PlayStation 3 Playstation 3 FAQ

[Mirage]

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/636/636848p1.html

This was a good article I found on IGN. It covers a lot of the questions I had and was very informative.

Right off the bat as long as Sony can secure some solid RPG titles, I think the system could be insanely good.

It uses Blu-Ray Discs, which means each game can store close to 50 GIGS of graphics, sound, level, characters, and just.. game. They will be huge.

 

[Jak_It_Up]

befor reading that article ireally wanted the PS3, but now after reading it, i have to make sure that i get it! those wireless controllers look sooo sweet and the tilt feature is awesome too. the oly bad thing i saw was the tilt controller not having the rumble feature on it and not being able to just plug in the PS2 controller. it would feel really awkward playing a game without using the rumble feature.

 

[unrealphantasy3]

Oh yeah! PS3! THAT'S what I'm talking about! 50 Gigs? Isn't that bigger than the 360's FREAKIN HARD DRIVE?! Imagine ES4: Oblivion, expect 5 times bigger. And to think the 360 still uses DVD format, which has been around since the turn of the millennium... sad. Not to bag on the 360, cause I love Halo, but people, let's wake up. PS3 is the way to go. PS3 Final Fantasy? PS3 Jak and Daxter?! Can I get an Amen?!

 

[Thermal]

I really don't see Blu-ray being that big of an asset to gaming. Most 360 games don't even exceed half the size of the DVD9's capacity. Game size doesn’t equal physical size. In fact, as game developers progress, their games tend to be smaller due to better compression, auto-generating techniques (Oblivion used such techniques for its forests), and developer experience. If a game does exceed the original capacity of the DVD9 format, it can be easily solved by throwing in another DVD.

With that said, the Blu-ray does offer the capabilities of allowing publishers to package multiple regions onto a single disc. Games like "Resistance: Fall of Man" is said to be doing this. Not having to decompress data could also speed up load times. Another fault that Blu-ray has is that data is closer to the surface making scratches even more problematic. While Blu-ray discs are coated with a protective coat, the current Blu-ray discs are having extreme problems to even fingerprints due to the quality of the protective coating. So hopefully Sony will resolve the issue with some type of quality control. Price is the other huge issue, and hopefully Blu-ray won't add too much to the overall cost of games.

I do like the PS3, and I'm anticipating its release, but I'm not seeing Blu-ray as being that beneficial to gaming.

 

[unrealphantasy3]

While some developers will no doubt use "shortcuts" that mimic reality, I have no doubt in my mind that some dedicated developers will spend the time that it will take to fully take advantage of the mass storage that Blu-Ray provides. Way better graphics, mechanics, physics, much much bigger worlds and just plain way more, well, stuff! The level of detail Blu-Ray allows will allow for so many things, like glass that can appear scorched, scratched, chipped, with condensation on it, or even sand that becomes glass when intense heat is provided. These are just a few of the infinite possibilities that Blu-Ray allows. Some devs won't, but some devs will spend time utilizing Blu-Ray, and it's their games, the truly amazing ones that will go down in gaming history, that will revolutionize the industry forever, that will truly step games up to an art form, and that will showcase the revolution to gaming that Blu-Ray is.

Just my two cents.

 

[Thermal]

Well most of what you've described is done dynamically between the processor and the graphics card. Blu-Ray offers a "Bigger canvas" as Sony puts it, which means it makes more room for higher resolution textures.

Resistance is said to be around 22Gigs, but whether this will be the final size of the game or not is still to be determined. I just don’t want to have to pay for something that is never really being used fully.

*Edit* I'm talking about the price of games, not the system. I really like the fact that I will be able to play Blu-ray movies.