More PS3 Words From the Horse's Mouth 78
Game|Life had the chance to sit down with Ken Kutaragi, Phil Harrison, and Kaz Hirai; Chris Kohler has some details on things left unsaid at the PS3 conference. From the article: "Q: You're the head of Sony's worldwide development studios. What the hell is up with that Africa game? A: Video games have a function in life, and that is: wish fulfillment. You can become a mercenary, a fighter pilot. On PS3, we can expand the realm of that experience. Africa allows you to experience a very interesting part of the world, a safari in the plains of Africa. The gameplay is entirely non-violent. You don't kill the animals. It emphasizes the positives rather than the negatives. It's about collecting experiences and keeping them for posterity."
Anything else they'd like to not say? (Score:5, Funny)
Mr. Ed is Sony's new spokesperson?!?
Figures.
BTW, does this article remind anyone else of the Chief of Police scene in TMNT 2?
"Is there anything else you'd like to not tell me, Mr Kutaragi?"
Unfortunately (Score:4, Funny)
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It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had
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This sounds familiar. (Score:3, Insightful)
Seriously, this doesn't really seem like a Sony game here. But I don't really know who's developing it either. So what if they want to make a game that's pure exploration. It'll probably look great, have descent controls, and very little need for AI in anything. I'm sure some one will enjoy it. But I don't see a lot of parents buying it for the kids (60-80 bucks).
Re:This sounds familiar. (Score:5, Informative)
What was *not* cool was MGS4. It was a major letdown. Yes, it was nicely presented in the same way one might put tripe into a fancy gift box. The in-game graphic quality has dropped down a sizable notch from previous demos. And the animation... Everything was very robotic and very unnatural; totally unlike the two previous movies.
For example, firing a gun has literally two key frames. Normal position and recoiled position. There weren't even any in-between frames. He just fired his gun, snapping forward and back jerkily between the two positions. Not smooth or natural at all. It was a big, big, letdown.
A lot of games were available to play, but MGS4 (unsurprisingly given the movie) did not appear to be among them. Speaking of missing games, there was not even so much as a whiff of Assassin's Creed, which was really too bad as I was looking forward to seeing it. Maybe tomorrow...
But the ***HUGE*** loser of the day was the PS3's new Coded Arms game. They have really, really screwed it up. I was watching it for some time in quite some disbelief as I literally saw framerates drop below 5 per second. Like maybe 1 per second. Really. And that kind of stuttering was pretty regular. An unmitigated disaster by all appearances. I'm really hoping I'm mistaken and this is some low budget PS2 version.
Overall, the PS3 beats out the XBox 360 on all accounts. What the XBox struggles to do, the PS3 does easily. Not only was that my impression, but also the opinion of all of the industry folk I spoke to.
Enough to save them? Only time will tell...
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This is not to say that there is anything wrong with the 360. Realistically, if the game
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Framerate issues tied to games, not consoles (Score:1)
Ehh, I'd be wary of getting any type of advice from Sony fanbois. :P
Really, framerate issues should be tied to the game, not the console. It's not the console's fault if developers write bad/unoptimized code, or are just stressing the console past its limits (whatever that may be). Comparing two different games on two platforms is certainly not "apples to apples".
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Odd, since based on everything we know so far the PS3 has a weaker GPU than the Xbox 360.
Not to mention that the PS3's Cell might be on par with the 360 CPU when it comes to game applications (as opposed to gene folding.)
As far as I can tell, everything about the PS3 is the same or worse. The only notable advantage it has anymore is the size of Blu-Ray discs.
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Someone compared Project Gotham 3 with Motor Storm, but Motor Storm's graphics yesterday were far superior and really had a CG movie feel to them.
In theory the XBOX GPU can beat the PS3 GPU for certain things, but people forget that those figures are based on the XBOX360's cpu bandwidth not being used for anything else.
I have to say... (Score:2)
No cables (Score:1)
I'm not sure, but I think the answer might be "no."
Yeouch, that surprised me a bit. No HDMI thats fine, makes sense actually. But where the consoles are now I don't think its too much to expect a cable capable of HD. At least in the 360s release you got an HD cable on the more expensive version.
But who knows, he did say he wasn't sure.
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"Look, we don't know what's going to be in the thing, okay? Just buy it and we'll find out together. Good? Good."
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Man, oh man. I wish I had some mod points. You'd get +1, Funniest Thing I've Seen On Slashdot In Like Two Weeks.
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It seems that all the complaints finally paid off.
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Not all that informative... (Score:1)
I find it very hard to accept the 'GDP of a small country' for a PS3, a white british IT Professional.
shouldn;t that read "...ANY questions..."
Is that the BEST question you can come up with when faced with the three sony head honchos?
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If you read the article, it's far from the "best" question. However, it is one of the few questions that Sony actually answers.
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Yeah, that $600 graphics card is bought to play games, but it also has other qualities that make it worth that price. But honestly, I know a grand total of 1 person that has a $600 graphi
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Sure, both the PS3 and your PC allow you
Onboard video (Score:1)
Pull the PCI-e card and power on the computer, and it automatically switches to its onboard 2D video.
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I never had! My gaming rig runs linux! ;)
On the other hand, I've never owned a console. What's the point with them? Computers are better value for the money, as I see it :)
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I fall into the last
From the article: "" (Score:3, Insightful)
My favorite comment was from Phil Harrison:
"We started by calculating the price for the US and European territories by looking at what consumers considered the 'magic price points'. In these territories, the prices we announced were very well accepted."
I would really like to see these consumers who accepted the $500-$600 price points well. People that I've talked to, including staunch PlayStation supporters, have said that they don't plan on buying a PS3 because of the high price point.
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In a country with 190 million people, i can determine market trends by asking 3 guys on slashdot what their friends think about something? Wow. That's gonna save companies a fortune.
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Lets say each of we three have discussed the matter with 10 people, now clearly that's not a really good sample size, so our margin for error is quite high, but it is fairly random, so that helps. Now
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it's an insignificant sample size. the margin for error is so high it makes the results meaningless. A sample built from the friends of people who read slashdot is not fairly random.
Now the fact that apparently not a single one of those 30 people can be said to be happy about the price means that even with a huge e
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I said that I belive that we have sufficent anacdotal evedence to suggest the statement "In these territories, the prices we announced were very well accepted." may not be entirely true. I didn't say I had absolute proof that Phil wa
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I agree that if you build a truly random sample and construct your opinion poll properly, you can determine trends using a surprisingly small sample size.
There's a whole industry built around those polls. I imagine Sony has probably availed themselves of that industry when trying to figure out how much they could get away with.
I think we could also agree that the original poste
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I have to agree. I wonder who the hell he asked about these "magic price points." I have no doubt that the PS3 will sell out during its first few months, but the console race isn't a first-few-months affair. Most of my friends could afford a PS3, but guess what? Nobody I know has even bought an Xbox 360 - even those who own and love the old Xbox.
Both the 36
Lemme get this straight (Score:3, Insightful)
Who the heck cares about a game nobody has even heard of. Or wants to hear of. Or could even remotely consider buying.
How about new sequels of already very much loved games? How about asking 'bout the damn cables? How about BluRay and what about the rumor that you can't "lend" discs because they're being "tied" with your box somehow as soon as you put them in the first time?
Or was that the only question that guru was able/allowed/willing to answer?
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This really bothers me. I thought it was unimaginative studios that were pushing all these sequels on us but you're here actually demanding the rehashes over something at least unusual if not totally unique. Because of you (and, presumably millions more like you), I'm going to have to wade through shelfs chock full of things like "Devi
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Africa game? (Score:2)
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Meanwhile the rest of the world plays Grand Turismo instead of driving on a real racetrack, plays FIFA instead of doing real soccer and playing Counter-Strike instead of... uhm... ok lets stop here. It of course depends on what kind of gameplay they pack into that Africa game and how good the animal AI is, but I can imagine this to be great fun. That Africa game seems to have some quite reali
Can't connect to your TV? (Score:3, Informative)
"Will the PS3 include component video cables in the box?
I'm not sure, but I think the answer might be "no."
We know it doesn't come with HDMI cables. [slashdot.org] So how do you connect it to your TV? Is it really composite [wikipedia.org] only? That's remarkable. So out of the box, it will look like poo no matter what television you have.
They are adding HDMI to all the PS3s now, but they aren't including a decent cable to connect with. Strange.
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Or... (Score:2, Funny)
In retrospect (Score:2)
Your typical PR guys get the question, "Can your product do this?"
Then the answer, "Yes!" even though they have no clue.
Sony Runaway Trial Began Today (Score:2, Funny)
Thank you Mary Ann. Tonights top story, the Sony Runaway Trial. Shortly after noon in San Diego the lawyers representing Fathers Against Runaway Teens opened the court proceedings with hefty accusations against Sony. They charge that Sony has been negligent in its review of computer games and their affects on teenagers. This case originated when Brandon Hill, a runaway teen sixteen years old, was found in Africa three months later. When questioned,
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The Horse's Mouth? (Score:2, Funny)
HDMI in all PS3 models (Score:2)
As for the Africa game, that actually could be really interesting and educational, if the AI for the animals is any good. I wonder if they will show lions taking down impala or the like...
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Thanks (Score:2)
Is it an adventure game? (Score:2)
The animals kill you!
a non-violent safari game? (Score:1)
it has to be said. (Score:2)
He attacked his Weak Point for MASSIVE DAMAGE.
m-