Tweet
Released earlier this year in Japan, Xenoblade Chronicles X is now set for release in the West imminently - and it's a game we've kept an eye on for a while now as its scope and sheer technological ambition exceeds expectations. When looking at open world games on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and even the Wii U itself, there are scant few that offer a truly stable frame-rate - but that's exactly what we have here. There are certainly sacrifices that had to be made to get there but the end result is nothing short of spectacular for the platform, with a sublime balance between visual ambition and overall performance.One of the most difficult challenges faced by the development team centres on data management. Without the ability to natively install games to the system's built-in storage, bringing such a large scale title to the system is no small feat. To work around this, owners of the disc based version of the game are able to download 11GB worth of data packs from the Nintendo eShop.
The idea is to minimize the need to access data from the slower disc drive in order to speed up asset streaming and loading times. If you purchase the game through the eShop though, this is unnecessary. We were provided with a digital version of the game so we're unable to test this feature but, in theory, it's a fascinating workaround. Considering that Monolith's Xenosaga Episode 1 on PlayStation 2 is one of the scant few games to support installation on the official PS2 hard drive, it seems that Takahashi's team is always looking for interesting ways to manage game data.
Read more…
More...