For those that haven’t seen it already, here’s the trailer for GTA IV, a title that most of you will be holding out for. We also came across www.gta4.net which draws some interesting conclusions about the technical upgrades implied by the trailer.
Take a look for yourself:
I was disappointed we weren’t told about the gameplay which will undoubtedly steal the show. The average (at best) graphics were as expected. Location was expected and disappointing. I’m holding out for GTA: London 2007
Comment by Ben Furneaux — Mar 31, 2007 @ 3:25 pm
I personally think this looks amazing..
I hope they are trying to go back to basics on the whole storyline a bit with this one as san andreas was just a bit too “heavy”.
Not that i want a GTA3 remake but the gameplay there was the best ever imo.
Comment by Ricky — Mar 31, 2007 @ 6:35 pm
Don’t get me wrong, I think it will rock. I just wish the trailer showed us why it will. It did none of that.
Comment by Ben Furneaux — Mar 31, 2007 @ 7:38 pm
Looks great, but I’m wondering why a Sony site is showing shots of another XBox 360 game? First PGR3, and now the trailer for GTA IV done in realtime using the XBox 360 development hardware?
And too bad there’s not going to be anything worth $200 more about this game to make other folks want to purchase a PS3. Maybe if it WAS a George Foreman Grill as well…
Comment by Matt — Mar 31, 2007 @ 7:51 pm
Dissapointed its not in London… I was looking forward to that. Graphics look amazing, and hopefully a fresh storyline will wipe the slate clean after Vice City Stories.
Matt, I’m wondering why you’re saying that, when its a multi platform game (PS3, Xbox 360) with one trailer for all platforms. Rockstar also commented saying it was running on “a console developent kit” - nowhere did they mention it being run on an Xbox 360.
Comment by Tom Eccles — Mar 31, 2007 @ 8:32 pm
@ Tom Eccles:
A lot of multiplatform games like GTA 4 are being developed initially on the XBox 360 then ported over to the PS3. This is because it’s easier to develop games on Microsoft’s machine. This means that the images we are seeing on this trailer are more than likely to be from the XBox 360 version of the game! However no where does it say what format the trailer are taken from so it could be the PS3 version. The only people who really know are Rockstar and they aren’t the most talkative of developers…
Comment by Kropotkin — Mar 31, 2007 @ 10:10 pm
have to say i was excited about the the gta:london rumour, but then again, GTA, GTA2,GTA3 where all based in liberty city anyways, so not really a big suprise. im hoping rockstar didn’t just port the 360 version to the ps3 as this means that they are both the same game, that rockstar might not take an inital advantage of the bluray disc. still felt sony should have taken the exclusive rights. but they had there reasons. i hope his exclusive content doesn’t mean i have to buy both ps3 and 360 version to get the ‘FULL’ game experience.
but have to admit im loving my ps3 over my 360.
PSN: TheDirector
Comment by thedirector — Mar 31, 2007 @ 11:05 pm
i quite like the GTA Trailer although I don’t believe that all of the footage was using the in-game engine, and Liberty City looks way too much like New York. I hope It Come To PS3 because i want to compare it to the 360 version will probs buy both
Comment by jacob Coy — Apr 1, 2007 @ 7:25 pm
It’s impossible to say what hardware it was on. However, it is likely games will have the PS3 as the primary platform. Reason being that it is easier to design a game on the PS3 and port it to the 360 rather than vice versa.
Comment by mega man — Apr 1, 2007 @ 7:41 pm
@megaman
I think you’ll find it’s easier the other way round. The PS3 is a bitch to develop for.
Comment by Ben Furneaux — Apr 2, 2007 @ 12:09 pm
@megaman
Um, no. Nice try, but that’s a load of ****.
Many developers have already gone on record about how craptacular the PS3 is to develop for. Mind you, this is something Sony has addressed and is trying to fix right now, but the damage has already been done, and the perception is reality (and truth), and likely will continue to be so until Sony collectively pulls its head from its rectum.
And remember that Rockstar already had said that it’s prior XBox 360 game was also a tech demo/benchmark test for developing on Microsoft’s system. Really easy to read between the lines there, folks.
As for porting, you’re going to see games being developed for the 360 and then ported over to the PS3 for the rest of the generation–not only is the 360 easier to develop for (currently), it’s got a bigger install base, 3rd parties aren’t supporting the PS3 until Sony actually has decent sell-through numbers (Eidos), and 3rd party programmers aren’t going to be hamstrung by such things as memory constraints on the 360 because of a lack of foresight (especially when Sony starts forcing devs to support voice, @ home, etc. in all games.)
Comment by Matt — Apr 2, 2007 @ 12:39 pm
Ben & Matt,
Perhaps you guys misread Megaman’s comment?
He didn’t say it’s easier to develop games for the PS3 as opposed to the 360. I think he is implying that the process of developing for the PS3 and then porting to 360 is easier than devloping for the 360 and then having to port it to the PS3. I think he is suggesting that porting to 360 is much easier, which it may well be.
Comment by Obli — Apr 2, 2007 @ 3:58 pm
@ Obil
He’d also be wrong in that respect. Porting from the PS3 is harder for developers primarily because of the storage difference. The PS3 has a much larger disk space, porting titles to the 360 would mean cutting out a lot of bulk usually. Also, all PS3s have a HDD included meaning developers can use it for cacheing, something the 360 cannot do.
Surely it’s easier to write a 360 version then port to PS3 and bulk out the disk with extras and harness the cacheing benifits.
Comment by Ben Furneaux — Apr 3, 2007 @ 11:33 am
And yet, we are seeing all sorts of dev teams using the XBox 360 as their base model for next-gen game development, including the on-topic GTA IV. Again, Rockstar has ‘discretely’ confirmed as such.
And as far as the HD Cashing and disk space–unless you’re filling your disk with CG cutscenes or your team really sucks at programming and/or compression, Blu-Ray is not needed and is a red herring. Sony does have HD Cashing standard, which I will give them credit for, as it does help developers out.
However, as it’s been said before here and elsewhere, as soon as Sony forces their @ Home onto all of the developers and cuts the available memory significantly, XBox 360 will have a definite on-board memory advantage (does currently to some degree…) which will render HD cashing moot.
And frankly–let’s just be honest here. If the PS3 were so easy and great to develop for, then why are all the 3rd party titles looking and selling better on the 360 at this point (and pretty much for the foreseeable future?)
Comment by Matt — Apr 3, 2007 @ 11:58 am
A developer the size of Rockstar will have an standard game engine which has been built on 360 and PS3. I heard rumours that it’s the engine they used for Table Tennis (RAGE). Development of that engine was probably simultaneous, or close to it, on both platforms. Whether the trailer was rendered on a 360 or PS3, the engine behind it is no doubt running on both, and the game will be built platform independently - no porting it either way…
I don’t quite understand why Home will ‘cut the available memory’. Sure you will run Home as a standard ‘game’/application, and when you want to play a game, it will boot into game mode, and game will have full access to all the resources it will want. There’s no need for Home to be running at the same time as the game, is there?
And in your frank honesty, Matt, how exactly are you able to predict future 3rd part sales?
I’m not sure the sales have anything to do with the difficulty of development - that would manifest itself in delayed releases on the difficult platform and missing features (and whining developers :-). Lower sales are likely to be related to the install bases?
Comment by Rikki — Apr 3, 2007 @ 2:34 pm
NYC gets in a rage over GTA IV trailer
The long awaited GTA IV trailer was released last week - bringing with it plenty of controversy along the way. While it appears to be set in Liberty City, there are many landmarks similar (okay, exactly the same) as in New York… to name a few, St…
Trackback by Absolute Blog — Apr 3, 2007 @ 10:53 pm
Xbox have less the 6 mil users for now. By October PS3 will pass this number. Game was in development for 2+years already, long before 360 even existed. They already have all content on BR disk for PS3. Xbox will have some of extra content (which can’t be feet on DVD-Rom separate download from Marketplace. For extra $$. 360 not get HD texture and true HD sound … again because of limited space.
But to be honest, 360 will have its special 2 exclusive.
1. “Loading Area†message (ala Oblivion)
2. TLD (tree light of death) happen sometime during the game.
Comment by akm — Apr 7, 2007 @ 6:21 am
http://bluehedgehog.blogspot.com There was a GTA London expansion pack for the first GTA. In that video theres a ad that suggests you can fly to Vice city and san andreas.
Comment by Chad28 — Apr 10, 2007 @ 7:21 pm
Lair developer Factor 5:
“Q: How do you look back at this point on the differences between the PS 3 and the Xbox 360?
A: You’ll have a hard time if you port without having a PS 3 game in mind when you created the 360 version. That is where a lot of complaints are coming from. They created the 360 engine with a unified memory architecture in mind, with the embedded frame buffer with its advantages and disadvantages, and not thinking too much in early stages about multicore. If you try to get that over to the PS 3, you’re in for a bad surprise. The PS 3 is all about streamlining about the two different memory pools. They are separate. You don’t have to do tiling because you don’t have an embedded frame buffer. All of these advantages of the PS 3 turn into disadvantages if you don’t start making your game on the PS 3. Hence the griping. If you create first on the PS 3, it is pretty easy to port it to the 360. A lot of companies coming on board now will probably start on the PS 3 and move to the 360.”
So, my guess was right - it sounds like its easier to start development on the PS3, then port to 360.
Comment by Obli — Apr 14, 2007 @ 9:11 am
In spanish Me cago!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!sheet
Comment by Joe — Apr 19, 2007 @ 4:11 am
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