GDC 2006: PS3 at GDC !

[BizioEE]

Something was spectacular, like Warhawk tech demo and something else good, but think nothing was running on PS3 final hardware...and some Demos didn\'t even scratch the surface of Cell/RSX capabilities...

- Warhawk tech demo

11:02 - Warhawk tech demo shown. based off the real game.
11:03 - Crowd applauds, game looks amazing
11:04 - Ambient warfare is a key aspect. Hundred of fighters on a screen at once, think star wars space battles. Waves generated after each frame. Individual clouds rendered.
11:05 - Unlimited draw distance.
11:06 - Huge ships in Warhawk vs many small fighters.
11:07 - E3: full demo of Warhawk will be shown.

- New Duck Demo Details

- Car Demo Details

- Phil Harrison Q&A

- Region-free PS3

March 22, 2006 - In a QA session following the platform keynote address at GDC 2006 this morning, Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios President Phil Harrison confirmed what was heavily demanded for import gamers all over the world and yet previously thought unthinkable for a major corporation: the PS3 will be region-free for gaming.

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/697/697656p1.html

- Sony Goes Digital

- Songstar Hums on PS3

- Resistance Shown

The brief demo of Resistance showed the player patrolling down a back alley of a war-torn city, where he encountered a number of insectlike, slightly humanoid enemy soldiers wearing backpacks. The main character countered these nasty bugs with a shotgun and machine gun that, like all of Resistance\'s weapons, will fully integrate with the game\'s comprehensive physics-modeling system. Another interesting weapon, much like Halo\'s needler, allowed the player to "tag" an enemy and then fire a number of shots that would then seek the target out, even around a corner. Lastly, we saw a weapon that looked like a spike-covered grenade. When thrown onto the ground, this weapon hovered a few feet off the ground before exploding, spraying the area with scores of needles. Ouch.

http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/action/insomniacshooter/news.html?sid=6146410

- Ratchet and PS3

- Motorstorm Update

The emphasis in MotorStorm appears to be to reproduce the dirt and mud inherent in off-road and rally racing. To date, all of the footage we\'ve seen of the game has taken place on off-road tracks, and the footage shown today shows just how far Evolution has come in its attempts to model the natural grime that builds up on vehicles when they leave the asphalt. If you\'re tired of pretty-boy cars that never get dirty, then Motor Storm is shaping up to be the racer for you.

The first section of the GDC demo showed off a yellow buggy doing doughnuts in--what else?--a bunch of mud. The car was obviously well detailed, with tiny elements, like individual welding points, visible. As the car circled around and around, it kicked up so much dirt that it actually deformed the ground underneath it, and it appears that this deformation actually does have an impact on gameplay, since the suspension and wheels of the car bounced over the ruts that were being created. It\'ll be interesting to see how this effect impacts gameplay. In a multilap race, you could conceivably wind up having to stick to the ruts worn into the turns if you want maximum speed, whereas pristine mud would slow you down.

http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/driving/motorstorm/news.html?sid=6146416

- New PS3 Online Details.

GDC: Online key to PS3 !

...Then, it was on to business. Like Kutaragi the week before, Harrison said the cornerstones of the PSNP are "the four Cs": Content, Communication, Community, and Commerce. He said it would go online alongside the launch of the PS3, and that the basic service would indeed be free. He said SCE would support the basic service, but repeated that the PSNP would also allow for the integration of third-party servers.

In a thinly veiled swipe at Xbox Live, which does not support third-party servers, Harrison said Sony is adopting an "open Internet business philosophy" for the PSNP. Specifically, he said this was done to encourage "makers of massively multiplayer online role-playing-game-type products" to integrate into the network. Later, he would hold up the wildly popular MMORPG World of Warcraft, which boasts more than 6 million subscribers, as a paradigm. "If World of Warcraft were a country, it would be bigger than Ireland," said Harrison. "That\'s what we would like to achieve in terms of community."

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6146436.html

PlayStation 3\'s online service, known internally as PlayStation Network Platform, allows for the possibility of full digital distribution of games, which can be played directly from the PS3\'s hard disk drive. Sony is very much focused on digital distribution, Harrison said - something he demonstrated by directing attendees to visit a newly launched "E-Distribution Initiative (EDI) website.

Other features of the online service sound like answers to celebrated elements of Microsoft\'s Xbox Live user interface, including video chat and email overlays allowing for in-game messaging, pop-up notifications, and in-game shops that allow players to buy new content. MotorStorm and F1 games featuring fully integrated shop-fronts were demonstrated - and this is obviously a different approach to the centralised "Marketplace" Microsoft uses.

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=63536


Some footage of the Techdemos from GDC...

Directdownload wmv

Directdownload Quicktime

waiting for more footages...

Are the videos direct feed?

[GmanJoe]

It\'s the ducks in the tub again! Anything more.....shall we say...breath taking?

We shall have to wait, I guess.

E3 will be hot... full playable demos... ^^

[BizioEE]

some pics from the footage...









...and look at this...it\'s not for PS3    !!!

God of War 2 for...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEj5_vNBz0c&search=gdc

[Living-In-Clip]

Tech demos......

yawn.......

[Titan]

Simply amazing

PS3 sure can make pretty rubber ducks. Or whatever. ;]
 
Graphics don\'t do much for me anymore. I wasn\'t even wowed by FNR3 on X360, hi-res. I think we\'ve hit a point where good graphics are the standard. And now I\'m thinking, ok, what else can you do for me?
 
I\'ll need to see something from E3. Rubber ducks aren\'t gonna cut it. ;]
 
-Dan

[Titan]

PS3 sure can make pretty rubber ducks. Or whatever. ;]
 
Graphics don\'t do much for me anymore. I wasn\'t even wowed by FNR3 on X360, hi-res. I think we\'ve hit a point where good graphics are the standard. And now I\'m thinking, ok, what else can you do for me?
 
I\'ll need to see something from E3. Rubber ducks aren\'t gonna cut it. ;]
 
-Dan

But the duckies are so cute :wav2:

if you aren\'t a pc gamer maybe those screens make you salivate.  To me it\'s nothing that great looking... i\'m used to gaming at 1600x1200.

[BizioEE]

if you aren\'t a pc gamer maybe those screens make you salivate.  To me it\'s nothing that great looking... i\'m used to gaming at 1600x1200.

I\'ll show you something that will change your mind

[GmanJoe]

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/697/697656p1.html

No region encoding? Fastson will be happy. He won\'t have to mod chip his PS3.

March 22, 2006 - In a QA session following the platform keynote address at GDC 2006 this morning, Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios President Phil Harrison confirmed what was heavily demanded for import gamers all over the world and yet previously thought unthinkable for a major corporation: the PS3 will be region-free for gaming.[/color]



The move was not unexpected, as SCE had previously mentioned considering the possibility of opening up the region structure for PS3 games recently (the newly-released PSP system has but does not use a region code system for games, but that\'s more a standard for portable games than a new development for region-free gaming.) The system is, amongst other things, hoped to help combat piracy - many import fans "chip" their consoles with region-free mod chips to play import games, and while that desire has some legitimacy, it also opens the doors for pirates to release illegal copies of games. (Funnily enough, it\'s most often easier to run illegal games on a console than it is to run legit games from other countries due to the way most mod chips work, leading to a slippery slope for importers hoping to stay legit but finding the road difficult to maneuver.) Region-free gaming also allows game publishers to release games across the globe simultaneously, either through e-distribution or on disc. The capacity of Blu-Ray had previously been mentioned to allow for multiple languages of a game to be encoded onto the same massive-capacity disc.

The one caveat of this new region-free structure is that games made for specific regions\' electrical and TV standards may have problems on your TV set. A PAL PS3 game, for instance, will have difficulty running on an NTSC TV, unless the developers have thought ahead and planned for that issue. It is currently unknown how the PS3 will cope with this problem (whether there will be a warning when you run an import about possible TV incompatibility, or if possibly there might be a no-play screen for incompatible games depending on your PS3\'s TV settings.) Luckily, modern HDTV standards go a long way towards making that problem moot. Also, games made in other countries will naturally only have the text and dialog it is programmed with, so don\'t put your pre-orders down so fast on all of those Japanese RPGs and Dragon Ball if you don\'t know a lick of kanji, because English will only be in if the developers have planned for it. (It\'s unknown if there will be any type of "patching" system for multi-language releases, although that might be possible on supported games post-release now that the PS3 is carrying its massive HDD and flash memory support.)

We\'ll have more details on how this impacts publishers and importers as soon as we know more about SCE\'s plans for region-free PS3 gaming.

Orgasm

[Kurt Angle]

*rubs crotch vigorously*

[BizioEE]

About Warhawk Game Demonstration !

The demo\'s focus put the player\'s plane up against massive airships that hover above a procedurally rendered ocean surface. Getting in close to the airship reveals some impressive detail, like weathered metal surfaces and very nice lighting effects. The game also appears to be able to push particles around very well, as evidenced in the tracer fire being shown in the demo.

While we\'re light on info about how the game will play, we can tell you that you will use a square reticle to target your enemies. Earth-shattering, we know. But the visual detail and particle effects are definitely impressive, and we\'re looking forward to seeing more.

http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/action/warhawk/news.html?sid=6146401

waiting for the trailer...