320°

New Xbox Experience Load Time Comparison Video

Do Xbox 360 game installations speed up load times? See what difference there is in Ubisoft's Far Cry 2.

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videogamer.com
Lou-Cipher5658d ago

A very small difference, but it is definitely an improvement.

It is worth it for the noise reduction alone.

Fox015658d ago

I installed Fable 2 on my HDD and OH MY GOOD, it now loads twice faster. That game really needed it.

FBl5658d ago

That it takes longer than the Ps3 version to load

bouncybullet5658d ago

Well what do you expect from a version that has lower quality textures.

PS360PCROCKS5658d ago

it got into the game like 10 seconds faster and than they seem to load about the same, so saves you some time, it's worth it! noise reduction is good

GWAVE5658d ago

But I thought installs were "gay", kids? Despite the fact that it makes the game run smoother and load faster, we've all been bashing the PS3 since Day One about the install files, and now it's a cool feature that we're all looking forward to?

Lol. Just...lol.

And before anyone says it: most PS3 installs these days are optional or non-existant (see Uncharted and Dead Space for reference).

FantasyStar5658d ago (Edited 5658d ago )

PS3 Installs don't do much other than take up space and offer VERY LITTLE benefits to gamers. There's only a handful of games that'll benefit from the PS3 Installs while most of the 360's library will benefit, and no noise whatsoever!

Microsoft got it right by allowing us to install our entire games onto the HDD. Looks like Sony really did drop the ball on the standard HDD cause it looks like Microsoft might beat them to it. I'm over the whole "mandatory HDD Installs", now I'm antsy about which console can make the best use of my GBs and it looks like Microsoft FTW.

Man Sony...WTF? Why implement features if your devs won't make use of it. Didn't Sony promise Full-game Installs back in 2006 with Ridge Racer 7? Custom-Soundtracks practically non-existant, scarce trophy support until '09. I can list others like Screenshot capture, Youtube support, but I'll wait on those. Is Sony playing around too much with Home to really care about what's most important: the games should be Sony's #1 priority, and everything else comes 2nd. I can live without Home, but NXE is really showing up the PS3 in the gaming department for sure.

I know I would've loved to install R2 completely on the HDD for speedy loading.

bouncybullet5658d ago

MGS4 has to install every level, every time you play it.

BIG difference.

Plus its completely optional.

5658d ago
GWAVE5658d ago

@ FantasyStar

I think you're getting ahead of yourself. Developers cannot count on an HDD for the 360. In fact, Microsoft has pretty much said "NO!" to every dev that has asked to make their game require an HDD. The PS3 is a very different story, since every model comes with an HDD.

So, devs will not make 360 games that fully utilize the HDD. Period. The jury is still out on how this "optional install" thing will work. For all we know, it might shave a few seconds off load times and that's it. Framerate might stay the same. Texture pop-in might stay the same.

Now, notice how I said "might"...because we don't know yet. The "optional installs" MIGHT upgrade your 360 to a Blu Ray player. Who knows?

FantasyStar5658d ago (Edited 5658d ago )

True enough, however I don't count on PS3 devs optimizing for the PS3's HDD cause I've seen very few devs do the work that actually benefit the gamer.

As a user of NXE, I can tell you I see great benefits out of NXE. Mass Effects Texture-pop ins are a thing of the past, Lost Odyssey shaves off 4-5 seconds. (A 40%-50% gain from 10 seconds). Rock Band loads faster, Halo 3 barely benefits, Fable 2 is SUPER TIGHT, GTAIV is just as solid as the PS3 version now, Dead Rising is INCREDIBLY SMOOTH and GeoW feels tight as well, if not tighter because GeoW already does stream-loading. The jury is still out there, but I can personally tell you that Microsoft to this date has made the right decision. This is coming from a guy that works on broken 360s for a living and experiences the catastrophic nature of DVD-Drives dying, GPUs frying and heat management a problem for 360. The 360's is just as quiet as the PS3 now, if not quieter.

MGS4's Act-Installs was a terrible example of how limited devs are by the 2x BR Drive and Sony's 5GB max. Could you imagine how much stable it would be if Sony just allowed us to install entire games on the HDD from PS3's launch?

When it comes to programming for the HDD, the most important thing is optimizing the file-structure to decrease seek times and increase access times. Whatever benefits that the 360 saw in its DVD-9s get passed over to the HDD instantaneously because the file-structure is already optimized for low-seek, high-access. Also because HDD's data rates are much higher than DVD's. The same benefits can come from PS3 as well for Full-Disc installs, but so far Sony has yet to comment on NXE. I love Home and the potential it can bring to social gaming, but priorities man....

Like I said earlier, I'm totally over the "HDD installs". If you guys ever modded your Xbox 1, then you'll know the speedy benefits of loading from the HDD instead of the disc itself: Just about every Xbox game felt more fluid and the load times were alot shorter. Although this puts more stress on the HDD, for PS3; if the HDD breaks I can buy a new one. I always keep my data backed up. Sony has a huge opportunity to snatch the limelight from NXE with its own game-install system. Revise the mandatory-installs, or just get rid of them all-together and just give us the full-installs instead.

And just imagine the more potential with Solid State Disks, that's something Microsoft will never have because of their proprietary(LIE) HDDs.

http://www.engadget.com/200...

OC_MurphysLaw5658d ago

You gotta get it right if you are going to throw it back in our faces. Mandatory installs are retarded and suck... optional installs equal choice and are completely fine by me.

5658d ago
Mozilla895658d ago

are indeed gay but thankfully most games these days do have optional installs instead of mandatory or none at all. Someone mentioned Resistance earlier but that doesn't need an install cause it runs fast already and the PS3 never had a noise problem in the first place. I guess it juts depends on who the developer is. For wide open games like Far Cry I'l still expecting mandatory installs. Still it made the biggest difference when you boot up the game not when loading up your save game files. I think the noise reduction is worth it though.

Ichiryoka5658d ago

Yet on the 360 you can see clear as day that the install actually helps loading times and system noise. So is in other words you prefer them over the game not being installed correct? Lets say you buy gears of war 2 and you play it uninstalled, we all know where this is going, load times are slower and you have the noise going on in the background, would you install it or play it as it is? would you settle for the ahhh its ok version or the look how fast i got into my game, I don't hear any noise, full blown all out war action without any background annoyances...I'd choose the later, but that's just me and my opinion, its up to you guys.

LazyDevs5658d ago (Edited 5658d ago )

And before anyone says it: most PS3 installs these days are optional or non-existant (see Uncharted and Dead Space for reference).

This is classic he says most and he names 2 games, so that means there is only 3 games for the ps3. Would you like to make a list of non mandatory installs and i will make of list of mandatory installs? And we will see which one is bigger.

And no the ps3 installs are for slow drive speeds has little to do with speeding the game up.

+ Show (8) more repliesLast reply 5658d ago
lloyd_wonder5658d ago

Lol. The PS3 had this feature 2 years ago.

Way to go.

bouncybullet5658d ago

It has that feature because it has to.
How many times have you replayed MGS4...?
yeah, never.

And i'm pretty sure microsoft games have been installing on hard drives for a very long time.

lloyd_wonder5658d ago

How many times have you replayed Halo 3?

ReTarDedFisHy5658d ago

6 times.
1st was to beat it
2nd was to beat it again with my new gear
3rd was to get Big Boss emblem
4th was to collect all Easter Eggs
5th was to get statues and Solar Gun
6th was to get all other emblems
still need a couple more emblems, stuff like Panda (30+ hours) and Chicken (you seriously have to suck hard to get this one) are hard.

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90°

Which Far Cry Should I Start With? - A Beginner's Guide 2023

If you’re new to this long-running franchise, we’ve got you covered.

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gameluster.com
masterfox411d ago

Farcry 3 and literally thats it! lol

GamingSinceForever410d ago (Edited 410d ago )

I recently tried 3 for the first time but the frame rate was a turnoff.

I liked 5 and 6 though.

banger88409d ago

If you have a Series X or S, the Xbox 360 version runs at 60 fps with fps boost. It's a shame the remaster doesn't.

isarai411d ago

2 and 3, pretty much the only ones i really enjoyed. 1 was amazing for the time but aged quite poorly. 4 has the elephant gun, all i can praise from any entry after 3 lol

cooperdnizzle410d ago

Ummmm 3 than stop.

Okay maybe two as well. But yeah probably 3 and then move on.

JEECE410d ago (Edited 410d ago )

Far Cry 2. People constantly rant about games now being too easy, holding your hand, having too many unnecessary RPG-lite leveling features, etc. People specifically complain about open world games being too focused on tons of collectibles and "checkmarks" that just waste time.

Far Cry 2 is an answer to all of those complaints. It was made by Ubisoft before they fell into all the traps discussed above (and before they started inserting towers into their games to defog the map). It has respawning enemies, weapons that degrade, and the collectible diamonds are very useful in the game (which you find in a similar way to the way you find shrines in BOTW with a radar system). The map you have is an in game item you pull out while playing, not a pause menu that is unnecessarily detailed. Also the enemy AI and physics are much better than later entries in the series.

It has a mixed reputation because people at the time said it was too hard, the weapon degradation was annoying, and then respawning enemies were annoying. FC2 came out in 2008, so this was before games like Dark Souls and BOTW had come out and made it cool to like these types of features.

XbladeTeddy409d ago

Far Cry 2, the one with the AI that find you through walls and trees, can one shot you from a mile away and have 100% accuracy? That was frustrating not fun because cheap AI.

JEECE409d ago (Edited 409d ago )

Uhh, I mean, it isn't one of these games where once the enemies have detected you they will magically forget you exist because you walked behind a wall or went into a bush. And yeah the AI isn't stormtrooper level accuracy. Again, these are positives, not negatives to me.

To be fair, I'm really directing this at the people most critical of "Modern Ubisoft" or "Modern Open World" design elements. Like the type of people who fawned all over Elden Ring because it had a clean UI because they are so burnt out by the "checkbox" type of open world design.

If you like those types of games, then a later FC game like 3 and especially 4-5 would be more your style.

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220°

10 Old Games With Outstanding Graphics

GF365: "There are some games with extraordinary visuals that impress us to this day. Here are old games with outstanding graphics."

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gamefreaks365.com
ShwaaMan457d ago

Bioshock still looks fantastic, one of my all time favorites.

Yui_Suzumiya457d ago

Beyond: Two Souls on PS3 can compete with modern day graphics.

SonyStyled457d ago (Edited 457d ago )

Same as Killzone 2 and 3, uncharted 2 and 3, Infamous 2, Heavy Rain, Resistance 3

jasonismoney457d ago

I wish this was entirely true, but you might want to load up Killzone 2 and Resistance 3 again.

SonyStyled456d ago

@jason I watched some gameplay videos of KZ2 and R3 on my full screen. They are on par or succeed graphically to the first person shooters mentioned in the article that also launched on the seventh generation of consoles. Try the same and see what you think

cthulhucultist456d ago

Killzone 3 was super impressive! I could not believe the graphics back then as I was regularly pausing the game to stand in awe looking at the surroundings! Resistance however did not impress me that much. Heavy rain is also another amazing graphically speaking game. It almost felt next gen

Fist4achin457d ago

I always thought the first 3 Gears of War games looked great and still hold up for today.

SonyStyled457d ago

They did for their day. I recently played gears judgement with on the 360 and the draw distance was so blurry. The characters up close look great though

JEECE456d ago

Far Cry 2 was awesome. In addition to having demonstrably better physics and AI than later games in the series, it had a lot of design decisions that, criticized at the time, have since been praised in games like BOTW and Dark Souls.

iNcRiMiNaTi456d ago

It might not be super amazing by today's standard but I thought Mgs3 looked really good

JEECE456d ago

In terms of art style it still holds up.

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430°

Far Cry’s best game gets brutally realistic as mod remakes Ubisoft FPS

The Far Cry series’ best game – not Far Cry 6 – just got more brutal and realistic thanks a mod than revamps and remakes the classic Ubisoft open-world FPS

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pcgamesn.com
lonewolf10579d ago

Far Cry 2 where your guns never ever jammed until you got into a gunfight is their best? I disagree.

MIDGETonSTILTS17579d ago

I liked 3 more.

The malaria angle was more annoying than immersive.

And, the enemy AI had too good of eyesight to allow any stealth. They’d spot you a literal half mile away, I hated it.

lonewolf10579d ago

Yeah, some weird mechanics for sure, some did really enjoy it, I certainly didn't.

bloop578d ago (Edited 578d ago )

The map was designed badly and an absolute pain to navigate from what I can remember too. You ended up having to go to the same few places all the time and there was a huge inaccessible area between them that you had to go around.

It definitely had the best physics system of the entire franchise, but a lot of the mechanics took the enjoyment out of it.

LordoftheCritics579d ago

It was fun for its time but a bunch of those systems today won't survive a launch weekend.

Profchaos578d ago

I'd say it was their most ambitious and had the best setting to date next to the original island.

But gameplay wise it was clunky and maybe it was released to early if the teams had modern systems to build it on the game would have been much better less corridors more open and less gaurd outposts that auto regen

Knushwood Butt578d ago

How do you use guns when not in a gunfight? Shooting trees?

lonewolf10578d ago

Yes and you could do that for hours in FC2 with a gun and it wouldn't jam, not hard to grasp is it.

Knushwood Butt578d ago

I see.

I haven't spent hours shooting trees.

I must try it.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 578d ago
MajorLazer579d ago

Love Far Cry 2 on Infamous difficulty.

Hikoran579d ago

This should be an opinion piece. Not news.

Gwiz579d ago

Blood Dragon is much better.

Pedrof579d ago

Far Cry 2 may certainly not be the most "fun" game in the series but from a narrative standpoint it definitely is the most interesting of the bunch. FC2 couldn't be further away from the pointless fragfests that the following episodes turned out to be.

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