PS3 General Discussion

[iceburns288]

^it's a physics demo, not a game demo... I don't think they really care. You're supposed to be looking at the boxes!

 

[rubyracer]

Sony Worldwide Studios head Phil Harrison is currently delivering his Game Developers Conference keynote, entitled "PlayStation 3: Beyond the Box", revealing more of Sony's plans for PlayStation 3, which is due to launch worldwide in November.

We understand he began by making a reference to digital distribution, so there should be more on that soon. He started by, in the words of our correspondent, "banging on about PlayStation 2" - and David Jaffe joined him on stage to talk about God of War 2 (we've heard of it...) and show off a video. It's going to be playable at E3, and will be one of the games that ensures people play PS2 for ages after PS3 is out, says Harrison.

Moving onto PSP, Harrison reiterates what company head Ken Kutaragi said in Japan last week - that the next update will include RSS feeds and Shockwave Flash support, and that video messaging and a camera adapter are due in October. Also this October, PSP network downloads - as in games, although UMD releases will continue. So that's PSone content, as promised by Big Ken, downloadable from the Internet, but also original content too.

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Harrison also talks about connecting PSP to PS3 wirelessly, and how the former will be able to view PS3 content - video being a safe bet (and something our finger-frenzied San Franciscan correspondent might've done well to clarify for us eh?). LocoRoco video shown, too.

Now he's onto the PS3. And he's apologised for all that LOD/Loads of Ducks stuff from last year. To make up for it, he has a new demo from the team that did the ducks one - thousands of fish moving around underwater in shoals, with accurately modelled water, sunrays penetrating the surface, and so on. Moving on, he says PS3 production will ramp up faster than either PSone or PS2, and that the November launch includes Australia and Asia-outside-Japan, as expected. We've also heard that there'll be full 1080p resolutions for those who can handle them in both NTSC and PAL regions.

Continuing to intersperse the info we all want with demos and things, Harrison's now introducing a video of soldiers getting blown up and ragdolled around. There's also a demo from the SCEE London team of a highly detailed car model, which then gets mercilessly shot to pieces with all the bits modelled accurately. Apparently the bullet holes have realistically flaking paint, windows shatter, parts fall off as their bolts are shot out - and all this is from an unannounced game, he says.

And now he's onto Blu-ray, which many susp(wait a second! No time for commentary-commentary!)... for which he reckons the storage to system ratio is perfectly balanced. Presumably that's a dig at Microsoft's use of DVDs. Ducks! Ducks are funny! Blu-ray will allow publishers to launch games on a single disc for every global market, so one SKU for the whole world, Harrison adds.

ZOMG, a PS3 game! WarHawk is being demoed in real-time, according to our correspondent, with shots of flying through clouds, over the ocean, as hundreds of ships and missiles cluster around capital ships in the sky (WarHawk was one of the games shown in pre-rendered sequences at last year's E3, obviously). Naturally the producer then gets up and says how easy it was to develop for PS3, and that WarHawk will be playable at E3.

With WarHawk back on its perch, Harrison's moving on to "PlayStation Network Platform", which is an internal name. Starts by reiterating details announced in Tokyo last week, of how Sony is building a massive network and publishers can do their own thing if they really want to. Moving onto clarification of last week's info, he says that game applications can be launched direct from the hard disk - no disc required. Total digital distribution is possible.

Then the crowd's shown work-in-progress pictures of the network system, with video chat windows overlaid on games - much like the stuff shown at E3, by the sound of it. Emails and so on can be sent without leaving a game, like on Xbox 360. Next up it's online shops within MotorStorm and F1, integrated with the graphical style of those games so that people can download new cars, tracks and so on. There's a lot of Xbox Live esque functionality being shown, including pop-up notification windows.

This ought to be a good acid test for crowd reaction - apparently a real-time MotorStorm demo is on display. MotorStorm was one of the most controversial of the E3 videos last year, but early reports from our man (yes, it is a man) suggest that there's plenty of mud flying around and dust going everywhere, HDR effects and highly detailed visuals. Hmm, mud-slinging... Wheels leave wet mud trails which are persistent, says Harrison; as they dry out, they change the contours of the ground and mess with your suspension realistically. Vehicles get dirty from the mud, with wet spray that dries over time (it's all very hair-drier-fun-time, isn't it?), and, naturally, we're to expect more at E3.

Then it's onto a new Insomniac Games FPS, Resistance: Fall of Man, featuring lots of aliens, clever weapons (our man says), although not a lot of environmental physics apparently. We'll see. At E3. Whee. "One thing that's interesting," says our man as we FOOLISHLY start to quote him directly, "is having some weapons which use physics stuff on the SPUs." What?

[Waves at Gaming Age Forum] Hi guys!

Another Insomniac demo, non-interactive. A fantasy world - "very like the city in Fifth Element" says our man despite our pleas for him not to editorialise. "Flying cars, huge baroque skyscrapers." Baroque eh? Ooh I read a book once la-di-dah! And then a ship floats past with the Ratchet & Clank logo on it, apparently.

Digital distribution is a major change for our industry, says Harrison, and talking about it will be a big deal at GDCs for years to come. There's a new initiative afoot to launch online-only PSP and PS3 content developed by SCE Studios. There's even a website for it: www.playstation.com/beyond. Ooh look, so there is! "Partnerships resulting from EDI [E-Distribution Initiative] will allow the developers' downloadable games to be published for individual purchase or subscription over SCE's direct distribution methods," it says.

Singstar's next on the agenda, and finally there's talk of downloadable tracks via the Internet; also customisable backdrops, the ability to store videos and photos within Singstar and share with the community - it's all about turning Singstar PS3 into "a next generation experience".

And that's your lot! Following a video of Singstar PS3, Harrison leaves the stage. Thanks for reading/putting up with all this/hi Mum.

I've seen the video coverage for this Sony announcement.I like the trailers of the game lineup for PS3. Have you seen the Super Gory, it's a cool game!

 

[a6m5]

OHHH YEEEHHH, this will own M$ now, they totally pulled out all the stops.

Too bad they couldn't do that for the Dragon Quest VIII/PS2, but better late than never. I'm glad.

 

[KENJIusa]

I've seen the video coverage for this Sony announcement.I like the trailers of the game lineup for PS3. Have you seen the Super Gory, it's a cool game!

Where did you get the video?

 

[Solid Lifters]

New Controller Revealed at 2006 E3

Today (22 March, 2006) at the GDC, Sony’s president of the Computer Entertainments Worldwide Studios devision Phil Harrison announced that the PS3 controller will be redesigned before launch come this November.

Apparently the (boomerang) design which most of us have come to develop a serious dislike for has been ditched for a band new design which is expected to be unveiled at the E3 in May.

So now the question remains, what will the “new” controller look like? Well we see Sony revert back to a more traditional controller similar to the PS2, or could Sony possibly go the Nintendo route with something new and completely innovative?

In most likelihood we wont find out until the E3 in May.

 

[a6m5]

New Controller Revealed at 2006 E3

Today (22 March, 2006) at the GDC, Sony’s president of the Computer Entertainments Worldwide Studios devision Phil Harrison announced that the PS3 controller will be redesigned before launch come this November.

Apparently the (boomerang) design which most of us have come to develop a serious dislike for has been ditched for a band new design which is expected to be unveiled at the E3 in May.

So now the question remains, what will the “new” controller look like? Well we see Sony revert back to a more traditional controller similar to the PS2, or could Sony possibly go the Nintendo route with something new and completely innovative?

In most likelihood we wont find out until the E3 in May.

I didn't like the boomerang either, so I'm glad. Something similar to Nintendo Revolution controller sure would be interesting, but I somehow doubt it. Unlike most PS2 fans, I don't think I've ever liked Playstation controllers, so I hope it's a brand new design.

 

[Solid Lifters]

^it's a physics demo, not a game demo... I don't think they really care. You're supposed to be looking at the boxes!

But wood boxes don't move like that when you shoot them with a pistol. But, I guess the boxes moving is more the point of the demo, and not how they were moved. But, whatever...

 

[Tenacious D]

I was thinking it would be more of a "final gen" demo too, so I was a little disappointed. But looking at it for what it is, a first step, it was really glorious. You can tell from the ever increasing stuff banging around that the physics of the engine is very good, from the ballistics of the non-breakables to the way the boxes and aircraft shattered. The plane wreck at the end was excellent. The columns of cargo behaved much like you see real objects react when slammed into.

Oh, and I agree that Sony is pulling out all the stops for a massive 2001 style opening extravaganza for the PS3 launch. I also dreamed that Solid mentioned in his E3 post about game content being run from the hard drive as well as the Blu-Ray disc. Including... wait for it... the option to rip your purchased games to the hard drive to reduce loading time drastically. Now this is unlikely, unless this is part of the security system which was part of the PS3 launch delay. Wouldn't that be awesome for massive games like Half Life if we could rip our games to the drive for seamless loading of huge areas? More than likely, that will be the domain of downloadable games, but who knows? This is the future...

Oh yes! And downloadable content, like race cars and tracks! Yes YES YES!!

 

[rubyracer]

Where did you get the video?

I got from some post in another forum if you like I can share it with you.

It's attached to this post.

 

[rubyracer]

^it's a physics demo, not a game demo... I don't think they really care. You're supposed to be looking at the boxes!

yeah physics demo.

 

[Master_Yoda]

^it's a physics demo, not a game demo... I don't think they really care. You're supposed to be looking at the boxes!

Whatever, i kinda bugged me though, o well it was fantastic and i can't wait for stuff like that!

 

[Max_DC]

OHHH YEEEHHH, this will own M$ now, they totally pulled out all the stops.

A region code free PS3, I'm in heaven. 👍 ... I think I might even have to use these smilies : .

No really, that made my day. I didn't believe the rumours until today

....

 

[rubyracer]

A region code free PS3, I'm in heaven. 👍 ... I think I might even have to use these smilies : .

No really, that made my day. I didn't believe the rumours until today

....

yeah it is and it's not a rumor anymore it's confirmed by Sony President Phil Harrison himself.

If you want details on this news article, here.

 

[tha_con]

Yeah nice video, but it was sooo unrealistic. I know it was never on realism but 2 things caught my eye.

1.) No recoil.
2.) It's impossible to shoot a Desert Eagle with 1 hand. It's to powerful, it would jump right off your hand.

are you serious?

funny.

 

[Solid Lifters]

GDC Video!

 

[slackbladder]

Region free games is nice. And there's a good chance that when a game is made it will be ready for all territories due to it being on Blu-Ray which has the capacity to store extra subtitles and even audio for dialogue in Japanese and English. Hopefully this will speed up the launch of games from Japan to the West and vice-versa.

 

[Solid Lifters]

Region free games is nice. And there's a good chance that when a game is made it will be ready for all territories due to it being on Blu-Ray which has the capacity to store extra subtitles and even audio for dialogue in Japanese and English. Hopefully this will speed up the launch of games from Japan to the West and vice-versa.

Don't forget about the NTSC PAL SECAM issue, too. This might be the only thing blocking redgion free gaming. Has anyone ever experienced this problem before?

 

[livemusic]

Some PAL games are coming with a 50/60Hz selector these days, maybe they could all implement this for the PS3, be it a PAL or an NTSC release.

 

[Sprite]

solid thanks for the video. dose it show the game trailers in a decent way?

And yes to the region free gaming. Its made possible by blue-ray, because instead of making one game per region with the languages for each seperate, the studios can have all languages on one disk, also with the NTSC and PAL regions ditched this also help region free along greatly.

only if you have a Hi-Def set that is, for us that have older TV's PAL and NTSC will obviously be a sticking point, but im sure people arnt stupid enough to buy games that wont run on there TV's, the people who import games already have the Knowlage about what they need, only new comers to the import game will have teething problems. I personally dont see a problem

 

[livemusic]

Oh, that's right. I forgot HDTV's don't have PAL/NTSC issues. Actually even a regular TV using component cables can display both systems.

 

[Sprite]

GDC 06: Eyes-on The (Manipulated) Getaway
Phil Harrison proves last year's demo real.

March 22, 2006 - Following the cooling-off period from last year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, Sony Computer Entertainment President of Worldwide Studios, Phil Harrison had something to prove. "People didn't believe that The Getaway demo was real-time," he said during his keynote address today at GDC. "I'm going to bring back the same demo today to prove that it was."

And that's exactly what Harrison did. Booting up the same scene from The Getaway shown at last May's event, the president moved the camera around to show everyone that it wasn't a pre-rendered movie at all. Shifting camera perspectives, he zoomed in and out of London's Piccadilly Circus and revealed new angles to a stage that hadn't been seen before.
Yes, it's impressive looking isn't it?

Sadly, there wasn't much else to the demo other than that. Cars moved realistically down the road; people walked the sidewalks; light reflected off glass and metallic surfaces. It all looked well and good, and as my colleague Chris Roper put it, "It had HDR out the *expletive deleted*!" (For the unfamiliar, HDR is short for 'High Dynamic Range,' which essentially means the manipulation of an image between its brightest and darkest areas beyond the current standard of modern displays.)

Straightforward as it may have been, the demo was used to prove a point. Harrison wanted to show the crowd why having the Blu-ray storage format was so important. This simple Getaway scene in particular, was so huge in terms of its data (hundreds of MBs), that without the Blu-ray, building the environment wouldn't be possible. It's an advantage that the 50 Gigs (on a dual-layered BD-ROM) can bring to content developers -- the opportunity to build and stream bigger, more detailed worlds.

What will all this mean for the final version of The Getaway when it comes out sometime before the apocalypse? Obviously we don't know yet, but if the finished game looks anything like the demo we could be in for a real treat.

Source:-IGN

Goes to prove that those games that developed for PS3 including GTA6 and others, they will have to be lowered in quality to be put on the x-box, this is not because the 360 cant do it (because it most likley can) but because the games will be developed with BD in mind, and the 360 only has DVD, so games will either be lower in quality or on 3 to 5 DVD's. Sony was correct in using next gen opticla format, and who said that BD was never going to be used to the full. god I love Sony. (insert Kissing butt smilie)

[edit]

looksee here some screens of GDC, but it has screens of the car demo being shot up in the desert, and warhawk and motorstorm. cool. although a little small.

LINK

[edit #2]

Question: There's been some question over whether the hard drive will indeed be included with the PS3. Can you confirm either way?

Phil Harrison: As head of the software studios I don't want to be the one comment on the hardware, but I'll say this: developers are all designing their games to support the hard drive. All of our games are absolutely using the hard drive.

Question: Considering that you are doing a worldwide launch, what sort of steps are you taking to ensure that there will be sufficient numbers of units available at launch?

PH: I'm in charge of the software studios, not the manufacturing plant, but as you can see from our history, Sony has been very good about supporting our hardware launches. Yes, some consumers will be disappointed, unfortunately. But our ramp-up of over 1 million units per month is the fastest we've ever had.

Question: Are you going to be at a competitive disadvantage with Xbox 360 having a full year head start on the PS3?

PH: We've actually never been the first platform to the market in what would be considered the generation shift. I think what you've seen today and in our previous announcements is that we have a tremendous powerful hardware coupled with an excellent software backing. We're not concerned.

Question: You've announced that you're going to soon offer PS1 games on the PSP via emulation. Will these titles see any sort of upgrades in the process?

PH: That's a good question, and I don't have any answers at this point. The PS3 is certainly going to offer high definition display when PS1 and PS2 games are played on it. Technically, it's possible, though the headroom is obviously less than what we can accomplish on the PS3.

Question: Are we going to see user generated content as part of the PlayStation Network?

PH: Absolutely. We believe the power of the network is a construct of the people within the network. We've never had that two way communication before and we're very excited about the possibilities.

Question: What do you see with downloadable content on PS3?

PH: I want to push beyond the traditional gameplay we see in retail. For example, we want to be offering downloadable episodic content, whether it's game, music, television - or perhaps some combination of those. The possibilities are endless.

Question: The PS2 was widely regarded as difficult to program for - will the PS3 be similar?

PH: One of the criticisms of the PS2 was that while it was very powerful, it was also to harness this power. I accept that it was difficult to program for. That came down to the proprietary nature of the processors - but when you compare that to the general nature of the PS3's processors, it becomes much easier to work with. You can use more general purpose programmers, for example. That's also being coupled with far better tools for the developers. Those two together mean that the developers can produce higher performance faster on the PS3.

Question: Why not offer more (or all) titles via digital download?

PH: There's no restrictions as to what you could offer to download to the PS3, but there's a big difference in the rollout of broadband in various countries. I think we'll see some markets with high distribution and thusly higher downloadable content offerings. But Blu-ray will be the primary distribution method for the triple a games that you will see on the PS3. As for how the eventual shift to downloads will happen, we aren't the ones to control that, the consumers will.

Question: Will the PlayStation Network also be available on other Sony products? Will you also be able to use micropayments for things other than games?

PH: With regard to the network platform, the focus is around the PS3, but shortly it will extend to the PSP. As it relates to formats that aren't part of the Sony Computer Entertainment fold, that's not currently part of the plan, but I see no reason why it couldn't extend into other areas. I see no reason why you couldn't use micropayments to pay for music or any other digital file.

Question: Would it be fair to assume that the titles you showed today are launch titles for the PS3?

PH: All of that will be answered at E3. It would be hard for me to speculate now, with the launch in November. I think it's fair to assume that the ones we showed you are going to be more advanced, though. In fact, that demo we showed of Resistance: The Fall of Man was created for a meeting in December; that code has been running since December. As you'll see at E3, you'll see some real innovations as they move onto the final hardware.

Question: Will the free PlayStation Network allow things like multiplayer gaming?

PH: While there will be content offerings that will be premium, we are aiming to have a free platform, so things like multiplayer gaming will be free. We have no plans to charge for that at the moment.

Question: Did you not show the new version of the PS3 controller because of the Immersion lawsuit?

PH: That has no impact on why we didn't show the controller. The controller will be revealed at E3.

Question: Are all models of the PS3 going to be region specific. What about the games?

PH: The thing that makes the games region free or not is different than what makes the hardware different. With the power voltage and things like that, the hardware will need to be specific to a region. Software, however, will be region free. It's possible for developers to put all the TV formats - PAL, NTSC, HDTV, and so on - on the disc.

lovely just lovely make me want to weep.

 

[Maven]

So... how soon do you think we'll see the Xbox720 show up?

 

[Sprite]

here is a little something, playsyde has a WMA audio file from GDC, I dont know what the quality is like and I dont know hat is contained, but im downloading it now.

I just hope it contains stuff we dont already knowm (I doubt it tho)

[edit]

The file didnt start to download so I will give it a miss.

 

[Omnis]

yousendit.com, dude.

 

[livemusic]

He couldn't download the file, not upload.

 

[Sprite]

Link

This link for that audio file worked for me, let us know. its in WMA format and the quality isnt good, but its all there. This is the whole Keynote from start to finish.

 

[KENJIusa]

GDC Video!

Downloading, thank you very much Solid:tup:

 

[slackbladder]

solid thanks for the video. dose it show the game trailers in a decent way?

And yes to the region free gaming. Its made possible by blue-ray, because instead of making one game per region with the languages for each seperate, the studios can have all languages on one disk, also with the NTSC and PAL regions ditched this also help region free along greatly.

only if you have a Hi-Def set that is, for us that have older TV's PAL and NTSC will obviously be a sticking point, but im sure people arnt stupid enough to buy games that wont run on there TV's, the people who import games already have the Knowlage about what they need, only new comers to the import game will have teething problems. I personally dont see a problem

Well, DOA4 for the 360 only plays in 60hz. For some that might be a problem, but for the majority it's not. There are 4 tv's in my house from 7 yrs old to 6 months and all can take 60hz (though my Samsung DLP does'nt like 1080i@60hz for some reason). It's a safe bet that all tv's made in the last 5 years are compatabile with both 50hz and 60hz. And whilst it's perfectly reasonable for games to have 50hz/60hz options (or in the cas of the 360 you set it to 50hz or 60hz) it's likely that most games will come play at 60hz, with or without an option. It should'nt be a problem anymore. TV's around the world are getting pretty standardized nowadays.
The only thing that might stop a game getting a release in Japan, the US and Europe may be the inital cost and time it takes to do all the localisation in one go. Why do Final Fantasy games take so long to reach the West? Because a lot of text has to be translated and programmed into the game which takes time. Will developers wait until it's all done before shipping to all territories? Or will they spend more money to get it all done and then releasing it?
Wait and see, I guess. Worst comes to the worse, just import!

About Harrisons Q&A (as reported in www.gamespot.com and above) I'm a little concerened about the HDD. Though it's true Harrison is not a spokesman for hardware it would suggest by his answer that a decisiion about the inclusion of a HDD has yet to be made. IF all PS3 games need it then it must be so. So why not say "Yes, a 60GB HDD will be included"? I can't help thinking there's a shadow hanging over the HDD!

 

[Solid Lifters]

Link

This link for that audio file worked for me, let us know. its in WMA format and the quality isnt good, but its all there. This is the whole Keynote from start to finish.

Do you get to watch it? What was shown? The link you provided has been blocked. The only video I know of so far is the one I provided, but if I find another one, if there is another one, I'll get it.

 

[amar212]

So... how soon do you think we'll see the Xbox720 show up?

You wouldn't even believe how close are you to the possible truth.

X360 just can't fight the PS3, not even with the expected serious price-slash in November in the launch-time of PS3, or Halo 3 release - which is just a PR figure since no smart bussines can't rely on just one title to steal the market position of PS3.

X360 is a great piece of hardware, but is produced for "now". PS3 is fully produced for "tommorow". Without some serious revamping of hardware - or even launching a brand new console - X360 will lost the 2nd NG War big time. Nintendo could easily take the 2nd place on the market from them.

Sony has "sold the brick" to MS with the whole "Blu-Ray vs. HDDVD" hoax. Today it is claearly visible that Blu-Ray wil become the future HD standard for both movie, computer and entertainment industry. BR-R are being produced, the price is still very high but it will go stumbling down before 2008. And no real consumer or industry demand - except for the piracy-related issues - will not be so worldwide-high before the end of 2007 for all BR-Recordable media and devices. Toshiba and Sony were partners from 2002 and all this "BR vs. HDDVD" issues were just smart industry-move towards preparing the market for more expensive but still more versatile and advanced media. But, Microsoft had no choice and noe their position is very bad in that specific area.

Also, digital distribution of games - which all MS's people are talking about when speaking about "no real need for NG drive" - is just not going to happen in next five years. It is almost impossible to make a bussines model that would work worldwide with enourmous differencies of Internet standards and speeds before 2009 or even 2010.

And now Sony has made region-free announcement for PS3 games, free-online playing is promised, PSone titles will become playable on PSP - which will make the PSP No. 1 platform in the handheld nodoubtfully - and they will steal the E3 conference once more.

My prediciton - the first announcement will come sometimes during 2007 and console will be launched during 2008.

Of course, MS can always stick to X360 hardware-spec and design for next 3 or 4 years, but somehow I think the money loss in hardware sales would be enourmous.

I just hope that we'll be able to swith our X360 for the new console for some small fee or for free, because buying a 3 consoles from Microsoft in 5 years is a big no-no even for my console-porn-obssesion.