Hitman Absolution held back by current gen, next game 'technologically impressive'

Io Interactive has admitted that it was held back from achieving everything it set out to with Hitman Absolution, due to the "limitations of the current technology".

Speaking to Trusted Reviews, art director Roberto Marchesi revealed that Microsoft and Sony's aging Xbox 360 and PS3 systems "limited the game", but added that "working with a proven platform is not necessarily a bad thing".

"It's always a give and take," he said. "You also have to balance it with the gameplay; is it really a loss to the game or not? Sometimes you have an idea and you think it's really good but when it gets removed from the game and no-one notices maybe it wasn't such a good idea to begin with.

"We have learned so much compared to when the consoles first came out, we can push so much more."

Marchesi revealed that the studio is "actually making a game now [i.e. not Hitman!] that is impressive from a technological point of view."

Whether that's a next-gen title or not, though, Marchesi isn't saying.

However, regardless of what platform that title is scheduled to hit, Marchesi doesn't expect the first wave of next-gen titles to be anything more than 'upscaled' versions of current generation counterparts.

"The first games that will come out for the next generation of consoles will probably be just like an upscaled version of everything," he continued.

"All the textures will be ramped up twice, the resolution, everything… it's just going to have more polygons – that's really just a brute force approach to making great-looking games and in a way it's much more of a challenge doing it with this current generation."

Despite Marchesi's comments, Hitman Absolution is certainly one of the better looking games on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 - but looks aren't everything.

Hitman Absolution releases on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC tomorrow, November 20.

Source : videogamer