Website test drives PlayStation 3

PS3 News | Hardware 'close to being final', controller and case redesign could be on the cards.

Gaming website Kikizo has just published what it calls "the first public PlayStation 3 hands-on report", after speaking anonymously to three separate developers working on software for Sony's next-gen machine. Sadly, the site was prevented from naming which three games it was shown, with all three developers keen to maintain anonymity. However, there were a number of interesting odds and ends to come from Kikizo's hands-on time.

Firstly, it emerged that the casing for the PlayStation 3 is likely to undergo some modifications, with one senior developer Kikizo spoke to admitting that, "I think to fit everything that Sony wants in there and leave space for a 2.5 inch hard drive the machine would have to grow. The models they're showing off are way too small for what they want."

Inside the casing (for now, the PS3 innards are encased in a hefty tower set-up), Kikizo confirms that the hardware "is not completely final, but pretty damn close", and also notes that all the developers they spoke to are designing their games in accordance with the DualShock 2 controls, rather than those offered by the boomerang-style PS3 controller unveiled by Sony at E3 last May. According to the piece, the men in the know expect Sony to change the concept design for the controller, but retain the familiar DualShock 2 layout.

On the subject of performance, Kikizo claims that the software it saw demonstrated doesn't quite reach the visual quality of pre-rendered special effects in movies that was promised by Sony, though does admit that "it's not an ugly picture by any means." Which is, er, a relief. The site then goes on to describe the PS3's RSX graphics chip as "twice as powerful" as Nvidia's Geforce 6800 Ultra, and says some stuff about "multi-way shader pipelines" that we don't really understand. It's also revealed by the article that "many (if not most) games are running in 720p - not the ambitious, bleeding edge 1080p "Full HD" standard that Sony had us so excited about."

And how does it compare to Xbox 360 according to Kikizo's sources? "It's certainly obvious this machine is not "twice" as powerful as X360, let alone a generational leap ahead," says the site itself, though one developer involved in the piece does offer the view that the performance gap between the two could stretch: "Realistically, as libraries and experience with both machines grow, I think the PS3 will start showing things the 360 will choke at. But Sony will have to make available to us libraries and new routines for that to happen - something they've been severely lacking at so far."

It's all fairly intriguing stuff, and you can read the article in it's entirety here.

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16 Comments

NismoR34

4 years ago

Kikizo can be quite reliable too so this stuff can be believed. Well as far as I am concerned anyway. I hope to see the casing for the console modified (perhaps even changed entirely) as I'm not really a fan of it in its current state. (not when compared to the other two consoles anyway)
As for the controller I will be extremely disappointed if it isn't changed. It's just not a controller as far as I'm concerned.
I wonder if one of those games was Metal Gear Solid 4? *ponders*

Matt Bassos

4 years ago

Yeah this was posted on GAF a day ago or so. I haven't read the article as I don't want to know about the PS3 until closer to launch, though I remember some comments about people saying xbox360=ps3 from the article?

LeonJ

4 years ago

Interesting read. The thing I took away from the impressions with console running at 720p (with regards to Sony's stance on 1080p being the only true HD) and how nothing is really ready in any sense (console, controller, HDD approach, etc). I think Sony may have bitten off more then they can chew and are struggling because of how fast the 360 hit the market and how complete the package and functionality is.

They have Micosoft on one hand, with a nicely intregated system with great online service and features, and the other hand the revolution coming with an unquie control system and a focus on online gaming. All Sony has at the moment is a "cheap" (compard with the standalone player) blue-ray dvd player and a crazy CPU core which nobody can use. Plus I'm not sure what we can expect in the PS3 launch window, I can't see MGS4 or DMC4 being released for a year or two yet. Money is on Tekken 5 redubbed mega mix and a Ridge Racer 50 title. I mean, look at the PSP, there isn't one unquie AAA game available yet!

I'm not Sony bashing, I'm just saying to me Sony don't know how much content and features they want to add into this console and they are still in limbo thinking about costs, functionality and integration with other devices. I think they probably are a year or so from actually wanting to launch, but really have no choice.

I think this cleary shows Micosoft's expereince with OS's and and integrating a product together in such a short amount of time. The console war in the generation is will very interesting.

Disclaimer - I will be buying all 3 next gen consoles, so I'm not biased.

Scorn

4 years ago

I don't know how you got that from the article leonmc...

Basically it says what we've all know.
PS3 is a bit more powerful than Xbox360, over time the gap will grow. Most games will run in 720p.

What I'm surprised is is that the game they saw was looking like Gears of War...

...random PS3 game looking like the best 360 has to offer? Thats interesting.

Cerebral

4 years ago

We don't know if it's the best the 360 can offer either, though I doubt the 360 will be able to keep up with the PS3 in the later generations.

Just like that analyst dude said.

jojota

4 years ago

is that thing on the 2nd of march still happening where they are going to talk about all the ps3 hardware? this is an intresting read tho

Denny

4 years ago

Cerebral wrote

We don't know if it's the best the 360 can offer either,

It currently is the best it's offering, next to Oblivion, so knowing that an early PS3 game looks like Gears of War is IMO quite good.

What I wasn't very happy about was:

Quote

Based on what we've now played for ourselves, we can answer a question we all asked back at E3 2005. Does PS3 really look like the Killzone trailer? No way. Does it look like Metal Gear Solid 4? Sure, near enough, although now that it's on near-final hardware, things just need a little polishing to look as complete as what was shown by Kojima-san in September.

We still don't know what Kz will look like on PS3, but of what this says the chances of it looking like the E3 video look somewhat small. Which sucks big time. But still, the MGS4 video was stunning, so either way I'm pretty happy. As long as Kz will play like the video, then I am all for it.

Anonymous

4 years ago

Cerebral wrote

We don't know if it's the best the 360 can offer either, though I doubt the 360 will be able to keep up with the PS3 in the later generations.

Just like that analyst dude said.

ATM the 360 is running close to what it truely can do in terms of utilizing power out of the system, which may sound bad for the 360 but because the games on it are running normal DVDs storage is more flexable and cheaper to produce. While Blu-ray is still a developing medium which means it'llbe while before they get anything over 27GB (which is a lot) out of it.
I think that PS3 will outpower the 360, but in terms of producing the games the 360 will be a lot more appealing in the eyes of 3rd party developers.

Bitchacho

4 years ago

i think it would be gay if MGS4 was a launch title. parents would be buying the console with a game for their kids, and they get this intelligent gem with lots of cut-scenes and in-depth story and what not. they don't deserve it.

Jellyfish

4 years ago

Whitegreek wrote

The current games are not at all reaching into what the 360 can actually do. It'd like running AoE2 on Onggie's PC (probably not as extreme though). Last I heard the current games are using one maybe two of the hardware threads on the CPU.

My expectations for this gen are, games approaching the Killzone on the PS3 with the 360 somewhere slightly behind. With Revolution games looking like Fightnight Round 3, but I don't think Nintendo themselves will be going for realism. I think they will come up with new artistic ways to show us games.

realitybites

4 years ago

Can't see the Xbox 360 maxed already. History has shown that as time goes on developers can push the console system's harder.

Great example is RE4 and God of War on the PS2.

Its a very interesting read.

Wait and see what the Sony PR engine does at this year's E3. The article certainly lowers the expectation level as compared to Sony at the last E3.

admeister

4 years ago

PS3 sounds to be pretty good. I guess the hardware will be better utilised as time goes by, so we'll have to see what they both can do. I hope the Revolution can have reasonable graphics in any case, a lot of people make it sound as though it will be very inferior which sounds bad. Not that I doubt nintendo.

Thor

4 years ago

sounds like a load of crap to me.

ObsoletE

4 years ago

^ care to elaborate, or is this merely a fanboy moment?

Anonymous

4 years ago

realitybites wrote

With Halo 2 you might've noticed that it was slow to render and model at times in cutsences. Well Halo 2 used a compression method which meant a bit of the power goes to unpacking models and such.
Thus meaning a game which unpacks the textures as you go at a cost of the CPU. Now this cost is less than the cost of mkaing a smaller game with more detail.

Anyone remember the 96kb game, pretty swish grpahics for super compression. It uses a hell lot of CPU to unpack the textures and models. Now models with greater detail means more space. Therefore the more you compress the bigger and more detailed the game is.

This relates back to the 360, ATM the games are running at full capcity but it doesn't have the detail or longevity yet because the development kits haven't really been pushed and tested to find cool and interesting ways of compressing games.
So you either have a detailed but short game running purly on unpacked ocntent on the disc. Or a detailed longer game whihc requires unpakcing, sometimes meaning renders and models slow to render.

Don't confuse this with loading, loading is meerly caching and getting cached contents readfy to run. This can be files for starting a cutsence, or the phyics engine or getting the information to the partitioned (well sort of) part of the HD or disc so it can be run, or getting packed content ready to be unpacked when needed.

Thor

4 years ago

ObsoletE wrote

^ care to elaborate, or is this merely a fanboy moment?

It seems to me as though its just random info mashed together with theories and made into an article, for example the quote that talked about the ps3 being a little better then the 360 to begin with then pulling away later in the next gen life cycle, that was said by a ps3 dev in the Ut2k7 article that hit the net a little while ago i believe.

Also look at what happened to that guy who only said his opinion on the ps3, he got sacked, imagine what would happen to these people if they got caught, jail time imo, also how would they get people in to play the games, im sure everyone who works at these so called companies is under an NDA and knows what they are doing is wrong, and im sure they also have tight security, they wouldnt be able to get away with it.

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