Dean Takahashi (author of XBOX/XBOX 360 uncloaked) comments on PS3 launch graphics

[Zenien]

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2006/10/just_how_good_d.html#more

My main mission in checking out Sony's launch titles was to check out how the games looked. Graphics is a kind of obsession of mine.

If you'll recall, Microsoft had high hopes that Sony's first-generation games would look cruddy. Sony had given so little time to developers to work with the development kits that, the theory went, developers would not have enough time to make games. One developer I spoke with said that developing for the PS 3 is harder than for the Xbox 360. He said that everything came in late and many companies had harsh deadlines.

But the evidence we saw this week shows that the PS 3 games are looking good, even for first-generation games.

By and large, the games I saw looked BETTER than Xbox 360 games.

Not all were great. Not all were demonstrably better. Not all are worth the price difference of the consoles. But the developers seem to be doing well.

Ridge Racer 7: Namco's title looks better than last year's Ridge Racer 6 for the Xbox 360. Last year's title seemed fake by comparison. Ridge Racer 7 has accurate reflections of the terrain on the surface of the car as it races through the landscape. The skies have a haze to them. The jaggies aren't so prominent, but they were noticeable and they added a distracting, familiar shimmer to the screen.

It's worth noting that Ridge Racer 7 was not developed cocurently with Ridge Racer 6, and they didn't start the project until after 6 was complete and have had less dev time on the title.

Resistance: Fall of Man: I've already said this title is the must-have on the PS 3. It looks better than any shooter on a console so far. I'll have to get a good look at Gears of War to see which one really looks better. Gears of War offers the best chance for the 360 to match what a PS 3 title can do in terms of graphics. But Ted Price pointed out to me that Resistance is authored in 720P resolution, the same resolution as many Xbox 360 games. It is not authored in 1080P, although it can be "scaled" to that resolution. Price said that this title needed to take advantage of all the RAM in the box, and 1080P would have eaten that up. So Gears of War really does have a chance at matching Resistance and how it looks.

Sega's Virtua Fighter 5: This title was showing on a smaller screen, one of the retail kiosks with a Sony Bravia flat-panel display. It didn't look nearly as good as the titles on the bigger screens. It was pretty smoothe. But it frankly didn't look as good as Dead or Alive 4 on the Xbox 360.

Lolerskates, but everyone is allowed to have an opinion.

NBA 2K7: This game is a worthy comparison to the NBA 2K6 title last year on the Xbox 360. The team took the 360 game and art and tweaked it for about a month before they had to move into development mode. This game showed on the big screen at 720P resolution. The PS 3 is capable of 1080P and could hit that resolution by launch time. I saw visible jaggies. The player movements were good, but still seemed slightly fast at times. Indeed, the game looks good, but the part that looks fake is the motion. We'll see if that improves by launch time.

Call of Duty 3: This game looks just like the Call of Duty 2 game that debuted on the Xbox 360. It's using the same graphics engine. But there are nice effects here and there such as the smoke. We'll see how well the graphics quality compares to other titles that have PS 3 fresh graphics. I haven't had a chance to see Call of Duty 3 on the PC or the Xbox 360.

Madden NFL 07: This game didn't impress me with its looks. It seems much like the Xbox 360 version. It has new physics-based tackles, but it still has jaggies. I'm not so sure this one is going to look much better than the Xbox 360 version, but I have yet to see them side by side.

Need For Speed Carbon And Gran Turismo: I got only cursory looks at these games. I thought that Ridge Racer 7 looked better than both of these, and that Carbon looked better than Gran Turismo. Then again, I saw both Carbon and Gran Turismo on smaller flat screens.

Heavenly Sword: It looked fantastic at E3, and looks nice in Sony's trailers. But it wasn't shown.

 

[Fran]

If you're trying to scare MS fans, nice try.

 

[WhatsHisFace]

By and large, the games I saw looked BETTER than Xbox 360 games.

Most Xbox360 games don't look that good. Gears of War, Rainbow Six, etc aren't out yet.

 

[Fran]

I'll wait until October 26th, when Best Buy has the kiosk for PS3, and possibly Wii.

I hope the PS3 one is there.