PlayStation LifeStyle » Graphics

Final Fantasy Versus XIII Looks Beautiful Beyond Belief

Jonathan Leack — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 03:03:57 +0000

Starting this week Square-Enix begun releasing trailers for the Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy XIII collection. The latest trailer includes two of the three currently known titles in the collection, and was quite impressive. However, fans have been worried that much of the trailer was rendered in CGI, and Square-Enix quickly responded.

The recent Fabula Nova Crystallis: Final Fantasy XIII Trailer has been under scrutiny for the past couple of days due to many alleging that the Final Fantasy Versus XIII portion is rendered in CGI. In response, Square-Enix stated in Japanese on its The Third Birthday Twitter account that except for the introduction’s close-up portion, everything in the trailer is in-game footage. In-fact, the reply states that much of the trailer is cast during physical gameplay and even added that it’ll be possible to both walk and drive for transportation in the title.

The trailer certainly looks amazing, so this is good news for those who enjoy some lovely eye-candy. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out the trailer for yourself to see why many claimed it was rendered solely in CGI.

The Last Guardian Comes Alive with Stunning Detail

Jonathan Leack — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 14:26:56 +0000

The Last Guardian is one of the most anticipated exclusives currently unreleased. Announced over a year ago, the title has gained much hype through the beautiful imagery presented in the trailer along with the strong reputation of its development team.

At CEDEC 2010, Fumito Ueda from Team Ico gave a presentation regarding his upcoming game, The Last Guardian. During the presentation, Ueda outlined how integral animation and imagery is to the production of his upcoming title:

“I made the game to give life to this picture. The game concept and the rest came after that.”

Previous games from Team Ico have been some of the most beautifully rendered games seen in the last decade. Shadow of the Colossus pushed the PlayStation 2 hardware to the next level with epic battles and stunning imagery. The Last Guardian will surely be a game that’ll have the ability to capture the attention of many, and immerse those who play it.

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Mafia II PS3 Port is Solid and No Longer a Concern

Jonathan Leack — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 05:18:10 +0000

Just days ago, a user on the popular NeoGaf boards posted a series of images which compared the PlayStation 3 version of the upcoming Mafia II to the Xbox 360 version. Side-by-side it was very easy to tell that the PS3 version was clearly lacking foliage and had a significant amount of tearing, which led many to believe that Sony’s console is preparing for another disappointing multiplatform release. However, images from the final build seem to show a vast improvement which may very well negate any cause for concern.

Screenshots of the PlayStation 3′s final build of Mafia II have been released on GameSpot which reveal a surprising truth. Judging by the screenshots, the PS3 version not only looks significantly better than seen in the demo screenshots, but the foliage is far from being compromised. The fact of the matter is that if these images are accurate, which they seem to be, the NeoGaf screenshots were undoubtedly based on the several month old demo which many played on the E3 show floor back in June.

Which console version looks better will still be up for debate, but PS3 owners can breathe a huge sigh of relief. 2K Games has been receiving a lot of slack from PS3 gamers who have seen the demo screenshots, and rightfully so. Thankfully, judging by the final build screenshots, this Mafia II will not only be a solid port, but may very well be one of the better-looking games on any console.

Saints Row 3 to Contend with the King of the Sandbox

Jonathan Leack — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 15:46:06 +0000

Rockstar’s infamous Grand Theft Auto series has remained the king of its genre for over a decade. Surprisingly, only a few titles have attempted to replicate its graphical prowess across a massive open world, one of which is the Saints Row series. Volition Inc. debuted the Saints Row series back in 2006 and garnered a surprising amount of success, and since then it has been confirmed that a third installment to the series will be launching within the next two-years. The question is, does Saints Row 3 have what it takes to challenge one of the best-selling games of all time?

During a recent interview, THQ employee Danny Bilson shed some light on how technologically impressive the upcoming Saints Row 3 will be. Bilson said:

“Quality. Look at the visual quality of Saint’s Row 2. When you see Saints Row 3, it’s the visual quality of the GTA IV universe.”

Although Grand Theft Auto IV is already over two-years old, the graphical quality has aged very well, and animations are still some of the best in gaming industry. Although Saints Row 3 is still over a year away, it’s still one of the better.

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Guerrilla Games Achieves 40% More Performance with Killzone 3

Jonathan Leack — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 17:43:40 +0000

When Guerrilla Games’ PS3 exclusive Killzone 2 came out last year, it shattered the records with its dazzling vivid imagery. It’s now a little over a year later and Killzone 3 is announced and will contain improved visuals as well as 3D support. Killzone 2 is still at the top of its class, so how is this even possible? The development team has the answer.

Examiner recently interviewed Hermen Hulst, the director of Killzone 3, and asked Hulst about how the Guerrilla Games team has managed to produce such incredible visuals in 3D. Hulst responded with the following:

“With Killzone 2, we felt like we pretty much scraped the bottom of the barrel in terms of performance. Our technology team has actually found an additional 30-40% in performance — we’ve been trying to figure out how to best apply that into the scale of things.”

Although Killzone 2 seemed to push the PlayStation 3′s three-year-old hardware to it’s limit, the console seems to keep growing in potential. With roughly seven months to go until release, there is plenty of time for Guerilla Games to polish the game to an even smoother finish, and with around 40% more performance to utilize in the upcoming sequel, Killzone 3 should be fully capable of providing consistent surreal experiences while maintaining clean frame rates, all while supporting a 3D experience like we saw at E3 2010.

God of War III E3 Demo Vs Retail Comparison

Matt Baker — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:53:23 +0000

Without a shadow of a doubt, God of War III set the graphics bar incredibly high ever since the PlayStation 3 exclusive’s introduction a few years back. The E3 demo for the Sony Santa Monica epic made its debut last year, but how does the demo compare to the full version of God of War III in terms of visuals?

The Sony Santa Monica team have been hard at work since the E3 demo which left gamers at a standstill, blowing away all expectations. A batch of new comparison screenshots showcasing the differences from the E3 demo to the full game have been released.

Check out the shots below:

As you see by these screenshots, far more details have been implemented in to the final build of the title; most notably the lighting has dramatically improved from the E3 demo.

Check out the official PlayStation LifeStyle God of War III review, and find out why we think this game is the reason to buy a PlayStation 3.

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Polyphony Digital Drive Improved Visuals to GT5

Jonathan Leack — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 15:03:15 +0000

With the highly-anticipated release of both gameplay and footage in the past 6 months, Polyphony Digital have received high praise for the visuals in Gran Turismo 5. Despite being hailed by many as the best-looking racing game to date, the recent release of the GT5 Time Trial Challenge left much to be desired by fans, and many considered it a disappointing sign of the final release. However, Polyphony Digital are masters of the genre and have vastly improved the visuals in the past few months.

An official video of the GT Academy 2010 finals has been released and shows much improved graphics over previous builds of Gran Turismo 5. One thing worth noting is that Polyphony Digital declared the game’s content “finished” nearly 6-months ago. The past months and also the future of development have all been reserved for debugging, enhancement and polish of the final build. As seen in the image above, the details of the grass alone have been improved drastically.

Be sure to check out the video below to see the improvements made to the visuals of Gran Turismo 5, which are remarkable and still a work in progress.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Crysis 2 To Take Full Advantage Of The PS3

Matt Baker — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:56:50 +0000

Editor-In-Chief of the Official PlayStation Magazine UK, Gary Steinman, has revealed some interesting thoughts on the PlayStation 3 running Crysis 2.

Talking about the the main feature of the March 2010 issue of the PTOM, Stein talks about how the visuals for Crysis 2 for PS3 is “stunning”.

Yes, it’s a PC franchise. But when it’s widely regarded as one of the greatest shooters to ever grace the big gray box, it matters.
But that’s not the only reason I put Crysis 2 on the cover. A few months back, an old friend at EA snuck in to PTOM towers and showed me top-secret footage of the game in action. It was stunning – better looking than almost anything I’ve ever seen on PS3. and here’s the best part: All the glorious wreckage, the metropolitan carnage, the dynamic lighting and the realtime destruction, was generated not on a PC, nor an Xbox, but PS3.

He continues to say how Crysis will take full advantage of the PS3′s power:

Yep this baby is being built to take advantage of the massive power the PS3 offers – which is nothing to scoff at, considering Crytek’s original Crysis was almost unplayable on anything but the highest-end PCs when it was released.
Five minutes after my pal left, I began the push to be the first magazine to reveal Crysis 2’s true glory. And here we are.

The shooter will be looking to raise the bar in terms of visuals this fall.

Dragon Age 2 To Receive “Super Hot” Graphics

Matt Baker — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 09:22:53 +0000

Bioware‘s first title on the PlayStation 3 was a hit amongst RPG fans. Dragon Age certainly wasn’t an eye sore, however the developers are looking to improve the action RPG visually in their next title for the series.

BioWare VP Greg Zeschuk spoke to Joystiq, confirming they are putting in a lot of work to make the graphics stand out for Dragon Age 2.

I think one of the key things we’re working on in Dragon Age 2 is the technology. I can confirm that we’re doing a lot of work on the Dragon Age engine, and doing a lot of stuff to pump it — to make it visually super hot.
I think the overall visual style we’re going to continue to evolve in Dragon Age. People are going to see some cool … I can’t really say too much, but I think Dragon Age as a world is interesting. It’s a timeline, and you can go anywhere.

BioWare’s CEO recently commented on developing Dragon Age for Sony’s system.

Dragon Age was our first title for PS3, and it’s done really well. PS3 is a great system and we enjoy developing for it, much as we enjoy developing for 360 and PC and other platforms.

The developers are also creating a few PS3 titles currently in development. Check out PlayStaionLifeStyle’s review of the RPG.

God of War 3 to Immerse Players in 720p

Jonathan Leack — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 21:37:58 +0000

During last year’s E3, God of War 3 earned itself a reputation as one of the most beautiful looking titles of the future. With the recent release of demo screenshots around the web, the positive hype for the title has once again grown to full capacity.

Jeff Rubenstein from the PlayStation Blog has confirmed that God of War 3 will run natively at 720p. In the comment section of a recent news post Jeff posted the following:

God of War III’s native resolution is 720p with 1080 support.

Although this epic title will only natively display at 720p, that doesn’t keep it from being one of the best-looking titles this year. Check out the screens of the private demo to see just how great God of War 3 looks.

Uncharted 2 Playing Beyond the Xbox 360

Jonathan Leack — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 09:03:59 +0000

It’s no secret that Uncharted 2 is the best-looking console game in production. The original Uncharted game is nearing 2-years of age, and is still top-class graphically. The surprising thing is that Uncharted 2 has managed to look better in just about every way imaginable. A big question is, what can even top that?

Co-president of Naughty Dog, Christophe Balestra, recently commented on the power of Blu-Ray and the PlayStation 3 hardware during an interview. He mentioned how the Naughty Dog development team is taking full advantage of the PS3′s cell-processor, and the development of the original Uncharted made that possible.

In the interview Christophe Balestra stated:

“I guarantee that this game couldn’t be working on XBox 360. It would be impossible. I’m 100 percent sure of this. First of all, we fill the Blu-ray 100 percent, we have no room left on this one. We have 25GB of data; we’re using every single bit of it.”

He then goes on to add:

“The fact that every PS3 has a hard drive is huge for us. It’s the combination of Blu-ray and hard drive. You can play the entire game without loading. We don’t require an install. We’re doing all the post-processing effects on the SPUs . The quality of the depth of field we have, you can’t do that on the Xbox.”

It is possible to make a multi-disk game on the Xbox 360, but at a whopping 25GB, it would require 6-disks on the Xbox 360′s DVD format. Even then, according to Naughty Dog the system would just not be capable of rendering the game properly.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is set to release October 13th, 2009.

[Source]

The Tech Behind God of War 3

JohnDraisey — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:45:25 +0000

To watch God of War 3 in motion is to understand why Ken Kutaragi and his team of hardware engineers at IBM, Toshiba, and Sony deserve so much praise after years of unnecessary bashing and criticism. Sony typically touts that their games are “only possible on the PS3″, and after seeing this game in action at E3 it’s becoming increasingly harder to doubt them.

But as well designed as the hardware is, the software developers deserve just as much adoration and respect. SCE Santa Monica Studios, the team behind the God of War trilogy and other famous titles, has been busy crafting an epic world for Kratos to inhabit and destroy. And to make the experience as seamless as possible, their programmers have employed some clever tricks to keep the player as immersed as possible.

This is what Todd Papy, lead designer of God of War 3, had to say:

“Streaming is a big technological challenge that we’ve got in here. Our framerate is variable between 30 and 60 [frames per second] and so far the reaction on the framerate from players has been that it looks really good and plays really good. That’s been a challenge too.
I think it comes down to smart design. When we lay out our levels, we add a hallway, for example, to load the next section and drop the last section we just came from. So it’s very, very smart design in the way we lay it out so we can have that seamless gameplay.”

The ability to have a variable framerate is technology that originated at Insomniac Studios, one of the developers who make up Sony Worldwide Studios. SWS is comprised of almost two dozen studios, all of whom constantly share information, documentation, and code. The ability to dynamically adjust the framerate of a game both eliminates screen tearing (a major complaint amongst gamers) and helps out the developers in that they don’t have to worry about the gameplay slowing down unexpectedly.

The move to PS3 has also brought on some notable challenges and advantages over the previous hardware, the most obvious of which is the incredible graphics and lifelike animation of both Kratos and his enemies.

“…just working on the visuals on PS3 hardware, making that jump from PS2 to PS3 was a huge challenge. We’re still learning new technologies and new tools and we’re very, very happy with the outcome of the demo.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

[Source]

Modern Warfare 2 Vows Authenticity Over Realism

Kyle P. — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 20:21:44 +0000

In a recent interview, Vince Zampella, studio head of Infinity Ward, spoke in detail regarding Modern Warfare 2, and about his studio’s commitment to Modern Warfare 2, and keeping it as authentic as possible.

Talking to the Official Playstation Magazine, Zampella talks about how Infinity Ward is trying to make the highly anticipated Modern Warfare 2 as authentic as possible, not necessarily worrying about realism.

“We go for authenticity not realism… We’re not making a sim, we’re making entertainment. We want it to look real like an action movie.”

Zampella then goes on to talk about how futuristic weapons wouldn’t ruin a game’s authenticity.

“You see a guy in an action movie, what he does is a little over the top. It makes for a great movie.”

[Source]

Uncharted 2 Fact Sheet

Kyle P. — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 17:27:56 +0000

UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves
FACT SHEET

Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc.
Developer: Naughty Dog
Genre: Action-Adventure Shooter
Players: Single player
Platform: PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system
Launch Date: 2009
Rating: “RP” for Rating Pending

OVERVIEW
UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves is the story of Nathan Drake, a fortune-hunter with a shady reputation and an even shadier past who is lured back into the treacherous world of thieves and mercenary treasure-seekers. The tenth game by premier PLAYSTATION 3 developer Naughty Dog, UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves allows players to take control of Drake and embark on a journey that will push him to his physical, emotional and intellectual limits to discover the real truth behind the lost fleet of Marco Polo and the legendary Himalayan valley of Shambhala.

STORY
In 1292, after spending nearly 20 years in the court of emperor Kublai Khan, Marco Polo departed China with 14 ships filled with over 600 passengers and crew. Eighteen months later, when Marco Polo arrived at his destination, only one ship remained and only 18 passengers survived. Although Marco Polo described every aspect of his adventures in detail, he never revealed what happened to these lost ships, passengers or treasure on board – even on his deathbed.

Drawn in by the potential riches to be found – but most inspired by the intrigue of the historical mystery – Drake embarks on a quest to find the lost fleet. He soon realizes that Marco Polo was hiding a much bigger secret – he had gone on a secret expedition on behalf of the emperor to find the mythical kingdom of Shambhala (otherwise known as Shangri-La) and to recover the legendary Cintamani Stone, the “wish-fulfilling jewel” of Buddhist mythology. The Stone is described by Marco Polo as a massive raw sapphire – if it truly exists, it would be worth billions of dollars today.

This discovery sets Drake on a new course following Marco Polo’s 700-year-old trail through a diverse range of exotic environments to find out if the lost city of Shambhala, rumored to lie deep in the Himalayas, really exists. This quest also pits him against a new, more formidable adversary who is after the same artifact – a ruthless, rogue paramilitary leader with a private army and a relentless ambition to recover the stone for himself.

Utilizing the Naughty Dog Engine 2.0 to blend together the art of cinema and gaming, the immersive action and storytelling is brought to life through technology only made possible on the PLAYSTATION 3. Maximizing the CELL processor like no studio has done before as animation, physics, sound, and motion / audio capture combine together to enable gamers to become Nathan Drake and immerse themselves in his extraordinary story as they play.

KEY FEATURES

An expanded cast of characters who reflect different facets of Drake’s character, including Chloe Frazer, Drake’s current partner and new romantic interest.
Varied and exotic locations – from lush, green swamps and dense urban environments, all the way to the ice and snow of the Himalayas.

Unrestricted combat allows players to take an aggressive or stealthy approach to combat.
Free-flowing “traversal gunplay” adds a unique vertical element to familiar cover-based third-person shooting mechanics, allowing the player to engage in combat from any position in the environment – even while climbing and hanging.
Introduction of new traversal and free-climbing mechanics allow Drake to navigate through the environments more fluidly and naturally.
Gunplay and combat enhancements, including an expanded melee system, and a variety of enemy types with advanced AI routines.
High-quality cinematic presentation of scenes, characters and dialogue, all rendered within the Naughty Dog Engine 2.0.
Dramatic in-game events that make the player an active participant in the cinematic experience.
Full character interaction with dynamic geometry.
Utilizes Naughty Dog Engine 2.0 purpose-built for the PLAYSTATION 3; utilizes the PS3 technology to hit a turning point in technology innovation by recreating reality and capturing human emotion.
No visible loading – a Naughty Dog hallmark – returns along with technology improvements in major game systems such as lighting, shadows, ambient occlusion, animation technology and physics, among many others.

MULTIPLAYER

Robust party system allows players to remain with their friends in matchmaking and custom matches.
Custom matches allow players to customize maps and modes which their party wishes to play.
Currency gained in multiplayer matches can be combined with currency gained in single player missions to unlock additional content and upgrades.
Character animations and environments taken from single player campaign maintain visual fidelity with no degradation.
Gameplay and character mechanics identical from the single-player campaign, ensuring user familiarity and same level of quality
Headset support
Proprietary Naughty Dog Engine 2.0 network code captures a broad range of gameplay data for statistics reporting on the web and for functionality like Cinema, which allows players to watch replays of matches
Cutting edge technology such as cloud-based computing allows for scalable online infrastructure to provide optimal player experience

Competitive Multiplayer

Competitive multiplayer gameplay includes up to 10 players in heroes-versus-villains matches
Deathmatch: Up to 5 vs. 5 with customizable or pre-set game modes
Plunder: Unique style of multiplayer that encourages team work to transport a treasure across terrain horizontally and vertically over obstacles
Player boosters give players a variety of options to customize their characters to their play style or to provide an advantage over opponents

Co-op Multiplayer

Up to three players work together in cooperative modes to accomplish set objectives with increasing difficulty and against special enemy characters
Combo system encourages further teamwork to increase a point total and currency multiplier
Weapon upgrades let players customize their weapons to their play style or provide an advantage over opponents

[Special thanks to sG4RYt]
[Source]