# kojima's old snake and valve's new engine aka toilet polishing compare and contrast new and old character models of hideo kojima's soild plissken snake with a leaked alleged screen-shot of the plantation level of left4dead2 seen in valve's source engine 2 the old and new solid snakes side by side // image here an alleged source engine 2 screenshot of a left4dead 2 level // image here the standard message is still graphics is everything! - when in fact it's only something once again the implication here is that higher resolutions = better games; that realism still rules yet poor old wrinkly snake is arguably no less an uninspiring generic and basically 2d character than ey ever was - despite forever reappearing in higher-rez with ever more polygons if perhaps not as cool everyone in the left 4 dead series is perhaps more interesting then snake - indeed has way more character even if a realtime fully sentient model of kiefer sutherland with infinite detail was possible - it still wouldn't make a dead pixel of difference to the fact you can't graphically improve poor ideas consider kojima production's "fox engine": a prime example where impressive increases in an engine's technical capability software complexity and raw computational power.. almost guarantee a decrease in interest in what's actually played / playable - like creeping about reading dirty magazines and shooting stuff (ie. the same old story) as for valve's own "source 2" engine suspect another potential lack of imagination; engines only capable of churning out largely untouchable dead museum (tech) exhibits - far more visually complex but still as static and non-dynamic as ever like many industry figures mr. kojima seems firmly stuck in wistfully imagining "accurate physics-based lighting" is all easily impressed scientists need to convince themselves it's still not 1998.. oh wait graphical fidelity / realism are too often used as lazy substitutes for *anything* more meaningfully interesting - eg. new forms and processes for game object interaction or potentials for complex emergent social dynamics games thrive on challenging ideas - and questioning traditional concepts - not just **+** improved shadows **+** higher quality models / architecture **+** nicer looking lighting techniques **+** moar explosions / brown-haired heroes any modern engine can churn out passably good looking cookie cutter games - and they often do // video here // republic of bob