Sony Gamer's Day Sammelthread

[RWA]

Interviews---nen Overkill, Phil und Ken in Action.

Erst der Padawan:

At Sony's Gamer's Day event today, GamePro editor Vicious Sid had the chance to grab a few minutes with Sony's PS3 frontman, Phil Harrison. We touched on several topics: Blu-ray disc speeds, internal power supplies, and that nagging question -- is the PS3 graphically inferior to the Xbox 360?
Harrison at the Tokyo Game Show

Harrison at the Tokyo Game Show

Phil Harrison: What surprised you? What was the thing that you weren't expecting to see?

Vicious Sid: I think...to see so many games in 1080p, looking as good as they did. I think there's this assumption that in some way the Xbox 360 has more graphical power. It's got 512 MB of dedicated video RAM...and that somehow the PlayStation 3 is a notch below that.

Harrison: That's not true, by the way.

Sid: I'm not sure how that works. I guess it's 256 video RAM, 256 system RAM [on the PS3]?

Harrison: No, the way that Xbox 360 works is that they have 512 MB of memory, same as PlayStation 3. But they have general purpose memory, rather than system-specified memory. But they only have a 10 MB internal frame buffer...

There's no disadvantage [to Blu-ray], there's only advantages in terms of bandwidth, content, and detail."

Sid: Yes, that's true...

Harrison: ....and so that's why they can't do 1080p full frame. Because the image has to be in the frame buffer and a full 1080p image is 8 megabytes, so you can't double buffer.

Sid: What do you think Microsoft's biggest vulnerability is right now?

Harrison: I'd rather talk about the strengths of PlayStation 3. I think that what we showed today maybe completes the puzzle that we didn't do a good enough job of completing at E3. Partly because the technology wasn't ready in all areas, but partly because we focused on the games...I think people were expecting to see more of the multimedia functionality explained. But that's then, and this is now. The integrated nature of the system is now obvious.

The fact that you've got cross media bar icons, ways of getting content into the system -- physically -- and digitally....

Sid: It comes full circle, with the PSP...

Harrison: Exactly! Did you get a chance to see the PSP [at the demo presentation]? It uses the full cross media bar [from the PS3]!

Sid: Obviously supply is going to be an issue for you guys through the end of the year. Is Sony still holding firm to launch shipment projections and through the end of March 2007.

Harrison: Yeah. I think that every successful game system has had some challenges in matching demand with supply day one. Sadly, we're going to be no different.

But, this seems a very difficult situation now, but in five years we'll be looking back and this will be a tiny little blip on the sales. While it's disappointing for users -- certainly disappointing for users in Europe, where we had to delay the launch -- but we'll catch up. We'll get supply going, we'll get the product out there, and we'll satisfy everybody.

Sid: One thing I find fascinating about the PS3 is that so much is integrated into one package; it's a very "neat" system, with integrated Blu-ray and especially the integrated power supply. Why is that important?

Harrison: Blu-ray functionality is something you get essentially for free. We need it for a game system, we need it as a game developer, and the fact that the disk is the same kind of format that gives us the movie cupcake as well -- that's great. And that was a strategic choice, as well as a tactical, practical, commercial choice.

[an IGN video crew has been rather visibly waiting for Harrison to finish up with me. Harrison turns to an approach crew member and says "I'll be with you in one second." He's clearly engaged when speaking about the PS3's hardware and wants to finish his thought.]

Harrison: Integrating the power supply is not for competitive reasons -- it's because we can....

Sid: [laughs]

Harrison:... It's because we have great hardware designers who can handle the functionality. In fact, because of the CPU power and performance of PlayStation 3, we need to have to have the power supply as close to the chipset as it possibly can be. And so that is the right technical approach. It's exactly what we did with PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2, and then you saw later in the platform's life cycle, when the different silicon process are used, you can go to a small external power supply, which allows you to change the form factor...

Sid: Do you think that's in the cards for PS3? A slim-line PS3?

Harrison: [completely deadpan] I wouldn't even speculate on that.

Sid: There's been some talk about DVD-9 [dual-layer DVD, as in the Wii and Xbox 360], and whether it's actually faster in transfer speeds than Blu-ray. Is Blu-ray faster or slower than DVD-9, practically speaking?

Harrison: There is no practical game design difference between Blu-ray [and DVD-9] in terms of speed. You get the benefits of storage -- more files on the disk, more data on the disk. So once developers are up to speed on the logical geography of the [Blu-ray] disc, loading times will be sorted out.

There's no disadvantage [to Blu-ray], there's only advantages in terms of bandwidth, content, detail, et cetra.

Sid: Looks like you're out of time. Thanks again!

Gamepro.com

Und nun der Sith Lord der Sith Lords

If it wasn’t for Ken Kutaragi, there would have been no PlayStation. The games industry legend, whose job title is President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment (so there’s no doubting that he’s the head honcho) is known as “the father of the PlayStation”. For good reason: an electronic engineer by trade, he designed the original PlayStation and much of the PS2, PS3 and PSP.

Despite his incredibly lofty status, Kutaragi in person is surprisingly approachable and open. Although it’s not often that you get to see him in person, as he’s one of the world’s busiest men. A naturally smiley and sunny chap, he used to have a penchant for Chairman Mao jackets, which now seems to have given way to sharp charcoal suits. Coincidentally, that was exactly what he was wearing, when we managed to accost him for ten minutes or so, at a PS3 showcase event held after the first day of the Tokyo Games Show. Taking place at Sony’s incredibly impressive central Tokyo HQ (apparently, Kutaragi’s office overlooks the Royal Palace), we joined the press scrum that surrounded him, and got the chance to ask a handful of questions… maybe down to Ken’s broken English, or our poor hearing, some of the answers came as a bit of a surprise.

Q: Surely the next generation of consoles will have no disks, but use streaming media?

KK: With the next generation, that may well be right (laughs).

Q: What PlayStation 3 games will be on sale at launch in Japan?

KK: There will be approximately 20 games on sale at launch.

Q: Have you announced which ones?

KK: No, because a lot of the titles are still going through QA (Quality Assurance), and we have to speak to our third parties, in order to determine which of their titles will be ready for launch as well.

Q: And there will definitely be games with an online component on sale at launch?

KK: Yes, we’re trying to include online elements into all of our launch titles, and are encouraging the 3rd parties to do the same.

Q: Do you think the PS3 will outsell the Xbox 360 and the Wii?

KK: We don’t care.

***We spoke to Sony about this response, as it seemed a pretty ballsy statement to make, especially in light of how they’re being perceived (arrogant, out of touch, losing the battle etc.) by press and consumers alike at the moment.

They told us that what Ken will have meant is that, while they have a great deal of respect for the ‘competition’, they have always worked to their own business plan. In essence, regardless of what anyone else does, they’ll be sticking to their original plan where PS3 is concerned and won’t be changing things, just because company A does this, or company B does that. So there you go!***

Q: Do you think the PS3 will have a longer life-cycle than those consoles?

KK: Because we implanted a lot of new & cutting-edge technology in the PlayStation 3, it will have a long life – Future-proof, this is the answer.

Q: Were you surprised by the bad publicity Sony received after E3?

KK: I want to ask you (laughs). It always happens. When we released the PlayStation and even the PlayStation 2, I didn’t see any favourable articles. Press coverage always said: “PlayStation will fail,” or: “We have lost our momentum,” and blah blah blah. But we have lots of passion and confidence in both the PlayStation 3 hardware, and the software titles being produced for it.

Q: After the launch period, how many PlayStation 3s will you manufacture per month?

KK: The target is one million per month. But right now, we are making tiny amounts for the launch, because of the blue laser diode problem. We clearly need to catch up – but are still confident that we can meet our projected 6 million shipment figure by the end of the financial year.

Q: Is the blue laser diode manufacturing problem fixed now?

KK: Right now, it is an issue, because we can’t manufacture enough blue laser diodes for enough PlayStation 3s. But we will resolve that, and then question becomes how many PlayStation 3s we will be able to market.

Q: How important for Sony is it that Blu-ray is a success?

KK: It is important not just for Sony, but for the movie, component, software developer and even the TV industry. The PS3 has a perfectly nice graphics capability, allowing non-compression and high frame-rates, so it works well together with BD. Every manufacturer releasing flat-panel displays – not only Sony, but the likes of Panasonic, Samsung and Sharp – everyone is now welcoming PlayStation 3 and applauding today’s announcement about HDMI features.

Q: So how important is it that Blu-ray beats HD-DVD?

KK: It is important. Personally, I love Blu-ray, because Blu-ray has higher capacities than HD-DVD. Also it has a better bit-rate, which allows a differentiation in picture quality. So, right now, while the PC manufacturers are supporting HD-DVD, it is clear that current PCs cannot pick out the specification of Blu-ray using current CPUs. This is the main reason why the HD-DVD picture quality is not sexy enough. So we only have the PS3.

Q: But surely, you can only really tell the difference between Blu-ray and HD-DVD on a progressive-scan TV?

KK: On any TV, you can distinguish the difference.
http://www.threespeech.com/

 

[RWA]

We spent most of yesterday evening playing PlayStation 3 games ranging from the genuinely superb to the humdrum-but-still-impressive. It’s fair to say that, despite our extensive coverage of Sony’s bumbling difficulties these last few months, we’re finally prepared to run around the room, arms waving, squealing in delight. Read our impressions…


They cut the games off for rapper Ludacris at the tail end of Sony’s big PlayStation 3 press event. The crowd, by then maybe some 250 or so strong, filtered down from the second and third floors of the San Francisco studios Sony had chosen to host the venue, for equal parts free food, alcoholic libations, and hip-hop. And although the music was suitably rocking, everyone wanted the games turned back on.

Sony and its third-party allies showed off some 20 or so titles at yesterday’s event, offering playable versions of the sublime (Resistance: Fall of Man) to the gorgeous but ultimately plebian (Marvel Ultimate Alliance). And Next-Gen was there to separate wheat from chaff.


Resistance: Fall of Man (Insomniac Games, Sony)—A gorgeous first-person shooter, Resistance: Fall of Man puts a series of vaguely futuristic weapons in players’ hands for an all-out war against space invaders in what would have been the post World War II era had that conflict been fought. These aliens want shooting with, say, the sniper rifle that can slow time for brief periods, or the gun that can lock on to a target and blast it with bullets even when the gun’s pointed in another direction. Multiplayer action supports 40 players at one time, and if this is mankind’s last stand, man it’s going to be a sweet, sweet apocalypse.


Virtua Fighter 5 (Sega, Sega)—The Queen Mother of all 3D fighting games makes its triumphant next-generation debut on PlayStation 3 with 17 brawlers. The game’s roster includes old favorites such as Sarah Bryant, Akira, and Kage-Maru, and adds two new fighters to the mix: the masked wrestler El Blaze and the monkey kung-fu artist Eileen. In addition to smooth 3D brawling, Virtua Fighter 5 also offers a wealth of character customization options allowing players to, say, deck their chosen warrior out with jewelry, tattoos, glasses, and the like.


Fight Night Round 3 (Electronic Arts, Electronic Arts)—Boxers can be introduced, time and again, to their new best friend pain in the reworked Fight Night Round 3. The game was decidedly excellent when it saw release for Xbox 360, and now it’s been improved with a split-screen mode with a first-person view. Electronic Arts has also altered the graphics so the boxers don’t appear as sweaty plastic robotoids, but rather humans (or a decent representation thereof) who glisten when they sweat and look absolutely hideous when they take 50 too many to the face.

MotorStorm (Evolution Studios, Sony)—In MotorStorm, riders don’t just wipe out. They make an art form of it, rocketing off their bikes and spinning, twisting, tumbling, and rolling in slow-motion close-ups. The first- and third-person off-road racing here is stunning, and comes complete with picturesque dirt and sand-stages, as well as vehicles that shatter, rocketing parts off in destructive sprays. Players can drive a variety of vehicles here, including big rigs, motorcycles, buggies, and ATVs, with each having its own particular strengths and weaknesses in terms of how it moves and navigates through the tracks.

Call of Duty 3 (Treyarch, Activision)—Uncle Adolf takes it on the chin here, as the Allies storm the beach at Normandy and liberate France in the year of our lord 1944 A.D. Players take the role of four different heroes in the first-person perspective as they shoot Nazis, blow Nazis up with grenades, and drive vehicles with the intent to kill Nazis. The game’s cut-scenes serve as load times, allowing Call of Duty to feature almost seamless play, and the new developer Treyarch has created this game specifically for next-generation platforms.

Lair (Factor 5, Sony)—The unfriendly skies are best flown on a killer dragon’s back. Lair lets players control a huge, fire-breathing beast of burden simply by tilting the Sixaxis or thrusting it forward to perform dragon-to-dragon attacks. It happened to be good, very good to have eyes to witness, say, a huge dragon landing on one of Lair’s battlefields and tearing into enemy troops with tooth, claw, and flames while its scaly brown hide was penetrated by thousands of spears and arrows.

Sonic the Hedgehog (Sega, Sega)—Sonic, Silver, and Shadow form, if you will, what historians will someday refer to as the hedgehog holy trinity. All three characters were playable at Sony’s event, but the true star proved to be the new character, Silver. Silver possesses telekinetic abilities which allow him to levitate for short times, arrest enemy projectiles in mid-air and hurl them back at their sender, and wreck the holy hell out of the game’s environments to get to new areas. Oh, and the game’s sharp, bright, colorful stages are visual cotton candy to be greedily gobbled as the game whips along at a hyper-kinetic pace.


Virtua Tennis (Sega, Sega)—Ah, courtly love. Sega’s Virtua Tennis offers real-world racketeers such as Martina Hingis, Roger Federer, and Venus and Serena Williams. The game is remarkably smooth and fluid, and its control system is accommodating enough that even novice players can take to the courts with some confidence. Anything but simple, well-meant praise would seem hyperbolic; Tennis has balls aplenty, pardon the boorishness.

Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII (Ubisoft, Ubisoft)—It is entirely possible to dress up a pig. Blazing Angels was a mediocre World War II flight-combat game on Xbox 360. Spit, polish, and Sixaxis-tilt controls have transformed the game into something playable, and certainly something that warrants inclusion on this list for its surprising metamorphosis. Players manuever their fighters with simple, subtle movements of the Sixaxis controller, and it just feels right. In the words of eminent sage Prince, color us peach and black, color us taken aback.

Blast Factor (Sony, Sony)—A Geometry Wars-style shoot-’em-up available via download, Blast Factor proved to be one of Sony’s pleasant gamer’s day surprises. The goal is to blast a series of whatsits ad nauseam, but the neat twist is that the Sixaxis can be used to flip the trippy, pulsing, and colorful game worlds in order to give players a better shot at certain targets. Sony promises the game is smart enough to adjust its difficulty to match players’ performances.

next-gen.biz

 

[DarthSol]

Ich will endlich mal Gameplayvideos zum Kampf gegen das Viech

http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/1909/resistancefallofman20061019042346883pl1nf3.jpg

sehen!

 

[Yondaime]

Ich will endlich mal Gameplayvideos zum Kampf gegen das Viech

http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/1909/resistancefallofman20061019042346883pl1nf3.jpg

sehen!

Gbs doch schon einige...das läuft dir hinterher, beschiesst dich mit diesen explosiven Klebebällen und wenn du zu Nahe kommst, dann sticht es mit seinen Vorderläufen zu...eklig.

 

[DarthSol]

Hm, echt?
hit, da habe ich was verpasst. In den Videos die ich kenne kämpft man immer nur gegen diese Chimeras...
du hast nicht zufällig einen Link von einem Video mit dieser Szene parat?

 

[Darji]

Possibly the nicest man in videogames, Ted Price, joined us today for an epic episode of 1UP Yours.

He joined us for the entire show, and chatted with us for well over an hour about Resistance, the Sony event yesterday, game design, online gameplay, and the PlayStation 3 in general.

http://zdmedia.vo.llnwd.net/o1/Podcasts/102006.mp3

get ready to Atoom

 

[nighty]

KK: I want to ask you (laughs). It always happens. When we released the PlayStation and even the PlayStation 2, I didn’t see any favourable articles. Press coverage always said: “PlayStation will fail,” or: “We have lost our momentum,” and blah blah blah. But we have lots of passion and confidence in both the PlayStation 3 hardware, and the software titles being produced for it.

Ken for President

 

[Darji]

From my article on MTVNew.com

"Also unexpected was a feature in "Genji" to install the game, committing 4GB of data from the game's Blu-Ray disc to the PS3's hard drive — a three-minute one-time-only procedure available from the game's start menu that a Sony rep said cuts down in-game load times from about 15 seconds to four seconds. That's something Sony can offer, given that both versions of its console include a hard drive — 20GB and 60GB, respectively. "Genji" also happens to be done. The game is ready to be manufactured, one of the PS3's first finished works."

Think this is a good thing? Or are they opening a can of worms?

Scheinbar scheint das nicht nur der Fall mit Genji zu sein. Auch RR/ und Full auto lassen sich installieren, um die loading screens drastisch zu verkürzen^^