07Quarterly
Weight And Momentum
How movement feels, measured
Weight And Momentum
How movement feels, measured
Written to be read rather than to be impressive. If any of it is unclear, the intended meaning is the ordinary meaning of the words.
Measurements taken by hand from video capture of retail software, under the conditions set out on the method page, using the procedures in the bench notes. They describe the specific versions we played on the specific hardware described, at the time the measurements were taken.
They are not manufacturer specifications, they are not extracted from any game's code or data files, and they carry the precision the technique allows and no more — five per cent on spatial figures, exact on integer frame counts where repetitions agree.
They are not scores. A publication that measures acceleration has an obligation to say clearly that eleven frames is neither good nor bad in itself, and that two games at opposite ends of every figure we record can both be excellent, which is precisely what issue seven argues.
They are also not permanent. Games are patched, and a movement system measured at launch may not be the system a reader buys eight months later. Where we know a figure has been changed by an update, the review is annotated; where we do not know, the review states the version measured and the reader should assume nothing beyond it.
Each review contains an argument, the argument is ours, and where the three of us disagree the review prints the disagreement instead of manufacturing a consensus. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or avoid anything, and a reader who enjoys a game we criticise has not made an error.
Quote freely with attribution to the publication and a link where the medium allows one. Republication of a full review or bench note is not permitted; substantial extracts with attribution are fine, and so is repeating any measurement and publishing your own result, whether it agrees with ours or not.
Figures are facts about software and cannot be owned. Use them. If you find one of them wrong, publishing the correction is the most useful thing anyone reading this could do.
Games, studios and hardware are named for identification and critical discussion. All trademarks belong to their respective owners, and nothing on this site should be read as suggesting endorsement by, association with, or approval from anybody whose product is discussed.
The measurements are taken carefully and are nonetheless taken by three people rather than by an instrument. Two figures across seven issues have proved wrong. Anyone relying on a number here for a purpose that matters — a purchasing decision involving hardware, say — should repeat the measurement themselves rather than trusting ours.
This site links within itself and, occasionally, to other publications in the body of a review. External pages are not under our control and their contents are their authors' responsibility. A link is an acknowledgement that something exists, never an endorsement of it.
These terms are revised when the publication's practice changes, and the revision appears alongside the issue that introduces the change. There is no version history because there have been no substantive changes since issue one.