Next Gen Can'O'Worms

Thanks to the impressive power of next generation consoles, video games are looking more realistic than ever before.  Unfortunately, the problem with all these 1080p high res textures and motion capture performances is they invite audiences to make comparisons to the real world a lot more than some stylized 8-bit pixelated indie title.

Regrettably, this leads to a lot of triple AAA games not holding up well under scrutiny.  Granted, what we have seen thus far is stuff still in development, but much like The Spoony One and his long running obsession with Final Fantasy flaws, I too have noticed far too many nagging inconsistencies for the MST3K Mantra to work (regardless of how many times I chant it).

Despite video games boasting fancy physics engines for at least a decade now, it feels like game designers have deliberately been ignoring Issac Newton's three fundamental laws of motion.  Yeah, yeah, I know...rule-of-cool, right?  Titanfall just wouldn't be as awesome if those huge bipedal war machines compressed the ground underfoot, cracked pavement with each step and smashed through buildings like you'd expect them to...wait  a second!  That would be way more impressive than what was actually shown.  Red Faction: Guerrilla already had this kind of thing locked down last gen, and if you want to get technical Shadow of the Colossus on the PS2 nailed the essence of the square-cube law long before that.  Sorry Respawn Entertainment, it doesn't matter if you're on another planet because gravity is still going to cause objects to weight proportional to their respective mass.

Moving on, Destiny boasts breathtaking vistas, but doesn't seem to have much in the way of fluid dynamics aside from some faintly animated splashing textures when a character runs through a stream.  Speaking of disrupting liquids, what is the deal with Ryse: Son of Rome?  We got gory dismemberment and flashy finishing QTEs, but straight up whacking barbarians with your gladius doesn't leave so much as a red mark.  Silent Hill: Homecoming did accurate damage modeling back in 2008, yet five years later (and with more than 30 times the RAM) Crytek can't?

As you've probably gathered by now, there's still quite a bit that can be found in older titles that is sorely lacking in next gen experiences.  Don't get me wrong, The Division having realistic bullet holes in car windows is neat and all, but how about including features we had in games long ago such as Prince of Persia way back in 1989?