50 Games Industry Figures To Watch?

Thanks to 1UP for their feature discussing important videogame developers to watch out for, as they list "...fifty people in the game industry - some you've likely heard of, many you've not - who we think will help define gaming the most in the next twelve months." As well as the John Carmacks and Warren Spectors of this world, notably overlooked figures on the list include Julian Eggebrecht of Factor 5 ("Eggebrecht's team is one of the few out there that actually try to tax the GameCube to its limits") and Yasumi Matsuno of Square Enix ("..the director of Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy Tactics... [now] directing Final Fantasy XII.")

Comments

Really?

[Inoshiro]

Perhaps you haven't looked at games recently. Let's do a comparison.

What looks better, a game that uses bump mapping, or a game that doesn't? A game that does, of course, because proper use of bump mapping gives the illusion that a model (such as terrain or a character) has many more thousands of polygons of detail with a simple extra bitmap.

Now, what games for the GameCube use bump mapping? Nyo-ho! Now we see that most of the games for the GameCube do not use this feature, thus not taking it to the limit.

Until games targetted at the GameCube (and, by extension, the Xbox) use all the advanced features like surround sound, bump mapping, and higher-resolution video output, you can't say that every develop takes the console to its limits.

Repeat after me, "I own a Nintendo GameCube -- NOT a Playstation 2 -- I desire 4 player support, bump mapping, prologic 2 encoded audio, online broadband and system link features, and GBA connectivity support."

Repeat after me, "I own a Microsoft Xbox -- NOT a Playstation 2 -- I desire relevant content downloads on Xbox Live, 4 player support, really good positional audio for my 5.1 surround sound setup, 720p mode with widescreen support, good system link features and Live online play, real caching of disc access via the HDD, a truly persistent in-game world because of amazing amount of save space available, in game soundtrack support."

Most developers develop for the PS2 -- which means support for memory cards, rumble in the controller, and little else; they do not include in their visual engine things like bump mapping or the interesting pixel shaders that the GeForce in the Xbox, they do not include support for positional audio beyond stereo, they generally do not even bother to extend 2 player support to 4 player support (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, anyone?). In some cases, they can even not bother to totally port the work over, leading to bizarre slowdown (MSG2: Substance on Xbox on tanker level and other areas!). GBA connectivity beyond EA's silly "unlock a level" stuff is rare beyond Nintendo's own titles.

There is so much more to a game than wether or not it slows down, it's not funny.