Infamous has a certain artstyle that deliberately looks 'comic book' like. It was never meant to compete with Uncharted or KZ3 graphically or on a photorealistic level. Also, it would be physically impossible for the PS3 to produce visuals like Uncharted 2/3 open world like Infamous 2 is. So it does have at least something to do with it being open world.
Just because something looks more realistic and 'better' to the eye, doesn't neccecarly dictate that it's more graphically advanced. As I say, I bet there are just as much polygons being drawn to screen in Infamous 2 as Uncharted 3. Just put in different places with a less realistic art style. You watch Uncharted 4 look significantly more realistic than Infamous SS. But I doubt that it has much more than 11 million polygons on average. And be out right more advanced just because it looks 'better'. And it probably will look better.
You are missing the point here. Crysis 3 PC is nowhere near the leap over the PS3/360 version as what Infamous SS is over Infamous 2. Why, because Crysis 3 PC and 360 are the same game. And I'm not just talking by name, but by the assets, code, and graphics pipeline. The character models, animations, AI, level geometry, objects, props, guns, misc things you see in the level are all exactly the same on PC to PS3/360. Sure, there are differences in textures, resolution, lighting, reflections, shadows, and draw distance etc, but thats all derived from the engine as an asthetic addition to the already existing game. I am not disputing that it looks fantastic maxed out, but i am just telling you how it's done. Crytek gave a 360 game an amazing makeover curtesy of Cry Engine 3 basically lol.
Now in the case of Infamous SS and Infamous 2, sure they are not the same games like Crysis 3 PC and console version are, but there is a bigger difference between the two graphically. Well, for a start the character model is several times as detailed in polygon count. 120,000 polygons in an open world game. Crysis 3 Psycho model is 20,000 polygons for reference. On top of that, there is an expodentially more detailed world. You find that all the little things in the world have more attention to detail etc. Much more geometrically dense. The animations are much much better with full body motion simulation that simply couldn't be synthasized on PS3 (and that counts for PC 7th gen multiplats as they share the same animations with the console version). These are all what make the game, the game. The fundamental assets. If they change, they cease to be the same game. The same is not true if you change the texture resolution and lighting etc. As they are asthetic engine additions. They are very important to asthetics, but still aren't the core game.
So in short, the overall graphical difference between Crysis 3 PC and PS3/360 is no where near as large as the difference between Infamous 2 and Second Son. As SS is fundamentally more advanced and built for modern hardware with no last gen restraints.
Now, when Guerilla announced Killzone Shadow Fall and showed the tech presentation, they specifically went into detail about their 'next gen' rendering pipeline. They showed you a typical asset from Killzone 3, and then showed you a typical asset that would be found in Killzone SF. It was several times more detailed. This is because it was designed for PS4. Not PS3. In short, the typical asset found in Crysis 3 is not as geometrically detailed as Killzone SF assets. Again, it's a more geometrically dense game. That's just the way it is. Crysis 3 simply couldn't be that detailed due to sharing the same PS3/360 rendering pipeline. All the game art was the same (as I've said many times). The character models are also far better animated in Killzone than Crysis 3 and are comprised of double the amount of polygons. That's every NPC using 40,000 polygons. Again, reference to Psycho model using 20,000 polygons. Now you could argue that Psycho looks 'better' than any character in KZSF. That is because the face map in the PC version is very sharp and detailed. But it looks dead and stiff in comparison due to inferior facial muscle simulation. Also, the face texture on Psycho >>>> his cloth texture.
So that leaves the lighting. Crysis 3 has real-time GI and other tech where Killzone doesn't. But Killzone has amazing lighting too. And texture work in places. It has PBR but has baked GI in places. The lighting in KZ typically looks more natural than C3 however due to PBR.
At the end of the day, what looks better is opinion. If your talking fundamentally, Infamous SS, Ryse, Killzone SF all are more advanced than Crysis 3 or any 7th gen multiplat on max settings. If you are talking asthetically, then thats down to the viewer. If you are talking sheer amount of rendering effects running in unison, Crysis 3 on max is your man.
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