A PS3 Hands-On Report? 105
Via a Joystiq post, a story on the site Kikizo which claims to have hands-on experience with the PS3. From the article: "Firstly however, the box. The stylish PlayStation 3 casing design that SCEI boss Ken Kutaragi revealed last year is, and always has been, empty - and no signs of a final, tangible casing solution appear to be in sight. 'I think to fit everything that Sony wants in there AND leave space for a 2.5 inch hard drive,' explains one senior developer working on a final kit, who will be our guide for much of this report, 'the machine would have to grow. The models they're showing off are way too small for what they want.'" Please view this with the appropriate amount of skepticism.
Regardless of the Unit (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Regardless of the Unit (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Regardless of the Unit (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Regardless of the Unit (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Regardless of the Unit (Score:2, Insightful)
not necessarily, since that machine had no network access hence no way to keep tracks of people. and DRM that has no upgrade or remote control options can only hope to work by disallowing ALL use.
Re:Regardless of the Unit (Score:2)
Re:Regardless of the Unit (Score:2)
Re:Regardless of the Unit (Score:1)
Re:Regardless of the Unit (Score:2)
Re:Regardless of the Unit (Score:2, Insightful)
The horribly low sellback value of videogames etc already makes me feel like I've been taken advantage of
Uh, that's because you are being taken advantage of. If you must sell your games then have a yard sale or use ebay. You can then charge just under what your local gamestore will and lose less money.
If you find yourself frequently selling games back then you shouldn't have purchased them to begin with. With that usage pattern I believe you'll find the game rental services a cheaper alternative once
Re:Regardless of the Unit (Score:2)
I dont do math, I dont have time, i have games to play...
Re:Regardless of the Unit (Score:3, Informative)
Live Arcade games are "locked" to your profile. As long as the system can see your profile (e.g., it's on the hard drive or memory card in the system), everyone on the system has full use of any games that profile has purchased. But once the profile goes away, all the Arcade games "automagically" turn into game-demos.
It's a pretty convenient system in a lot of ways: If
Re:Regardless of the Unit (Score:1)
This is Slashdot, we've already got plenty to complain about with Microsoft.
Why get angry about $5? (Score:2)
Re:Regardless of the Unit (Score:2)
I had a Xbox with about 10 XBLA games and a ton of paid downloadable content on it (golf courses among other things)...my daughter killed the Xbox by spilling some juice on it. When I bought a replacement console, there was no way to retrieve (without paying) those games (and add-ons) I had previously purchased.
But when I sold my second Xbox, the new owner wa
Re:Regardless of the Unit (Score:1)
'I wonder why that ire doesn't extend to MS?'
because
'If you're at someone else's house (or lose your hard drive, delete games for more space, or need to replace your system), you can save your profile on a memory card or restore it from Live and all your Arcade games can be redownloaded at no cost.'
Its barely more restrictive than taking the actual disk around to a friends house. The Blu-ray technology would require you to take your entire system round just to demo some game
Rootkit (Score:1, Flamebait)
Re:Rootkit (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Rootkit (Score:1)
Re:Doesn't Add Up (Score:1)
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-250632.html [com.com]
haha. Thanks for the link. The Toy Story part isn't even the best bit of the article. This is:
Fries said Microsoft hasn't settled on target numbers for initial Xbox sales, but he said the European release of the console was delayed until next year mainly because the company wants to have a strong launch in the United States and Japan.
"We don't want to disappoint gamers," he said, in a not-so-veiled reference to Son
Re:Doesn't Add Up (Score:2)
Re:Doesn't Add Up (Score:2)
Don't worry, the PS3 will be the most powerful machine on the market...
Caddies? (Score:2)
Re:Caddies? (Score:2)
Seriously: They probably don't care if your disc gets scratched. In fact, it is good for business, as Sony makes a lot of money off game sales.
Caddies are also an added mfg expense. The cheaper game discs + packaging are, the higher your profit margin.
One thing it would fix is the tendancy for some consoles to scratch discs. In a caddy, no readable part of the disc would ever be near something that could scratch it.
Re:Caddies? (Score:1)
This must be why Sony made it a point not to add plastic caddies to UMDs!
Oh, that's right, they did add them to UMDs. I guess you're just making things up.
Re:Caddies? (Score:2)
Compare that to the PSP. The PSP is designed to be moved around. They had to caddy the discs otherwise people would have ruined them fast. When playing a PSP you may be walking, in a car (which could
Re:Caddies? (Score:1)
I guess you missed the great portable CD player revolution of 1984. Strangely, also ushered in by Sony [sony.net].
One more try, and then the stuffed bear is mine.
Re:Caddies? (Score:2)
To point out, I guess Sony also missed "the great portable CD player revolution of 1984" when they designed their PS2 and it started scratching up discs like a crazed DJ.
The problem was a poor design. One plastic part would start wearing out and the disc would end up getting nice spiral scratches in it... Just because Sony did something right once, doesn't mean they won't fark it up later.
Re:Caddies? (Score:3, Interesting)
The main reason for the PSP caddies are probably so they can be put in a pocket or something like that. They are still open, but they would survive better than a "naked" disc.
I've always been surprised that we haven't been using CD or
Re:Caddies? (Score:1)
Re:Caddies? (Score:2)
No, they were oversized floppy disks in cartridges. And they were never very popular.
Re:Caddies? (Score:2)
Re:Caddies? (Score:2)
However, by the time Jazz came out, Iomega was on its last legs. When they were even remotely popular, it was the ~100MB floppy disks. I don't think they sold very many of their HD models at all.
Re:Caddies? (Score:1)
Re:Caddies? (Score:2)
Re:Caddies? (Score:1)
Re:Caddies? (Score:2)
Re:Caddies? (Score:2)
Re:Caddies? (Score:2)
Re:Caddies? (Score:1)
Re:Caddies? (Score:2)
Re:Caddies? (Score:1)
Re:Caddies? (Score:1)
what was the application? DTS audio units in a theater. 2 SCSI drives per soundtower/theater, 8 of the 10 theaters with DTS audio. 2 of the 8 theaters had trays, the rest were caddies. i changed at least 1 drive out every single tower with cad
Re:Caddies? (Score:1)
Why can't they add a caddie to each and every BlueRay media? You know, like the very first CD drives had: a piece of plastic about the disc itself so it's protected from dust, fingerprints, and scratches to the most precious surface area?
They have, it's called a DVD/Jewel case. I find this works very well in protecting my media.
Summary (Score:5, Informative)
The case we've seen for the PS3 is empty, and many developers are not convinced that sony will actually be able to fit everything into the case they've designed. The current development machines are towers. Along with a possibly redesigned case, Sony seems to be redesigning the controller, but is planning to keep the basic dual shock2 layout.
As for the graphics, looking at games running in realtime there is certainly nothing as impressive as the Killzone trailer, but but MGS4 trailer seems realistic to be ran in realtime. The graphics right now seem to be about equal to the "creme of the crop" 360 titles, and while the PS3 will certainly be able to provide better graphics than the 360- it will probably be a fairly marginal difference.
One thing to remember is that, while the PS3 may not be able to produce graphics that are substantially nicer looking than on the 360- it does seem to handle many more objects on screen at once.
Game developers seem to be targetting 720p as the target resolution. Developers aren't really expecting games to run at 1080p because the system isn't powerful enough to do 1080p at a reasonable resolution (or even 1080i)- but the PS3 is capable of doing some nice upscaling to 1080p. Dual 1080p output is a joke at this point.
The spring '06 release date isn't looking very likely. Developers are predicting summer 06 for Japan and a fall 06 or winter 07 release for the US and Europe.
Re:Summary (Score:2)
Re:Summary (Score:2)
This seems silly, because this shot of Old Snake [ign.com] is far more impressive than this shot from the KZ trailer [ign.com].
The interesting things about the latter are the 16:9 ratio, the high-res textures, and the hair/fabric. But compare that to Snake's hair in the first one. Or the sweat trickling down his face. Or some of the amaz [ign.com]
Bad Signs (Score:2)
What the 360 does (Score:1)
And to clarify a bit more... (Score:2)
720p vs 1080p (Score:5, Insightful)
This seems to be key. Higher resolution does not always equal better image quality. When you boost the resolution of a shot, you reduce the amount of processing available for each pixel. If these systems are 10x the power of current systems, going from 640i to 1080p will consume 8x that power, giving you basically today's graphics, but sharper.
Some games would be wise to spend those clock cycles on higher resolutions. Geometry Wars, for example, would be great candidate for 1080p. Others should spend the clock cycles on effects, like the swirling clouds in survival horror games. Still others should be looking towards more intelligent character interactions (I'm looking at you, tactical squad shooters with AIs that runs blindly into death).
Personally, I feel that 640p ought to be enough for any game. Higher resolutions would be nice too, but better dynamic lighting, cloth effects, water effects and hair effects would be better. Higher resolutions expose poly problems and any effects shortcomings more, so it is best to shore these up first anyway.
Guaranteed placement on-screen would be great too. You're losing something like 30% of your usable screen area simply to not being sure that an edge pixel is an edge pixel. Ever wonder why the HUD floats annoyingly close to the middle of the screen? That's why.
And can we please stop putting an environment map on absolutely everything? Old stones in run-down castles are not high-gloss.
Re:720p vs 1080p (Score:2)
Re:720p vs 1080p (Score:1)
1080p pointless anyway, except on projectors (Score:5, Interesting)
The human eye has limited resolution, and there's little benefit to be had by exceeding that, so unless you have a very large screen (or you like to sit unusually close), you simply can't tell the difference between 720p and 1080p at "normal" viewing distances on an average-sized HDTV. Some numbers:
The average eye is capable of resolving one minute of arc, a sixtieth of a degree. This equates to roughly 300 dpi, when viewed at a distance of one foot. Let's say the average distance from a couch to a TV is 7 to 10 feet. At 7 feet, you can resolve 300/7 = 43 dpi, at 10 feet it's 30 dpi.
So in order to fully resolve a 720p picture (1469 pixels diagonally) at 7 feet, the TV would have to be at least 34 inches diagonally to make out all the detail. At 10 feet you'd need a rather large 50 incher. For true 1080p, even at 7 feet, anything under 50 inches and you're missing out - and at 10 feet you'd have to get a whopping 74 inch TV!
Of course, for computer monitors, where you sit much closer (say 18 inches), it's a different story - optimal resolution really ought to be 200 dpi (for a 24" widescreen monitor, that's an amazing 4183 x 2353, or one of these [wikipedia.org]). But if you're on a couch, you probably don't need true 1080p unless you're watching a projector on an 80" screen, or unless you spent so much money on your TV that you can't afford a decent-sized loungeroom.
Re:1080p pointless anyway, except on projectors (Score:2)
Second, is that no-one on this planet seems to understand what a native resolution is, if you have to upscale or downscale you will lose picture quality! Having a 1080p output (which almoat 0% of hdtv support as their native resolution) and a 720p hdtv. means that you will lose information and that picture quality will be
Re:1080p pointless anyway, except on projectors (Score:2)
That's total BS.
90%+ of the people buying the PS3 and the Xbox 360 will be expecting it to drive an SD 480i or 576i display. The talk about HD capabilities are just posturing for the gaming media. Most people don't, and won't have HD displays for this console generation.
Re:1080p pointless anyway, except on projectors (Score:1)
This is a bit simplistic. Calculating the rough optics of the lens of the eye may tell you what you can resolve for a still image if your head is standing perfectly still, but it has nothing to do with the way the eye a
Re:720p vs 1080p (Score:2)
I believe that's spelled 640k.
In other news, limits get pushed back as technology advances. Our grandchildren will need to be reminded that 640 doesn't mean 640 thousand, and it's going to take us a long, long time to explain to them such eventually moot points as anti-aliasing.
Wonderful (Score:4, Insightful)
Y'know. More than IGN, Gamespot and every other game site around.
And you know what's worse? Them getting REWARDED for it. Because stupid editors at major sites decide that they'll throw HUGE amounts of traffic at articles that consist of lies, hyperbole and what amounts to stock photos.
Why is game journalism just a bunch of hot air and attention grabbing headlines? Slashdot, Joystiq - any other publication that decides to link to such rubbish. Well done, Kikizo. You've pulled the wool over their eyes - but most people will realise that you've not so much as got past security at any of Sony's offices.
Re:Wonderful (Score:3, Informative)
it's so huge! (Score:1)
i'm wondering if they got the huge desktop tower that "Josh" guy got at his workplace. or ex-workplace
Console manufacturers are out of step with (Score:1, Interesting)
Whats the point of having three completely proprietary platforms with virtually identical hardware specs, zero compatibility between them and no hardware upgrade path? Games just 2 to 3 years from now will need more RAM, beefier grap
Re:Console manufacturers are out of step with (Score:1, Redundant)
Re:Console manufacturers are out of step with (Score:4, Insightful)
If you want a PC then use one, don't try to turn a completely different system into one.
Re:Console manufacturers are out of step with (Score:2)
Re:Console manufacturers are out of step with (Score:5, Insightful)
Whats the point of having three completely proprietary platforms with virtually identical hardware specs, zero compatibility between them and no hardware upgrade path? Games just 2 to 3 years from now will need more RAM, beefier graphics chipsets and quite possibly hardware physics accelerators and the like. What do you do with your PS3/360/Revolution then? Throw it away? Buy a NextGen II console? What?
Sorry, but what Sony, MS and Nintendo are doing seems very 90s-thinking-applied-to-mid-00s-tech. Difficult to get excited about three proprietary consoles with no cross-platform compatibility.
Typical Slashdot idiocy. Let's review:
64bit Intel or AMD CPU
64-bit CPUs are really only helpful when you need to address more than 4GB of memory. There are other advantages, but most code is not significantly faster on AMD64 than it is on the same CPU running in 32-bit mode. Also, x86 CPUs are expensive - MS is no doubt getting an excellent deal on the CPU in the 360.
dev tools open to all developers
The majority of console profit comes from game licensing fees. Sony/MS/Nintendo gets paid for every game sold for their system. Why should they give this up?
a choice of Nvidia or ATI graphics hardware
No, no, no! Consoles are about having a standardized hardware platform. By changing that, developers now have to target a range of hardware with different capabilities, different performance, and different bugs. It makes development and debugging more difficult, and takes away the fundamental advantage of having a system that "just works".
a modular casing that allows for hardware upgrades and expansion cards
No, no, no, no, no! Again, the Slashdot reader misses the entire point of consoles. With a PS2, you can buy any system and any game and know that it will play the same way. Developers have one platform to target. Console add-ons have failed many times (32X, Sega CD, 64DD, PS2 HDD) for a very good reason - developers can't target hardware that is only installed on a minority of systems. You can't code a game that requires 1GB of memory if the base system only has 512M; the smart developer doesn't even bother coding for add-ons because only a minor percentage of users will actually be able to see any advantage.
What do you do with your PS3/360/Revolution then? Throw it away?
No, you keep it because it still plays the same games that it played 5 years ago. And you buy a new console. It's worked well for 20 years, why should we change it now? $400 every five years is still cheaper than whatever you would pay to "upgrade" some old system.
Upgrading went out of style in the mid-90s. It's not the console makers that are stuck in the past, it's you. Ever since Intel started using new chipsets for new CPUs, it hasn't made sense to upgrade the core system. Most people never open their system; why should they, when new PCs are so affordable?
Basically, your post boils down to, "I like PCs and hate consoles, so I'm going to claim that consoles are out of date and should be like PCs". Too bad that you're 10 years too late. Consoles are more popular than PCs for gaming, and for good reason - because the games offset the cost of the hardware, and because the hardware is game-tuned (e.g. no parts that aren't needed) and standardized (economies of scale make it cheaper), consoles are cheaper than PCs. And because of their standardized platform and long lifecycle, there's a bigger selection of games and you never have to worry about whether your system will be able to handle a particular game. Pop in the disc and play.
After 20 years, you would think that the PC gaming industry would have figured that out. They haven't, and neither have you.
Re:Console manufacturers are out of step with (Score:2, Interesting)
Consoles make improvements in leaps and bounds - back when the first edition Playstations came out, games like Metal Gear Solid (Metal Gear #3, MGS 1) had literally state of the art graphics.
PS3 Graphics (GPU) - It'll be using what is currently top of the line NVidia graphics, the RSX is supposed to be faster than even the holy 7800 GTX -
Where's the story? (Score:2)
Pink slip ahoy (Score:1)
In other news, Sony has recently laid off one of its senior developers on the PS3 project...
His biggest complaint... (Score:1)
maybe (Score:2)
Probably, but is the extra 2 FPS over the 360 really worth paying an extra $300+ for the worthless blu-ray drive?
Extremely vague? (Score:2)
Its mentioned in several parts of the article sony NDA wibt allow the writers to be specific about games or certain specs about the Ps3 but the result is so incredibly vague, is hard they actually had a ps3 or they were just guessing.
Other than a few pointers that could have taken from recent news posts or common sense (the devs are not using 1080), most of the information in the article is already well known, and the writing s