Liverpool FC Forum

[Emerald Red]

Here's one to look out for. When playing no CoD4 online, on the "overgrown" level, go into the building next to the petrol station and look at the graffiti on the wall. I swear it's a picture of Rafa with black gloves on.

What were you doing in that building? That's where all the coward  snipers hang out.

I hate snipers in COD4

[Emerald Red]

Hate to say it but gears 2 will need to be a massive groundbreaker like the first for me to be interested. I played Gears for the first time in months yesterday after a couple of months solid on COD4 and it seemed ponderous and slow in comparison, even though I remember it as brilliant when I first got it. I am hoping that Gears 2 really improves on the original and does not end up being a Halo 2 (or indeed 3)

Prepare to be disappointed.

UE3 is a vastly overrated and dated engine now. It offers really nothing new. It's just basically a souped up glorified Doom 3 engine. I know they aren't the same, but the tech is virtually. It's old now.

I've seen the new features to UE3 in Gears, and I have to admit, the only thing that will add anything really exciting to the game play will the the swarm technology similar to that seen already in Dead Rising. It's nothing new. They can show off new lighting models and dynamic environment damage and some new water effects all they want. This won't make a leap in game play whatsoever. I listened to the guy talk about this new water effect like it was something special. I wanted to tell him to shut up. It's nothing new, and it's nothing special. If you want to see true dynamic water effects that WILL make a difference to how a game is played, then go check out a project called Hydrophobia. Now that will be impressive.

For me, a game engine is impressive for what it offers as far as game play goes. UE3 is still very last gen, even it it does look pretty. Put it up against the likes of the Cry Engine 2 and Rockstar's Rage and it's just weak. Visually Cry Engine 2 is capable of rendering scenes that are almost virtually indistinguishable from real life, and from a game play perspective, Rockstar's Rage engine is offering things that just have not been experienced before in animations, physics and A.I. GTA 4 is looking to be that groundbreaking, something Gears will certainly never be.

GEARS to be the biggest selling game ever? Not a f*cking chance in Hell. Not when GTA 4 will be around soon.

GOW with a new menu screen will still be better than Resistance 2 or anything Sony can churn out!   

Probably will be, mate.

The thing is, this is a massive year for Sony. They need to produce a lot of AAA games this year, otherwise it's predicted to be all over for them this generation.

There's proof that the term "next generation" is not actually in the hardware itself, but in middle-ware programming that produces independent engines such as Natural Motion's Endorphin/Euphoria. Even the Wii can take advantage of these engines that produce results in games not yet seen before. The first game to use it will be GTA4, then the new Star Wars. Would love to see it in a football game, though.

[Paul C]

Hate to say it but gears 2 will need to be a massive groundbreaker like the first for me to be interested. I played Gears for the first time in months yesterday after a couple of months solid on COD4 and it seemed ponderous and slow in comparison, even though I remember it as brilliant when I first got it. I am hoping that Gears 2 really improves on the original and does not end up being a Halo 2 (or indeed 3)

Prepare to be disappointed.

UE3 is a vastly overrated and dated engine now. It offers really nothing new. It's just basically a souped up glorified Doom 3 engine. I know they aren't the same, but the tech is virtually. It's old now.

I've seen the new features to UE3 in Gears, and I have to admit, the only thing that will add anything really exciting to the game play will the the swarm technology similar to that seen already in Dead Rising. It's nothing new. They can show off new lighting models and dynamic environment damage and some new water effects all they want. This won't make a leap in game play whatsoever. I listened to the guy talk about this new water effect like it was something special. I wanted to tell him to shut up. It's nothing new, and it's nothing special. If you want to see true dynamic water effects that WILL make a difference to how a game is played, then go check out a project called Hydrophobia. Now that will be impressive.

For me, a game engine is impressive for what it offers as far as game play goes. UE3 is still very last gen, even it it does look pretty. Put it up against the likes of the Cry Engine 2 and Rockstar's Rage and it's just weak. Visually Cry Engine 2 is capable of rendering scenes that are almost virtually indistinguishable from real life, and from a game play perspective, Rockstar's Rage engine is offering things that just have not been experienced before in animations, physics and A.I. GTA 4 is looking to be that groundbreaking, something Gears will certainly never be.

GEARS to be the biggest selling game ever? Not a f*cking chance in Hell. Not when GTA 4 will be around soon.

GOW with a new menu screen will still be better than Resistance 2 or anything Sony can churn out!   

Probably will be, mate.

The thing is, this is a massive year for Sony. They need to produce a lot of AAA games this year, otherwise it's predicted to be all over for them this generation.

There's proof that the term "next generation" is not actually in the hardware itself, but in middle-ware programming that produces independent engines such as Natural Motion's Endorphin/Euphoria. Even the Wii can take advantage of these engines that produce results in games not yet seen before. The first game to use it will be GTA4, then the new Star Wars. Would love to see it in a football game, though.

It doesn't matter about these 'engines' being old, they are only the physics of the game and run in the background, the proof is in the game play and the Unreal engine is still knocking spots of anything else around, regards the PS3 their haven't been any PS3 'exclusives' which have been good enough to make a 'buyer' choose a PS3 over a 360, at the moment the 360 has PGR4, Forza 2, Halo 3, GOW and a few others which are 360 game and Sony can't touch, the best PS3 exclusives are still Motorstorm and Resistance, for me the main difference between the PS and the Xbox is the online community, the PS3 cannot cut the mustard online

GT is another 9-12 months ago and their isn't any news about the new Tekken, so personally I can't see this being a big year for the PS3 unless they have some title in the bag which no one has heard of 

Sorry to talk the truth lads 

[Emerald Red]

Hate to say it but gears 2 will need to be a massive groundbreaker like the first for me to be interested. I played Gears for the first time in months yesterday after a couple of months solid on COD4 and it seemed ponderous and slow in comparison, even though I remember it as brilliant when I first got it. I am hoping that Gears 2 really improves on the original and does not end up being a Halo 2 (or indeed 3)

Prepare to be disappointed.

UE3 is a vastly overrated and dated engine now. It offers really nothing new. It's just basically a souped up glorified Doom 3 engine. I know they aren't the same, but the tech is virtually. It's old now.

I've seen the new features to UE3 in Gears, and I have to admit, the only thing that will add anything really exciting to the game play will the the swarm technology similar to that seen already in Dead Rising. It's nothing new. They can show off new lighting models and dynamic environment damage and some new water effects all they want. This won't make a leap in game play whatsoever. I listened to the guy talk about this new water effect like it was something special. I wanted to tell him to shut up. It's nothing new, and it's nothing special. If you want to see true dynamic water effects that WILL make a difference to how a game is played, then go check out a project called Hydrophobia. Now that will be impressive.

For me, a game engine is impressive for what it offers as far as game play goes. UE3 is still very last gen, even it it does look pretty. Put it up against the likes of the Cry Engine 2 and Rockstar's Rage and it's just weak. Visually Cry Engine 2 is capable of rendering scenes that are almost virtually indistinguishable from real life, and from a game play perspective, Rockstar's Rage engine is offering things that just have not been experienced before in animations, physics and A.I. GTA 4 is looking to be that groundbreaking, something Gears will certainly never be.

GEARS to be the biggest selling game ever? Not a f*cking chance in Hell. Not when GTA 4 will be around soon.

GOW with a new menu screen will still be better than Resistance 2 or anything Sony can churn out!   

Probably will be, mate.

The thing is, this is a massive year for Sony. They need to produce a lot of AAA games this year, otherwise it's predicted to be all over for them this generation.

There's proof that the term "next generation" is not actually in the hardware itself, but in middle-ware programming that produces independent engines such as Natural Motion's Endorphin/Euphoria. Even the Wii can take advantage of these engines that produce results in games not yet seen before. The first game to use it will be GTA4, then the new Star Wars. Would love to see it in a football game, though.

It doesn't matter about these 'engines' being old, they are only the physics of the game and run in the background, the proof is in the game play and the Unreal engine is still knocking spots of anything else around, regards the PS3 their haven't been any PS3 'exclusives' which have been good enough to make a 'buyer' choose a PS3 over a 360, at the moment the 360 has PGR4, Forza 2, Halo 3, GOW and a few others which are 360 game and Sony can't touch, the best PS3 exclusives are still Motorstorm and Resistance, for me the main difference between the PS and the Xbox is the online community, the PS3 cannot cut the mustard online

GT is another 9-12 months ago and their isn't any news about the new Tekken, so personally I can't see this being a big year for the PS3 unless they have some title in the bag which no one has heard of 

Sorry to talk the truth lads 

Like I said, many industry experts are saying this is a make or break year for PS3. It's just got to deliver the goods or else it's finished. That's not really a good thing, considering companies need competition for us gamers to get the best out of them. It's true, though - how anyone can defend the PS3 other than stating what it is, is beyond me. It's just a polished turd at the moment. Sony really f*cked up.

[NiftyNeil]

Here's one to look out for. When playing no CoD4 online, on the "overgrown" level, go into the building next to the petrol station and look at the graffiti on the wall. I swear it's a picture of Rafa with black gloves on.

What were you doing in that building? That's where all the coward  snipers hang out.

I hate snipers in COD4

I'd just been killed and I spawned there. I was smoking a fat one at the time, so I thought I'd just sit of in there for a mo while I finished the job. Looking up, I saw this holy vision of Rafa, it was like some kind of message 

[neil]

GT and Tekken...says it all.

[JBG]

Hate to say it but gears 2 will need to be a massive groundbreaker like the first for me to be interested. I played Gears for the first time in months yesterday after a couple of months solid on COD4 and it seemed ponderous and slow in comparison, even though I remember it as brilliant when I first got it. I am hoping that Gears 2 really improves on the original and does not end up being a Halo 2 (or indeed 3)

Prepare to be disappointed.

UE3 is a vastly overrated and dated engine now. It offers really nothing new. It's just basically a souped up glorified Doom 3 engine. I know they aren't the same, but the tech is virtually. It's old now.

I've seen the new features to UE3 in Gears, and I have to admit, the only thing that will add anything really exciting to the game play will the the swarm technology similar to that seen already in Dead Rising. It's nothing new. They can show off new lighting models and dynamic environment damage and some new water effects all they want. This won't make a leap in game play whatsoever. I listened to the guy talk about this new water effect like it was something special. I wanted to tell him to shut up. It's nothing new, and it's nothing special. If you want to see true dynamic water effects that WILL make a difference to how a game is played, then go check out a project called Hydrophobia. Now that will be impressive.

For me, a game engine is impressive for what it offers as far as game play goes. UE3 is still very last gen, even it it does look pretty. Put it up against the likes of the Cry Engine 2 and Rockstar's Rage and it's just weak. Visually Cry Engine 2 is capable of rendering scenes that are almost virtually indistinguishable from real life, and from a game play perspective, Rockstar's Rage engine is offering things that just have not been experienced before in animations, physics and A.I. GTA 4 is looking to be that groundbreaking, something Gears will certainly never be.

GEARS to be the biggest selling game ever? Not a f*cking chance in Hell. Not when GTA 4 will be around soon.

GOW with a new menu screen will still be better than Resistance 2 or anything Sony can churn out!   

Probably will be, mate.

The thing is, this is a massive year for Sony. They need to produce a lot of AAA games this year, otherwise it's predicted to be all over for them this generation.

There's proof that the term "next generation" is not actually in the hardware itself, but in middle-ware programming that produces independent engines such as Natural Motion's Endorphin/Euphoria. Even the Wii can take advantage of these engines that produce results in games not yet seen before. The first game to use it will be GTA4, then the new Star Wars. Would love to see it in a football game, though.

It doesn't matter about these 'engines' being old, they are only the physics of the game and run in the background, the proof is in the game play and the Unreal engine is still knocking spots of anything else around, regards the PS3 their haven't been any PS3 'exclusives' which have been good enough to make a 'buyer' choose a PS3 over a 360, at the moment the 360 has PGR4, Forza 2, Halo 3, GOW and a few others which are 360 game and Sony can't touch, the best PS3 exclusives are still Motorstorm and Resistance, for me the main difference between the PS and the Xbox is the online community, the PS3 cannot cut the mustard online

GT is another 9-12 months ago and their isn't any news about the new Tekken, so personally I can't see this being a big year for the PS3 unless they have some title in the bag which no one has heard of 

Sorry to talk the truth lads 

Like I said, many industry experts are saying this is a make or break year for PS3. It's just got to deliver the goods or else it's finished. That's not really a good thing, considering companies need competition for us gamers to get the best out of them. It's true, though - how anyone can defend the PS3 other than stating what it is, is beyond me. It's just a polished turd at the moment. Sony really f*cked up.

I'm not so sure that's still the case, Emerald.

The PS3 is catching up on the 360 and Wii in total hardware sales and there's every chance it could surpass the 360 in total sales by the end of this year. Blu ray's total victory in the next gen disc wars will give Sony's sales a real shot in the arm, as will inevitable price cuts in the PS3 later this year (the cost of the Blu Ray lasers is too come down significantly this year and the Cell processor will be made on a new smaller, cheap fab process).

However, the real numbers to look at is the "attachment rate" which concerns the amount of games each system owner buys, i.e, its probably the case that a 360 owner buys 4 or 5 times more games than a Wii owner. The Wii, for all its great sales, has a very poor attachment rating, the PS3's is little better whereas the 360 is still way out front in that regard.

I think we will see the PS3 doing some major catch up this year as I expect MGS4, Resistance 2, GT5 and Little Big Planet to do very well and I don't think we'll see such a massive gap between the 360 and the PS3 we had in previous years. Indeed I think by the end of 2008 the 360 and PS3 will be neck and neck, with the 360 still a small bit ahead due to the fact that it will still have a better overall games library and will still appeal more to hardcore gamers.

Most console gamers have still to upgrade from PS2s and I think many of those gamers will go to the PS3 due to brand recognition. In the long term I still think the PS3 will edge out the 360 (but only just) largely due to brand loyalty by late adopters coming from the PS2. However, the market will settle down with the PS3 and the 360 having the bulk of software sales with only a handful of Wii titles (such as the Mario games etc) making an impact.

All in all this will be very good for gamers as there will be proper competition in the gaming market in this generation and that will drive down prices, increase the quality of titles and ensure more multi platform releases, all good for gamers.

I plan on getting a PS3 later in the year because people cannot ignore the fact that its a cheap Blu Ray player with an increasing amount of interesting games on it.

As for game engines, yes, the U3 engine has its flaws (texture pop up on some titles such as Mass Effect, Medal of Honour Airbourne and even Gears can be a problem in some - but not all - U3 engine games) but the refresh behind Gears of War 2 is a significant improvement in my opinion. However, I think the refreshed U3 engine coming out later this year will be almost as good as it gets on the 360 as developers will hit the 360s technical ceiling and will fall behind the newer engines displayed in newer PC games.

The Alan Wake engine looks amazing on a PC but I remain to be convinced whether we will see the same graphical fidelity on a 360 let alone the physics fidelity. The new engine for the next Tomb Raider game looks impressive and this will also power the next Deus Ex game but none of these engines can hold a candle to CryEngine 2. There isn't a machine on the planet that can play Crysis at "Very High DX10" mode at high resolution with AA and AF at a playable frame rate, even on quad core machines with 4gigs of memory and 8800 GTXs in SLI, so even though I expect the console version of CryEngine 2 to look impressive (it will be demoed soon) it will be a long way off what is seen on PCs and won't be hugely better than the refresh of U3.

[neil]

hd movies = downloads, hd dvd dead, blu ray next. I've recently read Alan Wake will never get released.

[Paul C]

Hate to say it but gears 2 will need to be a massive groundbreaker like the first for me to be interested. I played Gears for the first time in months yesterday after a couple of months solid on COD4 and it seemed ponderous and slow in comparison, even though I remember it as brilliant when I first got it. I am hoping that Gears 2 really improves on the original and does not end up being a Halo 2 (or indeed 3)

Prepare to be disappointed.

UE3 is a vastly overrated and dated engine now. It offers really nothing new. It's just basically a souped up glorified Doom 3 engine. I know they aren't the same, but the tech is virtually. It's old now.

I've seen the new features to UE3 in Gears, and I have to admit, the only thing that will add anything really exciting to the game play will the the swarm technology similar to that seen already in Dead Rising. It's nothing new. They can show off new lighting models and dynamic environment damage and some new water effects all they want. This won't make a leap in game play whatsoever. I listened to the guy talk about this new water effect like it was something special. I wanted to tell him to shut up. It's nothing new, and it's nothing special. If you want to see true dynamic water effects that WILL make a difference to how a game is played, then go check out a project called Hydrophobia. Now that will be impressive.

For me, a game engine is impressive for what it offers as far as game play goes. UE3 is still very last gen, even it it does look pretty. Put it up against the likes of the Cry Engine 2 and Rockstar's Rage and it's just weak. Visually Cry Engine 2 is capable of rendering scenes that are almost virtually indistinguishable from real life, and from a game play perspective, Rockstar's Rage engine is offering things that just have not been experienced before in animations, physics and A.I. GTA 4 is looking to be that groundbreaking, something Gears will certainly never be.

GEARS to be the biggest selling game ever? Not a f*cking chance in Hell. Not when GTA 4 will be around soon.

GOW with a new menu screen will still be better than Resistance 2 or anything Sony can churn out!   

Probably will be, mate.

The thing is, this is a massive year for Sony. They need to produce a lot of AAA games this year, otherwise it's predicted to be all over for them this generation.

There's proof that the term "next generation" is not actually in the hardware itself, but in middle-ware programming that produces independent engines such as Natural Motion's Endorphin/Euphoria. Even the Wii can take advantage of these engines that produce results in games not yet seen before. The first game to use it will be GTA4, then the new Star Wars. Would love to see it in a football game, though.

It doesn't matter about these 'engines' being old, they are only the physics of the game and run in the background, the proof is in the game play and the Unreal engine is still knocking spots of anything else around, regards the PS3 their haven't been any PS3 'exclusives' which have been good enough to make a 'buyer' choose a PS3 over a 360, at the moment the 360 has PGR4, Forza 2, Halo 3, GOW and a few others which are 360 game and Sony can't touch, the best PS3 exclusives are still Motorstorm and Resistance, for me the main difference between the PS and the Xbox is the online community, the PS3 cannot cut the mustard online

GT is another 9-12 months ago and their isn't any news about the new Tekken, so personally I can't see this being a big year for the PS3 unless they have some title in the bag which no one has heard of 

Sorry to talk the truth lads 

Like I said, many industry experts are saying this is a make or break year for PS3. It's just got to deliver the goods or else it's finished. That's not really a good thing, considering companies need competition for us gamers to get the best out of them. It's true, though - how anyone can defend the PS3 other than stating what it is, is beyond me. It's just a polished turd at the moment. Sony really f*cked up.

I'm not so sure that's still the case, Emerald.

The PS3 is catching up on the 360 and Wii in total hardware sales and there's every chance it could surpass the 360 in total sales by the end of this year. Blu ray's total victory in the next gen disc wars will give Sony's sales a real shot in the arm, as will inevitable price cuts in the PS3 later this year (the cost of the Blu Ray lasers is too come down significantly this year and the Cell processor will be made on a new smaller, cheap fab process).

However, the real numbers to look at is the "attachment rate" which concerns the amount of games each system owner buys, i.e, its probably the case that a 360 owner buys 4 or 5 times more games than a Wii owner. The Wii, for all its great sales, has a very poor attachment rating, the PS3's is little better whereas the 360 is still way out front in that regard.

I think we will see the PS3 doing some major catch up this year as I expect MGS4, Resistance 2, GT5 and Little Big Planet to do very well and I don't think we'll see such a massive gap between the 360 and the PS3 we had in previous years. Indeed I think by the end of 2008 the 360 and PS3 will be neck and neck, with the 360 still a small bit ahead due to the fact that it will still have a better overall games library and will still appeal more to hardcore gamers.

Most console gamers have still to upgrade from PS2s and I think many of those gamers will go to the PS3 due to brand recognition. In the long term I still think the PS3 will edge out the 360 (but only just) largely due to brand loyalty by late adopters coming from the PS2. However, the market will settle down with the PS3 and the 360 having the bulk of software sales with only a handful of Wii titles (such as the Mario games etc) making an impact.

All in all this will be very good for gamers as there will be proper competition in the gaming market in this generation and that will drive down prices, increase the quality of titles and ensure more multi platform releases, all good for gamers.

I plan on getting a PS3 later in the year because people cannot ignore the fact that its a cheap Blu Ray player with an increasing amount of interesting games on it.

As for game engines, yes, the U3 engine has its flaws (texture pop up on some titles such as Mass Effect, Medal of Honour Airbourne and even Gears can be a problem in some - but not all - U3 engine games) but the refresh behind Gears of War 2 is a significant improvement in my opinion. However, I think the refreshed U3 engine coming out later this year will be almost as good as it gets on the 360 as developers will hit the 360s technical ceiling and will fall behind the newer engines displayed in newer PC games.

The Alan Wake engine looks amazing on a PC but I remain to be convinced whether we will see the same graphical fidelity on a 360 let alone the physics fidelity. The new engine for the next Tomb Raider game looks impressive and this will also power the next Deus Ex game but none of these engines can hold a candle to CryEngine 2. There isn't a machine on the planet that can play Crysis at "Very High DX10" mode at high resolution with AA and AF at a playable frame rate, even on quad core machines with 4gigs of memory and 8800 GTXs in SLI, so even though I expect the console version of CryEngine 2 to look impressive (it will be demoed soon) it will be a long way off what is seen on PCs and won't be hugely better than the refresh of U3.

I agreed that 2008 will see more sales for PS3's but neck and neck with the 360 just won't happen, this is why:

1.  The 360 has a better back catalogue.

2.  GOW2 which is a far more attractive game for prospective buys than Resistance 2.

3. GT5 will get delayed AGAIN, it's slated for the end of 2008 but don't be shocked for a 2009 release, the PSP version has been delay about 3 years now.

4.  The PS3 is hopeless for online play

I agreed that the demise of HD DVD has been fantastic for Sony so most of the sales will be adults buying a cheap Blu Ray player.

[daxy1]

Hate to say it but gears 2 will need to be a massive groundbreaker like the first for me to be interested. I played Gears for the first time in months yesterday after a couple of months solid on COD4 and it seemed ponderous and slow in comparison, even though I remember it as brilliant when I first got it. I am hoping that Gears 2 really improves on the original and does not end up being a Halo 2 (or indeed 3)

Prepare to be disappointed.

UE3 is a vastly overrated and dated engine now. It offers really nothing new. It's just basically a souped up glorified Doom 3 engine. I know they aren't the same, but the tech is virtually. It's old now.

I've seen the new features to UE3 in Gears, and I have to admit, the only thing that will add anything really exciting to the game play will the the swarm technology similar to that seen already in Dead Rising. It's nothing new. They can show off new lighting models and dynamic environment damage and some new water effects all they want. This won't make a leap in game play whatsoever. I listened to the guy talk about this new water effect like it was something special. I wanted to tell him to shut up. It's nothing new, and it's nothing special. If you want to see true dynamic water effects that WILL make a difference to how a game is played, then go check out a project called Hydrophobia. Now that will be impressive.

For me, a game engine is impressive for what it offers as far as game play goes. UE3 is still very last gen, even it it does look pretty. Put it up against the likes of the Cry Engine 2 and Rockstar's Rage and it's just weak. Visually Cry Engine 2 is capable of rendering scenes that are almost virtually indistinguishable from real life, and from a game play perspective, Rockstar's Rage engine is offering things that just have not been experienced before in animations, physics and A.I. GTA 4 is looking to be that groundbreaking, something Gears will certainly never be.

GEARS to be the biggest selling game ever? Not a f*cking chance in Hell. Not when GTA 4 will be around soon.

GOW with a new menu screen will still be better than Resistance 2 or anything Sony can churn out!   

Probably will be, mate.

The thing is, this is a massive year for Sony. They need to produce a lot of AAA games this year, otherwise it's predicted to be all over for them this generation.

There's proof that the term "next generation" is not actually in the hardware itself, but in middle-ware programming that produces independent engines such as Natural Motion's Endorphin/Euphoria. Even the Wii can take advantage of these engines that produce results in games not yet seen before. The first game to use it will be GTA4, then the new Star Wars. Would love to see it in a football game, though.

It doesn't matter about these 'engines' being old, they are only the physics of the game and run in the background, the proof is in the game play and the Unreal engine is still knocking spots of anything else around, regards the PS3 their haven't been any PS3 'exclusives' which have been good enough to make a 'buyer' choose a PS3 over a 360, at the moment the 360 has PGR4, Forza 2, Halo 3, GOW and a few others which are 360 game and Sony can't touch, the best PS3 exclusives are still Motorstorm and Resistance, for me the main difference between the PS and the Xbox is the online community, the PS3 cannot cut the mustard online

GT is another 9-12 months ago and their isn't any news about the new Tekken, so personally I can't see this being a big year for the PS3 unless they have some title in the bag which no one has heard of 

Sorry to talk the truth lads 

Like I said, many industry experts are saying this is a make or break year for PS3. It's just got to deliver the goods or else it's finished. That's not really a good thing, considering companies need competition for us gamers to get the best out of them. It's true, though - how anyone can defend the PS3 other than stating what it is, is beyond me. It's just a polished turd at the moment. Sony really f*cked up.

I'm not so sure that's still the case, Emerald.

The PS3 is catching up on the 360 and Wii in total hardware sales and there's every chance it could surpass the 360 in total sales by the end of this year. Blu ray's total victory in the next gen disc wars will give Sony's sales a real shot in the arm, as will inevitable price cuts in the PS3 later this year (the cost of the Blu Ray lasers is too come down significantly this year and the Cell processor will be made on a new smaller, cheap fab process).

However, the real numbers to look at is the "attachment rate" which concerns the amount of games each system owner buys, i.e, its probably the case that a 360 owner buys 4 or 5 times more games than a Wii owner. The Wii, for all its great sales, has a very poor attachment rating, the PS3's is little better whereas the 360 is still way out front in that regard.

I think we will see the PS3 doing some major catch up this year as I expect MGS4, Resistance 2, GT5 and Little Big Planet to do very well and I don't think we'll see such a massive gap between the 360 and the PS3 we had in previous years. Indeed I think by the end of 2008 the 360 and PS3 will be neck and neck, with the 360 still a small bit ahead due to the fact that it will still have a better overall games library and will still appeal more to hardcore gamers.

Most console gamers have still to upgrade from PS2s and I think many of those gamers will go to the PS3 due to brand recognition. In the long term I still think the PS3 will edge out the 360 (but only just) largely due to brand loyalty by late adopters coming from the PS2. However, the market will settle down with the PS3 and the 360 having the bulk of software sales with only a handful of Wii titles (such as the Mario games etc) making an impact.

All in all this will be very good for gamers as there will be proper competition in the gaming market in this generation and that will drive down prices, increase the quality of titles and ensure more multi platform releases, all good for gamers.

I plan on getting a PS3 later in the year because people cannot ignore the fact that its a cheap Blu Ray player with an increasing amount of interesting games on it.

As for game engines, yes, the U3 engine has its flaws (texture pop up on some titles such as Mass Effect, Medal of Honour Airbourne and even Gears can be a problem in some - but not all - U3 engine games) but the refresh behind Gears of War 2 is a significant improvement in my opinion. However, I think the refreshed U3 engine coming out later this year will be almost as good as it gets on the 360 as developers will hit the 360s technical ceiling and will fall behind the newer engines displayed in newer PC games.

The Alan Wake engine looks amazing on a PC but I remain to be convinced whether we will see the same graphical fidelity on a 360 let alone the physics fidelity. The new engine for the next Tomb Raider game looks impressive and this will also power the next Deus Ex game but none of these engines can hold a candle to CryEngine 2. There isn't a machine on the planet that can play Crysis at "Very High DX10" mode at high resolution with AA and AF at a playable frame rate, even on quad core machines with 4gigs of memory and 8800 GTXs in SLI, so even though I expect the console version of CryEngine 2 to look impressive (it will be demoed soon) it will be a long way off what is seen on PCs and won't be hugely better than the refresh of U3.

I agreed that 2008 will see more sales for PS3's but neck and neck with the 360 just won't happen, this is why:

1.  The 360 has a better back catalogue.

2.  GOW2 which is a far more attractive game for prospective buys than Resistance 2.

3. GT5 will get delayed AGAIN, it's slated for the end of 2008 but don't be shocked for a 2009 release, the PSP version has been delay about 3 years now.

4.  The PS3 is hopeless for online play

I agreed that the demise of HD DVD has been fantastic for Sony so most of the sales will be adults buying a cheap Blu Ray player.

i agree with all your saying paul

for me the 360 will never be beaten by the ps3 due to xbox live
they hit the nail on the head with that big time!
i have a ps3 purely for the blue-ray (and my mate works at a sony center  )

[red37]

GT 5 Is likely to be delayed into 2009.

LINK

[Emerald Red]

Hate to say it but gears 2 will need to be a massive groundbreaker like the first for me to be interested. I played Gears for the first time in months yesterday after a couple of months solid on COD4 and it seemed ponderous and slow in comparison, even though I remember it as brilliant when I first got it. I am hoping that Gears 2 really improves on the original and does not end up being a Halo 2 (or indeed 3)

Prepare to be disappointed.

UE3 is a vastly overrated and dated engine now. It offers really nothing new. It's just basically a souped up glorified Doom 3 engine. I know they aren't the same, but the tech is virtually. It's old now.

I've seen the new features to UE3 in Gears, and I have to admit, the only thing that will add anything really exciting to the game play will the the swarm technology similar to that seen already in Dead Rising. It's nothing new. They can show off new lighting models and dynamic environment damage and some new water effects all they want. This won't make a leap in game play whatsoever. I listened to the guy talk about this new water effect like it was something special. I wanted to tell him to shut up. It's nothing new, and it's nothing special. If you want to see true dynamic water effects that WILL make a difference to how a game is played, then go check out a project called Hydrophobia. Now that will be impressive.

For me, a game engine is impressive for what it offers as far as game play goes. UE3 is still very last gen, even it it does look pretty. Put it up against the likes of the Cry Engine 2 and Rockstar's Rage and it's just weak. Visually Cry Engine 2 is capable of rendering scenes that are almost virtually indistinguishable from real life, and from a game play perspective, Rockstar's Rage engine is offering things that just have not been experienced before in animations, physics and A.I. GTA 4 is looking to be that groundbreaking, something Gears will certainly never be.

GEARS to be the biggest selling game ever? Not a f*cking chance in Hell. Not when GTA 4 will be around soon.

GOW with a new menu screen will still be better than Resistance 2 or anything Sony can churn out!   

Probably will be, mate.

The thing is, this is a massive year for Sony. They need to produce a lot of AAA games this year, otherwise it's predicted to be all over for them this generation.

There's proof that the term "next generation" is not actually in the hardware itself, but in middle-ware programming that produces independent engines such as Natural Motion's Endorphin/Euphoria. Even the Wii can take advantage of these engines that produce results in games not yet seen before. The first game to use it will be GTA4, then the new Star Wars. Would love to see it in a football game, though.

It doesn't matter about these 'engines' being old, they are only the physics of the game and run in the background, the proof is in the game play and the Unreal engine is still knocking spots of anything else around, regards the PS3 their haven't been any PS3 'exclusives' which have been good enough to make a 'buyer' choose a PS3 over a 360, at the moment the 360 has PGR4, Forza 2, Halo 3, GOW and a few others which are 360 game and Sony can't touch, the best PS3 exclusives are still Motorstorm and Resistance, for me the main difference between the PS and the Xbox is the online community, the PS3 cannot cut the mustard online

GT is another 9-12 months ago and their isn't any news about the new Tekken, so personally I can't see this being a big year for the PS3 unless they have some title in the bag which no one has heard of 

Sorry to talk the truth lads 

Like I said, many industry experts are saying this is a make or break year for PS3. It's just got to deliver the goods or else it's finished. That's not really a good thing, considering companies need competition for us gamers to get the best out of them. It's true, though - how anyone can defend the PS3 other than stating what it is, is beyond me. It's just a polished turd at the moment. Sony really f*cked up.

I'm not so sure that's still the case, Emerald.

The PS3 is catching up on the 360 and Wii in total hardware sales and there's every chance it could surpass the 360 in total sales by the end of this year. Blu ray's total victory in the next gen disc wars will give Sony's sales a real shot in the arm, as will inevitable price cuts in the PS3 later this year (the cost of the Blu Ray lasers is too come down significantly this year and the Cell processor will be made on a new smaller, cheap fab process).

However, the real numbers to look at is the "attachment rate" which concerns the amount of games each system owner buys, i.e, its probably the case that a 360 owner buys 4 or 5 times more games than a Wii owner. The Wii, for all its great sales, has a very poor attachment rating, the PS3's is little better whereas the 360 is still way out front in that regard.

I think we will see the PS3 doing some major catch up this year as I expect MGS4, Resistance 2, GT5 and Little Big Planet to do very well and I don't think we'll see such a massive gap between the 360 and the PS3 we had in previous years. Indeed I think by the end of 2008 the 360 and PS3 will be neck and neck, with the 360 still a small bit ahead due to the fact that it will still have a better overall games library and will still appeal more to hardcore gamers.

Most console gamers have still to upgrade from PS2s and I think many of those gamers will go to the PS3 due to brand recognition. In the long term I still think the PS3 will edge out the 360 (but only just) largely due to brand loyalty by late adopters coming from the PS2. However, the market will settle down with the PS3 and the 360 having the bulk of software sales with only a handful of Wii titles (such as the Mario games etc) making an impact.

All in all this will be very good for gamers as there will be proper competition in the gaming market in this generation and that will drive down prices, increase the quality of titles and ensure more multi platform releases, all good for gamers.

I plan on getting a PS3 later in the year because people cannot ignore the fact that its a cheap Blu Ray player with an increasing amount of interesting games on it.

As for game engines, yes, the U3 engine has its flaws (texture pop up on some titles such as Mass Effect, Medal of Honour Airbourne and even Gears can be a problem in some - but not all - U3 engine games) but the refresh behind Gears of War 2 is a significant improvement in my opinion. However, I think the refreshed U3 engine coming out later this year will be almost as good as it gets on the 360 as developers will hit the 360s technical ceiling and will fall behind the newer engines displayed in newer PC games.

The Alan Wake engine looks amazing on a PC but I remain to be convinced whether we will see the same graphical fidelity on a 360 let alone the physics fidelity. The new engine for the next Tomb Raider game looks impressive and this will also power the next Deus Ex game but none of these engines can hold a candle to CryEngine 2. There isn't a machine on the planet that can play Crysis at "Very High DX10" mode at high resolution with AA and AF at a playable frame rate, even on quad core machines with 4gigs of memory and 8800 GTXs in SLI, so even though I expect the console version of CryEngine 2 to look impressive (it will be demoed soon) it will be a long way off what is seen on PCs and won't be hugely better than the refresh of U3.

I agreed that 2008 will see more sales for PS3's but neck and neck with the 360 just won't happen, this is why:

1.  The 360 has a better back catalogue.

2.  GOW2 which is a far more attractive game for prospective buys than Resistance 2.

3. GT5 will get delayed AGAIN, it's slated for the end of 2008 but don't be shocked for a 2009 release, the PSP version has been delay about 3 years now.

4.  The PS3 is hopeless for online play

I agreed that the demise of HD DVD has been fantastic for Sony so most of the sales will be adults buying a cheap Blu Ray player.

I agree on this. PS3 outsold the 360 for the first time earlier this month. It was said that it was the beginning of it by most Sony fans, but this is false statement. There was one main reason why PS3 outsold 360 and that's down to old fashioned shortages of the console. Not to mention the ridiculous red light situation MS have found themselves in, which is a disgrace by any standards. They have to sort that out. Even Live has had it's f*ck ups, but thank God that's been sorted.

PS3 does need a serious lifeline if it is to get anywhere near the sales needed to keep it in the race. This is just a simple fact. Not even MGS4 alone can save it, and Little Big Planet is too niche to be considered a serious or massive console seller. GT5 - while I love the series - is just looking old, jaded and a shadow of the name it was, and even it is touted to being delayed...again. This is one thing that almost ruined Nintendo. Constant delays. It will sure put a dent in Sony's aspirations as well if they keep it up.

[Paul C]

Hate to say it but gears 2 will need to be a massive groundbreaker like the first for me to be interested. I played Gears for the first time in months yesterday after a couple of months solid on COD4 and it seemed ponderous and slow in comparison, even though I remember it as brilliant when I first got it. I am hoping that Gears 2 really improves on the original and does not end up being a Halo 2 (or indeed 3)

Prepare to be disappointed.

UE3 is a vastly overrated and dated engine now. It offers really nothing new. It's just basically a souped up glorified Doom 3 engine. I know they aren't the same, but the tech is virtually. It's old now.

I've seen the new features to UE3 in Gears, and I have to admit, the only thing that will add anything really exciting to the game play will the the swarm technology similar to that seen already in Dead Rising. It's nothing new. They can show off new lighting models and dynamic environment damage and some new water effects all they want. This won't make a leap in game play whatsoever. I listened to the guy talk about this new water effect like it was something special. I wanted to tell him to shut up. It's nothing new, and it's nothing special. If you want to see true dynamic water effects that WILL make a difference to how a game is played, then go check out a project called Hydrophobia. Now that will be impressive.

For me, a game engine is impressive for what it offers as far as game play goes. UE3 is still very last gen, even it it does look pretty. Put it up against the likes of the Cry Engine 2 and Rockstar's Rage and it's just weak. Visually Cry Engine 2 is capable of rendering scenes that are almost virtually indistinguishable from real life, and from a game play perspective, Rockstar's Rage engine is offering things that just have not been experienced before in animations, physics and A.I. GTA 4 is looking to be that groundbreaking, something Gears will certainly never be.

GEARS to be the biggest selling game ever? Not a f*cking chance in Hell. Not when GTA 4 will be around soon.

GOW with a new menu screen will still be better than Resistance 2 or anything Sony can churn out!   

Probably will be, mate.

The thing is, this is a massive year for Sony. They need to produce a lot of AAA games this year, otherwise it's predicted to be all over for them this generation.

There's proof that the term "next generation" is not actually in the hardware itself, but in middle-ware programming that produces independent engines such as Natural Motion's Endorphin/Euphoria. Even the Wii can take advantage of these engines that produce results in games not yet seen before. The first game to use it will be GTA4, then the new Star Wars. Would love to see it in a football game, though.

It doesn't matter about these 'engines' being old, they are only the physics of the game and run in the background, the proof is in the game play and the Unreal engine is still knocking spots of anything else around, regards the PS3 their haven't been any PS3 'exclusives' which have been good enough to make a 'buyer' choose a PS3 over a 360, at the moment the 360 has PGR4, Forza 2, Halo 3, GOW and a few others which are 360 game and Sony can't touch, the best PS3 exclusives are still Motorstorm and Resistance, for me the main difference between the PS and the Xbox is the online community, the PS3 cannot cut the mustard online

GT is another 9-12 months ago and their isn't any news about the new Tekken, so personally I can't see this being a big year for the PS3 unless they have some title in the bag which no one has heard of 

Sorry to talk the truth lads 

Like I said, many industry experts are saying this is a make or break year for PS3. It's just got to deliver the goods or else it's finished. That's not really a good thing, considering companies need competition for us gamers to get the best out of them. It's true, though - how anyone can defend the PS3 other than stating what it is, is beyond me. It's just a polished turd at the moment. Sony really f*cked up.

I'm not so sure that's still the case, Emerald.

The PS3 is catching up on the 360 and Wii in total hardware sales and there's every chance it could surpass the 360 in total sales by the end of this year. Blu ray's total victory in the next gen disc wars will give Sony's sales a real shot in the arm, as will inevitable price cuts in the PS3 later this year (the cost of the Blu Ray lasers is too come down significantly this year and the Cell processor will be made on a new smaller, cheap fab process).

However, the real numbers to look at is the "attachment rate" which concerns the amount of games each system owner buys, i.e, its probably the case that a 360 owner buys 4 or 5 times more games than a Wii owner. The Wii, for all its great sales, has a very poor attachment rating, the PS3's is little better whereas the 360 is still way out front in that regard.

I think we will see the PS3 doing some major catch up this year as I expect MGS4, Resistance 2, GT5 and Little Big Planet to do very well and I don't think we'll see such a massive gap between the 360 and the PS3 we had in previous years. Indeed I think by the end of 2008 the 360 and PS3 will be neck and neck, with the 360 still a small bit ahead due to the fact that it will still have a better overall games library and will still appeal more to hardcore gamers.

Most console gamers have still to upgrade from PS2s and I think many of those gamers will go to the PS3 due to brand recognition. In the long term I still think the PS3 will edge out the 360 (but only just) largely due to brand loyalty by late adopters coming from the PS2. However, the market will settle down with the PS3 and the 360 having the bulk of software sales with only a handful of Wii titles (such as the Mario games etc) making an impact.

All in all this will be very good for gamers as there will be proper competition in the gaming market in this generation and that will drive down prices, increase the quality of titles and ensure more multi platform releases, all good for gamers.

I plan on getting a PS3 later in the year because people cannot ignore the fact that its a cheap Blu Ray player with an increasing amount of interesting games on it.

As for game engines, yes, the U3 engine has its flaws (texture pop up on some titles such as Mass Effect, Medal of Honour Airbourne and even Gears can be a problem in some - but not all - U3 engine games) but the refresh behind Gears of War 2 is a significant improvement in my opinion. However, I think the refreshed U3 engine coming out later this year will be almost as good as it gets on the 360 as developers will hit the 360s technical ceiling and will fall behind the newer engines displayed in newer PC games.

The Alan Wake engine looks amazing on a PC but I remain to be convinced whether we will see the same graphical fidelity on a 360 let alone the physics fidelity. The new engine for the next Tomb Raider game looks impressive and this will also power the next Deus Ex game but none of these engines can hold a candle to CryEngine 2. There isn't a machine on the planet that can play Crysis at "Very High DX10" mode at high resolution with AA and AF at a playable frame rate, even on quad core machines with 4gigs of memory and 8800 GTXs in SLI, so even though I expect the console version of CryEngine 2 to look impressive (it will be demoed soon) it will be a long way off what is seen on PCs and won't be hugely better than the refresh of U3.

I agreed that 2008 will see more sales for PS3's but neck and neck with the 360 just won't happen, this is why:

1.  The 360 has a better back catalogue.

2.  GOW2 which is a far more attractive game for prospective buys than Resistance 2.

3. GT5 will get delayed AGAIN, it's slated for the end of 2008 but don't be shocked for a 2009 release, the PSP version has been delay about 3 years now.

4.  The PS3 is hopeless for online play

I agreed that the demise of HD DVD has been fantastic for Sony so most of the sales will be adults buying a cheap Blu Ray player.

I agree on this. PS3 outsold the 360 for the first time earlier this month. It was said that it was the beginning of it by most Sony fans, but this is false statement. There was one main reason why PS3 outsold 360 and that's down to old fashioned shortages of the console. Not to mention the ridiculous red light situation MS have found themselves in, which is a disgrace by any standards. They have to sort that out. Even Live has had it's f*ck ups, but thank God that's been sorted.

PS3 does need a serious lifeline if it is to get anywhere near the sales needed to keep it in the race. This is just a simple fact. Not even MGS4 alone can save it, and Little Big Planet is too niche to be considered a serious or massive console seller. GT5 - while I love the series - is just looking old, jaded and a shadow of the name it was, and even it is touted to being delayed...again. This is one thing that almost ruined Nintendo. Constant delays. It will sure put a dent in Sony's aspirations as well if they keep it up.

You look at the exclusives on the PS3 and their just aren't any GREAT ones:

1.  Resistance is good but a launch title

2.  Motorstorm is fun but not enough tracks and vehicles for my liking

3.  Lair let down

4.  Heavenly Sword another let down

5.  Drakes fortune is a good game but once completed their ain't any life left in it, Gametrailers.com said "it's a rental game" which pretty much sums it up.

I think I can sum up the problem with the PS3, basically it's the online community, with the PS3 ones you've completed a game thats pretty much it, where with the 360 you once you complete a career mode you have a massive online community which gives the game another lease of life, for example in 2 years time people will still still be playing Halo 3, also 18 month down the line GOW is still massive, can you say that about Resistance, Motorstorm, etc................. No!

It's not that I have anything against the PS3 but I feel that Sony just got sloppy and expected it to do well because it's the next Playstation console with all this technology, at the end of the day it's a GAMES CONSOLE and a games console with no decent games won't sell, I don't care if it plays it plays Blu Ray movies.

They make the mistake with the PSP and they've done it again with the PS3 imo.

The future of gaming is online because people like chatting and having a laugh while gaming as well as playing the best in the world at their favourite games, you simply cannot do this on the PS3 (especially with it's sh!tty friends system) which is why it will always play 3rd fiddle behind the 360 and Wii.

Wow that felt good cos I actually think I've summed up my feelings in a justified way rather than people just thinkin I'm a 360 fan boy who has never even played on a PS3 (which I have done, enough to judge it!)

[red37]

I think you are right Paul. The whole 'community' aspect of the 360's online feature set adds freshness and a new lease of life to many an already good title....turning them into great ones.

Now if only a certain section (Minority/Majority - dependent on the time of day) of this Xbox360 playing human race, who successfully manage to negotiate their way around a controller, could equally grasp the concept of some of the more obvious (thus desirable) traits of online etiquette gracefully, with both arms wide open.  As well as their gobs fare under the influence of the two brain cells responsible for their vocal output. The thing would almost exceed perfection.

[Emerald Red]

Speaking of Live, Goldeneye was planned for it, but has since been either canned  or just postponed....indefinitely. It's down to a whole hick-up over who should have what. MS owns Rare now, but the game was made on Nintendo hardware and Nintendo and Rare no longer have the Bond license. It's all f*cked up. But what it really all boils down to is money.

For me, Goldeneye was - and still is - the best FPS to ever be on a  console. Just the thought of going back to it and being able to play  it online is enough. Instant buy if it happens. I can't get my head round the fact that 11 years have past. That is f*cking scary.