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: NFS: Hot Pursuit Demo (PS3 vs 360)

Some studios simply understand the foundations that make for good multi-platform development, and Criterion is at the forefront of those. With an engine custom built to take advantage of both consoles specific strengths, and leveraging near flawless workarounds against their weaknesses, it is no surprise to see that once again they have delivered another exceptional example of high-level PS3 and 360 development.

The tech powering Burnout Paradise showed that one of the key factors in achieving parity across both formats was parallelisation; whereby off loading multiple tasks across multiple CPU threads and processors allowed for nearly every small bit of CPU/GPU time to be used effectively. Scalability was at the core, with the level of overall processing time constantly shifting accordingly between tasks that needed it as and when required.

Criterion understands that spreading the workload and keeping all parts of the rendering engine busy is the main factor in obtaining constantly high performance across the board, and on both platforms. But it’s more than that; optimising the engine so that the core components that make up the graphical look of the game are suited to both platforms, and not just one, plays an equally massive role too.

For Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit Criterion have done exactly that. Like with Burnout Paradise the team have been able to balance out the underlying tech behind the game, with an impressive feature set; including real-time image-based lighting on the cars, beautiful specular highlights, and large, open environments, with cross platform performance that is shockingly soild.



And performance is indeed the first thing that you’ll notice: NFS:HP is clocked at a constant 30fps with absolutely no screen tearing. It goes without saying that both formats are like for like in this regard, and if anything proves that Criterion’s engine delivers on what it set out to do.

The game almost never deviates from its initial 30fps update, only taking a quick drop during some of the more intensive takedown scenes, but never during normal racing/driving. The same thing is true for both PS3 and 360; even when driving around like a lunatic, crashing into scenery and smashing into the sides of your rivals, the game preserves its smoothness with ease.

Along with barely any slowdown, I have to say that it is definitely something of a surprise to see a distinct lack of screen tearing being present during gameplay. NFS:HP seems to continuously maintain v-sync on both PS3 and 360 without needing to drop it in order to preserve framerate. This in contrast to the likes of Split Second in which v-sync is temporarily disengaged in order to ensure more steady performance as a result. But here, there doesn’t seem to be a problem.

However, I must also state that it is incredibly hard to detect extremely minor events of screen tearing in such dark and low contrast areas, so maybe it is possible that the odd frame could be being torn on very brief occasions, though that is not obvious during regular gameplay. Without equipment to measure such things, I can only go by what I’m seeing.



Running at half the framerate of Burnout Paradise (that was 60fps) NFS feels distinctly different to Criterion’s last title, and not just because of the framerate. The handling model has been completely reworked and built up into what feels and looks like a new game, and not a simple re-hash of what has gone before. Though the use of a lower framerate, and this new, slower drifting mechanic has a dramatic effect on the action.

Obviously running at 30fps introduces higher controller latency into the mix, whereby button presses and turns of the analogue stick are ever so slightly less instant than if the game was running at a higher framerate. This latency is definitely apparent over and above the 60fps Burnout Paradise, although it is actually the new handling mechanics, and the use of demo specific cars that make the control seem to have a little more lag than it does.

In fact, when gently moving the left stick to turn you can see that small, almost instant movements are possible, and that it is the way the game plays that brings about this feeling – it is intentional, and reminiscent of the handling found in Black Rock’s Split Second.



So in terms of performance both versions appear pretty much like for like, and we can also see the same thing being applied to the rest of the demo. Looking at screens, and by playing both versions almost side-by-side (flicking back and forth between HDMI inputs) we can see that texture detail, filtering, lighting, and the vast majority of effects are exactly the same on both platforms. It’s basically a solid match, with next to no discernable differences.

However, there was one really small difference that I was able to spot, though you will really have to go looking for it. Some of the specular maps on the game’s road surfaces are rendered in a slightly higher resolution on the 360. You can see this in the screenshot below. Notice how the bump-mapping appears slightly clearer on the 360 build, and slightly more blurred on the PS3.

It’s a very minor observation, one which rears its head on only some surfaces. But to be fair this isn’t something you are ever likely to notice when playing the game. And even if you do, it certainly isn't something that intrudes on the overall experience.



Moving on to the general make up of the game and image quality analysis, and we can see that NFS:HP is rendered in 720p (1280x720) on both platforms, with the standard 2xMSAA (multi-sampling anti-aliasing) delivering ample edge smoothing.

Interestingly, there seems to be more than just MSAA going on in regards to this; many areas of the game (small pieces of geometry, objects in the distance, and most noticeably, power lines and thin wires) feature a surprising amount of jaggies reduction, more than what is possible with just regular MSAA. Both versions are exactly the same in this regard.

In the night-time police chase section – the only part of the demo we had access to – we can see that despite the low contrast nature of the scene aiding things slightly, that there is far less in the way of overall aliasing than expected on thin surfaces and polygon edges. Looking at still screen shots it is clear than parts of the environment are being smoothed out using another method of image smoothing. Which one, and how, we don’t really know, though the effect is solidly welcome.

However, the sub-pixel issue still appears in areas across the scene, with some objects in the distance still having noticeably shimmering edges, and some undesired shader aliasing. It’s definitely an improvement over what traditional anti-aliasing techniques would have provided, but not quite the clean, artifact free look that it can initially appear to be.

Either way, the use of MSAA plus additional edge smoothing is definitely beneficial, and delivers a tangible improvement over what we expected. It’s not anywhere near as impressive as God Of War 3’s use of MLAA (morphological anti-aliasing), but a nice inclusion nevertheless - many surfaces get great use of smoothing not otherwise obtainable by regular means.



Lastly, the way the lighting has been implemented is another nice plus point in this latest Criterion exploit. The whole game uses something called image-based lighting, whereby the cars are accurately lit by their surrounding environments at all times, meaning that the clouds and other numerous light sources all have an impact on how the cars look throughout the game.

This is done by rendering the environment first, using the more traditional forward rendering method, whilst the cars are done afterwards in a differed rendering pass. The environments have to be done first in order to accurately light and shade the cars; the result being a mightily impressive use of lighting with a level of realism not often seen outside high-end tech demos.



In the end the demo for Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit clearly showcases some of Criterion’s new tech rather nicely, and also manages to prove that their way of thinking when it comes to multi-platform development is in fact the right one. There’s barely any difference between the PS3 and 360 versions of the game, and aside from one small factor they look exactly the same.

The game may not always impressive on an artistic level – I personally don’t really like the night-time demo track all that much, but technically it definitely raises the bar in some respects. Some remaining sub-pixel aliasing isses aside (you need to use supersmapling, which isn’t feasible on consoles), it would be nice to see more developers taking this approach to game development.

Sadly, I wasn’t able to analyse the supposedly more impressive daytime track - it’s locked until one of your friends on both PSN and XBLA has downloaded and played the demo. And rather annoyingly, none of mine have, so a further look will be required when the final game comes out to really see just how well Criterion’s engine, and the overall game it self turns out. While the demo is a nice, intriguing starting point, it is only a tiny chunk of what the final release will have to offer.

As always thanks go out to AlStrong for the pixel counting, and Cynamite.de for most of our comparison screens. Mr Deap for the others. A full gallery can be found here.

More PSP2 Information Surfaces

It’s been an interesting week for news surrounding Sony and the future of their PSP series of handhelds. The PSP phone (currently untitled) was revealed online in an article over at engadget, in which we covered on Wednesday, and now Kotaku are also reporting that the PSP2 – the true successor to the original PSP, will be loosing its UMD drive.

Sources informing the site say that the PSP2 will be going down the same digital distribution route as the existing PSPgo, with software being stored on memory sticks of some kind. However, retail releases will not be discarded – Sony currently are undecided on what storage solution they will take. My best guess is some kind of small memory card, perhaps something like what the NDS already uses but with much greater storage capacity. Either way a costly disc reading mechanism is out for sure.

Interestingly, the machine is also said to feature a whopping 1GB of RAM, which is pretty huge for a handheld device. And sources state that we could be looking at something approaching similar Xbox 360 levels of graphical quality with games on the system, though I expect with obvious downgrades in certain areas. Processing power certainly won't be a match.

In addition it’s not as if multimedia use requires such extravagant amounts of memory. Graphics rendering on the other hand, is a vastly different beast, especially at high resolutions. Ultimately though, the overall level of performance is going to be more dictated by battery life, cooling, and overall power consumption than anything else, and that does rule out equaling current home console hardware in a mobile device. The power draw on anything actually delivering 360-esque levels of performance would be far too high for a handheld, although that doesn't mean something similar in terms of overall looks can't be achieved with less.

There was no mention of what kind of CPU/GPU combo is expected to show up in the machine, although a high-end Imagination Technologies Power VR SGX variant is hotly rumoured to be the prime candidate.

Over recent months there have been a variety of rumours surrounding the system, from the increasingly likely inclusion of touch-sensitive controls and a HD resolution display, to signs pointing at a slim-lined version of the traditional dual analogue control set up also being part of the system’s feedback inspired design. However, it was the removal of UMD that was the most certain – it was almost guaranteed given the format’s poor performance and lacklustre uptake in general.

With certainly more to follow next year, it probably won’t be all that long until Sony finally decide to unveil the somewhat murky curtain that the PSP2 has been hiding behind over the last year or so. Before then however, we expect more ‘off-record’ stuff to surface.

The PSP Phone Revealed

Way back in August we reported that a mobile phone version of Sony’s PSP was being worked on. The un-named device was said to be an amalgomation of both the PSPgo and the Samsung Captivate in terms of design, and was supposed to be powered by the brand new Android 3.0 operating system.

Today Engadget seems to have exclusively unveiled what looks like a prototype version of the device, finally confirming those early rumblings from a few months ago.


The currently un-named device forgoes any actual PlayStation branding, instead being positioned under the Sony Ericsson banner, perhaps to differenciate it from the separate PSP2 project in the works, but also due to it being handled by a completely different branch of the company.

In the above shot we can see that the device features the traditional d-pad and buttons found on the PSP, with the styling appearing to be similar to the PSPgo. Two shoulder buttons can also be seen in additional screenshots in the original Engadget article. However, one thing does seem to be missing – the system has no visible analogue nub on show. Instead, it has been replaced with a multi-touch, touch sensitive pad more in-keeping with the design trend of having less control options on most smartphones.

Moving on, and sources have also revealed that the system will be powered by a 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8655 mobile processor, which is backed up with 512MBs of RAM and 1GB of ROM. This will drive images onto what is speculated to be a 3.7 to 4.1 inch touchscreen display, thus adding even more functionality to the mix. Much like the iPhone it could be used to control games, making way for simple casual type experiences on top of the dedicated ‘core’ titles that will no doubt separate the system from other similar phones.

On top of that, a built-in camera with LED flash was mentioned, along with support for MicroSD cards in place of the standard Pro Duo sticks used by the normal PSP models, putting it firmly in-line with the PSPgo on that front.

In terms of software support and online, apparently, Sony are planning to launch a brand new marketplace specifically for the system, in which users will be able to download specific top-tier PlayStation titles such as God Of War, and as previously hinted, Call Of Duty. I imagine that this will be a key part in their plans to extend the PlayStation Network branding across multiple mobile devices, and as such will help them to gain a greater foothold in an increasingly competitive market.

Other than that, Engadget seem to believe that the PSP Phone could still launch sometime in between fall this year and 2011. Originally it was speculated to hit during the end of 2010, although that is now looking increasingly unlikley. Instead we expect more details to be forthcoming in the next few months, possibly weeks.

Either way the PSP Phone looks like becoming a rather intriguing prospect, and it will be interesting to see just how well it holds up against the iPhone 4 and other comparable smartphones.

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.

Review: Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow (PS3)

Lords Of Shadow isn’t really a Castlevania game. Of course this should have been apparent to anyone who watched any of the pre-release trailers of this franachie reboot months ago, although it isn’t until you actually pick it up and play do you realise just how far off it really is. Konami’s latest actually takes more inspiration from the likes of God Of War and Devil May Cry than say past Castlevania titles. Though it does have a heightened awareness of adding additional complexity to the combat, whilst creating more expansive, thought-provoking puzzles, which both make it feel like a reboot of the franchise than a whole new separate entity.

But even feeling a little bit like a separate entity is no bad thing, given the previously mixed track record of Castlevania games in 3D, and Lords Of Shadow clearly marks the first time the franchise has ever felt so accomplished in its move to the third dimension. The stellar voice acting work and cinematic presentation is tightly bound together with an intriguing script, blending seamlessly with a tough, and sometimes unforgiving, but always fair stab at intense visceral action, always requiring you to be utterly focused to really reap its rewards.

At times it feels like LOS really knows what it needs to be doing to bring the series up to date, out of its shadowy niche confines and into the mainstream limelight. The combat for example, and relatively linear level design are two such areas, which not only make LOS more accessible, but also a more succinct, controlled experience.

Unlike past Castlevania games, LOS doesn’t allow for any real freedom of exploration. You are simply shuffled along a linear path, with the occasional branching segment here and there often leading you to a dead end, or back to an interconnecting point earlier in the stage. Each chapter consists of a series of levels which you are expected to plow your way through, hacking past anything that stands in your way without much to deviate you off that plan. Puzzles break up the lengthy action sequences, and a small touch of Uncharted style platforming provides the game with some more relaxed moments in which to take a short rest break.


Most of your time spent in Castlevania will be battling the many hordes of enemies that are vying for your blood; the standard series fare of werewolves and skeletons are joined by ogres, trolls, and giant titans who bare more than a passing resemblance to some of the lavish creatures found in Shadow Of The Colossus.

Combat then, is the single most thing you’ll be preoccupied with in Lords Of Shadow. There are plenty of enemies that are in need of dispatching, and a whole host of techniques at your disposal to do this. It’s an initially simple, but altogether satisfying part of the overall experience, despite wearing a little thin after countless skirmishes across a multitude of landscapes.

Like in God Of War, Castlevania uses the basic two-button attack strategy common in games of this ilk. You have two melee attacks, both conforming to the fast/slow, weak/strong blueprint laid down decades ago - and it’s from mixing these where your combos and subsequent move sets come from - along with a single ranged strike; often quick, but decidedly best used as a last resort.


New moves are obtained whilst simply playing through the game, and killing every foe that stands in your way. While advanced moves - ones that deliver far more damage, but take longer to execute - need to be bought via the use of orbs dropped by downed enemies. The system in LOS is remarkable similar to that of DMC in terms of how new moves and combos are actually obtained, and very much like Dante’s Inferno and GOW with how they are executed.

This means that combat, for the most part, is not only familiar and really easy to get into, but also contains quite a bit of depth to keep you satisfied. And this is especially true when you consider the wealth of upgrades and additional skills that can be unlocked and bought throughout the game.

Not long after starting out you’ll gain the ability to grab hold of enemies, extracting extra weapons from them, and even using some of the larger ones as mounts; being able to ride and control them, thus allowing you to reach parts of the environment that are not otherwise traversable, along with delivering some serious damage to anyone left in your wake. For the most part, these creatures are usually only needed in specific situations, and the game directs you into riding them as and when they are required.


The same can also be said of the various extra abilities you gain through your quest. Most are given to you to complete a specific task, and after this is complete you rarely need to make use of them again until another specific situation arises. Perhaps annoyingly, you might find that you need to use a skill you haven’t performed in a few hours of gameplay, thus forgetting that you had even had it in the first place. Although later on, the game starts to make use of the various abilities on a more regular basis, even if this in it self feels like battles are being somewhat padded out.

Ultimately this can make the combat feel quite repetitive. As you only really need to make use of a few key moves and abilities, much of the additional stuff becomes lost, or discarded by the player until the need arises. Even against the game’s lavishly designed bosses; huge in nature and epic in scale, most simply have you repeating the same strategy in order to take them down, bar one or two additional moves changes mid-way through.

There are times when things are a little different. Some of the bosses, like the giant titan you fight against near the beginning of the game, take inspiration of the likes of Shadow of The Colossus. Seeing you scaling up and around it, having you hold on for dear life whilst attempting to stab out its weak point, is an epic exercise in thoroughly thrilling gameplay. But if only more encounters throughout the game were quite as exciting.


Delving a little deeper into the combat, and you find your already potentially large skillset being expanded via the use of magic.

Early on you gain the ability to use both light and dark magic, and this brings some strategy to the table. Light magic is regularly used to regenerate your health, whilst dark magic delivers extra damage to enemies from your attacks. You have separate gauges for both, and each one gets filled up by collecting orbs released from fallen enemies. The crux is that in order to gain orbs from them in the first place, the killing blow of your attack must be made without magic enabled, thus making you think about how, and for how long you use magical abilities at any one time.

Coupled with that, is yet another gauge situated at the bottom of the screen. This shows your focus. The more you dodge and block enemy attacks, the more this builds up. And when full, each additional hit releases an orb, which can then be absorbed and used to fill up your magic gauges during combat. The use of both magic, normal attacks, and maintaining focus makes the usual button bashing seem a little more interesting.


Skill is required to really take advantage of LOS’s multi-faceted, but quite simple combat system. Although at the same time it does constantly keep you immersed, and pretty focused on what you are supposed to be doing – there’s no time for a brief gander at some of the games exquisitely designed architecture, and beautifully imagine vistas while trying to bring down a hulking giant of beast intent on extinguishing the last essence of your life.

However, with so much going on, with so much in the way of upgrades, new moves and abilities, LOS almost overwhelms you with options. Granted, the basics are the core part of the experience, but there’s far too much in the way of occasional rarely used moves, useless upgrades, and added abilities. It can be a real pain sometimes trying to remember which does what, and when. That said, they do keep the game from feeling fresh; hours in you are still learning new stuff, quickly adapting to new challenges every step of the way.


Outside of the huge array of combat options at your disposal, Castlevania: LOS is a pretty linear, and tightly directed adventure. Most of the game takes places on very narrow paths with very little in the way of additional exploration. However it also encourages you to come back to certain areas when you have powered up your skills, whilst also providing one or two diverging paths in which to take. A lot of the time these lead to short dead-ends, or are roundly connected with the main path, although still give the impression that your playing field isn’t quite as narrow as it may first seem.

In many ways LOS copies its blueprint strongly from GOW. The linear nature of the experience is only toppled by the game’s expansive use of puzzles, which are far larger in nature to that of other similar games. It’s these segments which feel most like Castlevania in this regard. Some of the puzzles you encounter are rather tough, whilst others are only initially so, requiring you to use past ideas in a new way , or a move which you obtained earlier in the game to unlock its secrets.

A heavy dose of Uncharted style platforming also expands upon the puzzles, and linear nature of the gameplay as a whole. It is a mostly automated affair, with only certain walls and surfaces being climbable, and jumping off a ledge the game doesn’t want you to is rarely possible.


While I did enjoy the relaxed nature of traversing the environment, engaging with the lavish surroundings, the game’s camera tends to hinder your progress. As it is static, and placed in such a way as to direct the flow of action, it certainly doesn’t help when certain angles are difficult to judge, or when vital parts of the environment are obscured off-screen making a few leaps of faith unavoidable. This starts off to be a minor quip, but becomes irritating fairly early on, especially when you try and backtrack through areas you’ve already been to find the last key to unlock the entrance to the next stage - you often end up running off an unseen edge to your doom.

Of course having a fixed camera allows the game to show off its thoroughly accomplished graphical make up. Home to some of the most detailed, and downright impressive visuals seen this generation, environments and characters are beautifully rendered, taking inspiration from past Castlevania games, God Of War and Shadow Of The Colossus. Hardly original it would seem, but highly impressive given the overall scale and polish of what is on offer.

Sadly, the game’s framerate is rather poor as a result, with constant slowdown well below the targeted 30fps, often going down as far as 15 – 20fps in some situations. Whilst not being a deal-breaker, the increase in imput lag is wholey undesired, and the combat never feels quite as fluid as it should as a result. On the plus side there’s no ugly screen-tearing present, and despite the regularly severe drops in smoothness Lords Of Shadow is still an extremely playable affair. Just maybe not quite as polished as it could have been.


Castlevania: LOS perhaps marks the most successful entry into 3D for this series, although it is also clear that this wasn’t originally meant to be a Castlevania title at all. Fans expecting long and detailed areas filled with multiple paths and plenty to explore will be disappointed, whilst those expecting a linear action game with plenty of button bashing, and some sizeably grand puzzles will be mostly satisfied. Occasionally, the game does feel rather repetitive, and the beautiful visuals are let down by a mostly far away camera, and a poor framerate, although these elements don’t completely tarnish the overall experience.

As a whole, the linear levels, the near constant barrage of new stuff to learn, and the deep, thought provoking puzzles gel together the separate elements of Castlevania, separating it from other titles that it so unashamedly copies from. There’s also no doubt that the whole thing feels like its ripping off countless other games. And it does, pretty obviously in places. But the way in which the developers have done this puts LOS on a higher pedastal than lesser contenders.

VERDICT: 8/10