Capcom's ambitions for Resident Evil 6 are lofty indeed: this new game is considerably bigger, faster-paced and more intense than previous instalments with the focus on survival horror toned down in favour of action-packed gunplay and blockbuster-style set-pieces. The firm's spruced-up MT Framework engine is well suited to delivering such spectacle on-screen, with the revised deferred lighting system - first showcased in Dragon's Dogma - giving the game a phenomenal atmosphere and upgraded physics powering a supremely effective destructible scenery implementation.
However, the change in technology has a number of implications for the overall look and performance level of the new game. For one, hardware-based anti-aliasing is dropped in favour of a post process alternative - one that is much cheaper to render than traditional multi-sampling but producing some unimpressive, unwanted shimmering artifacts as a consequence.
Meanwhile the lavish use of dynamic lighting, along with various other graphical upgrades including screen-space ambient occlusion, take their toll on engine performance. In the weeks and months up to the game's debut, the demos Capcom released suffered from some serious issues - including some awful screen-tear on the Xbox 360 version.
