Early Turok Impressions as Promised. Xbox vs. GC.
Ok, here are some early impressions of Turok Evolution Gamecube and Xbox. I've been playing each up to the same point and then switching so I can get a good feel for what is what. The impressions cover up to the point in Chapter 2 where you begin the flying stages. I'll put the summary first, and if you want you can read the longer, more detailed impressions. I will add more later.
Quick Summary:
- Game starts off slow, and kinda boring.
- Weapons are standard fare so far.
- Plays like Turok 1.
- Flying levels are unnecessary, and unwanted. Bad design choice.
- Sound is almost identical in both versions. DD 5.1-Xbox, DPL2-GC
- Xbox version sports better graphics and world population (critters) but is hazy and washed out.
- GC is sharper, but less anti-aliasing on textures. Color definiton is better, but looks less natural.
- Xbox framerate is horrible, and flying controls is almost unplayable.
- GC framerate is MUCH improved, but still suffers constant dips. 60 fps is normal under less active conditions.
- GC control is dead on. Tight and responsive. The overall speed make the game much more playable. Flying control is much improved.
- Need to play more to see if game can pick up, but Turok fans will feel at home. Later level should bring better gameplay. Hopefully.
Detailed Impressions:
General Stuff:
So far, turok has been slow. Not much fighting, and some pretty generic level design. The enemies so far consiste of reptile warriors, crocs, baboons, raptors and compys. None have done any substantial damage, and they aren't too smart. Weapons so far include the basic spiked club, basic bow/arroe, pistol, and tek bow w/ arrows/exploding arrows. The tek bow has the sniper function and works quite well. The pistol also has some good stopping power, and with auto aim on, it's hard to miss. The graphics are ok, but not up to current standards on either machine, although what you get is about quake 2 quality with more modern texture coloring and some misplaced lighting routines. The character models are straight up shitty, but the dinos and other level inhabitants are better modeled. The music is standard Turok fare, as well as sound fx. The loading ranges from horrible, to ok, with horrible being the norm. The standard levels are basic turok so far with the enemy count of turok 1, meaning not much. The folliage is pretty dense and looks pretty good, but the level boundaries remove any sense of forest depth becaused right when you think you are getting deep in the grass, you hit a damn wall. The flying levels are shite, and should have been left on the cutting board. More later.
Comparison:
The Xbox version sports the most natural looking environments. The textures are slightly better than the GC and there are more filler creatures in the worlds. For instance, there might be a tucan on a tree or twice the number of butterflies in a field than the GC has. You'll see a hippo or two at the river bank, whereas the GC might just have one, or in some c
ases none at all. The shrub density is the same, but textures are usually very slightly better. The lighting is the same, meaning lame, but the Xbox has some slight fogging that the GC version doesn't, and it makes the game look extremely washed out. The GC version is very sharp, but the textures are less anti-aliased. The color is deeper, and more rich, but the textures range from Xbox quality to emulated N64. But what thge GC is lacking in graphics pays off in framerate. The overall haze of the Xbox version kinda negates the better texture work in some areas, as it isn't that sharp. There are also some funky orange, purple and other pastely colors in the Xbox version that seem out of place in some areas. It looks kinda wierd. The water is slightly more natural in this version, but neither behaves realistically. Regardless it is the overall better looking version. Levels are identical in design, and sound, although in DD 5.1 sounds almost the same as the GC DPL2. Very underwhelming, but not really bad. Just don't expect halo quality channel separation. So finally the big question for non graphic whores, how is the framerate and control? Control in the FPS sections is good for both, although the GC version is definately the tightest. Famerate plays a big part here and in that case the GC wins again. The framerate seems to be about 60 in most areas, with very often dips. Turning is the bigest culprit, but after playing the Xbox version, you can see how fast the GC one is. The whole pacing is faster and more responsive on the GC. The Xbox framerate is simply horrible. It's got to be like 20-25, with dips into hell. It fluctuates alot less than the GC version, but it's always much slower. It has given me a headache. The flying sections is also where the GC shines. The framerate is much higher, and the control is 100% better. You can barely control the Xbox version, and one crash is death. The GC controller is better suited for the game in general, but it's the framerate and oversteer that hurts the Xbox one, not so much the hardware.
Quelle: gaming-age.com/forum