VIDEO: Handhelds are closer than ever to standing toe-to-toe with consoles

Matt Hawkins Contributing Writer, Video Games

For years it was a goal that was chased after and never close to being met, but never has the finish line never been so closer. Some say it’s finally been reached.

First piece of evidence: the latest footage from Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D…

I will admit, the 3DS had initially failed to impress me on a visual level upon its debut, so I began to wonder if we’d just be getting DS-esque level of graphics underneath the three dimensional trickery (which to be honest would not have been the absolute worst things in the world). The announced RE games appeared to be the exception, but not enough footage was around to make a solid assessment.

Well, that’s changed. Granted, it’s not quite up there with most AAA PS3 and Xbox 360 titles, but it does look like a game that lives on either platform, perhaps a budget or downloadable title. Which still counts! Oh, and it goes without saying that it easily blows away anything the Wii can produce.

And then you have the iPad…

I was already impressed with the first edition of Real Racing, which brought Dreamcast-level graphics onto my now lowly iPhone 3GS, and this is even ten times crazier. Granted, control is where it’s at, hence why my iPhone is for gaming when I have nothing else handy, but we are talking about visuals here. Also, given how playing games at home is looking less traditional everyday, for better or worse, the idea of hooking up one’s iPad to the huge HD display is not the craziest idea in the world.

BTW, what about the third major player in the field? The PSP 2 (or NGP as it’s being called?) Again, not enough actual gameplay footage is available firsthand to make the call. Though, thus far, it’s not looking so hot. First came word how it was supposedly up there spec-wise with the PS3, and then later we discovered, by folks who have actually played around with the thing (those who’ll be making games for it to be exact), that it’s hardly the case.

And then there’s news of how, and maybe this is unfair to say, Sony’s top dev teams are not taking the hardware all that seriously. First we heard that Naughty Dog is not behind the upcoming portable version of Uncharted that got everyone all hot and bothered, but now there’s news that the makers of Resistance plus Ratchet & Clanks have better things to do.

But hey, two out of three ain’t bad, right?

Real Racing 2 HD to support 1080p video out[TUWA]

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