Playstation Meeting 2005 - new PS3 games/announcements! (56K Warning)

LookingFor

Sony held their 2005 Playstation meeting today - lots of new stuff

On the PS3 development front, some big announcements:

PS3 dev kit to include Havok out of the box (Sony to provide their own support for it):
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/635/635488p1.html

PS3 dev kit to include AGEIA out of the box (same as Havok):
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/635/635492p1.html

PS3 dev kit to include an evaluation version of Unreal Engine 3 out of the box:
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/635/635489p1.html

Sony is to acquire SNSystems, makers of the ProDG PS2 tools, to beef up internal tools development:
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/635/635494p1.html

Seems like they'll be offering a very comprehensive package on the dev kit front. Bye bye PS2-like dev worries..

On to the games. Sony showed most of the same stuff from E3, but in addition (sorry about the quality of some of the screencaptures - no direct feed media yet):

In-Game footage of Bandai's Mobile Suit Gundam Gundam (this looks very early, but remarkably like the supposedly prerendered footage from E3 from a graphical perspective! The first live PS3 game demonstration too)

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/635/635525p1.html

Updated: This actually appears to be realtime Dynasty Warriors, not Ni-Oh:

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/635/635527p1.html

First Factor5 PS3 game - "Lair" (realtime, very impressive graphically)

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/635/635510p1.html

Genji 3 trailer (likely non-realtime):
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/635/635511p1.html

Webzen's "Endless Saga" trailer (realtime):

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/635/635512p1.html

From Software's "Project Force" trailer (doesn't look GREAT in shots, but much better in motion - nice smoke and destructible environments!)
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/635/635514p1.html

Resident Evil 5 (speaks for itself)
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/635/635504p1.html

Phew!

Some random shots from Web Impress:

danniemcq

so is that stupid lookin controller official now then???

LookingFor

danniemcq wrote:

so is that stupid lookin controller official now then???

If you read the sign underneath it, it says "Conceptual Mock-up". Take from that what you will..

I guess we'll see for sure by the Tokyo Game Show. After today's showing I'd say there's a fairly decent chance there'll be publically playable games by then, hopefully.

JackKelly

hopefully the controller is a big practical joke, and the real one will be released on the day.

Ciaran500

PS3 certainly looking better, but I'm still not a fan of the shape.

chillywilly

it looks like there is no disc tray, looks like you slide the disc in? Interesting...

LookingFor

chillywilly wrote:

it looks like there is no disc tray, looks like you slide the disc in? Interesting...

Yeah, it's a slot loader. Hopefully nothing will get stuck in there

I'm hoping for the white one at launch.

chillywilly

dust could be a problem....well in my house anyway!!

Deadwing

holy flurking shnit, some of those videos are impressive, lair looks incredible

LookingFor

They also showed off some of the same tech demos from E3, including a slightly better presented Alfred Molina demo. I think it's quite possibly the best looking tech demo I've ever seen:















The interaction between the light and the skin is unbelievable, particularly in motion. The movie, and others, can be found here:

http://media.ps3.ign.com/articles/635/635625/vids_1.html

Also, as an update to the original post, Webzen's Eternal Saga is actually a MMORPG, for PS3 and PC, due 2007.

mp3guy

TimAy wrote:

hopefully the controller is a big practical joke, and the real one will be released on the day.

Oh no, you see its just the standard playstation controller, but has become melted under the heat of the display lights, look closely;

Rhyme

Endless saga shows promise... great big promises

Gizzard

danniemcq wrote:

so is that stupid lookin controller official now then???

I assume (hope) you can use the old PS2 controllers on it too

rabbitinlights

Gizzard wrote:

I assume (hope) you can use the old PS2 controllers on it too

Where would you plug them in?


S.


That face thing looks amazing, the way the light goes around his head is just nuts.

Ciaran500

rabbitinlights wrote:

Where would you plug them in?

Beside the BR drive looks like it comes of. Mem cards? More ports?

LookingFor

Ciaran500 wrote:

Beside the BR drive looks like it comes of. Mem cards? More ports?

They are USB ports. I'm guessing there will be wired PS3 controllers in addition to the Bluetooth ones, so you can have up to 4 plugged in the front (and another 2 in the back). I'm not sure about PS2 controllers..unless there's some adaptor that could be used (I doubt the current PS2->USB adaptors for PC would work).

Gamespot has some further reporting (finally) here:

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/07/22/news_6129611.html

From the sounds of it, Sony may be including a Havok and AGEIA license for free with every PS3 kit? They make it sound like Unreal Engine 3 is the only one of the 3 dev's will have to shell out more money for if they want to use it.

Also, some more on the Dynasty Warriors (?) demo:

After Bandai, Koei showed a real-time demo of its PS3 game, Ni-Oh, which featured a Dynasty-Warrior-esque character fighting multiple enemies. Pausing the game and changing the camera angles, Koei chairman Keiko Erikawa zoomed in on the character's face to show its detail, which even showed the pores on the skin. Flanked by an assistant wielding a PS2 controller, Erikawa explained that with the PS2, developers were able to allot about 1,000 polygons on a character's face. With the PS3, Erikawa's team was able to allot up to 1.5 million polygons. Erikawa explained that additional polygons allow for more subdivision surfaces, allowing more wrinkles and personalities to the face. Erikawa also zoomed in on the door of the room in the demo, and showed how the PS3 allows the reflection on the floor to change naturally when the camera's angle is shifted around. Like Bandai, Koei developed its demo using its self-produced program engines for the PS3. "Our challenge will be to create a game that is as high quality as the graphics the PS3 can create. We look forward to the Tokyo Game Show," commented Erikawa at the end of her presentation.

Hehe, PS3 = 1500 x PS2

I'm not sure if they're using some Doom3-style trickery where they can map the detail of models with millions of polys to a lower poly model, but either way that's still very impressive (the doom3, hi-res models from which normal maps etc. are taken from are themselves in the 1-2m range for the WHOLE model IIRC..so just that for the face is quite something).

Something tells me geometry/polygons won't be a problem on PS3 - if you look also at Bandai's Mobile Suit Gundam demo, the number of polys going into the mechs is crazy. Parts of it look perfectly rounded like they're supposed to. The mechs in the playable demonstration look to be exactly the same models used in the prerendered CGI of the same demo at E3!

Realtime live demo (don't mind the colouring, this isn't direct feed):


E3 CGI:


edit - and just cos it looks super hot (imo), another pic:

Laguna

Looking good, I just hope it's not more of the same **** Sony pulled when unveiling alleged ps2 'real time' footage

Ciaran500

LookingFor wrote:

They are USB ports.

The USB ports are underneath. The bit I'm talking about is right beside the drive, it looks like a removable cover.