Dreaming of the Future: What Should We Expect on the “Xbox 720?”
While the next Xbox is quite a ways off, it is nice to wonder every once in a while what we could possibly expect. One of my favorite genres of games is the Sandbox/Open World types, so what should we expect with more power from out systems?
While I am, by no means, someone that the gaming industry goes to for advice, I always think about what I would love to see in games. In Open World games, I am always one to explore anything I can (and that really goes for any genre; I explore everything), and some games are great at letting you do that, while others restrict you to one linear path. While a great deal of advancements have been made in the last ten years, there is always room for improvement, and one tech demo really shows what could be in the future for gamers.
While the demo is performed on a PC, it is incredibly interesting to watch the entirety of the two clips. They display a Pre-Alpha demo of a game client/engine called Infinity. The short clips feature flight in space as I have never seen it before, let alone free roaming. It starts off by viewing a simple space ship that appears to be attempting to orbit a space station, which is orbiting a planet that looks much like Earth, though has rings like Saturn. Clearly, this is a fictitious world, though it seems incredibly real. The ship then moves on to view the planet that it approaches, and the view is incredible. Absolutely stunning when viewed in HD, and when the ship proceeds from the highly detailed Asteroid field and into the planet’s atmosphere, the open world feel of this demo really shines.
It is absolutely stunning to see footage like this, and although it is still in development (at least at the time of release, last year), the engineering behind it is amazing and another great leap for technology. While I cannot confirm it, I would hypothesize that we will see technology like this in the next generation of systems, if not sooner on our PCs. Please take the time to enjoy the two-part footage or skim through it at the least, and make sure to leave your comments below!
If you liked this, you may also like to read about The Successor to the Xbox 360 at E3 2012 and No Next-Gen Xbox on the Way?
