GDC

Started a few hours ago and runs until Friday.

I managed to find the floorplan, ...check out the Nintendo Interactive Lounge! Early Revolution demos maybe?!

I have 6 friends from school that went. One is staying with the developers of The Elder Scrolls.

XBL Gamertag: Rampage99

" Basically, pollute the air all you want, your just speeding up the inevitable. Our future generations are f*cked as it is and there' s really nothing we can do about it. Have a nice day "

I wanted to get a pass for E3 this year but can' t. We' re going to TGS instead which i' m telling myself is even better.

As for GDC, none of the keynote speaches are today or tomorrow so it' ll probably be Wednesday before anything of real interest comes to light. If Nintendo have playable Revolution demo' s, it' d be pretty cool and give eneryone a reasonable insight to how Revolution games will play.

On another note, i' m hearing that the GPU in Revolution (Hollywood) is comparable to an x800 which if true is a VERY good thing seeing as the card can run games like; Half-Life 2, Far Cry, Doom 3, Quake 4 and FEAR on maximum settings.

While 360 and PS3 can obviously do much more than current PC' s, it still means that Revolution could possibly run a game like Oblivion since they won' t be supporting HD. It' s also very possibly true since it' s definately an ATi card that the console will use.

Thanks for the info majik. I completely forgot about GDC, can' t believe it.

I have no doubt about how nice the rev' s gfx will not, given it wont be supporting HD there is a lot more room for things, if you get what i mean.

I am looking forward to hearing the speeches from the 3 companies.

I would like to see some rev demos, and maybe concrete spec.
Sony release information, (as in price) and some game demos would be nice.
MS... Well it' s the last machine on my wishlist, and i can' t think of anything i need to hear right now, but something cool.
And that sega have been secretly developing a new system that wipes the floor with ps3 rev and 360, combined. Both innovative and powerful, and with sega back as good as the old days, with shenmue complete as a launch game, with After burner, VF5, NiGHTS, Outrun 3, Streets of rage, altered beast (real sequel)...
..
...
.... Ok, I' ll shut up now....

NiGHTS into Dreamcast

going to be interesting, the Microsoft evangelism chaps were being cagey about some big announcements regarding XNA and they let slip what it could be about, I hope it is regarding what they said, if i is, it ties in with the theme of all the support they are giving dev teams working on 360 titles.

Would be funny if the rev came out with a trump gfx upgrade at the last min, unlikely, but would be oh so funny!

aaah dreams of another Sega console! *weeps*

On another note, i' m hearing that the GPU in Revolution (Hollywood) is comparable to an x800

Revs GPU is a completely original design -nowhere near anything else from Ati - that' s what Ati guys said in an interview.They said that N came to them , told them what they want and how to do it and they just made it.It' s supposed to be very original and unlike any PC GPU.

This interview is about 1-2 months old so I don' t really remember where it was sorry :)

Maybe I mis-understood your point Gansta, but i think what majik is getting at is the levels of performance and visuals

NiGHTS into Dreamcast

the Sega DreamStation540! YEAH!!! The main difference between this console and the Playstation 3 is subtle. they both said they' ll make toast. but see, Sega is actually honest about release and performance, and it' ll make toast on release date! yay for consumer honesty!

Moving on, i completely forgot about GDC, but looking at it objectively, i' m thinking that...
1-Sony will release an exact date, if not an exact price, for their console.
2-Microsoft will have something to say about their HD-DVD add-on.
3-Nintendo will do something quirky and offbeat that is beyond speculation, just because it' s Nintendo.

ORIGINAL: uumai

Maybe I mis-understood your point Gansta, but i think what majik is getting at is the levels of performance and visuals

Exactly. Everyone knows Revolution and 360 have custom built GPU' s, with PS3 being the only console to use pre-existing technology.

What i was getting at is that the visual output will be comparable to an ATi x800.

Sony will release an exact date, if not an exact price, for their console

Noooooooooo, not until E3 at the earliest. I think Sony will want to get an idea about how much the Revolution will cost and whether a 360 price drop will happen towards the end of the year before committing to anything.

Microsoft will have something to say about their HD-DVD add-on.

I doubt it. They' ve avoided the issue lately and distanced themselves from Toshiba. It' s possible when you take into account the problems Blu-Ray has had but i find it unlikely. Most people haven' t really expressed much interest in a HD-DVD add-on for 360 as it is and i would expect Microsoft to wait longer and see what happens with Blu-Ray.

I think Microsoft will formally announce their handheld gaming device (not Origami) and stuff about Xbox Live, ....maybe the DirecTV blade...

Nintendo will do something quirky and offbeat that is beyond speculation, just because it' s Nintendo.

While they won' t announce everything about Revolution, it' s possible they' ll use their keynote speech to announce the consoles final name. I doubt they' ll talk about things like the price point but they may talk about how much NES, SNES, N64 games etc... will cost to download.

I expect they' ll showcase the controller and hint at the consoles final secret but they' ll need to conserve some ammunition for E3, specifically because they need to keep the console on everybody' s minds.

If only Nintendo and Sega united!

If only Nintendo and Sega united!

I wouldnt like to play VF5 on the Rev controller.. I wish SEGA just made a Dreamcast 2 and launched with VF5, Sonic and Shenmue 3

Seriously, im not too bothered about PS3 i know its gonna be along the same lines as 360 and wont offer much new.. Ild be watching Nintendos news, the thought of playing Zelda: TP with Rev controller alone has sold me.

GDC is not really a media event, like E3 or Tgs, its a game devolpers conference so dont ecpect alot of news to come from it, if any. Like all GDC' s before it.

Change is inevitable. Except from a vending machine.

Viva La Revolution! erm, I mean Viva La Wii!

ORIGINAL: Silentbomber

GDC is not really a media event, like E3 or Tgs, its a game devolpers conference so dont ecpect alot of news to come from it, if any. Like all GDC' s before it.

Erm, GDC has always been key. Annoncements are made every year, ...i don' t understand where you would get the idea that just because it' s not E3 or TGS, that it means big announcements aren' t made.

For example, ...at GDC 2005 Microsoft announced the first official details about 360. Epic showcased the Unreal Engine 3.0.

It would make sense for Sony and Nintendo to give us new details on their next-gen hardware.

Just this morning Microsoft distributed pre-release versions of XNA studio and announced they would be opening up Xbox Lives server platform to studios working on 360 titles.

Sony' s Phil Harrison will be giving a keynote speech on Wednesday entitled " PlayStation 3: Beyond the Box," and is likely to reveal important details of Sony' s online infrastructure.

It' s Nintendo' s keynote speech i' ll be watching for though. It' s said Iwata will be revealing something huge, and it was Reggie who said it...

If only Nintendo and Sega united!

That OR Namco and Sega *sigh*


Why do these companies merge with companies they have almost nothing in common with.. Namco-Bandai? WHAT THE HELL???? Sega-Sammy? WHAT THE FOOOK???

Sega-Namco would have been SO friggin SWEET!

Terry Bogard - currently the most Unhelpful member of the Kikizo forums.

Majik, I think what Silentbomber is alluding to is the technical aspect of the GDC, which focuses of the development side (obviously), as opposed to the game shows, which focus on the WHIZZ, BANG, BOOM of consumerism and titillation. There won' t likely be any new games announced at the Game Developers Conference, nor any announcements about pricing, which is what most gamers are in a state of anxious anticipation over. Demos, and videos, y' know.

What I' m saying is that while you will be masterbating at the news given at the GDC, most of us will hold off on blowing our load ' til E3!

In a recent interview with Firing Squad, GDC director Jamil Moledin hinted at big news to come from both Sony and Nintendo. In response to a question regarding this year' s conference, the director replied: " Yes, I would strongly recommend attending the two platform keynotes from Sony’s Phil Harrison and Nintendo’s Satoru Iwata. Trust me!"

For the recored, Mr. Moledin has a interest in the show' s attendance, so teasers are only a good thing. Regardless, let' s hope Iwata’s speech on Thursday from 10:30-11:30AM will deliver. We' ll be blogging live from the event so stop by for all the goods.

http://xbox360.joystiq.com/2006/03/21/gdc-director-hints-at-big-nintendo-sony-news/

Maybe I mis-understood your point Gansta, but i think what majik is getting at is the levels of performance and visuals

You got it right the first time - I' m saying that guys at ATI said some really strange things about Revs GPU.It made me think of it as something that' s more original than just GPU Features - it' s not your typical GPU.That' s what I think after reading it - I wish I could find this interview for you.

What they basically said is that it is impossible to compare it to any PC GPU because of it' s unique purpose and shit.Not like 360 GPU that is hard to compare because of it' s innovative features.

I' m not saying that to argue - it' s just really interesting.

Well SOMETHING big is DEFINATELY going to be announced by Nintendo tomorrow...
NGC magazine' s Martin Kitts has said...

" it would be nice to delay [this issue] slightly longer, so we could tell you all about the exciting news that' s scheduled to break about the day after the magazine hits the shelves. Ho hum. Keep your eyes on the internet, then, and I' ll see you back here on 27th April for a full, frank and devastatingly funny analysis of what may well turn out to be the second most interesting announcement of the year..."

...and Nintendo Official Magazine has delayed theie issue until the 25th due so so called " printing issues" ...

My guess is that NOM already know what' s going down and have been told to hold the issue until the announcements have been made.

I wonder what it could be...

Sequal to " tales of symphonia" ?! :P

Even if you break 2 legs from a crab it still runs!
What you gotta do is find its weak spot and do massive damage at it.

Unlikely.

More like them announcing the final name for Revolution, and maybe actual launch dates (could be sooner than November).

Other than that, probably the official ' DS Lite will be available in the US' announcement and maybe they' ll be pimping the Brain Training game...

I doubt they' ll release any info on Revolutions final secret, but it' s possible they' ll show some Revolution demo' s. I guess we' ll find out tomorrow, ...but whatever it is it' s big enough for NOM to hold this months issue until after the show...

This is a leaked picture of one of the PS3 demo pods at GDC...



...and as you can see, it' s being displayed with a Dual Analog 2 pad and still isn' t in the final shell. Looks like the final hardware STILL isn' t finalized and they' re using what is essentiallt a dev-kit to show it off.

Also note that on the monitor, Windows XP is displayed, not Linux.

Well my friend that is there played some Nighty-Nine Nights and he said it was pretty much crap. He compared it to Dynasty Warriors but said it lacked the strategy. The enviroments are pretty horrible but the main characters look CG quality. He said it wasn' t complete crap but it wasn' t by any means a good game.

XBL Gamertag: Rampage99

" Basically, pollute the air all you want, your just speeding up the inevitable. Our future generations are f*cked as it is and there' s really nothing we can do about it. Have a nice day "

They use windows at the moment yes,but let their finale kits be made and it will be only linux.
and btw,to rampage,i hated dynasty,worse crap game ever made,my head hurt from playing that game,but N3 looks great :P

Even if you break 2 legs from a crab it still runs!
What you gotta do is find its weak spot and do massive damage at it.

It may look great but it doesn' t play great.

XBL Gamertag: Rampage99

" Basically, pollute the air all you want, your just speeding up the inevitable. Our future generations are f*cked as it is and there' s really nothing we can do about it. Have a nice day "

Well Sony' s keynote is over and some parts are just laughable...

I-8 has been renamed to Resistance: Fall of Man...

The PSP details from last week have been re-affirmed: RSS Channel, Macromedia Flash browser, in the next update, video camera this October, WiFi videophone, GPS receiver with geocaching available in Sept 06, download and run software directly from the MS, UMD' s will continue, but digital distribution will be available via a content server (for new games?) and archive server (for PSone games).

They showed a video of a lot of fish swimming in the water as an " example" of what the PS3 will be capable of doing. Nice!

Showed a realtime demo of Warhawk and a couple of other (stupid) tech demos. One of which was done by Ninja Theory which had a thousand characters reacting to complex rag doll physics. The graphics were all PS2-caliber with nice post processing effects such as depth of field. I would have hoped for better than PS2 visuals...

GDC has essentially confirmed that everything game related Sony showed at E3 was purely rendered footage and was no indication of the final product. We knew this already.

Warhawk, while looking great, was essentially a barren section of ocean with a lot of fighter ships (they were aiming for a hundred for the final game) going around destroying larger vessels and some nice looking water (wave simulation with procedural animation) and clouds (volumetric raytracing). A far cry of what was shown last year and but gave a nice sobering introduction to the rest of the demos which were shown towards the end. Fortunately it will be playable at E3. So don' r EVEN expect graphics shown in Warhawk at E3 (some muppets here kept saying it was realtime too...).

They showed Motorstorm, and again it was nothing like the quality of the CG shown last year. The car models and physics were decent although the texturing and the environment was PS2 level of quality. Again, and early demo, but you' d think that they would' ve come up with something impressive since E3.

Confirmed a couple more PS3 things; full PS2 backcompatability, full BD support, latest HDMI support, broadband net connection, HDD. Nothing that wasn' t expected or already known.

Confirmed that PlayStation Network Platform is an internal name being used by Sony and won' t be the online service' s actual monikier.

Online service will have subscriptions, pay to download and micropayments in much the same way as Xbox Live. Basic service will be free but free online play wasn' t mentioned.

PS3 game production costs will be high and require more time (nice to know eh?!)

Other than that they showed some more (junk) demo' s like Motor Storm and some stuff seen at E3 last year and they re-affirmed the CPU specs (since obviously the GPU won' t be changing, with it being an off the shelf existing product) and detailed the 7 SPU' s.

Most of the other developements from mobile companies were most interesting than this. Sony suck ass! I wouldn' t mind, but all they EVER do is show tech demos!

Ha, now i want to see what Nintendo do tomorrow...

My friend at GDC just called me after going to it. He was in tter shock at how crappy all the games looked. He said evey game lloked like a PS2 game wih fancy lighting and whatever effects. He was extremely excited about the PS3, too, and he said the 360' s games looked better than anything shown. That says something.

XBL Gamertag: Rampage99

" Basically, pollute the air all you want, your just speeding up the inevitable. Our future generations are f*cked as it is and there' s really nothing we can do about it. Have a nice day "

Well that' s what i' ve been saying all along.

The 360 games that are out later this year will look FAR superior to whatever launch titles PS3 has. But PS3 will eventually catch up (i expect) when developers get used to the multi-cored architecture and figure out how best to use the 7 SPU' s.

Sony, have kinda shot themselves in the foot by using a GPU that' s already on the market for PC' s. It' s not new technology and is FAR outdone by 360' s. The main advantage PS3 will have is it' s processing power.

I would have expected Sony to have pulled something impressive out because them damn well needed to. Right now, it look like 360 is gonna be ahead graphically for a while.

It sucks, especially because PS3 is expected to cost so much. Oh well!

My friend at E3 just called me after going to it. He was in tter shock at how crappy all the games looked

You mean GDC or last years E3?

As for tech demos - they always do that - with PS2 they had some fancy demonstrations of facial animation , then with PS3 at E3 some crap with ducks and blowing stuff up.

It never had anything to do with quality of games that come out later
:)

They could' ve sucked with PS2 - but if they really suck now ...360 will finish them FATALITY STYLE
...Not to mention revolution.

Rampage have you changed your mind about revolution since our last war? :)

Its nice to know,that mass effect,and too human will both be trilogies,meaning that we will get 6 awesome titles :p

Even if you break 2 legs from a crab it still runs!
What you gotta do is find its weak spot and do massive damage at it.

ORIGINAL: ]GaNgStA[

My friend at E3 just called me after going to it. He was in tter shock at how crappy all the games looked

You mean GDC or last years E3?

As for tech demos - they always do that - with PS2 they had some fancy demonstrations of facial animation , then with PS3 at E3 some crap with ducks and blowing stuff up.

It never had anything to do with quality of games that come out later
:)

They could' ve sucked with PS2 - but if they really suck now ...360 will finish them FATAL
TY STYLE
...Not to mention revolution.

Rampage have you changed your mind about revolution since our last war? :)

I meant GDC. Sorry, I have E3 on the mind because I' m working on going with Kikizo to E3 and I' m very excited about it.

Oh, you want to talk about the rev? Umm... well I haven' t payed too much attention to it. I still hate the remote controller but will hold my judgement on the system iteself until I see real games.

XBL Gamertag: Rampage99

" Basically, pollute the air all you want, your just speeding up the inevitable. Our future generations are f*cked as it is and there' s really nothing we can do about it. Have a nice day "

I' m very sceptical about bioware - especially after Beta feel of KOTOR (still a very, very cool game) and a total crap IMO - JAde EMpire.

same goes for silicon knights :) - I think Eternal Darkness is among the best of the best, but that' s just 1 game - even Kojima made one game right (MGS1) :)

(some hate is comig :) )

I haven' t payed too much attention to it. I still hate the remote controller but will hold my judgement on the system iteself until I see real games.

E3 is coming so we' ll know soon enough - I may be a believer , but I still need to see more

Ha, well with sub-par visuals (hopefully), and less software available at launch, ...coupled with a high price because of the stupid tech they' re sticking in the machines and forced Blu-Ray developement...

...Sony could have f**ked up BIG style!

Of the two traditional consoles, my money is on 360, but i expect Revolution to completely blow everyone away.

Tomorrow Iwata is supposed to announce something BIG, ...N5 maybe?! LOL!

Its nice to know,that mass effect,and too human will both be trilogies,meaning that we will get 6 awesome titles :p

Ha, yeah, then GoW, Splinter Cell: Double Agent, RE5, Dark Sector, Ghost Recon 4, Halo 3 etc...

2nd coming of the Dreamcast indeed!

N5 maybe?! LOL!

:)

GoW, Splinter Cell: Double Agent, RE5, Dark Sector, Ghost Recon 4, Halo 3

Nice list - I wish there were some really good japanese games.Maybe Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon...but I' m not sure about those.

Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey will be very cool, but i' m not so sure about some of the other stuff like Fram City Killer...

360 needs VF5, it' s that simple!

Hahahahahaha....

360 EyeToy!!!

Microsoft are obviously planning on fighting Sony fire with fire, in that the 360 camera..



..will feature gesture recognition like EyeToy and translate your movements ingame.

Also, the camera program will include XDK support for streaming video. The three-dimensional " face-in-game" for which the EyeToy is famous will be available " through middleware providers."

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/697/697661p1.aspx

360 camera specs:

-USB 2.0 bus-powered device
-Smooth, near DV quality video: up to VGA 640x480 at 30 FPS
-High-def images: still photos up to SVGA 1280x980 (1.3 Mp)
-Manually adjustable variable focus: 2 feet to infinity
-Field of View: 43 degrees
-On board image processor
-Digital zoom, cropping
-Auto exposure, white balance, gamma correction, sharpness
-Long (~9 feet) cable to reach around large TVs
-Includes a headset for great audio

NOTE: What i don' t like is how IGN are avoiding talking about the PS2 quality visuals of the PS3 demos shown. Talk about pathetic! On the payroll no doubt!

i seriously doubt that ps3 is going to have ' ps2 visuals' , even if it dosent look as good as 360, its still quite early code.

Change is inevitable. Except from a vending machine.

Viva La Revolution! erm, I mean Viva La Wii!

We' re no saying it' ll have PS2 visuals, we' re merely commeting on the demos shown.

It' s Sony' s fault for being stupid at E3 last year, showing CG instead of gameplay. They didnt even show achieveble graphics, they just wanted to get one over on Microsoft.

PS3 will look great, and even if it can' t quite match 360 in terms of visual fidelity, it should be able to do more of it, ...like having more characters on screen, more going on at the same time...

Before i move on to something MUCH more interesting than PS3, (that' d be Revolution), Phil Harrison MAY have slipped up slighty yesterday at the post presentation lunch Q&A session...

After repeating Sony' s previous assertions that all PS3 games would require the hard drive to run, he rebuffed questions on whether PlayStation 3 would ship with it. " I' m head of software studios, not hardware," said a vexed Harrison. His remarks appeared to contradict recent European press reports which said Sony had confirmed the next-gen console would come bundled with a 60GB HDD.

The full article is available here... http://www.gamespot.com/news/6146460.aspx

It kinda makes sense that the PS3 would ship without the HDD since not everybody buying it will want to play games (it could be used as an affordable Blu-Ray player), ...but it' s a contradiction to what Sony said last week.

It raises questions about whether the HDD-less model would also be missing anything else...



Ok, so Iwata' s speech is today and new photos of Revolution at GDC are available...

I' m confused though, look...



^^ That' s one of the patents Nintendo filed last month showing the back of the unti. So far, simple right?

Ok, this is Revolution on display at GDC yesterday...



^^ The back of the unit in it' s entirety, 10 points for anyone who can spot the differences...

It could be that the units on display still aren' t the final ones and Nintendo are refraining from using the new ones until E3. That would makes sense i guess, but then WHAT is the extra port that is shown in the patents?

Anyway, i' ve been drinking Red Bull all morning and i' m skipping all of my classes today because my copy of Oblivion is due to arrive. Anyway, ...REVOLUTION...





^^ Note the ' a' and ' b' printed next to the ' X' and ' Y' bottons, obviously for playing NES games holding the controller sideways, ...but how would you play SNES games? You' d need the controller shell right?



^^ Oh look, ...BLUE light...

Maybe that mystery port was so mysterious that even Nintendo themselves couldn' t figure out what it was good for?

...MAYBE...





I want to point out that ' GO' in Japanese means ' 5' , so it would translate to Nintendo 5 (as in their 5th console) or simply N5 (as i' ve been saying for AGES!).

We' ll see...

On another note, i' m hearing that Revolution (whatever) will retails for around $399 Canadian, which is $342-ish US and £197 or 285 Euro ...

Obviously the prices aren' t official but it sounds right to me...