PS3 To Debut BEFORE E3 - Page 2

PS3, Sony has said absolutely yes, there will be backwards compatibility. XBox 2, there's hasn't been any official word one way or the other (though the change from nVidia to ATI GPUs means it is unlikely). If the XBox 2 has no hard drive you can forget about backwards compatibility. Nintendo Revolution... that's anyone's guess. Nintendo is the all-time reigning champ in console backwards compatibility (your GBA can still play Tetris) but it's a feature they've never offered for their home consoles. I'd lean toward 'no'.

We knew the backward compatibility thing was gonna happen long ago......my question is if they're going the same road they did with the PS2 (the smooth polygon, fast load time options)......

Last "rumor" I read about the media for XBOX was that they're not going to support HD-DVD or Blu-Ray. This might be great btw, because the morons at Microsoft would probably pick HD-DVD and that's a no winner for consumers as this format must die!

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=21121

If MS doesn't use HD-DVD or Blu-Ray, they're really going to limit the life of their console. If you're going to do next gen, you're going to need more than 9 gigs of storage medium, specially in the era of HD-DVD.

As for "X-Box Live", sure Sony could compete there, that's the only good thing MS brings to the table IMHO. I just hope Sony doesn't go the pay for it route and keeps it free, as I think it'd idiotic for MS to charge for this service for games that don't keep any significant state.

I very much doubt anything more than 17 gigabytes (2 DVDs) will be needed for 95% of the next-generation games. That's a staggering amount of storage space for a game, unless it has hours and hours of DVD-quality FMV. The inclusion of Blu-Ray in the PS3 is a way to strengthen the standard and of providing another incentive to buy the system (assuming they're not morons and include a Blu-Ray HD video codec). The extra storage space won't be particularly useful for next-gen games, though. It's a marketing scheme, not a feature that game developers need.

At the end of last generation games were regularly being released on three or four or even five CD's. That storage medium was at the end of its useful life. This time around, on the other hand, DVD is still plenty spacious. I can't think of a single console game on XBox or PS2 (or PC game for that matter) which requires more than one DVD. Next generation I would expect a very large RPG like Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion may span onto a second disc. That's hardly going to cause the failure of XBox 2.

If Microsoft is smart enough to include a hard drive out of the box, and Sony doesn't, then MS will still be able to hold their own. All the computing power on earth is wasted if you can't get data into and out of the system in a timely manner. I'm hoping that's what Microsoft is waiting for... waiting to see if their computational disadvantage on the CPU is so great they are forced to include a hard drive. That would be an interesting comparison... one system with a huge powerhouse of a processor but relatively limited RAM, the other system with a more traditional structure but vast amounts of swap space.

All I'm saying is that the DVD player functionality of the PS2 was one of the big reasons it sold so well. By the time the PS3 comes out, people with and thinking about getting HD-TVs are going like having a system that just so happens to play movies that will match their equipment.

25Gig single layer and 50Gig double layer is a lot of data for a game, but I rather have a console that can scale up to have more data in it than less. That means including HD and non HD video for cutscenes, higher quality audio and massive amounts of game data. 2 DVD games? Not thanks, just put it in a single disc. If these consoles are going to have such great graphic prowess, they're going to need exponentially more graphical data to take advantage of it.

BTW, the GT series is a great example of a quality game taking advantage of it's storage medium.

GT1 (CD) , GT2 (2 CDs), GT3 (single layer DVD), GT4 (dual layer DVD).

Better to put media that will scale than not to do it from the start.

Super fast processor, high bandwidth, and "good enough" RAM scales way better than swap space.

I'm a certified Microsoft and XBox groupie but if the PS3 features a 4.6 GhZ brand new processor and a drive that will allow me to play high-definition movies and NextBox is a power pc with a DVD drive, then I'm leaning towards Sony this time.