Archive for September, 2007
A 360, Halo 3, and PS3 Conversation
Posted by Blackstaffer in Talk on September 28th, 2007
Here’s a conversation Gary and I had this morning via chat. I thought it might be a good starting place for a discussion. We started by talking about Halo 3 at 640p. The conversation below starts where I defend Bungie, noting that this is their first 360 title (I think). I’ve edited it for clarity…
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Henning said:
I assume this is [Bungie's] first 360 title.
Shime Waza said:
Heavenly Sword isn’t a great game, it’s good but it’s graphics are astounding for a game released during it’s (the PS3) first year. You’d think Bungie would be given preferential treatment by MS though. Seeing as Halo 3 is their only big franchise. They would do everything in their power to give them as much help as possible in getting the 360′s power into Halo 3
Henning said:
Okay, I’ve found some other sources for the news…
Shime Waza says:
Back to my view that 360 is hitting it’s peak. Halo 3 is their single biggest first party franchise and the game they have touted to kill the PS3 (well so say the xbots). Apart from Mass Effect and PGR4 (which won’t sell a load of 360s), they have no exclusive games to blow people away with. They only have that marketing BS with the GTA IV downloadable content. So what can the 360 offer to would be buyers in the form of exclusive games and content? Not a lot compared to the PS3. They have had an easy year and a half to build a lead, sales wise, but the PS3 IS ALREADY CATCHING UP WITH QUALITY CONTENT, then next year THE big EXCLUSIVE games arrive on PS3 and that is when sales (along with a proper price drop) will take off. Here’s a good read related to the Halo 3 phenomenon.
Henning says:
Bioshock is big. Is Halo 3 at 60FPS ?
Shime Waza says:
It hasn’t sold 360s though.
Henning says:
Killzone 2 will only be 30FPS.
Shime Waza says:
I dunno what fps Halo 3 is.
Henning says:
Hmm. [After a web search on "Halo 3" and "30fps".] Looks like it’s 30FPS. That makes the 640p all the worse….
Shime Waza says:
My point is that MS and Xbots believed Halo3 would boost 360 sales and kill off the PS3 (by that I mean give the 360 an unassailable sales lead), but they haven’t got the range of games that the PS3 has. Bioshock is great but it’s on PC as well.
Henning says:
True enuf.
Ratchet & Clank Future Delayed
Posted by Gary in PS3 software, R on September 28th, 2007
According to Eurogamer, Ratchet & Clank Future Tools of Destruction has been delayed by a week until Oct 30th (originally due Oct 23rd) in North America. The demo has also been pushed back until Oct 11th (originally Oct 4th).
As usual European gamers will have to wait even longer:
A Sony spokesperson told Eurogamer a specific date for the European release of R&C has yet to be confirmed. However, he did say it will hit the shops some time in “early November”, with the demo due out in “mid-October”.
Amazon.co.uk has it listed as November 9th.
Son of a…grapefruit! 
This game is probably THE game I want this year for the PS3 along with PES 2008 so I’m disappointed in the delay.
UK PS3 magazine PSM3, gave Ratchet & Clank Future 93% by the way. 
PlayStation Store Update – 27sep07
Posted by Blackstaffer in PSN on September 27th, 2007
From the official PlayStation.Blog:
>>
Hi, everyone. It’s time for the PLAYSTATION Store weekly update.
We have two great PS3 demos this week:
• Clive Barker’s Jericho
• NBA 2K8
We also have a couple more add-ons. The first is a new vehicle for MotorStorm. This vehicle, the “Castro Capitano,” is not offered in any other MotorStorm bundle, and it’s only $0.99. There’s also a new Speed Master add-on for Ninja Gaiden Sigma.
As usual, we released more game videos and movie trailers:
• NBA 08 Upside Progression System tutorial
• Eye of Judgement Overview
• Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock trailer
• Iron Man trailer
• We Own the Night trailer
Dress Expansion For PlayStation Home
Dress was mentioned at the TGS keynote, but wasn’t explained really until now. Basically there will be a virtual space for Dress where you can dress your avatar, most likely separate from the Home avatar, and you will be able to purchase those clothes as well. Or even trade them with other people. Details are below.
Dress Studio lets you create your own fashion, selecting color, material, patterns and logos. It appears that the game will let players make their own brands. Sony is even looking into letting players send their designs away to have them transformed into real life clothing.
Dress museum is a museum of clothing history. It has some interactive elements where you gather famous scenes from movies and famous characters.
Dress park is a community space that’s meant for players to communicate and exchange gifts, including clothing. Sony will hold official events and fashion shows here, giving players the chance to appear as models. Players can also organize their own shows based around their original brands. This is something that Sony hopes to actively support, Shichisawa said.
Dress should arrive in early 2008, hopefully in time for the public release of Home. I like the idea, I’ll definitely try it out. Wonder how much the clothes will cost.
Wishlist: PS3 Linux Edition
It’s great that PS3 will run as a full blown PC with Linux installed. But the big limitation is RAM. Most competent PCs in 2007 are purchased with 1GB for regular use and power users typically want even more. 512MB is passable for basic desktop use, but the PS3 will only run with 256MB. That’s the only thing holding it back from being a genuine desktop replacement.
Sony released the 80GB PS3 configuration which seems completely pointless, from a user perspective. How about they release a special Linux edition that people would actually want:
- More RAM This RAM would be used in Linux mode only and wouldn’t be used by games. A dedicated Linux edition should ship with at least 1GB. Ideally, this would be user upgradeable as well.
- Larger Hard Disk 60GB is fine for regular game use and most media use. However, even though the drive is very easily upgradeable, if you want separate PS3 and Linux partitions, a larger default drive is probably a good idea.
- Optical Disc Writing Ideally this would write Blu-Ray discs, but if it merely read Blu-Ray and wrote CD/DVD, that would be fine.
- Full GPU Access Currently, PS3 Linux doesn’t have full GPU access. A complete PC replacement would definitely need this. Is Sony intentionally gimping the GPU? I can kind of understand why Sony would do this. Currently, the PlayStation business makes money by getting a cut of all software sales. Sony doesn’t have control over Linux software and wouldn’t get a cut of that. Why would devs make games for the PS3 OS, if they can just make Linux games and completely avoid paying Sony anything? Hmm…
- Linux This should obviously come with Linux preinstalled or at least pre-bundled.
Why would people want this rather than just a regular PC? That’s really easy:
- Form Factor The PS3 may be big and heavy compared to other game consoles, but it’s small, light, and quiet compared to a PC. Also, while style is a subjective issue, I suspect most would prefer the PS3 looks and form factor to any PC.
- Cost Sure, you can get a cheaper PC from Walmart, but they aren’t nearly as nice.
- High-End Tech How many PCs have a high end graphics card, super high-end A/V output (HDMI+Optical), embedded Bluetooth, embedded WiFi, embedded card reader, or a quiet slot-loading Blu-Ray drive? Almost none. And the ones that come close are anywhere near the PS3′s price or size.
- Hybrid Some people want *just* a PC for office/connectivity features. Some people want *just* a games device. And other want *just* a music/movie/media device. And some people want to keep these functions on separate devices, but others don’t. There are a ton of people would be happy to get such a unit that could serve as all of the above: a high-end PC, high-end game console, and a high-end media device? Lots of people would kill for that.
So, would anyone buy such a unit? I already have a PS3, but I would buy another one if they offered this.
(FYI, this isn’t a rumor, this is just a wish list item.)
4:45 PM UPDATE: Added GPU bullet point
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