Xbox 360 vs. Xbox: King Kong Side-by-Side

[AaronGF]

Here's an article for you to consider (http://www.gamesfirst.com/?id=1049). King Kong on the Xbox 360 and King Kong on the Xbox are identical games - with different graphics. How much better is King Kong on the Xbox 360? For all its multiple cores, is King Kong really looking all that much better on the $400 Xbox 360 over the original, $130 Xbox? This article on GamesFirst compares screenshots of identical scenes from both versions of the game, and puts them side by side to see how they look. They have examples comparisons of monsters, environments, and people. Some show off the Xbox 360 really well; others not so much.

A sample:

http://www.gamesfirst.com/images/content/2005_12/1133430175_firesmall.jpg
http://www.gamesfirst.com/images/content/2005_12/1133430184_groundrockssmall.jpg
(http://www.gamesfirst.com/?id=1049)

[Scaryboy]

The grabs are so poor it's hard to tell one way or the other....

[Morratut]

Well for me it seems like a nice improvement. Enough for me to buy the 360 version over the Xbox version.

I would say that though because i'm getting the 360 tomorrow and i've sold my old Xbox today :D

[Nikells]

Sure an Xbox 360 game looks better than an Xbox game.
However, To me thats not a huge jump, its just shinier looking stuff.

I think to truly beat the competition one of the next generation consoles is going to have to do more than just pixel shade a 3D object lots and lots.

We're getting to a point now where graphics have become so good I no longer care about them like I used to.

[bboy]

You can't judge the 360 based on this. If the game was initially aimed at the original XB they may not have upped the graphical elements for the 360 version all that much.
Wait and see what the games for the 360 are like a year from now and then come back. I'm sure they will be smoking once the developers have had the time to get a full grip on the development hardware (same goes for all the 'next-gen' platforms).

[Vandenh]

360 looks just like a very high end PC. Thats great... and you cannot expect a lot more from any console (if you believe this supercomputer hype you are stupid). The ball is now indeed in the hands of the devs... they got a new toy to play with, let's see if they can invent some interesting games or new ideas.

[SMES]

Many games released in the transitional period from one generation to the next look only slightly better than the previous generation. This is not a good indicator of hardware power. For example, Final Fantasy 4 (2 in the US) was released early on the SNES and looked like a real nice NES game. FF6 was released later and looked almost as good as early PSOne RPGs (Suikoden 1).

This is even more true of this particular game because, as has been pointed out already, this game was designed as a multi-platform game where most of those platforms are PS2/Xbox/GC. If Suikoden had been released simultaniously on the SNES and PSone there probably would have been 0 difference in the graphics.

I know we live in the age of manhood-measurement-by-graphics, so maybe a 16 bit RPG isn't the best example. But my point is the same none-the-less.

[Suicidal ShiZuru]

Wheres the 360 vs High Resolution PC Edition????

[AversionFX]

Wheres the 360 vs High Resolution PC Edition????

That's what I was wondering.

[bapenguin]

The whole argument is moot...they aren't HD grabs from the 360.

[Wadmaasi]

Wheres the 360 vs High Resolution PC Edition????
What is the actual name of that SKU, anyhow? The only version I've seen (virtually, at that) is "Peter Jackson's King Kong Limited Collector's DVD Edition," but I've seen people bandy about the phrase "high res version" before.

http://www.gogamer.com/cgi-bin/GoGamer.storefront/SESSIONID/Product/View/001KING

[bean19]

The grabs are so poor it's hard to tell one way or the other....

Exactly. . . by the time they printed these as screenshots, they are both super low res. All you can really compare is effects, not detail. I KNOW that the X360 version looks better than that because I've played it.

[Suicidal ShiZuru]

Im pretty sure the better looking PC one is called "High Resolution" to some extent. Ive only seen it available at Fileplanet Direct2Drive and somewhere else. As far as I know its the best possible graphics, as in at least as good as the 360.

As Ive said before, if this multi platform, and same platform, various quality shit continues... Im gonna get pissed...

~~

-Download]Fileplanet Purchase Page (http://www.direct2drive.com/321/product/Buy-Peter-Jackson's:-King-Kong-[High-Res-Edition)

The High Resolution edition contains enhanced graphics that use the latest 3D technology. Please see the system specifications below to ensure that you meet them before purchasing.

D2D Exclusive: Direct2Drive is the only place in the USA to get the High-Resolution Edition of this game! Live the epic action of Peter Jackson's movie King Kong. Play as Jack or Kong in unique, dual-style gameplay. Play in first-person Survival mode as Jack Driscoll: shoot, evade, fight using Skull Island's hostile environment to your advantage. Launch your destructive power as the iconic ape-monster Kong in third person, from the savage perils of Skull Island to the skyscrapers of New York.

King Kong Download Minimum System Requirements
Supported OS: Windows® XP (only)
Processor: Pentium® IV 3.0 GHz or AMD 3000+ or better
RAM: 2 GB
Video Card: 3D 256 MB, supporting Pixel shader 3.0 and Vertex shader 3.0
Sound Card: DirectX® 9.0C compatible, EAX 3.0
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0C
Hard Drive Space: 5.4 GB

[see colon]

the original xbox doesn't cost $130. the MSRP for the vanilla xbox package was $149.99US, but it's currently unavailable for order. all microsoft is shipping now (and throughout the holiday season it seams) is the forza package. it comes with forza, xbox live arcade, and 2 free monts of live, and has an MSRP of $179.99US. they've effectivly raised the price on the xbox, but i don't think anyone noticed.

[Wadmaasi]

Im pretty sure the better looking PC one is called "High Resolution" to some extent. Ive only seen it available at Fileplanet Direct2Drive and somewhere else. As far as I know its the best possible graphics, as in at least as good as the 360.
Hmmm...interesting that it's only available (caveat: in the US) as a download. That makes me wonder if GoGamer will carry a UK import at some point. I mean, at 5.4GB you couldn't even burn a backup DVD. I wonder how patches for it will work?

Thanks for the link!

[Dabombpizza]

Well...the Xbox 360 has oodles of power. I don't think this game nor any launch title really show cases it (as I've said before). Here's to Dead Rising and Mass Effect!

[51|RandoM]

Hmmm...interesting that it's only available (caveat: in the US) as a download. That makes me wonder if GoGamer will carry a UK import at some point. I mean, at 5.4GB you couldn't even burn a backup DVD. I wonder how patches for it will work?

Thanks for the link!

It is the same way everywhere. You only get the gamer edition(enhanced graphics) for pc by download.

This is the last title people should use to compare 360 to anything else, since the developer went out of their way to make the 360 version the best and gimped the other versions, ON PURPOSE. Sure, make a great 360 version, but do you really need to hamstring the pc version?

I'm going to have to chalk it up to the strong arm of MS, I can't see any other reason to do something like this.

[Suicidal ShiZuru]

Hmmm...interesting that it's only available (caveat: in the US) as a download. That makes me wonder if GoGamer will carry a UK import at some point. I mean, at 5.4GB you couldn't even burn a backup DVD. I wonder how patches for it will work?

Thanks for the link!


All patches ceom from Fileplanet or anywhere else like normal[normally on other games]. Also you can get a backup when you download it[I believe, I could when I ordered] and get information with your account to redownload it. There some specific rules but I dont remember exactly. Ive ordered one or two games through Direct2Drive and have had no problems.

[SymetriX]

I'm not typically an XBOX fan but I'll say this is a bad example. It's a port, people. You'd need to really compare a game that was made specifically for the 360, and then down-ported to work on XBOX. Otherwise, clearly the developers are not writing the game from the ground up to work on the 360, so it won't look as good.

[51|RandoM]

I'm not typically an XBOX fan but I'll say this is a bad example. It's a port, people. You'd need to really compare a game that was made specifically for the 360, and then down-ported to work on XBOX. Otherwise, clearly the developers are not writing the game from the ground up to work on the 360, so it won't look as good.

You are aware that the game is made specifically to look better on the 360 than any other platform?

You are aware that the other versions of the game that are available at retail are purposely gimped?

While I agree it is a bad example, I don't think your criteria is accurate.

Screenshots don't do it justice, on any platform, though. What they do show you is model complexity and background polys, though, which puts the xbox360 way out in front.

I'm waiting on some solid reviews before I make a real decision. I'm leaning towards a boycott, just because of their deception, but on the other hand, I like to promote digital distribution. :-)

[Busted_Astromech]

Evidence of purposeful gimping, 51Random? I can understand what you mean about the PC version, but in that case, it's probably fairly different engine that was just a bonus--they likely didn't optimize it for PC cards and so won't run near as well as it should.

But that's just speculation, which as far as I know is exactly what you're doing. Because from all I've seen, King Kong is quite a feat on the current-gen consoles--I can hardly see how it's been gimped.

[51|RandoM]

Busted, just compare the retail PC version with the version hidden away, virtually unadvertised, only available as a download.

They gimped the retail pc version, period.

[kathode]

Busted, just compare the retail PC version with the version hidden away, virtually unadvertised, only available as a download.

They gimped the retail pc version, period.

Baloney, one look at the system requirements tells you that's not true. If they "gimped" it, it was only so that mere mortals like myself are able to play the game.

[Wadmaasi]

Thanks for the additional info, Random and ShiZuru. I'll probably pick up the D2D version after the holidays.

[bapenguin]

My guess is if they had to put out the hi-res version they would be forced to do a DVD only type thing and they didn't want to do that with such a big budget title.

They probably should have done two versions of it...but maybe they didn't think the market warranted it. I really don't think anyone purposley gimped anything. Why make extra work on something that already had a tight deadline?

[ChaosDent]

Looking at the system requirements for the PC high-res version, I'd be dissapointed if it wasn't significantly better looking than the 360 version... The system that can run that will have at least 1-1.5 GB of data storage exclusively devoted to the game, at least twice the available RAM on the 360. The model detail and texture resolution have to be through the roof.

[Knite]

Gimped it? Technically ALL PC games are a little "gimped" because they've got to work on such various hardware, that the engine has to be poked and prodded to even work stably on each piece of hardware,

unlike a console where the engine can be tweaked and streamlined to be the most efficient possible without any fear of someone making a driver update that breaks it all.

[Suicidal ShiZuru]

I think Ill buy the hi res version soon since I have the power to run it maxed out, give myself even more fodder to rip on the 360.

And 51, try paying attention...

[EZbakeOVN]

SMES and others are right. You have to keep in mind the fact that this is not only a multiplatform game, but also that the 360 is so new, developers are still learning how to use the dev kits well in order to create games that use the 360 to its full potential, not just graphically.

[Xerxes]

You PC gamers crack me up.... I'M GETTING THE ULTIMO PC BETTER THAN 360 VERSION...

[Suicidal ShiZuru]

There was never any direct mention of "THE PC VERSION PWNZORZ THE 360".

Try again.

[bean19]

Did you guys not read any of the many people who posted about the fact that the screenshots are poor quality and thus do not show the true graphical fidelity of the X360 version (or the Xbox versions for that matter, but it much worse for the X360 screenshot since it has a higher native resolution).

If you really are worried about the X360 graphics, you are not going to find out results from screenshots on the Internet very often as they will most likely NOT be in high definition and will mostly be fuzzy compared to the real thing.

However, you can get HD videos from certain sites, like Gamespot. If you are actually interested in seeing what it will look like, then downaload these HD gameplay videos from Gamespot here:

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/deadoralive4/media.html?mode=gameplay

Or you can download King Kong HD movies here:

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/kingkong/media.html

Gamespot recommonds that you run these with the following or better system specs as otherwise your system may have trouble running the video (which is, in itself telling of the system's power):

Windows XP, Windows Media Player 10, 3.0+ GHz Processor, 1.0+ GB of RAM, 128 MB Video Card, 1280 x 1024 Screen Resolution, 16-bit Sound Card and Stereo Speakers for optimal viewing. Enjoy!

Also, these aren't true representations either, although they are very close. The videos are made much smaller than you would see them on your television screen and suffer a bit when enlarged. Plus they skip, etc. in ways that they would not if playing on your X360 if you just barely meet the requirements for HD video on your PC (as I do).

Btw, I'm a fan of ALL consoles, but I really despise misinformation like these screenshots. Looking at these alone, I would not be excited about next gen at all. The difference shown there is terrible. Also, btw, King Kong is not a very pretty X360 game graphically. . . at least IMO. It is obviously a port and doesn't do a lot of effects right. . . they prefer to make everything foggy and grey instead of properly doing shadows in real-time, etc.

[TheKeck]

I don't know why some people are saying this downplays the 360. Some of those differences were astounding. (And I don't even ever plan on getting a 360.)

[bean19]

I don't know why some people are saying this downplays the 360. Some of those differences were astounding. (And I don't even ever plan on getting a 360.)

Well, because the pics are poor quality.

You may think that the X360 still looks a lot better than the Xbox version from those pics, but the X360 actually looks like ass in those pictures compared to what it would look like on a real machine.

[Montolio]

By the way the gameplay in this title is really a lot of fun. I just earned my King of the Jungle achievement and the first encounter with the V-Rex (you can see this in the kiosk demo I think <-- if you don't have the console yet) on my 55" widescreen HDTV and 800-watt surround sound setup nearly made me crap my pants. I really recommend the game if you have the $60 to toss Ubisoft's way.

[SymetriX]

You are aware that the game is made specifically to look better on the 360 than any other platform?

You are aware that the other versions of the game that are available at retail are purposely gimped?

I'm not so sure that it was made specifically for the XBOX. Here is an example of a fair comparison: Splinter Cell XBOX vs Splinter Cell PS2. The game was made originally with only the XBOX in mind and then the developers made compromises to make it work in another platform.

Now look at King Kong: I'm pretty sure they developed knowing about the 360, but when developers are targeting multiple platforms they often take a "lowest common denominator" approach so that they can actually ship a final product, and I think it's this mentality that makes Kong a poor example.

All this said, I tried Kong in the stores on a 360 and thought it looked great. As good as Gotham? Maybe not. But better than anything else I could get my grubby paws on, and better than a PC unless it has $1800 worth of parts.

I did also see NBA Live 06 at a friends house and I thought that was a "port" where they did do substantial re-working for the 360. I heard the same about Madden being completely re-worked (for better or worse).

Maybe these type of ports that have been significantly re-deisnged would be better examples for comparison, and not necessarily King Kong.

[Chill]

Just a quick warning, but reading the ubisoft boards, it seems lots of people are having trouble getting over 10fps in the gamer edition of King Kong. And these are folks with SLi rigs that far exceed the system requirements.

[Xerxes]

There was never any direct mention of "THE PC VERSION PWNZORZ THE 360".

Try again.

But the indirect mention is all there.

Try Again.

[IagoTheHunted]

It's an interesting comparasin but these screenshots are almost compleately irrelevant because:

A) Low quality, as mentioned, so it's not actually showing the difference.
B) Nobody ever said the software was maxing out the capability of either system. IE these screenshots are in no way an implication of the ability of the systems. It's just an example, and a poor one since it's last generation Xbox and first generation 360.
C) static screenshots have nothing to do with overall system capability. First and formost is the capability of the artists involved, and since last generation hardware is pretty capable in terms of filling the screen with flexable colorful graphics, it makes sense that an artists singular vision isn't going to look much different just because it's being presented at higher fidelity. Also bear in mind that system capability is reflected more accurately by measureing framerate, resolution, shader complexity, and then spare power for sound, AI, animation/skin deformation, etc. None of these things are represented by screenshots.

So in other words, nobody well informed should have expected this sort of a test to yield anything other than a similar looking comparasin. What this DOES show is something that game developers have been mulling over for a while now, which is that hardware improvement from now on isn't going to change graphic appearence much. We saw the same thing happen with soundcards, remember when we moved from PC-speaker to sound blaster (hopefully that's not too old for all of you)? That was a HUGE leap, but all the leaps after that weren't a huge deal, because OUR HEARING isn't good enough to really tell. We're at that point with graphics, artists aren't working with their hands tied behind their backs by hardware anymore. Now it's going to be a matter of innovation, gameplay, and physics to make a game stand out (pluss of course artistic vision and talent, which has always been a lead factor).

[bean19]

We saw the same thing happen with soundcards, remember when we moved from PC-speaker to sound blaster (hopefully that's not too old for all of you)? That was a HUGE leap, but all the leaps after that weren't a huge deal, because OUR HEARING isn't good enough to really tell. We're at that point with graphics, artists aren't working with their hands tied behind their backs by hardware anymore. Now it's going to be a matter of innovation, gameplay, and physics to make a game stand out (pluss of course artistic vision and talent, which has always been a lead factor).

Good points and nice analogy, but it isn't our eyes that can't perceive better graphics, it is the amount of development time and (yes, hardware) gating graphics.

What is gating graphics development now is development time, budgets, and hardware limitations (to a much lesser degree than the previous 2, btw). It will probably not be until the point when graphics are photo-realistic (in gameplay as well as in video) that hardware is completely not a limiter.

Innovation, gameplay, and physics are all ways that games excelled against their competition in past games too (as well as other criteria you didn't mention like AI).

We are definitely seeing graphics being gated by different factors than hardware now, and this trend of budget/time being the greater factor will increase with each successive technology. So it's a great point you make, but a less than apt analogy.

[Gil]

Despite the picture quality of the screenshots, there still seems to be a pretty huge difference to me.

[dr_wily]

of course its going to look worse, its a p3 700 with a geforce 3 at 480i against a tri core p4 3.2 with a geforce 7800gtx at 720p (respectively)

but jesus, looking at those crap ass screens makes me feel different, they look practically the same cept for the fire pic. But then again, these screens are like 200x400 which moots the whole comparo

idiots.

[Heretic Machine]

...After reading a couple of pages into this topic, I realized just how ignorant many people are when it comes to the technical elements of games, and also that I'm really tired of hearing about graphics.

[Pumped'Up]

...After reading a couple of pages into this topic, I realized just how ignorant many people are when it comes to the technical elements of games, and also that I'm really tired of hearing about graphics.
Please enlighten us with your godly knowledge of "technical elements of games"...but afterall, you are tired, so you say...boo hoo....I guess we'll just have to take your word for it and trust that you're smarter than everyone else on "technical elements of games".

I'd laugh at you, but I'm too tired of laughing.

[51|RandoM]

Baloney, one look at the system requirements tells you that's not true. If they "gimped" it, it was only so that mere mortals like myself are able to play the game.

bullshit. you might have noticed GRAPHICS SETTINGS in most of your games, settings that you modify to suit your particular rig?

Well, with this game, you don't get the "HIGH" setting unless you buy a special unadvertised, not available through traditional retail channels version.

It is the same engine in both versions, after all, just one has the highest settings as a selectable option, and the high-res textures.


Oh, fyi, I checked the UBI forums and there are quite a few people unhappy with the hires version. Looking at them, though, none of them have gtx sli on a fx-55, so I'll give it a go. There is also a post by somebody with considerably less than that config, running it acceptably. I'll probably start a new thread in pc games with benches and screenshots. Going to be at least an hour more for the download, looks like, so I won't be able to say much till tomorrow sometime.

[51|RandoM]

hahaha, omg, do not buy the gamer edition, whatever you do.

Something, perhaps many somethings are hideously broken. Printscreen isn't working to get screencaps, and there is no screen cap method listed in the controls menus, so I can't show you just how messed up this thing is.

I'll try to describe the first two issues I've encountered (fx-55, 2 gigs of ram, SLI 7800GTX).

1. If you run at anything besides 640x480, it only scales some of the layers. This is kind of hard to explain. The models/geometry seem to be scaling, filling the entire screen, but then I get this tiny 640x480 screen in the upper left hand corner with all the textures. lol.

2. 1920x1200 on my rig equals less than 1 fps with my initial config. 1280x960 feels like it is around 15-20fps.

Well, I'm going to try some different drivers, start working up a custom SLI profile, but right now things look pretty bad.

[51|RandoM]

update:

1. Got the graphic corruption fixed and am getting so-so performance at 1280x960(bleh).

2. You must unplug all controllers you may have other than keyboard+mouse, because the game takes input from ALL of them, and you can't configure it not to. I was running around in perma-crouch, with my view looping until I unplugged a saitek x45 joystick and throttle combo.

3. Installed Fraps to try to get a screenshot and bumped the resolution back up. Run the game again and voila! first bluescreen of death ever on my current build.

The game does look like it might be interesting, once I can actually play it.

[51|RandoM]

1. Ok, now this is really sad, now the view is constantly going up, even in menus, and it is blaming my keyboard. I unplugged the keyboard(is usb)and that stopped. Plugged it back in, was able to use in the opening menus, but once it loaded the game it promptly crashed.

I did take a screenshot of the menu, heh, at 1600x1200. ingame settings are maxed, except for afterFX which is set to low. The only thing I'm forcing externally via driver, that I'm aware of, is triple buffering.

This jpg is compressed at 90% quality from the original bitmap screenshot, which I took with a beta version of HypersnapDX.

http://users.rcn.com/random2/kk01.jpg

[51|RandoM]

figured out a work around for the keyboard. If kk has the input messed up, I just have to plug the keyboard into a different usb port and *not* install the driver during the game. That at least gives me basic keyboard functionality.

I'm going to sleep now, bleh. One last screenshot, same details as before.

http://users.rcn.com/random2/kk02.jpg


ps. the load times are terrible, worse than bf2 at its worst(and I've got the game installed on a volume striped across 4 raptors).

[Lutheran]

Nice work but I can see why they didn't add this as a highest quality selection in the normal pc game release as they don't want to deal with the avalanche of returns or complaints from this people with incredible rig's like you have. I can't believe all the trouble that damn thing is giving you lol , changing keyboard ports and shit..thx for passing on the info though..the game is really good , you will see if you ever get that working properly.

[peeweejd]

like others have said, its pretty hard to do a side by side comparison of high resolution graphics by taking pictures of a tv with a polaroid camera. gg gamefirst. A+ gaming journalism.

also, did you guys try that game? I played the xbox demo from OXM and its terrible IMO. There was horrific clipping problems with scenery and characters. The animations of kong were terrible and robotic. The control was a joke (you go to cliff and turn before you jump, you'll see). The gameplay on the one level i played was terrible (bad fighting, platform jumping, random swinging on convieniently placed tree stumps).

[51|RandoM]

Ubisoft tech support wants me to unplug my keyboard to play the game.

I've yet to figure out how I'm supposed to play the game without a keyboard, or any other USB device attached, though.

[Wadmaasi]

Dude. Use your wand. Duh?

Electronica controlus!