This is a comment by a user that was posted on a topic about MGS4 and its graphics. i like the way he thinks.

I am a video editor, and even tough a game developer states the cinematics are from the in game engine, doesn't mean that there aren't special tricks used to make the cutscenes look better. I mean, there is a clear difference from the gameplay to cutscene. In a cutscene, movements are motion captured, wich makes them look lifelike, while in game its just pure rendered animations. So thats already a plus. Then we have a fixated area that only needs to be rendered in a movie, so all the background processing is removed. Then we have no AI engine in the cutscenes, making more processor power available. There are events in cutscenes, that are only seen in cutscenes, and you'll notice that. They can use the ingame engine at its max when there are character's uplcose in a room for example, but you'll never ever see that area in the game itself. Notice that the cutscenes that switch from gameplay to cutscene look less impressive then stand alone cutscenes. its hard to explain, but there is a lot of trickery involved when a developer says its using the game engine. It is, the ps3 is completely rendering it, but Its the gameplay that makes the game's graphics, and at times metal gear solid 4 can look quiete average at times. It s a beautifull game, but it is far from the console graphics king. People, you can't shout out random facts that are given by developers, you need to know how things work before even opening your mouth and try to act smart. Developers say things to advertise their products, and you buy those comments. But hey, i am just stating the facts, and comments like this that i make are mostly ignored because there is no hate in them.

papi_lekker