Videogame site, Kikizo, has managed to seduce an indiscreet developer into showing off its newly arrived PS3 dev kit - with the promise of total anonymity, of course. Consequently, the resulting article is intriguing but also frustratingly vague.
There is, for example, a point where the writer discusses some impressive scenic effects, but is hamstrung by the inability to explain how they fit into the game design:
"the depth-of-field optical filtering, astounding texture quality, convincing material movement, and later in a sequence, heat distortion and complex fire-based effects all shine through - and still offer a satisfying wow factor."
Well, that's all very exciting, but without context it's just a list of technical terms and adjectives.
There's also a lot of predictable hype debunking. Turns out that - gasp! - the now infamous Killzone demo at E3 last year was categorically not real-time PS3 code, but a mocked up prerendered approximation. Excuse me while I recover from my surprised swoon. Also, PS3 won't be the massive leap over Xbox 360 that some would have us believe (another staggering revelation) - indeed the two machines are comparable - the 360 architecture being more user-friendly, PS3 being more tricky and likely to reveal hidden depths further down the line when developers have learned how to exploit eight processors and more potential bottlenecks than the London road network.
As for 1080p, or 'true HD' as Sony called it at CES - lord help us, it seems most games will not even attempt to output in it, falling back on sensible 720p instead. Or as Kikizo's insider says:
"Sony wanted 1080p, but we're working at 720p and 1080i, same as on the Xbox 360. Even with [final hardware] in mind, reaching good frame rates at 1080p with next-gen graphics is almost impossible. Instead many developers, ourselves included, are reworking so they run at 720p. PS3's output takes care of upscaling it - so no native 1080p, but it still looks killer."
I've been hearing the same from other non-Sony affiliated developers around the industry - although their downbeat assessment should not be taken to mean there will never be a 1080p PS3 game. There will. It'll just be very rare, and most likely the preserve of Sony's closest development chums.
As for a PS3 launch date, Kikizo's injudicious source has more bad news:
"We think that in Japan it will most likely release during Summer, Q4 in the US, and Europe in Winter or Spring 2007 - these are our internal projections."
Spring 2007?! Oh well, that'll give me time to save up for one of these...
