Dead Space 2
What we see is a game that significantly improves on its predecessor, smoother to play and refined where it needed it. Graphically, Dead Space 2 is a real pleasure. Much like its predecessor, it still runs at native 720p with no anti-aliasing (on both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360), but thanks to the generally dim lighting scheme, this isn't much of a problem. Just like the previous game, v-sync is turned on to ensure visual consistency and there isn't even a single broken frame in either version.
The two versions are very similar indeed. Here we look closely at some textures in which we notice how the games look impressively identical. We played the demo several times, captured the videos, took the shots, looked at it all, and still haven't found anything that really shows any kind of discernible difference between the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the demo. To illustrate the situation, we've put together a Dead Space 2 comparison gallery for you to see. Any differences in texture filtering that you may notice are only due to the different algorithms used by the ATI and NVIDIA GPUs. There is some variation in the perspective view of the textures but in motion both versions appear the same.
When it comes to performance, don't expect to see anything beyond 30 frames per second standard. Dead Space 2 appears to offer a remarkably smooth and consistent performance from start to finish, and the overall gameplay experience is effectively identical on both systems. This eight-minute video tries to match all the best moments from the demo running on both consoles.
The game is therefore effectively locked at 30 frames per second. We sporadically see a drop of one or two frames during gameplay on 360, which is so rare and unexpected throughout the game that we had to check the frame-by-frame recording in order to verify this result. Similar speech for the PS3 version, which quietly went through the game session losing just a few frames visible only during one of the cut-scenes calculated in real time by the engine.
Even the depth of field effects / focus and motion blur are the same in the two demos. Overall, there is nothing to distinguish the two versions visually. What we like about this demo is the variety of gameplay it offers: we have narrow corridors, wide open spaces, huge bosses, a few waves of enemies, and some beautifully detailed and effect-filled cut-scenes. It's a range of situations that tests different aspects of the engine, and we can say that both versions of the Dead Space 2 demo look very good indeed.
Of course, the final judgment will be reserved for the full game (the first Dead Space had some areas that were dropping frames massively and noticeably on PS3), but as a taste of what's to come, this demo suggests we should expect just great things.
