Three New EA Titles Get the Mantle Treatment

[N.Broekhuijsen]

Battlefield Hardline, Dragon Age: Inquisition, and Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare will all be getting Mantle support.

Three New EA Titles Get the Mantle Treatment : Read more

 

[koolkei]

plant vs zombies? with mantle?? im just.......
i dont know what to say....

 

[dstarr3]

It's a shame they've got EA's name on them, because now no one should buy them.

 

[jessterman21]

Those Lego games could use Mantle... Played my first one on PC last night, and it pegged one 4GHz Ivy Bridge core - didn't touch the others... Luckily I got a solid 60fps.

 

[CaptainTom]

AMD should move to make Mantle the default API on Linux. It would allow many games to be insta-ported to linux while also providing linux users with a reliable API.

 

[rishiswaz]

EA is really turning a page right now and I don't think they deserve all the hate. BF4 was a huge goof, they really dropped the ball there; but they admitted it, they figured out what was wrong and are moving on. Origin is really getting better and I actually like to use it more than Steam because of the occasional free games (Dead Space 1 and Plants vs Zombies so far) that they will be giving and because of the return policy they have. The client is getting better and with the exception of BioWare still clinging to BioWare points everything is really smooth to buy. Custom install paths, simultaneous downloads, etc. all of these things are really going well for EA with Origin.

 

[XGrabMyY]

It's a shame they've got EA's name on them, because now no one should buy them.

If you weren't an <MOD EDIT> you'd know the entire Mantle API project has been, from day zero, a project working directly with EA. Specifically in Stockholm at DICE. The two lead 3D Applications Engineers from AMD have basically lived at DICE since 2006, working primarily inside of Frostbite as a testbed for working on bringing developers closer to the metal and reducing driver overhead.

I was at the 2007 GDC event where our team announced the collaboration officially and you should probably not talk if you have no idea what is going on. Mantle wouldn't exist without DICE and Frostbite wouldn't exist in the same capacity without the AMD 3D App research team helping optimize it.

 

[tomfreak]

EA is really turning a page right now and I don't think they deserve all the hate. BF4 was a huge goof, they really dropped the ball there; but they admitted it, they figured out what was wrong and are moving on. Origin is really getting better and I actually like to use it more than Steam because of the occasional free games (Dead Space 1 and Plants vs Zombies so far) that they will be giving and because of the return policy they have. The client is getting better and with the exception of BioWare still clinging to BioWare points everything is really smooth to buy. Custom install paths, simultaneous downloads, etc. all of these things are really going well for EA with Origin.

Now all they need is something similar to steam trading card for crazy people put money on it, while other players(me) gain something by selling all the cards to fund the games. XD

 

[mrmez]

I can just see the new phrase "Yeah, but can it play PvZ?"
Move over, Crysis

 

[Martell1977]

I've been thinking about the reason for Intel's interest since the article about it yesterday. I was thinking that since there are not many games that can peak a 4770k or above to 100% that they want to experiment with finding a way to boost their IGP with reserve CPU power. Since Mantle can help weak CPU's by reducing overhead, maybe Intel wants to try to see if they can reverse some of that to boost IGP performance?

As for the rest of this article, nothing surprising really, we knew BF4 would likely be the first of many from EA using Mantle.

If this new battlefield title has a respectable campaign length, I might get it. I skipped BF4 since I heard the campaign was as short if not shorter than BF3's (which was way to short for $60).

 

[Djentleman]

I bet people will buy BF hardline just for mantle.
I guess it's no different than PhysX though.

 

[bmdc]

Very cool. Glad to see Mantle going places, especially with all the initial skepticism it faced. Makes me even more of a happy and proud owner of an R9 290.

 

[bmdc]

Those Lego games could use Mantle... Played my first one on PC last night, and it pegged one 4GHz Ivy Bridge core - didn't touch the others... Luckily I got a solid 60fps.

Thats crazy. In this day and age for a game to use only one core is absolutely unacceptable.

 

[ta152h]

It's a rumor AMD is opening up Mantle? It's not rumor at all, please know what you're talking about before writing.

AMD has said from the beginning it's opening the API up to anyone who wants to use it, including NVIDIA. Currently, it's pre-release, and AMD has stated categorically they'll open up Mantle to everyone who wants to use it once it's released to the general public this year.

 

[getochkn]

Hardline Beta already has Mantle in it, so I would assume the final game would.

 

[Poul Wrist]

plant vs zombies? with mantle?? im just.......
i dont know what to say....

Makes perfect sense. Who is the target audience? Kids. Where do kids play PvZ? On parent PCs/laptops. What is in those devices? Weak hardware, and AMD is hoping that it's based on their GPU or APU and this will make it both attractive to buy an AMD based PC to save money, because you'll still be doing the same light office work like normally, but with the added benefit of being able to play games like these slightly better.

 

[ubercake]

I'm going to guess the addition of Mantle won't take these games out of the Beta phase when EA starts collecting money for them.

 

[ubercake]

EA is really turning a page right now and I don't think they deserve all the hate. BF4 was a huge goof, they really dropped the ball there; but they admitted it, they figured out what was wrong and are moving on. Origin is really getting better and I actually like to use it more than Steam because of the occasional free games (Dead Space 1 and Plants vs Zombies so far) that they will be giving and because of the return policy they have. The client is getting better and with the exception of BioWare still clinging to BioWare points everything is really smooth to buy. Custom install paths, simultaneous downloads, etc. all of these things are really going well for EA with Origin.

From a PC gaming perspective, I really don't think EA has turned a page so much as everyone's expectations of their EA games functionality on release date have lowered considerably.

We know the initial release of EA games for PC are going to suck for a week and get more playable to become a stabilized product after 6-12 months. It seems like the single-player only games will stabilize sooner because there are less moving parts. But as customers of EA, we no longer expect fully functioning products on release day.

They are not alone, but they are consistent with their big releases. With the release of Watch Dogs, we're seeing this as more of a norm with hyped up releases from all of the big publishing houses.

It's all about lowering the bar.

Now with that being said, games like BFBC2, BF3, and BF4 mature (on our dimes) to become some of the best games ever created. For this reason, I don't so much hate EA, but rather frequently become frustrated by EA.

One advantage with Hardline is that they have a head start as it's obviously based on a BF4 core. This one may actually be stable on release day. I'm not sure I will buy this one because it is so much the same as BF4, just with a change of scenery and a couple of different game modes.

Also, I'm not saying I like one service over another, but with the exception of free games, Origin really does nothing more than Steam. You can customize your install path with Steam as well and is there really an advantage to simultaneous downloads when bandwidth is finite?

 

[Guest]

EA is really turning a page right now and I don't think they deserve all the hate. BF4 was a huge goof, they really dropped the ball there; but they admitted it, they figured out what was wrong and are moving on. Origin is really getting better and I actually like to use it more than Steam because of the occasional free games (Dead Space 1 and Plants vs Zombies so far) that they will be giving and because of the return policy they have. The client is getting better and with the exception of BioWare still clinging to BioWare points everything is really smooth to buy. Custom install paths, simultaneous downloads, etc. all of these things are really going well for EA with Origin.

I'm not EA hater but Origin installer defaulty selects "create desktop shortcut" and "create start menu shortcut" while in Steam it's defaulty off. It's a very small thing that tells a lot.

 

[hasten]

I'm not EA hater but Origin installer defaulty selects "create desktop shortcut" and "create start menu shortcut" while in Steam it's defaulty off. It's a very small thing that tells a lot.

Please tell me you are just trying to get people going and seriously are not offended by having to click two boxes or delete a link after installing something....

 

[mikat]

I'm not EA hater but Origin installer defaulty selects "create desktop shortcut" and "create start menu shortcut" while in Steam it's defaulty off. It's a very small thing that tells a lot.

Yeah, but does it do this every damn time?!?! (damn you iTunes)

 

[jimmysmitty]

AMD should move to make Mantle the default API on Linux. It would allow many games to be insta-ported to linux while also providing linux users with a reliable API.

Wouldn't that kill the whole open and free idea behind Linux if it was using an API that is mainly controlled by one company instead of a API like OpenGL that is, well done by a consortium so it is not controlled by one company?

I bet people will buy BF hardline just for mantle.
I guess it's no different than PhysX though.

Not sure why. I mean the people who were excited about BF4 had high end systems and it was even given away with R9 290xs. Mantle did nothing for them just as it does nothing for me because I build a gaming system to game, I don't take a low end HP with a meh dual core and throw in a $500 dollar GPU.

And the main difference between Mantle and PhysX is that Mantle actually does something that software cannot do, improve performance on high end GPUs with low end CPUs. PhysX has been shown to not do anything special and even HavoK has shown it can do what PhysX does using software/CPU physics.

DirectX 12 will probably be what hurts Mantle the most.

Those Lego games could use Mantle... Played my first one on PC last night, and it pegged one 4GHz Ivy Bridge core - didn't touch the others... Luckily I got a solid 60fps.

Thats crazy. In this day and age for a game to use only one core is absolutely unacceptable.

Not if it doesn't need it. I play them and the latest one (Lego Movie Videogame) gave me an average of 533FPS on a 2-3 hour run the other night on my HD7970GHz. So why waste processing power?

It's a rumor AMD is opening up Mantle? It's not rumor at all, please know what you're talking about before writing.

AMD has said from the beginning it's opening the API up to anyone who wants to use it, including NVIDIA. Currently, it's pre-release, and AMD has stated categorically they'll open up Mantle to everyone who wants to use it once it's released to the general public this year.

Open yet they will be the ones developing it and adding features. They can easily add in features that only they can run (like TressFX). If they instead make it truly open then it is just OpenGL and might as well just be added to it.

BTW, it is in enough games to be officially released now. In fact I think it has released in more games than OpenGL.....

EA is really turning a page right now and I don't think they deserve all the hate. BF4 was a huge goof, they really dropped the ball there; but they admitted it, they figured out what was wrong and are moving on. Origin is really getting better and I actually like to use it more than Steam because of the occasional free games (Dead Space 1 and Plants vs Zombies so far) that they will be giving and because of the return policy they have. The client is getting better and with the exception of BioWare still clinging to BioWare points everything is really smooth to buy. Custom install paths, simultaneous downloads, etc. all of these things are really going well for EA with Origin.

From a PC gaming perspective, I really don't think EA has turned a page so much as everyone's expectations of their EA games functionality on release date have lowered considerably.

We know the initial release of EA games for PC are going to suck for a week and get more playable to become a stabilized product after 6-12 months. It seems like the single-player only games will stabilize sooner because there are less moving parts. But as customers of EA, we no longer expect fully functioning products on release day.

They are not alone, but they are consistent with their big releases. With the release of Watch Dogs, we're seeing this as more of a norm with hyped up releases from all of the big publishing houses.

It's all about lowering the bar.

Now with that being said, games like BFBC2, BF3, and BF4 mature (on our dimes) to become some of the best games ever created. For this reason, I don't so much hate EA, but rather frequently become frustrated by EA.

One advantage with Hardline is that they have a head start as it's obviously based on a BF4 core. This one may actually be stable on release day. I'm not sure I will buy this one because it is so much the same as BF4, just with a change of scenery and a couple of different game modes.

Also, I'm not saying I like one service over another, but with the exception of free games, Origin really does nothing more than Steam. You can customize your install path with Steam as well and is there really an advantage to simultaneous downloads when bandwidth is finite?

EA killed Westwood Studios and C&C and that for me killed them to me. I can't remember the last EA game I bought at full price and if I bought any they were super cheap and decent games.

Overall Steam itself I find better as it is not run by a money hungry corporation.

A funny thing is that people don't seem to realize that the return policy is only for EA games, not other gane publishers/developers. As well it has pretty tight requirements to the return policy.

 

[Tamotefu]

Good. Solid competition with DirectX will shake the industry up a little bit.

 

[rantoc]

EA is really turning a page right now and I don't think they deserve all the hate. BF4 was a huge goof, they really dropped the ball there; but they admitted it, they figured out what was wrong and are moving on.

Sim City *cough cough*. They dropped the ball so many times and for each time they did they don't learn and expect the customer to be stupid enough to buy into their market material when the next ion the series releases - Guess what? Most have a brain that can learn... just not all of us *glares at some EA Execs*

 

[tobalaz]

EA has turned into that kid that brings Ds and Cs home so often when they get a B- its treated like a homerun.
I'm not buying through Origin, I'm not per-ordering anything EA, I'm not going to praise EA until they get their crap together and can SHOW ME they have it together.
EA showed me they still love to screw over us pc gamers with a 60gig download for Titanfall, Sim City, destroying game studio after game studio, and treating their programmers worse than indentured servants.
Its going to take a lot to lose the hate.