God. This game is gorgeous!
I was always skeptical when people told me that it looks better than PGR2, and I never believed it.
Though I have to mention, that PGR2 does a lot of things better, but for every one thing I find it does better, I find RSC2 does something else better (and when taking into account that it's at a rock solid 60fps...it's baffling to be honest).
First off, the lightmaps are great! In PGR2, the lightmaps were more accurate in the sense that if you were between buildings or in a tunnel, the shadow was darker than usual (than the other shadows). In RSC2, it looks to be all the same. On the other hand, the shadows aren't as hard edged, and actually differ depending on the distance of the object to the ground. Awesome.
Of course the pixel shadows aren't applied to the car in RSC2 as they are in PGR2, but they blend in well with the lightmaps, whereas they had a slight problem in PGR2 (one pixel width difference between the shadow and the lightmap left an tiny outline around the shadow).
The textures aren't as sharp, and don't appear as varied as PGR2, but it's running at 60fps, PLUS they aren't bad. They aren't blurry messes or anything like that.
The reflections aren't as crisp, plus they don't have that large of a draw distance, but again, 60fps! Some levels/modes don't have real time reflections...probably because it was too intensive, but many of the massive levels got it.
Many touches make the game quite a visual treat. The mud and snow on the car looks great, and the headlights...man o' man! PGR2 really f*cked up when they did the headlights the way they did. The light didn't apply to cars, and it didn't seem more reflective at hard angles. RSC2 does this BEAUTIFULLY!
The color palette is spot on...this game looks realistic many a time. Details like the grass and trees that cannot and have not been matched will forever make this game the best looking racer of this generation. Absolutely gorgeous.
I just felt I needed to rant...I don't know why I waited so long to get this (well, I do. I was broke as a joke).
I was always skeptical when people told me that it looks better than PGR2, and I never believed it.
Though I have to mention, that PGR2 does a lot of things better, but for every one thing I find it does better, I find RSC2 does something else better (and when taking into account that it's at a rock solid 60fps...it's baffling to be honest).
First off, the lightmaps are great! In PGR2, the lightmaps were more accurate in the sense that if you were between buildings or in a tunnel, the shadow was darker than usual (than the other shadows). In RSC2, it looks to be all the same. On the other hand, the shadows aren't as hard edged, and actually differ depending on the distance of the object to the ground. Awesome.
Of course the pixel shadows aren't applied to the car in RSC2 as they are in PGR2, but they blend in well with the lightmaps, whereas they had a slight problem in PGR2 (one pixel width difference between the shadow and the lightmap left an tiny outline around the shadow).
The textures aren't as sharp, and don't appear as varied as PGR2, but it's running at 60fps, PLUS they aren't bad. They aren't blurry messes or anything like that.
The reflections aren't as crisp, plus they don't have that large of a draw distance, but again, 60fps! Some levels/modes don't have real time reflections...probably because it was too intensive, but many of the massive levels got it.
Many touches make the game quite a visual treat. The mud and snow on the car looks great, and the headlights...man o' man! PGR2 really f*cked up when they did the headlights the way they did. The light didn't apply to cars, and it didn't seem more reflective at hard angles. RSC2 does this BEAUTIFULLY!
The color palette is spot on...this game looks realistic many a time. Details like the grass and trees that cannot and have not been matched will forever make this game the best looking racer of this generation. Absolutely gorgeous.
I just felt I needed to rant...I don't know why I waited so long to get this (well, I do. I was broke as a joke).
