first impressions, and the quality of the game’s effects do in fact look to be slightly higher than in Platinum Games’ other title, even if there is still evidence of lower-res buffers in action.

However, we’re not here to talk about the entire engine from a tech perspective today, instead focusing on determining platform and final rendering resolution. Saying that, our observations with regards to particle resolution in the released screens could well be achieved with a slightly greater saving in memory due to reducing the overall framebuffer size down somewhat. And this is exactly what appears to be happening when looking at the more genuine screen grabs released by the developer.

The first screenshots released of Vanquish were clearly supersampled bullshots. Shown below is an image of the game supposedly rendered in 720p, but with insanely high amounts of AA and some impressive post-processing effects rarely seen in such high quality at game level. It’s pretty obvious that this isn’t what the final game is going to look like. Not unless a PC version is in the bag and running behind the scenes.


This next screenshot looks a lot more authentic, and is actually rendered in 720p (1280x720) without any additional supersampling or downscaling of the image. However it also looks incredibly clean, with very high levels of AA – at least 8x MSAA or more, meaning that additional AA could well have been applied to the final framebuffer image for promotional use whilst keeping the game’s natural rendering res intact. It’s also possible that this could be from a different build – the 360 game perhaps. Although the levels of AA here are clearly beyond the 4xMSAA capable on MS’s console.


The final screenshot is far more telling, and looks blatantly like you’d expect one taken directly from the HDMI output of either console. Here you’ll see that there is no anti-aliasing to be found of any kind – not even 2xMSAA or QAA, and that the image quality is noticeably below that of the above 720p shot supposedly from a real framebuffer grab.

Resolution-wise, the below screen is being rendered out at 1024x720 with no AA, meaning that it clearly would fit into the 360’s EDRAM without tiling, and also appears to be something we’d expect from a standard multiplatform PS3 port; a slight drop in horizontal res, and no AA giving the game away.


But which version is this screen from? And is it simply possible that Vanquish will have no AA and a lower horizontal resolution on both platforms?

Well, there are obviously no straight up, one-hundred percent answers at the moment seeing as we don’t know for sure which version the screens are from. What we do know though, is that they were taken directly from the video output of either current-gen console, and that the visual composition of the image makes it likely that we are indeed looking at the PS3 build.

Traditionally, when downgrading resolution for both consoles developers usually only cut back on the horizontal res on PS3, and a mixture of both on 360. This due to the fact that the PS3 has no built in hardware scaler, other than the broken horizontal scaler found inside its RSX GPU, whereas 360 has advanced scaling capabilities found in Xenos.

The other issue is the lack of AA, and this is down to memory bandwidth. If resolution is not the first thing to be cut, then use of anti-aliasing is. The 360, with its 10mb of EDRAM, easily has enough bandwidth to usually deliver at least 2xMSAA for 720p games (with occasional cuts in overall res where required) whereas the PS3 for the most part does not.

This means that it is more than likely that the screenshots released from the developer (the ones that are genuine) are from the PS3 version of the game. The fact that Platinum Games have stated all the way through Vanquish’s development that the PS3 version is the lead build, also backs this up. As does the game’s appearance at various showcase venues for the press, in which it was the PS3 build that was usually demonstrated.

Of course this is simply well informed guesswork on what version we think the screens are from. In order to find out solidly we will have to wait until the demo goes live on Wednesday, September 1st, after which we should have our initial hands-on impressions with the title up on the site, and hopefully a proper tech analysis a few days later.

Until then we can say that Vanquish does appear to render in 1024x720 with no AA on at least one, or both consoles, with the PS3 version strongly edging our bets on which version the screens are from.