Can the real next-gen please stand up

As we settle into the high-definition era of console gaming, we can bask in the warn glow of our 40″+  LCD TVs (even warmer glow of plasma TVs) and the crisp 710p/1080i/1080p graphics appearing before our eyes, safe in the knowledge that it just doesn’t get any better. Or does it…

Back in the day (man I am getting old!), console gaming was the poor relation of PC gaming, in terms of graphics, control and pure gameplay.  Don’t get me wrong I love my GameCube, MegaDrive (and MegaCD!), Playstation1 & 2 but I always enjoyed PC games the most. Then, as my aging PC gradually became obsolete agains’t the PC’s relentless techinical progress, I begrudgingly retired it and bought an XBox. Console gaming was fine, particularly for racing and sports games but the standard def TV graphics were a real let down, as was the lack of control for FPS gaming and I never quite felt emersed in the game.

Then came the 3rd Generation of console gaming. This brought HDTVs and powerful graphics to our living rooms; things have improved greatly. Running my XBox 360 on my 40″ HDTV at 1080i is great. Well, its great when my 360 actually works but that’s a story for another day! Graphics are crisp, games are deep and involving and they have improved the controls a lot. No need to shell out a fortune anymore trying to keep up with the demands of the latest PC games.

However, I recently bought myself a new PC that happened to have one of the latest and greatest graphics cards (NVIDIA’s 8800GTX) and coupled it to a 24″ Dell widescreen LCD monitor.  Finally, I was able to play the latest generation of PC games. This brings me to Crysis, the Sci-Fi PC FPS shooter from Crytek. I recently bought myself a copy to see what all the hype was about. Wow! The graphics are truly stunning. You start off jumping out the back of a plane and skydiving to earth. As you climb out of the water, you start to wonder around a beautiful island. I have only played about 15 minutes worth so far so its too early to say whether its any good as a game but there is no doubting the quality of the graphics.  The richness of the environment is something to behold. The trees and grass sway in the wind, while leaves occasionally blow across the screen.  Then it happens. You climb out of the forest and see the hazy sunshine streaming through the palm trees. As you go further, the beautiful coastline appears before you with water lapping against the shore and birds flying across the sky. You notice the patrol boats whizzing around the harbour and as you zoom in with your binoculars, you happen to see a soldier releaving himself off the side of the jetty.

It is one of the best sequences I have ever experienced in a game (well all apart from the soldier that is). Later on, as you attempt to highjack a speed boat to get to the other side of the coast, you can look closer at the water. The waves glimmer with reflections, glare and diffracted shadows. It is the most realistic water scene in a game to date.

All this within the first 10 minutes of gameplay! When I compare this to the likes of Halo 3 and Call Of Duty 4 on the 360, they begin to look very ordinary indeed. So when we talk about the next generation of console gaming, its worth reminding ourselves that the real next generation in gaming graphics is still on the old beige box. Add to that the fact that you are sitting 1 foot from the 24″ widescreen monitor and have your trusty keyboard and mouse for control, surround sound and you have the next generation gaming experience at its finest. Now to find out about the gameplay!