Late Night Consoling

f true, for single-console owners, today's reports are likely to spark heated internet arguments about platform superiority, while multi-console GTA enthusiasts will have to start deciding on one version of the game--or both.

Both. :( I am such a sucker for shit like this.

"It's not just about graphics, it's about 7.1 audio, it's about speech, it's about having up to 1080p movies built into the game; it's high-res textures, it's animation, it's everything that goes into making a very rich and varied next-gen experience. Partly it's visual, partly it's sound, and partially it'll be down to gameplay benefits as well - more levels, more detail, richer experiences."

Harrison - and every 2nd Sony fanboy and all their other execs - makes it sound like more storage = better games, because that's one, maybe the only "hard fact" with which they can prove the PS3's superiority over other platforms. I'd be happy if it was that easy - for now I don't see how that advantage is anything but more of the same HD/next-gen hype concerning visuals and sound effects which seem to more and more replace the gameplay in videogames.

I don't wanna sound like a PS3 basher but seriously, of course if you give your devs 25 GB they're gonna use it (-> Parkinson's Law), and be it only to fit more language versions onto the same disc or duplicating content to allow for faster load times, or master their sound in higher quality - they do it because they can, not because they have to.

Still doesn't mean it's absolutely necessary for games (unless you're SquareEnix), in fact I don't see what exactly makes for better games that needs so much more storage when we have games like Oblivion (it's not the holy grail of gaming but it perfectly illustrates this point IMO) which fits on a DVD5 (ie. there would have been more room for better audio files...) and doesn't even remotely require 25 GB, not even installed and uncompressed on my harddrive, all while having great graphics (and I don't think current hardware, let alone that of Xbox 360 and PS3, could handle much more of it), a lot of gameplay and detail.

Yeah I know the examples of studios who had problems fitting their games on even a DVD9, like Tecmo (DoA4 has a buttload of FMV, tho), sports games (for their audio files) and whatnot. But for all I know, that's exceptions, and I can live with a handful of games shipping on two discs until most of them need can't be made to fit on 2 DVDs anymore...

PS3 Linux finally coming:

http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/news/2006/2006-10-17.shtml

Amiga reborn?

Oh man I just want to punch that Sony exec in the face, feeding the tech savvy some of the bullshit they say makes me ill.


"It's about 7.1 audio, it's about speech, it's about having up to 1080p movies built into the game; it's high-res textures, it's animation, it's everything that goes into making a very rich and varied next-gen experience,"


LOL no.

7.1 Audio is ALL about the audio chip on the PS3 processing the individual wav files into a 7.1 stream - this has NOTHING to do with space.
If the files are higher quality, longer or more of them yes ok then the space counts.

High res textures, well yes you can fit more, I won't deny but many current gen 9gb games look totally fine with 9gb - also there's compression - yes the 25gb can hold more yes there WILL BE a limit problem but pushing it like it's so important NOW is stupid.

What we DO have a problem with is this.

The optical drive needs to read the disc faster than DVD on the X360 since it's going to be opening "so much more" in the way of textures and sounds- you'll want a fast drive right (Admitedly Sony being smart enough to include a HDD on both models solves this somewhat)

The system needs more memory to handle all this audio and video it's apparently processing over the X360, guess what, it has the same amount.


I want to beleive, I want good news from Sony - I'd like SOME press releases to not be stupid shit - this however is just bullshit and just sounds stupid.

Harrison sounds more and more like his Japanese spin doctor colleagues every day.

OSHIT BLUE DRAGON

RSX is OLD its about G80........ Sony you are living in the past lol
Long Live Pc

So, has anyone run across a game yet on Live Arcade that is bigger than 64MB?

Mutant Storm Ultra looks totally hot:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAU-7NODelU

Seamless rooms and crazy pace.

What I want to know is when the hell they're finishing/releasing castle crashers on XBLA. That looks amazing!!

Correct me if im wrong, but arent the blue-ray discs large because its uncompressed media?

While regular DVDS are compressed?

So essentially its near the same ammount of content just in uncompressed format?

I read this somewhere a while back, so I could just be wrong.

XBLA continues to be the prime motivator behind my wanting a 360. Mutant Storm and Small Arms look HOT.

Anyone else laughing at the Phil Harrison stuff? How much more space does 7.1 audio take over 5.1 audio? And don't console games also do realtime audio positioning based on monaural sound effects positioned and mixed in the 3D world? Aside from textures, I'd think that the "1080p movies built into the game" would take up the most space. I'm a PC gamer at heart, but personally I think that FMV cheapens the experience unless they're using it for something that CAN'T be done feasibly using the game's 3D engine. Once you go over a certain amount of FMV clips, you might as well be watching a DVD movie.

And this one really gets to me: "DVD is not sufficient capacity to power the kind of data consumption, or to feed the data consumption needs of Cell and RSX - just purely as a gameplay device, we need Blu-Ray to supply the kind of data that PS3 games use." Uhh, what?! It's just storage; the only two factors are how much data can be stored, and how fast it can be read from disk into memory. DVD just limits it to 9 GB, and FWIH Blu-Ray isn't much faster than DVD right now in the first generation. It's probably true that the larger textures, videos, etc., than the PS2 require more than the DVD-ROM that the PS2 had, but I think this is yet another case of Sony putting "image" marketing first, and doing it in a pretentious manner. They need to create this aura that they are producing something that transcends normal technology, something that could not be conceived of by mere mortals. It's this attitude that makes Sony look so ridiculous when objective comparisons to competitors are performed.

IGN put up some nice direct feed Madden Wii videos. It shows and explains the controls, definately worth a watch for those interested.

if Apple were agressive they would have made a deal with Sony and let PS3 ship with OSX.

What about gta4 on PC? all, none, both, unique?

Can't wait for Incredible Machine on xbox live arcade. I guess it's a ways off though. :(

this exclusive stuff has had me wondering for a while. aside from being paid off by the console manufacturer what incentive would there ever be of a company to make an exclusive game? especially now where the 360 and PS3 are so close in graphical power, is there even going to be a reason to buy both consoles?

I went looking for a Remo post and wow.. just wow.
Did anyone realize that Remo has 19110 posts since he started?

ummm... "we are not worthy".

Seriously though, keep up the good work.

Anyone play Star Fox Assault?

I was just on the last boss. Her 2nd form was killer. My hands and forearm are so sore right now from the rapid pressing of the A button. I came millimetres close to ending her life in 3rd form twice before I game overed. I was repeatedly missing all the supplies that were getting sent back to me too. Man, this is a good game.

Lumines!!, I told you so!

Haha, I don't care as long as I get to play GTAIV and it's fawkin' awesome.