Sony's Expected E3 Titles

Next-Gen has more details on expected titles we'll see next week at E3. Today they have details on games from Sony and Sony Online Entertainment. From the former article: "God of War II - The apparently big shocker about God of War II was that it's staying resident on the PS2 instead of the PS3, which is supposedly a bad thing. The people who think this maybe are forgetting that God of War, the first one, was a Playstation 2 game; maybe they are even forgetting how that game was a blood-soak masterpiece? It's not entirely clear. What is clear from footage is that God of War II looks to up the ante of the first game in every way."

Comments

Not bad...

[spaztik]

Here's to hoping Warhawk plays as good as it looks. Was this not first shown at last year's E3 though?

Excuse me?

[sehlat]

But this deals with a company that attempted to install rootkits on our machines. Why should we give a damn WHAT they do from now on? I'm *still* not buying anything with their accursed logo on it.

Re:Excuse me?

[CaymanIslandCarpedie]

Be prepared to hear all about how the PS3 is OK because its made by a seperate division, but the XBox is still bad because that whole seperate division theory only applies to Sony.

Be warned! ;-)

Re:Excuse me?

[Xymor]

But it will run linux...
If you're not with us, then you are with M$.
DIE monopolist, DIE.
Let's just hope sony/developers actually show in-game footage of PS3 games.

Re:Excuse me?

[Anonymous Coward]

Ok go play your console that's run by convictied anti-competitive monopolists... or maybe "peace loving Nintendo" (who has had their share of lawsuits in the past, please refer to Game Genie) Oh and by the way... you do realize that Sony itself is split into divisions, and that each division is run pretty much seperate? I'm also quite entertained that you believe Sony is the big bad company but the others are not... perhaps you should be asking yourself if Sony was just the only one stupid enough to be caught yet?

Re:Excuse me?

[_xeno_]

To be fair, it's not an entirely inconsistant view. Many people dislike Microsoft for using their monopoly in operating systems to try and take over other markets. (Examples include the "browser wars," which Microsoft won more due to Netscape screwing up than anything else, and the "new" media player wars, where iTunes seems to still be quite alive.)

So, in that sense, Microsoft is still being "evil" with the XBox - they're using the money they have from PC software sales, and trying to enter into the market by selling the XBox at a loss. (Although I'm not entirely sure how big a loss and how different they are from other consoler sellers.)

It's sort of like if, say, Sony where to try and use the PS3 to try and sneak a new media format into people's houses to "win" the next "format wars."

Wait a second...

(Just in case anyone wonders, as far as I'm concerned, they're both evil. I have a PS2 because the games I want to play are on the PS2 and not the XBox. I expect I'll be getting a PS3 for the same reason - not out of any love for Sony. However, I most certainly will not be getting a PS3 when they're released.)

Re:Excuse me?

[Anonymous Coward]

why was this modded insightful? it ranks right up there with "FIRST POST!" posts.

Something is screwed up with Windows no one goes on about how the Xbox has the same vulnerability.

if anything it should be "Will the 360 run Sony's rootkit?" since it was WINDOWS that the rootkit would install on.

Re:Excuse me?

[Enderandrew]

So the basic logic is that companies are never allowed to branch out? Big companies with money are inherently evil?

Competition can be a good thing. If Sony never took their money from other divisions and entered the console race, we'd never had the PS1, PS2 or PS3.

I do very much hold to the seperate division theories. For instance, Microsoft has some pretty fucked up divisions, and releases plenty of really bad products. Some of their products are actually pretty good.

I don't buy any music from Sony, but I'm definitely preordering a PS3.

Re:Excuse me?

[buffer-overflowed]

You hold to the seperate division "theory" because you're a fool. A company does not leverage a position of strength in one industry to break into another industry out of niceness. They do it to make money for their existing divisions. In Sony's current case, it's using the PS3 to get blu-ray into homes for the DRM advantages this gives to Sony Media.

See a pattern here?

Sony Media repeatedly gimps Sony Electronics.

The playstation itself was originally an SNES-CD addon until the two companies had a falling out, Sony decided to launch it anyway, and the playstation brand owes it's strength to cheaper media costs and the coup that was getting square during the N64/Saturn/PSX era. They've been riding on what Nintendo(who due to not being number one for a while have been rather well-behaved for the past 10 years) taught them ever since. And i wouldn't be surprised if they delayed the PS3 to rip Nintendo off yet again.

You want a PS3 because you're a fool as well. It's produced by a me-too company whose last iota of unrestrained talent faded ages ago, and whose sad fanboys(not fans, apple, nintendo, and star wars have fans, short for fanatic) roam the wilds of the internet acting juvenile and lowering the common denominator. And it's one saving grace atm is that it'll have sequels to games I like on it, with a slightly shinier coating which has thus far completely failed to impress upon me the desire to spend > $500 for a fucking toy.

Re:Excuse me?

[Enderandrew]

Inventing a new format is inherently evil? McDonalds is using their unfair advantage of selling bad hamburgers to now sell side salads! The world is coming to an end! I only make $28,000 a year. I'm not rich by any means, but I've owned two HDTVs for quite some time. It irks me that I can't get hi def movies to play on my HDTVs. I'm all for a new media format that allows for greater storage of data. No one complained that Sony pushed the DVD format with PS2, so I don't understand why everyone is up in arms about Blu-Ray. Getting a cheap hi-def player bundled with a great gaming console is a GOOD thing. And in case you missed it, if you go HD-DVD you may not get a HD picture because the player can opt to downsample to a lower resolution. The best part is how the backers of HD-DVD said, "well consumers probably won't even notice that it is at a lower resolution." Excuse the fuck me? Why pay $1,500 for a HD player and not get HD resolutions? I can get a $30 DVD player. That my friend, is evil.

Re:Excuse me?

[aichpvee]

Can't we dislike both of them? Wtf is my Wii!

Re:Excuse me?

[Traiklin]

You want a PS3 because you're a fool as well. It's produced by a me-too company whose last iota of unrestrained talent faded ages ago, and whose sad fanboys(not fans, apple, nintendo, and star wars have fans, short for fanatic) roam the wilds of the internet acting juvenile and lowering the common denominator. And it's one saving grace atm is that it'll have sequels to games I like on it, with a slightly shinier coating which has thus far completely failed to impress upon me the desire to spend > $500 for a fucking toy.

so then going by your brilliant logic here, people are fools for wanting an Xbox 360 aswell? It's $400 for a "Fucking toy", Microsoft only got into the Console race because they saw it as a way to get their media center into the home,they realized that was impossable with the Xbox so they released the 360 with some of those features already installed.

Or are you one of those people that go "Fuck sony! they always suck!" and that's just it, you just hate sony because they installed a rootkit on your PC without your knowladge?

The anti-Sony fanboy's are much much MUCH worst then then pro sony fanboy's, atleast they don't go around and just say that Sony sucks and then that's it.

also where is it said that sony will in fact charge $500 for the ps3? Microsoft was the first one to start charging more then $300 for a system, shouldn't the blame of expensive consoles rest on their shoulders since they proved people were willing topay that much?

better yet why aren't you bitching at the people on eBay? You know those nice people (you're probably one of them) who goes out on launch day, buys 3 or 4 systems, comes hom and sets them up for sale on eBay for people to buy at the low low price of $600 starting.

Are you convinently forgeting Gamestop in you "$500 fucking toy" rant? They were charging upto $10,000 for "Package" deals that included all kinds of useless shit, some stores wouldn't even sell people the system UNLESS they had one of these package deals.

Next time you decide to blame a company because they are charging a huge ammount for a "fucking toy" you should remember to look into other factors aswell.

oh and some people might consider that PC you are using a fucking toy that cost you quite a bit (or if you were given it it cost someone else quite a bit).

Re:Excuse me?

[buffer-overflowed]

McDonalds is using their unfair advantage of selling bad hamburgers to now sell side salads! The world is coming to an end!

Actually McDonalds is selling salads to try to revamp their image away from being "that unhealthy restaurant." Ya know, so they don't get sued like the tobaccy companies and our health-obsessed society can still get 5 kcals from a salad while feeling good and still being obese. Now an appropriate analogy would be Philip Morris(forget the name of the actual parent company atm, starts with an A, owns kraft foods/etc.) coming up with a highly effective cancer treatment/preventative and putting it in cigarettes ala Transmetropolitan.

I only make $28,000 a year.

So sorry. Perhaps you should upskill or move depending upon the situation.

I'm not rich by any means

Don't sell yourself short, in Burundi you could live like a king!

I've owned two HDTVs for quite some time.

To old for HDMI input? If not, you're boned. Find out why in a minute, and join the haters.

No one complained that Sony pushed the DVD format with PS2, so I don't understand why everyone is up in arms about Blu-Ray.

DVD offered considerable advantages over VHS. VHS degrades per play, DVD doesn't. VHS requires rewinding/fastwording, DVD can insta seek. Etc. Etc. All the next gen media types do is up the resolution. Which, apart from view-distance/apparent quality/etc., can still be upped further in the future because it's still not at the resolution of film.

Getting a cheap hi-def player bundled with a great gaming console is a GOOD thing.

Cheap!? $400-$500+ is not cheap. If it hits @ $200, I'll swallow my Sony dislike and buy one, but at the price range we've been seeing speculated($500+), it's just not worth it.

And in case you missed it, if you go HD-DVD you may not get a HD picture because the player can opt to downsample to a lower resolution.

Remember where I said I hope you have HDMI inputs on your HD-TVS? Yea, here's why. They BOTH do this. It's part of the standards. Both the Blu-Ray and HD-DVD backers say they won't use this feature(at first), but it's there. In both standards. Because they care about DRM and DVD is getting just too cheap and easy to burn. Plus, if it catches on, the majority of the market(who don't own HDTVs yet), won't get burned. It's all about screwing *YOU* the early adopter. If you're not mad about the rootkit, or MS's predatory practices, you should be mad about that.

Why pay $1,500 for a HD player and not get HD resolutions? I can get a $30 DVD player. That my friend, is evil.

Exactly, why bother? Sony and Microsoft have all the first party appeal of a meth-addict. If we don't buy their new stuff, the 3rd parties will release things for the old stuff or the cheaper, stupidly named, Wii. I'm perfectly happy with DVD, and I've yet to see a next-gen screen shot that looks $300+ for the console and $10+ per game(over my PC which I can write off on my taxes as a work-expense and looks as good if not better) better on a typical setup(being a 24-27" SDTV viewed from 5-6 feet) than the current gen.

Re:Excuse me?

[buffer-overflowed]

so then going by your brilliant logic here, people are fools for wanting an Xbox 360 aswell?

At the moment, yes. Or consumer whores(should be johns, but whatever). The only compelling reason to own a 360 atm is Live Arcade or to put off a PC upgrade. Neither is worth the premium they're charging for it at the moment, now in a year or two, I'll pick up a 360 for live and live arcade no matter what Sony does, because MS actually *gasp* innovated, and Sony just ripped them off(as opposed to Nintendo who announced similar things at similar times but didn't gel everything up until later), like they always do.

Or are you one of those people that go "Fuck sony! they always suck!" and that's just it, you just hate sony because they installed a rootkit on your PC without your knowladge?

It's spelled knowledge. But anyway yes, Sony sucks, and I've held this opinion since shortly after my 3rd PS2 broke due to cheap-ass optics. The root-kit being done by Sony Media, who, unless you're ignorant of the past 15 years, call the shots at big Sony, was just another nail into the coffin of condemning them. The only relatively clean console maker atm is Nintendo, and that's relatively, because they haven't misbehaved in the past decade. Hell, until recently with IE7 it even looked like MS had turned over a new leaf.

also where is it said that sony will in fact charge $500 for the ps3? Microsoft was the first one to start charging more then $300 for a system, shouldn't the blame of expensive consoles rest on their shoulders since they proved people were willing topay that much?

Current analyst estimations are at > $500, in the $600-$700 range. Too expensive. PERIOD. When the real-time videos don't significantly exceed the visual ability of my complimentary corporate laptop, and certainly don't significantly exceed a typical viewing arrangement of current gen top of the line stuff(ala RE4) on an SDTV(5 feet, 22-27" screen), it's not worth it. Unfortunately, if enough people succumb to the shiny, I'll have to eventually shell out a shitton of cash for a PS2.5 or XBox 1.5, but hopefully enough people wake up and find more useful things to do with their money.

better yet why aren't you bitching at the people on eBay? You know those nice people (you're probably one of them) who goes out on launch day, buys 3 or 4 systems, comes hom and sets them up for sale on eBay for people to buy at the low low price of $600 starting.

Are you convinently forgeting Gamestop in you "$500 fucking toy" rant? They were charging upto $10,000 for "Package" deals that included all kinds of useless shit, some stores wouldn't even sell people the system UNLESS they had one of these package deals.

Hell yea, if I knew there was demand I'd pull some strings and rape some fanboys out of their cash, they deserve it for being impatient(never done it, but see nothing wrong with it) and foolish(You're a fool to buy a console at launch... PERIOD. The only exception is made for Nintendo, and that's just a slight downward adjustment of the value fool). But neither Sony nor Microsoft nor Nintendo are to blame for that(and they don't profit from it), except for the fact that they failed to meet demand. Or were trying to generate launch hype. But then again, every console sells out at launch(except the 360/Xbox in Japan).

Next time you decide to blame a company because they are charging a huge ammount for a "fucking toy" you should remember to look into other factors aswell.

Which would those be? Oh, you mean trying to foist a media format 95% of the country doesn't have any use for onto us, so they can combat piracy in their media divisions(same thing behind the rootkit)? WOOT! SIGN ME UP! Idiot.

oh and some people might consider that PC you are using a fucking toy that cost you quite a bit (or if you were given it it cost someone else quite a bit).

The IRS would disagree. As a computing profession my laptop or PC are legitimate

Re:Excuse me?

[Enderandrew]

No console has ever been successful in the history of mankind launching for more than $300. Technically, there is a $300 version of the 360, even if it is gimped.

I don't think Sony is stupid enough to launch a $500+ console. It will not happen. Sony does in fact want to win the media war, so the PS3 will launch at $400, though they might have a $500 bundle.

Sony has also gone on record of saying that won't force region encoding which is a plus.

You may not see a benefit, but if for absolutely not other reason, I'm all for a new disc that can allow 200 gigs of storage. That alone interests me.

Having a picture at 4 times the resolution while watching movies is a HUGE jump. And while DVDs allowed for a great deal of new features like branching video and such, creative studios can use the increased storage capacity to add even new features to movies.

And you may say that next-gen games don't look impressive, but all the PS3 footage we've seen is been so impressive that no one believes it is real. We'll find out more in a week with the next E3.

I hope we can expect *some* surprises.

[Anonymous Coward]

It will be a little saddening to me if we don't get *any* surprises about the PS3 at E3 this year, and the only thing that we learn there is what the controller looks like.

You think at least we can expect some kind of surprise Final Fantasy PS3 trailer?

Re:I hope we can expect *some* surprises.

[asamoth]

and the only thing that we learn there is what the controller looks like.

We already know that, it will be shaped like a little stick/remote with motion sensitivity. ;)

Current- vs. Next-Gen

[A Brand of Fire]

Though the PS3 is, assumedly, right around the corner, the PS2 still has a lot of life left in it. One of my very best friends is an ex-EA Tiburon employee; during his tenure there, we had many intense programming-related discussions regarding the consoles, particularly the PS2 and GCN. The PS2 was very, very difficult to program for (as was the GCN), and since development cycles were usually anywhere between six months to a year for any given title, that didn't leave a lot of time to radically improve upon the software pushing the hardware to its limit (this is fairly-well illustrated with games that've had long dev cycles like the MGS series). And, essentially, a good portion of titles for next-gen consoles will be/have been built centered around what capabilities they've already utilized on current-gen systems.

It's really a mature- vs. infantile-platform scenario. With time, I'm certain there will be more migration away from current-gen platforms, but I don't think it's such a bad idea that software companies continue to support the platforms already present; after all, adopting the next-gen systems with the prices at which they're being sold will be tough for a lot of people during the first six months. After that first six months to a year of early-adopter support, the software development on the new systems will mature, games will utilize more of the systems' capabilities (i.e. look purdier), and development houses will feel more confident about putting more titles on them.

Re:Current- vs. Next-Gen

[Soul-Burn666]

That is interesting.
In a way, it would seem that the stability of the console's hardware specs pushes forward optimizations, which while mostly are hardware specific, are also algorithmic and can be used on other platforms.
From a different pov, does the gradual progress on the PC market actually stifle these kinds of optimizations? A dev team might think "oh, next year they'll sell a stronger card, so I can assume this awfully slow algorithm will work well" and therefore don't strive to optimize more.

Re:Current- vs. Next-Gen

[SSCGWLB]

I would argue the plethora of options in the PC world is the main reason optimizations aren't done. Almost always, there is a tradeoff between memory needed, CPU cycles used, and complexity. In the PC world, there are two major CPU makers, three+ video card makers, ten+ memory and mobo makers, dozens of secondary storage makers, etc. In order to optimize, you MUST have a good idea of the platform it's going to run on. If you have a task that is extremely memory intensive and PC100 memory on a quad Xeon, minimizing memory reads at the cost of additional CPU usage is acceptable. Optimizations are by necessity very specific, so you would have to make dozens (possibly hundreds) of optimization instances, for likely hardware combinations. Obviously, this would be hideously expensive.

Console software makers have it easy, they know the CPU, cache size, memory bandwidth, memory latency, quantity of memory, GPU speed, number of shaders, etc to optimize for.

~nate

Re:Current- vs. Next-Gen

[Shadarr]

I would imagine that with God of War 2 it's a matter of making a sequel using the same engine very quickly, hitting next Christmas season and selling a sh*t-ton of copies to the massive number of PS2 owners, versus writing a new engine for a new system and either missing Christmas or having to cut corners, all so they can try to drive new console sales. Seems like a no-brainer to me.

SOE?

[Anonymous Coward]

insert obligatory SWG dig here please

So tell us

[Anonymous Coward]

How much is Microsoft paying you per post?

Re:So tell us

[Anonymous Coward]

I only play nethack, who needs a stupid console?

Re:So tell us

[Anonymous Coward]

This explains a lot.

Looking forward to Killzone 2!

[XxtraLarGe]

Even if the trailer was a pre-rendered CGI, it still looks like Killzone 2 is going to rock the house!

Re:Looking forward to Killzone 2!

[Suddenly_Dead]

Okay, here's one: Why?

Re:Looking forward to Killzone 2!

[KDR_11k]

Well, the previous one sucked and we haven't seen any real graphics yet so it MUST be good!

Next-Gen's hopeful Sony list

[krotkruton]

Just like the last few articles from Next Generation, these are the games that Next Gen hopes to see at E3 from Sony, not the games that Sony will be displaying. The disclaimer is at the bottom of the article.

Re:Next-Gen's hopeful Sony list

[TommydCat]

E3 and wishlists aside, we can't trust what anything will actually look or play like until it winds up in the living room.

Given the alledge still-birth launch of the XBox360 with relatively sucky-games (except for COD2, of course), how would we expect the PS3 to be any different?

By the time the PS3 comes out, developers will be more comfortable with the Xbox360 platform and (hopefully) producing more mature games that take better advantage of the resources on tap as developers will still be cutting their teeth, relatively on the PS3.

People point to the excellent games that are out for the PS2 now, but you can't tell me the PS2 launch was running on all cylinders. In the interim, the PSP came out and I'm still looking for a decent game for it (never mind the load screens).

I think I'll take the wait-and-see approach this time - buy the console for the games, rather than the other way around!

I'm submitting another E3 article called

[Anonymous Coward]

Pre rendered cutscenes of games on next gen consoles that will build hype but not look anything like what people think because they are, get this, PRE RENDERED CUTSCENES!!!

God of Bore

[Jarlsberg]

Seriously, can anyone tell me what was so great about God of War? I found it rather boring and repetetive, and haven't really felt the urge to complete it.

Re:God of Bore

[Anonymous Coward]

I guess they found the graphics to be uber sweet. I thought it was boring as well.