Sweat visibly drips down the character's face, bullet casings fly as the alien enemy approaches. Then without hesitation, the character switches to a shotgun, braces himself and blasts away the opponent.
Although this scene could occur in a big budget Hollywood film, it is actually through an Xbox 360 as ""Gears of War"" spins in the drive. By taking advantage of the enhanced processing power of the 360 and the Playstation 3, video game graphics have taken another giant leap toward realism.
""Graphics are changing considerably because up until now, they've been limited by the amount of computations you can do,"" said UW-Madison Computer Science associate professor Michael Gleicher. ""Thanks to the fact that computers are so fast with new video game consoles, you can do a lot of computing in a 60th of a second.""
Although the current generation of systems has more power than ever before, they are still incapable of approximating real life. The problem with recreating real life is, not only would a computer need to be powerful enough to display the graphics, but a computer brain as smart and complex as the human brain would be necessary to drive that game, explained Stephen Chenney, a former UW-Madison computer science assistant professor who now works at Emergent Game Technology.
Because it would require a cyborg-strength computer to process all of the graphics data, many in the video game industry feel they are nearing a graphical peak.
""The next challenge is figuring out that given that you're not constrained by the limits of the computer, what more imaginative things can you do,"" Gleicher said.
More imaginative things can come in the form of an anime style game or possibly one that emulates a noir film style.
""Initially when you get the ability to make something look real, everybody wants to make it look super realistic, then a couple months down the road, a lot of unique styles come out, and there are a lot of different avenues in art direction,"" said Dan Hay, the art director of Madison-based developer Raven Games. Hay's credits include ""Marvel: Ultimate Alliance"" and ""Quake 4.""
As ""Quake 4's"" cinematic consultant, Hay said his job led him to compelling camera work from sources such as ""Saving Private Ryan,"" which he incorporated into the game. He credited the power of the next-gen consoles with making this translation from film to game possible.
""If your goal is stylization, we can get better stylization, because we can go toward the actual gameplay aspects that you're looking for,"" said Rachel Heck, a UW-Madison computer science graduate student.
Heck, who worked on Rockstar Games' 360 title ""Table Tennis,"" said previous generations of consoles focused on the high quality of the still images, which acted as a strong selling point for the game. With the power from the new consoles, developers are now able to improve the animation, artificial intelligence and even basic gameplay mechanics.
This different mindset can create new hooks, which will bring in different gamers. Heck said the AI in the recent 360 game ""Oblivion"" stood out as unique because the non-playable characters—who in previous generations only interacted when initiated by a player—can use the power of the 360 to develop their own unique lives apart from the player.
The strong sales of the Wii and its innovative Wiimote also show the different programming mindset in action. As an art director, Hay said the Wii had the weakest graphics of the three systems, but as a player, the control setup where gamers interact with the screen make the Wii a worthwhile purchase. Hay actually has not yet picked up a Wii, but plans to do so.
The unique format of the system has kept it a strong seller, and stores have had a hard time keeping it in stock, requiring a lot of luck for consumers to get their hands on a system.
As consoles continue to improve well into the next generations of games, the graphics might peak or they might improve, but the developments in gameplay should continue to expand.
