Now that Sony has confirmed a bunch of launch titles for the NGP, it's time to take a closer look at two of the most anticipated.
First up is Uncharted: Golden Abyss , in development at Sony Bend and featuring more of an emphasis on exploration, puzzle-solving and platforming. The developers talk about making this adventure for Sony's slick portable, and we also get great new looks at the game in action. It really moves beautifully.
Then there's Wipeout 2048 , which looks undeniably cool. This series has always been about silky smooth frame rates and addictive gameplay, and we like the idea of wider tracks for heavier fighting. Still, it's clear that this new handheld installment hasn't lost its racing focus, and it's very pretty.
It appears that there's a whole lot of good headed towards the NGP, and we expect to see more of the scheduled launch titles in due time.
Watch these dev videos people
Uncharted Golden Abyss
youtube . com/watch?v=wW8mAX9dSgs
Wipeout 2048
youtube . com/watch?v=XZPsvAmS1D4
Last edited by Kiryu on 6/4/2011 10:34:09 AM
Well….. I'm sold.
Uncharted is probably one of the reasons ill get the game.
Last edited by TheCrazyMerc on 6/4/2011 10:46:51 AM
*the system
Count me in on both. I still haven't played any of the Uncharted games (I own the 1st and 2nd) due to my backlog ( I know you guys are getting sick of me saying that), but I'll still be purchasing this one. I know a quality game/series when I see one.
Same goes for WipEout, except that I HAVE played every WipEout game. Cross-platform gaming should be interesting, considering the substitution of R2, L2, R3, and L3 for touch functionality, I'm guessing, but should be a blast nonetheless. I've been a fan of WipEout since the 1st back in the mid 90s, and they haven't failed me since (I'll omit Fusion, since that wasn't even the same dev).
did they say there wouldn't be l3 and r3?
a touch screen on the pack… I'm sorry but that is just daft. You cant even see what your doing, with buttons you at least know where they're placed, but moving your hand on a plannel you cant see seems silly. also the features of the front touchscreen in that Uncharted video were not needed, buttons could move Drake fine. Maybe at E3 they'll reveal the NGPto have another screen…rediculous…
I think you are judging it too quickly… but who I am I to say 🙂
Q!
"play.experience.enjoy"
The touch pad on the back is actually a lot smarter than a touch screen on the front. The back one is exactly the same size as the screen so it allows you to manipulate things via touch but without blocking your view.
How daft is it that you have to cover up your screen to push buttons?
Not knowing where it's at? I don't know how long you've been playing video games but I've never had to look at my controller to find a button during gameplay. It's all muscle memory.
For all the hell that Sony has gone through, it looks like they have created a master piece of a device… my worries are the cutting out (or down) on features. I hope they do not give more people a reason to hate…
NGP looks amazingly tempting to purchase, but this time I want to give the hardware some time to mature. I think many people may not purchase it day 1 until they have a good idea of where the machine is going, and whether or not sales are strong. If sales are weak, for what ever reasons we may have not thought about yet, it could mean hardware changes or the like down the road. Who knows!?!
I hope NGP is a great success and it sells well… it can only be a good thing for gamers the world over…
Q!
"play.experience.enjoy"
Off topic: Scouring the web I found Nintendo's Project Cafe's specifications as supplied to internal developers. For those interested we will see if these leaked specifications match what Nintendo announces…
They said it would be more powerful than the PS3; well it has more memory; don't know if the Power6 CPU and GPU combined can outpace the PS3… Highlander will probably know…
CPU:
Quad Core Custom IBM Power 6 Chip, Clocked @ 3.5GHZ.
Each core is two way SMT capable.
175.9 GFLOPS theoretical peak performance (single-precision).
87.6 GFLOPS theoretical peak performance (double-precision).
GPU:
Custom AMD RV770 Chip "Wolf" @ 766MHz on 32nm process
1398 GFLOPS
Memory:
Main Memory â 512MB XDR2 DRAM.
Video Memory â 1024MB GDDR5.
eDRAM â 16MB.
Storage:
2.5â³ Sata HDD 250/320GB models available.
External Storage SD/SDHC of up to 64GB.
Media:
Custom Blu Ray up to 50GB.
Gamecube/Wii Discs.
Display:
HDMI.
Component.
D-Terminal.
Scart.
S Video.
Maximum Display Resolution â 1080p.
Control Pad:
Dubbed âWii 2 Padâ.
8 Buttons.
6.2â³ Touch Screen.
Front Facing Camera.
Q!
"play.experience.enjoy"
Last edited by Qubex on 6/4/2011 12:42:22 PM
I think the apecs on this Nintendo are more up-to-date than the last. But if the Wii Pad rumour is true… I fear it may struggle streaming the data to multiple touch pads.
Microsoft and SONY have the latest Graphics cards and more power in the pipeline also.
Do you think SONY will keep the Cell because it was hard to develop games that run efficiently on it. That may be combatted by now but IBM and TOSHIBA were the ones who created it. Do SONY have an updated version???????????
Last edited by city96 on 6/4/2011 1:38:39 PM
Yhea, having discussed this with others here, including Highlanders hunch, I think Sony will stay with the Cell architecture. If not, and the CPU they select is uber powerful for the PS4, it may have enough juice to emulate the PS3… but it would have to be pretty powerful to do that…
I am confident they will go with an upgraded Cell… 12 cores… something quite powerful I would imagine… at x3 the bandwidth of the current PS3…
Q!
"play.experience.enjoy"
I like the sound of that.
They need the PS3 emulator or a way to play PS3 games on there. Some people will hate just for that fact and some won't buy it.
When it comes out, whenever that is. They had better have an extensive line up of exclusive awesomeness. That's what they're doing well for NGP and they should be doing it in 5 years. 😛
sony's gotta keep the same architecture, if they change it to something exotic again like they did with the ps3 then they might as well just…well i dont know. Sony already had a hard enough time with the ps3 at the beginning, that they just cant go through the same thing again next gen. either they keep the same basic idea or make it easier to develop for it. as we all know, and even though sony has got the best of the best when it comes to exclusives, they just cant live off of them forever. They need third party support. as to B/C, thats standard. this gen's exclusives are just too awesome to ignore next gen, at least at the beginning
The Power6 is an older PowerPC architecture. Quas dual issue cores at 3.5 GHz is nice, but the GFLOP performance of the Cell is as good or better than this CPU. The GPU is the interesting bit. Yes, that will be more powerful. The theoretical peak GFLOps are about 3 times what the RSX can do and nearly 6 times the performance of the GPU in the 360. Then again, it's also a design that's two generations newer.
With the amount of XDR2 memory and GDDR5 that is given, and performance numbers of the CPU/GPU above we know that this console will likely be capable of having games default to resolutions in the region of 1080p. So it will be a little faster than a PS3, and a lot faster than a 360.
What is more interesting for the future is what this specification says about where Sony and Microsoft will go. It also says something about the capabilities of their hand held/controller device. Since it will not be capable of housing that kind of processor and memory, the handheld will be little more than a controller and monitor, so there will be no taking your game with you as you leave the house. The controller will be permanently tethered to your home console, either physically or via your local ethernet.
All in all I think this tells us more about where Sony and MS will go with their new consoles. I mean, let's face it, the hardware specification reads like a PS3 with an AMD/ATI GPU. I think this tells us that what we should expect from MS and Sony is essentially a souped up version of the PS3 with a flash memory socket. I don't know how well that will sit with MS, but Sony will be fine with it. The interesting thing about the BluRay drive mentioned is whether it will be gimped like the DVD drives in Game Cubes was.
All in all the WiiHD will ne a nice device, but to be honest, nothing to write home about if you already own a PS3, and since the SP3 (and 360) both have a ridiculous library of games and a large number of experienced developers, the new hardware may not prove to be as big an advantage as Nintendo hope for. With a realistic price of $299-$399 for this and given that it will not really look any better than PS3 or 360 games, the Wii HD may remain of interest only to the hardcore Nintendo fan.
I think the only reason for me personally why these specs are interesting for me is that because its slightly more powerful than the ps3, it should be keeping sony on their toes for a ps4.
which is what i want. Sony seem to me the best for customer satisfaction and quality this gen, and so i dont want them to lose out next gen of consoles because id like them to have the best games as they have the best customer satisfaction.
If the new xbox was the best i'd be annoyed that the best games (theoretically) would be on the console where i have to pay XYZ and more for anything basic.
After watching the uncharted vid, im pretty much sold! 🙂 off the topic, infamous 2 is out this week! Excited much?
I'm a huge fan of portable gaming (with buttons), so this NGP might climb it's way to a day 1 purchase if I'm willing to ignore my 'wait 2 years to work out the kinks' rule.
As for the 3DS, I'm gonna wait for a 3rd iteration where the battery life is far far better tnan now, and it's cheaper. Only the old franchises like Zelda, Mario, Metroid, Star Fox and Kid Icarus would make me wanna buy a 3DS, and most of those franchises I already have on Wii / Gamecube / Virtual Console. Nintendo can't rely too heavily on those old franchises alone to sell consoles, look at the Wii and how hardcore gamers have abandoned that.
NGP has the hardcore games, the buttons, the touch screen, the gyroscope and movement sensors, the cameras, the PS3-like graphics capabilities, and most importantly, 2 Analog Sticks!!! Didn't 3DS learn anything from PSP? One Analog pad? Sooooo PSP, LOL!
Last edited by Dancemachine55 on 6/4/2011 8:41:12 PM
In a NGP related note….
Here's a how-to & gameplay video showing a new musical platformer called "Supershapes" that's also coming to the NGP.
i didn't understand how the game works ,please explain.
That game looks interesting.
every time you jump on a block or platform or whatever, it adds it to a time line. The time line repeats every 10 seconds or whatever, so every time the timeline repeats your going to hear the same note that played when you jumped on that platform. By the end of the level you should of accumulated enough notes to create an abstract song.
^^Hope that helps
Haters Gunna Hate.
"you just made coz im stylin' on you"
Last edited by Zorigo on 6/5/2011 8:55:44 AM
never really been into wipeout, but uncharted does look really good.
not gotta spend 400+ bucks on a system plus 70+ bucks on the game just so i can play it good, but not too shabby………
Same here, I don't think it's a terrible series I just found it incredibly boring, and no amount of amazing graphics can make up for repetitive gameplay.
Unchgarted Golden Abyss is actually almost a console seller for me. Uncharted is one of the few franchises ive been with since day 1 (randomly got uncharted df bundled with my 40gb and loved it, uncharted 2 was a day one purchase for me even before it was announced, i was like, are they making a sequel? they best be!)
U3 is a d1p for me and id like to say ive got all the uncharteds, and therefore the ngp one would be necessary for me 🙂
OFF TOPIC:
I'm convinced now that they should have save both the GOW psp titles for the ngp.