Criticism: Next-Gen and PC vs 'Old-Gen' PS2/Xbox

[Teancum]

First off, nobody take this as an attack.  Whatever platform you wanna play MUA on is fine with me.  This is just me complaining about some specifics.

--Why does Human Torch look like a 60 year old man with dyed blonde hair on the Next-Gen/PC versions?  If you look at him on the Xbox/PS2, he's got a much younger hairstyle and face.  Bump-mapping aside, I very much prefer the Old-Gen version.

--Ever notice how everything is shiny on a Next-Gen character?  Yeah, I love bump/normal maps as much as the next person, but when their hair/outfit/skin all has the same shine level it looks lame.  Yeah, my PC can't handle MUA on anything but low graphics anyways, but I'm semi-glad because I don't want it turned up.


That's all I can really criticize right now.  I'm enjoying finally playing/testing characters on the PC version, I just noticed this and wanted to whine a bit. 

[Noelemahc]

Meh. The NPCs (especially the Stark Tower employees) look like they're made out of shiny brown jelly in close-ups

IMHO, they should've sticked to the cel-shaded look of XML - it is not only stylish, it is also heaps easier to program and maintain a decent FPS with when opposed to the slugfest they've made out of the next-gen effects on the PC.

Along the way, the next-gen version is horribly unfinished. Sharon Ventura's blocky face, Elektra's and Moon Knight's skewered fingers... I bet there's also some other stuff happening that we don't see simply because it's too zoomed out to discern :runaway:

[DJay Saint]

I think they should've made cel-shading an option at least.  Sometimes I'm in the mood for it, and sometimes I don't want it.  There are a lot of qualms I have as far as graphics go between the PC and PS2/Xbox versions of the game.  Most notably the characters.  Elektra and Invisible Woman all have phuked up faces.  I think Electra's base costume is the only one that doesn't have a screwy face.  Invisible Woman has the same problem as Johnny, in that she looks like crap.  However, the PS2/Xbox models look absolutely fine.  It's sad when the PS2 model can measure up with the PC model, neh?  So, I use the PS2 model for all Electra's outfits except for her base, and for all of Invisible Woman's outfits.  Ms. Marvel's is also screwy.  The first one is fine, and the binary is too ugly for me to use, so I assume that is fine.  However, her original outfit has an annoying black splotch on her stomach in the PC version, and as Noel said, her face on the Ventura outfit is blocky.  However, both PS2/Xbox versions are fine.  There's also something I don't like about Wolverine's classic and astonishing outfit...  I don't know what it is, but they don't quite look right.  As teancum said, they are too shiny, even on the lower settings.  I think Blade and Spiderman came out good though.    The PS3 and X360?  I have no idea, as I haven't seen any of those in action, minus the screen shots for the DLC.  I only noticed those characters though, because that's who I use the most.

I think the initial problem is that they just rushed this crap out, being that the PC version, from what I hear, is just a port from the console versions, not the other way around.  However, in initial testing, this Chocolate egg is REALLY obvious.  It's not like I sat down with a magnefying glass to look at the game to find out what's wrong.  I noticed the screw ups the first time I played, which made me really disappointed.  I hope they didn't do the same for the DLC.  And I hope they realize that if they actually ported it to the PC game themselves, they stand to gain at least some profit.  Because if they don't, we will, and they will get absolutely no profit from it, not to mention then a lot of people (more than if they would release it for PC anyway) will get it for free.  I hope they pay more attention in the future, and I hope they continue the franchise.

[Teancum]

I'm not a big fan of cel-shading, but I'd be happy w/Rage's suggestion of it as a video option.  Wish it was that way for all three games.

[Noelemahc]

Yep. I mean, look at Far Cry. It had four different video shading modes available for the choosing (naturally, I always played in the Warm Tropics mode). Every single emulator out there -- most of which are perfectly free and open-sourced -- comes with at least three basic upsampling modes for the betterment of the pixels. Yet, a commercial-aimed company with history spanning well over two damn decades cannot afford a simple beta-test?

However, in initial testing, this Chocolate egg is REALLY obvious

Do you really think they care? It's one of those cleverer marketing ploys that explain the event of reverse progress -- when techonological advances make household appliances work LESS before breaking down than they used to some twenty years ago despite having been made of corrosive materials back then.
Then again, it's probably my Redland past speaking, where it's normal for a seventy year old car to perform better than a ten year old one because it was made with GENUINE CRAFTSMANSHIP and not rushed out of production to earn more dough on the turnover, or made with aluminuim and depleted steel to make it cheaper and more 'cost-effective'. Sometimes it hurts to be an economist, because you know WHY this kind of sh!t happens.

The big problem is that Raven stopped caring too. I mean, look at BioWare. They have permanently active open forums for each of their games AND ports on the company's OFFICIAL site. Raven's last update predates the release of XML1 for crying out loud! Beenox doesn't even have a support forum, it just throws you to the dogs of Activision's (lame) tech support site which deals only with 'how to wipe my nose properly' issues.

Bleh. I'm off to take them meds again, the weather's changing again and the pressure drop is giving me a migraine.

[DJay Saint]

As is the same with Crystal Dynamics I'm afraid...  This is really depressing to see.  Better technology = worse products?  I'm actually going into the game industry, and Raven is one of the companies I was seriously looking at wanting to join, with BioWare, EA, and Rockstar among the others.  Hopefully they'll actually pull their head out of their ass by time I finish my college.  One can only hope though.

[Gorbeh]

Also on the console version Ghost Rider's skull is red at times, but from what I've seen of the next-gen it is the proper white. I've only seen screenshots though so I may be wrong.

[Teancum]

Huh?  I have it on Xbox and never see a red skull.  Unless you're talking about the Ghost Rider skin they ended up not using.  (did the 360/PS3 use it?)

[cvc]

with the new stuff like Oblivion graphics I don't think I'll ever go back to a console "but" the consoles keep getting better like the 360,the bad part about the pc is high end games = high end pc's to play right witch alot of folks can't aford so still like pc better for the graphics and many other reasons.

[Gorbeh]

Huh?  I have it on Xbox and never see a red skull.  Unless you're talking about the Ghost Rider skin they ended up not using.  (did the 360/PS3 use it?)

Well sometimes when you're playing his skull turns red with his normal skin, I haven't tested his others. It stays white in the character menu and selection screen, and sometimes when playing but otherwise it is red.

[iammingy]

Huh?  I have it on Xbox and never see a red skull.  Unless you're talking about the Ghost Rider skin they ended up not using.  (did the 360/PS3 use it?)

Well sometimes when you're playing his skull turns red with his normal skin, I haven't tested his others. It stays white in the character menu and selection screen, and sometimes when playing but otherwise it is red.

Yeah, it's red on PS2 sometimes...@@

[DJay Saint]

Maybe because of the lighting effects from the fire that happens to surround his skull?

[iammingy]

Maybe because of the lighting effects from the fire that happens to surround his skull?

Probabyly not... Some of the pics from the MUA site shows Ghost Rider's skull in red, too.....