Conclusion
Test numbers aside, how did Lost Planet look and play on Vista? I'll say this: Lost Planet is definitely one of the better looking console games I've seen since the next-generation platforms were released. The game has been criticized for being unoriginal, earning the moniker "Gears on Ice" from some folks because of its similarities to Epic's blockbuster Gears of War. And frankly, Lost Planet is far from perfect: the Akrid alien creatures are a little too familiar and not nearly frightening enough; the cut scenes, while beautiful, are painfully long; the story is weak and predictable; and the numerous boss battles get tiring after a few hours. Oh, and I've never seen a playable character take more bullets, rockets, grenades and alien attacks without dying than Wayne, the main character of Lost Planet.
View Lost Planet: Extreme Condition DX10 Slide Show (32 images)
But Lost Planet definitely has its moments, especially when players jump into the Vital Suits (which are basically mech suits) and use a variety of heavy weapons to battle enemy soldiers, snow pirates and the Akrid. And Capcom's animation is exquisite: fiery explosions are a joy to watch, for example, and players have plenty of weapons at their disposal to wreak havoc on the destructible environments and enemy strongholds. I played through the original version on the Xbox 360 prior to trying out the PC demo in Vista, and was continually impressed with the game's design. (For a side by side comparison of the PC and Xbox 360 versions of Lost Planet, check out last week's image gallery on TwitchGuru.)
So how do the Xbox 360 and Windows XP versions of Lost Planet stack up against the DX10 version on Windows Vista? From my own perspective, playing the Xbox 360 version next to the Vista version, I didn't notice an extreme difference between the two during my initial gameplay. After a while, however, I could certainly make out some key improvements in the DX10 version. For one thing, the snow flurries of the outdoor environments weren't quite as blurry as on the Xbox 360 version, which provided an extra level of clarity. Shooting fuel drums and watching the explosions was even more gratifying on the Dell XPS, and with SLI enabled, the animation was simply brilliant.
I'm not one to obsess over how shadows look - are they soft enough, do they accurately reflect a player's movements, and so on - because I'm usually too busy running and gunning to care what my shadow looks like. Even so, when I took the time to carefully examine how the game looked with shadow quality and shadow resolution turned up to maximum settings, I appreciated that aspect of the graphics much more. For gamers that love to jack up the graphics setting for soft shadows, Lost Planet on Vista will be a real treat.
As I stated at the beginning of the article, the DX10 demos offer a slight visual upgrade, but in the case of Lost Planet, you're going to be disappointed if you're expecting a major improvement from the DX9 version. The small upgrade in DX10 graphics doesn't justify the high level of hardware needed to run the game effectively - at least, not yet.
It's important to keep in mind that this demo was ported from an Xbox 360 game, and that Capcom's PC version is one of the first DX10-enabled titles, so it's likely that the game isn't taking full advantage of Vista's technology. In fact, I suspect that it will be some time before we see DX10 achieve its true potential. In the meantime, Lost Planet will offer a glimpse of what's to come for PC gaming.
Editor's Note: Stay tuned for more DX10 reviews coming soon, including a breakdown of the Call of Juarez PC game demo next week.
