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Why any Transformers movie would need any better graphics than the Transformers game on the Commodore 64 is beyond me.
I will say that one of the main deciding factors in me getting the original PlayStation was that it was going to have Final Fantasy VII.
I will concede that just because a system has amazing capabilities doesn’t mean that the games will be amazing. But it does mean that there is at least the opportunity for games to use those capabilities and be amazing.
You may be happy with the 360’s level of backwards-compatibility, and other people will be too, but I’ve read quite a few letters on various websites and in various magazines where people have complained about it. The PS3’s backwards-compatibility is supposed to be more of an “it just works” thing.
One of the areas that the PS3 will have a much greater advantage in, due to its more powerful processor, is in physics modeling. That can really add a lot more realism and a lot more of the “wow” factor to a game.
Also, as I understand it, the PS3’s cell processor is dynamically reprogrammable, much like an FPU (Field Programmable Unit). Which means, for instance, let’s say you have a game that only needs half the power of the processor. It can temporarily reprogram or restructure the other half of the processor to act as additional RAM, or restructure it to act as an additional graphics processor instead of a regular processor, for even more gaming goodness.
It’s true that the 360 will have a greater immediate share of the next-gen market by coming out earlier, but that will also give the PS3 a chance to see what worked and what didn’t work with the 360 and tweak their machine to make it even more attractive.
Besides, the Dreamcast came out a while before the other systems comparable to it did, and it didn’t end up doing too well. The same can be said for the Atari Jaguar.
Even if the graphical capabilities are the same, which I’m not sure about, the PS3’s cell processor is still more powerful. Also, the PS3 has more true backwards-compatibility than the clunky system the 360 has in place.
Here’s some nice PS3 footage.
Here’s a slightly more safe-for-work version.
Good point. Also, it broadens the developer base for the PS3. For instance, if a new developer signs up to do a 360 game, they have to learn the 360 way of doing things. If they sign up to do a Wii game, they have to learn the Wii way of doing things.
But, let’s say a development company, or Sony itself, signs on a new developer from the homebrew community. That person already knows the PS3 way of doing things and is much more comfortable developing for it, so they can get to work right away.
Considering the way Sony has been about homebrew, I’m not sure why they would do it either. But it’s still cool that it can be done.
And it’s true that at first developing for the cell processor will be hard, because it’s so new. But then some people will figure out, and they’ll say how they did it. Then other people will find an even easier way, which they’ll report to the community about. And then more people will find an even easier way.
Eventually, there will be game programming libraries (I bet SDL will be the first to be ported) and clear-cut directions on how to use them and how to program the cell processor in an easier way, which will make community development faster and easier.
This isn’t really all that different from the GP2X, which is a Linux-based handheld gaming device, largely supported by community software.
A conversation you don’t really want to overhear at Guitar Center:
“My keyboard’s bigger than your keyboard.”
Yeah, when I heard that, I was like, “Huh?”
“These clouds, I think I’ll walk through them. Maybe I *am* the One.”
It’s a pic from Star Wars Galaxies. It shows a guy (looks like he’s in speeder gear) sitting on the ground with his legs bent up and his arms on this knees. Then there’s a woman laying on the ground prone with her head beneath his hands and between his legs. There’s a speech bubble above his head that says, “I love you.” It’s all very well done.
Another way this could turn out, if for some reason it did pass, in regards to the speed throttling issue, is with different subscription levels.
For instance, maybe for $15 a month, you could get a “sponsored” subscription where speed was throttled to certain places and not throttled to others.
Or, for $30 a month, you could get a “regular” subscription where speed wasn’t throttled anywhere. But hopefully, it won’t come to any of that.
