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Thursday, May 27, 2010

Split/Second Version Split/Decision?

You know it could be a bad sign for those who own a gaming Personal Computer when a demo of a game is made unavailable for the platform while the consoles get to test them out. Such is the case with the recently released Split/Second. I have tried the game on both the PlayStation 3 and the X-Box 360 - there was nary a difference performance wise between the two and when such is the case, I would always opt for the PS3 version - but the demo was not made available for the PC version until after the game's release. If you still haven't heard of Split/Second yet, it is the next evolution of the kart racing sub-genre with a cool power-up system where you trigger traps and open alternate routes on your way to the finish line.

I downloaded the demo today and I must say that I had a hard time trying to decide between the PC and the PlayStation 3 version. This is because the PC demo doesn't allow you to mess around with the settings to benchmark it against your PC build: Another bad sign for this version. The default resolution for it was 1280 x 1024, and yes that is not even widescreen. Still, everything runs very smoothly on my PC but I did notice some bad low resolution textures here and there. But even this bastardized version already looks miles better than the console versions because of how crystal clear everything looks. I played the game with the X-Box 360 controller and it works perfectly. Sadly, all the on-screen displays do not reflect the 360 controller layout so it was confusing to determine how to perform the proper triggers while playing the game - further research revealed that this is still the case in the full version of the game. Despite all the shortcomings, I am going to go with the PC version for this one. The controller input mapping can be learned and even if things go bad at 1080p with all the settings maxed - I have heard that this game is troublesome at maximum settings even with the latest and greatest graphics card with SLI setup - at its default, it still looks darn gorgeous compared to the console versions. There is also that price point - I can easily pick up the PC version for $29.99 while the lowest I have seen for the PS3 version is $49.99.


Yes, I know it's ready but which button should I press again?

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