That's exactly why I believe Mass Effect will be a killer app. GoW just proves the X360 is more than capable of outputting next-gen graphics.
But that's the thing, they're not true next-gen graphics. We can still get this stuff on high-end PCs with no problem, maybe no my PC - which is an absolute piece of three-year-old **** - but a nice gamers PC would have no qualms pumping out graphics of this quality or better. I'm thinking we'll have to wait at least until the second generation of '360 games comes out to start seeing anything we could term as 'next-gen', as most of the titles so far are just re-hashes with prettier graphics.
Now, what's this 'Mass Effect' you claim could be the first killer app for the '360? I've heard nothing about it, care to post a few links, please?
IIRC it's a promising looking sci-fi RPG from BioWare. I think maybe with a FPS view, not sure.
It is true, though, that a Pc should surpass the next gen in less than a year; for example the U3 engine should be easily runnable on a mid 2006 PC (if perhaps not an affordable one). If we ignore the whole resolution thing - because most people don't have HDTVs, what with the insane cost - I think you can already get comparable lower resolution graphics on a mid-to-high end modern PC.
Although it's worth noting that the PS3 reportedly ran the Unreal3 demo epic made using only about 30-40% of it's performance, so both that and the xbox360 should be considered far from at peak. Albeit
that has to be taken with an additional pinch of salt, because of the creational demands of such graphics - just look at the utterly, utterly awful Fifa2006 on the Xbox360 for that, which not only has ****ty zombie graphics but more importantly lots of stuff cut from the current gen versions. The danger is that for the luxury of specular mapped dashboards and bumpmapped stiching on uniforms, we'll see a rapidly thinning group of titles which becomes constrained to franchises and sequels.
That's why I'm most interested in the Revolution, to be honest. It promises actual innovation rather than this sort of (highly visible) diminishing returns. Plus it reportedly uses a very similar setup to the Gamecube, making development quick and easy; i.e. so we should see its - graphical - potential tapped quicker than the other next gen consoles, even if said potential (in terms of processing power et al) is lesser. Although so far,
no next gen game I've seen on any format has made me actually want it (it being the game or the console).
