Mucha info nueva PS3 (GTA4, MGS4, Online, etc)

PSM escribió:PSM's information came from developers. Some on the record, some off.

....particularly when it comes to ease of development for the system: how it cmpares to PS2, and more importantly, Xbox 360. "The *****ing this round sounds opposite of the last. Both are friendly, but the PS3 may actually be friendlier," reports one of out PS2 and Xbox 360 development sources, who wished to remain anonymous. "People are finding that the [xbox] 360 has some stupid bottlenecks."

Developers will soon learn more about the ins-and-outs of creating PS3 games, as Sony has started taking orders for final development hardware to be delivered by December. At that time, game creators will be able to tell just how much mroe extra polish they can put on their titles without worrying about them crapping out on a retail PS3.

The latest on PS3's power

"Once we have final hardware for both next-gen systems, we'll have a much better idea of how they caompare, but teh general consensus right now is that the PS3 is considerably more powerful than the X360 across the board," said another source. "It's important to get a good idea of which is the most powerful soon, since multi-platform games will need to be either ported down from PS3 to 360 or vice-versa."

Speaking of multi-platforming games, another of our next-gen contatcts chimed in with the following when we asked them, flat out, which system will ultimatelyl have the best looking games. "Only the games that are exclusive to tiether system will be real technical showcases,"adding "There will be strong points for each, but the cross platform games will most likely look and perform almost identically."

PS3's Promising Online Support

In addition to all of the cool Wi-Fi-based PSP to PS3 functionality we've previously reported Sony is working on (transferring media and save data between the two anywhere in the world at a hotspot), there's some actual news to report on the online gameplay front. not only that, it's pretty good. (Although the gradual diminishing of Sony's PS2 online plans over that console's life will always have us taking their goals in this department with a grain of salt.)

PS3 is slated to have an actual online community ready to back it up on day one, complete with friend tracking, message services, and a central hub for everything. If it sounds like xbox Live, it should. Sony has been folloowing M$'s moves, and, well, plans to copy most of them, according to our sources. "They [Sony CEA] have a whole division that was put in place after the Network Adaptor was released for PS2 that bascially dropped focus on PS2 and moved to planning the PS3," says one designer working on an online PS3 title. "They knew that early that they were not going to compete during the current gen."

Ramping up for an early release?

There's been a lot of talk about Sony's E3 2005 proclamation that PS3 would ship in the spring of 2006. A lot. Would it be in Japan only, or were they talking about the U.S. too? Questioned further on teh topic, Sony execs have since stuck to their guns, saying that the system would be available worldwide before next summer. Is that even posssible?

Yes. However, there's the question of launch games and system price. (Ok, here it goes into some things about what Ken Kutaragi said (and a few other things) about the pricing, but we all already know about that so I wont' post it)

PS3 will have a limited playable presence at TGS 2005. Sony has told PSm to expect a significant presence for the system at January's CES in Las Vegas. If a March launch does occur, it owuld be accompanied by only a couple of first-party titles, another two to three from EA, and one title at most from their other thrid parties. Madden NFL football developer Tiburon has had PS3 dev hardware longer than almost any other U.S. developer. Rockstar North has had stable kits since at least August 2005.

There's a lot of talk among the PS3 developer community about the importance of being firt-to-market, or at least not letting M$ get too much of an installed base before PS3 ships. The general feeling is that Sony considers xbox 360 to be a possible contender in this generation, so they're not going to just rest on their laurels. In fact, developers report that Sony Japan is taking a much more hands-on role in the U.S. luanch of PS3 than it did with PS2 or PSP. Shades of the PS2 luanch, there.

GTA 4: Rebuilt from the Ground Up

The next GTA game is going to look really good. Actually, maybe that should be feel really good. It's a no-brainer that on the most powerful games console yet, one of our favorite series will have better graphics. But, base on developer Rockstar North's technical research, GTA4 will be more about immersion than just mere eye candy.

Rockstar North is creating a specialized game engine for PS3 that will rbing GTA 4 to life to a degree that the PS2 games could only hint at. Speciafially, they're going to be using the high data transfer bandwidth of the Cell CPU, RSX GPU, and Blu-ray Disc to use several streams of game info simultaneously. The game's city- unfortunately yet to be even hinted at- will still be free roaming and seamless, but broken down into smaller, more deatailed areas at the engine level, into which the game designers are going to eb able to pour more textures, more oject variety, and tons of details (such as discareded soda cans with their own physics), just for starters. The goal is a city that's less repetitive and where everything - and everyone- looks and acts mroe like they would in the real world on every level.


MGS 4 Becomes a War Zone

Pointless to post intro info...so onto the second paragraph...

One source has described the game to PSM as "a cross between Rambo and Black Hawk Down," with Solid Snake plunged into the middle of a high-intesntiy urban war zone where artillery is taking out cover all aroudn him and AI controlled "sidekicks" fight alongside him as if they were actual human-controlled characters. The new 3D camera will paly a big role in surviving the fight quarters and constantly changing cover.

Kojima has an update on teh game planned for TGS.

PSM escribió:PS3 Devs: On the Record
Andrew Goldman
Chief Executive Officer, Pandemic
Developer of: Mercenaries, Star Wars Battlefront II, Destroy all Humans

PSM: How will PS3's power translate into new game experiences?
AG: Having more memory translates quite litterally into AI entities having more memory. With more than ten times the RAM, we can collect and store a lot more information about the world, and how the player has interacted with it. We should see much more immersive and reactive environments in this generation.

PSM: Do you think the alck of a built-in HDD will hurt the PS3? Did it really help the Xbox?
AG: The hard drive on the Xbox was great for improving load times, but I don't think we, as game designers, ever found a unique and compelling way to use it.

PSM: Do you think M$'s early lead will have a significant impact on the PS3's future?
AG: You'll have to ask me this in 2006. It will depend on the strength of the 360 launch and Sony's ability to generate anticipation for the PS3 during M$'s launch. Sony has done this well before and if you look back the Dreamcast and Saturn being first is not always an advantage. The key question is where [on which system] and when will the first exciting game show up?

PSM: Why does the PS3 personally excite you, as a game designer?
AG: Pusing towards bigger more realistic worlds opens up significant design potential for the types of games we make. The realism will help us to broaden our appeal and make our game more understandable to a wider audience. That's all cool, but I think the really cool stuff will come down the raod as we see how this piece of hardware fits into teh wider world surrouding it.

How does it integrate with other forms of entertainment? How does it connect with other people? How odes it connect to other devices in the house? How does it allow us as a developer to maintain a constant connection with our community of consumers? This is all exciting stuff because it opens up a range of creative possibilities for developing totally new types of games. This is what will drive the next generation of hardware.

PSM escribió:PS3 Devs: On the Record
Mark Reign
Vice President, Epic games
Developing: Unreal Engine 3, UT 2007

PSM: What do you think about hardware features, such as the built-in Ethernet router, being cut from PS3? Also, will the lack of a built-in HDD be a drawback?
MR: I think they simply realized a router isn't a necessity. We always welcome a hard drive, and we'd love to see on in every unit, but we understand that we're getting a lot already: a high-end NVIDIA graphics processor, 512 Md of RAM and the Cell processor and Blu-ray disc. Given the choice of 256Mb and a hard drive or 512 Mb I'll take the 512 Mb or RAM every time.

PSM: Do you think Microsoft's early lead will have a significant impact on the PS3's future?
MR: That depends on how fast a start they get off to, how big a lead they can build and how Sony's strategy plays out. I think it is still too early to predict that because we dont' have any information about Sony's launch plans. I have a sneaky feeling we'll get that information a few weeks before Xbox 360 starts shipping to stores. [laugh]

PSM: Can Sony really take on Microsoft in online gaming this generation?
MR: I think they definitely have thier work cut out for them. xbox Live is a fantastic service that unifies the online experience for xbox customers. I dont' think it would be terribly difficult for Sony to come up with a similar online environment and I hope that they do. Imagine if Sony did but didn't charage a subscription fee for it? Now that would be a fight worth watching!

PSM: Since the ocst of making games is going to be greater, do you think that will lead to fewer games this generation?
MR: We make technology that makes it easier and less expensive for people to make games. We recently anounced a deal with Sony that will soon make it free for PS3 developers to try out Unreal Engine 3 toolset for PS3. it is my hope that putting these tools in developers' hands will promt enterprising developers to explore some cool orginal ideas. A game like Katamair Damacy, for expample, could easily be created in UE 3 for PS3, and I'm willing to guess it could be made for less than what it cost them to make it for PS2.

PSM escribió:The PS3 Game Lineup So Far

Activision
Spider-Man 3

Bandai
Mobile Suit Gundam

EA
NFSU 3
Madden NFL 2007
Medal of Honor
NBA Live 2007
Fight Night Round 3
Def Jam 3
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2007
New SSX
New Burnout

Majesco
The Darkness

Buena Vista Interactive
Pirates of the caribbean: dead man's chest

Capcom
Return of a "beloved fighting franchise" ( Super Street Fighter?)
New Ghouls N' Ghosts
DMC 4
RE 5

Rockstar
GTA 4
Western-themed action game (likely Red Dead Revolver 2)

Sony
New Team ICO project ( !!! )
Genji 2
Warhawk
I-8
The Getaway 3
Killzone 3
GT 5
New Hot Shots Golf
MotorStorm
Eyedentify
Heavenly Sword
Formula One 2007
New Wipeout
Sony Online Entertainment
Marvel comics MMORPG
Untitled Fantasy MMORPG

Namco
Tekken 6
Ridge Racer 6

Eidos
Tomb raider Next-gen

Lucas Arts
Star Wars: Clone Wars
indiana Jones (launch with new movie)

Konami
MGS4
Suikoden V
Castlevania

Midway
UT 2007
Mortal Kombat
Stranglehold

Atair
Test Drive Unlimited

THQ
New WWE Project

Sega
Fifth Phantom Saga
Sonic The Hedgehog
Condemned: Criminal Origans

Tecmo
Fatal Frame 4

Ubisoft
Prince of Persia 4
Killing Day

Koei
Ni-oh