SHIFT 2, LEGO Clone Wars, Top Spin 4, Red Faction: Battlegrounds, MotoGP 10/11.
Welcome to the latest skirmish in the ongoing Xbox 360 vs. PlayStation 3 Face-Off series, Digital Foundry's continuing analysis of cross-platform development on our two favourite consoles.
As we reach our 30th anniversary, perhaps a quick refresher on what we do and how we do it is in order. For each game, our capture stations ruthlessly plunder the HDMI ports of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, extracting the video output with digital lossless precision. Gameplay clips are then amassed from the raw captures, edited and synchronised, and from there the process of choosing screenshots and creating comparison videos begins.
Gameplay is analysed via our bespoke tool (dubbed internally FPSGui) which coughs up videos measuring frame-rate and screen-tear, while comparison movies are generally slowed down to 50 per cent speeds and custom-encoded to ensure the highest picture quality using the lowest amount of bandwidth.
The Superbike World Championship season is already underway and MotoGP is set to follow this weekend. It's time to see if our 2011 predictions turn out to be insightful musings or wishful thinking. Will Rossi secure his seventh MotoGP Championship on a Ducati? Does Cal Crutchlow have what it takes to run with the best? Win, lose or crash, the stage is set for a very interesting season.
But while the racing elite knacker their sliders on the world's most prestigious circuits, some of us have to make do with motorcycle games. Last year two games vied for our attention – Milestone's SBK X, a game worthy of the sim accolade, and Monumental's MotoGP 09/10, a racer that claimed a sim label without much justification. It's a criticism Monumental has clearly taken on board.
The most striking change is the revamped visuals. Many people hated the brightly pronounced appearance of MotoGP 09/10, and the new style is more photogenic and realistic. It's not entirely lifelike, as there's still a veneer that crisps everything up, but with a consistent frame-rate that never skips a beat this is arguably the best-looking motorcycle racer ever.
