PS3 General Discussion

[Tornado]

Is this guy talking about a $10 price hike to the already hiked-up $60 price tag? Or is this describing why it was hiked up from $50 to $60?

Sounds like the second, but then it only be confirming a argueably debunked idea.

Last time I heard, the PSP hasn't outsold the DS. I believe the DS has sold 22 million units, where the PSP has shipped 21 million, which equates to 18~ million sold. Also, I wonder what will happen to the other two PSP packs? If the base PSP drops to $150 I might get one again.

Yeah, the DS has about a 3-ish million unit lead, but I beleive currently the DS Lite is outselling the PSP by quite a wide margin.

If that's true, and it's possible you can view UMD movies through a PS3 on a TV, I think UMD movies still might live. Might.

Doesn't seem phyisically possible. No way the UMD can hold as much data as even a normal, single layer DVD. Making it costs less is the only thing that sounds feasible, and I still doubt it's longevity as a media format (remember, the PS3 will play DVD's as well, not to mention not need special connector cables and other accesories to play said DVD's). And portable DVD player prices are dropping like rocks, as are the prices of normal DVDs.

 

[fideles1986]

interesting post here, from a guy that went to GC in leipzig.

Good find and good read, i guess i can now wait till next year for the PS3. If everything on that post is true then watch out 360.

 

[Mr Deap]

Good find and good read, i guess i can now wait till next year for the PS3. If everything on that post is true then watch out 360.

 

[Jeremy Ricci]

If you seriously don't have anything to contribute, can we all ask that you not post at all? Your clutter and trolling get's rather agrivating. We aren't running around in other forums on this site posting nothing and arguing moot points, so why are you?

 

[DuckRacer]

If you seriously don't have anything to contribute, can we all ask that you not post at all? Your clutter and trolling get's rather agrivating. We aren't running around in other forums on this site posting nothing and arguing moot points, so why are you?

JR, your post right there contributed as much as Mr Deap's post. And I do realize my post right here is just as worthless too.

And besides, there's this nifty little button...

 

[Mr Deap]

JR, your post right there contributed as much as Mr Deap's post. And I do realize my post right here is just as worthless too.

And besides, there's this nifty little button...

Oh ya , this button is your best friend. You know, you have to take bad news with a big smile.

 

[Jeremy Ricci]

PS3 get's a significantly improved version of Fight Night Round 3, with new features, improved graphics, and a new damage system.

Personally, I think it looks a lot better than the 360 version, but I'll wait till a final version is out. I'm willing to bet we'll see the facial animation present at E3 2005 that was absent from the 360 version.

 

[KENJIusa]

Sony UK: AI is the future
by Zhao Jingyu

Most hardcore gamers would say that one of the most, if not the most important aspects of a game is its graphics, but Sony UK's Ray Maguire begs to differ. While talking at a London event, Sony's UK boss said that the power offered by the processors in next-gen consoles meant that eye-candy was no longer at the top of developers' priority lists.

During his speech, Maguire said that graphics have reached a point where they are so realistic that it is natural for developers to focus on developing another aspect of games to make them closer to life- Artificial intelligence. "We are no longer interested in graphics per se, because graphics chips can do that for us, but the central processors of all the new games machines are about making games more compelling by adding in artificial intelligence," he said.


Once again referring to the processing capabilities of the Cell processor in the upcoming PlayStation 3, Maguire announced, "The Cell chip is so powerful it can do 256 million calculations per second... That means one thing for us in the videogames industry: artificial intelligence."

To illustrate his point that better AI will make games more realistic, he chose Tomb Raider- Comparing Lara Croft and Angelina Jolie, he argued that the the main difference between them was not looks, but that Angelina was capable of emotions and thought.

After showing off a Heavy Rain teaser, an upcoming game which is now famous for its AI and realistic emotions, Maguire finished off with the following words: "We're not talking about graphics any more. We're talking about performance and we're talking about art."
ps3land.com

Sure, there's no doubt about the Cell's power, but it all depends on developers IMO.

 

[YSSMAN]

An 8 player online 3rd person shooter is not going to be a system seller.

Many PS3 titles look as good or better than GoW.

Can be true, but it is anyone's guess. You can bet that GoW will take over for Call of Duty 2 as the "standard" disc for almost everyone, and you can bet it will be a strong-seller this holiday season. Granted it doesn't carry the weight of say a Halo or MGS on any platform, it stands a good chance of becoming a system seller in the future.

Say what you want about "somewhat real" apples, but that's just a ridiculous comment in itself. Who gives a rats tail if it isn't "out". 27 playable titles at TGS speak louder than anything. Tons of high res screens and vids speak louder than anything.

Yes, the PR spin should be interesting to see comming out of all of the companies, but even then Sony's actions speak louder than words. They are "promising" two million units by the end of 2006, and they haven't started building them yet... And people thought the 360 shortages were bad?

Microsoft has the lead, at the moment, and of course things can change. Quite frankly, Sony has everything to lose with TGS, there really isn't any way around it... It will be the final stop for many people who are "on the line" with the PS3 as to wether they should buy it or not, and although the fanboys and press folks will be drooling at the sight of anything "offical" from Sony, it will be the consumers that have the final say in what is going on.

We can theorise all we want about what is "good" and what is "bad" about everything, and I know both you and I are guilty of it, but when it comes down to it, neither of us can completely predict what is going to happen post-TGS and pre-11/22/06.

PS3 looks amazing, 360 looks amazing, PS3 has the edge for physics and heavy computation, like AI etc.

I'll agree to dissagree there, but as noted before, greater ammounts of horsepower are going to yeild better results. That said, developers are going to need to be able to tap that horsepower in order to get the best out of it.

...Its like handing a guy looking to build a Cobra replica the BMW 5.0L V10 and the Edelbrock/Chevrolet 350 V8...

Sure, the BMW engine is great, but it has to run on so many computers and use so many other techno-dodads that most people would steer clear and go for the Chevrolet. That way they bolt on the plumbing, transmission, etc and drop it in the car.

Obviously the BMW will perform better if it is running right, but when you can get similar performance and build them easily with the Chevy, thats what most folks would go for.

Was that an effective metaphor?

 

[LaBounti]

Some developers are more worried about getting a current game(basic pc port type) working on the system before using any advanced programing and features. They are not even concerned about blu ray. Its nice to read stuff like that but its in house developers or heavily funded teams working on exclusive games that will use its power and techniques.

 

[Poverty]

An opinion from some kinda videogame insider or something. Dont know if you guys already knew what he will have to say. The following comes from an argument me and several others were having on the PS3 vs 360 front. The general consensus of the discussion was that sony dropped the ball.

I have to be wary of making comments on public forums as I'm under NDA with basically every developer and publisher in the world.

However one thing I will say is that the market today (thanks almost entirely to Sony) is not about you and I, talking on this thread. It's about the mass market consumer. The hardcore, the brand loyalists and the rich early adopter will decided the first 10m installed userbase, but (and consider Sony now have over 100m PS2's in homes and rising) 40, 50, 100m is decided by global, mainstream, massmarket consumers.

These people don't even know what an Xbox 360 is.

MS should be commended on many fronts, not least the look and feel of the console and controllers, Xbox Live (and Arcade and Marketplace), and their attitude to developers and publishers, but never, repeat, never underestimate the power of Sony or the Playstation brand.

Insider I don't underestimate the brand, this was more of a discussion of comparing console to console as far as it is possible at the moment. The true test will be when they finally release it and it hits the market, although there are apparently going to be problems due to chip shortages.

I have no doubt that sony will sell lots of them but that doesn't mean it is a better or more capable console. It just means that people will blindly follow marketing/brandnames even when they are past their best.

But it depends on what you define as 'better'.

There isn't the info in the public market yet to compare.

No 'real' game demos. No PS3 network platform. No final controllers.

Having seen and played a few of the key titles, and from talking with people who are coding for the thing, yes it's nowhere near as straightforward as 360, but for those who are happy to write to the metal and not have to rely on Renderware or Unreal engine, their opinion is that there will be a discernable difference between the best PS3 titles and the best Xbox 360 titles. These are not Sony employees, they are platform agnostic game coders.

Ultimately it doesn't matter much to me as the competition will only be positive to gamers and the overall growth of the industry. One hot rumour amongst the execs at the show in Leipzig last week though was that PS3 may not see a US and Europe launch until Q1 next year, with only Japan seeing it pre-xmas...that scenario would definitely play into the hands of MS in the short term.

 

[slackbladder]

PS3 get's a significantly improved version of Fight Night Round 3, with new features, improved graphics, and a new damage system.

Personally, I think it looks a lot better than the 360 version, but I'll wait till a final version is out. I'm willing to bet we'll see the facial animation present at E3 2005 that was absent from the 360 version.

FNR3 certainly could be improved. As much as I liked it I was disappointed in the arenas lack of detail and dynamics (flags and curtains tha never moved etc) and average sound. Certainly it won't look worse though.

 

[fasj6418]

"Having seen and played a few of the key titles, and from talking with people who are coding for the thing, yes it's nowhere near as straightforward as 360, but for those who are happy to write to the metal and not have to rely on Renderware or Unreal engine, their opinion is that there will be a discernable difference between the best PS3 titles and the best Xbox 360 titles. These are not Sony employees, they are platform agnostic game coders."

sorry, sometimes my english is real bad. did the insider said PS3 games will be better or 360 games will be better?

 

[Mr Deap]

Here a good news.

Showing off Havok 4.0 Physics Engine for the PS3
Posted Sep 02, 2006 at 06:06PM by Chris L.

Listed in: Previews
Tags: Famitsu, CEDEC, Havok If you run up to a wall and slam right into it - as expected - or if you nail a bullet into some odd terrorist's head and he collapses onto the ground like a rag doll - again, as expected - that's usually the physics engine doing the work. The physics engine handles the interaction of game objects in real time. And one of the leading examples of that is the Havok middleware physics engine, used in many familiar FPS titles like Half-Life 2 and even the Matrix trilogy.

Havok - the company that makes the software - showed off its latest version of Havok (the software) running off PC and PS3 setups at the 2006 CEDEC Developer's Conference. We have three shots of their visual presentation taken from Famitsu.com, showing off Havok Spectrum 4.0's particle and collision physics being calculated and rendered in real time.






Besides physics, the software can now handle character behavior in reaction to physics. No more unnaturally collapsing rag dolls. If something hard and fast hits you in the body in such a way that it will twist your body, your body will twist - and the Havok Spectrum 4.0 will properly calculate and display that result. (At least, that's as much as we can understand from trying to translate our source article).

Perhaps the most interesting tidbit generated by Havok was comparisons of the software operating between the PS3 and PC. Havok Spectrum 4.0 is fully compatible with all the next-gen console systems. Obviously more powerful processors are needed to handle the heavy calculation loads that software like Havok will bring. One slide presented at the CEDEC conference showed that in terms of processing speed, the PS3 runs Havok 4.0 almost as fast as a triple-core PC.






Two of the games announced to be using the Havok engine are Halo 3 and the Sonic series.

http://ps3.qj.net/Showing-off-Havok-4-0-Phsyics-Engine-for-the-PS3/pg/49/aid/64305

 

[DuckRacer]

sorry, sometimes my english is real bad. did the insider said PS3 games will be better or 360 games will be better?

The best PS3 games will be better than the best X360 titles, at least when it comes to physics, graphics, AI, etc.

 

[Jeremy Ricci]

I'll agree to dissagree there, but as noted before, greater ammounts of horsepower are going to yeild better results. That said, developers are going to need to be able to tap that horsepower in order to get the best out of it.

There is nothing to disagree. The PS3 has better raw horsepower for physics and AI, which are both calculation intensive.

Proof is in the pudding, but the 360 doesn't even support all of the core features of the PhysX engine, it has to be stripped down because it boggs the system a lot.

Facts are facts, and the Cell Processor is superior to the Xenos CPU in the 360 when it comes to physics and AI, while running other tasks at the same time.

 

[Solid Lifters]

He-he; this is good for a laugh. BTW, I've already got my HDMI cable purchased. It's a nice long, thick one, too; the way I like it. OK, that sounds dirty...

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=181-737


PlayStation 3 Will Lack In HDMI cable


Does Sony really want to angry its customers? Or is this just part of the company's strategy to loose the war against Microsoft's Xbox 360? While Sony has been focus on stressing put that Blu-ray means more “eye-candy for high-def fans”, the company forgot to mention that the $599 PlayStation 3 pack will not be enough to play such discs, unless...

A recently updated FAQ on the official PS3 site says the following:

“* Video output in HD requires cables and an HD-compatible display, both sold separately. Copy-protected Blu-ray video discs can only output at 1080p using an HDMI cable connected to a device that is compatible with the HDCP standard. HDMI cable not included. Additional equipment may be required to use the HDMI connector.
** HDMI cable not included. Additional equipment may be required to use the HDMI connector.”

So, in order to actually be able to look at high-def content, PlayStation 3 owners would have to spend some more on a HDMI cable (around $40, according to Amazon.com), as if the $599 they paid for the console wasn't already a high-enough price.

This is the second time the PlayStation 3 proves to be a disappointment in terms of what it really offers.

Back in May, Sony revealed the price, release date and specs for the two PlayStation 3 version ($499 and $599). Although Sony stressed out that the price is related only to HDD size, the $499 version also lacked several other features, such as support for Memory Sticks, SD and Compact Flash cards. Most important, the console will have no built-in Wi-Fi and the HDMI output will be removed, making the1080p screen resolution unavailable.

http://news.portalit.net/fullnews_PlayStation-3-Will-Lack-In--HDMI-cable_1981.html

 

[Jeremy Ricci]

It makes no sense for them to include the cable. I can see them including component cables though.

That was a no brainer from the start.

 

[KENJIusa]

This is the second time the PlayStation 3 proves to be a disappointment in terms of what it really offers.

the $499 version also lacked several other features, such as support for Memory Sticks, SD and Compact Flash cards. Most important, the console will have no built-in Wi-Fi and the HDMI output will be removed, making the1080p screen resolution unavailable.

The moron doesn't even know 1080p is possible via component

 

[DuckRacer]

The moron doesn't even know 1080p is possible via component

True, but are there TVs on the market that allow 1080p via component cables?

 

[Solid Lifters]

It makes no sense for them to include the cable. I can see them including component cables though.

That was a no brainer from the start.

Some people are just really cheap bastards.

True, but are there TVs on the market that allow 1080p via component cables?

'Ya beat me to it... No, there isn't.

 

[DuckRacer]

Since there's no HDMI cable included, will the component cables be standard in the $600 PS3?

 

[Jeremy Ricci]

Since there's no HDMI cable included, will the component cables be standard in the $600 PS3?

Nobody knows. Honestly, I won't be surprised if (and possibly when) they aren't.

If they are, Sony will probably include both composite, and component cables with the PS3, don't expect to see any S-Video though. If they aren't, you'll only see the good old Red White and Yellows making their return.

 

[Solid Lifters]

I wouldn't be surprised if the PS3 AV cable is the exact same cable the PS2 uses. That way, those that have a HDTV set most likely already have a component cable and could use that from the start.

I bet a standard AV cable is the only cable supplied with the PS3.

 

[DuckRacer]

I wouldn't be surprised if the PS3 AV cable is the exact same cable the PS2 uses. That way, those that have a HDTV set most likely already have a component cable and could use that from the start.

I bet a standard AV cable is the only cable supplied with the PS3.

Well, if the PS2 component cable would work with the PS3, I'm all good.

 

[Jeremy Ricci]

Well, if the PS2 component cable would work with the PS3, I'm all good.

It will, it's the exact same output Sony's been using for years. Which is an awesome move on their part, and ours.

 

[fasj6418]

Nobody knows. Honestly, I won't be surprised if (and possibly when) they aren't.

If they are, Sony will probably include both composite, and component cables with the PS3, don't expect to see any S-Video though. If they aren't, you'll only see the good old Red White and Yellows making their return.

much better than the olf RF connections i used to have for both the genesis and the atari 2600

i remember having to use a knife to plug into the TV set.

 

[Pebb]

I hope Sony do not charge too much for the HDMI cable or don't charge anything at all, because if they pay over £40 for it and charge a deposit, then I will have to wait until January to get my PS3.

 

[Solid Lifters]

I hope Sony do not charge too much for the HDMI cable or don't charge anything at all, because if they pay over £40 for it and charge a deposit, then I will have to wait until January to get my PS3.

Any $10 HDMI cable would work. Don't worry, you don't need to buy one from Sony. I purchased a good one because it will see a lot of foot and paw traffic. That's why I got a thick, well shielded HDMI cable.

 

[DuckRacer]

Any $10 HDMI cable would work. Don't worry, you don't need to buy one from Sony. I purchased a good one because it will see a lot of foot and paw traffic. That's why I got a thick, well shielded HDMI cable.

Where can you buy a $10 HDMI cable? The cheapest I'm finding is $30, from Walmart.