PS3 “Insider” Information: Games and the PS3-vs-360 Disc Debate

Sometimes old news is still news worth writing about, especially when it’s “insider” information about the PS3 launch, PS3 games, and the PSP. Hey, just because other people have known about it since before August 18 doesn’t mean that everybody has had access to it, right? More importantly, people aren’t done talking about it yet, and there’s still lots more to be said.

More than a week ago, The Professor told us about an article over at genmay.com, and here’s what that article had to say:

• “The launch lineup is shrinking.”
• Bad News: What was supposed to be 30 titles (both 1st and 3rd party games) has gone down to 15 titles (Scrivener couldn’t get more specific because the list “literally changes by the hour”).
• Good News: Postponing some of the games means more development time. This means better quality. Example: Heavenly Sword was revealed at E3 but will be released in March. But it now has “layers and layers of detail” and “looks like f***ing Advent Children” and has gotten a “God of War type violence upgrade.”
• Killzone 2 is still in development and is PS3’s “secret weapon.” Scrivener says, “Announcements are being held back until closer to the PS3 launch as it’s going to generate a monumental amount of buzz.”
• Lair will be held back to at least summer of 2007, but promises to be “absof***inglutely incredible” thanks to “unscripted AI-driven massive scale battles (we’re talking Helms Deep here)” where you control a single dragon and rider. Basically the AI is “playing an RTS with itself” and your character simply tries change the tide of the battle.
• Resistance: Fall of Man is supposed to be a mix of Half Life 2 and Call of Duty. Scrivener says, “I f***ing hate both those games so I was not terribly impressed with the single player. Now multiplayer is a whole different beast, because the weapons are strange as f***.” Also, the system checks the distances and environment and mimics the distortion caused by echoes and all that. Unfortunately, the game won’t be out until the first part of 2007 or later.

Scrivener also got into the whole Blu-ray debate: the Xbox 360 uses DVD9 while the PS3 uses BD discs. This means that a PS3 disc will fit in more data: that means more details, more textures, and just more. What Scrivener basically said was:

• There was a demo of an upcoming sports game (Scrivener couldn’t say which game).
• One was on Xbox 360 (DVD9) connected to an HDTV (720P).
• The other was on PS3 (BD50) and HDTV (720P).
• The PS3’s was better.
• The reason why the BD50 one was better: the 360 could have handled the high resolutions, but they won’t fit on the disc. So the 360 suffers. 85% of the games in development for the PS3, according to Scrivener, will not fit on a single DVD9.

Also according to Scriviner: BD is the way to go. Why? He has his reasons: 80% of manufacturing plants are adopting Blu-Ray, Sony has clout in the movie industry, and BD movie costs are now $20 to $30.

Well, Scrivener is not an unbiased writer, but he has a reputation for not making stuff up. While we at QJ have yet to come to a consensus about the whole BD-vs-DVD thing, we’ll leave you with some things to think about:

• Do you think that having your game shipped in more than one disc is a problem?
• If the future of next-gen consoles is all about better processing speeds and all that, do the game cinematics really need to be squeezed into a CD, or could they just be rendered on the spot as you play the game?

Sometimes old news is still news worth writing about, especially when it’s “insider” information about the PS3 launch, PS3 games, and the PSP. Hey, just because other people have known about it since before August 18 doesn’t mean that everybody has had access to it, right? More importantly, people aren’t done talking about it yet, and there’s still lots more to be said.

More than a week ago, The Professor told us about an article over at genmay.com, and here’s what that article had to say:

• “The launch lineup is shrinking.”
• Bad News: What was supposed to be 30 titles (both 1st and 3rd party games) has gone down to 15 titles (Scrivener couldn’t get more specific because the list “literally changes by the hour”).
• Good News: Postponing some of the games means more development time. This means better quality. Example: Heavenly Sword was revealed at E3 but will be released in March. But it now has “layers and layers of detail” and “looks like f***ing Advent Children” and has gotten a “God of War type violence upgrade.”
• Killzone 2 is still in development and is PS3’s “secret weapon.” Scrivener says, “Announcements are being held back until closer to the PS3 launch as it’s going to generate a monumental amount of buzz.”
• Lair will be held back to at least summer of 2007, but promises to be “absof***inglutely incredible” thanks to “unscripted AI-driven massive scale battles (we’re talking Helms Deep here)” where you control a single dragon and rider. Basically the AI is “playing an RTS with itself” and your character simply tries change the tide of the battle.
• Resistance: Fall of Man is supposed to be a mix of Half Life 2 and Call of Duty. Scrivener says, “I f***ing hate both those games so I was not terribly impressed with the single player. Now multiplayer is a whole different beast, because the weapons are strange as f***.” Also, the system checks the distances and environment and mimics the distortion caused by echoes and all that. Unfortunately, the game won’t be out until the first part of 2007 or later.

Scrivener also got into the whole Blu-ray debate: the Xbox 360 uses DVD9 while the PS3 uses BD discs. This means that a PS3 disc will fit in more data: that means more details, more textures, and just more. What Scrivener basically said was:

• There was a demo of an upcoming sports game (Scrivener couldn’t say which game).
• One was on Xbox 360 (DVD9) connected to an HDTV (720P).
• The other was on PS3 (BD50) and HDTV (720P).
• The PS3’s was better.
• The reason why the BD50 one was better: the 360 could have handled the high resolutions, but they won’t fit on the disc. So the 360 suffers. 85% of the games in development for the PS3, according to Scrivener, will not fit on a single DVD9.

Also according to Scriviner: BD is the way to go. Why? He has his reasons: 80% of manufacturing plants are adopting Blu-Ray, Sony has clout in the movie industry, and BD movie costs are now $20 to $30.

Well, Scrivener is not an unbiased writer, but he has a reputation for not making stuff up. While we at QJ have yet to come to a consensus about the whole BD-vs-DVD thing, we’ll leave you with some things to think about:

• Do you think that having your game shipped in more than one disc is a problem?
• If the future of next-gen consoles is all about better processing speeds and all that, do the game cinematics really need to be squeezed into a CD, or could they just be rendered on the spot as you play the game?