Resistance: Fall of Man (PS3 Launch Title) Takes Up 22GB

Blue Ray is gonna be so awesome

I've convinced myself that I'll have to spring for a PS3 because of this and titles like:

MGS4
Resident Evil V
Final Fantasy XIII
Devil May Cry
Splinter Cell

...and Half life II! Which will ship with Episodes I and II of the sequel!

I can't wait.

 

20 GB is insane

I think if you look close. .you will see yourself in the game


Rocket River

 

I wonder, when the Blu-Ray becomes available, how much of the extra space that is taken up is really necessary, and how much is just developers using less compression because they don't have to. I mean, some games absolutely amaze me how much gameplay they are able to squeeze onto small amounts of disc space. I remember when Mario 64 came out. That game was huge for a freaking cartridge game...same could be said of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

 

this shouldn't be a surprise. I'm no Sony fanboy or anything, but there's never been a doubt Blu-Ray's extra capacity will help. how can it not, use your common sense

for all you people who said before, 'well look at all the games now, 95% of them are just on one DVD'...what you aren't realizing is that there are a LOT of games that had to sacrifice art assets (whether through extra compression, or plain cutting stuff out) to get themselves down to 1 DVD. Oblivion is one confirmed example, the devs said it themselves. plenty of other games have had to do the same thing, so don't buy the 'most games are 1 DVD' BS at face value

 

why are you only restricting it to 'gameplay'? obviously the extra space is mainly used for graphical art assets. you're right in that those 2 games have great gameplay, I won't argue that. but they're not exactly stellar in the technical graphical area, compared to next-gen stuff now. and I'm not talking about like art direction or art style, that's different...old games can be great in that too. but in pure technical specs, as far as number of polygons and types of textures and texture-sizes, they are lacking and that's where extra space is needed

now you may be a gamer who cares only about gameplay and not graphics, which is totally cool. but for better or worse, there are lots of other gamers out there who do like great graphics. that's why we have next-gen systems, otherwise we'd still all be playing the NES

 

Okay, you sort of answered a question that I didn't even ask. I understand that extra space is used for better graphics. I understand that more polygons, high rez textures and better quality sound effects equate to more bytes on any game disc. The two cartridge games were given as examples because they were also excellent examples of not only expansive gameplay, but above average graphics for the N64 (not compared to current gen, obviously).

My suspicion is that, only in some cases, the developers use extra space provided by HD-DVDs and Blu Ray discs not to increase the game experience with more gameplay, better graphics or anything else I mentioned above, but rather to just make life easier on themselves by not compressing their data as much since they no longer need to. There is nothing inherently wrong with that, unless game companies start to use the size of their games ("We use 22 gigabytes! Buy it!") as a selling point. It's just something that occurred to me, but that I hadn't really mulled over much.

 

sure, I bet that will be true for some devs/publishers, and I would completely agree with your point that it would be kinda lame

although, even if all a specific game did to fill up a Blu-Ray disc was to not compress its graphic and sound assets, you would still get some slight to moderate benefits. you might get a small performance boost due to not having to de-compress art assets on the fly. and in the case of audio, you could have better sounding quality, depending on how much of an audiophile a gamer is and what kind of equipment they're playing it on (I know a few home theater buffs who can blindly tell the difference between a 192bitrate MP3 and a 320bitrate one, on their super expensive gear)

 

How sweet would it be to play MGS4 in Spanish?

 

It's not necessary. There are some great, great games right now that don't need that much space. Orchestral music is nice, and obviously the extra space could be put to use, but there is hardly a need for it. That's the point. Not too mention how bigger and bigger games will start to impact cost.

There should be no rush.

And in the case of Resistance, which should be a good game coming from the developer it's coming from, it seems even more unusual. The game looks like a slightly darker, with aliens, Call of Duty 3. There is absolutely nothing in the art style that should dictate that it needs considerably more space than any other title out there.

That's not to say it won't be a good game - because I think it is likely it will be - but it hardly seems like proof that that space for orchestra and extra languages is so mandatory.

I think you'll start to see instances where many of Sony's closer partners will say one thing, while everyone else will say another. It'll be interesting to see how it works out.

 

yeah, that's actually a really good point and something I forgot to mention myself...multiple language tracks. it's a great feature and luxury to have (at least to me), especially when it comes to japanese-developed games. 90% of the time, the japanese voice acting is noticeably better than the english voice-overs

I know some american gamers would still rather listen to a bad english track, because they don't want to bother reading sub-titles when playing a game. but personally, I always switch it to the jap voice-overs if given a choice. except in the 10% of cases where the english is actually just as good or better

 

'need'? IMO, that's a vague and controversial word to use in this discussion. I mean, videogames themselves by definition are a luxury and not a necessity. who are you to say whether any specific game 'needs' certain assets, that's a very low threshold. it's about making games better, not about what they need as a lowest denominator

as I already stated, Oblivion's devs themselves said they had to cut out graphic/audio assets due to a 1 DVD restriction. and they can hardly be considered a close Sony partner. don't make me dig out the interview, lol

 

You guys don't seem to understand. I guess I'm not making it clear.

As I said, there is no doubt that it (extra space) would be put to use. Nothing you've said makes me convinced there is a great urgency to do so, however, or that the games we get now are just utterly choking on the space we have now.

But when I say there is no point in rushing, it is because of the simple fact that there is no standard to rush to. HDDVD has no use for games yet, only PS3 is trying to push Blu-Ray, and PC doesn't seem to eager to bother with either one at this point.

What exactly are you running to? If you believe everything will go to PS3 or that Blu-Ray is going to take over the world, I can see why you'd want to make that happen as quickly as possible. Otherwise, there isn't much of a point.

Saying, at this point, that games should be using that space is pretty much only saying that Blu Ray is the end all, be all option. Because what else are you going to use? And sorry, but that is hardly a given solution that makes me think games are in trouble if they don't adopt that format. I don't buy that.

Hell, at this point, there is no guarantee that the public will even accept an HD disc format anytime soon.

Sure, that space would be nice. But unless you expect Halo, Mario titles, PC titles, etc. are all going to go PS3 and Blu-Ray, then I think you are trying to put all your eggs in a basket a little too early.

 

there must be a misunderstanding here. you seem to be talking about the format war. as far as I'm concerned, none of the posts I made in this thread had that in mind. and if I'm reading RC Cola correctly, he's not thinking about the formats either

all we're saying is this...is there an advantage to having a 45+gig disc format (I use that number because I think that's what a dual-layer HD-DVD comes out to. dual-layer Blu-Ray is 50gigs I believe) compared to the current 8.5gig DVD? definitely. and a very noticeable advantage IMO. it doesn't matter whether the format is Blu-Ray or HD-DVD or some random thing called 'Pink Super-Disc', game developers need a higher capacity disc format for the future next-gen high resolution and high-def audio games

I'm not sure why you brought the format war into it, that's not the issue with me. I'm completely neutral on whatever wins out

 

But the two go hand in hand. You can't say "I want more disc space" without recognizing the technology at hand, where it is and where it will go.

Beyond that, you guys are pointing to objectivity in terms of need and necessity. Yet in the same breath you say developers 'need' a higher capacity format. It works both ways. I don't look at, as you mentioned, Oblivion at 9 gigs or whatever, then a FPS like Resistance at 22 gigs and think "yeah, that is necessary." Whereas obviously you feel the opposite. It might be objective; but, if so, then it can be applied to both perspectives.

So, if that is the case, then you have to take it to the next logical step: the tech available. And as such, then you are very much talking about the format war. Because that is exactly the relationship here.

In fact, I read a little more through the article RC posted, and these are the quotes from the guys at Insomniac:

I'm sorry, but that is pretty cut-and-dried PR format war talk. This is from the guys that are 'proving' you and RC's point.

And, as I detailed above, the state of that format war and what point were are at now only strengthens my position on it not being anywhere near a necessity at this point in time. We just aren't in any position to be ready for it.