Eye candy: Capcom’s Deep Down PlayStation 4 demo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR2Lvo0ySkI
Footage of Capcom’s upcoming Deep Down, unveiled as part of the official PlayStation 4 announcement. Real in-game footage, said the developer. Pre-rendered with “pasted-on HUD elements” said YouTube cynics.

Yesterday’s announcement of the PlayStation 4 had everything you’d expect: a mix of hard facts and hype: perhaps more of the latter than the former, given that we don’t yet have a price, release date – or even a clear idea of what the new console will look like.

CVG does a good job of rounding up the day’s announcements, while PC Gamer goes into detail on the PS4’s rather PC-like technical specs.

But for a glimpse of the PS4’s graphical capabilities, you have to turn to the game demos.

A lot of ports and sequels…
Most of the titles announced at the launch event were ports (Diablo 3) or part of existing franchises (inFamous Second Son, Killzone Shadowfall), but more interesting was the original IP.

Street Fighter IV producer Yoshinori Ono took to the stage to talk about Capcom’s upcoming Deep Down and the Panta Rhei technology that powers it – probably the first game engine named after a concept in philosophy.

You can see a video of the presentation here, although it doesn’t add much technical information.

…but some interesting new IP
More impressive is the Deep Down footage itself. The facial animation is nice, if a bit Uncanny around the eyes, and there are plenty of dynamic lighting and particle effects.

But what really caught our attention are the environments: check out the mud and puddles on the floor and the subsurface scattering on the icicles that hove conveniently into view at 0:35.

Cynics have been quick to label the clip pre-rendered footage with “pasted-on HUD elements”, which wouldn’t be the first time such a thing has happened at a console launch.

Guess we’ll just have to wait until “holidays 2013”, when the PS4 actually arrives, to find out.