PS3 Q&A Thread

[stray]

Umm....OK? That's how game purchasing has always worked. Especially launches.

[Velorath]

Umm....OK? That's how game purchasing has always worked. Especially launches.

Really?  Your game purchasing always revolves around getting excited about games that normally wouldn't interest you, just so you can justify your $600 purchase?  Seriously, I can understand getting excited about sequels to franchises you like, or new stuff coming from developers who have done games you liked in the past.  Something like Motorstorm especially though, I think nobody would be talking about had it released last year on the PS2 or even the 360.

[stray]

Dude, I just said I've been wanting to play it for awhile now. As far as not being thrilled by it, speak for yourself.

I can understand if it doesn't appeal to you. I wouldn't, and am not trying to convince you to like it. As far as I can tell though, I want this game. Me. Want. Been wanting. I like the shiny. I like the physics. I like the track design: I like the multiple tracks within a track thing, and I like that I can barely even see the track to begin with. I like the idea of smacking other racers like Road Rash. I like the fact that it's hard as shit to reach finish lines without crashing once. I'd play it for the simple purpose of trying to win 1st place on every course, and manipulating every vehicle and mechanic it has to offer. Like I do in all racing games.

Not sure why I have to justify my liking for this game, but there it is.

[stray]

Also, I'm an off road fanatic. It's the only kind of racing I watch with any kind of devotion (you can find old threads around here where I talk about it), and the only one I like participating in. And I like off road video games, whether they be goofy like this one or not.

[Velorath]

Dude, I just said I've been wanting to play it for awhile now.

You also brought up people talking on console forums.  This wasn't directed at you in particular.  The majority of the people I've seen getting excited about Motorstom on all the console forums I've frequented in the past few months have been the same people that get excited about every single PS3 exclusive that's been announced.  Either the popularity of off-road racing games blew up overnight, or there are a lot of people out there forcing themselves to get hyped up months in advance over a game they wouldn't even consider renting if it hadn't come out during a drought.

[stray]

You don't seem very enthusiastic about racing games to begin with, and I think you're projecting *just a bit*. Sure's there's people who get excited about these new titles for little reason, but off road video games aren't that unpopular. Hell, those ATV games have gone through several iterations on just the PS2 alone, starting with a launch title. Supercross, Motocross, and Baja games are a dime a dozen. Some *are* good. People genuinely do like them. And if the number of distinct titles are any indication, then they are more popular than crotch rocket games (which is a large, fanatical crowd as well).

[Velorath]

You don't seem very enthusiastic about racing games to begin with, and I think you're projecting *just a bit*.

Like I said I'm a big fan of racing games I can play split-screen on.  My brother, father, and I have literally played Burnout 3 for 3-4 hours at a time on several occassions (pretty much every time my brother is out here on leave we manage to get a few Burnout sessions in).  We played Rush a lot back on the N64 also.  I think games like Gran Turismo work well as single-player games due to the depth of the game and the amount of unlockables.  I enjoy racing games, but give me multi-player arcade action, or a primarily single-player simulation-style game.  Don't give me an arcade-stlye game though that I have to play online for multi-player.

[squirrel]

Racing games suck to play online, and unless it's a deeper simulation style game like Gran Turismo, they suck to play single-player also.

I quote you out of context to say "nyah ha!"

No actually I understand what you're saying - mindless arcadey racing games are almost Wii like in their need for a physical community to cheer and jeer while you're playing them. As a HUGE fan of racing in general I own a tonne of PC and Xbox racing titles and there seems to be 3 kinds of driving/racing games:

Arcade: Burnout, Motorstorm, Ridge Racer, ATV. I'm not a big fan of these in general personally but have enjoyed them on occasion and somewhat agree they are best when split screen or competitive in a room.

RPG/Tuner: Need for Speed, Midnight Club - these are totally fun games for me that I play solo. I like to build a super sized version of the car i have in RL (RX8) as well drive all the tuner imports I can't afford to play with.

Semi-Sim/Sim: PGR3, Colin McRae Rally, Forza, Gran Turismo, GT Legends, F1 Challenge - games I love and generally suck at that take dedication solo play to be able to even think about online play.

What's the point? Well for me the first group is like Wii tennis or bowling - it really only is fun after a few beers with friends that you can crash into. I've played MotorStorm for probably <4 hours but I couldn't see the appeal. Yes it's pretty. But it's the same game. Over and over. With no trappings or RPG development or anything. Dunno - I just don't see the appeal.

Which isn't to say it's a bad game at all, racing games are notoriously hard to get right for everybody.

EDIT: Re-reading this I have no idea what I'm trying to say. Go go Boddington's followed by red wine...

[stray]

Just to clarify, I totally wouldn't mind split screen for Motorstorm. It is a game with many of the party type trappings. Probably would be hilarious with friends.

That being said, I can still enjoy it solo or online.

[Strazos]

Since it was mentioned, I'm not crazy on the look of Lair. It's like they went overboard on the bump mapping or something. It like, looks Overly-sharp to me, and extremely unnatural (as far as games go).

[stray]

I'd be sold on Lair if it came on the Wii.

That being said, yeah, the dragons look kind of rough. On the plus side, there's a lot of stuff going on the screen to offset that (the weather and water looks great, it's able to display hundreds of soldiers at a time, buildings look cool and are destructible, particle effects are cool, etc).

But then again, I haven't seen any recent footage of it.

[stray]

So...

Ridge Racer is worth buying. Should have done that earlier.

NBA 2K7, crippled Project 8...What was I thinking?

[Velorath]

Looks like Motorstorm has been pushed back slightly from a Feb 27th release to "sometime in March", Heavenly Sword was listed for a time as being a March 6th release but is now back to a vague Q2/Q3 release date, and KOEI has pushed back both the PS3 and 360 releases of Fatal Inertia and Bladestorm to sometime in the Summer.

[schild]

Heh. I was gonna post about Fatal Intertia and Bladestorm. The latter being delayed really pisses me off.

[Velorath]

Heh. I was gonna post about Fatal Intertia and Bladestorm. The latter being delayed really pisses me off.

It pisses me off a little bit, but then I remind myself to be happy any time that KOEI bothers to bring their games to the States.  As it is I'll always be left wondering what their Uncharted Waters MMO is like.

[stray]

I wonder what that's costing them in time and money. I know they're a big company and all, but I rather see groups like that make 20 DS or 5 big console titles rather than one mmo.

[schild]

KOEI isn't thinning themselves out by making Uncharted Waters online. Different team and staff. No, they thinned themselves out by deciding halfway through development to port it from the PS3 to the 360. I'm quite sure porting FROM the latter is a lot easier.

[stray]

If they started on the PS3 with SPE specific code, then they'd have to get rid of all the fine tuned Cell specific scheduling and unravel everything across the 360's 3 CPU's. If they started on the 360, then they'd have to fine tune general code to to work in specific ways and specific areas. The job isn't any worse. In both scenarios, programmers have to undo a lot of their previous work when porting between the two.

The only games that would be easy to port are the ones that are mainly utilizing one CPU.....And aren't that much better than Wii titles.

[stray]

Uh, then again Fatal Inertia is UE3. If GoW is any indication, then it shouldn't be a problem at all on the 360. Maybe it's a PS3 delay.

[Velorath]

On another note, David Jaffe is one of the few good things Sony has going for it right now and one of the main reasons I'd even consider buying a PS3.  I only mention this because I just watched the interview he did for 1up recently.  I don't agree with everything the guy says but he's always so blunt and doesn't spend a lot of time bullshitting in his interviews that I find him failrly entertaining in addition to being a great game designer.

[schild]

By one of the main reasons, you mean him and Fumito Ueda, rite?

[Velorath]

By one of the main reasons, you mean him and Fumito Ueda, rite?

That would be a second and unrelated reason, but yeah.

Edit:  I've never seen an interview with him, but I don't imagine that he's as entertaining as Jaffe is. That drunken interview from that party at Playboy was some funny shit.

[stray]

I like listening to Jaffe, but I don't consider him that integral. Hell, lately he's been all enthused over the possibilities of the PS Store and downloadable casual games (like the upcoming Calling All Cars). That's cool and all, but not exactly why I bought a Playstation.

[Velorath]

I like listening to Jaffe, but I don't consider him that integral. Hell, lately he's been all enthused over the possibilities of the PS Store and downloadable casual games (like the upcoming Calling All Cars). That's cool and all, but not exactly why I bought a Playstation.

He still seems to be interested in doing God of War 3 though as soon as Sony gives it the green-light.

[schild]

God of War is already being worked on for the PS3.

[Velorath]

God of War is already being worked on for the PS3.

It's being worked on in that Jaffe says he's just barely started writing down ideas, but that Sony hasn't actually told them to go ahead and make the game yet (of course we all know they will).

[schild]

According to Brian Crecente's Quivering Asshole, the PS3 will get an update on January 24th in Japan that will do something a rather to backwards compatibility. They didn't elaborate. Instead they jerked off to some e-reader bullshit that only Japan would be interesting. I fucking hate those guys.

[stray]

I have no doubt this stuff will get fixed. Who the hell could fuck up hardware emu that badly?

I just hate Sony for keeping a lid on everything. They should be more open.

[Big Gulp]

I just hate Sony for keeping a lid on everything. They should be more open.

Now I know you're on crack.  Sony's biggest problem is that they just couldn't shut the fuck up for the past year about how they were building a "supercomputer", about how you should get a second job to afford one, and how NORAD was buying truckloads of them to create a beowulf cluster which could track the movements of everything sparrow sized or larger in North America.

More open?  No, they need a goddamned gag.

[stray]

Eh, what the fuck? Seriously. WTF. Stop it. How could you possibly make the leap to that bullshit? And how could you even construe that I'm saying anything good about Sony here? I'm criticizing them.

The marketing gibberish is not "open". Every company on the face of the earth does it. And all it does is beg more questions.

I'm talking about them about shedding more light on upcoming SCE games, community contact ala Maj. Nelson, progress and plans for updates. Things like that.

[EDIT]

Basically, I'm pointing some good things from Microsoft, and saying Sony should learn (look at how in depth their Halo documentaries are, for example. Or how they keep people up to date about Live features. Or the aforementioned Major Nelson). How that got you riled up, I don't know.

[Big Gulp]

I'm talking about talking about shedding more light on upcoming SCE games, community contact ala Maj. Nelson, progress and plans for updates.

I think they'd just fuck that up, too.  No, the only solution for Sony is a strict mafia-like code of silence for everybody, from the lowliest intern to the batshit crazy guy who used to be in charge of their Playstation division.  They should break into Best Buys and stock shelves with any new games they have out, you know, the "thief in the night" approach to content delivery.

Because if you don't hype something it can't come back to bite you in the ass.

[Yegolev]

I'm more inclined to go with the idea that they don't want to admit that their machine is incomplete.  Kinda like most any other large corporation.

... some e-reader bullshit that only Japan would be interesting. I fucking hate those guys.

Are you telling me that I'm the only one around here that thinks it's neat to have Donkey Kong encoded in dots on a card?  Uh... don't answer that.

It's not fair to tease with a BC fix like that.  I mean Backward Compatibility, not Brian Crescente.  SMT: Devil Summoner looks terrible on the PS3.

[stray]

I suppose this could be another thing to chalk up to the "East meets West" thread. I dunno.

In fact, if I'm not mistaken, I think that's exactly why Kutaragi got demoted: For "speaking out" too much. Not following the party line, etc..


In the end though, I think they can deliver things. They usually do. But the silence doesn't help.

[Yegolev]

I want to believe that they will fix it.  It makes sense.  I just don't like getting my hopes up for anything anymore.  Yes, I blame EQ.

[stray]

So apparently, the PS3 actually does have a hardware scaler (the Toshiba SCC, or a variant, I think?).

http://www.beyond3d.com/articles/ps3scaler/

The problem was the SDK, which has since been updated this month for developers to take full advantage of scaling.

On the negative side of things, fixing the 1080i problems for old school HD-TV owners is a developer-side issue. Not something fixed by default.

And so we arrive at last to the most recent development, the late January PlayStation 3 SDK update. Amongst the newer versions of the various tools included in the SDK lies a new function: the ability for developers to use some of the functionality of the fabled hardware scaler, a scaler many previously doubted existed at all. Interestingly enough, "some" is the key word when describing the unlocked functionality; SCEI only gave access to hardware accelerated horizontal scaling. Horizontal scaling on its own cannot upscale a 720p image into 1080p/i --this would require both horizontal and vertical scaling. Hence, the newly exposed scaler functionality is not enabled in the PS3's user interface directly, but instead will still require developer support to work.