PC Tech Analysis: Batman: Arkham City (Digital Foundry)

PC versions of cross-platform titles are often characterised as simple ports with only the power of the hardware itself giving any advantage over their console equivalents in terms of higher frame-rates or superior resolutions. Batman: Arkham City on PC is not one of these games. It's enormously improved over the console game, even if the initially broken DirectX 11 rendering mode grabbed headlines for all the wrong reasons.

While it doesn't reach the same lofty standards set by the likes of Battlefield 3, it's clear that UK developer Rocksteady has put some effort into making the PC version a substantially better experience. While much of the artwork is shared with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 builds, pretty much every corner of the game is blessed with a graphical upgrade in one way of another. Some of the differences are quite subtle, adding an extra layer of mild polish to the look of the game, while others are far more drastic, showcasing just how much more detail and clarity is possible when pairing up Rocksteady's masterpiece with a decent spec PC. It's a game that cries out to be run at resolutions well in excess of the console standard 720p.

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And here's the Batman: Arkham City console Face-Off...

PSP E-1000 Review

Almost seven years after its debut in Japan, Sony has released the latest - and final - iteration of its venerable PlayStation Portable handheld. The new E-1000 is a cut-down budget model available in stores now for just £85. Is it an example of cost-cutting too far, or is it a sparkling return to form after the ill-advised PSPgo and the disappointing PSP-3000?

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Saints Row: The Third (Digital Foundry - Face-Off)

Grand Theft Auto may be taking a more serious tone as the series matures but the Saints Row games are moving in the opposite direction. In-depth characterisation and an intriguing story are left behind in favour of what made the earlier GTA games so much fun to play in the first place - that is, being able to mess around in an open-world playground where realism is given the elbow in favour of all-out insanity.

Saints Row: The Third also represents a large graphical improvement over the second game in the series. The change in art direction in this latest instalment in combination with more restrained use of normal mapping and specular highlighting on some surfaces creates a more realistic look to the environments. A closer look at the texturing also reveals quite a bit of subtle detailing in many places: the small cracks that appear on the road and pavements, and the degradations manifesting on the walls of old buildings found throughout Steelport.

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Hardware Review: Sony HMZ-T1 Personal 3D Viewer

At Digital Foundry, we enjoy 3D gaming but we remain unconvinced about the delivery mechanism - never mind the glasses, it's the nature of the screens themselves that we have issues with. The experience of going to the cinema and having your entire field of view consumed by the 3D image is a level of immersion far beyond what we see at home where the typical 3DTV can't hope to compete, presenting itself almost like a "window with depth" in the corner of the living room.

Sony's solution to this problem is one of the reasons we love the company - it'll quite happily turn ultra-niche, proof-of-concept devices into full consumer products, seemingly no matter how low the sales volumes are likely to be. The grandly titled HMZ-T1 Head Mounted Display places twin 0.7-inch 720p OLED monitors an inch in front of your eyes, the aim being - according to Sony PR - to emulate viewing a whopping 750ft IMAX screen from 20 feet away, delivering a 45-degree field-of-view without the need for a gargantuan projector...

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Hardware Review: Acer HN274H 3D Monitor

Another one of my Digital Foundry pieces. Here we have a comprehensive look one of the few 3D monitors out there that supports the HDMI 1.4 spec, while possibly having the potential to double up as a reasonable HDTV replacement.


Acer's unforgetably titled HN274H takes the form of a substantial 27-inch desktop display with a range of HDMI 1.4 compatible inputs and it also offers full support for both NVIDIA and AMD's 3D systems, meaning stereoscopic gaming up to 1080p60 - a format PS3 and its HDMI 1.4 compliance can't match. On top of that, if your PC graphics card is powerful enough, there's nothing to stop you running games at 1080p at 120FPS in 2D either - a very cool, eerily smooth experience we recommend you try out if you can.

With this all-formats support, the HN274H is a unique all-in-one product and the price isn't bad either: the display can be picked up for around £480 - not bad for a piece of hardware that supports all major stereoscopic 3D gaming systems, and happily works with other HDMI-based devices like 3D set-top boxes and Blu-ray players.

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Formula 1 2011 (Digital Foundry - Face-Off)

With F1 2011 Codemasters continues to refine the solid foundations laid down by last year's game. The handling mechanics have been improved, crafting an experience which is even more authentic than before, while the AI has been refreshed to ensure that seasoned veterans receive a strong challenge. The changes aren't particularly drastic but they do have a positive impact on the game: F1 2011 is easier to play for the casual fan whilst containing plenty of depth under the hood for those who go looking.

F1 2011's graphical upgrades are also delivered with the same kind of subtlety: enhanced weather effects and a small increase in track-side detail bring about a more polished look to proceedings. The raw aesthetics seen in the previous title - giving the game a clean, almost clinical appearance - are left practically unchanged from an artistic perspective, and this is once again backed with a constrained use of lighting compared to other EGO engine games such as DiRT and GRID. To all intents and purposes the lighting scheme works well even if it lacks some of the shiny bloom effects which made Moto GP 10/11 such a pleasure to look at.

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