I just put a 1TB drive in my PC last night. (I'm an old-timer. That's over 23,000 times as much space as was on the hard drive in my first computer!) I'm pretty sure I'll fill it eventually, since I'll be getting an HD camcorder for my birthday. Nothing sucks up disk space like HD video.
For a game console, though, it's overkill. I've got an 80GB PS3, but it's nowhere near full because I don't put videos on it. I keep videos and music on my Linux box downstairs and serve them up ...
@danfry - No, game discs can include firmware updates on them. Sony's still involved, of course - they digitally sign the discs - but firmware updates via disc are possible.
It's even at the website ( http://www.us.playstation.c... "You can update your system software by any of the following methods... Update using update data that is included on a game disc."
@ultimolu - I routinely queue up multiple things to download from the store. I usually only hook up about once a week, and I'll grab a couple demos or DLC or whatever.
@SB - No, The PS3 doesn't run game code *structured for the PC or the 360* "very well or efficiently". The PS3 can run code "efficiently", it's just that what's efficient on the PS3 isn't the same as what's efficient on more traditional platforms. It does things rather differently.
As a rough analogy, what works for a propeller airplane doesn't work so hot for a jet plane, but the jet plane goes a lot faster if you optimize for that. (The Dr. Dobbs article poi...
...and some of us have wives who bought us a PS3.
As to Wii owners moving up to a PS3... I'm doubtful. That will take several things. First, a really good motion control setup. Second, good games that use it. And *that* will take Sony wooing developers to do so - the motion control doesn't come in the box. So, developers won't write games until the motion control is more widespread, and motion control won't sell until there are games for it. The Wii didn't have this problem.
I downloaded the PDF, and I note that there's no separate category for "upscaling DVD player". Those HD-DVD numbers really don't add up to me... could people be confused and reporting upscaling DVD players as "HD DVD players"?
Seems a fundamental mistake to make in a poll, but then again, not differentiating between regular DVD players and upscaling ones when talking about HDTV seems just as much a mistake.
Modern graphics are impressive, but very labor-intensive. Making the animations, the textures, the lighting, the lip-sync, etc. etc.
Moving to more procedurally-generated content and algorithmic level design (L4D's "AI director" is a step in this direction) is probably the way of the future. Imagine a sandbox game that comes up with new missions and even environments to play in, each time you fire it up...
It's true. Sony has historically made quirky hardware that's more difficult to program for. The PS2 had a very funky architecture, and it took years for developers to figure out how to best program for it. (Compare today's PS2 games with the launch ones... wow.)
The difference is, when the PS2 was king, it was King. It had massive market share and developers had strong motivation to put out the effort to maximize the PS2 version as far as possible. The PS3 doesn't have that kind ...
I agree that the PS3's the better overall value - I have one, not a 360 - but Sony's not perfect, either. Note that a whole lot of what makes the PS3 great has been added in firmware updates later on. A launch PS3 was a bad deal for what you got. Nowadays it's a lot better deal.
(Nor is the PS3 100% perfect. I just got burned this last weekend, repartitioning my drive to allow room for a Linux install. I was able to backup successfully, but the restore fails at 21% and several sa...
"Yes, the long war on Christianity. I pray that one day we may live in an America where Christians can worship freely, in broad daylight, openly wearing symbols of their religion, perhaps around their necks. And maybe - dare I dream it - maybe one day there could even be an openly Christian president. Or, perhaps, 43 of them. Consecutively." - Jon Stewart, back when Bush was President. (It's up to 44 now.)
Well, every kid's different, too. (You have four kids, you learn that fast.) Not every kid can handle things. Our 6-year-old, for example, is much more apprehensive than our 9-year-old was at that age.
Still, I was raised on all those old Bugh Bunny and Tom & Jerry and Woody Woodpecker cartoons with all their ultraviolence, and I somehow managed not to become a murderous psychopath. I don't see a huge difference between these games and that.
That being said... th...
I wish I knew why PSN's slow for me. I've put it down to the wireless WPA network, but seeing a few other people who get slow downloads with wired, I wonder. It's only PSN, too - downloading with a PC is nice and zippy, I can pull down torrents and such quickly.
Firmware updates are indeed the slowest for me. At this point, I always just use my PC to download to a flash drive and update from that. Over in a few minutes instead of ~1hr.
I let my 9-year-old son play some games with violence and cursing in them. (E.g. UTIII, inFamous.) The younger children get to even see and hear them.
My kids seem to be able to (a) tell the difference between reality and fantasy, and (b) maintain decorum when necessary. They can hear certain words... but they know that if we find out they're saying them, particularly around their friends, they'll simply lose the privilege of hearing them. My wife and I manage to avoid using such...
@TheRealSpy02 - Y'know, I thought you might actually be for real back here: http://www.n4g.com/ps3/News...
...but this is just unimaginative. If you don't like sandbox games, why did you buy one? Could you not at least have tried the demo first?
(BTW, the discs were clearly marked, which ones had the beta and which ones didn't. I got one... an...
It's not quite like that. It's more like programming for the Cell is like using a stick shift and programming for the PC/360 is more like using an automatic transmission. You get more control and can eke out more performance - in some cases, substantially more - but it takes more time and effort to learn how to do it.
Fortunately, techniques keep being developed to more fully exploit the Cell. And Sony's working to actively spread the best techniques to other developers.
...
@TheRealSpy02 - Ah, I see. You bought into the hype. No, it'll be several generations yet before we get to real-time photorealistic graphics on a widely-available consumer-class platform. Sorry.
There has indeed been a "leap forward in graphics from the last generation", but no, we can't give you something indistinguishable from a live-action film. As a rough rule of thumb, the next generation's standard graphics look about like the last generations pre-rendered cutscen...
@TheRealSpy02 - Just curious: in your opinion, what open-world sandbox game DOES have excellent graphics w/no 'jaggies', excellent motion capture and models on all characters, with a moving, compelling story?
I'd just like to know what standard you're comparing with.
Well, he ain't perfect. His stupid phrasing when talking about the difficulty of developing for the PS3 made it sound like Sony had deliberately made it hard to program the PS3. What he meant to say was that they prioritized power over ease of development, but he said it so badly it caused a big fanboy battle for a while.
But yes, in an executive, any modesty at all is a pleasant surprise.
@IdleLeeSiuLung - Kaz was really stupid to phrase things the way he did. He was practically begging to be misinterpreted.
Yes, developing for the Cell is very different - in some ways - than developing for the PC or the 360. And that definitely makes things harder. What he was trying to convey is that Sony prioritized power over simplicity of development. It's not that they tried to make developing for the PS3 hard, it's just that when given a choice between more power or easier ...
Yeah, a terrible director can make a terrible movie, and a great director can make a great movie... but the budget controls what *kind* of movie you can make.
6203d ago 0 agree0 disagreeView comment
You can make a good science fiction movie on a budget (e.g. Primer), but you are limited in the kinds of stories you can tell. You can't have major visual effects, you can't have location shots, etc. etc. There are good summer blockbusters and bad summer blockbusters, but there are no *cheap* summer blockbusters.