The upcoming shooter for the Xbox brand consoles and PC, Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare, recently received some startling information about its resolution and frame-rate.
After acknowledging that the game wasn't going to have microtransactions at the launch of the game next week, in an interview with GameSpot, the game's producer, Brian Lindley, also made another revelation to Techno Buffalo in a very revealing interview, noting that...
“after sending a quick note” to his team, that the game is “actually internally at 900p.”
This followed on a question as to whether or not the game would be running natively at 1080p. Lindley did acknowledge that the game would be upscaled to 1080p using the Xbox One's internal scaler.
It's yet another game – even one that isn't a multiplatform title like Watch Dogs or Thief – where despite being relegated to Xbox brand consoles, it still can't hit 1080p. Heck, it's not even one of those high-end games where it's pushing real next-gen visuals, or bankably distinct graphics that publishers use to say “This is the greatest looking game across any console!”
I do at least have to give Crytek that edge... Ryse may be a stilted, unoriginal and repetitively derivative experience, but at least the game is a graphical powerhouse... at 900p and 30 frames per second.
It looks like Plants Vs Zombies is sacrificing 1080p to manage 60 frames per second. On the upside, at least the game isn't 720p at 30fps.
Gamespot reached out for further clarification from Popcap Games, and they received this following, PR-friendly response...
"On next-gen consoles, players can experience all EA games at 1080p. Some are rendered natively, others are up-scaled by the next-gen hardware systems. Either way, the visuals are stunning and the gameplay is impeccable, regardless of platform."
The reason, however, for the lack of native 1080p at 60fps is Frostbite 3.
It's not a reason for blame, but a distinction for explanation.
The Frostbite 3 game engine is the same piece of excelled software technology that helped bring Battlefield 4 to life on PC and home consoles. It should also be noted that the game's tech strained even the PS4 to output at sub-1080p, and relegating the Xbox One to run the game at native 720p and 30fps.
In a way, though, this could be cause for concern given that the engine being relegated and limited in some of its features to maintain parity or acceptable performance levels on the Xbox One could prove to be problematic in the future, especially when DICE decides to iterate and upgrade the engine.
You can look for Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare to launch next week for the Xbox 360 and the Xbox One, with a spring release set for the PC version. It might be something to help hold you over until Titanfall launches in March.
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