Enter The Matrix Preview
Several readers point out the new preview of Enter The Matrix over at Gamespy. The staff there got a chance to play a near-final version of the Shiny-developed game, minus the hour of new movie footage that'll be included when it ships on May 15th for PS2, Xbox, Gamecube, and PC. Other previews (such as this one at Gamespot) have been positive, if slightly guarded. Do you know kung fu?
A lot of places have been talking about how cool the game is but IMHO, based upon looking at the screenshots and the video clips on TechTV, the game looks like it was made about 2 years ago.
Sure the animation may be kickass, but the polygon count just looks really low and the characters aren't that detailed in the shots I've seen.
While the gameplay is important and obviously focused on more with this title than other movie/game ports, I hope that they haven't dumbed down or forgotten about the graphics in the process
The engine definitely looks dated. Probably a function of decision to design a game that would be released on PC and the three consoles simultaneously. I'm sure that the PC version has better graphics than, say, the gamecube version, but I'm guessing that they had to shoot at a lowest common denominator with respect to the core engine. From that point, they probably just bumped up texture resolution on the platforms that could handle it and maybe added a couple additional graphical touches.
However, the graphics are good enough for me to forgive everything if the game has good gameplay and and an engaging story. I'd like to see how the wachowski's (sp?) fair in this medium. On a side note, I hear that they insisted upon the main actors doing their own mo-cap recording.
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Love conquers all... except CANCER
That's a rather sweeping statement. What about the Indiana Jones games LucasArts did? And the Die Hard Trilogy?
The Matrix franchise looks like it's trying to exploit different formats for their strengths, not simply create a crap game to cash in on the name. The Animatrix was a good example of this.
In fact, the game takes place after The Last Flight Of The Osiris, so even if it's not an amazing game it will at least expand the Matrix universe slightly for the hardcore fans.