Dont know if you can answer this, but does what you've seen in Halo 5: Guardians completely blow away the maps and visual fidelity we're seeing in Halo 2 Anniversary?
I think that the hybrid engine being used for H2A is doing amazing stuff visually. I mean, like, total next-gen amazingness, as well as an art style I'm really fond of in the way it spans and respects the whole Chief saga.
I also think the H3 engine is being given a new lease of life simply by giving it more "air" to show off how good that engine was, and how well it was used at the time. It's not just "uprezzed" it's markedly unshackled in terms of IQ. It's the same game, allowed to
breathe. And of course, those improvements aren't just numbers, they're experiential too.
The Halo 4 stuff is fresher, and again, this process is kind of revealing just how good that late-stage tech and pixel-pushing had gotten. It's like, daaaaamn is this really from last gen?
But without going too far down a check-butt-cashing path, I am really enthralled by how much potential the Bone and next gen in general has.
Some of you guys might remember the launch period for last gen, where you were seeing some neat immediate benefits (SD to HD was the biggest jump, both in terms of processing horsepower and adoption of the screen tech into people's homes), but there was (even then) the diminishing returns conversation about Xbox OG to Xbox 360. But you all saw how the generation shook out, and how the combination of polys, shaders, scale and application of art took us to genuinely remarkable content and aesthetic improvements - everything from Forza to Uncharted - stuff we still marvel at, but now take for granted.
I think this generation is going to surprise people in terms of how much stuff developers will be able to put on screen, at what fidelity and more importantly, how that visual fidelity immerses you in the experiences. I think the cynicism about diminishing returns has already started to morph into excitement about experience.
And it's why I think that soon conversations are going to shift from the unhealthy and often pointless bickering about pixels (which is neither new nor surprising - this is a rinse repeat of every generation in terms of that schoolyard argument space) - , and back to the much more important conversation about art and how that art helps immerse us in those experiences.
Anyway, long story short, I was looking at stuff today that was like uncanny valley for surfaces and textures. I literally did a double take at a skyline. And it was a really spectacular combination of technology and
art.