Tom Clancy's HAWX: Demo Analysis (PS3/Xbox 360)

The game runs at native 720p on both consoles, with the 360 code running full-on 4x MSAA, while PS3 is using nothing but horizontal blur. This noticeably deteriorates visual clarity and doesn't really smooth edges much at all. There's also a lighting difference as you can see from the shots, the excellent use of light bloom from the 360 code is nowhere to be seen on the PS3 version. In the PS3's favour there is a superior draw distance. These shots clearly show that the PS3 is resolving more background geometry than the 360 game. However, 360 gradually fades in upcoming scenery, while PS3 has straightforward pop-in instead.

[DavidMacDougall]

But on-topic who really gives a f**k?

I'd read the article but the guy who makes these comparisons, to see what kinda life he lives

[Real Gambler]

And I'm always amazed by the fact that the hardware on both consoles is so diferent, yet, they have to zoom the picture (which we cannot do ourselves) to see the difference, or use expensive equipment to mesure a difference in frame rate.

Again, when you fly the plane, and your attention is on the opponent's plane, I don't think anybody will notice if AA is not there, or draw distance or frame rate is not the same. It does look awesome on both consoles. Kudo to Ubisoft.

Two questions:

Which platform was it developped on first?
Is it true that there would be a 5gig install on BOTH consoles?

[poindat]

My demo's better than yours!!!!!

What the hell is the point in comparing something that (and it even makes a statement of this on the demo) is not fully representative of the final product? Fail.

[Why dis]

You don't care because you're on the defence and only own the PS3. Speak for yourself lol.

[Brawler]

Even though I don't own a xbox360 i always like to see how the ps3 is doing for multi-platform titles and to me you get to see how the developers use the ps3 strengths. And these are helpful to people who own both consoles who would like to know what game will run better look better then the other as stated the ps3 has for less fps drops but it does have bloom or 4Xmsaa it all depends what you want.

[ThanatosDMC]

Personal opinion: The demo sucked!

Too arcadey but that's me comparing it to Ace Combat (the most recent one from 360). It makes it feel like you can do all of the missions with just the one plane you started with... it can turn in such a tight angle (with the sudden drastic decrease of speed).

Also, what is up with the auto help thing? Where they trying to be different from Ace Combat? They should have just ripped it off instead (they sorta did but introduced new stuff that messed it up).

Also, there's instances if you're targeting ground units, your radar completely ignores the fighter planes trying to shoot you down. WTF?!

At least give us an arrow blimp that's transparent and not completely dissolve it from the radar.

The idea of co-op would be nice. But the thing that the difficulty changes is damage calculations online not the actual difficulty/accuracy of the AI.

Also, getting hit by a missile in normal mode only does 13% of damage to a plane? That's no where near realistic!

For those that are like... "geez, does he have sand in his **gina?" No, i was just sorely disappointed with the game that i was looking forward to for months.

[macalatus]

I've played the demo for like 15 minutes and deleted it from my hard drive.

The demo was boring as hell, and I don't care if the PS3 comes out as inferior or not.

*Goes back to playing Killzone 2*

[chasegamez2]

i said the say sh!t
warhark was more fun

[SlyGuy]

After flying a Warhawk...

I just cannot have fun flying in this game.

[360 man]

HAHAHA horizontal blur lool

[Dr_Nefarious]

hahaha, frame down to 30fps during a forward cabin, better draw distance......lol.haha,lol Ha,hahahardyhahar.

[360 man]

hahaha no AA and no bloom effects + weaker textures hahaha

[macalatus]

HAHAHAHAHA at the two people above laughing which one looks better, when the game is crappy...HAHAHAHAHA!! And at 360 man, I'll agree that 360 can churn out pure CRAP better than anything else...HAHAHAHAHA!

[360 man]

macalatus first of all your name stinks

second if you have actually played hawk then you will know its a good game

[macalatus]

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!

Worst comeback ever!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

I've already played the demo, and it sucked big time! And it's spelled HAWX...learn to know the title of the crappy game that you like, dumbass!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

Last but not the least, it looks like you got butt hurt by my last comment!!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

[360 man]

the only peerson gettin butt hurt is

YO MAMA !!

hell yeah
i took it dere

[skabias]

that was the worst comeback I've seen in my life.

[doshey]

360 man....u have been owned

[360 man]

shut up u geek

your mums been owned

all up inna her vagina

by tramps and hobos alike

look at this foolish boy below me
wat a prick

[LeGenDx]

your either Mental retarded or just a child.

you pick

[Why dis]

Hahahah PS3 fanboys say games suck when they are inferior on PS3.

[PoSTedUP]

wow u guys... wow.

the total age of all of you combine is like 20, i swear.

[ZuperAmazingCooKie]

Oh yeah, open zone...

[Joni-Ice]

people who are buying it including my self really don't care about those differences. I can see if one had multi-player but the other didn't, or one was in 720p where as the other ran in 480i. I will even assure you some 360 owners won't even care that the PS3 version will have youtube support.

[GiantEnemyCrab]

Definately buying this on the 360. I really liked the demo. Couldn't care less about YouTube.

[Why dis]

Didn't even know about Youtube and you're right who gives a sh*t. Whats that have to do with choosing the better performing version if you own more than one console?

[Ju]

Well, the PS3 got sixaxis support, the 360 doesn't. That would do it for me.

The demo put me off a bit by the stick controls (I like AceCombat a lot, and that doesn't feel the same), however, the sixaxis works pretty well, I must say. I am a fan of the motion controller where ever it makes sense. And it makes perfect sense in a flying game.

So, next on my budget list: Hawx.

[TOO PAWNED]

This DEMO is such a garbage, that i turned it off after 5 minutes.

[Pootie Tang]

Meh, the demo didn't do anything for me, really wanted to like it but I just wasn't havin fun so a delete for me

[PattyWacker]

All I can say is im tired of these articles. Who cares. So many comparisions, so useless. All I need to say is.......... KILLZONE 2. Until a 360 exclusive or game for that matter looks and performs like that, with the detail, physics and lighting I vote all these comparisons stop:D. Oh and I have a 360, and I love my 360, I own more games on it and cant wait for alan wake, huxley, lost planet 2:D (even though the first bored me, but sh!t have you looked at those screens?). Im just saying. Playstation 3: 1 Xbox 360: 0. Well more like 3-1 because of uncharted and MGS4. I'll give one for gears of war 1 and 2. Even though I have both and swear the first looks better.

[Heliophage]

If "Killzone 2" is all you have to say, try not to speak.

You wrote a post about useless comparisons and proceeded to conjure your own. Killzone 2 is a well done game, but it has absolutely nothing to do with HAWX, nor Gears of War, nor anything else you incoherently drooled onto your keyboard.

[thenickel]

Killzone2 has it's moments but so does Gears 2 that looks better than part 1 by a long shot. Uncharted was nice as well but it didn't surpass the 1st gears and was more of an equal with both having different strengths. Multiplat is the only way to judge which console is more powerful. You can bet that if multi plats look better on 360 then exclusives can look better also and will.

[vlazed]

That is seriously horrible logic. I bet when people invite you over to their house they have to cover the wall sockets just so you won't shock yourself.

[thenickel]

Yet you took the time to read it and respond to it lol. Why don't you explain why it's illogical rather than insulting somebody with a different opinion or theory?

[Sibs]

Demo... comparisons...

It's not even a game, remind me why this matters?

[LCF]

I agree you can't really judge a game's graphics on the demo, most of it is compressed to hell. Case point look at Killzone 2, 1st thing I notice off the bat from the retail was bullet impact heat signature. This was not in the demo of Killzone 2.

Demos are for game play and game play mechanics.

[aaron5829]

Did anyone notice the difference while the whole game is in motion ?

I didnt...

But for the first time, the PS3 version looks darker than the x360 version.

(based on the video)

[CobraKai]

I actually like how the ps3 had no bloom effect. It looked more realistic.

[ZuperAmazingCooKie]

1. The PS3 version IS inferior
2. We've played many PS3 games, including GT5:P, MGS4, Uncharted, Prologue, Warhawk, Heavenly Sword... and there's no excuse on the developers part to have such poor lighting. Killzone 2 has about 200 lights per scene whereas the average game has between 3 and 5, for crying out loud.
3. After Ace Combat 6 and Warhawk, Hawx is late to the party.
4. The 360 version isn't perfect, as the draw distance shows. "PS3 is resolving more background geometry than the 360 game", well it seems that they are using the cell processor for a few things, though it's probably a rush job. All of the lighting in Killzone 2 is done by the cell processor, NOT the RSX. The RSX simply adds the necessary pixel shading effects, but almost everything else is handled by the Cell. Obviously Hawx is making very poor use of the cell except for a bit of background geometry.
5. If a game runs at 720p or below, 360 has almost free 4xMSAA. That's just the way the 360 works, just like it has a chip for upscaling that makes upscaling free for the 360. It doesn't make the games better, they just look sharper.
6. Ever wondered why PS3 exclusives DO have AA? That's because they are making proper use of the Cell AND RSX. They're not making the RSX handle what it shouldn't be handling, like lighting and vertex shaders, that is the cell processors job; the RSX does the AA because the RSX is pretty good at pixel shading, something the cell isn't good at and doesn't need to be good at. They are a combo meant to work together. That's why PS3 exclusives are fine.

"Hahahah PS3 fanboys say games suck when they are inferior on PS3"

Hahahah, 360 fanboys say eating crap is delicious if and only if it tastes better on 360

[champ21]

Both the console versions probably are gonna suck.. i rather take the High Def version (pc).

[XDF]

Another pro x360 article...and KZ2 is bought into the equation.So what else is new.

All Third party games are better on x360..it is not going to change anytime soon. PS3 is just a good Blu ray Machine with a couple of Big exclusive games a year.

[FxckOSX]

720p and 4x MSAA on 360 ?????

IMPOSSIBLE !!

as we know, 360's eDRAM capacity is 10MB.
720p + 4x MSAA requires (1280 * 720 * 8) * 4 = 29491200

exactly, IMPOSSIBLE.

who wrote this article ??
it shame.

"native" 720p + 2x MSAA also IMPOSSIBLE. (1280 * 720 * 8) * 2 = 14745600

360 using "Tile Rendering" in this situation,
(render serveral screens with lower resolution and then combined them)
so, it is NOT "native" 720p.