Conclusion

Ever since PhysX was first announced, we’ve eagerly awaited the arrival of games that really showcased the potential of the technology. Tech demos like Warmonger have successfully demonstrated the potential of what PhysX can do when properly implemented (If you own a PhysX compliant GeForce card, you really owe it to yourself to at least check out Warmonger, it is after all a free download.), but very few of the PhysX features found in Warmonger have made their way into an actual, shipping game. Instead most game developers have used PhysX to enhance the graphics found in their games; essentially they’re using PhysX to add an extra layer of eye candy.

How effective this eye candy is, and whether or not the same or similar effects could also be handled by the CPU (or the GPU using Havok) has been a source of much public debate. Like Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (GRAW), Mirror’s Edge is probably one of those games that could fall into this category.

Now sure, the game looks best when played with PhysX enabled, and there’s no disputing that fact. Going back and forth between PhysX on and off as we did you really get a sense of how stale and boring the game environment is once PhysX is disabled: the game world really comes alive and looks more like a real city with PhysX enabled.

At the same time however, critics will point out that some of the PhysX additions integrated into Mirror’s Edge PC have been handled successfully by the CPU in other PC games in the past: Mirror’s Edge isn’t the first game to feature persistent objects or volumetric smoke/fog. NVIDIA would then likely argue back that previous games didn’t feature physically correct volumetric smoke; the cloth effects with curtains, tarps, and scaffolding that rip realistically in Mirror’s Edge are also impressive.

Basically, Mirror’s Edge is more of an evolutionary progression rather than a revolutionary leap when it comes to in-game physics. Consider it a step in the right direction, but it’s nowhere near the level of a game like Warmonger or Cell Factor.

Looking at the actual benchmarks themselves, NVIDIA’s GeForce GPUs currently have the edge in Mirror’s Edge at this point. Whether you’re gaming with PhysX on or off, and even with an AGEIA PPU card in place, each of the GeForce boards we tested still outperformed their nearest rival from ATI.

Also embarrassing for ATI is the fact that the Radeon 4870 X2 doesn’t scale properly in the game – after spending the past year telling us that their CrossFire scaling performance has improved, they’ve stumbled with the first major PC game release of 2009. This is a major issue ATI needs to address if they wish to restore confidence after the debacle that was the summer of 2007 when many major titles (including BioShock) were released back-to-back without CrossFire profiles.

With F.E.A.R. 2 shipping to stores next week, we’ll be watching closely to see how the 4870 X2 scales with this game.

It will be interesting to see how history judges Mirror’s Edge a few years from now though. Hopefully you saw last week’s review of Mirror’s Edge PC. The game scored a 76% in the review. One of Tom’s biggest gripes was the game’s combat system. After playing the game myself, I completely agree with him. Considering their background with the Battlefield series, DICE’s gun combat implementation in Mirror’s Edge is abysmal. As a result, guns really do play a very minor role in this game. Also, like recent EA Games, Mirror’s Edge features the same draconian SecuROM DRM scheme used in games like Spore and Crysis Warhead.

Four or five years from now, Mirror’s Edge PC will probably be remembered more for issues like these than for PhysX. We wouldn’t be surprised if only the savviest hardware enthusiast remembers that this was the first major game title to ship with built-in PhysX support. That’s both a testament to how smoothly PhysX has been integrated into the game, yet could also be a hindrance when it comes to selling PhysX-compliant hardware. This isn’t a GL Quake moment, where id’s shooter helped 3dfx sell 3D video cards, or a Wing Commander moment, where the game’s voice support helped Creative sell Sound Blaster audio cards.

So here we are, February 2009, still waiting for PhysX’ first killer app…