inFamous 2 “Impossible on 360″
Oh no. Not again.
Published: 18:05, 05/07/2010 by Kovacs.
8“Xbox – flame shield ON!” It’s a pity Kinect isn’t out at the moment or we’d be asking Microsoft’s motion device to do just that, protecting us from the recent bombastic statements coming from inFamous developer Sucker Punch. Commenting to Play Magazine, the plucky studio have stoked the perpetual console war flame-pit once again with the claim that, just like Uncharted 2 – a game they seem to be imitating in more ways that one – inFamous 2 could not be possible on rival Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console.
Quoting the PS3’s arcane and voodoo hardware configuration (known to make experienced devs cry like babies), Sucker Punch Development Director, Chris Zimmerman, states:
“There’s just more processing power on the PS3. If you look at games like Uncharted 2 that’s a game that you actually can’t do on Xbox [360] no matter how clever you are. InFamous 2 is going to be the same way. You’ll look at it and see that there’s no way we could have done this game on 360. In technical terms the biggest thing that we’ve done is migrate a much larger part of our code to run on the SPUs.”
It isn’t the only revelation Sucker Punch are offering, admitting that some “dumb decisions” were made on the first game when it came to how it was developed. Chris continues:
“The PS3 has this elaborate architecture where there’s a whole bunch of different places you can have your code run and we had it all running in the slow part.”
Somehow we’re finding it hard to believe the first statement when they come out and admit something like the second. Really? You really ran it all on the slow part? Focusing on the positive, however, it does suggest the sequel will be something special. At least, you know, now that it’s (hopefully) running on the fast part.
Source: Play Magazine
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05/07/2010 at 18:08
Member since: Forever
What a load of PR-flavoured bullshit
05/07/2010 at 19:03
Member since: Aug 2009
cant they use multi disc like they did with final fantasy.?? half game one each disc seems pretty doable to me.
05/07/2010 at 20:07
Member since: Oct 2009
Not really because it is one big free roaming city. It would be very annoying if you have to switch discs running from objective to objective.
05/07/2010 at 18:10
Member since: Mar 2009
Oh good god. How do they know it’s impossible? How does any developer know really unless they try? I would assume Sucker Punch probably haven’t spent the man hours trying to port it, so it’s a completely untested statement.
05/07/2010 at 18:14
Member since: Forever
They also made loads of statements about the how the first one wasn’t possible, mainly because of awesomez capacity of the Blu-ray… it turns out they were able to re-code it as a 7gig download… so I’m pretty sure they could manage to get 7gig down to 6.8gig for the MS’ disk format
05/07/2010 at 18:14
Member since: Jul 2009
Thing is, they could look to the tiniest aspect that the 360 might not be able to do and just run with it. As a ludicrous example, perhaps the PS3 can individually animate all the leaves on the ground of any given game whereas the 360 would have to use particle effects and lose the subtlety. It might be something that 99% of us would never notice but enables a developer to come out with such statements. Perhaps they’ll enlighten us one day. Either making us go “wow” or proving them to be a bunch of pedantic shits. Ha!
05/07/2010 at 18:21
Member since: Forever
Given vast level of detail present in 360 games which only sparsely makes it into PS3 games, along with a higher percentage of dropped frames and screen tearing, and ridiculous washed out colours & blur effect (we’ve become blind to) to get round the lack of anti-aliasing I’d say the shoe was on the other foot…90% of the time…
…unless you have the unlimited resources of a 1st party dev, which just don’t exist unless within the budgetary & time constraints outside of these 1st party studios
05/07/2010 at 18:27
Member since: Jul 2009
You have to take the statement apart to see how it works. Overall, the game could even look like shit but still only be possible on the PS3 for some technical reason. That’s what (I hope) Sucker Punch are getting at. However, leaving out the technicalities makes for a Sony-please statement.
Regarding your reply: You’re spot on with the mutli-plats and the titles where we all feel hard done by on the PS3. Then again, we’re seeing the tide turn with regards to lead-console in development.
With PS3 exclusives, let’s be fair. We usually get a far better deal, visually, than if the title is designed for both platforms; regardless of if it’s better looking or not.
Here’s a technicality that might never make any difference. Didn’t I read about the 360 not being able to do 7.1 sound? That statement alone could be applied to every PS3 exclusive title. “We wanted 7.1 and you can’t do that on the 360″. The perfect example of something 99% of us wouldn’t miss or even notice!
05/07/2010 at 19:35
Member since: Oct 2008
I don’t get it, I was always under the assumption that the Ps3 was far more powerful graphically than the 360 (I mean look at Crysis 2 !?). With double the gigaflops and better processors and all that jargon.
06/07/2010 at 04:19
Member since: Jun 2009
@ YOURMUMANDME
It is.. what made you think otherwise?
06/07/2010 at 09:42
Member since: Aug 2008
@ YOURMUMANDME -
It is, just that multi-plat developers build games for the 360 then port them over to the PS3 for ease. And it usually comes out piss poor in comparison (take RDR as the latest example). When a 1st part dev makes a game, the PS3 gets some time given to it, So we end up with games like UC2, GOW3, Killzone, GT5 ect ect.
This will aways be the case until the xbox catches up/MS release a new system. A new system will most likely be better than the PS3, so the cycle will start again with one console not getting maximised.
I just enjoy the exclusives and put up with the ports, shame, but thats life i guess
05/07/2010 at 18:11
Member since: Jul 2009
I didn’t read it like that at all. I think they were busy with development on inFamous and made an error in how they managed the hardware with regard to the processing of everything required. I’m sure they didn’t purposely run it on the slowest part. Just that they didn’t know better back then.
However, only recently have they probably learnt (referring to games like GoW3 and Uncharted 2) that there’s a far more efficient way to offload certain bits of code which makes for a far more visually impressive title. Ignoring my grievances with the new Cole, the trailer had far, FAR more aesthetic impact.
05/07/2010 at 18:16
Member since: Nov 2008
I agree, that’s how I read it. In fact, you even referred to them as ‘dumb decisions’, so they probably didn’t mean to use the ‘slow part’.
And also, this is obviously going to be PR talk. Are you expecting them to come out and say: ‘Even though we are making a PS3 exclusive game, it would probably be better on the 360′? It’s their job to make as many sales as possible, which requires good advertising.
05/07/2010 at 18:29
Member since: Dec 2009
The “dumb” quote is their own. Not mine. Did they intentionally go out to do something sub-optimal in terms of how the game performs? Of course not. But they did purposely run the game on less than would be now believed to be the best configuration. They probably just didn’t realise it back then. Fair play to them for admitting they didn’t maximise what they could have achieved. That said, code doesn’t appear on GPUs etc. by accident. So, while I’m not suggesting they purposely made it to be slow, it is what it is.
05/07/2010 at 18:36
Member since: Jul 2009
Just because they made dumb decisions doesn’t mean it was done on purpose. I’m at a total loss how it can be interpreted any other way.
All meant nicely, just a bit confused.
05/07/2010 at 18:49
Member since: Dec 2009
The point is: they make a mistake. They admit that. The proceeding sentence provides the context. “You make a mistake like that and then claim your new game is impossible on a rival console? Based on your admitted mistake, can you see why I might have trouble believing you about such a claim?”
See what I’m getting at? :)
05/07/2010 at 18:56
Member since: Jul 2009
Perhaps the mistake prevents it from being on the 360 as it might run it too smoothly. Ha!
05/07/2010 at 19:07
Member since: Jan 2010
@ Mike, As is always the way, the PS2 took what 6-7 years to reach full potential? It’s all about finding new ways to do the same thing but more efficiently. Plus first titles are always going to be the toughest, then a few titles down the road lots of new tricks have been learned.
BFBC1/BFBC2 for example what a massive improvment, the maps are now enormous, total destruction, improved graphics, improved phyics (unless you liked rocket scoping :P ).
Mirrors Edge 2 is going to be amazing.
05/07/2010 at 21:54
Member since: Sep 2008
I’m sure it was purposeful, but only because programming for the SPUs is a pain in the ass. Sure, using just the PPU is slower but it means that you’re practically coding for a traditional computer. You’ve got to remember that when creating a game that there are time constrants, and now with the sequel they can start using the PS3 to it’s full extent.
And yes, technically when using the SPUs, you’re doing something the 360, because SPUs are massively parallel and can be used for some pretty snazzy stuff that CPUs aren’t particularly suited for. Stuff like Physics computation and doing some of the graphics calculations (due to their ability in floating point operations) instead of throwing it straight to the graphics card, which compensates for the relatively crappy hardware in the current hardware.
05/07/2010 at 18:12
Member since: Sep 2009
I’m glad to be honest, Xbox doesn’t deserve InFamous (MY OPINION)
05/07/2010 at 18:14
Member since: Jul 2009
No one said they purposefully ran it on the slow part, fail!
05/07/2010 at 18:15
Member since: Forever
Well it didn’t end up there by accident did it?
05/07/2010 at 18:18
Member since: Jul 2009
It may well have. It’s like the uninformed putting Unleaded into their car when Super Unleaded will make it perform better. Unless you know otherwise you may well keep on losing extra vroom-vroom until someone tells you what’s really going on.
05/07/2010 at 18:17
Member since: Feb 2009
That second quote cracks me up.
05/07/2010 at 18:19
Member since: Aug 2009
I just cant stop reading it and saying “whaaaaaa??”
05/07/2010 at 18:20
Member since: Feb 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad3Hzsy1-20
Appropriate video is appropriate.
05/07/2010 at 20:11
Member since: Feb 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDNmLPATW0s
:D
05/07/2010 at 18:23
Member since: Dec 2009
Personally I die a little inside when I see another dev saying ‘it’s only possible on PS3!’. But I loved the first inFamous so much I’ll let SP slide.
05/07/2010 at 18:26
Member since: Dec 2009
Eh? Where’s my profile picture gone?
05/07/2010 at 19:08
Member since: Dec 2009
Nevermind…
05/07/2010 at 18:24
Member since: Apr 2010
Oh what do you expect. As is usually the case with these inflammatory remarks, it’s normally because they were asked by the interviewer something along the lines of “Are you maxing out the PS3 with this game?” or “Would the 360 be able to handle your game?”. As PS3 exclusive devs they’re hardly going to say “well actually like most multiplat games, we’d actually probably get slightly better results if we did it on the Xbox” are they?
Blame the interviewers for the fanboy baiting questions (or the sites that pick out those specific comments for news stories), not the devs for giving answers that are pretty much the industry standard for these type of questions, regardless of the platform.
05/07/2010 at 18:25
Member since: Nov 2008
Still not played the first one. I bought [PROTOTYPE] instead. Even that i never played much. These sandbox jobbys are rarely done to my liking.
05/07/2010 at 18:39
Member since: Forever
Having played both extensively, Prototype was easily the worst of the two.
05/07/2010 at 18:41
Member since: Jul 2009
inFamous was a good idea for a game and fairly well executed. Was Prototype in the same situation but poorly executed? Or was it just crap from top to bottom? :-)
05/07/2010 at 18:45
Member since: Nov 2008
I know this is a sinful comment but i played the demo and i thought the controls were terrible. Saying that [PROTOTYPE] was no better. A fair bit more blood and guts though which floats my boat somewhat. :)
05/07/2010 at 18:47
Member since: Jan 2010
I rented Prototype and I managed to get one 6 hour block of time on it and after trying to go back to play it I just couldn’t get back into it.
05/07/2010 at 18:48
Member since: Apr 2010
Personally, I found it the other way around. Infamous was one of my most disappointing games of last year. Prototype on the other hand was a really pleasant surprise. Maybe it’s all about expectations, I had very high hopes for Infamous from all the hype, whereas I wasn’t really expecting much from Prototype.
05/07/2010 at 18:48
Member since: Mar 2009
The thing I liked about Prototype was the variety. Also, whilst I haven’t played inFamous, it does seem that Prototype handles transit better with running up buildings, more gliding, etc… Could you steal vehicles in inFamous?
05/07/2010 at 18:54
Member since: Apr 2010
@Raen. No Cole, couldn’t get in any vehicles, apparently they just explode from all his “massive electrical energy”. You’re right about Prototype having more variety, and of course Prototype felt a hell of a lot more powerful being able to sprint up skyscrapers and wipe out crowds in seconds. Infamous was a generic third person shooter in disguise (you shot lightning instead of a gun, but the mechanics were the same)
05/07/2010 at 21:38
Member since: Feb 2009
graphically prototype was the worst, close up the npcs and even the player character were just awful, well, for a ps3 game anyway, they would have looked good on a ps2.
the gameplay wasn’t bad, though not as good as the demo i played of infamous.
05/07/2010 at 22:53
Member since: Jan 2010
Whaaaaaat? For shame.
inFamous is a fantastic game, you should definitely rent it out at least and give it a go. One of my favourite games on the PS3 for sure.
05/07/2010 at 23:14
Member since: Feb 2009
I dunno. Thought infamous was fairly bog standard to be honest. I enjoyed the art style, the storytelling and the way you learn new moves at an appropriate rate, but i thought the gameplay was distinctly average.
05/07/2010 at 18:48
Member since: Jan 2010
I like how they’re on about Uncharted 2 with Cole’s whole new look.