PS3 Gamers Brace For A Rocky Ride
October 9th 2008 01:12
Throughout the life of the PS3, stories have emerged that have highlighted the difficulty developers have had in creating games for the PS3. Early figures suggested that the cost was prohibitive for most third parties as the advanced technology required a lot more manpower, time and expense. Add to that a dev kit whose price would stagger some second world countries and it looked as though second rate ports and first party titles were the immediate future for the console. Some developers are only now looking at bringing titles to the PS3 since the install base is just about reasonable enough to make a return on their investment. Take Valve, who have said "So whether or not you like developing for that platform, if they've got millions of people connected to that platform and buying their games you have to take it seriously." Sounds like a company ready to put out quality content...
And then there is the case of Rainbow Six 2. Vegas 2 designer Philippe Therien, from Ubisoft Montreal, said the team was "working really hard right now to put them on par graphics wise" but admitted that there will be "slight differences" between the two versions, including lighting.
Activision seem to have found a way around the problem. Throw resources at it until you have created the tools to make the job easy enough to manage. “Over the past year, our central technology group has created a proprietary set of tools for next-gen development that has enabled our developers to address the challenging PS3 architecture in efficient ways. Our tools allow us to identify performance bottlenecks in the PS3 and focus our effort in a targeted way to improve performance that would otherwise without these tools simply be a trial-and-error approach.” You can see from this how smaller developers would have an issue. Without the pure dollar grunt of a super power like Activision they have no chance at developing the necessary tools.
Surely though, at this point in the consoles life cycle, developers have gotten to grips with the machine and started churning out quality content?
It would appear not. The Unreal 3 Engine continues to create problems. Propoganda started developing titles for the 360 due to the widely known fact that U3 works best with Xbox. They even delayed PS3 releases so they could get their games “up to the standard of the 360 version.” And with the popularity of the engine, this is bound to continue as new titles license it for their games.
Ubisoft seem to have found a way around it though - throw 80-90 bodies at it. Their latest title Endwar has had this tribe of programmers recruited to do nothing but port the game over to the PS3. A massive investment beyond many developers.
All of this leads us to the cause for concern - Bioshock The Xbox 360 game of the year has just started to make its appearance on the PS3 and the reception has been chilly. Pixelated screen shots have sent the communnity into a fanboy feast of fury. The games community manager launched into damage control and addressed the matter by saying "one of the major goals for the team in creating the PS3 version of BioShock was to match the visual experience of the 360." She went on to say that "We did investigate rendering to true 1080 mode, but were not able to support it given the game’s memory demands." All this caused by attempting to adapt the game from an entirely different platform and obviously with an enourmous and difficult effort.
These issues have no real solution. The more complicated system that is the PS3 means through the growth of the console more learning is bound to be needed. If it is true that only 30% of the systems capability have been unlocked, we are bound to see another year or more before developers have the tools and knowledge to create a profitable product, shutting out many of them in the foreseable future and for those that can afford to go ahead, inevitable differences and bugs.
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Comment by Anonymous
Comment by Anonymous
But it looks like its going to be worth it, some of the games coming are sweeet!
Comment by Anonymous
Overall you've gotta remember the facts... just look at the games...
The 360 consistenly has on comparable games...
- Better frames rates (5-10 rates faster in most cases)
- Higher texture resolutions
- Better post processing, especially with AA
- Higher screen resolution with better frame rates and effects (in this area the 360 dominates the ps3 in a very humiliating fashion)
The 360 IS the gamers choice... it's the HD console of choice, as the games, THE FACTS, show...
Comment by Anonymous
Blah Blah Blah, you shoulda stuck that crap you just spewed out into the toilet cause its polluting perfectly good air.
Comment by Anonymous
yes i do have one and a ps3 but over the next 12 months i think the ps3 will come into its own .
it can be done some of the first party games are jaw dropping.
30% of its power unlocked so far thats the interesting bit of that article.
Comment by penis
Comment by spetsnazz
Comment by Anonymous
Sony fan boys constantly spewing...
'The ps3 is so powerful... it'll come into it's own this year!' (I heard that in 2007)
' The cell processor is so powerful... once they get thier heads around it it'll be so much more powerful than the 360'
I've heard these mantras for 2 years now... empty wind, sony fan boys wishing desperately that the machine they've brought isn't the steaming pile of crap it so obvoiusly is.
Look at the GAMES.... the FACTS...
Comment by Anonymous
Comment by Anonymous
Comment by Anonymous
Comment by Anonymous
How does this statement hold any truth? HOW?! When Microsoft foots the bill for every defect at thier expense for 3 years! Would sony do that? I doubt it has the financial clobber, or inclination to put in over $1 Billion to support its customers in the way Microsoft has.
And as for not making strides in the industry... dear oh dear... you wally
Comment by Anonymous
yes yes yes... and the 360 makes advances at a rapid pace too... look at the difference between Gears of War 1 and Gears of War 2 ... you're a bit silly if you think only one format makes advances...
Comment by Anonymous
Comment by C0RWIN
The PS3's tech is more advanced (though it uses a highly inferior Grapfics chip that comes from an old desktop vid chip)
The PS3's power will be unlocked in the future (yeah tell yourself that there's something secret to be unlocked, I'll keep on playing games instead of waiting for a breakthrough that's never gonna happen)
Face it, the PS3 is a major letdown in many ways.
For sony it was just THE way to bush Blu Ray. PS3 did that. End of story.
Comment by Anonymous
I owned both 360 and ps3 but I can vividly see that most of the games in 360 have better lighting and texture rendering than on ps3.
I love both platforms, they have thier owns specs and exclusivities, but l feel more satisfied playing games in 360...
Comment by Anonymous
That being said, I think as time goes on and developers become more aqainted with the PS3's archtecture this decision won't be quite as one-sided as it is now.
I own both systmes, and I love both systems. I think the PS3 is a solidly built piece of architecture, and I also think that Microsoft could take a huge lesson from Sony as far as system reliability goes (On my 3rd 360 now: One general failure, one RROD. Keeping my fingers crossed on this one.) I also thing the PS3 would have benefited immensly from a less restrictive memory architecture. I'm very excited about some of the titles coming up for release on the PS3, but as it stands right now, the 360 is my gaming rig of choice becuase, like the previous poster, I tend to get more satisfaction out of it. But as the pool of really great games for the PS3 increases, that may well change.